Speaker 1: Hello Texans, Welcome to the show. It's a big one tonight.
Speaker 1: Mark Vandermare and John Harris with you. We have plenty
Speaker 1: to talk about. It's been roster overhaul week, well not
Speaker 1: really overhaul, but get it down to fifty three, get
Speaker 1: the practice squad set up, that kind of week in
Speaker 1: advance of the Texans and Rams September seventh, huge weekend
Speaker 1: in college football coming up. We'll get to all of it,
Speaker 1: and we'll start off the show with the General, the
Speaker 1: Pro Football Hall of Famer John McClain. All right, General,
Speaker 1: we haven't had a chance to talk since the roster
Speaker 1: was constructed. Your thoughts on the initial fifty three, the
Speaker 1: practice squad, some of the developments.
Speaker 2: What are you thinking?
Speaker 3: Well, of course, we know that's an ongoing process. As
Speaker 3: Nick Cassario pointed out at his news conference on Wednesday,
Speaker 3: and I thought Graham Mertz as a third quarterback was unusual.
Speaker 3: He played really well in that last game. Obviously they
Speaker 3: were worried somebody might claim him keeping two tight ends.
Speaker 3: And remember, and the listeners got to remember today can
Speaker 3: elevate practice squad guys like Harrison Brian, he can maybe
Speaker 3: added to the roster. Miles Briant. He's gonna be added
Speaker 3: to the roster because they only have what two slot.
Speaker 3: They don't even have a backup Miles Bryant backup slot
Speaker 3: corner right now. So things will change on game day,
Speaker 3: and boy, game day can't get here quick enough because
Speaker 3: we're all so fired up about the season.
Speaker 4: We are definitely fired up about the season. I think
Speaker 4: quarterback one was a little surprising in fact today, earlier today,
Speaker 4: it was noted Keaton Slovas is going to sign with
Speaker 4: the Arizona Cardinals practice squad.
Speaker 5: So good for him.
Speaker 4: He returns back home where he was a high school
Speaker 4: star there in the state of Arizona. But general, it's
Speaker 4: talking about those two tight ends for a little bit,
Speaker 4: Dalton Schultz cased over and that's it. Now they brought
Speaker 4: Harrison Bryant back on the practice squad. Would imagine he
Speaker 4: would be one of the elevations. But your level surprise
Speaker 4: in the sense that the only kept two tight ends
Speaker 4: at this point, Kate Stover adult Schultz.
Speaker 3: Well, considering they traded for Brian he's on the practice squad,
Speaker 3: it'll be a moot point on game day. But they
Speaker 3: need Dalton shows to play the way did two years ago,
Speaker 3: and Cat Stover loves to knock people on their butt,
Speaker 3: and and since most players make their biggest improvement between
Speaker 3: the first and second season, I expect a lot of
Speaker 3: improvement from him as a receiver. He's learning Nick Cayley's
Speaker 3: offense just like everybody else for the first time. And
Speaker 3: I think that I love watching Stover block and that
Speaker 3: he may never have a better block. And what was
Speaker 3: it in the practice in the joint practice against Carolina
Speaker 3: which patters blind?
Speaker 5: Yeah, ants it was Derek Brown.
Speaker 3: Dereck Brown knocked him on his tail. I'll guarantee you
Speaker 3: Brown got a lot of grief from his teammates when
Speaker 3: they watch Tapa that. But I think tidy ends not
Speaker 3: a worrisome position. The biggest worry, of course, is running back.
Speaker 3: I like the fact they kept British Brooks. I love
Speaker 3: to see what he can do in short yardage situations.
Speaker 3: Can't wait to see. I love the fact that Nick
Speaker 3: Chubb is healthy. How that translates on the field, we
Speaker 3: don't know. But he averaged five yards of Carrie Damian Peers.
Speaker 3: If he stays healthy last year of his contract, this
Speaker 3: is a great opportunity for him, and I can't wait
Speaker 3: to see what he marks, see what Woody Marx can
Speaker 3: do as a rookie, not just as a runner, but
Speaker 3: as a receiver and arguing. But while he's one of
Speaker 3: their most versatile players and a good special teams player.
Speaker 3: So they got a lot of options at running back,
Speaker 3: but it's still going to be a questionable, questionable position
Speaker 3: until they prove they can produce at a level close
Speaker 3: to the way Joe Mixon produced season.
