Speaker 1: Hello, Texans Friday night. Just got paid. Like Johnny Kemp
Speaker 1: once said, does anybody still get a pay check? By
Speaker 1: the way, I don't know. Yeah, that was Johnny Kemp
Speaker 1: who did that song. I actually had to check, but
Speaker 1: it is. What's the last time you remember getting a
Speaker 1: paper check? Well, for certain things you still get them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for certain things, we fund checks coming to mail. Thanks
Speaker 1: for the five dollars and seventy five cents for whatever
Speaker 1: it was. But everything else right now, direct deposit, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's the way to go.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was so the way to go.
Speaker 1: I don't feel good about checks and then you know,
Speaker 1: you scan them and then you still have the check, right,
Speaker 1: which is bizarro world.
Speaker 3: And I never know what to do with it. I
Speaker 3: never know what to do. I just showing in my bank,
Speaker 3: like what do I do with this?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel right, And I get the desire to
Speaker 1: have to hold a check. The players, I'm sure get
Speaker 1: all direct deposit. I mean, come on, they were born
Speaker 1: in a digital world. These young lings, these young players
Speaker 1: are we're going to talk about them, some of the
Speaker 1: young players, some of the older players.
Speaker 2: What they're doing.
Speaker 1: A couple of days into camp and we've got a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff on the program today. Mister Harris hitches
Speaker 1: with us himself, John Harris, who observes practice and people
Speaker 1: read his stuff. Man, the media reads your stuff. The
Speaker 1: media reads your stuff to find out what happened at practice,
Speaker 1: even when they're there. That's a high compliment to you,
Speaker 1: my friend.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. Thank you. So what do you observe today?
Speaker 1: Give me your biggest takeaway from day two and then
Speaker 1: we'll get.
Speaker 2: Into some stuff. Okay, Blake Fisher fits.
Speaker 3: Blake Fisher is not out of place, and I know
Speaker 3: people like, well, wait a second, they didn't have pads on?
Speaker 2: Did they know? They didn't?
Speaker 3: But there there was a couple of moments where because
Speaker 3: we were on the I was on the offensive sideline,
Speaker 3: so I was on the on the right sideline, and
Speaker 3: so he's at left tackle for Laramie. Early in practice,
Speaker 3: defense threw a blitz at him and it was a
Speaker 3: good blitz. I mean, Petrie timed it perfectly. So he
Speaker 3: almost just got lost and I was like, oh, they're
Speaker 3: not going to see him, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: before you know what, Blake Fisher slides out, takes Petree
Speaker 3: locks him up. Cej can throw the football like, well,
Speaker 3: that's pretty good. Just knowing who to block, it's massive.
Speaker 3: Well if people lay later. I kept my eyes on him,
Speaker 3: just watching Fisher and he was going against the new Hunter. Okay,
Speaker 3: he's gonna get a little come up as I know
Speaker 3: the pads on.
Speaker 2: I get that.
Speaker 3: But stayed right in front of him, slid his feet,
Speaker 3: stayed strong, anchored, made the block, and I thought, he
Speaker 3: doesn't look out of place.
Speaker 2: These rookies do not look out of place.
Speaker 3: Again, we've talked a lot about Kamari last year in
Speaker 3: OTA's in Mini camp. I thought day one, Kaylen Bullock showed,
Speaker 3: he showed some of that speed why he was so
Speaker 3: intriguing to this particular organization. His speed is closing ability.
Speaker 3: He does not look out of place. And then seeing
Speaker 3: Blake Fisher today, watching him kind of taking a few
Speaker 3: reps to watch him and realize, okay, look, it's not
Speaker 3: a it's not a perfect finished picture, but you can
Speaker 3: see exactly why the Texans were high on him, and
Speaker 3: you watch him and go, okay, pick the rookie. There's
Speaker 3: five guys up there, Pick the guy that's the rookie.
Speaker 3: You'd be hard pressed to pick Blake Fisher. He looks
Speaker 3: like he is is where he needs to be now again,
Speaker 3: but the pads on becomes a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 2: But the fact that.
Speaker 3: He looks like he A knows you to block b
Speaker 3: looks pretty proficient and being able to stay and stay
Speaker 3: strong on those blocks as well, I think it's a
Speaker 3: big feather in the cap for the rookie. So that
Speaker 3: was that's the first one that stood up. Give me
Speaker 3: my second one. Okay, this actually happened during it was
Speaker 3: a It was a run by British Brooks. So British
Speaker 3: rookie North Carolina undrafted free agent caught a toss play.
Speaker 3: Now we've seen the Texas right at toss play. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I heard the words get vertical. Basically, go get
Speaker 3: up field, do not mess around or not dance, get vertical. Now,
Speaker 3: I don't know who said it, but I just heard
Speaker 3: it and I was like that those two words have
Speaker 3: just stood out to me as I've watched both Joe
Speaker 3: Mixon and Damian Pierce. They get vertical, they get vertical
Speaker 3: in a hurry. Damien, I think, is learning to do it.
Speaker 3: He's really starting to learn to do it. You can
Speaker 3: see it becoming more part of his running DNA. It
Speaker 3: is baked into Joe Mixon. Joe is getting vertical within
Speaker 3: two steps. It is get the ball boom boomko. A
Speaker 3: lot of guys and I think this is someone what
Speaker 3: Damien was doing last year. They take those three steps
Speaker 3: and then it was like not really sure, pit a
Speaker 3: pat of the feet kind of where do I go?
Speaker 3: And then no, Joe is like I'm going I'll figure
Speaker 3: out where the hole is when I get there. And
Speaker 3: the crazy as it sounds, that's really what you have
Speaker 3: to be able to do.
Speaker 2: And he got vertical.
Speaker 3: Those guys have been working on getting vertical on a hurry,
Speaker 3: and I think that's gonna make this run game if
Speaker 3: they can do that. Obviously, Joe's done it. Now got
Speaker 3: to have Damien do it consistently. But you can tell
Speaker 3: that's a pretty big thing. Third one, I'll give you
Speaker 3: this one. This is a weird one.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Juar Jordan caught up a checkdown. Tim Boyle went through
Speaker 3: his progression is nothing. Saw Juir Jordan out in the
Speaker 3: fly saw that one flips it out to Jordan. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Jordan gets up the field. Good job catch football. Look
Speaker 3: look very smooth doing that. That wasn't what stood out.
Speaker 3: Jordan continues up the field about twenty five thirty yards
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, I look and out of nowhere,
Speaker 3: McTelvin agen out of nowhere, Sosa comes out of nowhere
Speaker 3: thirty five yards down the field. He was defensive tackle.
Speaker 3: He's three hundred and five pounds. He is flying down
Speaker 3: the field to tag off on Jair Jordan nice, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, that's cool. I love seeing things like that.
Speaker 3: Great rep. I just I was like, wow, the first
Speaker 3: of all the effort, second of all the athleticism to
Speaker 3: be able to turn and sprint and get down there.
Speaker 3: And McTelvin, you know, Sosa's only real issue is just
Speaker 3: he's kind of a tweeter size wise. Yeah, I always
Speaker 3: thought he's good player, but he's always kind of got
Speaker 3: caught in between that kind of two seventy the two
Speaker 3: ninety kind of frame. He looks like he's a little
Speaker 3: bit more than two ninety, like he's up near to
Speaker 3: three hundred pound mark. But between he and Marcus Harris,
Speaker 3: the guys are really a defensive time team without pads,
Speaker 3: just because their athleticism, speed, quickness, twitch, they become really
Speaker 3: interesting and guys definitely want to keep my eyes on
Speaker 3: it in a couple of days.
Speaker 2: I mean, these are guys in the offseason.
