The 2022 season was the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

' 21st in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) and their only season under

Lovie Smith Lovie Lee Smith (born May 8, 1958) is an American football coach. He has served as the head coach of the Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL) and the Illinois Fighting Illini. Smith has be ...

, following the firing of

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 and ...

at the end of the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

season. This was their first season since

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

without quarterback

Deshaun Watson Derrick Deshaun Watson (born September 14, 1995) is an American professional football quarterback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Clemson Tigers, leading the team to a national ...

on the roster, as he was traded to the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

on March 18. The Texans recorded their first tie in franchise history against the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

in Week 1. However, the Texans struggled as they had their worst start since

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. Houston was eliminated from playoff contention in Week 13, marking the third consecutive year the Texans were the first team to be eliminated. The Texans failed to improve upon their 4–13 record from the previous year, and posted a 9-game losing streak from Week 7 to Week 15, their worst losing streak since

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. They failed to win a home game in 2022, going 0–7–1 at

NRG Stadium NRG Stadium (previously known as Reliant Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to h ...

. Hours after their season-ending win against the Colts, the Texans parted ways with head coach Lovie Smith after only one season with the organization, marking the third consecutive year that the team fired its head coach. As of

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, this is the most recent season the Texans missed the playoffs, finished with a losing record, and finished in last place in the AFC South.

Draft

Draft trades

Staff

Offseason changes

Head coach

The

fired first-year

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

on January 13, 2022, who most notably led the Texans to a win at AFC No. 1 seed

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...

Final staff

Final roster

Preseason

Regular season

Schedule

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1: vs. Indianapolis Colts

This was the first tie in franchise history.

Week 2: at Denver Broncos

Week 3: at Chicago Bears

Week 4: vs. Los Angeles Chargers

Week 5: at Jacksonville Jaguars

Week 7: at Las Vegas Raiders

Week 8: vs. Tennessee Titans

Week 9: vs. Philadelphia Eagles

This was played the same day as Game 5 of the

2022 World Series The 2022 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2022 Major League Baseball season, 2022 season. The 118th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL ...

between the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

and the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

, moved back by one day due to rain in Philadelphia earlier in the week. Estimates from

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

show the baseball game drew an average of five million more viewers, with a share of at least 50 in both Philadelphia and Houston. Meanwhile, the football game, originally scheduled to air on the Fox affiliates in both markets per NFL rules, moved to the

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

affiliates in both markets.

Week 10: at New York Giants

Week 11: vs. Washington Commanders

Week 12: at Miami Dolphins

Week 13: vs. Cleveland Browns

Cleveland quarterback

made his first start since January 3, 2021 when he still played for Houston. Both offenses struggled throughout the game, with the game's only offensive touchdown coming with 1:57 left on a 6-yard

Kyle Allen Kyle Allen may refer to: * Kyle Allen (American football) * Kyle Allen (actor), American actor and ballet dancer See also * Allen (surname) {{human name disambiguation ...

pass to wide receiver

Nico Collins Dominique Stephon Nicolas "Nico" Collins (born March 19, 1999) is an American professional football wide receiver for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines and was select ...

. However, Cleveland would score two defensive touchdowns and a special teams touchdown. With the loss, the Texans dropped to 1–10–1 and were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention for the third season in a row.

Week 14: at Dallas Cowboys

The Texans held a 23–17 lead entering the fourth quarter but fell apart in the final minutes of the game. Cornerback Tremon Smith intercepted a

Dak Prescott Rayne Dakota Prescott (; born July 29, 1993) is an American professional football quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, twice earning first-team ...

pass and returned it 7 yards to the Dallas 4-yard line; however, the offense failed to score a touchdown and turned the ball over on downs. Starting at their own 2-yard line, the Cowboys marched 98 yards down field with

Ezekiel Elliott Ezekiel Elijah Elliott (born July 22, 1995), nicknamed "Zeke", is an American professional American football, football running back. He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes football, Ohio State Buckeyes, earning second-team College ...

getting the go-ahead score on a 2-yard run with 0:41 left. Houston attempted to respond, making it as far as the Dallas 44-yard line, but two false start penalties on

Laremy Tunsil Laremy Alexander Tunsil (born August 2, 1994) is an American professional football offensive tackle for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ole Miss Rebels and was selected by the ...

pushed the Texans back to their own 46-yard line and a

Davis Mills Davis Compton Mills (born October 21, 1998) is an American professional American football, football quarterback for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Stanford Cardinal football, Stanford ...

Hail Mary pass A Hail Mary pass is a very long forward pass in American football, typically made in desperation, with a very small chance of achieving a completion (American football), completion. Due to the difficulty of a completion with this pass, it makes r ...

was intercepted in the end zone by Israel Mukuamu, sealing the victory for Dallas.

Week 15: vs. Kansas City Chiefs

A fumble lost by David Mills in overtime led to the game winning touchdown by the Chiefs.

Week 16: at Tennessee Titans

Kickoff was originally scheduled for 12:00 p.m. CST, but was delayed an hour due to rolling blackouts in the Nashville area.

Week 17: vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

Week 18: at Indianapolis Colts

With the win, combined with a loss from 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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

, the Texans lost their first overall pick in the

2023 NFL draft The 2023 NFL draft was the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2023 NFL season, 2023 season. The NFL draft, draft was held outside of Kansas City Union Station, Union Station i ...

Standings

Division

Conference

Statistics

Team

Individual

Source:

References

External links

* {{2022 NFL season by team

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Houston Texans seasons