DeMeco Ryans is off to a ‘legendary’ start to his coaching career

This Sunday, at historic Lambeau Field, will mark DeMeco Ryans' 24th regular season game as Texans head coach. As he approaches his first 25 games, we'll take a look at some of the all-time greats, including the iconic Vince Lombardi, and how they performed in their first 25 games as head coaches. Here's a hint: DeMeco is either outpacing or on par with all of these legendary Hall of Fame coaches.

In 1983, when Bill Parcells took over the Giants, he faced tough competition from the Redskins and Cowboys, who had a combined 26-6 record in the NFC East that season. The Giants struggled in their first 25 games, only managing to win 8, losing 16, and tying 1. This is quite different from what Ryans has achieved so far, with a record of 15 wins and 8 losses.

Bill Walsh was one of the coaches that Parcells had to defeat in head-to-head matchups on the way to winning championships with the Giants. Similarly, the 49ers, led by Walsh, also had a slow start before becoming the "Team of the 80s." They were initially quite poor, winning just 5 of their first 25 games.

That brings up full circle to Vince Lombardi whose very name is on the trophy that Ryans and the Texans are pursuing. Lombardi had winning seasons of course, but at the start the wins were modest, only 15-10 overall in his first 25 games as Packers head coach. DeMeco has a higher winning percentage thus far and the Texans seemed poised to run away with another AFC South Title. DeMeco is not only outpacing much of the competition this season, he’s doing it at a historic pace amongst the coaching legends of the game.