Speaker 1: We barely even talk right exactly exactly, and if they're
Speaker 1: doing this and by this, you're right.
Speaker 2: We're not in pads yet. We're not seeing that yet.
Speaker 1: But if you see some promise there, that's really nice
Speaker 1: to two days, that's all we have to evaluate right now.
Speaker 2: Two days of training camp, shorter.
Speaker 1: Practices than you'd probably have it a regular six week
Speaker 1: ramp up. That's right, because there are seven weeks. I
Speaker 1: think they're handling it a certain way, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be interesting as we get closer to that Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame game, because I don't expect the starters to play
Speaker 1: in that game. How they handle the reps for the
Speaker 1: reserves to get them ready to go, because whatever playing
Speaker 1: time or practice time they got prior to that, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to play a big chunk of the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame game. Yep, all right, quarterbacks, CJ. Stroud, this
Speaker 1: justin looks pretty good.
Speaker 2: Mills.
Speaker 1: Give me your assessment on Mills so far. Let's just
Speaker 1: go there to the backup quarterback, because Mills to me,
Speaker 1: looks pretty good.
Speaker 2: Looks like he's really comfortable in this system.
Speaker 1: Now this is year two in this system, and I
Speaker 1: saw him make a hell of a throw today in
Speaker 1: a great catch by John Metchip. That was great traffic
Speaker 1: in traffic, very nice execution there.
Speaker 3: What do you think, Yeah, that was an excellent throw.
Speaker 3: I thought that was the best throw of the day.
Speaker 3: Quarterbacks to me, I've thrown it pretty well, case Tim Boyle,
Speaker 3: what's the number seven's name?
Speaker 2: So that would be when CJ.
Speaker 3: Stroud he's throwing it pretty well when he's had opportunities. Look,
Speaker 3: here's they ran eighteen minutes of special teams today with
Speaker 3: all the individual drills, with all their activation, with their
Speaker 3: group installed the old ideal line walkthrough, and he went
Speaker 3: for ninety minutes.
Speaker 2: So they only had two team sessions.
Speaker 3: So basically CJ got about six to seven snaps and
Speaker 3: Davis did as well. You know, as well as you
Speaker 3: watch Davis now this is our fourth year. The thing
Speaker 3: that has always slowed down Davis always is just there
Speaker 3: will be three really good throws and then there'll be
Speaker 3: that one like what was that? And he had one
Speaker 3: of those during practice, that great throw to Mechi. The
Speaker 3: next time they came back the next series they came back,
Speaker 3: or the next period they came back, he threwn across
Speaker 3: the middle and never saw Jacob Phillips.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and Jacob couldn't hang on to it.
Speaker 3: And so with Davis, it's always that man, if he
Speaker 3: can just avoid that one throw where he doesn't see
Speaker 3: a linebacker, he just gets over anxious because we would
Speaker 3: see him make some really good throws in games, and
Speaker 3: then you'd see him make one and go, oh whoa.
Speaker 3: Like in the Colts game in twenty two, the one
Speaker 3: everybody talks about k ten. He's throwing dimes. I remember
Speaker 3: him throwing a couple of really nice balls quit Toreano,
Speaker 3: and then he threw one right to a Colt's.
Speaker 2: Linebacker, be in a pick six.
Speaker 3: And it's just that one throw and it's not that singular,
Speaker 3: but it's just the one throw that he has that
Speaker 3: you just want to have back. But I think from
Speaker 3: OTA's mini camp he's looked even better than he was
Speaker 3: last year.
Speaker 2: I felt like last year he'd improved the year before that.
Speaker 2: He just improves each year.
Speaker 3: But there's just always that one throw and Phillips is
Speaker 3: unable to hang on to it.
Speaker 2: So you get lucky.
Speaker 3: But the throw to Mechi, I mean, that's the Davis
Speaker 3: we know, But to throw the throw that Phillips nearly
Speaker 3: picked off, like, he's got to get that out of
Speaker 3: his system. If you can get that out of his system,
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I feel very very confident what Davis
Speaker 3: is bringing.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna play a ton after this preseason.
Speaker 1: They have to get him ready. We know what this
Speaker 1: team went through last year, and what they went through
Speaker 1: was CJ. Stroud missing a couple of games, and they
Speaker 1: don't want to see that again. But if they do
Speaker 1: have to go with somebody else, Look, they went to
Speaker 1: case Keenum, who was third team all year, and they
Speaker 1: went to Case and it was the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: But this year, if they had that situation.
Speaker 1: Pop up again, and I'm not talking about taking on
Speaker 1: the Titans in Nashville, they're wearing the older uniforms. We'll
Speaker 1: get to that point, but I would think they would
Speaker 1: go to Mills now.
Speaker 2: But they want to really feel great about it.
Speaker 1: So Mills is going to get a great opportunity in
Speaker 1: this preseason to get reps, get snaps in preseason games,
Speaker 1: and perform in this system with whatever personnel's around him
Speaker 1: and prove he belongs.
Speaker 2: It's it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this about the OTA Mini camp
Speaker 1: being cut short that period because they knew they were
Speaker 1: coming to camp early. What I feel like I'm watching
Speaker 1: right now, it's kind of a hybrid. Yeah, you're ramping
Speaker 1: up for the season, but it feels like the last
Speaker 1: week of OTAs in some ways, not in intensity, but
Speaker 1: in the way they handle the practice load.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're I think you're right.
Speaker 3: I mean, we think about just having seven weeks of preseason.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's tough. And I mentioned it this
Speaker 3: morning on Texas Training Camp Live. I mean they're only
Speaker 3: hit for five or six days before they play the
Speaker 3: first game against the Bears. But they'll come back and
Speaker 3: hit before preseason game joint practices where they'll hit. They're
Speaker 3: gonna hit enough. They just don't do it a lot
Speaker 3: before they get to the Patriots. So that all said
Speaker 3: was seven weeks, I mean, you really do have to
Speaker 3: kind of stretch this out a little bit. Let's cut
Speaker 3: practice from two hours to ninety minutes. We've got some
Speaker 3: great weather the first couple of days, so that's helped.
Speaker 3: So I'm with you. One hundred percent. I do think
Speaker 3: it is kind of that last week of mini camp
Speaker 3: or OTAs that they've brought forward. There's not been any
Speaker 3: one on one competition. It is been group or unit
Speaker 3: or unit or team that they've done. And they've also spent,
Speaker 3: like I said today, they spent a lot of time
Speaker 3: on special teams. And here's the other thing mark about
Speaker 3: special teams. So in the second special teams period they went,
Speaker 3: they went ten minutes and they worked on punt and
Speaker 3: as they were working on it, I went down and
Speaker 3: I watched they had split the split the kind of
Speaker 3: the the groups up in like four different groups, and
Speaker 3: so they had one that was kind of gunners, they
Speaker 3: had the returners, they had one that were kind of
Speaker 3: out you know, guys that would be rushing maybe from
Speaker 3: the outside on a pond, you know, like linebacker type, linebacker,
Speaker 3: tight end types. And then they had the defensive line
Speaker 3: and that was the one that was closest to me,
Speaker 3: and they were working on just different block techniques with
Speaker 3: the defensive linemen, every single defensive lineman. Not like you
Speaker 3: have one of the best defensive lines I would say
Speaker 3: best in the NFL, but you have one of the
Speaker 3: best ones you've ever had. Will Anderson's Neil Hunter. I
Speaker 3: mean you got names.
Speaker 2: You know. They're all doing this punt drill, all of them.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like the.
Speaker 3: Neil Hunter, will Anderson or other standing around like no, no,
Speaker 3: we don't do supposed to. No, they were leading the drill. Wow,
Speaker 3: every one of them was in the drill. I just
Speaker 3: that impressed me so much that in a ten minute
Speaker 3: period and they only went for five minutes. And then
Speaker 3: they walked over with Roger Wright with Rod Wright and
Speaker 3: they you know, talked through some things that they were
Speaker 3: doing with the d line, but they.
