The Ringer NFL Show - The Broncos Hire Sean Payton, and DeMeco Ryans to the Texans

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

Nora and Lindsay recap the breaking news of Sean Payton returning to coach the Denver Broncos, and the Houston Texans hiring DeMeco Ryans. Host: Nora Princiotti and Lindsay Jones Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a new year and I have a new podcast here at the Ringer, Offguard, hosted by me and my guide Pasha Hougi. Austin and I go way back and talk so much hoop already that we figure it was time to fire up the mics and let you in on all of these conversations. Every week, Pasha and I will hit on the biggest stories happening in the league. And get Austin's perspective of someone currently hooping in the NBA. Tap into Offguard every Friday on the Ringer NBA show feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Hello and welcome to a special breaking news edition of the Ringer NFL show. I'm Nora Pinciotti. I am joined for the second time for me today by Lindsay Jones,

who hopped on the island this morning to tape an episode about the Broncos head coaching search. And we ended it, and we should have known better, but we ended it by saying how lucky we were that we'd gotten through. The 40 minutes or so we spent recording the episode without. any news dropping about who they were going to hire. And little did we expect between the time that we finished that recording and now. The Broncos hired Sean Payton. They hired Sean Payton.

They are sending a 2023 first round pick and next year's second round pick to the Saints for the right to hire Sean Peyton who retired. The Saints still controlled his rights if he returned. plus a 2024 third coming back from New Orleans to Denver. So love a coaching trade. And because we had to throw out that wonderful episode, I promise you it was fantastic. Lindsay, Sean Payton's going to Denver.

We're back. What's going on here. So, yeah, the Broncos have their new head coach. What we knew all along and what we talked about on the episode of the island, that is just disappearing off into the last episode. The graveyard of lost episodes and lost stories. All right.

You and I have been there many times. It's one of the hazards of this business. But one of the things that was pretty clear all along from this Broncos, very chaotic, very confusing coaching search was that the Walton Penner ownership group was going to take a big swing. They were, yes, they interviewed eight candidates, including a couple who were retreads, you know, the Jim Caldwells. They went way off and left field and interviewed David Shaw, Agero Evereaux, their internal candidate,

what they really wanted was like the big name, big splashy hire. And in this cycle, that was Sean Payton. They tried to take a big swing with Jim Harbaugh, including going back to Ann Arbor recently to try to talk to him again. But ultimately they got the biggest name who is sitting out there on the coaching market.

It's going to be very expensive for them to do so. But they felt like they had to get both, the best coach that I think that was available or who they viewed as the best coach. And then also somebody who was going to bring them

back to respectability. And we'll see if Sean Payton can do that. I mean, I think there's a lot to like in terms of the boxes that he checks, what he could mean offensively.

And I think that's stuff that we're all going to get into. But here we are. They got their big fish, right? Right. So let's talk a little bit about how this happened. And you mentioned that this was

a sort of draw on out, took about four weeks process. There were eight candidates at the start. Rahim Morris, David Shaw, the head coach at Stanford, Jim Caldwell, their own current defensive coordinator, Isiro Evereux. Dan Quinn, who ended up

announcing that he was going to stay in Dallas. D'emika Rions, who we'll talk about it in a second. Sean Payton and Jim Harbaugh. And D'emika Ryans, it seemed like, was maybe number one in the clubhouse for a while or at least

with someone that they had a considerable amount of interest in. And then last night, over the last 24 hours or so, there's been a growing consensus that he's going to become the head coach of the Texans. And now it's been reported that he's getting a six-year deal to indeed coach in Houston. There are some conflicting reports here about how this went down. So Adam Schefter has tweeted, or sorry, I'll start with Ian Rappaport who's tweeted, unbelievable, the Broncos spent today trying to hire Domeco Ryan's again before he recommitted to the Texans, sources say.

When he agreed to terms with the Texans, they moved and finalized Sean Peyton. I will say, I haven't talked to anybody about how this went down. I don't know. The fact that D'Amico Ryan's got a six-year deal in Houston reflects that he had some leverage. So take that as you will, because Adam Schaefter has tweeted, timing of today's two hires was completely coincidental. Broncos were zeroed in on Sean Payton

and didn't make any contact this week, emphasis mine, with Demika Ryan's or his agent. Denver was focused on Peyton and Houston on Ryans. What are we to make of this, Lindsay? I mean, not to infringe on like Brian Curtis's media critique, press box territory. There's a lot to impact from a journalism perspective

with these two tweets, the timing of them, the wording of them. the wording of them, all of those sorts of things. Given the type of... The potential dangers of the single source journalism that rules sports media, but I'll get off the show back. I'm very curious. Ian said sources, say, right?

