There have been five head coaches of the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

, a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas, United States. The Texans play in the

South Division South Division may refer to: * South Division (AFL), a division of the Arena Football League * South Division (CFL), a former division of the Canadian Football League * South Division (NAHL), a division of the North American Hockey League * South ...

of the

American Football Conference The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The AFC and its counterpart, the National Football Conference ...

(AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, the Texans entered the NFL as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

, with Dom Capers (2002–05) as the team's first head coach. Capers was selected, in part, due to his success in having led the expansion Carolina Panthers to the playoffs in just their second season in the league. After three straight seasons of consistent improvement, the Texans took a major step backward in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

with a 2–14 finish. At the end of the season, Capers was fired and replaced with Gary Kubiak (2006–2013), then the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

for the Denver Broncos. Kubiak, a Houston native and alumnus of nearby Texas A&M, would eventually become the longest-tenured head coach in franchise history, coaching 125 games and posting a 61–64 record. Kubiak earned several distinctions as head coach, having led the Texans to their first non-losing season (

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

), their first winning season (

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

), and their first division title, playoff appearance, and playoff win (

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

). In both 2011 and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, the Texans won the AFC South and the first game of the playoffs but lost the divisional game the following week. In

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, the Texans started the season 2–0, but then lost their next 11 games. Kubiak was fired mid-season, on December 6, 2013 and was replaced on an interim basis by

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

Wade Phillips (2013, 3 games). During the 2013 off-season, Bill O'Brien (2014–2020) was hired to be the Texans' next head coach. O'Brien had previously served as head coach at

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

and as offensive coordinator under Bill Belichick with the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

. In the 2020 season, the Texans started 0-4, and O'Brien was fired and replaced by interim head coach

Romeo Crennel Romeo Crennel (born June 18, 1947) is a former American football coach, who was the senior advisor for football performance for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). A former long-time coaching assistant to Bill Parcells, Cre ...

during the regular season on October 5, 2020 During the 2020 offseason,

David Culley David Wayne Culley (born September 17, 1955) is an American football coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). Culley has 45 years of coaching experience in both collegiate an ...

was hired as the Texans' next head coach; however, he was fired after just one season, with the team posting a 4–13 record during his brief tenure. During the 2021 offseason, Lovie Smith was hired as the Texans' next head coach. Smith had previously served as associate head coach and defensive coordinator during the 2021 season. Smith was previously the head coach of the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as well as the Illinois Fighting Illini.

Key

Coaches

:''Note: Statistics are accurate through the end of the

2021 NFL season The 2021 NFL season was the 102nd season of the National Football League (NFL). The season was the first to feature a 17-game regular season schedule as the league expanded the season from 16 games. The regular season started on September 9, ...

.''

Notes

References

{{NFL head coaches by team

Head coaches