One of the questions of the offseason was who would call the defense. Would the Houston Texans go with coach DeMeco Ryans, who had spent the past two seasons calling his own defense for the San Francisco 49ers? Or would the Texans go with Matt Burke?
The scheme was Ryans. However, Burke had experience as he was the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator from 2017-18.
The Texans would arrive at whichever decision after much communication, and ultimately, Ryans decided to keep the menu as the man on the sidelines. Nevertheless there is still coordination with Burke and Ryans through the first week of training camp.
“I feel very — it’s been very collaborative with me and ‘Mec’ [Ryans] this whole time and I’ve never been a head coach, so, I can’t speak to some of that,” Burke told reporters after training camp Tuesday. “But I think early on in the process, he felt that he had to commit some of his attention to other parts of getting this program going and the team — those sorts of things. Then, as we were coming back into [training camp], he has a very specific vision for how he wants the defense to play, and I think he felt that he had some more time to dedicate to that part of it.”
Although Burke is not calling the plays and is on a headset, he still stands by Ryans just in case he needs a quick resource.
Additionally the 47-year-old understands that Ryans having control of the defense may be the best way to instill his system.
Said Burke: “I think he wants to make sure the foundation of this defense is what he wants it to be. I would say towards mini camp, at the end of OTAs, he started getting a little more hands on when he was freed up from some of his other duties. I think, again, it’s going to be a new challenge as we go into the season in terms of what other sorts of things come up to restrict him.”
Last year, coach Lovie Smith similarly called his own plays as he doubled up as defensive coordinator.
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