Jan. 19, 2026, 6:46 p.m. CT
Here’s everything Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said at his end of the year press conference, including an update on wide receiver Tank Dell, the status of the coaching staff, C.J. Stroud’s offseason workouts and more.
Question: On what he hopes to accomplish this offseason
DeMeco Ryans: “As I stand here right now, my thoughts are I’m just proud of the team that we’ve had this year, proud of the things we were able to accomplish from a really rough start to a season and to battle back and to finish the season strong, make the playoffs. It didn’t end the way we wanted to end. We just got to keep plugging away, finding a way to win that Divisional Round. That’s one of the goals that we have to get to the ultimate goal. You’ve got to win there. We’ve got to find a way to get it done.”
Q: On what the defense was able to do this season
Ryans: “The defense did an outstanding job all year. It’s very encouraging, I think to everyone, when you watch the way those guys play, their play style, their demeanor. It’s impressive to see. It’s inspirational to see how they play. You’re always in it with those guys. They always give you a chance because it’s a special group and they find a way to make plays, find a way to get after the football. It’s a special group. Special group to coach. Really prideful group. I love and enjoy working with them.”
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Q: On his assessment of QB C.J. Stroud’s play this season
Ryans: “The quarterback position is going to get the most eyes, most attention. We understand that. In this league, that’s what it is. C.J. understands that as well. Throughout the season, I thought he did a really nice job of coming in and learning a new offense, new scheme. I thought he picked it up well. We got better as the season went along and he made some plays to allow us to win a lot of football games as well. I’m not going to let the bad plays there in that game [against the New England Patriots] dictate to me who C.J. is. I know who C.J. is. I know what he’s capable of doing. We just keep looking to get better. No one feels worse about the situation than C.J. He feels bad for the team. He feels like he let the team down, and I just told him, ‘Keep your head up and you keep moving forward.’ We all want it better. We can’t go back in that game right now and run it back and play it again. We just learn from it. What do you learn from it? That’s my main message to him is, what do you learn from that and how do you make that a priority and getting it fixed and improving and getting better?”
Q: On areas he wants to see QB C.J. Stroud improve on
Ryans: “I talked with C.J. today and my message is the same. Right now, it’s just about him flushing this one. It’s going to be a lot of negative talk, a lot of attention on him. He can’t listen to it all. He’s just got to get back to work in the offseason of going back to the basics, the fundamentals of playing the quarterback position, playing it really well, understanding how we need to play the game to win the game. He understands that already.”
Q: On how he would assess the production of the offense this year
Ryans: “I think our offense grew. It didn’t start how we wanted it to start. I think the guys got better as the season went along.”
Q: On his message to the young players on the team
Ryans: “For the young guys, especially our rookies, I thought all of our rookies contributed a lot to our season. They stepped in, stepped up and did some really nice things for us. I tell those guys to, ‘Hey, you don’t have long to rest. You have to get back to really training your bodies throughout the offseason. That’s where I’ve always seen the growth from Year 1 to Year 2 of guys that attack the offseason the right way, especially the winter offseason program. Guys that attack that the right way, they really set themselves up to have a really great second year. I’m encouraging our guys to do that, be all in on getting that personal training, very position-specific training that they need to improve their game.”
Q: On his message to the defense
Ryans: “At the end of the day, I thought the defense did a great job throughout the year. But as we look at that game, there are some plays that we shouldn’t give up in that game. You want to go back and watch the game, I know they feel this too, there’s some plays in that game that we should have made. Their guys made the plays and we didn’t make the plays. That’s what the game ultimately came down to. Their best players stepped up in that moment. They made plays. I’ll tell our guys, ‘You talk about being the best, the best doesn’t win you anything talking about it. You got to show up, and you got to do it. You got to make the plays in the moment.’ That’s what being the best looks like. We didn’t make those plays we needed to make in the moment.”
Q: On if there was a common thread with QB C.J. Stroud’s turnovers this postseason
Ryans: “I think each one was a little different. Sometimes you just got to learn that the play is not there. C.J. knows that. He’s trying to make a play; the play is not there. Sometimes you just got to dirt it. Sometimes you got to take a sack, even though you don’t want to do that as a quarterback. That’s where the growth level comes.”
Q: On the possibility of extending contracts
Ryans: “We’re not getting into that right now.”
Q: On the difficulty of replacing WR Nico Collins or TE Dalton Schultz when they aren’t available
Ryans: “You don’t. You don’t replace a Nico Collins. You don’t replace a Dalton Schultz. When you lose your top guys, as any team in this league, it’s going to be difficult. I think you got to see the ‘Niners’ went through something similar too. It catches up with you. The best teams are going to advance, and the best teams are going to win the Super Bowl. You need your top guys out there. You need your top playmakers out there. We definitely missed Nico not being out there. Dalton, he made the huge explosive when C.J. was able to scramble on the third down and find Dalton on the sideline. He made a huge play for us, caught another one there, almost got in the end zone. We definitely missed Dalton and we missed Nico. They’ve been two of our most productive players all year. In that moment, you look for other guys to step up and make plays for sure. But we did, we missed those guys.”
