Everyone knows who Lovie Smith is.
The 63-year-old Houston Texans coach built his entire reputation as a defensive guru who deployed the Tampa 2 defense to generate ferocious units as a defensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams (2001-03), and coach of the Chicago Bears (2004-12) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2014-15).
Although NFL offenses and commensurately NFL defenses have changed over the years, Smith doesn’t believe that Cover 2, the main philosophy behind his Tampa 2 defense, will ever go extinct.
“I think some form of Cover 2 is going to be around,” Smith said March 2 at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “It’s been around since the beginning of time and it’s not going anywhere.”
One of the primary reasons Smith believes Cover 2 will forever be a part of the game is because of how dynamic the receivers are.
“The receivers now, there are some special guys out there,” said Smith. “To just say that a defensive guy can guard that guy man-to-man by himself without any help, that’s asking an awful lot. And that’s what Cover 2 gives you a little bit is a way to double cover some of the special athletes that we have in the NFL. It’s been a part of our system every year it seems like since I been coaching.
“You know, people say time’s a changing. Yeah, I still listen to R&B music, old school music pretty much every day. That hasn’t changed, good music. Cover 2 isn’t going anywhere. There’s a place for it, and it’s good that more people acknowledge it.”
Smith, who takes over as the fifth full-time coach in Texans history, wouldn’t specify what type of music he listens to on game days, but, “some type of R&B music is on my iPhone.”
The Texans gave up 4,117 passing yards (23rd) and opposing quarterbacks compiled a 94.1 passer rating (21st) against Smith’s defense in 2021. However, Houston produced 25 takeaways, tied for the 10th-most in the NFL and the only team with a losing record to do so.