He said sources. He didn't specify who those sources were if they were connected, where they were connected to. I will say the Schechter tweet very much sounds like it's coming out of the team that just hired a head coach and wants everybody to believe that they got their first choice. When ultimately, I think, no matter who the Broncos ended up hiring at the end of the cycle, whether it was Sean Payton or David Shaw or whoever it might have been, it wasn't

going to be their first necessary, their first choice, and they were going to have to pivot and try to make everybody believe that it was. So I think that is actively happening as we speak. But given what we already kind of know about this coaching search, that they've been willing to take their time a lot. I mean, they interviewed eight candidates basically right away, and then there was kind of a long gap between any sort of secondary interviews. I don't know how many actual formal second interviews there were. There was the trip to meet with Harbaugh, where it was clearly like Harbaugh had said he was not leaving Michigan. And Greg Penner fired up

the jet and flew there to see if that was for sure the case. So we would not surprise me at all. Just a little chat. I don't know. What are the good restaurants in Ann Arbor? Maybe he wanted a you know, visit the college bars. I don't know. But he, it would completely make sense to me that before you trade away draft picks and then sign Sean Payton to what I am sure is a very large coaching contract that is probably at the very top of the market for NFL head coaches, that you make sure that the other guy that you really, really liked, that you wouldn't have to give up multiple draft picks, including a first rounder to acquire, was set that he was not going to come there. So I think it very much tracks. And there's probably a lot of, you know, the wording on Shepter's tweet, right, that they didn't make any contact with Ryan's or his agent.

It's pretty specific language. But there's probably ways around it that both things could be true. Yeah, it's very, it's Ryan's or his agent is pretty specific. On the other hand, I don't know. There's a world. What about like Ryan's wife? I don't know. Well, but also is make contact, does that mean they have to make the phone call? What if they just pick up the phone? Is that making contact or is that receiving contact? Oh, all of a sudden we start lawyering this to death and it could go a bunch of different ways. Here's another wrinkle and another factor is that it does seem like part of why some of this got slow rolled was not just the Broncos taking their time in interviews. viewing a lot of candidates and having some secondary interviews and some informal chats.

But it does seem like, especially in Peyton's case, he's someone with a lot of leverage, right? He's got a good cushy gig outside of coaching. He's a very coveted high-profile guy who, it seemed pretty clear, was going to pick his spots, both team context and the financials of the deal. After he met with Denver, there was a lot of the time. He was. He was, was a report in the Washington Post that he had concerns about a power struggle with ownership. Then Sean Payton went and

denied this. He might have spoken about it on TV as well. It's so bizarre that he was actively on TV through this. Right. Like talking about it, breaking his own news. More power to him, I guess. But he also

denied this on Twitter. Funnily, at least to me, by quote tweeting the report that he'd had this issue and just being like, no, no, this is not the case. Had a productive, I didn't even say, I think he just said, like, I had a productive meeting. It was great. Did Sean Payton play this pretty well from his end? Because when I look at that, that seems like some fairly effective leveraging of the fact that he doesn't have to say, yes unless he thinks it's a really great situation to say yes too. He is a very smart guy,

a very, very skilled in the politics of the NFL. Not his first rodeo. Yeah. So he, I think he did play this very well. I mean, they're never going to release his contract and know exactly how much he got paid. It's one of like the few secrets in the NFL is exactly how much any of these guys make. but I'm sure he leveraged it into a very coach-friendly contract. We'll probably know the exact, like, the year terms, but we'll see. I mean, the only contract that ever truly got released was the John Gruden 10 years, $100 million. Right. Contract, which looks great now in retrospect, right?

