The Texans’ 0-4 start has put plenty of people under the microscope, but ESPN’s Dan Graziano is not ready to drag DeMeco Ryans onto the hot seat.
Houston has stumbled through the first month of the 2026 season, and the results are ugly enough to raise real questions. C.J.
Stroud has looked better than he did a year ago, yet the defense has clearly slipped, and that combination has left the Texans staring at a problem that feels bigger by the week. Still, Graziano’s view is that Ryans deserves more runway.
“Ryans is in his fourth season as Texans head coach and reached the divisional round of the playoffs in each of the first three,” Graziano writes. “He is a beloved franchise icon, adored by fans and team ownership.”
That kind of support matters. Ryans has built up enough goodwill with both the fan base and ownership that it would take a truly disastrous 2026 season for the conversation to shift toward replacing him.
The Texans are still 0-4, and nobody is pretending that is fine. Only one team has ever made the playoffs after starting that way, so the hole is already deep. But Graziano’s point is that one rough year should not erase what Ryans has already done in Houston.
If the Texans somehow did move on from him, there would almost certainly be a market waiting. Graziano noted that Ryans would likely draw interest either as a defensive coordinator or for another head coaching job.
So while Houston has plenty to clean up, and while the season clearly needs to turn around soon, Ryans should not be the first name in any shakeup. Based on what’s happened through four weeks, he has earned the chance to ride out a down year.
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