HOUSTON — The Houston Texans fired coach David Culley on Thursday after one season with the team. The decision to move on from Culley comes four days after general manager Nick Caserio took additional time to evaluate all phases of Houston’s football operations.
Culley, a first-year coach, led the Texans to a 4-13 record, the second straight season the Texans finished with four wins and double-digit losses. The last time Houston had consecutive double-digit loss seasons was from 2005-06.
Culley is now the sixth coach to be released after the conclusion of the 2021 season — joining the jettisons of Vic Fangio (Broncos), Mike Zimmer (Vikings), Matt Nagy (Bears), Brian Flores (Dolphins) and Joe Judge (Giants).
“I enjoyed every minute of it,” Culley said during his final media availability on Monday. “I learned a lot, a lot of things, as I said before earlier, in that coaching manual I had to go through things that weren’t in there, but that’s okay. I was told that was going to happen. But again, from start to finish, each game was different.”
Following the end of the 2020 season, the Texans hired Culley in January of 2021. He was the fourth head coach in franchise history and the first following the departure of Bill O’Brien three months prior.
Despite finishing the season with the league’s third-worst record, players within the Texans’ locker room adored Culley as a leader.
“I thought Coach Culley did a great job his first year as a head coach,” Justin Britt said. “I feel like his leadership was consistent and who he was was consistent, and that’s what we needed here as a leader, someone to run this team.”
Britt continued: “I hope he gets another shot. I hope he gets to kind of showcase who he is, what he does, how he does it here because it would be really interesting to see the jump he takes with the team next year. If everything was right, it would be cool to come back.”