Debut of Texans’ C.J. Stroud-Nick Caley collaboration checks box: ‘Very grateful to have him as an OC’

HOUSTON – C.J. Stroud had time on his side, and a sound plan to execute.

In the game situation debut of the Texans’ new-look offense installed by first-year offensive coordinator Nick Caley, the quarterback orchestrated a scoring drive.

There was rhythm. There was chemistry. The offensive line looked much better than last season. And Stroud had room and time to operate as he delivered a strike to Pro Bowl wide receiver Nico Collins for a touchdown pass.

Overall, it was a smooth day for Stroud and the offense. He completed 6 of 8 passes for 44 yards and a score with zero interceptions. His lone sack was of the coverage variety when no one got open.

The collaboration between Stroud and Caley, the replacement for dismissed offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, is off to a good start.

“Yeah, it was great,” Stroud said. “He’s still learning a lot, being a first-time play caller. He handled it great, very communicative. He loves to rile guys up and bring juice, and I think that’s a great thing for offense.

“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 them, when to call them. He’s been great, and I’m very grateful to have him as an OC.”

The debate and experimentation is an active situation for Caley as far as where he’ll execute his playbook.

There’s a big-picture benefit to calling plays from the coaches’ boost.

That’s where Caley ran the offense during a preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings. In his NFL play-calling debut, which included a misdirection, play-action roll-out touchdown pass from Davis Mills to Braxton Berrios. The running game was also established in a balanced scoring drive as Dare Ogunbowale ran behind his pads.

This time, Caley worked from the sidelines.

Running back Nick Chubb rushed for 25 yards on five carries.

The offensive line, comprised of rookie left tackle Aireontae Ersery, left guard Laken Tomlinson, center Jake Andrews, right guard Ed Ingram and right tackle Blake Fisher, with Cam Robinson and Tytus Howard sidelined, allowed just one sack. The Texans rushed for 109 yards on 28 carries and one score.

And Collins got in the end zone on a five-yard pass to convert on fourth down-and-goal.

“Get back on top, make some plays,” Collins said. “Glad everybody’s picking up where we left off. I feel like I’m getting everything down pat. This is going to continue to get slower for us.

“This is fourth down, it was a blitz zero, so I had to let it out right to the front pylon. I know 7 was trying to get it out early, so it was only right for me to get out there and make the play for him.”

Yes, the Texans’ defense has dominated the offense regularly in practice.

Yes, the Panthers’ defense was ranked last in the NFL last season.

All of those things are true, but there’s also a glass half full element in play here.

What if the Texans’ offense is better than they looked in camp and the defense is simply an elite, suffocating group that few offenses could perform well against?

“Man, we go against the best defense in the league every single day,” Collins said. “So it’s only right, man, practice is gonna be hard. So it’d be easier in the game. It’s easy to get run 1% better every day, so it’s getting easy for us, man. But we gotta continue to chop the wood, continue to get better, chopping the iron."

After a slow start on the opening drive and going three-and-out, the offense began clicking the second series on an 11-play, 60-yard drive that lasted 5 minutes and 57 seconds capped by Stroud’s throw to Collins.

“On that first drive I missed a throw, but that’s what preseason is for, to get that feel,” Stroud said. “It’s different being on a game field. It feels like you have more space. It’s just good to be out there, get those nervous juices out. I feel like we ran the ball really well. Our O-line blocked very good, run and pass.

“I think we’re clicking. We’re starting to see progress and production. I think more than anything our process is right, we’re doing everything right, we’re ID’ing the right way. We’re not making the same mistakes we did earlier in camp. I think that’s what you want to see at this point.”

Stroud has been granted autonomy to run the offense, including audibles and line protection calls. That wasn’t the case under Slowik.

“Yes, I feel good,” Stroud said. “It’s like what I’ve done in the past, like high school, I had a lot of other ways to get to plays, protections. Same thing in college.

“Our schemes the last two years really didn’t have those capabilities, at least yet, so I really didn’t get to do it. But this year we’ve introduced that, and I think it’s been great to just have some ownership, know what’s going on, not always have to throw hot, all these guys in my face. I think it’s been great just to have some ownership.”

And the timing and flow with Collins, Ohio State Buckeye to Michigan Wolverine, that connection is still on point.

