Really, DeMeco Ryans?
Of all the reaction, emotion and analysis that flowed from the dirty hit by Azeez Al-Shaair that knocked Trevor Lawrence out of action in Jacksonville on Sunday with a concussion – prompting the NFL on Tuesday to suspend the Houston Texans linebacker for three games – the worst came from Ryans.
The Texans coach blamed the victim.
“It’s two-fold, right?” Ryans contended on Monday, having had ample time to review the video and collect his thoughts.
“A lot of quarterbacks in this day and age, they try to take advantage of the rule, where they slide late and try to get an extra yard. You’re a defender, a lot of the onus is on the defender, whether it’s on the sideline or where it’s on the quarterback, you don’t know what a guy is thinking. You don’t know if a guy is staying up and he’s continuing to run, you don’t know and then you get a late slide and you hit the guy.”
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No, this wasn’t so accidental. Ryans, a former Pro Bowl linebacker, should know better.
Sure, we’ve heard defensive players groan about safety rules for years. And we’ve seen quarterbacks juke, stutter and hesitate for that extra yard. Patrick Mahomes, the game’s best quarterback, is a master at the craft. He has repeatedly caused defenders to freeze on his pump-fake as he scrambles to the sideline.
Yet this case with Lawrence wasn’t that. There was no pump-fake or dead-leg hesitation as he scrambled in the open field. He was clearly giving himself up with a feet-first slide.
And Al-Shaair blasted him, anyway – leading with a forearm for a blow to Lawrence’s head and neck area. Intended or not, it reflected ill will, intimidation and, well, a clear violation of the NFL’s rule to protect defenseless players.
Yet Ryans turned a blind eye those details.
“It’s unfortunate that Trevor got hurt,” the coach said. “Hope Trevor is OK, but it’s also, if we’re sliding, we have to get down. If we’re getting out of bounds, get out of bounds, and that rule is there to protect the quarterbacks. We want our quarterbacks to be safe in the league, so we just have to be safe when we’re sliding and making sure we’re keeping our heads down.”
This nonsense from Ryans is stunning, and not just because it comes from one of the NFL’s rising stars in the coaching ranks. I get it – to some degree. Ryans wanted to defend one of his players, a team captain who happened to have also crossed the line in the past. But in the process of that, Ryans has undermined his own credibility.
Rather than making a statement in the name of safety, Ryans has, intentionally or not, made a mockery of the NFL’s efforts to protect defenseless players.
And this is not only coming from the Texans coach. Houston’s general manager, Nick Caserio, weighed in on Tuesday with pushback that criticized the NFL for an apparent lack of consistency in issuing discipline.
“One of the biggest issues that we sort of take umbrage with, I would say, as a team, organizationally, is a picture that’s been painted of Azeez,” Caserio said Tuesday during a news conference in Houston. “Quite frankly, I’d say it’s unfair.”
Until now, Al-Shaair had never been ejected from a game or suspended by the league, Caserio said. He mentioned how Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch was ejected from a game at Green Bay in early November and played the following week at Houston. The GM pointed out that Los Angeles Chargers safety Derwin James was suspended for one game – and not three – for a hit at Pittsburgh in September and cited for repeated violations. Caserio also referenced Buffalo Bills safety Kareem Jackson, who was suspended twice last season as a member of the Denver Broncos, after multiple ejections.
“In this situation,” Caserio said, “quite frankly there’s no consistency at all to the level of discipline that’s been handed down.”
Caserio used an expletive, too, in laying out the defense of Al-Shaair’s case, which is being appealed. It’s an attack on the character of a linebacker, who incidentally, the GM noted, participated in a United Way event on Tuesday. It’s over-the-top discipline.
It’s some serious whining for a blatant blow to the head.
It’s also fair to wonder whether the Texans would be so forgiving if an opposing defender took out their star quarterback, C.J. Stroud, with the type of ferocious hit that floored Lawrence. Fortunately, Lawrence appears to be in a good place with his recovery, given the update the quarterback shared on social media once he returned home.
Al-Shaair went to social media, too, issuing an apology to Lawrence while expressing his remorse. It’s striking, too, that while Ryans blamed the Jaguars for the brawl that erupted while Lawrence was laid out on the turf at EverBank Field – “overreacting,” the coach called it – Al-Shaair offered a different perspective.
“To the rest of his teammates, I can definitely understand you having his back and defending him in a situation like that,” Al-Shaair posted on X.
In the NFL’s letter of explanation to Al-Shaair, Jon Runyan, the league’s chief enforcement officer, noted that the situation escalated when the linebacker “pulled an opponent down to the ground by his facemask.” Runyan also pointed out that after Al-Shaair’s ejection from the game was announced, he removed his helmet and sparked another confrontation as he left the field.
The emotions were clearly overheated. And we all know why. The dangerous hit on Lawrence ignited a reaction from Jaguars players. Yet Ryans blamed the Jaguars for that, too.
“The entire thing is Azeez hits the guy, but their sideline overreacts and it turns into a melee,” Ryans said. “It wasn’t our guys. Their team overreacted, pushed our guy, dragging our guy to the sideline. So, that’s uncalled for on that side. We have to be better on the sideline as well, for both teams.”
Maybe the suspension, which if it stands will keep Al-Shaair sidelined until Week 18, will provide substance for a teaching moment. As Runyan noted, this isn’t the first time the linebacker has been involved in questionable actions that threaten safety. In Week 2, Al-Shaair’s hit on Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams – late and unnecessary, the league determined – drew an $11,817 fine when coupled with a punch he threw at running back Roschon Johnson after the play.
Then again, the teaching moment might only come by admitting what is clearly shown on the video evidence. And that lesson isn’t merely for the player who inflicted the blow.