Bobby Slowik comes from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree that was established with the San Francisco 49ers. Slowik is bringing that Shanahan scheme to the Houston Texans as its offensive coordinator under coach DeMeco Ryans.
Shanahan comes from the Gary Kubiak coaching tree. From 2006-09, Shanahan was an assistant under Kubiak with the Texans, working as offensive coordinator in his final two years.
What is old is new.
“I still remember watching when I first got the offense in San Francisco, all these Houston Texan cut-ups and Andre [Johnson] and [Matt] Schaub and David Anderson and all these guys just running the same stuff we’re running right now, and the principles and the foundation of what they did is all there, but like everything, it kind of evolves as it goes.”
Kubiak coached the Texans from 2006-13. The NFL still had a taste of commitment to the run that has faded over the past decade. Defenses across the league have adapted as well.
Said Slowik: “There’s some different defenses you see. There’s some different issues you get. So, you find different ways to adjust to that.”
The Texans are still using some of the same material from the Kubiak days to explain the objectives in the 2023 offense. However, it is more in a football genealogy sense.
“You just point to something else that they did back then and be like, hey, this is the same as that was, but now we’re doing it this way,” said Slowik. “That was really neat when I first got to throw on some Houston Texan film and see all of them play.”
The Texans were able to win two AFC South titles and a couple wild-card playoff games with Kubiak’s system. Houston sports fans would not mind that type of stroll down memory lane after three seasons of double-digit losing campaigns.
