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DJ Bien-Aime
HOUSTON — Coach DeMeco Ryans said Thursday he believes his new offensive coordinator, Nick Caley, can help get the Houston Texans “over the hump.”
In Ryans’ two seasons in Houston, the result has been the same. Both seasons, the Texans clinched the AFC South title and won a wild-card playoff game. But they suffered losses in the divisional round as the Texans’ offense struggled to score points.
“We’ve had a lot of good success these first two years,” Ryans said Thursday. “The reason we’re doing this is I think there’s another level that we can go to. And as I said earlier, my job is to take this organization to new heights, and I think hiring Nick will help us to get there.”
The Texans’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round this year wasn’t the sole reason Ryans fired former offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik. But that loss did encapsulate why Ryans said that the offense had to improve after an underwhelming year under Slowik. After an impressive 2023 debut, the Texans’ yards per game (342.4 to 319.7) and points per game (22.2 to 21.9) went down under Slowik while sacks went up (47 to 54)
Quarterback C.J. Stroud took 52 sacks (second most) and was pressured on 38.6% of his dropbacks (third most according to NFL Next Gen Stats). The pressure on Stroud also got to him quickly as his time to pressure rate was 2.59, the seventh fastest according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
Ryans fired Slowik, a head coaching candidate in each of the past two offseasons, on Jan. 24 in search of improvement. Then, on Feb. 3, he landed on Caley as the new designer of an offense featuring Pro Bowlers in left tackle Laremy Tunsil, running back Joe Mixon, wideout Nico Collins and Stroud.
“It was very hard to let Bobby go,” Ryans said. “Bobby’s a really close friend, as you all know, Bobby’s a great friend of mine. When I got into coaching, Bobby was the guy who helped me figure it all out and we were [quality control coaches] together, there, in San Fran. So, really long relationship there with him. Nothing but love and admiration for Bobby and what he’s done.”
Caley, 42, has never been an offensive coordinator before, so this will be his first time calling plays. He joined the Los Angeles Rams as the tight ends coach in 2023 then added the pass game coordinator role in 2024. Before joining the Rams, Caley spent eight seasons (2015-2022) with the New England Patriots — the past six as the tight ends coach.
Caley had high praise for Stroud, who regressed statistically from a strong rookie year, finishing 15th in passing yards (3,727) and tied for 15th in passing touchdowns (20). The Texans hope to get a better version of Year 1 Stroud, who threw for 4,108 yards (eighth in the NFL) with 23 touchdowns (13th) and led in passing yards per game (274).
“He can spin it. He throws the ball,” Caley said. “He’s an accurate thrower of the football. He is a natural thrower of the football. He’s instinctive. He’s got the ‘it’ factor. And he’s a warrior in terms of his competitiveness. I’ve admired him dating back to his college days. So, I’m really, really excited to have an opportunity to work with him.”
Caley also mentioned that even though he has experience in New England and Los Angeles, he wouldn’t be married to either scheme.
“It is going to be Houston’s,” Caley said. “It is going to be our scheme based on what we do. I don’t say that to throw any curveballs. It really is. I mean, my history, dating back to when I first got in the National Football League under Coach Belichick, is we were going to be a game-plan team. If that meant we were going to run duo and gap schemes and run the ball 45 times to win the game, then that’s what we were going to do. We had to run more perimeter plays, wide zone, and we felt that was going to give us the edge. We were going to do that. We were going to ask our guys to do what they do well, but it was going to be based on what we do to help us win.”