But, yeah, I mean, I'm sure he turned it into a nice, a very cushy financial settlement. What I am very curious to see, and we'll probably come out here in coming days, is what else he got in terms of organizational structure, in terms of power, in terms of office space, parking spaces, what his staff is going to look like, other people that he might want to bring into the building or get rid of. You know, when you have leverage, you can go in and ask for a lot of those sorts of things. And, you know, the Broncos were one of the teams in this mix that had an opening who had a general manager and a general manager in place who was, I don't know if we want to say like he was completely safe in his job, but like pretty safe in his job, right, in George Payton. And the Cardinals opening was really interesting because they didn't have a GM. And right. So there was this that, okay, well, maybe Sean Payton would want to go there and bring in his. own GM or he would be in charge and then could have some, but, you know, a personnel guy who

worked under him, you know, the relationship that he had with Mickey Loomis, with the Saints forever, where, you know, ultimately, Sean Payton had, was at the top of the food chain there, had more power. That had not been the organizational structure in Denver, previously with George Payton. Previously, when he worked with Vic Fangio and then obviously last year with Nathaniel Hackett, George Payton had roster control, 53 man roster, all of those sorts of things. Is that changing now? Will that be? be different, will Sean Payton be making the final call on draft picks on free agent signings? I'm very curious to see if he got some of that stuff. And I'm basically now, as I'm working

through this, I'm basically picturing the like speaker of the house negotiations and like what the wrong has ended up. Round 27. Yeah. That's basically what happened, right? That was each of the round the voting as they're going to the different coaches and Sean Peyton coming back with his demands. It's probably, yeah. Well, I mean, he would have been in a pretty good situation to make them, right? Not only because of his own leverage, but also because George Peyton, after the Nathaniel Hackett situation, after the Russell Wilson, after how much they gave up to trade for him and then the financials of giving him that contract,

George Payne's had a tough year. He's someone who has done a lot of good things. A lot of the sub, you know, that super high franchise-defining level stuff has worked out really well. He's drafted pretty well. He's made some smart choices broadly. That's a pretty good roster.

but those were some really, really high-profile misses. And I can't imagine that particularly under ownership that did not hire George Payton, he doesn't come out of that weakened in some ways organizationally. Now, I think he's good at his job for the most part, and I don't think that coaches who start to ask for more and more say in other pots and things like roster control and having a huge, huge say in personnel, generally speaking, I don't think that tends to go well. Sean Payton has obviously been around for a long time and had huge say in an organization.

So he's a reasonably, he's got a reasonably good track record of making it work when he's got his hand in a lot of elements of an organization. That said, hopefully ask for a great parking spot, Sean. Ask for, you know, the nicest office. I hope he doesn't go crazy with, I want control over this, that, and the other thing, because coaching a football team is hard enough. The exception to that is that

the number one task for probably any coach that they were going to bring in there, but particularly one who's worked with quarterbacks and who has, his experiences on the offensive side of the ball is to make it work to whatever extent is possible

with Russell Wilson. And I'm really interested to see what that ends up looking like schematically and how they run that offense. I'm hesitant to say this is how Russell Wilson will look in Sean Payton's offense because to this point, and that includes figures like, okay, Pete Carroll, who's a defensive coach, but still a powerful, long-tenured NFL guy. it's not Pete Carroll's offense, it's not the Seahawks offense, it's not Nathaniel Hackett's offense, it's not Sean Payton's offense, it's Russell Wilson's offense. And I don't know if that will change because it just seems like those tendencies are so hard to break and he is who he is when he steps on the field. But I do think that if you're projecting out what might work about this, it's that I do think Sean Payton can tell Russell Wilson what to do. Yes. Yes. And that's kind of a big deal because we saw how far things had gone with you know, the

fights on the sideline and him getting, who's the defensive tackle who yelled at him? Mike Purcell. Mike Purcell yelling at him on the sidelines of that game late in the season. Clearly a lot of division growing in that locker room when the offense was not pulling its weight

and really struggling. And you have this quarterback who's been anointed and financially compensated. as the most important person in the organization. And when that's not going well, that's a really, really tough situation to navigate. And I do think that Sean Payton has the requisite credentials so that people will listen to him when he tries to figure out how to deal with that.

Yeah. And I, so I think that is really, really important. He comes in and is going to demand immediate respect. in the offensive meeting rooms and in the game planning meeting rooms. And then what I also think is really going to be interesting in this is that if you go back and listen or read stuff that Russell Wilson has said over the last couple years and a lot actually over like the last year when he first arrived in Denver is the guy that he always kind of envisioned himself to want to be like and that he like kind of pictured himself being like

in his head was Drew Breeze. and that like in this next phase of his career, he thought he would fashion himself a quarterback like Drew Breeze when maybe there was some diminished physical skills and stuff. We didn't see any of that last year, right? I mean, the stuff that made Drew. Sometimes it felt like we saw him try. And the thing that I would point out about that is that those weren't the good moments.

