Rick Smith and Bill O'Brien remind me of those black-and-white sitcom vacuum cleaner salesmen.

You know, the ones who would pull out a bag of dirt and dump it all over the carpet just after Hazel or Lucy or June opened the door?

The goal of these fast-talking, smooth operators was to convince naive consumers that they were not only doing them a favor by cleaning up the mess, but that they alone had the right tool to cleanup said mess.

That they made the mess is beside the point.

Almost anybody can fall for the dirt-packing vacuum cleaner salesman once. But when he shows up for the seventh or eighth time, shouldn't you be a little a little skeptical?

Smith and O'Brien aren't even selling new vacuum cleaners. They have given their sales pitch on a host of used QBs, and they're back again, throwing another quarterback on the carpet in the form of Tom Savage.

Considering the enthusiasm with which they are going about it, you'd think Savage were the next Brock Osweiler or something.

Remember their crack evaluation of the $72-million man?

"When you started to think about predictability and value, over here you have Brock with four years of NFL experience sitting behind one of the greatest quarterbacks (Peyton Manning) in history, understands an NFL season, understands coaching - you're better able to predict his success," Smith said a year ago.

Uh huh.

"We felt like (Osweiler) was a guy that everything that he brought to the table from his command at the line of scrimmage to his skillset as a passer … we think he's a great fit for our offense," O'Brien said a year ago.

Yeah. Right.

So when I hear Smith and O'Brien start to extol the quarterback virtues of Savage … I step back, because they've thrown dirt on us before.

"I don't know that people really believe us, but we're comfortable with Tom Savage as our quarterback," Smith said.

No, not many people believe that.

"I think he has proven that he can play at a high level in the offense," Smith said of Savage.

What? I'm not sure even Smith can vacuum up this mess.

When exactly did Savage prove he can play at a high level in the Texans' offense?

Was it when he came in for the last six plays of garbage time to handoff four times and twice take a knee in a 45-24 rout of Tennessee in 2014?

Was it two weeks later when he came in for an injured Ryan Fitzpatrick, fumbled twice, threw an interception and "led" the Texans to a whopping three points on nine possessions?

Maybe it was the next year, when … wait, my bad. He wasn't one of the four quarterbacks who started for the Texans that year. He didn't get to play at all.

I guess it was last year, when he did look better than awful, err Osweiler, against Jacksonville. But throwing for a few yards, while leading the offense to one rushing touchdown, to get a one-point win against an opponent that won three games doesn't qualify as a high-level performance.

And neither does his play in his first start, an eight-punt, one-rushing touchdown, 12-points-scored game against six-win Cincinnati.

The following week, the only touchdown Savage was part of was a Titans' score off another one of his fumbles. He failed to finish the game because of a concussion suffered on the first play of the second quarter - on a QB sneak.

He didn't play in the playoffs.

So, again, where exactly is this high-level proof?

Of course college football doesn't compare to the NFL, but first-round draft pick Deshaun Watson led Clemson to more points (35) in the national championship game against Alabama this past January, than Savage has guided the Texans to in three NFL seasons (34).

One can reasonably argue that Watson will not be the best choice to start the season opener at quarterback. He might not give the Texans the best chance to win that day.

However, the Texans' best quarterback will be on the field during rookie minicamp this week. Because the Texans' best quarterback is a rookie.

I don't know when Smith and O'Brien will admit that. But I do know that I'm not buying another vacuum from these guys.