“I think he’s one of a kind,” Stroud said. “He’s a unicorn. Fast, strong, jump ability, route running, release at the line of scrimmage. He has it all. It’s my job to connect with him, I owe him one from today, but I think the sky’s the limit for him.

From Caley’s perspective, he’s still figuring it all out as far as vantage point to run the offense.

“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. I’m going into it with an open mind and I’m going to see how this week goes.”

As far as the view and seeing everything and having fast access to analytics and trends, the booth is a quiet space to work from.

On the field, though, Caley can talk more frequently with players, look them in the eyes and get a feel up close for the action unfolding on the field. It’s two different worlds.

“I think in the booth there’s a little bit more peace and serenity,” Caley said. “I can lay out some stuff, I got some room to write things down. Obviously, I get a bird’s eye view. We have great communication on the headsets. I thought that went well with the staff. I have all the faith in the world with everybody that’s on the headset.

“When you talk about what’s the advantage of being down, I’ve been down the vast majority of my career in the National Football League. So, seeing it from that perspective is what I’ve most recently been used to. But you also get to engage and see guys and look them in the eyes and get an opportunity to reset things and talk and communicate and get that one-on-one communication with them. I think there’s two different perspectives. Both are good so we’re going to see how it goes, and this is the time to do it.”

For Caley, 42, it’s about execution and details. The Texans’ offense, led by Stroud and Collins, are in a time of change with a new playbook being installed.

Caley is overseeing the direction of the offense and he knows what he wants exactly what he wants the Texans’ offense to look like when they hit the field.

When the Texans hired Caley as their new offensive coordinator, they put their trust in a strategist with a successful background who’s versed in two different offensive systems.

Caley absorbed a ton of knowledge with the Patriots while working under Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels as a younger position coach who was tasked with coaching two colorful, talented veteran tight ends in Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett and earned two Super Bowl rings. With the Rams, he was the tight ends coach and passing game coordinator

Now, Caley is learning on the job as a rookie play-caller tasked with competing against an aggressive, elite defense headlined by pass rushers Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. and All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.

Caley is liking the personality and work ethic across the offense. That’s a good starting foundation.

“They work, they love football,” Caley said. “I’ve been very pleased with them. We have a great group of guys, all positions, and it’s been a lot of fun. And from the vets to the rookies, I mean, the whole group, it’s, it’s a lot fun every single day, and that’s, that’s the biggest part is being around good people, and we have a lot of good people.”

The high-energy style of Caley resonates strongly with Stroud, a former NFL Offensive Rookie of the year. Caley frequently texts and calls Stroud, at all hours of the day.

“Nick is a fiery young coach who loves to yell and run around,” Stroud said. “I love it. He brings juice to the building every day. So, I’m excited to work with him every day and try to build a relationship. He’s done a good job relating to the players and always asking us what we want, how we want to do things and making it player owned. I love that of him.”

Watching Caley at practice, he’s in constant motion. He’s filled with intensity.

“Man, you can tell by his enthusiasm every day,” Collins said. “He’s a great coach. 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.”

A former student assistant coach at John Carroll University, the same alma mater as Texans general manager Nick Caserio along with pro personnel director D.J. Debick, special teams coordinator Frank Ross and senior offensive assistant-passing game specialist Jerry Schuplinski, became even more advanced as a coach the past two seasons working for McVay as the Rams’ tight ends coach and passing game coordinator.

It’s an ultra-successful coaching foundation that gave the Texans a ton of confidence in hiring Caley, a first-time offensive coordinator and play-caller, as the replacement for dismissed offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik.

Readiness is a recurring theme with Caley.

The Ohio native and St. Thomas Aquinas graduate played football at Walsh University before working as a student assistant at John Carroll University, a Division III powerhouse where Caserio was a record-setting quarterback throwing passes to McDaniels.

Caley grew up in Canton, Ohio in a football-oriented household just three miles away from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He looked up to Thom McDaniels, a high school football legend in Ohio who’s the father of Josh McDaniels and Texans receivers coach and passing game coordinator Ben McDaniels.

Before moving on to several stops as a college assistant coach at Florida Atlantic where he recruited Texans team captain and starting linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair working at Akron, Iowa State, Arkansas, Auburn and Eastern Illinois, Staley broke into the coaching ranks at John Carroll.

