HOUSTON – The Texans finalized their coaching staff with the biggest moves coming from internal promotions and shifts in duties.
Highly respected defensive line coach Rod Wright was promoted to defensive run game coordinator in addition to coaching his position.
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Wright, an Alief native and former All-American defensive end at the University of Texas, coaches the elite defensive end tandem of Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter. They wreck games with their intricate repertoire of pass-rushing moves and an uncommon ferocity.
No one in the game has a set of bookend defensive ends like the Texans. No one else has two gifted and relentless edges who both earned the prestigious All-Pro recognition this season. These guys are simply built different.
And Wright can’t emphasize loudly enough how grateful he is to be coaching two athletic, tough and relentless football players who love what they do for a living and perform at such a consistently ultra-competitive level.
“Man, it’s a great, great time coaching these guys,” Wright told KPRC 2 last season. “Really humbling, the talent level they have, the IQ they have, the leadership qualities they have, the relentless play style they have. Any coach would love to have these guys in their room and I’m blessed to be the guy to do that.”
Wright, a 41-year-old Alief Hastings graduate who earned consensus All-American honors and a national championship for the Longhorns. He played in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets and in the Canadian Football League with the Sasketchewan Roughridgers. A former Sam Houston State, East Carolina, UTSA and University of Miami assistant, Wright joined the Texans in 2023 as assistant defensive line coach. He was promoted last year to head defensive line coach.
“The thing about our guys is that it starts with their coach,” Texans coach Demeco Ryans said. “Coach Rod Wright has done an outstanding job of helping each and every guy in that room improve their craft. They are constantly after it, whether it’s staying after practice, walking through, studying film to see what are their moves, how can they counter off of what they’ve been doing.
“Having Danielle and his experience in the room to be able to help the younger guys as well. Will is a young player, but he’s had a ton of success, and he’s gotten better from that room and the competitiveness, the pride that they have in that room of understanding that we go as a team as how they go. They are the engine to what we do as a team.”
The Texans officially shifted senior offensive assistant Jerry Schuplinski to quarterbacks coach, as reported previously by KPRC 2. Schuplinski is a John Carroll University graduate who was an assistant quarterbacks coach with the New England Patriots coaching Tom Brady. He has also coached quarterbacks with the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants and has a good rapport with quarterback C.J. Stroud. This is a pivotal season for Stroud after a tough postseason. He is working out in California and dedicated to improvement.
The Texans officially named former Houston and Patriots center James Ferentz, a former New York Giants assistant offensive line coach, as tight ends coach as the replacement for Jake Moreland, dismissed and now with the Arizona Cardinals.
Tiquan Underwood is a newly hired assistant receivers coach. He played wide receiver in the NFL for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Patriots, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers.
He has coached with the Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Pitt and at Rutgers, his alma mater.
The Texans hired Taylor Embree, Alex Ward and Cole Weeks as offensive assistants and Jay Simpson and Mark Sheridan as defensive assistants.
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com