The Houston Texans pulled off one of the best hires of the 2023 NFL head coach cycle when they hired former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans. Ryans took over for Robert Saleh in 2021 as 49ers defensive coordinator and he has continued to prove exactly why he’s been such a hyped name in the NFL coaching community for the last handful of years.
Since his days as a player (starting with the Houston Texans in 2006), Ryans has quickly and steadily risen through the coaching ranks. His 49ers defense was one of the most dominant in the NFL the last two seasons, ranking 1st in points allowed at under 17 per game and forcing 30 turnovers, second-most in the NFL in 2022.
He’s bringing his football genius to the city of Houston once again where he’ll join forces with general manager Nick Caserio, formerly of the New England Patriots bloodline. Together, these two will look to the future of this Texans organization and how they can reshape not only the roster but the culture. Although Caserio has brought in seemingly hundreds of free agents the past couple of years, we should see some players coming in during the 2023 offseason with a connection to DeMeco Ryans one way or the other.
Let’s take a look at some players that could follow the new head coach to Houston.
4 players that could follow DeMeco Ryans to the Houston Texans
1. Jimmie Ward, DB, San Francisco 49ers (2023 free agent)
Anytime you see coaches transition to new teams, you almost always see them bring a player or two (at least) along with them to help along the scheme change and act as, essentially, coaches on the field. I think that’s exactly what Jimmie Ward could be for DeMeco Ryans with the Houston Texans.
Ward has been a 49er since he was drafted in the first round all the way back in 2014. After picking off just two passes in his first 78 games as a 49er, he has five interceptions the last two seasons and is coming off of a season in which he picked off a career-best three in 2022.
Ward will be 32 this season, so he’s not likely to break the bank, but he could come in on a nice multi-year deal and help as a veteran with some of the top young pieces in that Houston secondary like cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and safety Jalen Pitre.
2. Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, San Francisco 49ers (2023 free agent)
I don’t know that the Houston Texans will be at the top of Jimmy Garoppolo‘s 2023 NFL Free Agency wish list, but there are some reasons to think that maybe they could be. There will be an obvious connection to DeMeco Ryans — clearly, that is the focus of this article — but beyond that, we could see a number of other 49ers assistants coming to Houston along with Ryans on the offensive side of the ball.
One of the rumored candidates to be joining Ryans in Houston is 49ers passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik, and if that ends up being the case, you probably couldn’t pick a better “bridge” quarterback for the Houston Texans than Jimmy Garoppolo.
The Texans have invested heavily on the offensive line. They have a stud running back in Dameon Pierce. They have some decent young weapons on the outside and they’ll get better in that area quickly. Garoppolo has a pretty nice gig out there in San Francisco but what are they going to do at QB in 2023? Will they keep him? Try Trey Lance again?
With no state income tax in Texas, there’s another advantage here for Houston. Garoppolo would be able to come in on a nice salary (with no state income tax), work with people he already knows well from San Francisco, and perhaps help dig the Texans out of a hole just like Matt Schaub once did with Gary Kubiak in the head coaches chair.
Garoppolo also has another significant connection in Houston that can’t be forgotten. That connection is with GM Nick Caserio. Caserio was the New England Patriots director of player personnel from 2008-2020, so he was obviously around for Garoppolo being drafted (and traded).
The connections are not in short order for Garoppolo with the Texans, and DeMeco Ryans can give the organization a pretty quick proof of concept of his vision for the team with a game manager like Garoppolo under center for a year or two.
3. Azeez Al-Shaair, LB, San Francisco 49ers (2023 free agent)
The good news for DeMeco Ryans this year in free agency is that he should have no shortage of players with connections to choose from. Thanks to the success of his defense in San Francisco the last handful of years, it’s going to be brutally tough for John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan to hang onto all of their stud linebackers after already re-signing Fred Warner with Dre Greenlaw on deck.
Azeez Al-Shaair is not a household name just yet but if you watched a lot of 49ers football over the last couple of years, you wouldn’t have been able to help but see “51” pop up on your screen more often than not.
The 25-year-old out of Florida Atlantic is coming off of a season in which he racked up a pretty modest 44 tackles, but it was what he did in place of an injured Dre Greenlaw in 2021 that really has paved the way for his potential to impact DeMeco Ryans’ defense in Houston.
In 2021, Al-Shaair had 102 total tackles and nine tackles for loss as a full-time starter for the 49ers’ defense. He started off his NFL career playing mostly special teams and he’s developed into a starting-caliber linebacker who should get the chance to shine in DeMeco Ryans’ defense, but in Houston with the Texans.
4. Arden Key, EDGE, Jacksonville Jaguars (2023 free agent)
The connections to DeMeco Ryans are not just limited to 2023 49ers free agents. One of the players that left in the exodus of players out of San Francisco in 2022 was former LSU star pass rusher Arden Key.
For whatever reason, NFL teams did not love what they saw from Key in Ryans’ 49ers defense during the 2021 season, and he waited around in free agency before settling for a one-year deal from the Jaguars worth just $4 million.
That proved to be a free agency steal for a team that always has eyes bigger than its stomach when it comes to free agency, as Key wound up becoming a “key” piece of the Jaguars’ defensive resurgence late in the season.
He had nine QB hits and 2.5 sacks as the Jaguars closed out the 2022 season with five straight victories. In his lone year with the 49ers, Key finished with a career-best 6.5 sacks and 17 QB hits. Of course, you can never have too many pass rushers in the NFL, and signing Arden Key away from the Jaguars would kill two birds with one stone.
Not only would you be addressing a need on your own roster, but you’d be creating an area of need for a division rival. Key was more effective on a per-snap basis with DeMeco Ryans in San Francisco than he was at any of his other NFL stops. It wouldn’t be shocking, in the slightest, to see him added to a defense that saw 34-year-old Jerry Hughes lead the team with 9.0 sacks.