The Houston Texans have had very few good days over the last few years. It’s been rough. For the first time in years, though, Texan fans could go to sleep feeling great about the future, when their heads hit their pillows on Tuesday night. DeMeco Ryans is the head coach of the Houston Texans, and all is well. I felt so good about the hire, I tweeted this on the heels of the reports announcing Ryans’ coming home:
After a couple days to reflect, I still feel this is true — Tuesday was the greatest day in the history of the franchise. I feel that strongly that Ryans changes the trajectory of the franchise on the field and off the field. For some context, where does it stack up compared to other relatively comparable days? Let’s take a look:
Hiring Gary Kubiak, 2006
After four opening seasons for an expansion franchise, a stretch that peaked with seven wins in 2004, the Texans needed not only a jolt of energy, but perhaps some sort of connection with the Houston area. Kubiak had long been labeled as a future head coach through his successful seasons in Denver coordinating Mike Shanahan’s offense. The McNairs bringing Kubiak back to his hometown was deemed a major victory, and it would eventually result in the best run the franchise had from 2011 through 2012.
Signing Johnathan Joseph and Danieal Manning, 2011
A big reason the Texans had that two season spike in 2011 and 2012 was the rebuilt defense coming into the 2011 season. There were many reasons the defense became so good, after a 2010 season where they were historically bad. The hiring of Wade Phillips was a big one, but the day that the Texans shelled out big bucks in free agency to revamp the secondary in sone fell swoop, signing Joseph and Manning, was huge.
Drafting Deshaun Watson, 2017
This is probably the closest acquisition, in terms of sheer euphoria, to what Texan fans are experiencing this week with DeMeco Ryans back in the fold. Texan fans were three years into the Bill O’Brien Era, and the team had literally used nearly ten different starting quarterbacks in three seasons, some due to injury, but many due to underperformance. Trading up for Deshaun Watson represented an injection of superstardom and an aggressive stance that mediocre QB play would not stand anymore.
Trading Deshaun Watson, 2022
And then four years later, Watson demanded a trade, and then he was sued by 24 women for sexual assault, and then he got shipped to Cleveland for three first round picks. And that sadly, too, was a great day for Texan fans. Good riddance.
Firing Jack Easterby, 2022
If we go back and do the autopsy on the dysfunction of the last three years, most of it can be traced back to April of 2019, when Easterby was hired, straight from being the team chaplain in New England, into some nebulous executive role with the Texans. It ended up with Easterby running roughshod over the entire building, gassing Bill O’Brien up into thinking he could be a general manager, and with the franchise a smoldering sea of football ashes by the time 2022 rolled around. Thankfully, ownership woke up and realized Easterby was a cancer that needed to be cut out in October of 2022. Again, like Watson, good riddance.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