Speaker 2: Just to see every single one of them go in
Speaker 2: that drill. I thought it was really cool.
Speaker 3: Frank Ross like that, Yes, absolutely question There weren't guys
Speaker 3: beagging out.
Speaker 2: They were in it and engage. That was really cool.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Coming up on the show, Johnny and I had a
Speaker 1: great visit with Nick Cassio at training camp.
Speaker 2: So many people didn't hear that. We're gonna have that
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 1: Also, Johnny breaks down the wide receiver position group, the
Speaker 1: deepest one on the team that's coming up here on
Speaker 1: Texans Radio. Right back to it here on Texans Radio,
Speaker 1: as promised, Johnny and I had a chance to catch
Speaker 1: up with executive vice president and general manager Nick Cassio
Speaker 1: as training camp got started here.
Speaker 4: It is a number of people have been involved in
Speaker 4: this effort, especially kind of on the heels of what
Speaker 4: happened there last week. I mean, we had some issues
Speaker 4: with the bubble. We're dealing with some things here with
Speaker 4: the stadium, But I mean it's a collective effort, effort
Speaker 4: from coaching staff, players, operational staff to put training camp
Speaker 4: together and to give the fans a great experience when
Speaker 4: they show up here next week. So a lot of effort,
Speaker 4: a lot of work from a lot of people, and
Speaker 4: it's just kind of reflective. The whole team mindset kind
Speaker 4: of takes everybody. We rely on everybody here organizationally, and
Speaker 4: it's not about one individual. It's about us trying to
Speaker 4: put our collective best foot forward as a group, and
Speaker 4: hopefully we're able to do that here as we get started.
Speaker 2: Nick.
Speaker 3: Last night, I was watching Hard Knocks and I can't
Speaker 3: wait for the Texas. Yes, but they one of the
Speaker 3: things that live. Schreiber said, free agency is over, and
Speaker 3: I was like, no, it's not. It never ends like
Speaker 3: the player acquisition transaction process never ends, and we get
Speaker 3: the email that you've added three different players to the
Speaker 3: roster for training camp and what their futures might be.
Speaker 3: Milk Fisher, Chris Reid, and then Quintest Cephis. What can
Speaker 3: you tell us about those three guys being added to
Speaker 3: the roster right now? Yeah, kind of varying levels of experience.
Speaker 3: Chris is a player inside player primarily wasn't drafted, has
Speaker 3: experience in a cult system with coach Strausser. So it's
Speaker 3: kind of bounced around there a little bit, but really
Speaker 3: more depth inside more than anything else. Really on the
Speaker 3: heels of kind of Ladarius Henderson kind of waving them
Speaker 3: injured essentially going to ir.
Speaker 5: So just trying to continue to build a depth, you know.
Speaker 4: Cephas was a player wasn't highly drafted but had an
Speaker 4: impact for the Lions there over the course of two
Speaker 4: three years. Was out of football last year because of
Speaker 4: his individual situation, but a player that we actually worked
Speaker 4: out the end of the spring there in May. So
Speaker 4: younger player has some level of experience. We kind of
Speaker 4: shuffle the deck there a little bit at receiver. And
Speaker 4: then Fisher was a player who had the opportunity to
Speaker 4: play in the UFL, and I think that's one of
Speaker 4: the benefits of the spring league where you get a
Speaker 4: player that has a chance maybe to get some reps
Speaker 4: that the otherwise what kind of a similar to Khalil
Speaker 4: Davis there last year. So I's here really more depth
Speaker 4: competition with those players. To your point, though, John, the
Speaker 4: roster building process is very fluids. It's ongoing, so it's
Speaker 4: not kind of finite, well just in March if free
Speaker 4: agency is over. It's kind of continuous and there will
Speaker 4: likely be things that take place here between now and
Speaker 4: the start of the season as well. So but that's
Speaker 4: just part of the process that we have to go
Speaker 4: through in a regular basis.
Speaker 1: So you're in the Hall of Fame game, and that's
Speaker 1: why we have the early start to training camp. How
Speaker 1: does it affect things having one extra week of camp
Speaker 1: and never mind four preseason games, but just having extra
Speaker 1: week of practice, Nick.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, it moves everything up and it just gives
Speaker 4: you a few more opportunities to kind of get on
Speaker 4: the field. And what it essentially does is extend your
Speaker 4: ramp up period to some degrees. So the league has
Speaker 4: rules in place or the first three four days are
Speaker 4: sort of controlled anyway certain number of minutes that you
Speaker 4: can be on the field, but you're able to start
Speaker 4: that clock a little bit sooner. So kind of once
Speaker 4: we get through Thursday, Friday, Saturday, players are off Sunday.
Speaker 4: Then next week we'll kind of be able to go
Speaker 4: more of a regular practice tempo and timing. So we've
Speaker 4: embraced it. We're honestly looking forward to it. So it's
Speaker 4: good to get back, good to get started. We kind
Speaker 4: of had a truncated spring where we just kind of
Speaker 4: flipped it where we kind of cut a week off
Speaker 4: understanding we were going to probably pick it up here
Speaker 4: in the back end of training camp. So we're excited
Speaker 4: to be backed. Got a good energy, good mindset of
Speaker 4: good attitude. So yeah, we're glad to be here along
Speaker 4: those lines.
Speaker 3: Nick, because of the Hall of Fame game and because
Speaker 3: of our first preseason game.
Speaker 2: We're staying up in Ohio. You know that place pretty well.
Speaker 3: It's really not about that, but what are the advantages
Speaker 3: of having a situation like that where you play a
Speaker 3: game but you stay up there. It's not joint practices,
Speaker 3: but you're on the road altogether for a week. What
Speaker 3: are some of the advantages you get from doing something
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it's there's a number of them. I think
Speaker 4: first and foremost it was based on kind of logistics.
Speaker 4: So instead of playing a Hall of Fame game, flying
Speaker 4: back to Houston and flying back to Pittsburgh, the way
Speaker 4: it worked, we're playing in Canton, then we're playing a
Speaker 4: falling week in Pittsburgh. So it was can we maybe
Speaker 4: find somewhere where we can kind of stay, have our
Speaker 4: normal football operation, have a normal I would say three
Speaker 4: four days of practice and then shorten to travel. So
Speaker 4: and then when you're kind of removed, it's kind of
Speaker 4: as if when you go away for a camp. So
Speaker 4: you know, the Texans in the past have gone to
Speaker 4: the Greenbriers. Are other teams that have used a Green Brier.
Speaker 4: The Chiefs go to whatever the school is they go
Speaker 4: to in Kansas City. But when you're there, it's just you.
Speaker 4: That's all you have to worry about is the team football.
Speaker 4: More time together doesn't mean that you enjoy the time
Speaker 4: away from your family, but it just kind of shifts
Speaker 4: the focus a little bit. So you know, hopefully we
Speaker 4: can take advantage of that week and just have a
Speaker 4: good week and kind of still normalize the process. But
Speaker 4: going back to your earlier question mark, that entails a
Speaker 4: lot of light work other areas of football on an
Speaker 4: operational and as well. Clay Hampton and his team on
Speaker 4: logistics front, So trying to get everything organized. So do
Speaker 4: we have a hotel, do we have someone we can practice?
Speaker 4: What's a transportation back and forth? Like in any end?
Speaker 4: Try to put the players in the best position so
Speaker 4: they can can't perform at their their highest level.
Speaker 3: Can we markle know this one? Don't forget the quarterbacks
Speaker 3: red jerseys. Oh yeah, that's right, number day one point fifteen.
