The job security of Houston Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley was a frequent source of contention for many throughout the regular season. Even into the offseason, Caley's name continued making the rounds as being 'replaceable', with offensive minds like Mike McDaniel, Kliff Kingsbury and Brian Daboll all being available for hire. Instead, the Texans' brass stayed the course with Caley, and publicly supported him whenever the topic came up in discussion.
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans continued to display confidence with his decision to stick with Caley as recently as this week, when he spoke on him with KPRC 2's Texans Insider Aaron Wilson. He specifically mention several schematic improvements that he noticed compared to season's past, which were instrumental in the team's strong close to the season.
Texans HC DeMeco Ryans praises offensive improvements under Nick Caley
Commenting from the NFL's Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Ryans opined,
“His flexibility and being able to go in any manner we needed to go to help us win games he was able to do that. I think we did a better job from a protection standpoint than the previous years just when it came to not getting the quarterback hit as much, I thought we did a better job there. Still looking to enhance and improve that, but I thought Nick did a really good job of setting their protections”
There were two main takeaways from what Ryans said in this statement: First, his commendation of Caley for being 'flexible' in his gameplanning on a weekly basis. Second, his observation that the protection scheme had improved so much to where the defensive pressure on their quarterbacks dropped significantly compared to last year.
Caley seen as 'flexible' by Ryans with offensive game planning
One of the biggest knocks on former offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik was a perceived 'rigidness' that didn't allow for much flexibility and adaptation when needed. This was evidenced in 2024 by a roughly month-long stretch mid-season where the offense was unable to score in the second halves of games. It ultimately cost him his job after the playoffs, as Caley was then brought on to be the complete antithesis to Slowik in that regard.
Caley demonstrated his adaptability in several key ways in 2025, including:
- Elevating rookie running back Wood Marks to RB1 in place of Nick Chubb (no Joe Mixon)
- Squeezing a 3-0 record out of backup quarterback Davis Mills when C.J. Stroud went down with a concussion
- Finding ways to utilize rookie wide receivers Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel as deep-threats late into the season
- Scheming tight end Dalton Schultz into being a top-10 option at the position due to offensive needs
- Adapting to tackle Trent Brown being inserted onto the offensive line, with Tytus Howard shifting to left guard
His offensive tweaks helped land the Texans' offense at 13th-best in scoring (23.8 PPG) and 18th-overall in yards (327.0 YPG). Juxtapose that to Slowik's final year, where they finished 19th in scoring (21.9 PPG) and 22nd in yards (319.7 YPG)
Offensive line production better under Caley
In truth, the performance on the offensive line should be attributed to both the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach as a whole. In this case, offensive line coach Cole Popovich and Caley both should be seen as being responsible for how much better the protection schemes were in comparison to last year's debacle under Slowik and former offensive line coach Chris Strausser.
Last season, Slowik and Strausser's offense led to 54 total sacks (T-third most in the NFL), 426 yards lost on sacks (second-most in the NFL), a 58% pass block win rate (22nd in the NFL) and 68% run block win rate (31st in the NFL).
It was a disaster by many accounts, leading to much behind-the-scenes frustration and the eventual aforementioned departure of Slowik (and Strausser). Even in spite of another 10-7 record, a second consecutive AFC South title and another trip to the AFC Divisional round, change was much needed.
With Caley hired and Popovich then elevated to head man over the offensive line, Houston saw improvement (though it's still a work in progress). This past season, the line reduced its sack rate to 31 (best since 2016, T-ninth best in the NFL), allowed 249 yards lost on sacks (17th in the NFL), produced a pass block win rate of 56% (30th in the NFL) and a run block win rate of 68% (worst in the NFL).
Keep in mind, this was with a rookie left tackle (Aireontae Ersery), a rotation at left guard (Laken Tomlinson and Juice Scruggs), and two free additions in center Jake Andrews and guard Ed Ingram. For all intents and purposes, Caley and Popovich didn't have much stability to work with going into 2025.
They didn't let that be an excuse though. And even with some things still being far from where they needed to be, the new brain-trust helped engineer enough of a positive change to where their influence could be felt during their nine-game win streak to close the season, which was tied for their longest in team history.
Ryans made it clear that there was still much room for improvement with his second-year play-caller. However, Caley still showed enough good in year one to where his head coach thinks the team is better off with him than without him. With several key offensive upgrades and another draft being less than a month away, Caley is in prime position to help prove his head coach right.