Speaker 1: General, I'm going to ask John Harris this question in
Speaker 1: the next segment. So Johnny, no spilling the candy and
Speaker 1: the lobby right here, but John, you tell me, John McLean,
Speaker 1: who the third leading receiver on this team is going
Speaker 1: to be. It's gonna be n Neico Collins, Christian Kirk
Speaker 1: one two. But what do you think about the third
Speaker 1: leading receiver who you got.
Speaker 3: Considering Jalen Knowle's coming off the bench. You'd say Jay
Speaker 3: Niggins would be because he's the starter. But no, Man,
Speaker 3: when I looked at what the draft experts, I expect
Speaker 3: the pick that they were most impressed with was not
Speaker 3: Jay Niggins in the second round, that Jalen Nole in
Speaker 3: the third round. And they thought that was a steal
Speaker 3: by the Texans. So I'm gonna say of the whiteouts,
Speaker 3: because I think there's a good chance Dalton Schulz could
Speaker 3: be number three. But I'm gonna say that that no
Speaker 3: at the end of the year will end up being
Speaker 3: the third. Third in ca Christen Kirk can stay healthy
Speaker 3: and be right there behind Nico. You hope Jay Naked
Speaker 3: steps up and against the ball a lot, but I
Speaker 3: think we all are really eager to see Noel Noel
Speaker 3: when he gets the ball, because he's so elusive and quick,
Speaker 3: and he was great in college.
Speaker 5: General.
Speaker 4: Along those lines are the receivers. There are seven of
Speaker 4: them on the fifty three man roster. Were you surprised
Speaker 4: they kept seven? A few days ago, I said, man,
Speaker 4: after John Metchu was traded, I thought I could see five,
Speaker 4: make jaln Noel, U punt returner, mag Justin Watson expendable.
Speaker 5: There you got five, and then you can.
Speaker 4: Pick up at other positions, namely maybe an extra tight end,
Speaker 4: et cetera.
Speaker 5: But they went with seven. They did it last year too.
Speaker 4: Now, Stephen Simms only lasted a certain amount of time
Speaker 4: with the team, but they went with seven for the
Speaker 4: first six or seven weeks. Your thoughts about keeping seven
Speaker 4: wide receivers.
Speaker 3: I was surprised. I thought it would be six. But
Speaker 3: last season is a great example of why he needs seven.
Speaker 3: Nico missed five games, what digs miss eight? How many
Speaker 3: Tank Dell end up missing five? So your top three
Speaker 3: receivers missed significant time, you better have guys ready to
Speaker 3: go another system. They've got Jared Wayne. Do they have
Speaker 3: another receiver on the practice squad?
Speaker 4: But when you sign they signed Josh Kelly out of
Speaker 4: Texas Tech today?
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, Jared Wayne knows the system, so he can
Speaker 3: be elevated if somebody gets hurt. But you've got to
Speaker 3: have multiple receivers. It'd be a great problem to have
Speaker 3: if nobody ever got hurt and they didn't need any
Speaker 3: of those backups. If Nico Collins stays healthy and plays
Speaker 3: a full season for the first time, I'll bet he
Speaker 3: has one hundred catches for over fifteen hundred yards and
Speaker 3: fifteen touchdowns.
Speaker 1: General, I want you to think about this one. Is
Speaker 1: this the most loaded the Texans have been going into
Speaker 1: a season ever? Or is it second place to twenty
Speaker 1: twelve team. Now, I'm not talking about how they ultimately
Speaker 1: end up that particular campaign or any particular campaign.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: How you felt about the team's talent heading into the campaign.
Speaker 1: At this very moment, what do you think? Where does
Speaker 1: this rank for you?
Speaker 3: This team has more depth on defense, and I wasn't
Speaker 3: surprised they kept so many defensive alignment. Those guys earned it,
Speaker 3: and I'm glad they didn't let somebody get away or
Speaker 3: trade him. I thought Nick Cassio with trade alignment, maybe
Speaker 3: a tackle for a sixth round pick, and they get hurt,
Speaker 3: and then you know the Nico Audrey has been seems
Speaker 3: like suspended most of the time he's been here, or
Speaker 3: on a list like he is now when he comes back,
Speaker 3: he's still a dangerous player at his age. It's a
Speaker 3: good problem to have now. Offensively, twenty twelve, they didn't
Speaker 3: have they had a better offensive line, you know, they don't.
Speaker 3: As much as we think about Nico Collins, he wasn't
Speaker 3: Andre Johnson, and so I think defensively this team has
Speaker 3: more offensive league that team had more because they had
Speaker 3: a great running back, one of the best in the league.
Speaker 3: And so I would say is offense twelve defense twenty five.
