DeMeco Ryans
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With a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football, DeMeco Ryans and the Houston Texans would make franchise history
While the primary motivation for the Houston Texans heading into Week 2 will be to avoid a daunting 0-2 hole to start the 2025 season, there is some unique and admittedly niche franchise history that DeMeco Ryans’ squad can make with a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football.
In the 23 year history of the NFL’s youngest franchise, the Houston Texans have appeared on Monday Night Football only 16 times, and in those games, the Texans have a relatively disappointing 6-10 record. Interestingly, none of those six wins have come consecutively, but this could all change on September 15 if the Texans manage defend their home turf.
The last time we saw Houston play on a Monday night, they easily dispatched of the Dallas Cowboys in the 2024 edition of The Battle of Texas. So now, as the Texans approach Monday night’s game with the Bucs with virtual must-win stakes, they also find themselves in a position where they could win consecutively on Monday Night Football for the first time in franchise history.
However, even though Houston and Tampa Bay entered the season with very similar expectations and in strikingly similar situations — the consecutive champs of what are arguably the two worst divisions in the National Football League — these are a pair of teams that presently feel like they’re miles apart in terms of cohesion or competency.
Texans and Buccaneers In Similar Starting Spots But Off to Drastically Different Starts in 2025
On the surface, there are plenty of similarities between these two teams. Both the Texans and Buccaneers had to work in new offensive coordinators in the offseason, but in Houston it was because the Bobby Slowik experience had run its course, while in Tampa Bay, it was because Liam Coen was pursued by the Jacksonville Jaguars to be the team’s next head coach.
Both the Texans and Buccaneers are currently dealing with banged up offensive lines, but in Houston, that group was ranked dead last in the league by Pro Football Focus after Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season, while Tampa Bay’s group is ranked ninth.
Both the Texans and Buccaneers have rookie wide receivers on the roster who figure to play a key role in their passing attacks, but in Houston, Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel combined for 3 receptions and 32 yards in Week 1, while in Tampa Bay, Emeka Egbuka finished 4 receptions for 67 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
One way to look at all of this would be to say that the Houston Texans offense needs to find their 2023 form if this team has any desire to be playing into the Divisional Round of the Playoffs again. But another way to look at it is that despite the challenges of counting on a new offensive coordinator, a duct-taped offensive line and at least one young receiver, the Buccaneers are thriving, and they present a major challenge for Houston’s defense on Monday night.
Baker Mayfield Knows Bucs Have Hands Full With DeMeco Ryans’ Defense
Ahead of Monday night’s game, DeMeco Ryans has been showering Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield with compliments, claiming that the 30-year-old quarterback is currently playing the best football of his career. Frankly, as I pointed out earlier this week, it’s not just that Mayfield is playing the best ball of his career… it’s that over the last two seasons, few quarterbacks in the NFL have been better than Tampa’s man.
But on Wednesday, Baker Mayfield decided to dish out some compliments of his own, acknowledging that DeMeco Ryans’ defense will be presenting a difficult challenge this week.
“It starts with DeMeco Ryans,” Mayfield told team reporter Casey Phillips. “Just the type of guy he is, the type of leader, a guy who was a successful NFL linebacker– he’s going to demand that his guys play extremely hard, and that’s the one thing I remember [from 2 years ago]… They [Texans defense] fly to the ball… It presents a tough task for us, but we’ll see what we can do.”
And just in case you were wondering, the Buccaneers have lost their last three games on Monday Night Football, so when these two teams face each other in Houston, something has to give.