Here is everything Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said ahead of their Week 7 game against the New York Giants, including his reaction to wide receiver Tank Dell’s return this Sunday, quarterback C.J. Stroud being named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week and facing Giants quarterback J.J. McCarthy in his first start of the season.
Question: On WR Tank Dell
DeMeco Ryans: “Tank's been himself. He's always having fun, always enjoy playing football. We're all excited about his process and his road to recovery. Excited for Sunday to see him run out of the tunnel.”
Q: On QB C.J. Stroud being named AFC Offensive Player of the Week
Ryans: “It's rewarding in the sense of everyone seeing it across the NFL, of what he's been doing, not just us, me talking about it all the time, of how well he's been having an offseason, Training Camp and all the way now to the start of the season. It's been that way. He's been doing a great job since he's been back and he's done a great job leading us in the games as well. I'm happy that he's able to get that national recognition that he truly deserves.”
Q: On QB C.J. Stroud and Offensive Coordinator Nick Caley’s communication
Ryans: “Nick and C.J.'s process hasn't changed. They've been in communication. Any offensive coordinator, when you're calling plays, you have to call plays that the quarterback likes. They've always had that consistent communication when it comes to that.”
Q: On RB Jawhar Jordan getting injured
Ryans: “He finished the game and he had a quad injury that showed up when we went through our injury check. It shows the toughness that he had to be able to finish the game, but he'll be missing a few weeks and we'll continue to lean on Woody [Marks] and see what he's able to do running the football.”
Q: On the wide receiver room
Ryans: “The benefit of our wide receiver room is we're going to put stress on defenses. ‘Who do you want to put special attention to?’ Well, whoever gets that special attention, we have other guys who are capable of making plays. It's credit to the guys that we have in that room and what they've done throughout their career, what they've done this year. All those guys have made plays for us in the wide receiver room. I see it as a strength, a true strength of ours and I see us really being able to press the tempo and really put defenses in a bind.”
Q: On what the defense needs to improve on
Ryans: “For defense, we have to tackle better to start. Our tackling was not good enough. That has to be picked up. We've got to eliminate the leaky yardage. When we are breaking on the football, we are running, swarming the ball. We have to get guys on the ground much quicker. We allow too many leaky yardages there, especially in the running game. Some of the short passes that are caught over the middle of the field, we have to secure those tackles. Right now, there's just way too many missed tackles. Guys are leaving their feet. Just poor technique. We've have to play with better play style of putting our body on people, wrapping up, securing the fundamentals of tackling since middle school football. You have to put your body on people and wrap up. We have to do a better job of that.”
Q: On New York Giants QB J.J. McCarthy
Ryans: “For us, it really doesn't matter who plays quarterback. Defensively, it's been about our process and how do we do things that we do the right way and do them well. Whoever's that quarterback doesn't really dictate what we're going to do defensively. It's about us. We have to play better defensively because it wasn't good enough in our last outing.”
Q: On whether DT Logan Hall has been used on the edge to help the tackling issue
Ryans: “Those two aren't connected at all.”
Q: On his evaluation of Week 6 vs. Jacksonville despite the field conditions
Ryans: “We got the win. That's how I evaluate it. We come away with a win no matter what, no matter the conditions. It's a lot of things that are out of our control. For me, ‘How do you come away with a win?’ That's what happened for us.”
Q: On whether he saw wet field conditions in Week 6 vs. Jacksonville
Ryans: “I saw it in our walkthrough on Saturday afternoon when we did our walkthrough. We saw the field conditions and how it was. We knew that we would be expecting rain, so you just have to make sure you put on the proper footing. It is what it is at that point. We can't control the field. We can't control the weather conditions. We have to make sure we have the proper equipment and be ready to go play.”
Q: On the challenge of working on tackling during the season
Ryans: “We tackle better by not going to the ground in practice. It's just about putting yourself in better position to tackle when you're in practice, whether you're in shorts or whether you're in pads. You can still square up, put your pads on people, wrap them up and let them go and we can practice in a healthy environment. We've done that for the past four years. We've just got to continue to execute that in practice.”
Q: On what he has liked about the defense this season
Ryans: “The guys have done an outstanding job of stopping the run. I think our guys up front, they don't get enough credit. Our defensive line, they've done a great job of stopping the run and they continue to do a great job. Where we have to get better is in the passing game. We have to be able to make more plays on the football. We've had opportunities, multiple opportunities throughout the game and we have to be able to make more plays on the football.”
Q: On S Jalen Pitre and S Reed Blankenship
Ryans: “Jalen is still week-to-week with his shoulder injury. He's getting better. He's feeling better. We'll see how the week continues to progress. Reed is still in the concussion protocol.”
