Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans on Sept. 22, 2024, and ESPN NFL analyst Rex Ryan on Jan. 6, 2025. Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans on Sept. 22, 2024, and ESPN NFL analyst Rex Ryan on Jan. 6, 2025. (Ryans photo from Jeffrey Becker/Imagn Images, Ryan photo from Awful Announcing on X.)

It’s always fun to see when pundits’ bold predictions go wildly wrong, especially when they get called out by the team they picked against. That happened with ESPN NFL analyst Rex Ryan Saturday, with Houston Texans’ head coach DeMeco Ryans roasting Ryan for a take gone wrong.

How did that happen? Well, this started with a bold prediction from Ryan. Ahead of the Texans’ Wild Card playoff game against the Los Angeles Chargers, he made it clear who he thought would win. And he went even further than that.

Indeed, Ryan went all-in on insulting Houston. He claimed this matchup would be as good as a “bye week” for the Chargers:

Well, it wasn’t quite as relaxing as that, at least not for that team. Despite trailing 6-0 after the first quarter, the Texans stormed back and won comfortably, 32-12. That was helped by an awful showing from Los Angeles QB Justin Herbert, who completed just 14 of 32 passes for 242 yards with four interceptions, but Houston deserved plenty of credit of their own for both disrupting Herbert and executing their own offense (C.J. Stroud threw for 282 yards with a touchdown and a pick). And in a locker-room speech after the game, Ryans had a message for Ryan on that “bye week” line:

Ryan’s comment here even drew some pushback before this game:

And, on Sunday NFL Countdown (where Ryan is a panelist), ESPN played the video of the Texans’ reaction to the comment, including Joe Mixon and other players smoking cigars and referencing his words. They then got to Ryan’s reaction to that (including “Who had the worse day, me or Justin Herbert?”, plus a claim that if the Texans had played this well all season, he would have picked them as Super Bowl champs, and an eventual “Sorry, Houston. But I’m not picking you next week either! Or maybe I will…”

While Ryan is trying very hard to get the New York Jets’ head coaching job, reports suggest that may not happen. So he may have to continue as an ESPN pundit. And it’s worth noting that this particular comment came on debate show Get Up, which we’ve often referred to as “Mike Greenberg’s Morning Hot Take Parade,” rather than the typically more serious and nuanced NFL Countdown. But if Ryan continues to be so bold with his takes on ESPN shows, there will likely be more occasions where he winds up eating his words (although not literally, unlike some) this way.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.