Working for Regis Scafe, the head coach at JCU, Caley built a reputation as someone who embraced any work assignment he could gets his hands on. Whenever he finished something in the recruiting department, he asked for more and more work to do. When he was taught how to do something, he learned it right away and didn’t make mistakes.

“He did a really good job as a student and we put him in charge of gameday visits,” Scafe said in a telephone interview with KPRC 2. “I look at where he is now and you’ve got really admire and respect what he did, the way his career has taken off. What he did in college, so many stops and, of course, what he’s done in the NFL, he really put in the time. He was always very efficient, very organized. No one has given him anything. He really deserved this.

“He worked his butt off. He has all the experience with the Patriots and the Rams. He coached Gronk, one of the greatest tight ends ever, and he did a good job. Look at his career, step by step. He’s ready. It’s amazing. He decided early on that he was going to go into coaching. With the Patriots, I think they slept in the office. Belichick would get guys in there and see if they’re good enough and if they work hard enough and understand enough.”

Those formative years, working at JCU, working for Belichick, working for McVay, all molded Caley.

"I think we’re all a byproduct of our experiences and I cherish every experience that we’ve had,“ Caley said. ”You learn from the successes and you learn from a lot of failures along the way, too. Those guys have been big mentors to me and I have a lot of respect for them. So, you learn every day along the way and that’s what I try to do is just, you know, try to be at my best every single day."

As Caley puts his stamp on the Texans’ overhauled offense that includes a significantly different offensive line after trading five-time Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil, he’s maintaining a big-picture perspective.

Not every opposing defense is going to be as good as the Texans. Plus, the offense expects to make progress as they absorb more knowledge and achieve a comfort zone in Caley’s offense.

Higgins, the Texans’ top draft pick, is an imposing downfield target at 6-foot-4, 217 pounds. He’s off to a fast start at training camp.

“He’s mature beyond his years,” Caley said. “He’s a pro. He’s got the right demeanor. He’s in here all the time.”

Caley utilizes a fullback in his offense with Jakob Johnson, a former Patriots lead blocker. Johnson provides blocking punch and knowledge of what Caley wants to run.

“It allows you to activate a different personnel grouping, obviously,” Caley said. “You can do some different things. He has versatility to not just play in the backfield, you can activate some different schemes.

“I think that fullback position in general, and I would say it’s an extension to the tight ends, that brings a toughness to a football team. It enhances the toughness. I’ve got experience with Jak. He’s all in. He pours everything he has into it.”

When Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was playing high school football in Tampa, Fla., his recruiter was Caley. Caley built a relationship with Al-Shaair, whose family was dealing with homelessness at the time.

“Nick Caley is literally somebody who’s known me from the time I was a 16-year-old homeless kid,” Al-Shaair said. “He’s been to my motel that I lived in to now, you know, for both of us to be in the position that we’re in, you know, literally 10 years later. It’s just crazy, you know, because we kept up with each other.

“He actually never coached me at FAU. He left as soon as my class signed. He ended up leaving to go to the NFL right away. But he literally called me and talked to me all the time from that point forward. And you would have thought he coached me for all those years. But we always had a really close relationship, and he always kept up with me. So, I’m grateful to have him here. He’s just an old friend that just reminds me of how far I’ve come as well.”

Caley was hired by Ryans with input from general manager Nick Caserio and other key members of the organization, including consulting with players like Stroud during the process. Stroud was sacked 52 times to rank second in the NFL as he passed for 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in a drop-off from his NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year numbers of 23 touchdowns and five interceptions.

The Rams ranked 10th in passing offense last season as quarterback Matthew Stafford had 3,762 yards, 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions

With the Rams, Caley became well-versed and instrumental to what Sean McVay runs to capitalize on the skills of Stafford and wide receiver Puka Nacua.

Now, Caley takes over an offense in need of a boost.

The best offensive player in franchise history, Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Andre Johnson, is a believer in Caley and how he can provide an edge for an offense that reached a crossroads last season with shortcomings in pass protection and a lack of adjustments to complex defensive schemes.

“I think it was a great hire,” Johnson told KPRC 2. “Very creative mind, just very excited. To see what we have right now for the organization, things have been trending in the right direction.”

‘He can spin it, he’s got the It factor,’ how Texans new OC Nick Caley approaches coaching C.J. Stroud

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.