As a defensive-minded coach, DeMeco Ryans understands the importance of the play in the trenches.
Ryans earned the 2022 NFL assistant coach of the year honors thanks to his work as defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers. Defensive end Nick Bosa and the 49ers defensive line helped make Ryans look fabulous as a coordinator as San Francisco smothered opposing offenses with 3.4 yards per carry, tied for the lowest in NFL, and gave up 5.0 yards per play, tied for third most in the league.
Ryans also bore witness to the 49ers offense with 4.7 yards per carried, tied for the eighth-most in the NFL, and tied for fourth-most in the league with 5.9 yards per play.
If the Texans want to follow the San Francisco model, it will have to start upfront on both sides of the ball.
“The O-line, D-line, as I talked about earlier, that’s the important piece to building a football team,” Ryans told reporters March 27 at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix. “You have to build it from inside out, and to add interior defensive linemen, to add really good offensive linemen to our team, that’s going to be vital to us moving forward and being successful. That’s where it all starts.”
The Texans have done what they can through the first wave of free agency as they signed former 49ers defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway and former New York Jets defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins. Houston even traded for Tampa Bay Buccaneers guard Shaq Mason to beef up the offensive line, which already boasts three-time Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil along with 2019 first-round tackle Tytus Howard and 2022 first-round guard Kenyon Green.
“If we can’t play well up front, we’re not going to be a good football team,” said Ryans. “We want to continue to add up front as much as we can on the defensive end, offensive side, add as much depth as we can, because you lose those guys at times, so you have to have enough depth, you have to be able to rotate guys on the defensive side, and you have to have solid guys in the offensive line that you can count on and that can run the ball behind those guys and they can also protect.”
Last season, the Texans were the fourth-worst in the NFL defending the run at 5.1 yards per carry. Houston also was the second-worst in the NFL running the football at 3.7 yards per carry.
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