The Houston Texans made a notable change to their coaching staff after losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round.
The Texans parted ways with offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik late last month and hired Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator Nick Caley as the new OC. Caley will have the tough challenge of the Texans’ offense and QB C.J. Stroud to the next level.
This season, Stroud completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 3,727 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions, a small step back from his rookie season. In 2023 as a rookie, the young QB completed 63.9 percent of his passes for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns, and five interceptions.
The new offensive coordinator met with the media and expressed his excitement about working with Stroud.
“Really looking forward to working with C.J, Caley said (h/t Aaron Wilson of KPRC-2). Tremendous talent, competitor, you talk about an ultimate competitor. Tough, instinctive and can make plays so I’m very excited. As a first-time coordinator, to answer the second part of your question, really excited to get the opportunity to evolve this scheme and it’s not going to be my spin. It’s going to be what’s best for our players. It’s always going to be what’s best for our players. We’re not pounding a square peg into a round hole. It’s going to be based on the strengths of our quarterback and the guys on this team. That is what it will always be designed around.”
If you are a Texans fan, you are excited to hear that Caley will put Stroud and this offense in the best position possible to succeed. The former first-round pick can air it out to his playmakers but needs time in the pocket.
Stroud didn’t have that time as he was sacked 52 times, a significant increase from his rookie season (38). If the Texans can rework the offensive line and figure out what they do at the WR1 spot this offseason, Stroud should have a bounce-back year under the first-year coordinator.
There will be some growing pains with a first-time coordinator, but if Caley can bring over some of the things he learned from Sean McVay, the Texans offense could be fun to watch.
