(SportsRadio 610) -- For Texans first-year defensive coordinator Lovie Smith, one of the major focuses in overhauling his side of the ball is becoming a unit that creates turnovers.
Smith, who spoke with reporters Thursday for the first time since being hired earlier this year, said the defense's mentality will be to score points.
It's not something they did a lot in 2020. The Texans ranked last in takeaways last season and were one of only three teams to average less than one takeaway per game.
"It all kind of starts with how you win football games – scoring points," Smith said. "I'd like for us to have a defense that realizes that, that the number one goal is to score. The second goal we have would be to take the ball away. We need to be good on third downs. In order to accomplish that, though, we want a smart defense that's fundamentally sound, that plays hard each down.
"I'm a product of Texas high school football and proud of it. Some of the same fundamentals that coach Glenn Arnold, who coaches high school basketball here for 50 years in the Houston area taught, we're teaching the same things still to this day. Excited about a new group coming in and everybody starting from scratch and showing us exactly who they are for us to put the best 11 guys on the football field who will help us win games."
To that end, Smith said he's pleased with the moves first-year general manager Nick Caserio has made in free agency and through trades.
The Texans traded linebacker Benardrick McKinney for edge rusher Shaq Lawson, who figures to be one of their primary pass rushers.
They also overhauled the linebacker position, still prominently featuring Zach Cunningham in the middle, but adding Christian Kirksey and Kevin Pierre-Louis.
The secondary has more depth with Terrance Mitchell and Desmond King added to Bradley Roby and Vernon Hargreaves.
Smith called it "a misnomer" that his 4-3 base defense will always play a cover-2 zone, and stressed the need for cornerbacks who can hold their own in man-to-man coverage.
"Two guys are going to start. If there's four guys we feel like we can win with, we'll play as many guys as we need to if we think that we can win with them," Smith said. "As far as the roster, the guy who you would say is at the bottom of the depth chart, I hope he's good enough to play for us and he brings competition where every guy each day feels like they have to be at the top of their game. That's what's going to help our football team. That's what's going to help first our defense rise to getting back at the top.
"The Houston Texans have played great defense around here in the past and eventually, we're going to get back to that. In order for us – most people say, 'hey, you guys are going to run Cover 2 every snap,' well, that's a misnomer there. In order for us to have success, it's going to be a lot based on whether our cornerbacks can play man coverage or not. It always comes back to that. So that's a position that we need to be deep and I feel good about the direction we're going."