Q: On Offensive Coordinator Nick Caley’s status for 2026
Ryans: “With the coaching staff, with our players and asking about contracts; Coaches, players, I’m evaluating everything as we go throughout the week.”
Q: On not having RB Joe Mixon this season
Ryans: “When you have your best players, you’re going to be a better team. Joe, he’s a really great running back for us and not having him, yes, of course, it affected our running game. Joe is one of the top running backs in this league. That affected us.”
Q: On how long he waits before evaluating this season
Ryans: “I’ll take the week to reevaluate and evaluate everything.”
Q: If he expects a future with RB Joe Mixon here
Ryans: “As of right now, I don’t know that answer right now.”
Q: On the offensive line’s performance this season
Ryans: “I thought the offensive line did a really nice job and they… I didn’t think they get enough credit for the job that they did. For the offensive line, we were able to put together, everybody, a lot of people probably gave us slack for the moves that we made with our offensive line. They played much better this year than we did last year. They got better. Coach Cole [Popovich] did a really nice job with the offensive line. The technique was better. They improved a ton, and they should get a lot of credit for that.”
Q: On if he has any clarity on RB Joe Mixon
Ryans: “No clarity.”
Q: On what he personally is going to look at from this season
Ryans: “For myself, I just go back and I’m looking at making sure I’m in a great position, great headspace to continue to lead this team in the right way. The messaging, everything to make sure I’m effective with what I’m doing. We’re reaching the guys. That’s the main thing for myself. I think any leader, you want to make sure you’re leading in the right way. How are people responding? How are you getting the message across? Is it showing up and are you getting it done?”
Q: On how much a player’s potential improvement weighs in on his evaluation of certain positions
Ryans: “There are a lot of different things. When you’re looking at the people that you work with and how can they improve? You just go off the track record and see, has there been growth throughout the past? You see if you want to continue down that track or not. Sometimes, unfortunately in this league, change happens, especially at this point of the year. We see it all around, change happens. Everybody knows that every time I stood up here, I always say it’s a year-to-year league for me. It’s not just because we’ve done it one way this past year that everybody’s going to be the same next year going into it. That’s never the league. I never stand here and act like that is the league. We’re always looking to improve. We’re always looking to grow and get better, whether that’s with our personnel, with our coaching, with everything involved, our process and what we’re doing. That’s how we take time to evaluate that, to see how we can take a next step forward.”
Q: On WR Tank Dell’s recovery
Ryans: “Tank has done a really good job with his recovery throughout the entire offseason. It’s very tough when Tank had such a significant injury. He was battling, trying to get back. He was working really hard to try to get back at the end of this past season and it just didn’t work out that way. He’s shown up every day with a smile, with a great attitude and I’m excited to see him back on the field next year.”
Q: On his message to QB C.J. Stroud throughout this offseason
Ryans: “I just told him, ‘Don’t listen to anything. Put your phone away. Don’t listen to anything, because there’s going to be a lot of negative talk out there for you.’ Specifically, I just told him to get away, clear his mind. Because right now, at this moment, I know there’s going to be a lot of attention on him, a lot of negative media, and today, a lot of questions about him. That’s what it is, and he understands the position that he is in. As a quarterback leading the team, a lot is expected of you, a lot of eyes are on you, so when it doesn’t go right, there’s going to be a lot of negative talk about you. He understands that and he just can’t allow the opinions of others to weigh who he really is inside.”
Q: On what the team can learn from how this season went
Ryans: “The thing I hope our guys learn is that whenever you’re playing a game, it goes down to executing football. We can make all these stories about this and that, and this person and that person. To me, I hope everybody understands that the reason why you lose the game is if you don’t execute in the moment. If you don’t do your job, if you’re not where you’re supposed to be, if you don’t make great decisions, if you don’t protect the football, that’s not going to win you football games. We can make it a bigger story about any given person, but you got to do the things necessary to win games. That’s what I hope our guys truly have learned throughout this. No matter who you’re playing, when you’re playing, where you’re playing, what the conditions are, you got to play winning football. That’s execution. That’s being on the details and that’s finishing the game the right way. That’s truly all that matters. If we do those things the right way… We still had an opportunity there to get back in the game [against the New England Patriots] and win the game. It wasn’t so far [out of] reach, we just didn’t do all the things we needed to do collectively from everybody to win the game.”