Rick Smith
General Manager, Houston Texans
Rick Smith enters his fifth season as the Houston Texans’ general manager after being named to the post on June 5, 2006. After inheriting a two-win team, Smith has helped guide the Texans to 31 wins since 2006, giving him the most wins for a general manager in franchise history.
The Texans have gotten better every season with Smith at the helm. Houston posted its first winning season in 2009, going 9-7. Smith has built a team that has battled throughout the year as evidenced by a combined 13-6 record in the final month of the season over the last four years. That record ranks fourth in the NFL and tops among teams in the AFC South. Houston had an NFL-worst .211 winning percentage in the last month of the season before Smith’s arrival.
As general manager, Smith oversees all aspects of football operations. He works closely with the coaching and scouting staffs to build the club roster via free agency as well as overseeing the annual college draft. Smith has assembled a front office staff that has the Texans pointed toward sustained success in the NFL.
Smith has established himself as a prominent voice around the league in his four years at the helm with the Texans. He was appointed to the NFL’s prestigious eight-man Competition Committee by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Dec. 5, 2008. Smith was honored with the 2008 Tank Younger Award, presented annually by the Fritz Pollard Alliance for outstanding work in an NFL front office. Smith was an original member of the General Managers Advisory Committee that provides advice and other feedback to the NFL Football Operations department on the integrity of the game, expansion of technology and other ways to improve the game.
The Texans’ offense ranked fourth in the NFL with a franchise-best 383.1 yards per game in 2009. Houston’s offense is triggered by QB Matt Schaub, whom Smith acquired in a trade with the Atlanta Falcons before the 2007 season. Schaub finished the year leading the league with 4,770 yards, which ranks sixth all-time in NFL history. Schaub topped 300 passing yards nine times, which was tied for the second-most 300-yard games in a season in NFL history. Schaub was selected as a Pro Bowler for the first time in his career and took home the MVP trophy after throwing for 189 yards and a pair of touchdowns in an AFC win.
The Texans had a team-record five Pro Bowlers in 2009. Houston’s defense sent three players: DeMeco Ryans, Mario Williams and rookie Brian Cushing. Smith drafted Cushing in the first round, and the former Trojan proceeded to lead all rookies in tackles with 133. Cushing also tied for the team lead with four interceptions on his way to being named the Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year. Cushing tied SS Bernard Pollard for the team lead in interceptions. Pollard was an early-season addition signed as a free agent before Week 3. The Texans’ defense made strides in 2009, giving up 324.9 yards per game to rank a franchise-best 13th in the NFL.
Smith’s main philosophy has been to build through the draft and supplement via free agency. Last season, 13 players that the Texans signed or acquired during Smith’s tenure started 10 or more games. In the final win of the season against the Patriots, 15 of Houston’s 22 starters had been with the Texans since Smith’s arrival in June 2006.
During the 2009 draft, Houston selected eight players, with four starting at least one game. In addition to Cushing’s rookie success, second-round pick DE Connor Barwin led all NFL rookie defensive ends with 4.5 sacks. G Antoine Caldwell, slated to start at right guard in 2010, started in three of his 11 appearances at right guard while fourth-round CB Glover Quin started 12 games for a Texans secondary that allowed 217.9 passing yards per game.
In the 2010 draft, the Texans selected CB Kareem Jackson in the first round from Alabama. Jackson played in all 41 career games at Alabama and started 40 contests, registered 159 career tackles and helped the Crimson Tide win the national title for the first time in 17 years. In the second round, Houston selected RB Ben Tate from Auburn. Tate rushed for 1,362 yards as a senior, which ranked third in the SEC. In the third round, Houston selected native Houstonian DT Earl Mitchell from Arizona. A quick-footed defensive tackle, Mitchell finished as the Wildcats’ defensive co-captain and an All-Pac-10 Conference second-team selection as a senior. Throughout the rest of the draft, Smith selected four offensive players and two defensive players that will provide quality depth to the roster.
Since his first draft in 2007, Smith has taken 14 players between the fourth and seventh round. Among those players, they have started 81 games for the Texans with 2007 seventh-round pick LB Zac Diles starting the most at 20 games.
In his former role with the Broncos, Smith was responsible for evaluating players from around the NFL as well as those in NFL Europe, the Canadian Football League, the Arena Football League and other professional leagues. He also played a central role in the club’s preparation for the college draft and was one of the Broncos’ primary negotiators for player contracts. With Smith heading the pro personnel department, the Broncos posted the league’s fifth-best regular-season record from 2000-05, going 61-35 (.635). The 61 wins were the most of any AFC West team over that span, 10 more than the next closest team, Kansas City. Not surprisingly, Denver was one of only four teams in the NFL to reach the playoffs each season from 2003-05. Before moving into the front office, Smith spent four years as the Broncos’ assistant defensive backs coach and earned two Super Bowl rings while helping guide a unit that consistently ranked as one of the league’s best. The team won more games from 1996-98 (46) than any club during that three-year period.
Smith joined the Broncos on April 3, 1996, following a two-year stint as defensive backs coach at his alma mater, Purdue University. He left Purdue in February to accept a coaching position at TCU, but spent just one month at the school before being hired by the Broncos.
A 1992 graduate of Purdue, Smith began his coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Boilermakers shortly after his graduation, serving as the school’s assistant strength and conditioning coordinator as a grad assistant. After serving as the team’s tight ends coach for one season again as a graduate assistant, Smith was then hired as the secondary coach, becoming the youngest full-time position coach in the Big Ten Conference at the time at the age of 24.
Smith was a starter at strong safety and defensive captain for Purdue as a senior in 1991. A native of Petersburg, Va., he attended Meadowdale High School in Dayton, Ohio. Smith also is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Smith and his wife, Tiffany, live in Houston with sons Robert LaMar, Christian LaMar and daughter Avery Jordan.