Don’t count on Texans nailing key hire

The first time I broached the subject of Rick Smith’s removal as general manager of the Texans was after the 2010 season.

Well, seven years later, he is stepping down, albeit under unfortunate circumstances, as he is taking a leave of absence to tend to family matters as his wife Tiffany recovers from breast cancer treatment.

This opens the door for Bob McNair to make a home-run hire that could lift the team to its first Super Bowl.

More likely, McNair will blow it again.

And McNair’s health issues, which have played a role in his being less visible this season, probably won’t help matters.

One would think that after 16 years of watching other teams get it right, McNair would now have a better understanding of what it takes to win in the NFL.

He has definitely learned the business lessons from the likes of Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones. The Houston Texans franchise is stable and profitable.

On the field, however, the team has spent more time at the bottom of the standings than the top — four first-place finishes, eight lastplace finishes — with its overall NFL standing somewhere in the middle.

McNair says he isn’t happy about that, but his actions say otherwise.

How else would Smith, who has been average to somewhat good as a general manager, have lasted 12 seasons? Not only did he last that long, but he says he plans to be back as an executive vice president in a year, holding a title that presumably would rank above whomever McNair hires as general manager in the next couple of weeks.

Were McNair truly concerned about moving up from the Texans’ middle-of-theroad status, he wouldn’t be looking at hiring a first-time GM.

There is a large contingent of Texans fans that has no problem buying tickets to see one of the least entertaining products in the NFL. Every seat has been sold for 16 years and counting.

Willingly signing up to watch more of coach Bill O’Brien’s Texans requires a strange faith. Good for you.

How can you be sold on the sixweek dream of spectacular play by Deshaun Watson — a stretch during which O’Brien blew two games with horrid late-game coaching decisions — when there were 58 other weeks of pitiful Texans offensive football under O’Brien? (OK, 57. I believe Ryan Fitzpatrick had some crazy six-TD game.)

Before this year’s collapse, O’Brien’s Texans went 9-7 three years in a row, which is hardly something to brag about, though that hasn’t kept O’Brien from bragging.

Without any injuries, I have no doubt the Texans could have won a few more games this season. Still, they would have had to get lucky to finish 9-7 again. O’Brien’s wheelhouse. Clearly that’s good enough for McNair (and

a host of fans). JEROME SOLOMON