Texans Paying Close Attention to Colts TE Tyler Warren

While the Texans will be hopeful that luck swings their way, Indianapolis still has a plethora of talent on the offensive side who Ryans knows are plenty talented enough to pick up the pieces in short order.

In particular, Colts rookie tight end Tyler Warren is a prodigious talent that's leapt out to coach Ryans ever since he excelled at Penn State, prior to becoming a first-round pick.

“Tyler Warren, he's a playmaker. Wherever you get this kid the ball, he's explosive, a little faster than you think, tougher than you think," Ryans said. "He showed that at Penn State. He was a one-man wrecking crew. He did a really nice job at Penn State and it's carried over here to the league."

"He's still doing a nice job. You can see they're trying to put him in spots to get him the football because he is that type of guy. He's a playmaker, a guy it seems like you can trust; you can count on him. He continues to show up, play after play, down after down for those guys.”

Tyler Warren Will Be Key Playmaker for Texans Defense to Focus On

Warren allows Colts quarterback Daniel Jones to work all parts of the field, and when you factor in the explosive plays the likes of running back Jonathan Taylor has delivered, defending against the play action is imperative for overall defensive success.

"They do a good job of their play-action pass game, really timing it up at the proper time," Ryans insisted yesterday. "Really catching a lot of defenses off guard. They're creating a lot of explosives there as well. So, you've got to play true."

"So, I'm telling our [defense], you have to play true, you have to play with elite eye discipline, elite awareness to what your job is and being on it. Because if not, Shane has always done a good job, offensively, of creating eye candy, as I call it, to mess with guys' eyes, to put their guys in position to make plays.”

And when you factor in all the smoke and mirror tactics Colts head coach Shane Steichen can deploy, his counterpart on the Houston sideline will remain pretty wary. After all, lots of hard work has gone into just resuscitating the Texans' fractured season, particularly after an extremely disappointing 0-3 start to their campaign.

But over the last three weeks, we've borne witness to how sheer resilience has shown up in H-Town rather spectacularly, and just when they needed it the most. Time will tell if they can keep the positive trends swinging their direction for this weekend.