Speaker 4: General, what's your general sense of the running back room
Speaker 4: right now? We don't know about Joe Mixon. Obviously that's
Speaker 4: been He's going to be out four weeks, and it's
Speaker 4: been a little bit of a point of contention in
Speaker 4: the media lately. But your thoughts about what they have
Speaker 4: with Nick Chubb, with Daria Goomblewala, with what he marks
Speaker 4: with Damian Pearson and keeping British Brooks. What's your level
Speaker 4: of confidence in that running back group? How do you
Speaker 4: feel about that running back group?
Speaker 3: Well, before Chubb had his knee injury and then broke
Speaker 3: his foot last year and he's one hundred percent. You know,
Speaker 3: he's one of the best backs in the NFL. But
Speaker 3: he and people say he's got a lot of mileage. No,
Speaker 3: he doesn't. He's been rehabbing a lot. Joe Maxon has
Speaker 3: a lot of mileage, is second and carries in the
Speaker 3: NFL over I can't remember having the last five years
Speaker 3: to Derrick Henry, And you know, there's no guarantee Joe
Speaker 3: Mixon's going to be ready after four games and we
Speaker 3: don't even know what neck Sario's asked if he played
Speaker 3: this season, he said, we'll see, We'll take it one
Speaker 3: day at a time. So right now you have to
Speaker 3: really forget about Joe Mixon, and I think if Chubb
Speaker 3: this is really going to be a running back by committee.
Speaker 3: Can't see Nick Chubb coming out and filling the role
Speaker 3: that Mixing held last year when Cassario stolen from the Bengals.
Speaker 3: And Joe's an underrated receiver besides being a really good runner,
Speaker 3: he's been a double digit touchdown guy. Cincinnati got rid
Speaker 3: of him when he scored double digit touchdowns, so it's
Speaker 3: going to be hard to replace him. And it would
Speaker 3: really help if Damian Peers could stay healthy and capitalize
Speaker 3: on this system and come in and back up do
Speaker 3: a good job as a backup to Chubb. And they
Speaker 3: have maybe Woody Marx, if not Dorri Goombawally as the
Speaker 3: third down receiver.
Speaker 1: All right, General, I don't want to open up a
Speaker 1: can of injury here, but let's do a little bit
Speaker 1: of that, because you've been covering this game for a
Speaker 1: little while.
Speaker 2: So what are your thoughts.
Speaker 1: On teams and how they handle injuries overall? Because this league,
Speaker 1: once you get into the regular season, you do have
Speaker 1: an injury report every week and you've got guys put
Speaker 1: on IR and very often you see what the injury is.
Speaker 1: I think you always see what the injury is when
Speaker 1: they go on IR. I believe I might be wrong
Speaker 1: about that. But what are your thoughts on offseason, preseason,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing And what went down this week
Speaker 1: with the Miko Ryans and Nick Assario with the media.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, the media's job is to ask
Speaker 3: about players who are not there, and when it's one
Speaker 3: of your best players who you're being counted on so much,
Speaker 3: you have to ask. You know, they don't have to answer,
Speaker 3: but you have to ask, and your bosses tell you
Speaker 3: to ask. You know, Nick Assario and Nmiko Ryans are
Speaker 3: told to do something about kel mcni, they're going to
Speaker 3: do it. You know, you're asking for the fans that
Speaker 3: pay the freight, You're asking for the listeners. People want
Speaker 3: to know. People are constantly talking, well, what's up with
Speaker 3: Joe Mixing? And in almost every case that I know of,
Speaker 3: teams are reactive instead of proactive. You could come out
Speaker 3: and say, well, Joe was working out in Florida and
Speaker 3: he re injured his foot and he's undergoing rehab and
Speaker 3: we'll talk to it next time right before he's eligible
Speaker 3: to come off not football injury less, and then the
Speaker 3: story that's it but most teams are reactive. And I
Speaker 3: remember one time O'Brien told me I'm looking for any
Speaker 3: little morsel we can find about our opponent because every
Speaker 3: little morsel can help us win. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: you need more morsels, and Bill I thought about that
Speaker 3: at the time. I asked him, one time, have you
Speaker 3: ever seen a media person win or lose a game?
Speaker 3: Have you ever seen a media person affect the game?
Speaker 3: Including those of us who watched practice, talk to assistant
Speaker 3: coaches and wrote what the team has said about an
Speaker 3: honest injury, not a nagging one where a guy could
Speaker 3: be there next week or the next week, but if
Speaker 3: it was a legitimate one keeping him around a long time.
