Through the course of the 24 season history of the Houston Texans, there are three head coaches who can toss their hat into the debate for “best head coach in the history of the team.” With apologies to Dom Capers, David Culley, and Lovie Smith, all three delightful human beings, the three in the conversation are Gary Kubiak, Bill O’Brien, and DeMeco Ryans.
Yes, you read that right. After just three seasons, the last of which is not yet fully complete, Ryans has a case as the best head coach in the history of the Houston Texans, and if my life depended on successfully arguing the case for any of the three head coaches, I’d choose Ryans.
Believe me, I’m well aware of the much smaller sample size of Ryans’ Texans head coaching career, as compared to Kubiak (seven full season, fired in Season 8) and O’Brien (six full seasons, fired in Season 7). I’m also aware that Ryans is not perfect. Game management and hiring offensive coaches have not been strengths of his.
However, the accomplishments of his team over the last couple months, and particularly the last few weeks, put Ryans over the top. Here’s are the bullet points I would bring to the “my life depends on it” debate:
DeMeco Ryans’ three double digit win seasons
Ryans is not only the first head coach in Texans history to have three double digit win seasons, but he’s the only one to do it in three consecutive seasons. Kubiak (2011, 2012) and O’Brien (2018, 2019) both had two double digit win seasons. To be fair to both of them, they were coaching when the season was only 16 games long. Who knows how many of O’Brien’s three 9-7 seasons may have been 10-7 with an extra game? Ryans wins the tiebreaker here with the degree of difficulty of this season’s schedule, a top five difficult schedule. Additionally, while all three have won two playoff games, Ryans two playoff wins have both been blowouts.
DeMeco Ryans’ recovery from an 0-3 start this season
With the clinching of a playoff spot on Saturday night, DeMeco Ryans became just the second coach this century to make the playoffs after an 0-3 start. Ironically, the other one was O’Brien, who did it in 2018, fueled by a nine game winning streak to go from 0-3 to 9-3. Ryans’ team is currently on an eight game winning streak, and they’re a heavy favorite t make it nine this weekend. Again, degree of opponent difficulty during the rise from 0-3 points the possession arrow in Ryans’ direction, again over O’Brien.
DeMeco Ryans’ consistency and keeping the floor high
Certainly, the hardest thing to do as a head coach is win a Super Bowl. Only one team can do it every year, and you have to get through the best of the best to accomplish that. However, in today’s NFL, it’s nearly as difficult to keep your team highly competitive over multiple seasons. To that end, Ryans is one of just four coaches to have won ten or more games from 2023 through 2025. The others are Sean McDermott (Bills), Nick Sirianni (Eagles), and Sean McVay (Rams).
DeMeco Ryans’ combining with C.J. Stroud
It’s been fun watching DeMeco Ryans and C.J. Stroud, who both began their chosen vocations at the NFL level together in 2023, grow together on this journey to making the Houston Texans a Super Bowl contender. With the playoff spot clinched on Saturday, Ryans and Stroud became just the fourth first time head coach and rookie quarterback combination to make the playoffs in their first three seasons together, And they did this with the franchise coming out of the David Culley and Lovie Smith seasons!
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.