Speaker 3: Don't forget the quarterbacks red duct tape on them or
Speaker 3: something to make sure you stay off the quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And we're going to see the Texans practice at University
Speaker 1: of high School and I know you're familiar without it,
Speaker 1: it's your al the mind.
Speaker 2: What is that going to be?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Can we have the Nick Assario reality tour and just
Speaker 1: explore the high school the grounds?
Speaker 2: How's it changed since you've been there?
Speaker 5: That game?
Speaker 4: You'll probably see a lot of bad pictures and bad
Speaker 4: photos of bad haircuts.
Speaker 2: Probably we need to see the hair.
Speaker 4: Building big No, it's really just kind of worked out
Speaker 4: from a logistics standpoint. So the hotel is probably about
Speaker 4: fifteen minutes away from the high school, and I love
Speaker 4: my experience here. As all boys, it's K through twelve,
Speaker 4: but the upper school is nine through twelve. I mean
Speaker 4: it's a massive campus. I mean there's one hundred acres
Speaker 4: or whatever it is. So the school is kind of
Speaker 4: situated up front and you kind of drive around back
Speaker 4: and you have the game field, the main game field,
Speaker 4: which is field turf, and then you have multiple practice fields.
Speaker 4: So it just kind of suits our needs. So again,
Speaker 4: it's more functional more than anything else. So the fact
Speaker 4: that it's at us in my former high school, I
Speaker 4: think is more happenstance more than anything else. But it's
Speaker 4: just the way it worked out. So haven't been back
Speaker 4: there in a while, so it'll kind of be cool
Speaker 4: to go back there, you know, for a period of time.
Speaker 4: My family's probably more excited than anybody because at least
Speaker 4: I'll be somewhat around.
Speaker 3: So, you know, during the season, my favorite part of
Speaker 3: every interview, you know exactly what it is.
Speaker 2: I wait until about halfway through the.
Speaker 5: Interview and Mark to hit the road and.
Speaker 2: Then it's like, okay, we got the Pittsburgh Steelers. On deck.
Speaker 3: All right, give us a scouting report. You give us
Speaker 3: a pretty thorough scouting report. I'm gonna ask you a
Speaker 3: tough question. Give us a scouting report into twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four Texans as. Yes, yeah, I mean mentioned a little
Speaker 3: bit earlier. I mean we feel like we have you know,
Speaker 3: we feel like we have a good football team. So
Speaker 3: what it looks like on the field, But.
Speaker 4: We have quality I would say players and quality depth
Speaker 4: at multiple spots. I mean some positions there are probably
Speaker 4: gonna be a little more competition than others. But I
Speaker 4: mean I think the front hopefully will be a strength
Speaker 4: of our team, and we've invested resources in both areas.
Speaker 4: Think we have some young skill players on both sides
Speaker 4: of the ball, whether it's receiver and a secondary that
Speaker 4: have played some have played good football, and hopefully we
Speaker 4: have some other players that are going to play good
Speaker 4: football for us. I think our specialists, I mean probably
Speaker 4: a little bit underrated, but like we feel we have
Speaker 4: three of the better specialists there in the league. Which
Speaker 4: a kicking game is going to take on I would
Speaker 4: say it takes on significance every year and every game,
Speaker 4: but probably even more so this year.
Speaker 5: So you know, We're excited about the group that we assembled.
Speaker 4: Understanding some things will probably change here between now and
Speaker 4: the start of the regular season, but you know, hopefully
Speaker 4: we're in a decent position at least to give ourselves
Speaker 4: an opportunity to compete on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1: You talked about the d line in your press conference
Speaker 1: a bit, and I find it really interesting because you
Speaker 1: look at adding daneil Hunter, that's awesome, obviously JG's now Minnesota,
Speaker 1: but bringing Barnett back, and then bringing Jerry Hughes back
Speaker 1: late in the offseason, and then the guys that tackle.
Speaker 1: The more we look, the more we like. Can you
Speaker 1: discuss them a little bit? Yeah, I think you articulated well.
Speaker 5: Mark.
Speaker 4: I think was kind of working backwards with with Derek
Speaker 4: and Jerry. Obviously experience year of experience in the system.
Speaker 4: You know, Jerry's a pro. You know, Jerry keeps himself
Speaker 4: in great shapes, got a great attitude, He great in
Speaker 4: the locker room, he's a great teammate, and he's great
Speaker 4: to have around. Derek played pretty good football for us
Speaker 4: here at the end of the year. So we're gonna
Speaker 4: play four or five defensive ends. We're gonna play for
Speaker 4: defensive tackles who are available in the spring.
Speaker 5: It's always hard to.
Speaker 4: Kind of evaluate the defensive line because you're not there's
Speaker 4: no contact involved in the run game is limited. But
Speaker 4: Iman Khalil really made some improvements here in the offseason,
Speaker 4: kind of built on some of the things he did
Speaker 4: last season. I'd say one guy that's really not talked
Speaker 4: about that much is Kurt But from the day he
Speaker 4: walked in the door, he's been so steady and so consistent,
Speaker 4: and he's been out there and he's produced when he's
Speaker 4: been given the opportunities. So it settles a young player.
Speaker 4: It has some experience in a couple of different systems.
Speaker 4: You know SOSA, you know mc talvin, a gam had
Speaker 4: a really good spring, so and then Foley has been
Speaker 4: a pretty good player here, a little bit more of
Speaker 4: a run player. So we didn't see all those guys
Speaker 4: all at one time, but you know, kind of excited
Speaker 4: to see what that looks like here.
Speaker 5: Once we get started.
Speaker 3: Nikka kind of goes along on the first question to
Speaker 3: ask you about transactions. You brought out Milike Fisher. He
Speaker 3: comes from comes from Building Overbody.
Speaker 2: He was in the UFL.
Speaker 3: Did Khalil's experience here last year play a role in
Speaker 3: a sense that, hey, we took a shot on a
Speaker 3: guy like Khalil Davis. Now he've been around the league
Speaker 3: a little bit, but taking a shot on him and
Speaker 3: it seemingly played off. I mean it's fifteen games he
Speaker 3: was in that second he and Kurt were come in
Speaker 3: a game, they would do some good things, and then
Speaker 3: you bring him back. Did that experience with Khalil kind
Speaker 3: of play role with bringing him a leak?
Speaker 4: Is you probably be careful to extrapolate kind of one
Speaker 4: for one, I think it's really more about opportunity. I
Speaker 4: think the whole idea is anytime you bring a player
Speaker 4: in in the spring or like before the start of
Speaker 4: training camp, a lot of it is are they in
Speaker 4: good condition, are they ready to go? And when you've
Speaker 4: played football for multiple months, which in Elik's case he
Speaker 4: did and he played well. But it's a different level
Speaker 4: of competition, so it's not necessarily one for one, you
Speaker 4: expect Malik to perform as well as Khalil did Khalil.
Speaker 4: I mean, nobody thought anything in Khalil. Then he got
Speaker 4: here and he made a few plays, so he kind
Speaker 4: of kept him around. And then when he was given
Speaker 4: the opportunity, he took advantage of it. So that's all
Speaker 4: you're really doing. He is presenting an opportunity to the player.
Speaker 4: So Malik's a good kids. How's a good attitude, So
Speaker 4: you'll give him a chance and kind of see how
Speaker 4: it goes.
Speaker 1: Where do your eyes go in these early practices when
Speaker 1: you're observing what's going on on the field, kind of
Speaker 1: looking a little bit of everything.
Speaker 4: I think when you watch the team, you're just looking
Speaker 4: at the play call, of the script, kind of the scheme,
Speaker 4: people in the right spot, kind of what goes on,
Speaker 4: and then some of the individual techniques, like where their
Speaker 4: hand placement was, some of their footwork, some of their technique.
