Report: Jonathan Gannon is “a top candidate” for the Texans head coaching job

The Eagles’ defensive coordinator could be headed to Houston after the 2022 season.

Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon is “a top candidate” for the Houston Texans’ expected head coach opening, according to a report from Aaron Wilson.

Wilson notes that Lovie Smith’s job security is “in serious danger” as the Texans enter Week 18 with the league’s worst record at 2-13-1.

Gannon previously drew interest from the Texans (and other teams) last offseason. In fact, there was one point where Gannon was said to be the front-runner for the job.

Of course, that was before Houston’s coaching search kind of went sideways while Brian Flores decided to sue the NFL for alleged racial discrimination. To the surprise of many, the Texans ended up promoting Smith from associate head coach and defensive coordinator to replace David Culley.

Looking to finally find some stability, it appears the Texans could turn to Gannon. Wilson indicates there is “mutual interest” between him and the franchise. That makes sense since Gannon and Texans general manager Nick Caserio seem to have some familiarity. As we pointed out last year:

Caserio and Gannon are both from Ohio and attended Cleveland-area high schools. It might also be worth noting that Caserio comes from the New England Patriots, where he overlapped with Josh McDaniels for a long time. And McDaniels brought Gannon to Indianapolis before he dipped out on the Colts.

After questions about his qualifications last year, Gannon has overseen an improved Eagles defense in 2022. Philadelphia’s defense ranks fourth by EPA per play, fifth by DVOA, and seventh by opponent offensive points per game. Gannon’s unit ranks tied for the NFL’s second-most takeaways. The Eagles have a chance of becoming the team to finish with the most sacks ever in a single season.

Of course, significant improvement should’ve been expected since Gannon has been given a lot of talent to work with. The Eagles have two Pro Bowlers and five Pro Bowl alternates on their defense … in addition to the NFL’s interceptions leader, who got snubbed due to the league’s dumb voting system.

Despite the Eagles’ defensive success, there are a number of fans who will not be sad to see Gannon leave. Knowing and feeling are two different things. It’s one thing to know the defense is really good when one looks at the numbers and another to feel like the passive approach designed to limit big plays while surrendering yardage underneath is not always aesthetically pleasing. There is also the concern of how Gannon performs against the league’s top quarterbacks.

Regardless, whether you like Gannon or not, it seems like there’s a good chance he’s a goner after this season. He already drew a lot of interest last year and he’s only strengthened his resume.

When it comes to potentially finding a new defensive coordinator, the sense here is the Eagles would like to promote defensive passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson. Gannon has previously referred to him as his “right hand man” and the team is high on Wilson. We noted how Wilson came off as impressive and inspiring during previous media appearances.