Jadeveon Clowney glad to play for DeMeco Ryans in Houston after clashing with Bill O'Brien

In 2014 the Texans hired Bill O'Brien as their head coach, and spent the first overall pick in the draft on Jadeveon Clowney. It was not a match made in heaven.

Clowney, who returned to the Texans this week after O'Brien traded him away in 2019, said after returning to Houston that he and O'Brien were never a good fit. Clowney said he tried to live up to the lofty expectations O'Brien had for him but could never satisfy his coach.

"I take nothing personally," Clowney said. "I don't have hard feelings. It was just O'Brien at the time, me and him bumped heads and I couldn't really understand because I was an easy-going guy. I was like, 'Whatever you want from me' when I was 21 years old."

Clowney said the atmosphere in the Texans' facility is night-and-day different now with DeMeco Ryans as head coach.

"The building changed a lot, in a good way. A very, very good way. A lot easier, more relaxed in that building than it was when I first got there. The coaching staff is different. It's more fun," Clowney said. "That's because of DeMeco, the guy that's running the show, he put a lot of great guys around him, coaches, and you can feel the energy. And all the other guys can feel it, so I know great things are going to happen here, for me and the team."

O'Brien did have some success in Houston, taking over a 2-14 team and going 9-7 in his first season, then making the playoffs in four of the next five years. But Ryans has had more success, reaching the divisional round of the playoffs in all three of his seasons in Houston. And Clowney said he returned to Houston because he believes Ryans can do something no Texans coach has done, and reach the Super Bowl.