Or you know the guy really did just want to be there for his wife. Seriously why is the narrative for you that the McNair's fired Smith? If my wife was, God forbid, diagnosed with cancer and I had made enough money that I could step away from working for awhile you damn well better believe I would do it. If for no other reason than just to get the max time possible with her should the worse happen, If Smith had right away gone to another team I would agree it was a smoke screen but he didn't and in fact hasn't seemed to even give football a passing glance.
In fact this is an update interview with him from August.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/08/31/rick-smith-houston-texans-gm-sabbatical
Let me give you one highlight though.
“Some of that stuff is cruel,” Smith says. “Like, that she’s not even sick, which is just unbelievable. I’ll tell you exactly what that is. A lot of it has to do with my relationship with Bill, coupled with the fact that, as I stepped aside, they summarily replaced most of our football operations. They fired a ton of people, so it looks like Bill got rid of me. And that’s not true.”
Smith does admit that he and O’Brien didn’t always agree on fundamental issues, starting with their organizational philosophies. He also says he approached McNair in recent years to lay out his vision for how the team should operate, and that some of his suggestions—he declines to discuss specifics—did not align with O’Brien’s vision. But Smith also describes any feud as “overblown” and characterizes his relationship with the Texans’ coach as “fine.”
So I know you'll point the part of laid his vision and say the McNair's didn't agree and that's why he's gone and BoBs still here. Completely ignoring that, again, his wife was diagnosed with cancer and he made, in my mind, the right choice of her over work. Smith may not be back with the Texan's but you're crazy if you think that some other team wouldn't sign him in a heartbeat. Despite what the narrative is his draft picking was average at worse, he did have trouble with FA but not anymore than Elway's I've set my price and I won't move from it philosophy.