Speaker 3: I said, you ever hear about a coach, I mean
Speaker 3: a media person affecting a game? Well, of course, he
Speaker 3: said no one time. I'll tell you all this. Brown's
Speaker 3: made the playoffs for the only time under Bill Belichick,
Speaker 3: and he decided the media couldn't watch practice. Well, now, nobody,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's to watch practice sep In training
Speaker 3: camp you get to go out stretching. And so that
Speaker 3: was a big deal in the NFL that this bell Belichick,
Speaker 3: who was not popular, telling the media all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: you can't watch practice. Jack Pardee was the head coach
Speaker 3: of the Oilers and they were in the playoffs, and
Speaker 3: I said, if you thought about doing what that Belichick
Speaker 3: guy is doing in Cleveland, Jack said, I played fifteen
Speaker 3: years and I've coached the Redskins, and I've coached the Bears,
Speaker 3: and I've coached the Oilers, and I've never seen one
Speaker 3: time a person in the media have any kind of
Speaker 3: effect on any game. And if I ever do, I'll
Speaker 3: close practice too.
Speaker 4: General is floating around the interwebs and social media, and
Speaker 4: I went to the NFL Game Day account and they
Speaker 4: NFL dot Com made some award predictions. If this were
Speaker 4: to come true, tell me what you think that says
Speaker 4: about both the player and the defense and the team
Speaker 4: of the Texans. If this comes true, their prediction for
Speaker 4: Defensive Player of the Year is one Will Anderson Junior.
Speaker 4: If he is Defensive Player of the Year, what do
Speaker 4: you think it says about what this team could do
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: It means the Texans had a great defense. And remember
Speaker 3: these awards were only being done for regular season. But
Speaker 3: you know who's going on in the playoffs. It means
Speaker 3: he would add fifteen to twenty sacks, and it means
Speaker 3: the Texans would have won the division and be a
Speaker 3: team to be reckoned with, especially the defense led by
Speaker 3: Will Anderson Junior, a serious candidate for NFL Defensive Player
Speaker 3: of the Year.
Speaker 2: General.
Speaker 1: I'm in the oppressed minority of people who miss the
Speaker 1: fourth preseason game. But I suppose I like the seventeenth game.
Speaker 1: I like more games that count, but I still miss
Speaker 1: this one Thursday night before Labor Day. I kind of
Speaker 1: enjoyed it with the reserves playing the rookies, that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Are you ready to give it up now
Speaker 1: that when they go to eighteen games and it's pretty
Speaker 1: much when and not if that they will play on
Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend eventually, and they used to play on
Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend. I know that you think they're dead
Speaker 1: set against it, But if they go to eighteen. When
Speaker 1: they go to eighteen, they'll probably have two buys. They're
Speaker 1: just going to run out of calendar at some point.
Speaker 1: Don't you think they'll play on Labor Day?
Speaker 3: Uh? No, there's no need to play on Labor Day
Speaker 3: because you can move the super Bowl whenever you want.
Speaker 3: Every city gets super Bowl as to keep all the
Speaker 3: rooms and everything available for February so you can move
Speaker 3: it back eighteen games to two games off. When they
Speaker 3: got out of Labor Day is because TV ratings always
Speaker 3: started poorly. Now maybe the NFL so big right now
Speaker 3: it wouldn't matter. But I think they like the build up,
Speaker 3: the hype for the extra week. Players like having off.
Speaker 3: We'll have two games, starters will play a little bit
Speaker 3: in one game and the others will not. They may
Speaker 3: have another joint practice, a couple of teams at three
Speaker 3: joint practices. So I don't see them playing on Labor
Speaker 3: Day because if they did and the TV ratings were
Speaker 3: down from last year, that's all they care about, and
Speaker 3: there's no need that you couldn't move the super Bowl
Speaker 3: back another week.
Speaker 5: I'd like to see them starting Labor Day, but that's okay.
Speaker 4: I like the fact that Labor Day will be saved
Speaker 4: for college I know there's a decent number of games
Speaker 4: that are taking place tonight. Nebraska Cincinnati at Arrowhead is
Speaker 4: definitely one of them, but it's a longer Thursday Friday
Speaker 4: slate then you.
Speaker 5: Would normally expect.
Speaker 4: You know, you don't have a ton of great games,
Speaker 4: but you know you've got decent ones in that Nebraska
Speaker 4: Cincinnati game is going to be a decent one.
Speaker 5: So I mean, I'm okay with that. General.