Speaker 4: That's something you can study a little bit more when
Speaker 4: you're actually watching a film. So it's really more big
Speaker 4: picture kind of bounce around different positions, watch the kicking game,
Speaker 4: watch some of the drills that are associated there. So
Speaker 4: just kind of take a big picture of perspective, not
Speaker 4: get too caught up in one player, one individual, and
Speaker 4: then go back and if there's something that you want
Speaker 4: to study a little bit more, you have a chance
Speaker 4: to do it when we're back in the building.
Speaker 3: Nick rookies going through their first training camp. We talked
Speaker 3: about this a little bit, but every rookie group is different.
Speaker 3: I mean last year, obviously it's number two, number three
Speaker 3: overall pick. There's different expectations for them. But when you
Speaker 3: go into a camp with rookies, what are some of
Speaker 3: the things you're looking for with Kamari and Blake and
Speaker 3: Kaylin those guys.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's still football. Don't make it more than what
Speaker 4: it is, and just trust your training, trust your coaching,
Speaker 4: and just go out there and just try to stack
Speaker 4: days together consecutively, one after one, because ultimately, what you're
Speaker 4: trying to evaluate and judge is the player consistent from
Speaker 4: one day to the next or are there peaks and
Speaker 4: valleys in their player their ups and downs? Can they
Speaker 4: self correct? Can they take a coaching point, make the
Speaker 4: correction and then move on to the next thing. Those
Speaker 4: are some of the things that you're evaluating. So everybody's
Speaker 4: going to make plays, everybody's going to give up plays.
Speaker 4: You're just looking for consistency of performance.
Speaker 5: And then from.
Speaker 4: A younger player perspective, don't make it.
Speaker 5: More than what it is. It's still football and just
Speaker 5: go out there and play football.
Speaker 2: A couple.
Speaker 1: More mentally, what is the message from you and Demiko
Speaker 1: Ryans to this team? As we talked about long camp,
Speaker 1: high expectations, whatever. I know you got to tune that
Speaker 1: out and get ready for the season. But what is
Speaker 1: the message there in general?
Speaker 5: No, it's great.
Speaker 4: It's have a great attitude, be a great teammate, focus
Speaker 4: on collective improvement and visual improvement. Be resilient because we're
Speaker 4: gonna face some adversity, We're gonna face some ups and downs,
Speaker 4: and just have competitive enthusiasm on on an everyday basis.
Speaker 4: So everything that you're doing, pour as much into it
Speaker 4: as possible and just be the best version of who
Speaker 4: you are that particular day, and just try to continually
Speaker 4: just devote as much time and resources necessary to put
Speaker 4: yourself in a position so you have a chance to
Speaker 4: make this team.
Speaker 3: What are your thoughts on bron Breaker, Because I feel
Speaker 3: like I've got to ask you a wrestling question, because
Speaker 3: when you're on the radio, I need to ask you
Speaker 3: about We've got to have a wrestling.
Speaker 5: Games. Maybe some other folks, okay, because I.
Speaker 3: Saw him at Big twelve media days and I was
Speaker 3: like a wrestling guy there.
Speaker 4: Because they're gonna present probably the Undertaker's belt or trophy
Speaker 4: whoever wins a Big twelve.
Speaker 3: But I had to get a wrestling question in and
Speaker 3: make you a pretty good job. All those stuff well done.
Speaker 3: I don't know about wrestling. That's Sean's what did you
Speaker 3: do on the break?
Speaker 4: So we we go back north, back to you know,
Speaker 4: John's neck of the woods, but we spend some time
Speaker 4: on the cape and really we just kind of go,
Speaker 4: we unwind. We've had a place there for a number
Speaker 4: of years. Our kids really look forward to it, and
Speaker 4: we kind of put our feet down and we're just there.
Speaker 4: It's very low key. It's really about the girls and
Speaker 4: it's about the family, you know, over the course of
Speaker 4: the break. So I'm mean I work out each day.
Speaker 4: I mean kind of knock out some things early on,
Speaker 4: do some reading, try to do some individual self improvement,
Speaker 4: try to recalibrate. But you're always you're away from football,
Speaker 4: but you're not away from football. But my wife and
Speaker 4: I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary this summer, so again,
Speaker 4: so we enjoyed it and it went pretty went pretty quickly.
Speaker 4: But you know, excited to be back and kind of
Speaker 4: get started, and you know, it's training camp.
Speaker 2: It's hard for you to unplug, isn't it, Dick, Just
Speaker 2: be honest.
Speaker 5: Yes, the first few.
Speaker 3: Days in particular, because you're just grinding. The first couple
Speaker 3: of days are always hard.
Speaker 4: Well, you're going, and then it kind of comes to
Speaker 4: an abrupt halt. But I would say, like we had
Speaker 4: some things that we were working on. I would say
Speaker 4: the first couple of weeks of Cason Demico and I
Speaker 4: were kind of in regular contact. So right around kind
Speaker 4: of the end of June to that fourth it was
Speaker 4: kind of all right. There wasn't too much football, but
Speaker 4: you're always kind of have an eye ahead on all right,
Speaker 4: what are some of the next things in front of us,
Speaker 4: and try to work in some college scouting. Maybe you
Speaker 4: start to familiate yourself yourself with some of those prospects.
Speaker 4: So that's what it's about. So I'm wired a certain way.
Speaker 4: So but try to pick my spots and really keep
Speaker 4: the focus on the girls in the summer because that's
Speaker 4: their opportunity with dad, and you know, there's nothing I
Speaker 4: enjoy more than being able to do that with them.
Speaker 4: So you know, I love them a lot, and uh,
Speaker 4: but they know it's football season and don't be here
Speaker 4: at some point, I'm sure excellent.
Speaker 2: Nick, thanks so much for the time. We'll visit soon.
Speaker 2: Good luck with camp.
Speaker 5: Thank you, fella, it's good to be here.
Speaker 1: There's executive vice president and general manager Nick Cassario, John
Speaker 1: Harris and I have visiting with Nick as training camp
Speaker 1: gets underway. Coming up the wide receiver position group, deepest
Speaker 1: on the team. Johnny breaks it all down and we'll
Speaker 1: hear from Robert Woods as well. Texan's all at heading
Speaker 1: into the first weekend of training camp. Two practices down.
Speaker 1: After practice number one, John Harris broke down the very
Speaker 1: deep ocean deep wide receiver group. How do they stack
Speaker 1: up with years past? Well, more importantly, how are they
Speaker 1: this year?
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the big three in no particular order,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to start with who I think is
Speaker 1: wide receiver number one, and that would be the guy
Speaker 1: who signed the big contract extension in the offseason.
Speaker 2: Nico Collins. Nearly thirteen hundred yards last year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they unlocked the rack box last year, the run
Speaker 3: after catchbox, and that made him super special. Watching Week
Speaker 3: eighteen and thinking about Week eighteen against the Colts, obviously
Speaker 3: he hits you in all different directions. He hitting with
Speaker 3: the deep ball, showed the speed to get beyond Juju
Speaker 3: Brintz from the Colts for a seventy five yard touchdown.
Speaker 3: Then he showed the rackability when he ran away from
Speaker 3: Zayia Franklin, ran over Jalen Jones twice, setting up Andrew
Speaker 3: Beck's touchdown. And then he has the slide catch where
Speaker 3: he comes out of nowhere, showing the speed, showing the
Speaker 3: connection with CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud. He's that big body six.
Speaker 3: Four tw hundred and fifteen pound receiver that is just
Speaker 3: growing into his body and his game.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: I love the extension. He's a sweetheart. I love the guy.