The good moments were few and far between, but those were some of the worst moments was when he was, you know, I'll steal a phrase from Stephen Ruiz, the performative checkdown did seem a little bit like Russell Wilson trying to channel Drew Breeze. But Sean Payton at least knows what the authentically successful version of that is and can hopefully coach him to that end. That's where I'm like, can there be a reality check from Sean Peyton to Russell?

It says, you're not Drew Breeze. Stop trying to be Drew Breeze. Here's what makes you good. I knew Drew Brees. You, sir, no, Drew Brewery. Sorry, I'm thinking about this. I mean, it'd be great. But like, he probably needs that. Like, he probably needs that sort of, like, you know, this is who you are. This is, I've watched every snap that you took last year. Here's what I'm going to do to make you successful. Here's what didn't work. Stop trying to be degrees, right? Like, let's find something that will make you successful. So I think that could be, like, an interesting, like, wrinkle to all of this. And then I would say one other thing. I am. so interested to see who the rest of his staff is going to be.

Right. You know, one of the things that we talked about on the island that you will never hear is one of the, like, things that I thought was going to be most important about whoever the Broncos hired was who else was he going to bring in here? One of the biggest failures of Nathaniel Hackett, among many of them, was that not only was he inexperienced, but his staff was completely inexperienced. Agiro Evereaux completely rose to that occasion as a first-year defensive coordinator, defensive play caller, and I'd be interested to see if they try to keep him in that role. And if the Broncos ownership group pays up to keep him or if he wants to go explore potential other. They blocked him from interviewing from other defensive coordinator jobs to kind of keep him under contract, potentially to keep him. But who is he bringing in as his quarterback's coach, his offensive one?

line coach. These are some really critical pieces on his staff that Hackett missed on. I will say Mike Munchak still lives in Denver. Hanging out was pretty big mistake that Haken didn't retain him. But like, you know, he's around. The offensive line played well under his tutelage. So I don't know if that's a name to watch or not. But Sean Payton should be able to assemble quite a nice coaching staff.

And I'm very curious to see who all of those pieces are going to be. Get a piece of $10 million in bonus bets with Fandall's kick of destiny. All you have to do is bet $5 on Super Bowl 57. And if Grunk kicks a field goal live during the game, you'll get a piece of $10 million in bonus bets. You could get Travis Kelsey over 78 and a half yards in the game. I'm sure Gromk would love a little tight end action with that. But it doesn't matter if you're new to Fandle or already have an account.

Gronk kick, you win. It's as simple as that. So don't miss out on the kick of destiny on Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Just place any $5 bet on the Super Bowl to get a piece of $10 million in bonus bets. Then tune in live during the game to see Gronk's kick of destiny. Make every moment more with Fandul, official sportsbook partner of the NFL. 21 plus in select states minimum $5 wage are required. Award may vary, minimum $5 projected maximum $20. Bonus award issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days. All participants are eligible for bonus award. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fandwell.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit fanduel.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey,

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, or Virginia. Call 1-800-next-step or text next step to 5334-2 in Arizona. Call 1-888-78-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat. in Connecticut. Call 1-800-9 with it in Indiana. Call 1-800-5-22-4-7-0 or visit KSgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. Call 1-877-7-770 stop in Louisiana. Visit www.md-Mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Call 1-800-5-22-470-0 in Wyoming or visit www.1-800-Gambler.net in West Virginia. Call 1-8-8-Hope-N-Y or text HopeN-Y at 467-369 in New York. So this is a big swing from a team whose last big swing, last couple of big swings didn't go so well.

The Broncos first pick in the 2023 draft is going to be number 68. Let's live in a happy optimistic world here. There's a lot of potential for this to go well. If this goes badly or if it just isn't enough, right? If it's if the Broncos offense goes from being bottom of the league to middling and the defense is talented and mostly young as it is, doesn't rise above that. They are going to have given up a lot when you combine the Wilson trade,

the Wilson contract, Sean Payton giving another high draft pick, another couple of high draft picks to the Saints. I'll end on this. They're giving up a lot. And this is kind of, it's a similar take too that I had right before or right after the rest of the Wilson trade is. You're giving up a lot to be maybe the third best team in your division. Right.

Is where you're at because the chiefs still are the chiefs, right? And all of our, you know, the hot debate all last year was like, oh, the rest of the IFC West catching up to the chiefs. No, no. The chiefs are in the Super Bowl next week. We're going to be back to talking about the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes. At the height of their super high of them.

