Bobby Slowik is ultra-focused on the task at hand: building a game plan against the Baltimore Ravens’ talented defense for an AFC divisional round playoff game Saturday afternoon.
That means that the Texans’ first-year offensive coordinator hasn’t had time for the five job interview requests submitted by NFL teams. That includes the Seattle Seahawks, Washington Commanders, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans, according to league sources.
“It’s the same as last week,” Slowik said. “Very grateful for every consideration. Grateful for the opportunities. Grateful to DeMeco (Ryans), to Nick [Caserio], to the Texans organization for giving me this opportunity. But, right now, I couldn’t tell you what’s going on. I’m entirely locked in on the Ravens. I know here pretty soon, that process is going to start pretty quick, but I’m going to cross that bridge when I get to it. Right now, I’m just Baltimore.”
When it comes to choosing a head coaching job, Ryans was picky. He wouldn’t take just any head coaching vacancy.
One year after being involved in multiple coaching searches, including the Minnesota Vikings, the former Pro Bowl linebacker set his sights on coming home and signed a six-year lucrative contract with the Texans to become the sixth head coach in franchise history instead of joining the Denver Broncos.
Ryans, 39, a former NFL Assistant Coach of the Year with the San Francisco 49ers as the architect of a top-ranked defense, is advising Slowik to proceed with caution as he draws interest from NFL teams for their head coaching vacancies.
“Yeah, my advice to Bobby is to be selective,” Ryans said. “You only get one opportunity to do it, and you want to make sure you’re selective and that you’re going to – if you get the opportunity – going to a place that you feel like you can be effective.”
Slowik worked in the same office as Ryans when they were with the 49ers and they have risen in the coaching ranks together.
The Texans, with Slowik calling the plays, have improved to 12th in total offense after finishing 31st last season with Pep Hamilton running the offense. They rank 13th in scoring offense, averaging 22.2 points per game.
“With me, selecting Bobby as the offensive coordinator, Bobby is a guy that I’ve known since I’ve been in coaching,” Ryans said. “I’ve known him, I’ve worked with him for six years we’ve worked together. We’re both ‘QCs’ [quality control coaches] together, so we were both ground level guys, just grinding. Bobby is just a guy who is very detail-oriented in everything that he does. He’s a very smart guy.
“Off the field, just family man – really great father, great husband. Just a trustworthy guy and Bobby has done a tremendous job with everything that’s been asked of him. He’s done a great job with it and I’m happy to have Bobby onboard. He’s done a great job all year. We wouldn’t be here where we are standing today without Bobby and his entire staff and what they’ve done.”
Slowik, in his first year running an NFL offense, has been instrumental in the development of NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year frontrunner quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Slowik, 36, has previously been a passing game coordinator with the 49ers. He also worked at Pro Football Focus as an analyst.
By devoting himself to preparations for a Saturday playoff game against the Ravens, Slowik is staying true to his character.
Like the Texans’ seventh-ranked passing offense and 13th ranked scoring offense and 12th ranked total offense, Slowik has grown since the first game of the regular season: a 25-9 loss on the road to the Ravens. That was one of the few games that Stroud, an NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year frontrunner who finished the regular season with 4,108 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions, didn’t throw a touchdown pass.
The Texans needed to start off with a less complex approach, and that made a difference in the outcome.
“I think the biggest part with that – and I use the phrase ‘rock my boat’ a little bit, like I started with the ‘505,’ and it’s the first game we’ve had under this scheme, and you need to start with the ‘101,’” Slowik said. “And, we didn’t do that, and we didn’t really give anybody a chance. And after that, we kind of changed how we were approaching some things, how we coached some things, how we were setting some things up, and the other part of it is in that game, I think we all got a really clear picture of what we were really good at as an offense and as specific individuals on the offense.
“And guys have just grown from there. They’ve expanded what they’re good at. They’ve amplified the things they showed in that game that they can do really well, and that really kind of, like I said, set the table for the rest of the year. From that point on, we’ve had a pretty focused vision for what we want to do on offense, and I think everybody has been on the same page in that regard.”
Headlined by linebackers Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen, defensive tackle Justin Madubuike, safety Kyle Hamilton and former Texans top overall pick Jadeveon Clowney, the Ravens are ranked first in scoring defense, sixth in total defense and sixth in passing and rushing defense.
The Ravens defense, coached by defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who has a similar amount of head coaching requests as Slowik, have had success against similar West Coast offensive schemes like the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins with recent 33-19 and 56-19 wins in December.
“I’d say the one thing that jumps out when you’re watching the last two months of film of the Ravens is there are a lot of games that are out of hand in the fourth quarter,” Slowik said. “I want to say there were two games, maybe, that were competitive in the last month late in the game. The Rams jumps out to me, and Cleveland, and Cleveland had to claw their way back in that one, so there were a lot that were out there. I don’t think it was just Miami and San Francisco, but it’s helpful, not necessarily in how they’re going to attack us, because I think a lot of times on defense, just as much as you’re attacking the scheme, you’re attacking people.
“But it helps a lot to get similar looks. That’s where it becomes really beneficial. A lot of different offenses align in different ways. Some teams are really condensed formations, some teams are really wide formations, some teams motion a lot, some teams don’t. And it just lets you get looks at how they play certain things and make certain adjustments, and then we see if we can take advantage of that.”
The collaboration between Stroud and Slowik has been successful all year. Stroud became the only NFL quarterback other than Tom Brady and Joe Montana to lead the NFL in passing yards per game and touchdown-to-interception ratio.
And Slowik has worked with several different personnel groupings, including major changes to the offensive line due to season-ending injuries to Tytus Howard, Jarrett Patterson, Kendrick Green and Kenyon Green as well as rookie star wide receiver Tank Dell suffering a broken left fibula and shifting starting running backs from Dameon Pierce to Devin “Motor” Singletary.
“Yeah, it’s been good,” Stroud said. “Trust is everything. That’s something Bobby talked about a lot, and we know how important it is, especially offensively to trust the next man to do their job so you’re able to do yours so you can win. So, like I said before, Week 1 to now, we’ve built a lot of trust and chemistry together, and I think it’s starting to show on film, and you can kind of just feel it in the locker room, how close we are. So, it’s a lot of different things that go along with trust that we’ve been able to build.”
Part of being a good offensive coordinator or perhaps a head coach is the ability to adapt on the fly. The Texans have made changes since the first game of the season, recognizing that what they were doing wasn’t working at an optimal level. That shows an intuitive nature from the coaching staff, including Slowik, as well as Stroud, a Pro Bowl alternate.
“Yeah, we changed it pretty much immediately after our Week 1 Baltimore game, kind of how we were attacking and approaching some things,” Slowik said. “Our conversations have always been the same, it just takes time. C.J. is the ultimate preparer. He’s not a rookie in that regard. He’s a rookie in that every lesson he learns, he really tries hard to bank. He puts a lot into making a mistake and making sure he doesn’t make the same mistake twice, but he prepares like a vet.
“He prepares like someone who has been in the league six, seven, eight years, and that speeds up all our conversations. I feel like I’m talking to another coach. So, our back and forths are usually pretty quick. He understands what I’m saying, I understand what he’s saying. We understand how to communicate quickly, and if we want to make an adjustment, we can kind of find a middle ground. Sometimes, we’ll find a middle ground. That part really just took time, and the more we grew in our rapport similar to the rest of the offense with C.J., it just became tighter and clearer what we wanted to do.”
Aaron Wilson is a contributor to Sports Talk 790.