Speaker 3: I'm glad Nico Collas is back. And when you say
Speaker 3: number one wide receiver, boy, it could be anybody on
Speaker 3: any given day.
Speaker 2: As I said earlier, who's the number one wide receiver?
Speaker 3: At the open guy? And he goes gonna get open
Speaker 3: against a lot of different people. But when he catches it,
Speaker 3: that's when the fun begins because that run after catchability
Speaker 3: is too smooth, all right.
Speaker 1: Acquired from the Buffalo Bills, former Viking, former case keenom
Speaker 1: teammate in Mini, Stefan Diggs is here.
Speaker 2: Now, what does he bring. Tremendous leadership and tremendous route running.
Speaker 2: He's been there.
Speaker 3: He can run routes from any part of the field.
Speaker 3: He can run him from the slot, he can run
Speaker 3: from outside. But he gets open. And that's the one
Speaker 3: thing about Josh Allen and CJ. Stroud's different. Josh is
Speaker 3: not as accurate as CJ. So when Diggs would get
Speaker 3: a step on a dB, ball wasn't always where it
Speaker 3: needed to be. If Diggs gets it, step on it dB.
Speaker 3: This year with CJ. Stroud, the ball's gonna be right
Speaker 3: on his person. He's gonna make the catch and make
Speaker 3: something happen. But tremendous leader, bigger than you think, slot outside,
Speaker 3: Love the fact that he can do it from all
Speaker 3: all different wide receiver spots.
Speaker 2: It's fun days, Gonna be really fun to watch this year,
Speaker 2: all right. Great to see him out here running around making.
Speaker 1: Plays already, and he was already at OTAs Tank Dell.
Speaker 3: Perhaps the scariest player on this roster for teams to
Speaker 3: have to try and face. You're talking about Will Anderson Junior,
Speaker 3: Daniel Hunter. Even CJ teams will be scared of Tank Dell.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent healthy because they have no answer for him.
Speaker 3: He's so sudden in and out of his breaks. He
Speaker 3: can play him in man, he'll beat them short, he'll
Speaker 3: beat him long. Then when he gets the ball in
Speaker 3: his hands. I know at the combine he ran four four.
Speaker 3: He's faster than that with the ball in his hands.
Speaker 3: And I think that's what's most impressive to me. Keep
Speaker 3: him healthy because he, to me, is the most dangerous.
Speaker 2: Person on this entire squad.
Speaker 1: Seems like as good a big three or first three
Speaker 1: wide receivers in your group as any team in the
Speaker 1: league would have.
Speaker 2: Let's get to the rest. Now that's the first three.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start the next group, and again no particular order,
Speaker 1: but I want to start with Robert Woods. Intentionally, we
Speaker 1: talked a bunch about him last half hour when we
Speaker 1: had him on.
Speaker 3: Mister third down gets himself open, the consummate vet that
Speaker 3: you've got to have in your wide receiver room. Love
Speaker 3: having him on his team. He is available and open
Speaker 3: on third downs, and that's key, so if you've got
Speaker 3: to give somebody a rest. He knows every single wide
Speaker 3: receiver position. He's been in this type of offense. You know,
Speaker 3: when he was with McVeigh with the La Rams. He
Speaker 3: knows everything and knows where everybody needs to be. It's
Speaker 3: great leader, tremendous presence, and he's just got such a
Speaker 3: calming presence in a wide receiver room.
Speaker 2: He's got to be on this roster. Man.
Speaker 3: I absolutely love that guy. I think we all do
Speaker 3: for what he brings to this team. That is gonna
Speaker 3: be so valuable on and off the field.
Speaker 1: John Metchi. We noticed him. He looked a lot better
Speaker 1: in OTAs. How's he looking out here? I guess it's
Speaker 1: just one day in, But tell me what he's gonna
Speaker 1: bring in year three of his career.
Speaker 3: Well, he looks much more explosive. There's no question. Yesterday
Speaker 3: he beat a defensive back on a route. Just kind
Speaker 3: of jabbed outside win inside, got inside the dB. Not
Speaker 3: a great throw, but that's the one thing I think
Speaker 3: John's really got to focus on. He's got to snatch
Speaker 3: and catch every football thrown to him. He's getting himself
Speaker 3: open now and you can see some of that. Oh,
Speaker 3: this is how we looked at Alabama. He's got to
Speaker 3: catch the football and beat dynamic with it. And it
Speaker 3: can't just be you know, you catch it out in
Speaker 3: the flat because you're the checkdown. He's got to catch
Speaker 3: it in traffic and then he's gonna make something happen
Speaker 3: after that. That's gonna be Mechi to me, that's gonna
Speaker 3: be the key for John this this training camp. Catch
Speaker 3: everything in high traffic areas because that's where your opportunities
Speaker 3: are gonna come potentially in this offense, and you got
Speaker 3: to make the most of them.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: What about Xavier Hutchinson, who he's a yack guy as well,
Speaker 1: he can get you yards after the reception.
Speaker 2: What is he doing so far? And where do you
Speaker 2: expect him to go catch? The day?
Speaker 3: Yesterday speed out on the sideline in front of me,
Speaker 3: Davis threw a ball probably two three yards outside, you know,
Speaker 3: outside of the sideline where you need to and and
Speaker 3: X just goes up, dives, catches it. And again I
Speaker 3: go back to that last year, X had a couple
Speaker 3: opportunities he wasn't able to hang on to. There's one
Speaker 3: against the Colts where there are like three eyes around him,
Speaker 3: but he had his hands on it. And X will
Speaker 3: tell you those are the catches he's got to make.
Speaker 3: When I went to Big twelve media days are Ranto
Speaker 3: Matt Campbell coach him at Iowa State, and you talk
Speaker 3: about a love fest. They love him there and you
Speaker 3: love him here for those same reasons. He works hard,
Speaker 3: He knows every single receiver position, and he can kind
Speaker 3: of do that weapon X stuff. He could be that
Speaker 3: guy you put in the backfield and you can run up,
Speaker 3: you know, jet sweeps with you, can you know, fake
Speaker 3: it to him, go one way, throw him back a
Speaker 3: screen like they did in the game against the Ravens.
Speaker 3: I think he had probably like thirteen fifteen touches off
Speaker 3: last year, but he did good things with him. I
Speaker 3: think the next step is to do more with those
Speaker 3: touches and really get this coaching staff's attention. But when
Speaker 3: you make catches like he did yesterday, it's gonna be
Speaker 3: hard to keep your eyes off.
Speaker 1: E Xavier Hutchinson all right, we just talked about six receivers.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep going here and listen to some of
Speaker 1: these names, and we'll start with Noah Brown, who made
Speaker 1: some massive plays for this team last year.
Speaker 2: Great to see him out here on day one.
Speaker 3: I mean, where was this team? Where was this team
Speaker 3: last year? Where was this team gonna be without Noah Brown?
Speaker 3: I mean the Saints game, he makes key catches and
Speaker 3: now one obviously the Bucks game, the Cincinnati game, and
Speaker 3: everybody forgets the Tennessee game in week fifteen when we
Speaker 3: go to Tennessee, he has eight for eighty two in
Speaker 3: the touchdown case.
Speaker 2: Was looking him up. I mean, he's reliable, he's tough.
Speaker 2: He's bigger than he appears.
Speaker 3: Like when you see him on TV, you think, oh, he's,
Speaker 3: you know, kind of skinny, and no, he's like six
Speaker 3: three two fifteen.
Speaker 2: So he's well put.
Speaker 3: Together, doesn't say a word, just goes about his job,
Speaker 3: blocks does all the little things. I love the fact
Speaker 3: that he was brought back here. Was not out in
Speaker 3: OTA's in mini camp rehabbing from some injuries. But he
Speaker 3: was out here yesterday, So I'm excited what he brings back.