Still pretty good. And, you know, the Chargers were a playoff team this year. We don't need to talk about what happened in the second half of that game. You know, they're going to be retooling their offense. The Raiders are going through some pretty significant changes at quarterback this offseason. So it's a big move, but is it a big move that it takes you from, hopefully, if you're the Broncos, it takes them from being one of the worst teams in the league to being a competitive team in the league, but does it make you a Super Bowl contender?

probably not as long as Patrick Mahomes is doing Patrick Mahomes things. Right. I'm not following for that. I'm not following for that storyline again. Yeah. One thing we talked about on the lost episode of the island was I was just sort of playing through. Everyone keeps telling us to release it.

We're not going to release it. It's never going to happen. Sorry, guys. just playing through the different scenarios of like the different ways that they could go because I don't, I'm hesitant to apply total certainty to the idea that they really wanted an offensive guy.

They really wanted like X type. Just because Sean Payton was the highest. Like Sean Payton was was sort of the bell of the ball in a lot of ways. And he's the Canada who was available with the most name recognition. It did seem like certain teams, you know,

Damigo Ryan's was a really, really hot name and might have been Denver's first choice maybe, but Sean Payton is an offensive coach, has been a head coach, like he's all these things, but he's also just Sean Peyton. And it seemed like they might have just wanted to hire Sean Payton and did that.

So I'm a little hesitant to draw it too much out of like the specific background that they chose. But we did talk through, like, I had a thought that was in this situation where you have Russell Wilson who, you know, last year wasn't that good and seems like he's declining and is on the older side and you are in the division with the Chiefs and Justin Herbert, you are playing offense with one hand tied behind your back. You just are. Like put the right situation around the quarterback at the right coaching in place. That's good. That helps. But you are always going to at the beginning of the year be considered to have a disadvantage. And, I don't know. We will never know because this is not the path that they've chosen. But we do know that there's a coach named Lou Anarumo

who seems to be the best guy available at slowing down. I'm not going to say shutting down, but slowing down Patrick Mahomes and elite quarterbacks in general. And defense, we always talk about being more variable than offense. and that's often something that's held against defensive coaches when it's time to go around the coaching carousel because you can't necessarily hang your hat on it, you're in and you're out.

And some years you're going to get the interceptions and you're going to get the big plays. And some years you're not. And that might cause really big swings in how well you perform in a given year or in another one. There's part of me that feels like I would be more comfortable living in that universe. if I played in the AFC West or coached in the AFC West or was involved in a team in the AFC West, that wasn't the Chiefs and that wasn't the Chargers, just to be able to say,

we are not trying to beat you at that game because I just don't know how you can. We're trying to beat you at a different game. And probably more years than not, that's going to be a really, really, really tall task. But if we just absolutely hit it and get the breaks and get the big plays, and have a totally shut down unit a couple of times, maybe that's better than being sort of closer, but still not there year in and year out, which it still remains hard for me to see

how the Broncos get over that hump. But clearly that is not the world that they've chosen to live in. And when it is Sean Payton, right? Like when it is someone who I do think that the quarterback is going to have to listen to and going to have to sort of sit down and take some cues, from. I can't really knock it.

I just, I wish we could play out both scenarios and find out which worked better. But I mean, we're only going to get one. I think if we look back at the Saints, too, like there were some years, not too far into the distant past of like the Sean Payton Drew Breese era where

it's kind of when Breeze was at his crazy bonkers numbers era where they also had one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Then later in his career, they had a really good when they brought when they brought Dennis Allen back

like a very good defense when they weren't putting up quite as many points. You know, so I, you know, I want to believe

that he is like, kind of a good understanding of like the balance of that where, what that defense is going to look like who the defensive coach is going to be is really going to be interesting.

