The Houston Texans added a new quarterbacks coach in the offseason when they hired Pep Hamilton, who had previously been with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Hamilton takes over a position group that was doubled-up by current offensive coordinator Tim Kelly. In addition, Hamilton takes on the role of passing game coordinator for the Texans.
Coach David Culley says that Hamilton has “been a good position coach” for multiple seasons, coaching predominantly quarterbacks at the NFL level.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Culley told reporters on Zoom during the Texans’ minicamp on May 15. “He knows about quarterback play. He’s been one himself, he’s done it his whole career. He’s coordinated. He’s been a quarterback coach. He knows the whole offense. He knows a variety of offenses. He’s a heck of a teacher.”
At the NFL level, Hamilton got his start as an offensive quality control coach for the New York Jets in 2003 under coach Herm Edwards. In 2004, he was the quarterbacks coach before going to receivers in 2005. Hamilton then went back to coaching quarterbacks under Mike Nolan with the San Francisco 49ers, and then went to the Chicago Bears coaching quarterbacks from 2007-09.
After spending 2010-12 coaching at Stanford, he joined the Indianapolis Colts as their offensive coordinator, given that he has worked with quarterback Andrew Luck in college. Hamilton was then the quarterbacks coach for the Cleveland Browns in 2016, went back to the college game with Michigan for the next two seasons, and then resurfaced as the coach of the XFL’s DC Defenders before the league folded. That fall, Hamilton took a job as the Chargers’ quarterbacks coach, and rookie quarterback Justin Herbert blossomed.
“If you go back and you look at all the guys he’s coached through his coaching career, you can see the one thing that we loved about having Pep here is all of those guys he coached whether they were young guys or guys that have been in the league, they all got better and that’s all you want out of your coaches is for them to get better and he’s done that and we’re hoping for the same thing,” Culley said.
Hamilton also has the benefit of working with a former quarterback of his in Tyrod Taylor, who was with the Chargers last season.