Speaker 3: He's number seven guy we've talked about, Yeah, how about seven?
Speaker 1: How about number eight? A Super Bowl champion Ben Scarnick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Ben Skronick, who they acquire from the Rams.
Speaker 2: And he's the kind of player can help your team
Speaker 2: win in a variety of ways.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I think if you there's always that question, hey,
Speaker 3: is there a player in your squad that could play
Speaker 3: any position? On a football field. Yep, Ben's ben' Skaronic
Speaker 3: could play any position. He told us that an interview.
Speaker 3: He go over and play nickel on defense if he
Speaker 3: had to, and go cover wide receivers in the slot.
Speaker 3: Good size six three two twenty. I don't know their
Speaker 3: dame went to La his rookie year they won a
Speaker 3: Super Bowl contribute on special teams played at receiver when
Speaker 3: they you know that year Robert Woods got banged up,
Speaker 3: OBJ gets hurt in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Ben Scronick's got to go.
Speaker 3: In and run routes in the Super Bowl and play
Speaker 3: at wide receivers able to do that, So he's got
Speaker 3: that at Super Bowl experience and he just does everything.
Speaker 2: He's gonna know every position out of this field.
Speaker 3: And look, you get to a point where you could
Speaker 3: tell him, we talked about it yesterday. You have full
Speaker 3: back options, but you only carry one during the game.
Speaker 3: So if you've got a couple guys banged up, you
Speaker 3: could turn to Ben Scronick and say, hey, we need
Speaker 3: you to do the fullback stuff.
Speaker 2: He would do it.
Speaker 3: He's a jack of all trades and he I don't
Speaker 3: want to say he's a master of none, but he's
Speaker 3: really good at a lot of them. Now, is he
Speaker 3: elite at anything?
Speaker 2: Probably not.
Speaker 3: But where he's elite is his versatility in his being
Speaker 3: able to do anything on a football field.
Speaker 1: All right, So now we are nine deep, Johnny, nine deep,
Speaker 1: because we just did scronic and we're gonna do Steven
Speaker 1: Simms the ninth guy and the ninth guy happen to
Speaker 1: return a punt for a touchdown in a playoff game.
Speaker 2: Mike Good that the last touchdown the Texans scored at
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. Steven Simms.
Speaker 3: He I think the only thing that holds Stephen back
Speaker 3: from being a consistent fifty three man roster guy is
Speaker 3: is just his consistent hands, just you know, being consistent
Speaker 3: catching everything. If you gave Steven Simms DeAndre Hopkins hands,
Speaker 3: Steven Simms would be on this roster, no question asked.
Speaker 3: He is dynamic when he gets the ball in space.
Speaker 3: Last year he was active in three games, but in
Speaker 3: those games Bobby Slowan died him up.
Speaker 2: They threw him screens. Let him get the ball and
Speaker 2: make things happen.
Speaker 3: Obviously he did it on special teams for Steven Simms,
Speaker 3: he got a lot of confidence. I remember when he
Speaker 3: came into our studio the spring of twenty three for
Speaker 3: an interview, and you can just tell he was kind
Speaker 3: of quiets, didn't really want to say much to us
Speaker 3: when he walked in the studio.
Speaker 2: This past year with us, he had bounced to his
Speaker 2: step a lot more confidence.
Speaker 3: I think that that game against Baltimore just gave him confidence,
Speaker 3: like man, I did that in a big spot. So
Speaker 3: now you've got four big spots the preseason and this
Speaker 3: joint practice against the Rams to really show, hey, I
Speaker 3: can I can do it on these new kickoff returns.
Speaker 3: I can do it on punt returns. I can do
Speaker 3: it from the slot. If he can master those three, well,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be hard to really keep him off this roster.
Speaker 2: Mark. All right, we just named nine receivers. But wait,
Speaker 2: there's more. It's like an infomercial.
Speaker 1: Yes, but wait, all right, I got four more guys here,
Speaker 1: and we'll do them quickly. Okay, all right, Quintes Siphus.
Speaker 1: You talked to Nick about him yesterday?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did, because I've been a Cephas fan for
Speaker 2: a while. Now. He's he's been off for a year
Speaker 2: due to a suspension from the league, but he can fly.
Speaker 3: He is an absolute true to life downfield threat ball
Speaker 3: skills to go up over guys. I mean, like, that's
Speaker 3: his game is deep downfield. When our buddy Jesse Clark
Speaker 3: was here, that's what Sephuz was at the University of Wisconsin.
Speaker 3: Jesse was my office mate, and he would always ask
Speaker 3: me about Cephis and I was like, I love his
Speaker 3: downfield ability. He would be good with us because at
Speaker 3: that time we had one Deshaun Watson who liked to
Speaker 3: throw the ball down the field. Cephis now gets here
Speaker 3: again with a quarterback that wants to throw the ball
Speaker 3: on the field.
Speaker 2: So I think it was a really good pickup. What
Speaker 2: do you lose?
Speaker 3: What do you lose in bringing in a guy shaking
Speaker 3: off the rust, give him some preseason time and see
Speaker 3: if you can't hit a couple of deep balls and
Speaker 3: get people excited.
Speaker 1: All right, now, let's go to the next one, which
Speaker 1: would be Jaden Jankee or Yankee. Sorry, it's definitely a
Speaker 1: soft jay Johnny yeah, Yankee, Okay, yeah, sure, yeah. I
Speaker 1: have not gone over the pronunciation guide for the fourth teamers, which.
Speaker 2: He is one right now. His twin is gone. Is
Speaker 2: that going to affect him? Probably not? Probably not?
Speaker 3: But what about him, but they have never played a
Speaker 3: football game without one another, so yeah, probably probably does.
Speaker 3: Really good player move them At South Dakota State. He
Speaker 3: and his brother are a little bit different, so we'll
Speaker 3: see where Jayden fits. But really good hands, good size,
Speaker 3: six to one to ten runs well, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: tell you he runs like tank, but he runs pretty well.
Speaker 3: And he's gonna make himself known in not only team scrimmages,
Speaker 3: team opportunities, but he's preseason games because he'll also got
Speaker 3: on special teams too, and he and his brother.
Speaker 2: Obviously his brother's not here anymore.
Speaker 3: But he and his brother are really interested in Texans
Speaker 3: because they have four preseason opportunities and you get the
Speaker 3: joy practice against the Rams, so I know they're really
Speaker 3: excited about that. And if he gets in a little
Speaker 3: bit of a groove, I'm telling you he's gonna be
Speaker 3: a guy that gets people's attention. If he weren't watching
Speaker 3: him at South Dakota State, shame on you. Well, no,
Speaker 3: you probably weren't watching South Dakota State.
Speaker 2: Not much.
Speaker 3: Really good young player that i'd like to see stick around,
Speaker 3: even if it's not in a fifty three.
Speaker 2: Just stand in a practice squad all year.
Speaker 3: Develop, continue to develop your body, learn its offense, and
Speaker 3: see what you can do in twenty twenty five. I
Speaker 3: know he's not thinking that way, but I know the
Speaker 3: team's gotta be thinking that way about using him as
Speaker 3: a developmental guy in the future.
Speaker 1: Two more and it feels like these guys have been
Speaker 1: around here for years, but they haven't. But they've been
Speaker 1: around here. Johnny Johnson, who wants a bout a time?
Speaker 1: A game winner in a preseason game. I almost had
Speaker 1: playoff game preseason game out of orgon Johnny Johnson.
Speaker 3: I've been a big fan of Johnny for a long time.
Speaker 3: This game against Arizona State back in twenty nineteen. He
Speaker 3: had a tremendous night against the sun Devils that night,
Speaker 3: and I was like, man, he's got something.