It is interesting. There was a lot of like, rumors and buzz out there that like his ideal defensive coordinator was Vicangio who I don't know if he's actually formally signed his contract in Miami,

but I, I mean, it's hard to imagine that he would, that would still be the pairing that like, they could come back to the Broncos. They might still be paying him. I wonder if what was his contract like? I think maybe they weren't paying him anymore. Probably still the place here. I think their best case scenario when you talk about like the, the defensive stuff that is going to be needed to compete in this AFC West, their best case scenarios if they could look, I think, at what the Niners have done, where you have the, the, you have the, the, you have the, offensive head coach, the offensive scheme guru, no matter what's going on at quarterback,

but then you have just this consistency at defensive coordinator. I mean, I think their best case scenario would be keeping Azero Evaro, grooming some young assistance under him with the understanding that if this defense continues on the trajectory, it was on this year, Everro is probably going to get a job before too long. And then you've got somebody in there to replace him. They've got a really, really bright and very talented and popular among coaching circles. Assistant coach and Christian Parker, a DB's coach, who's kind of in that future defensive coordinator kind of mold. I mean, I think that would be the, you know,

you don't mess up what they did well this year. That was their defense, if Evereux wants to stay. I think the penners need to open up, do what the Lions did with Ben Johnson and say, we will pay you what it takes. And then, you know what, when you get your head, head coaching opportunity next year. That'll be great. And we're going to have somebody, you know, when Robert Sala leaves, we've got D'Amico Ryan's ready. When D'Amico Ryan's

leaves, we've got a plan in place to replace you in San Francisco. That, I think, would be their best case. Best case scenario now, how to approach playing in that division, knowing, you know, knowing what they're doing at head coach now. And knowing what they're doing at head coach and having a plan that most people are going to be positive about probably helps him want to stay, right? Because we know the ownership group has tons of money. They can pay him a good salary. There's no reason to think that they wouldn't do that. And it's a good defensive roster.

It's been a good defense. He's had success there. They can block him from the lateral moves. Obviously, it's a different situation if somebody offers him a head coaching job. I believe he's still a candidate in Indianapolis, which, by the way, like, I think we said this in them. We'll do another episode. We're only miraculously talking about the second weirdest head coaching search this cycle. But if he gets a head coaching opportunity, that's another situation.

I'm not sure that someone with his amount of experience is going to get there. So if Denver can retain him, which seems reasonable, get things, get right the ship offensively, he can at least feel better about, I don't need to worry about sort of like being around, being dragged down by this chaos, which would, to me, that's the only missing piece in, I doubt he gets a head coaching offer just because of his experience level. obviously if you get a head coaching offer, that's different. You probably want to take it.

But that would be one reason to go. Another one would be, would just be worrying about the overall situation. I think they've done a good job of eliminating that as a factor. So it would shape up to be a pretty good coaching staff overall. And, you know, yeah, if that means that he gets a head coaching job,

actually sooner than all the more reason. By the way, it does seem like if say that were to happen and say they did have some, you know, trickled down role in why Domeko Ryan's got such a long, like, safe, secure situation in Houston, the Denver Broncos doing a lot to just help out like the coaching stability around the league. Everybody else, yeah. All right. Lindsay, are we missing anything here?

What's Taysam Hill's contract status? Is Sean Payton going to bring him in to be like the bonus quarterback along with Russell Wilson? Yeah, I think at this point, Denver's not exactly swimming in resources, but again, Sean Payton, a lot of leverage. We know he likes Taysam Hill. That would certainly be an interesting wrinkle in that. locker room, which is already a little bit of a complicated stew. I'm just stunned he didn't already ask for it.

I'm just, I'm stunned it hasn't already been part of the package. That'll be the next set of tweets that we get to read. Let's talk just a little bit before we go about Dimeca Ryans in Houston. I'm very encouraged and again, grateful to the Broncos for whatever part they had and driving the price up and making this happen, that he did get six years. relatively long for somebody who hasn't been a head coach. Because I don't know what the short-term impacts are going to be of this higher. The Texans just have so many questions to answer on their roster, quarterback being first among those.

But I do have a certain amount of faith in D'Amika Ryan's in the long term. He's been part of really solid organizations. He's been part of stable coaching staffs. And I'm curious to see what he can do, not really in year one, maybe not even in year two. But further down the line, which is something that we just haven't gotten, a point that we haven't been able to get to

with the last two Texans coaches, both of whom I think outperformed reasonable expectations with the rosters that they were given, but got fired after a year. And on the face of it, there's something interesting about D'emika Ryan's going to a place that gave two black head coaches the boot after one year when there weren't really clear job performance reasons for doing that. But it really helps that he got that kind of contractual commitment from them. So, look, owners have a lot of money. and there's no salary cap so they can sort of do what they want. But generally speaking, a six-year

coaching contract equals job security. So that to me is the most important thing here. Yeah. So, you know, this is another swing for Nick Casario going through this head coaching process. I hope that the two of them are aligned really well. It's always a little off when the head coach and the GM don't come in at the same time. What are the power dynamics going to be? It tends to work best when those two individuals are on similar contracts and are very, like, there's a very clear power structure and dynamic and all of that stuff is in place. You know, obviously, D'Amico Ryan's is very familiar with Houston in that organization and how it runs.