Speaker 4: Mike Tannabaum was on first take, sitting across from Oh,
Speaker 4: you know where I'm.
Speaker 3: Going with this smoking okay taking.
Speaker 4: If you haven't heard Mike Tannenbaum when asked who was
Speaker 4: going to win the AFC South, he said with conviction
Speaker 4: and then tried to argue it.
Speaker 5: The Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 4: Now you may not want or may see the Texans
Speaker 4: winning the division, that's fine, but his logic was so
Speaker 4: fast awkwards it was unbelievable. Your thoughts about Tannenbaum saying
Speaker 4: something dumb again and it being the Titans winning the division.
Speaker 3: It's the first time I've agreed with Steven A. Smith
Speaker 3: on anything, because the way he looked at Tannebaum and
Speaker 3: just tore him apart. And there's no way you can
Speaker 3: justify something like that. Now, if it happens, he'll look
Speaker 3: like one of the all time geniuses, and if it doesn't,
Speaker 3: he'll look like a former GM can get a job
Speaker 3: in football again. I thought that was of all people
Speaker 3: are always looking for something different, but that one was
Speaker 3: so out of left field. It wasn't in the ballpark,
Speaker 3: and I thought Mike looked like such a dumb ass.
Speaker 2: How are they feeling about that defense?
Speaker 1: Because total yards they looked pretty good last year, but
Speaker 1: they were getting the ball of the drive. Starts were
Speaker 1: ridiculously good for the opponents. And we're not talking about
Speaker 1: a scoring defense. We're talking about yardage surrendered. That offense
Speaker 1: was top two in giveaways, so your defense is at
Speaker 1: the thirty and even if they scored, you only gave
Speaker 1: up thirty yards.
Speaker 2: But they scored.
Speaker 1: I thought those stats were really massed the total yardage defense.
Speaker 1: What do they think coming into twenty twenty five? How
Speaker 1: are they feeling in general general in Nashville about this team.
Speaker 3: They will never say this publicly, but they would love
Speaker 3: to double their win total and go from three to six.
Speaker 3: Wards show a lot of promise as a quarterback who
Speaker 3: can get better. Gods are he's not gonna play seventeen games.
Speaker 3: He'll get hurt, or he'll go through a bad stretch
Speaker 3: and get managed because he doesn't have a lot of
Speaker 3: talent around him. Their backup running back Tuyse Spears is
Speaker 3: out for at least four games and they got Pollard.
Speaker 3: Their wide receivers are not very good. We expected their
Speaker 3: offensive line to be good the last two years and
Speaker 3: it hasn't been. And yes, their defense is good, but man,
Speaker 3: they're gonna be involved in a lot of low scoring games.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're gonna be It's gonna be tough for them
Speaker 5: to do much.
Speaker 4: I think offensively, I think, if you're right, General, if
Speaker 4: they can't get the five or six wins, I think
Speaker 4: they're gonna be feel good about it. What I thought
Speaker 4: I find interesting with them is what happens to Brian Callahan.
Speaker 4: If they win five or six, they're showing enough that
Speaker 4: they keep him around, et cetera. Because they've changed GMS. General,
Speaker 4: the New England Patriots have one player from a nine
Speaker 4: player draft in twenty twenty four, or whoever picked those
Speaker 4: players is still the guy picking those players, but it's
Speaker 4: a new head coach. What do you think this means
Speaker 4: with Elliott Wolf and Mike Vrabel there in New England?
Speaker 4: Is this simple as Frabel is just gonna work his
Speaker 4: magic until he has that personal department the way he wants,
Speaker 4: or do you think Vrabel and Wolf will eventually kind
Speaker 4: of work together the way they want to and have
Speaker 4: a relationship, kind of like Nick and Dimiko Avin Houston.
Speaker 3: I think that Mike Grabel wouldn't have taken the job
Speaker 3: if he didn't have final sale on personnel and might
Speaker 3: not say it in his contract. But Elliott will's gonna
Speaker 3: draft who he wants. And the previous regime, you know,
Speaker 3: they they were bad all around, and so some of
Speaker 3: those guys might have stayed if they'd kept the same coach.
Speaker 3: But Brabel's basically starting over, except for Drake May could
Speaker 3: be a great young quarterback. But that roster you talk
Speaker 3: about being churned, that is embarrassing. Well, you know, they
Speaker 3: started going down draft wise when Casario came here. That
Speaker 3: was in twenty twenty one. If you go back and
Speaker 3: look at their draft, they were not good. I always
Speaker 3: was told there. Nick would tell Belichick, Okay, I think
Speaker 3: we should do this this, and Belichick would do whatever
Speaker 3: he wanted. Sometimes he agreed with Nick, sometimes he didn't.