Speaker 2: He's got size, he's thick, you know. Tas in mini camp.
Speaker 3: I thought he was much more decisive after catching the ball,
Speaker 3: getting up the field kind of doing what Nico's doing. Rackability,
Speaker 3: but he's got really good hands, good concentration. He's been
Speaker 3: active in Week eighteen the last two years now. He's
Speaker 3: not gotten a ton of offensive reps, but just shows hey,
Speaker 3: you hang around, you never know when your opportunity is
Speaker 3: gonna come. Johnny's that guy healthy, you have opportunities to
Speaker 3: make plays in the preseason and then stick around and
Speaker 3: then you never know what happens.
Speaker 1: All right, What about Jared Wayne, the big receiver from
Speaker 1: Pitt six three to ten.
Speaker 3: Yesterday, great great catch, case Keenum throw a back shoulder ball.
Speaker 3: I can't remember who's covering him, but it was a
Speaker 3: great catch. I mean just right where you want a
Speaker 3: back shoulder ball to be. Case put in that spot.
Speaker 3: And then Wayne's big, I mean he's six ' three,
Speaker 3: he's got he's got glu sticks.
Speaker 2: Gotta stay healthy.
Speaker 3: Last year training camp, got banged up early in training camp,
Speaker 3: and that, to me is for a rookie is such
Speaker 3: a tough one because you start getting momentum going and
Speaker 3: then you get hurt. You're out for two three weeks.
Speaker 3: Now they've played preseason games and the train is you
Speaker 3: get on the train. But now you gotta get back
Speaker 3: to the front. And that's hard. And so if he
Speaker 3: can stay healthy, because of how long tall and his
Speaker 3: ball skills down the field, he's gonna he'll be interesting
Speaker 3: in these preseason games. If he gets opportunities to do that.
Speaker 1: There's the breakdown of the wide receiver group. One of
Speaker 1: the men who was discussed, Robert Woods. I visited with
Speaker 1: him after his first practice to check in and see
Speaker 1: how the VET was doing.
Speaker 6: Felt great to be back out here, get with the guys,
Speaker 6: get get going, get running. Felt good just to see
Speaker 6: everybody out here making players moving fast. The energy and
Speaker 6: excitement was there, especially day one. It's good just to
Speaker 6: get this twenty four season going.
Speaker 1: You've been in some pretty deep wide receiver rooms. This
Speaker 1: has to be among the deepest.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is from from top to bottom, as guys
Speaker 6: who are truly complete receivers. Feel like I've been on
Speaker 6: rosters where you have you have your your receivers, you
Speaker 6: have your special team receivers, you have your returners.
Speaker 2: But I feel like this team is.
Speaker 6: Full of football players, receivers, guys who could get open,
Speaker 6: get separation, and and do special teams and do punt
Speaker 6: return Like that's the most crisp room I've been in.
Speaker 6: Technical receivers being coached by a great coach, Bim Mcdniams.
Speaker 2: It always seems like CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud looks for you, often does in tough situations, some
Speaker 1: third down conversion situations, tell the listeners why that.
Speaker 6: Is just being reliable, knowing the defense, no one zones,
Speaker 6: no one saw spots. When those third downs and critical situations,
Speaker 6: defenses are usually trying to throw different coverages, different pressures
Speaker 6: at you. Just being able to be uh reliable, being
Speaker 6: able to know the offense being available, and uh, it's
Speaker 6: just it just comes down to just being a trustworthy
Speaker 6: receiver and fortunate that CJ believes in me to do that.
Speaker 6: And that's just my job as a receiver to be reliable,
Speaker 6: be open to find soft zones.
Speaker 1: What about this defensive backs group that you're facing in
Speaker 1: all these practices, OTA's mini camp and now in training camp.
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 6: I mean, we we know we had a great corner
Speaker 6: and sting and we've always uh watched some great receiver
Speaker 6: corners Jeff and CJ. And actually seeing them here like, oh,
Speaker 6: they kind of a little bigger when you see them
Speaker 6: every day. And uh, just guys who are are athletic, physical,
Speaker 6: getting getting hands on. I feel like it's a great
Speaker 6: group of guys and even teaching our younger guys. Baltimore
Speaker 6: is making some some really great plays off from spring
Speaker 6: hoping a great camp from him, but uh, that's a
Speaker 6: technician group as well on the defensive side.
Speaker 1: What do you make of this coaching staff because keeping
Speaker 1: it intact was a huge development this offseason with Bobby
Speaker 1: Slowick Rod Johnson as the quarterbacks coach and everybody else
Speaker 1: that you work with, Ben McDaniels, et cetera.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it's tough when you have a successful year,
Speaker 6: uh Rath and gay everybody, you're you're a hot team.
Speaker 6: How coming you have success and teams are looking to
Speaker 6: to to take that apart and build their own. And
Speaker 6: we were able to keep our staff intact. Uh, just
Speaker 6: keep some continuity on offensive side, able to keep Slow
Speaker 6: which is great for CJ or offense, and uh, it's
Speaker 6: just huge to be able to keep growing as a
Speaker 6: team and as offense. Like we uh we we we
Speaker 6: think we had a okay year. Uh truthfully, but it's
Speaker 6: a great year for what it was. You know, we
Speaker 6: had a rookie quarterback, rookie coach, everything new. It was
Speaker 6: like that was a good year. But truthfully, that's that's
Speaker 6: the average NFL season. I think everybody in this building
Speaker 6: knows that and had off season to really realize that,
Speaker 6: oh yeah, we did good, but in reality, everybody was
Speaker 6: able to focus in on hone in and building this
Speaker 6: team up even better, coming in to this training camp
Speaker 6: knowing what we're capable of and trying to take that
Speaker 6: to the next level. We got a zase here Austree
Speaker 6: on the d line. Signed Jerry Hughes again. But like
Speaker 6: you see Diggs, we're bringing Joe Mixon. We're bringing in
Speaker 6: guys to take this thing to the next level.
Speaker 2: We know we're good.
Speaker 6: We now we have the weapons and everything to go
Speaker 6: along with the mindset, the coaching and the mentality to.
Speaker 2: Make it a good season. Make it a great season.
Speaker 2: One more for your Robert.
Speaker 1: When you look at this training camp, it's longer than
Speaker 1: the rest because you're playing that first game. So you
Speaker 1: report early, practice early. Does that mean anything? How do
Speaker 1: you approach that different if at all?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's football. We all love football.
Speaker 6: You gotta love a game. Yeah, it is an extra week,
Speaker 6: it is an extra game, reporting early and everything. But
Speaker 6: like when you love the game of football, you love
Speaker 6: being around your guys. It's a joy to come in
Speaker 6: to work, it's a joy to be in the building.
Speaker 2: You want the.
Speaker 6: Opportunity to be able to play football again. I mean,
Speaker 6: you don't really, you only get a few camps and
Speaker 6: a few experiences like this to be around these guys
Speaker 6: and these teams. You just gotta take full advantage of it.
Speaker 6: We get an extra week to prepare, extra week to build,
Speaker 6: and extra week to bond, and that's the extra week
Speaker 6: to be.
Speaker 5: A stronger team.
Speaker 2: Awesome, Thanks a lot of Robberie, thank you.
Speaker 1: There's Robert Woods, and there is the show. Of course,
Speaker 1: we will attend tomorrow's practice. Have plenty of information on
Speaker 1: Houston Texans dot com about it. Monday morning, back out
Speaker 1: there at the field the Houston Methodist Training Center eight am.
Speaker 1: And Tuesday the first open practice with the crowd buzzing.
Speaker 2: Can't wait. Have a great weekend, Go Texans.