Knows Cal McNair. Obviously, he played for the Texans when his, when Cal's father, Bob McNair, was the owner of that team. But he does have, you would think, have reasonable insight into just the dynamics. at play within that building and probably a lot of contacts who have been able to give him information about what's happened over the last few years within that organization. And I was, you know, I want to give him some of the benefit of the doubt for like making this decision and choosing a place that he felt was right for him and his family and at this stage in his coaching

career because, you know, last year he was kind of like the young, you know, it was kind of where Eger O'Irero is, right? Where like he was coming off of one year as being a coordinator. performed incredibly and was starting to get head coaching jobs. And he removed himself in consideration in Minnesota. And when he came back after that, he was very clear about saying, I wasn't just going to take any job. Like, I want to make sure that I'm ready, that my family is ready, that it is the right situation at the right time. You know, so I'll, you know, I think the security, the six years probably is a part of that. But I hope that they're going in into it with the understanding of this is going to be not necessarily a quick fix. Although, if you get the right quarterback,

in that division, you might be able to become competitive more quickly. You know, I think there were a couple nice, nice young defensive pieces, you know, their first round, like Derek Stingley, Jr. from last year, like, played very well. He got overshadowed by a couple of the other stud rookie cornerbacks. I mean, Soss Gardner obviously set the bar extremely high, but he had a really good rookie year and probably would have gotten consideration for more awards if the sauce hadn't just completely dominated the NFL and become an all pro as a rookie. But, you know, I mean, I think there's a couple pieces there. And now just the pressure is on to one, like we were talking about with Champagne, who is his staff? Who is he putting in charge of that offense? Who is he going to put in charge of

quarterback development? Because that is now the most important thing for the tech. is getting that position right. And not just drafting the right player, but developing him in the right manner. Because that has, nothing will expedite the end of a coach's contract, no matter how long that contract is, then failing to develop your quarterback. So no pressure, Danico, and sure it'll be. Have fun. But no, you're, you are, you know, they've found, they found some decent young pieces

Damian Pierce, Nico Collins, Jordan Aiken, you know, they've still got Laramie Tunsell. Like, the cupboard is not completely bare. And I think because, to your point, because of the quarterback position, we sort of look at it that way, if everything goes right,

it could be a faster turnaround than would seem reasonable to predict. Not everything is necessarily going to go right. But certainly, wish him all the best. And I think giving, often we see head coaches, especially ones on their first go-round where they don't have a lot of leverage when they're making the contract. They just don't get enough time to really do anything.

And unless they get lucky, it just doesn't work out. So they're starting off on a positive foot with someone who knows the organization, has a good reputation within the organization, has a great reputation in the NFL in general, and should, in theory, have time to do something with what's there. So what? Two openings left, right? Right. Three down two to go. Who are the Cardinals and the Colts going to hire? And the Colts.

Just Saturday, right? They're just waiting for like the opportunity to sneak it in there. Like do it right now. I don't know. I don't know. It's too crazy to happen, but it's also too crazy to have gotten this far. So I don't know what to do about that one. And the Cardinals have been like kind of off the raider other than when they brought Sean Payton in for an interview and they

showed a lot of videos of it, which surely helped with Sean Payton's leverage back with the Broncos. So by the way, do we know where Cliff Kingsbury is? Does he come come back? Stay inside? Unclear. All right. I hope he hasn't.

No, I hope he's having a nice, long, relaxing, extended, maybe permanently extended vacation. And I wish him well. we will certainly keep everybody posted on all of that and all of the continued rotations of the coaching carousel. Lizzie, thank you so much for hopping back on. And thank you for our wonderful lost episode of The Island that I promise everyone was just the greatest thing that has ever graced the airwaves.

But I'm so sorry. The take was in no way bad. The take was great. It was successful. It was a miraculous island. It's fantastic. All right. Thank you so much, Lindsay.

We will be back tomorrow. I will be on the scramble with Sheal. We're going to go over some NFL news topics. And the island will be back from the Super Bowl next week. Thank you so much to Stefan Anderson for production on this episode. And to Arjuna Ramgapal and Connor Evans for additional production supervision.