Speaker 3: But that was a significant loss for that franchise when
Speaker 3: the Texans stole Nick Cassario from them.
Speaker 1: General, let's continue talking about things going on around the
Speaker 1: league and go to the Horseshoe, because Daniel Jones is
Speaker 1: the starting quarterback, Chris Ballard said, and do we believe
Speaker 1: him about this? He reminds me of Alex Smith in
Speaker 1: Kansas City.
Speaker 3: Thoughts, No, you said the Horseshoe. I thought you were
Speaker 3: talking about Columbus in the second biggest game of the weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll talk about that Baylor. Sure.
Speaker 3: I think Chris Ballard has to say that. He could
Speaker 3: be out of a job, you know, and Jim Mersey's
Speaker 3: oldest daughter is heavily involved and has been heavily involved.
Speaker 3: You know, the odds are they could be starting over
Speaker 3: after this season. They need Daniel Jones to bail the mouth,
Speaker 3: or they need Anthony Richardson when he gets a chance
Speaker 3: to play the way they hoped he would when they
Speaker 3: drafted him. Right now, he's one of the biggest buss
Speaker 3: in history. And I think they wouldn't surprise me at
Speaker 3: all if they don't have We're not talking about the
Speaker 3: new coach regime next year with a new GM and
Speaker 3: a new head coach and a rookie quarterback drafted.
Speaker 1: High general before I get to college football. Taylor Swift
Speaker 1: is no way the greatest female pop vocalist ever. But
Speaker 1: who is in your opinion the greatest female pop vocalist,
Speaker 1: not writer pop vocalist ever.
Speaker 3: Well, she's the most popular and her popularity is worldwide.
Speaker 3: But I think when it comes to singing, Diana Ross
Speaker 3: and Lady Gaga, off the top of my head, both
Speaker 3: of them were outstanding. They can hit any notes, sing
Speaker 3: any kind of music. Diana Ross was in a class
Speaker 3: by herself. Whitney Houston, even though she had all of
Speaker 3: her drug issues and everything, she was incredible when she
Speaker 3: was healthy and at the top of her game, so
Speaker 3: to speak. But those would be three great ones. There
Speaker 3: are many others, but as far as entertainers, you can't
Speaker 3: beat Taylor Sweat and her popularity very popular. How much
Speaker 3: of a prenap do you think he has to sign?
Speaker 5: Oh boy, God, that's gonna be large.
Speaker 4: General, how excited are you for a Baylor Bear football
Speaker 4: this year?
Speaker 5: And b Baylor v.
Speaker 4: Auburn which is one of the better openers of the
Speaker 4: college football season.
Speaker 3: And so I haven't been this excited about a Baylor
Speaker 3: game a long time. Last year I thought David Randa
Speaker 3: was on his way out. They started that way. They
Speaker 3: won their last six and average forty point three parts
Speaker 3: game And sorry, Robertson became one of the best quarterbacks
Speaker 3: in college football. I'm pumped about that one. I'm pumped
Speaker 3: about the Longhorns. All my friends hate the Longhorns, want
Speaker 3: them to lose. I want them to win now that
Speaker 3: they're not in the Big twelve. I want to see
Speaker 3: him win. I want to see the Ages win. I
Speaker 3: want to see all our schools win. The Baylor started
Speaker 3: one in one. I'd rather beat Auburn on TV and
Speaker 3: then lose at SMU, then lose to Auburn and beat SMU.
Speaker 3: But if they start over too, Baylor people are going
Speaker 3: to be crushed.
Speaker 2: All right, General, great stuff.
Speaker 1: As always great to visit with you, and we will
Speaker 1: check in next week prior to the Texans taking on
Speaker 1: the Rams in the twenty twenty five season opener.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much, Mark and John, Thank you guys very much.
Speaker 3: As always, is the best time of.
Speaker 1: The year, the best time of the year, and it's
Speaker 1: the best segment when we get to other than the
Speaker 1: general segment, when we get to more likely to happen,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk to Texans receivers, running backs, we'll talk
Speaker 1: AFC South opponents, all of it coming up here on
Speaker 1: Texans Radio. Here we are on the hun Day Texans
Speaker 1: Radio studio. Mark Vandermaer and John Harris with you. As
Speaker 1: it'll be all quiet this weekend in the building.
Speaker 2: No, it won't.
