Conference championship Sunday was going to start putting the puzzle pieces together as to what the Houston Texans pictured for their sixth full-time coach in team history.
According to Adam Schefter from ESPN, the Texans are expected to go after San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans following the club’s 31-7 beating at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game.
The other coaching candidate from the NFC that is still in the playoffs is Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. The Texans would be able to talk to Gannon until the Sunday before the Super Bowl (Feb. 5).
Ryans has familiarity with the organization as he was a 2006 second-round pick from Alabama who won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. The two-time Pro Bowler stayed on with the team through the 2011 season, and then finished out his career with the Eagles from 2012-15.
Kyle Shanahan, who had a variety of roles with Houston from 2006-08, gave Ryans his first coaching job in 2017 with the 49ers as a defensive quality control coach. Ryans later became the inside linebackers coach from 2018-20, and then took over as defensive coordinator following the departure of Robert Saleh for the New York Jets job in January 2021.
