DeMeco Ryans is a successful defensive play-caller.
The 38-year-old was the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers the past two seasons, and the NFC West club appeared in the NFL’s final four each time. The NFL assistant coach of the year honors Ryans picked up at the end of the 2022 campaign was an exclamation point as to how great he could be leading a defense.
As Ryans embarks on being the Houston Texans’ new coach, there still is ambivalence as to who will call the defensive plays nearly two months on the job.
The Texans hired former Arizona Cardinals defensive line coach Matt Burke as the defensive coordinator, and the 47-year-old was the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins from 2017-18 in the final two years with offensive-minded coach Adam Gase.
Ryans told reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix March 27 that they have yet to decide who will call defensive plays.
However the Texans arrive at their decision, Ryans seeks to filter all of his actions through the philosophy of autonomy and allowing coaches to lead in their own way.
“I think at the end of the day, it’s all about leading people, growing the people that are around you and seeing something in the people that are around you, seeing certain traits and trying to help develop them more, trying to give them more of a leadership role, give them more command over running whatever particular part of our program, giving them the autonomy to take it over and see how they thrive in it and micromanage, letting people grow, letting people develop, knowing that there may be hiccups along the way, but that’s how you learn,” said Ryans. “That’s how I learned. No one micromanaged me. They allowed me to make mistakes and it allowed me to grow and become better.”
The Texans’ offseason program begins April 11.
