Houston Texans: The importance of Whitney Mercilus’s ascension
Another season, another year spent watching J.J. Watt wreck offensive lines, as the Houston Texans superstar finished the campaign with a whopping 17.5 sacks, eight passes defended, and three fumbles forced. However, he wasn’t the only wrecking ball on the Houston front seven, as outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus turned Mike Vrabel‘s guidance into the best season of his career.
After starting the season slowly with a 2-5 record, the Houston Texans bounced back from an embarrassing blowout defeat to the Miami Dolphins, in which they allowed 44 points, to shut down the Tennessee Titans to just six points and upset the previously undefeated Cincinnati Bengals in the week after the bye. Those two games started a four-game winning streak, and the Texans would sneak into the playoffs as AFC South champions with a 9-7 record.
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Since the Texans started Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates, and Brandon Weeden at varying points last season, this team, with the exception of top-five wideout DeAndre Hopkins, was carried by its defense. And boy was Bill O’Brien‘s defense dominant, as it rebounded from an early season slump to finish seventh in points per game allowed, third in yards per game allowed, third in passing yards per attempt surrendered, and third in first downs against.
The pass defense played shutdown football in the second half of the regular season, and cornerback Johnathan Joseph did an admirable job of quieting the critics by quieting the receivers he faced. Joseph was seemingly overpaid by the Texans, looking to reward their veteran CB after paying Kareem Jackson big money and drafting Kevin Johnson, but he proved to be the star of the secondary in 2015.
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Of course, the real stars of the Texans defense were up front, and while you can say what you’d like about second-year outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney, you can’t say anything but praise when speaking about either J.J. Watt or Whitney Mercilus.
Everyone knew Watt would have another season filled with stats, records, and accolades galore, but how many saw a 12-sack outburst from Mercilus? In his first three seasons, the former first-round pick out of Illinois showed that he could get the quarterback, recording six, seven, and five sacks in those seasons.
But while Mercilus did a nice job of picking up sacks, he failed in the consistency department, which is part of the reason why the Texans took Clowney, regarded as the best player in the draft, over a quarterback like Teddy Bridgewater, Blake Bortles, or Derek Carr.
An outside linebacker did become a difference-maker for the Texans in 2015, but that OLB was Mercilus. Yes, many of his 12 sacks came against weak competition, as he benefited greatly from a whopping nine of his 12 sacks coming against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans. Shocking, right? I mean, if he didn’t sign his four-year, $26 million extension before the start of the 2015 season, he would have owed Luke Joeckel and the Jags line some money.
After frustratingly failing to take advantage of Watt’s dominance, Mercilus became one of the Texans most valuable defenders, as he also set a career-high with 52 tackles. He was one of a few stout run defenders on the Houston defense, though his main asset was obviously his pass rushing. After all, according to Sporting Charts, he was tied with Kansas City Chiefs ace Tamba Hali for eighth in defensive hurries.
Having an edge rusher who can get to the quarterback and deliver steady pressure is critical, and you can look at the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, and New England Patriots as examples of how important a good pass rush is. The Texans need Clowney to have a third-year breakout, and that could feasibly happen, which would give the Texans one of the NFL’s top 3-4 outside linebacker duos.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s important to look at the Patriots as an example of how impactful a breakout pass rusher can be. See, the Patriots already had one solid pass rusher in Chandler Jones, and they could get more pressure by using star linebackers Jamie Collins and Dont’a Hightower.
However, their defense kicked into the next gear with the offseason signing of Jabaal Sheard, who indeed proved to be one of the best free agent pick-ups, and we saw signs of that in Houston last season. Because even though K-Jax had a down year and Rahim Moore disappointed, the fact that the Texans pass rush improved significantly, mostly thanks to Mercilus’s breakout, allowed them to be a top-five pass defense.
Next season, the combination of Mercilus and Clowney off the edge will be interesting to watch, especially since the latter quietly did a good job of disrupting quarterbacks.
Unlike Mercilus, he didn’t benefit from picking up sacks in bunches against the likes of Jacksonville, K.C., and Tennessee (though Mercilus should get major credit for being among the top ten in the NFL in hurries), but the stats should come in due time.
For now, Mercilus has become the proven name in Houston, and it’s important to remember that he’ll be just 26 but in his fifth season in the NFL in 2016.
If Clowney can stay healthy and prove the doubters wrong, then the trio of Watt, Mercilus, and the former No. 1 overall pick will be a real treat to watch.
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I mean, they were already third in the NFL in net yards per pass attempt allowed last season, and you have to figure that Jackson and Johnson will be better at CB in 2016. So yeah, Andrew Luck had better bring his “A” game, Marcus Mariota had better get more help around him, and Blake Bortles had better make more strides.