Romeo Crennel once again finds himself as an interim head coach in the NFL.
Romeo Crennel is once again serving as head coach of an NFL franchise. This time, it’s the Houston Texans who have officially turned to Crennel after team CEO Cal McNair decided to fire Bill O’Brien after the franchise’s 0-4 start to the 2020 season.
Maybe the third time will be the charm for Crennel, who has earned another chance to lead a team despite a career record of 28-55 as a head coach.
Ever since the 2014 season, Crennel has served as the Texans defensive coordinator and then assistant head coach. It makes sense for Crennel to take over for O’Brien given his title, but it still seems funny to allow Crennel to lead a team again with such a miserable record overall.
Crennel has, at the very least, looked okay in an interim role in the past. For the Kansas City Chiefs, Crennel went from defensive coordinator to head coach after Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli fired Todd Haley with three games to spare in the 2011 season. Crennel then went 2-1 down the stretch with the Chiefs.
The team loved Crennel as an assistant coach and went to bat for him after the season for Pioli to strip off the interim title. However, Crennel responded by winning the same amount of games the following year—two—despite coaching for a full season. The miserable season was a dumpster fire that resulted in team owner Clark Hunt cleaning house and bringing in Andy Reid to begin what is now the team’s tremendous run of sustained success.
Crennel’s .337 win percentage is 17th worst on the NFL’s all-time list.