The Houston Texans defense, which for the past decade has been the strongest unit on the team, was anything but in the final season with Romeo Crennel as defensive coordinator.
According to grades from Pro Football Focus, the 2019 unit finished with a grade of 64.4, the lowest of the Crennel era, even when accounting for 2017 as a Crennel season, though he was merely the assistant head coach and Mike Vrabel was the defensive coordinator that year.
Houston's defensive grades during Romeo Crennel's tenure as defensive coordinator/assistant head coach:
2014: 76.1 (13th)
2015: 85.1 (4th)
2016: 81.0 (6th)
2017: 76.8 (20th)*
2018: 90.2 (2nd)
2019: 64.4 (24th)*Mike Vrabel DC/Crennel assistant HC
— PFF HOU Texans (@PFF_Texans) January 20, 2020
PFF grades aside, the Texans had the third-fewest takeaways in the Crennel era with 22, tied with the 2016 season for the fewest sacks with 31, allowed a 97.6 opposing passer rating, the second-highest since 2014, gave up the most yards with 6,213, and allowed 385 points, the second-most in the six seasons with Crennel involved in the defense. Pro Football Focus doesn’t need its grades to demonstrate that there was something off with the defense in 2019.
Some of the problems were personnel related. Defensive end J.J. Watt missed the final eight regular season games with a torn pectoral, but outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus was unable to step up in Watt’s absence to provide a big threat on the edge.
The Texans recently promoted defensive line coach Anthony Weaver to defensive coordinator. If he can get the defense back to a level that was on par with the best of the Crennel days, combined with the Texans’ offense led by quarterback Deshaun Watson, then Houston should be able to set themselves up for a deeper playoff run in 2020.