DeMeco Ryans Sets High Bar for Ascending Texans originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
In the 2006 NFL Draft, the Houston Texans spent the No. 1 overall pick on pass rusher Mario Williams, but it was their second-round pick who stole Defensive Rookie of the Year Honors.
A unanimous All-American and SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2005 at Alabama, DeMeco Ryans spent the first six seasons of his 10-year NFL career in Houston, and his love for the city and the franchise led him back to where his playing career started, but this time as head coach.
Hired in 2023, Ryans has led the Texans to 10-win seasons and AFC North titles in each of his first two campaigns at the helm.
On the latest episode of “Best Podcast Available,” I sat down with Stephanie Stradley of the Houston Chronicle to talk about why Ryans is the perfect fit for a team that’s primed for championship contention for years to come.
“DeMeco Ryans is just one of the most brilliant football minds I’ve ever been around,” Stradley said. “I remember my first year writing for Chron.com, it was his rookie year (as a player), and they called him ‘Cap’ before they even got out of training camp.”
Ryans sets a high bar for his players, whether their inexperienced rookies or grizzled veterans, but he’s put the infrastructure in place to make sure they have to tools to meet those high expectations on a daily basis.
“One of the things that’s exciting about watching the Texans practice and play is, you can see them improving in real time,” Stradley said. “I was extraordinarily impressed with DeMeco Ryans’ first camp, because it was just so purposeful, and it’s really rare where you see young players making these huge jumps from practice to practice.
“There’s a reason why they have so many cameras around at practice,” Stradley continued. “They have video boards up, so that as they’re practicing, coaches can refer to things they saw up on the video board, and the players can make immediate adjustments. They’re really working together, with this whole idea of competition and cooperation.”
Ryans sets the tone by example, showing the same leadership prowess as a head coach that he displayed as a player, wearing the same logo.
“The best teams, the teams where you have leadership like what DeMeco Ryans brings, everybody on that team wants their teammates to be better,” Stradley said. “Because they have to make it through a very long season, and into the playoffs.”
The Texans have drafted well in recent years, and will continue to rely on a long list of young players to play critical roles in their success in 2025. Those budding stars have the perfect situation to grow in Houston, thanks to the environment Ryans has cultivated.
“There’s a phrase that goes, ‘They don’t care what you know until they know how much you care.’ And this is the kind of environment that anyone wants as an early-career person, where you’re trying to come together as a team at the highest level,” Stradley said.
One of those talented young studs is quarterback C.J. Stroud, who has shown flashes of brilliance over his first two seasons in the league, but still has a sky-high ceiling ahead of him.
“The thing that most exciting about Stroud is they’re putting more on his plate, as far as protections and choices at the line go,” Stradley said. “And just seeing how he goes about his business from practice to practice, I don’t think it’s going to be too big for him.”
Despite being a first-time head coach, and among the youngest in the league (he’ll turn 41 in July), Ryans has no interest in making excuses for youth or a lack of experience, for himself or his players.
“They have incredibly high standards, and they understand urgency,” Stradley said.
Heading into the 2025 season, Ryans will have plenty of positives to work with, but he’ll also have to navigate some seismic changes, including a new offensive coordinator in Nick Caley. There are still issues along the offensive line that need to be solved, and a couple of weak spots on defense that could continue to be exposed if players don’t rise to the occasion.
“I’m reasonably optimistic, despite the fact that they’ve made some big changes on offense,” Stradley said.
Last season, injuries and an inability to make in-season adjustments kept them from reaching their full potential.
“Last year, they didn’t solve their problems fast enough,” Stradley said. “They had a lot of really good players on offense, and that was clear. You could see it in spurts, but they didn’t have solutions for things that are pretty basic NFL things.”
One thing’s for certain: Ryans is a fiery, passionate leader who desperately wants to bring consistent, long-term success to the same team that drafted him as a player, and the same city that embraced him at the beginning of his NFL career.
“He loves Houston so much,” Stradley said. “He’s trying to win for us.”
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared.