Texans' HC Romeo Crennel Breaks Down Reality of Facing Jaguars' Rookie Jake Luton

When the Houston Texans take the field against the Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday, it will be the first time since the 2018 season finale that the two sides will meet without Gardner Minshew II starting at quarterback. Naturally, there will be some adjustments from both sides.

Sixth-round rookie Jake Luton will start at quarterback for the Jaguars (1-6) on Sunday while Minshew heals from a thumb injury. Minshew has started each of Jacksonville's last three games against Houston (0-3 record in the process), so he has become a familiar sight at quarterback for the Texans defense.

Now, that sight will change to the inexperienced Luton -- who has yet to take a single NFL snap. His last snap in a live regular-season game? Nov. 30, a 24-10 Oregon State loss against Oregon.

"You have to go back and look at his college work, talk to the scouts and see what they saw, and watch his games that he has played, which we have done so we can have an idea of what his abilities are and what we think he is good at," Texans interim head coach Romeo Crennel said in a media conference this week.

So with what has Crennel seen on tape? It is a mall sample size and isn't even NFL-level film, but he can still find a few jumping points for scouting Luton.

"He has a strong arm. Even though he is 6'6", he can run the ball," Crennel said.

"He is a young quarterback. The biggest thing is being able to go in and get game reps, because he hasn't been getting game reps. No preseason, been sitting on the sideline inactive. So, now he has got to get into the game and the game is a little bit faster than maybe what he is used to."

Crennel will obviously have to stress these points to his defense. The Jaguars and Minshew have struggled against Houston over the last two seasons, but Luton will present a completely different set of challenges.

One of those challenges is the fact that he is a major unknown with no NFL tape on him. Houston knows what scheme to expect, but the question will be how the Jaguars choose to attack them with a different quarterback under center.

"You have to look at his college tape and you have to prepare for what you see there as it relates to the offensive scheme that you know you are going to face," Crennel said. 'Because I don't think Jacksonville is going to change their whole offense. But they will take into consideration what they consider his strong points to be and try to accentuate those."

Jacksonville's struggles on offense against the Texans since the start of 2019, and even before that, have led directly to the Jaguars going 0-3 against Crennel and the Texans since Minshew was drafted. In those three games, Minshew has turned the ball over six times (while keeping two of his fumbles) and the Jaguars have scored the following points: 12, 3, and 14. That is an average of just 9.66 points per game.

In those games, the Jaguars have been outscored 69-29. The offense has scored just three touchdowns, so the struggles of the unit with Minshew at the helm vs. Crennel have been obvious.

Now, Crennel and the Texans can't rely on facing a quarterback they have success against. They will instead have to simply wait and see what Luton is and then react to it accordingly. In some ways, this could be an advantage for the Jaguars.

"I think when you talk about a young quarterback, sometimes they can get overconfident and think that the young quarterback doesn't know anything and he can't do anything. And so when you get overconfident, you get burned," Crennel said.

"Well I don't want that to happen. I want them to understand that this guy is a professional football player; he has got ability. If he didn't have ability, he wouldn't be there. So we have to treat him just like he is the best guy in the world, because he is the best in the world because he is going against us this week."