Speaker 1: The weekend is playing at NRG Stadium, But as far
Speaker 1: as the football facilities, yes, it'll be a weekend off
Speaker 1: of the players before they get back to it on
Speaker 1: Monday for practice. That'll be a full workday for them
Speaker 1: getting into game week one. They'll face the Rams September
Speaker 1: seventh in La And very important to note, we were
Speaker 1: gonna have a show look at regular Tuesday kind of
Speaker 1: players show to start off the season. We changed our minds.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to the team Shop Tuesday at six.
Speaker 1: So Tuesday, September second, six o'clock, Jonathan Joseph will be
Speaker 1: with us, and we've got specials. We got ticket giveaways.
Speaker 1: The team Store stays open late, usually closes at six.
Speaker 1: It'll be open until at least seven, and we'll be
Speaker 1: hobnobbing with the peeps, giving away stuff, having a great
Speaker 1: time Tuesday six, right here at NRG Stadium Team Shop
Speaker 1: be here.
Speaker 2: Aloha. All right, let's get to this, Johnny.
Speaker 1: It's a segment that we don't do all the time,
Speaker 1: but when we do it, it's huge.
Speaker 2: It's more likely to happen. You ready, let's go all right,
Speaker 2: here we go.
Speaker 5: I'm likely to happen.
Speaker 1: I promised i'd ask you this, So let's do it.
Speaker 1: And we've done versions of this. But now that we
Speaker 1: know our initial fifty three and practice squad, let's get
Speaker 1: into it. Who's going to be the third leading receiver
Speaker 1: on this team? Now, if you have somebody else in
Speaker 1: the top two other than Nico Collins and Christian Kirk,
Speaker 1: let me know.
Speaker 2: But who's third? What do you think?
Speaker 4: I think that in touchdowns it will be Jaydan Higgins.
Speaker 4: I think in yards it will be Jayden Higgins. I
Speaker 4: think in catches it's going to be.
Speaker 5: Jalen Knowle. Let's go that way.
Speaker 4: I think that I think Jayane Higgins is going to
Speaker 4: create some big, big plays for this team. And I
Speaker 4: don't know that he'll catch sixty passes, but I do
Speaker 4: think the thirty five to forty he catches, and I
Speaker 4: hope it's more, but I think he's gonna average sixteen
Speaker 4: seventeen yards a catch. You're talking about, say it's forty catches,
Speaker 4: six hundred and eighty yards and I think he's gonna
Speaker 4: create a number of big play touchdowns. So I do
Speaker 4: think Nico's gonna be let's say Nico's healthy.
Speaker 5: I think it's up near one hundred, if not over.
Speaker 4: I think Christian Kirk is gonna be seventy five to eighty.
Speaker 4: I don't think the yards per average is gonna be high,
Speaker 4: but it doesn't need to be. It just needs to
Speaker 4: be a bunch of first downs and replace kind of
Speaker 4: what Robert Woods gave you as kind of a third
Speaker 4: down go to guy. And then I think Jaydon Higgins
Speaker 4: ends up being the next guy. And I do think
Speaker 4: that Dalton Schultz probably fits in between there. But I
Speaker 4: think Dalton's gonna kind of be similar to Christian. It's
Speaker 4: gonna be probably a higher reception rate, lower yardage, maybe
Speaker 4: lower in touchdowns. But I think Jayden's gonna have the
Speaker 4: sixty five yard bomb. I think he's gonna have the
Speaker 4: fifty yard catch. I think he's gonna end up making
Speaker 4: some of those plays, and a number of them that
Speaker 4: come off of takeaways. Last year we'd have a takeaway.
Speaker 4: It's like, all right, Dre talks about this all the time.
Speaker 4: What do you want to do? Go deep right after
Speaker 4: a takeaway. We didn't go deep a lot. Last year.
Speaker 4: We would run outside zone, and the way we go
Speaker 4: I think this year there's gonna be, hey, we gotta
Speaker 4: turn over.
Speaker 5: We got the ball on midfield. Let's take a shot here.
Speaker 4: Let's take Jayane Higgins and send him on the post
Speaker 4: route and see if we can't get him open. As
Speaker 4: they all focus on Nico Collins, I think that's where
Speaker 4: Jayden comes in. But I do think they're gonna find
Speaker 4: ways to get the ball to Jalen Knowle, whether it's
Speaker 4: quick screens, push passes. Remember if Jaye Nole goes in
Speaker 4: motion and CJ takes the ball, just pushes it forward
Speaker 4: just a little bit, that's a reception for Nol. He
Speaker 4: could have won every game that way. That's seventeen catches
Speaker 4: right there. So I think that Jade Nole produced in
Speaker 4: that way. But I think Higgins is gonna be the
Speaker 4: one with yards and touchdowns to come in third.
