Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans has not made many changes to his coaching staff this offseason, aside from offensive coordinator. The Texans moved on from Bobby Slowik days after their playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC divisional round.
Houston replaced Slowik with former Los Angeles Rams pass game coordinator Nick Caley. However, the Texans’ defense remained the same as they didn’t lose or part ways with any coaches.
Houston’s defense, led by coordinator Matt Burke, will look to build off their 2024 performance. The Texans have several young players on defense who are already making waves. To help with this continued development, the Texans are bringing in an assistant coach for the 2025 season.
According to Aaron Wilson of KRPC-2, the Texans are expected to hire former Toledo University defensive line coach Frank Okam as their new assistant defensive line coach. Okam has multiple connections to the state of Texas and the Texans organization.
Sources: #Texans expected to hire former #Raiders #Panthers @ToledoFB assistant Frank Okam, a former Texans fifth-round pick from @TexasLonghorns as assistant defensive line coach @KPRC2 https://t.co/WODyf1g3Kp
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) February 12, 2025
The former Toledo coach was drafted by the Texans in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft and played college football at the University of Texas. Okam also played high school football in the Lone Star State at Lake Highlands HS in Dallas, TX.
Okam played four years in the NFL, including three with the Texans, where he played alongside DeMeco Ryans. In addition to Ryans, Okam will be reunited with head defensive line coach Rod Wright, who played at the University of Texas.
After his NFL career ended, Okam went into coaching in 2014 as a graduate assistant at Rice University. From there, the former Longhorn was hired as the defensive line coach at Baylor under Matt Rhule. Okam then followed Rhule to the Carolina Panthers.
After two years in Carolina, Okam was a defensive line coach with the Las Vegas Raiders for the 2022 season, where he got to work with Maxx Crosby. The Raiders parted ways with him in the next offseason.
Okam has spent the last two years at the University of Toledo and will get to work with Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr., who had 12 and 11 sacks in 2024, respectively.