The Texans’ defense is elite on its own. They also have plenty of inside information on Josh McDaniels.
First, there’s literal family — the Texans wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator is Josh’s younger brother, Ben McDaniels.
“I think this is our fourth time having an opportunity to do this. Just a little bit more at stake,” Josh McDaniels said of facing his brother.
Then there’s his Patriots family. McDaniels will be squaring off Sunday against basically his old coaching staff from his stint as Patriots OC from 2012-21.
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Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley was a Patriots tight ends coach from 2015-22. Offensive line coach Cole Popovich coached the Patriots line and running backs from 2016-20. Passing game specialist Jerry Schuplinski worked with Patriots quarterbacks from 2013-18. Special teams coordinator Frank Ross was a Patriots scout for five nonconsecutive seasons. Scouting directors D.J. Debick and Steve Cargile came from the Patriots, as did left tackle Trent Brown, cornerback Myles Bryant, and a handful of players on the practice squad.
“Learning from him was awesome,” Caley said of McDaniels. “That was my first opportunity, in 2015, whenever it was, to flip from defense to offense. So, I got to learn from the ground up with him, and it was a great experience.”
Most importantly, don’t forget about Texans general manager Nick Caserio, who didn’t work for McDaniels but alongside him for 20 years in New England and won six Super Bowls together.
Texans executive vice president and general manager Nick Caserio is a former college teammate of Josh McDaniels and spent 20 years with McDaniels on the Patriots’ staff.Maria Lysaker/Associated Press
The Patriots offense certainly has fresh wrinkles this season with McDaniels taking input from new assistants such as Thomas Brown, Todd Downing, and Doug Marrone.
But McDaniels’s principles haven’t changed. And the Texans coaches sat in countless meetings with McDaniels, watched endless hours of film with him, and went to battle with him over dozens (or hundreds) of NFL games. They know how he thinks, adjusts, and attacks. Several of them go back with McDaniels to John Carroll University — Caserio and Schuplinski were his college teammates, while Caley, Ross, and Debick were his protégés. The Texans hired Caley this past offseason to run a similar version of the Patriots offense, with his own wrinkles from spending the last two years with the Rams and Sean McVay.
Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke, a Hudson native who played at Dartmouth before getting into coaching 20 years ago, downplayed the importance of whatever tips Caley and the former Patriots can provide. Then again, what else would he say?
“I’m sure there’s some stuff, but there’s a lot of things you can glean off tape,” Burke said. “Information is always good, but they can call whatever they can call, and we can call whatever we want to call, we’ll see how it matches up.”
Caley said the information he can provide Burke is “overrated.”
“We’re not sitting back living in the past or anything like that,” Caley said. “I think the biggest thing is going out there, putting together whatever plan each respective team has, and having an opportunity to go out there and execute. That’s what it’s going to come down to, is good execution.”
Patriots coach Mike Vrabel also downplayed all the familiarity. But the more these guys protest, the more we should believe in the significance of the inside information.
“If they know what call is coming, then we should try to get those coaches,” Vrabel said. “Got all our tape and got all theirs. So, if they know what Josh is calling or they know what we’re calling, then they’ve got a jump on us.”
Of course, the familiarity goes both ways. Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs played for a different offensive coordinator last season in Houston, but he still knows most of the Texans personnel and their flaws. Vrabel, when he was in Tennessee, coached linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair and defensive tackle Denico Autry, and knows what makes Autry one of the best field goal blockers in NFL history, with 14 in his career.
“He is a bigger player that has great length, and so when he gets into a crease, he doesn’t just go up right away,” Vrabel said. “He’s able to kind of push for two or three steps and then able to get great length. So, he’s not just standing at the line of scrimmage trying to block them, he gets into the line or is able to swim, and that will be a huge key.”
The Texans defense is elite by any measure. It allowed the fewest yards and first downs this season, finished second in points allowed (17.4 per game), and forced at least one takeaway in 16 of 18 games. They have two All-Pro pass rushers in Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter, an All-Pro cornerback in Derek Stingley, and Pro Bowl-caliber players in Al-Shaair, and defensive backs Jalen Pitre, Kamari Lassiter, and Calen Bullock.
“Man, all the hype is fulfilling and deserving, from what I’ve seen on film,” Patriots quarterback Drake Maye said.
Add on top of it the Texans’ familiarity with McDaniels, and it could make a stout defense even more difficult to solve.
“This is as big a challenge as we’ve seen all year,” McDaniels said. “Every snap, every down will be difficult. They don’t make any mistakes. They’re violent, they’re very physical, [and] this is probably the fastest group we’ve seen all year at all three levels.”
Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected].
