Texans on new head coach Ryans: 'Welcome home, DeMeco!'

The Houston Texans’ new head coach is a familiar face who helped the young franchise field one of the National Football League’s (NFL) most tenacious defensive units more than a decade ago. 

DeMeco Ryans was announced as the Texans’ sixth overall coach on Tuesday, succeeding the terminated Lovie Smith nearly a month after the team defeated division rival Indianapolis to end the 2022 regular season. 

“Welcome home, DeMeco!” the Texans said in a tweet.

With the hiring, the 38-year-old Ryans, who is fresh from a conference championship game appearance with the San Francisco 49ers as its defensive coordinator, returns to the ball club that took him from Alabama with a second-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft. 

The unanimous All-American selection emerged as one of the leaders of the Texans’ vaunted “Bulls on Parade” defense during the team’s second winning season in 2011. 

“He has a proven track record for developing high-quality players and constantly innovated his defensive scheme over the last six seasons in San Francisco,” Texans chair and chief executive officer (CEO) Cal McNair said of the ex-linebacker in a franchise-issued statement. “We started this process with the goal of finding someone our fans and city can be proud of and we've done just that."

According to a report from ESPN, the Texans and Ryans agreed to a six-year deal. 

The team will formally introduce Ryans, who also played for the newly crowned National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles from 2012 to 2015, in his new position at a press conference on Thursday, ESPN reported. 

Per ESPN, the Texans interviewed Ryans twice last month, with the franchise beating out the Denver Broncos, the Carolina Panthers and the Colts for his services.

In the midst of a rebuild brought on by the departures of wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins in 2020, defensive end J.J. Watt in 2021 and quarterback Deshaun Watson last year, the Texans hope Ryans will succeed where his predecessors, Smith and David Culley, have failed. 

Watt, who just retired from the NFL, tweeted his approval of Ryans’ hiring. 

“You want to reenergize and reignite the incredible Houston fan base, this is a [heck] of a start!” he said. “Cannot wait to see what Meco does. One of the best teammates [and] leaders I’ve ever been around.”