Texans hiring Cardinals DL coach Matt Burke as defensive coordinator

The Houston Texans have their defensive coordinator.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport was the first to report the news Friday morning.

Sources: The #Texans are expected to hire #AZCardinals DL coach Matt Burke as their new defensive coordinator on DeMeco Ryans’ staff. The former #Dolphins DC, Burke is the first big hire for Ryans in Houston.

Once dubbed the most interesting man in the NFL, Burke spends his offseason climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, hanging out in Rwanda with gorillas or skydiving. Now, he’ll call Houston his home.

Burke certainly has quite the resume of activities off the field, but what has his NFL coaching life looked like up until this point?

He is about to embark on his 20th season as an NFL assistant, and his journey began with the Tennessee Titans from 2004-08. He then moved on to the Detroit Lions, where he coached the team’s linebackers from 2009-13.

Then, Burke coached the linebackers for the Cincinnati Bengals (2014-15) and Miami Dolphins (2016) before being promoted to become Miami’s defensive coordinator (2017-18).

After leaving the Dolphins, Burke joined the Philadelphia Eagles as a special assistant in 2019 and then coached the defensive line and coordinated the run game in 2020.

He then went on to coach the New York Jets in 2021 and Cardinals in 2022.

Now, he joins the Texans as the fourth team he’s coached in as many years. He’s got a ton of experience across the board, but no obvious connection to DeMeco Ryans.

The one link that comes to mind is the fact that Burke coached J.J. Watt this past season with the Cardinals. Watt and Ryans likely spoke about the decision to add Burke to the staff, and J.J. may have given his last defensive line coach in the NFL a stamp of approval.

Now, Burke and Ryans are teaming up to try and revitalize the Texans defense and catapult it back among the league’s best.