One of the tenants of DeMeco Ryans’ coaching style is to comprise his staff of assistants with a variety of backgrounds. The Houston Texans’ 2023 staff is a blend of young minds and grizzled experience.
The older assistants won’t need much direction from Ryans, and one would figure that the 2022 NFL Assistant Coach of the Year would have to be more hands on developing the younger coaches.
However, Ryans is giving his staff autonomy.
“With first-time coaches it’s a matter of just letting a guy grow, giving him space to grow,” Ryans said. “For me, with coaches, it’s helping them just as much as I want to help players be successful. It’s giving them pointers, tips of where I see they may need them. It’s also giving them the space to grow, giving them the space to make mistakes and figure it out.”
Although there is something to be said for enculturation, Ryans believes that going through a process firsthand is what scores in the mind of a developing coach just how to handle situations going forward.
“I feel like experience is the best teacher, so to become a better teacher, better coach, you have to get out there, you have to do it, you have to mess it up a few times, and then you start to figure it out,” Ryans said.
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