Q: On whether he expects WR Marvin Harrison Jr. to receive more snaps this week
Ryans: “However many he can handle. Yes, I expect Marvin, his workload to continue to increase. I think he got a little bit under 15 reps in the game on Sunday and he handled all those really well, did a really great job. He'll continue to get more. One thing I see, Marvin is a very smart guy. He's picked up things very seamlessly and he's moving around a lot of different places on our offense. Our coaches can put him in a lot of different spots and he's handled himself really well. He'll get more workload.”
Q: On the roster breakdown for the wide receiver room
Ryans: “I look at it as one week at a time. For right now, we're going to carry our receivers and for us, ‘How do we move the ball down the field? How do we score points?’ We have a lot of guys who can be very dynamic with the ball in their hands. Adding Tank and with the numbers of the receivers, I understand, but it's a good problem to have. I know a lot of people probably want a lot of the guys we have on our team right now, so I'm thankful for the guys that we have. I'm thankful for the ability that these guys have and I'm really more encouraged by how great of a group these guys are, how tight they are, how they're working together. When you get so many different guys in a wide receiver room and guys can easily like, ‘Oh, I want the ball.’ These guys are truly sitting on the side, talking to each other, helping each other out with the offensive scheme and route. That's what I love about the wide receiver room. There’s no beef in the wide receiver room. Guys are still friendly, great teammates, encouraging one another and that's what I love most about the room.”
Q: On CB Kamari Lassiter
Ryans: “Toughness. That's the one thing that stands out with Kamari. He's still one of the toughest guys I've ever coached. For a corner of his nature to be able to cover down the field, but also he can line inside the formation and go tackle, fit in the run and be one of our most physical players on the defense. That's what I love about Kamari. I love his attitude. I love how competitive he is. I love how much he cares. The guy's been a true warrior ever since he stepped foot in our buildings. I love everything about Kamari and being able to move him around. You have to be a really sharp guy. Kamari's a sharp guy. We can do a lot of different things with him. Credit to him for how he studies and how he's always prepared himself for both spots.”
Q: On WR Kayshon Boutte
Ryans: “Kayshon has showed up tremendously and made some really important plays for us. I tell the guys, ‘Can we get him the ball where he doesn't have to make an incredible toe tap on the sideline? Can we get him one down the middle of the field where he can keep running?’ But he shows up and makes the most unbelievable catches and he makes them look routine. He's a quiet guy by nature, doesn't say much. I was like, ‘You know that was a really big play, right?’ But he's done a really, really good job. C.J., you can tell he's gaining that trust of being able to throw it to Kayshon in the tight windows and he's coming away and everybody's benefiting from his play.”
Q: On WR Tank Dell’s snap count
Ryans: “It's a feel. As we get into the game, it's a feel. As I mentioned earlier this week, there's no expectation like Tank has to hit a certain play number. For me, it's getting Tank back out there after missing two years of football. That's the main thing, like him just going out playing ball. I don't care how many reps he gets. But I'll have my Tank Dell jersey on Sunday.”
Q: On New York Giants QB J.J. McCarthy
Ryans: “My first impression of J.J. is watching the New Orleans game, just seeing the change of pace, seeing how he really sparked that offense. You just saw a different speed. You saw him making some big plays. He was throwing the ball downfield, really just cutting it loose. You see the athleticism with J.J. When he's in there, they'll design some zone read type plays for him to get out on the edge and run the football. He gave that offense a spark, gave that team a spark and I think they saw some belief from their entire team when he's able to kind of lead them back and have a chance to win that game there at the end. I see why they named him the starting quarterback. He’s still a young player. He's still learning, still growing. For us, I always go back to us defensively. It's not so much about him. It's about us just playing our defense the right way.”
Q: On whether the defensive communication is improving since the start of the season
Ryans: “Yeah, we're doing a fine job with the communication.”
Q: On fitting defensive game plans to the defensive personnel
Ryans: “It all starts with, ‘What do our guys do well?’ The guys who will be out there, I try to put them in the most favorable position for them. I don't do it based on who we're playing and what scheme they're running. I do it based on our guys and what do I feel like their strengths are. I just want them to go out, play fast and be as successful as possible and not having to think a lot when they're out there. That's when guys play their best on defense. That's my mindset going into it is always, ‘Hey, what calls do you like?’ I don't have to run the calls, so it's about the players. ‘What calls do you like? What do you feel like you can execute the best?’”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Everything Texans HC DeMeco Ryans said ahead of Week 7 vs Giants