Houston Texans: Four reasons why the team should run a 4-3 defense

The Houston Texans sport one of the game’s best defenses. But, there is a way they could be even better. Here are three reasons why the team should run a 4-3 base defense.

Houston Texans defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel is back in the saddle after a year spent in the booth as the associate head coach. Mike Vrabel took over for a year before he headed off to take the Titan’s head coaching job.

2017 saw the Houston Texans suffer a lot of injuries, to be sure. However, in Mike Vrabel’s lone year as defensive coordinator, the team’s defensive ranking fell all the way to 20th in the league. The injuries help explain part of the drop but, this team was still filled with talented players.

In 2016, Crennel’s last year as DC, the Houston Texans had anywhere between the number one and number three defense, depending on how you measured it. So, having RAC back in as DC will be a huge boon to this defense. He commands a TON of respect from the players and can get them to do a ton of great things.

RAC has run a 3-4 in nearly every year of his career. He’s been very successful at running it as well. He’s consistently had top defense at the majority of his stops as defensive coordinator. But, good coaches don’t always need to impose their system on their players. Instead, coordinators sometimes have to adapt to their players.

That’s what RAC should do this year. The Houston Texans players seem like they would fit in a 4-3 base better than a 3-4 base. Let’s take a look at four reasons why this is the case.