From a glance, the Texans hit a home run by hiring DeMeco Ryans to be their new head coach.
After spending half a decade as a stout linebacker for Houston in the early 2000s, Ryans now has the daunting mission of finally elevating a franchise mired in pro football’s doldrums. And as someone who just finished coordinating the 49ers’ monstrous defense over the last couple of years — under the tutelage of the brilliant Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh — there might not be a better man for the job than him.
This is because Ryans has acclaim for being an ingenious leader and defensive mind. San Francisco likely doesn’t continue its reign as a Championship Sunday-level team if Ryans isn’t pulling the strings, maximizing terrors like Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and Talanoa Hufanga. He was routinely front and center, ensuring everyone was in the right spot and on their Ps and Qs.
But the Texans must let Ryans do his job before he can take his leadership and coaching methods and transfer them over seamlessly. You’d be forgiven if you had doubts about their intentions. After all, it’s hard to trust Houston after it essentially tanked two years just to be in this position to do right by a former player.
In jettisoning David Culley and Lovie Smith, two skilled Black coaches who were fired for not winning more with bare-bones rosters after respective single seasons, the Texans showed they have little design on growing the game for everyone. In line with a pervasive hiring problem around the league as a whole, the Texans declined to give leeway and equal opportunity to two consecutive Black sideline leaders compared with their white peers, while disrespectfully treating them as placeholders. They rightfully earned criticism for these moves, and hiring Ryans — even on a six-year contract — doesn’t gloss over them.
This is not, and will never be, how healthy NFL teams operate. Even if Ryans is one of the sport’s biggest coaching names, the manner in which the Texans shamelessly cleared the deck for him should inspire suspicion they’ll give him the key to their car. Or, at the very least, that they’ll let him drive the automobile at his leisure, instilling his vision at his own pace.
Former 49ers’ defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans and the Houston Texans reached agreement today on a six-year deal, per sources. Texans have their new head coach. pic.twitter.com/1CvFSLvZY5
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 31, 2023
Houston doesn’t have a lot of core pieces in place for the future.
Outside of a triumvirate of the promising running back Dameon Pierce, franchise left tackle Laremy Tunsil and 2022 second-round safety Jalen Pitre, this continues to be a thin roster that has an extended path back to any meaningful competition. The Texans are in dire need of a full-scale rebuild, and they need someone with the requisite experience in quality and patient player development as talent is gradually added to the mix. Given that Houston possesses the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, it’s likely the quarterback of the future (Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud… Will Levis?) will also take snaps in a new era come September.
This is where the Texans struck gold with Ryans.
As a pure teacher and communicator, Ryans is the necessary sage to plant and maintain the seeds the Texans need. In due time, if Ryans and co. can strike the right chords, Houston might morph into a consistent AFC powerhouse. But whether they’ll truly stay patient with Ryans long enough for that dream vision to happen is up in the air. If Culley and Smith were given no breathing room to thrive, it’s hard to expect the Texans will treat Ryans any differently and honor his deal to its conclusion. But we can hope.
Past and recent precedent in Houston suggests Ryans will be restricted in some fashion. If there’s one place owner Janice McNair and relatively green GM Nick Caserio are in probable lockstep, it’s in ensuring Ryans has the tools to shine, but only until he, in their eyes, steps out of line, seeking more (earned) power. This is in stark contrast to how the Texans have operated with their various awful white coaches over the years.
Inaugural Houston coach Dom Capers won 19 games in Houston and never had a winning record. He coached them for four seasons. Gary Kubiak started with the Texans in 2006, didn’t have a winning season until 2009 and didn’t win a playoff game until 2011. He coached them for almost eight years. Bill O’Brien then took the helm — as a coach and eventual GM (in 2020), mind you — and proceeded to never make one Championship Sunday appearance while pouring gas all over the organization’s long-term prospects. He coached them for six years.
Meanwhile, Culley and Smith get a card deck full of two-of-hearts and spades, and they’re expected to make chicken salad out of chicken, well, you know, just to stay employed. It’s simply not a fair standard for two Black coaches compared with their white predecessors, who were allowed to screw up time and again and stay entrenched.
Great teams embolden the people they hire. Sorry franchises, like the Texans, look over their shoulder, micro-manage them, and keep a short leash on their exploits seemingly every step of the way — if they even let them get that far.
Since their expansion inception in 2002, the Texans can count on six postseason appearances and have won just four playoff games. Their all-time win-loss record is a depressing 142-195-1. They are a grim picture of two decades of futility. The NFL brought the league’s 32nd team into the fold for competitive balance (and revenue), and it’s acted as an embarrassing stepping stone for others instead.
Tuesday saw the Texans try to step out of the shadows. Their hire of Ryans, a genuinely premier coach with a proven track record of success, suggests they desire to no longer be a laughingstock.
They’ll have to let Ryans operate how he pleases — no questions asked and at a reasonable, progressive pace — for that to happen.
