The following is an excerpt from Warren Sharp's 2025 Football Preview book. In addition to Warren's deep, detailed write-up on all 32 NFL teams, each chapter features page after page of full-color charts, stats, and heatmaps as well as penalty analysis from Joe Gibbs. Click here for a full FREE chapter from the 2025 Football Preview.
Penalties are an under-discussed aspect of NFL success and failure. Average teams can become playoff contenders with good discipline, and good teams can become great simply by winning the penalty battle.
Let's look at how the Houston Texans performed from a penalty perspective in 2024 and where they can improve in 2025.
How Did Penalties Impact the Houston Texans?
The Good
- The Texans defense ended the 2024 season ranked as the least penalized unit in the NFL on all important third down plays.
- The defense ranked 11th overall in surrendering automatic first downs via penalty. However, only 15% of these penalties were surrendered on third downs, compared to the league average of 31.8% in this category.
The Bad
- The Texans offense was a top 10 penalized unit, and ranked as the second most penalized offense on third down plays.
- False starts and offensive holding were a major issue for Houston’s offense early in the 2024 season. The silver lining is the penalties in this category declined as the season progressed.
- The offense was anemic at generating beneficial automatic first downs via penalties, dropping from the eighth ranked offense in 2023 to 28th in 2024. The combination of offensive line issues and multiple injuries at wide receiver took a toll on the team's ability to stress opposing defenses, and their penalty numbers suffered as a result.
- The special teams unit was a top-five penalized unit.
Grade: B
Houston head coach DeMeco Ryans said the goal is to “get over the hump” after a disappointing and controversial Divisional Round loss to Kansas City ended their 2024 season.
The Texans wasted no time making moves, revamping their much maligned offensive line and bringing in a new offensive coordinator.
Houston has one of the best rosters in the NFL, boasting what could be a top-five defensive unit with playmakers at every level.
The Texans have reached the Divisional Round in both seasons of the Ryans/C.J Stroud era, which is an impressive achievement for a first time head coach and rookie quarterback combination.
Without question, taking that next step is what Houston is aiming for heading into the 2025 season.
If their offense can be less predictable and the offensive line improves, we can put this Texans team on a short list to be the AFC representative in Super Bowl LX.
This analysis continues in the 2025 Football Preview
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