The Houston Texans offseason felt like it really, truly got under way on Thursday afternoon, as the team made what could be its biggest move of the offseason, introducing former Rams and Patriots assistant Nick Caley as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
The Texans will sign some players in free agency, and they’ll draft several college players in April, but no move will have a bigger impact than this hire.
After showing tons of promise offensively as a team in 2023, and individually as the offensive coordinator, former OC Bobby Slowik was the steward of an offense that showed major dysfunction and regression in 2024. You could argue that if the Texans were merely average as an offense, they may have made the Super Bowl. Thus, Slowik was fired a few days after the season ended.
On Thursday, Caley, along with head coach DeMeco Ryans took questions from the assembled media (full video above). Here were my five biggest takeaways:
DeMeco Ryans told a big part of the story in the first ten seconds of the press conference
One of the biggest criticisms of Slowik was how stubborn he was in trying to run the Kubiak-Shanahan system, oftentimes at the expense of putting players in a position to succeed. Ryans, right out of the gates, made a point to say that Caley is “not beholden to one scheme,” which makes sense, given Caley’s background with Sean McVay in Los Angeles (Kubiak-Shanahan offshoot) and Bill Belichick in Caley’s six seasons in New England. Caley himself said that they will run “the Houston system.” In other words, it will be unique to the Texans, likely with flavors of Los Angeles and New England sprinkled in.
Caley’s hallmarks are exactly what the Texans need
The Houston Texans have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the football. There is no good reason that they should have been as poor offensively as they were last season. While Slowik ultimately took the brunt of the failure, the players are just as culpable through poor execution and fundamentals. So here comes Caley who said his foundation is based on “coaching fundamentals, playing clean football, and not beating [ourselves].” Fortunately, this doesn’t appear to be empty talk, as Caley has been widely praised for his players being fundamentally sound.
Why Houston?
Caley had been a prime candidate for offensive coordinator roles in New England a year ago, and with the Jets in this hiring cycle. Both times, Caley pulled his name out of the running. So what made Houston the job he said “YES” to? His answer — the people. Caley cited, first, ownership, but made it clear that, across all facets of the Texans’ building, he felt like this was an opportunity where he could succeed and be part of a winning program. Also, for what it’s worth, Caley seems to be very excited to work with C.J. Stroud, understandably so.
DeMeco Ryans has zero concern over Caley’s inexperience as a play caller
Bobby Slowik was a first time play caller, when he took the reins for the Texans. This was not a major issue in 2023, when he offense was, at the very least, slightly above average, and at times, very good. It became a bigger issue in 2024, when the league seemed to catch up to Slowik, and he had no answers. So, inexperience in a candidate was a concern to fans. Not a concern however, for Ryans, who said Caley’s lack of play calling experience was not a big deal. Ryans was looking for the right PERSON, and made the valid point that every good coach (himself included) had to be a first time play caller at some point.
The only thing we got on Stefon Diggs was Ryans’ only “SHUT DOWN” of the press conference
Ryans was asked about where things are with a possible contract extension for wide receiver Stefon Diggs, whose contract situation needs to be resolved by Monday, or the team takes a big $16 million cap hit. Ryans answer was short:
“We won’t get into specifics on free agents. That’s a process that’ll take its time, so I won’t get into specifics on different guys.”
Just reading DeMeco Ryans’ body language, I am less optimistic about Diggs returning to the Texans next season.
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