Below is a transcript from The Simple Handicap podcast (listen here), presented by Right Angle Sports. We’ll be doing a first-look preview of all 32 NFL teams, followed by more complete team previews prior to the season. Interested in signing up for the RAS NFL service? Join here.
Last season was brutal for the Houston Texans. They were coached by Lovie Smith, who seemed to have one foot out the door by the first week of October. He was likely never the long-term answer as head coach. It was a gap year for the Texans and Smith was a place holder coach.
Defensively, Smith ran an outdated Tampa 2 scheme. On offense, it was a revolving door at quarterback. Davis Mills and Jeff Driskel both started games, and at one point, they became co-starting QBs. They also had a center who could not stand up straight. It was not a great situation on offense.
A lot of that will change in 2023.
DeMeco Ryans is in as head coach. He brings in Bobby Slowik, previously of the 49ers, to run his offense. Slowik’s hiring is interesting. He has a history of working with rookie QBs, which we just saw last year with Brock Purdy becoming immediately productive for San Francisco. If CJ Stroud wins the starting job for Houston, Slowik will squeeze the most out of him.
We’ll see lots of passes predicated off the run. We’ll see lots of heavy personnel. We’ll see lots of pre-snap motion. We’ll see a lot of play-action. All of these things should fit Stroud well. He was very good passing in college with pre-snap motion, and was effective in play-action. There should be a lot of familiarity for Stroud with this scheme.
Running back Dameon Pierce flashed real talent last year and will thrive in this system behind an upgraded offensive line, which could be league average after being a disaster at times in 2022.
Defensively, this looks very similar to the New York Jets. Robert Saleh, also a former 49ers DC, revamped the Jets defense in short order after taking over. Ryans won’t transform the Texans’ D, which was 18th last year, into a top-10 unit overnight. But he should help them take another step forward. There’s some good young talent on this defense to build around long-term, and players love playing for Ryans.
Make no mistake, Houston won’t be a good team in 2023. But with Ryans and this new staff, you can at least start to imagine a path forward for this Texans team. This will be their fifth different coach since 2020 after they hired two one-and-done coaches in David Culley and Smith the last two years.
They’re yearning for stability and hopefully now have it.