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Houston linebacker DeMeco Ryans brings down the 49ers’ Michael Crabtree in 2009.\u00a0A.P. Photo<\/p>\nSANTA CLARA \u2014 DeMeco Ryans is in his third season as coach of the Houston Texans, something he never knew he wanted until Kyle Shanahan sat him down one day at 49ers\u2019 headquarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me, `Dude, you can be a head coach in this league,\u201d Ryans told reporters this week in Houston. \u201cI was kind of shocked, because no one had ever said that to me before . . . Kyle was the guy who believed in me. It just shows you speak life into people. Your words mean a lot. That\u2019s what I\u2019m always doing, just trying to speak life into people, speak life into others. Be positive about attacking each day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Texans are 2-4, mostly because they\u2019re struggling on offense, because their defense is giving up a league-low 14.7 points per game.<\/p>\n
But Ryans has breathed life into the franchise along with general manager Nick Caserio, applying much of what he learned working for the 49ers from 2018 through 2022. Houston has won the AFC South each of the last two years with 10-7 records and won games in the wild card round both years before losing in the divisional round.<\/p>\n
Ryans climbed the ladder quickly, going from a quality control coach in 2017 and then moving on to inside linebackers from 2018-20 and finally defensive coordinator when Robert Saleh was hired by the New York Jets as head coach. He got a first-hand look at how Shanahan built the 49ers as well as the defense installed by Saleh.<\/p>\n
Shanahan\u2019s ties with Ryans go back to 2006 when he was the wide receivers coach in Houston under first-year head coach Gary Kubiak. Ryans was a plug-in-and-play starter at inside linebacker, a second-round draft pick out of Alabama. Also on staff was Saleh as a defensive assistant and Johnny Holland coaching linebackers.<\/p>\n
So Shanahan, Saleh and Holland all had a pretty good idea what they were getting when they came to the 49ers in 2017 and Ryans came aboard as a quality control assistant, his first job in coaching. He played for Houston through 2011 before being traded to Philadelphia, where he played through 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ended up being our captain and rookie of the year,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cThe way he\u2019s carried himself his whole career, he\u2019s smart, knows football, works so hard and is so consistent as a human. Always knew how good of a coach he\u2019d be if he wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klay Kubiak, the 49ers offensive coordinator, was 18 years old when his father Gary was hired in Houston and was aware of Ryans\u2019 influence.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight away he was a leader of a young team, a young defense,\u201d Kubiak said. \u201cI know my dad was so thankful to have him because he was a guy who just stepped in and was a tough, smart, charismatic player who really led that franchise for as long as he was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston linebacker DeMeco Ryans brings down the 49ers’ Michael Crabtree in 2009.\u00a0A.P. Photo<\/p>\n
It was so clear to Shanahan that Ryans was going places he counseled him to be choosy when opportunity knocked. Ryans listened. He interviewed for the head coaching job in Minnesota in 2021 but pulled out of a second interview to spend another season on Shanahan\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, dude, don\u2019t go jump at a job,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be a head coach. Make sure you get the right one because you don\u2019t have to just take one to take one. That was probably my biggest advice to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once Ryans left, Shanahan went through two defensive coordinators \u2014 Steve Wilks and Nick Sorensen \u2014 before Saleh re-entered the picture after being fired by the Jets.<\/p>\n
Ryans\u2019 imprint with the 49ers included tutoring Fred Warner as an inside linebacker in 2018 when he arrived as a hybrid safety, and turning Nick Bosa loose as the No. 1 overall pick in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be where I am if it weren\u2019t for him,\u201d Warner said when Ryans left for Houston.<\/p>\n
Saleh\u2019s influence on Ryans was considerable as well. He was impacted by Saleh in the same way Warner was impacted by Ryans. Saleh taught Ryans how to communicate and teach players in different ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think as a young guy you know a lot, but he taught me all of what it takes to be a good coach,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cI\u2019m so blessed and thankful to have learned under him because he\u2019s such a meticulous, detailed person. Not just in coaching, but in life. It\u2019s the reason I\u2019m here right now because he spent the time to teach me those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even without Bosa and Warner, Ryans said he can see the Saleh imprint on the 49ers defensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s brought some consistency even though he has a really young group,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cHe has those guys playing the right way. They\u2019re going to play hard, they\u2019re going to finish, they\u2019ll be attacking the ball. They\u2019re all about the right stuff. You a young group that\u2019s consistently gotten better from the first game of the season until now. You see his stamp on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Wilks and Sorensen were more static in what they wanted and how they wanted it, Saleh, according to Shanahan, has the ability to adjust on the fly.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knows what they want to do, but it\u2019s what\u2019s the best thing to do?,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cThat answer changes week-in and week-out and sometimes every quarter based off what you\u2019re going against and based off who\u2019s available. Saleh\u2019s done a hell of a job with that so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trait that was passed on to Ryans from Saleh.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s willing to ask the right questions and he is incredibly smart,\u201d Saleh said. \u201cHe can evolve, he can adapt. He\u2019s a great communicator and people gravitate to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryans has taken notice of the 49ers\u2019 ever-changing offensive system under Shanahan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Niners consistently evolve,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cThat\u2019s why Kyle is such a good play-caller. He can do plays that other people can but nobody is going to put the spin on it that Kyle does. He stresses defenses. He stresses your communication and you really have to be on it. If you\u2019re not sound in what you\u2019re doing, you can exposed very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 24, 2025 at 5:45 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2014 DeMeco Ryans is in his third season as coach of the Houston Texans, something he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10254,77,15648,56,58,57,79,15646,15647,15644,15645],"class_list":["post-20588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-49ers","tag-demeco-ryans","tag-gary-kubiak","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-texans","tag-johnny-holland","tag-klay-kubiak","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-robert-saleh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}