One year ago at this time, the Houston Texans seemed to be set at offensive coordinator with Bobby Slowik. But as the Texans and their young quarterback CJ Stroud regressed so much from one season to the next, the decision was made to cut bait on Slowik before things deteriorated even further.
In turn, Nick Caley was hired by the Texans after spending a handful of seasons coaching under both Bill Belichick and Sean McVay, and it didn’t take long for those in or around the organization to see the difference in the two play-callers. That includes the prized third-year quarterback CJ Stroud himself.
“He’s still learning, being a first time play-caller,” Stroud told reporters after Houston’s preseason win over Carolina. “He’s very communicative. Loves to rile guys up. I’m excited to work with him. He’s a great guy, loves football, knows football, knows why we’re calling things, how to call em, when to call em. He’s been great and I’m very grateful to have him as an OC.”
The knowing why, how and when to call plays seemed to be the main issue that doomed Bobby Slowik, who is now serving as the pass game coordinator for the Miami Dolphins. Speaking anonymously to ESPN shortly after Slowik was fired, one Texans player provided this disastrous explanation of what had plagued Houston during the 2024 season.
“I don’t think we had a true identity of what the f— we wanted to do,” one player told ESPN’s DJ Bien-Aime.
Another team source added, “We had all season to make adjustments and improvements, and it never happened.”
Nick Caley Has More Supporters in Nico Collins, Nick Chubb
CJ Stroud isn’t the only Texans star who has gotten on the Nick Caley bandwagon even before Houston plays their first regular season game of the year. Wide receiver Nico Collins, who recently was voted the 32nd-best player in the league in the annual NFL Top 100 poll, didn’t hold back his enthusiasm regarding his enthusiastic offensive coordinator.
“Man, you can tell by his enthusiasm every day that he’s a great coach,” Collins said, according to Aaron Wilson of KRPC 2 Houston. “You can tell in the meetings. He talks about the plays, the install, just explaining the install, just his grit, his mind behind it, his energy, dog. You can feel it. He gets you pumped up to go out here and play.”
Nico Collins has been one of the NFL’s most productive wideouts each of the last two seasons, and the Texans’ passing attack is expected to pop with Caley empowering Stroud to take more control of the offense. But that doesn’t mean the ground attack will be forgotten. At their core, the Houston Texans will be a physical football team, and that’s just part of the reason why running back Nick Chubb is eager to get to work and re-establish himself as one of the league’s best backs.
“I think Nick does a great job of calling the plays,” Chubb said. “I talk to Nick all the time. He understands that running the ball opens up everything. He’s a young coach and it’s impressive that he understands how important it is to be physical up front before anything else.”
Where Will Nick Caley be on Gameday?
Now that Nick Caley has already done the hard part — gaining the trust, respect and appreciation of the players he’ll be coaching — he’s now got to decide where he’ll be calling plays from this season. In Houston’s opening preseason game of the year, Caley was up in the booth, but in their second preseason tilt, Caley was down on the Texans sideline.
“I think this is the time to do it,” Caley said. “I think there is advantages to both, and I think this is the time to experiment and get a flow for it and the communication through the staff and everything else. So, I’m going to do it this week and make an assessment after that. I’m comfortable in either situation. I just want to see what works best for us this year.”
After scoring just ten points against the Minnesota Vikings in week 1, the Texans scored 20 versus the Carolina Panthers in week 2. But as of yet, Caley still hasn’t made his decision public.
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