Speaker 2: Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1: I understand it's a little confusing, but I understand because yeah, yards,
Speaker 1: you have touchdowns, you have receptions, you have all of it. Okay,
Speaker 1: next one. As we continue on this segment.
Speaker 2: More likely to happen more likely to be the team's
Speaker 2: second leading rusher.
Speaker 1: Now Joe Mixon unable to participate in this question even
Speaker 1: if he comes back. So, if Mixing comes back week five,
Speaker 1: for instance, and your guy is bumped a third, because
Speaker 1: Mixing's gonna get a lion's share of the carriers, or
Speaker 1: at least enough of them to bump your guy out
Speaker 1: of second, it sucks to be You give me the
Speaker 1: second leading rusher on this team not named Joe Mixon
Speaker 1: if he comes back week five or early enough to
Speaker 1: affect these statistical standings, if that makes sense.
Speaker 4: Joe Quavius Woody marks, Oh, okay, here we go. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know it's funny. You know me, I don't like
Speaker 4: to be a hot take guy. I I'm not hot
Speaker 4: take guy, but I get kind of stuck in my
Speaker 4: convictions at and there have been times throughout this training
Speaker 4: camp I'm watching, I'm like, man, you should have gone
Speaker 4: with it before training camp. And that was that Woody
Speaker 4: Marx was gonna be the second leading rusher on this team,
Speaker 4: maybe even the first. That guys dinged up. Not sure
Speaker 4: when they're coming back, not sure the longevity of you know,
Speaker 4: how much is Nick got left in the tank. Now
Speaker 4: Nick is shown to have a lot more left in
Speaker 4: the tank than maybe any of us thought. So that
Speaker 4: was good, But I kind of started playing that game
Speaker 4: of well, we don't know what Damien's coming back, eh,
Speaker 4: we don't know about Joe, So okay, what happens if
Speaker 4: Nick gets a little dinged up?
Speaker 5: Who do you go to next?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm pretty I'm pretty convinced that you would go
Speaker 4: to next, Woody Marx. I think Woody is gonna end
Speaker 4: up being that number two guy because I think he's
Speaker 4: gonna end up getting a lot of touches. Now, I
Speaker 4: do think that Woody if if the question were second
Speaker 4: in all purpose yards, I would absolutely, without a question.
Speaker 5: Say Woody the second back.
Speaker 4: Now as it sits and Damian's a little bit healthier,
Speaker 4: it makes me lean Damien. But I'm gonna stick with
Speaker 4: Woody on this because I think that Woody is I
Speaker 4: think this offense is gonna be made for Woody. I
Speaker 4: think they're gonna have some zone elements in it. He's
Speaker 4: very good at that. I think he's gonna have some
Speaker 4: power game and some gap power stuff. I think he's
Speaker 4: gonna be good for that. I think he's gonna be
Speaker 4: great in receiving game, so I'm confident absolutely that he'll
Speaker 4: have be second all purpose yards. But I'm I'm at
Speaker 4: a point now where I feel like he's gonna be second.
Speaker 5: In rushing yards too, And it would be awesome if.
Speaker 4: He ends up being that guy, because it makes the
Speaker 4: future of that position that much more interesting. And you
Speaker 4: know me, I look ahead, and I'm always looking ahead
Speaker 4: because I'm always looking at the draft. I don't know
Speaker 4: if there are a ton of guys in this draft
Speaker 4: where I'm like, yeah, I'd like to see that guy
Speaker 4: here over the guys we have. I like the guys
Speaker 4: that we have. Last year, I looked at the running
Speaker 4: backs and went, there are a lot of that I liked,
Speaker 4: and Woody Marks was, you know, near the top of
Speaker 4: the guys that I like. I don't know that I
Speaker 4: look at the running backs this year and go, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I gotta have one.
Speaker 5: Of these guys.
Speaker 4: I like a few, but I love the guys like
Speaker 4: I did last year, and we ended up getting one
Speaker 4: of those guys that I loved. So I want to
Speaker 4: ride that Woody Marks train for as long as possible,
Speaker 4: and hopefully when he scores his first touchdown, You will say,
Speaker 4: Joe Quavius Woody Marx has just scored his first touchdown
Speaker 4: in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Oh, you're putting me up to that, Okay, man, I
Speaker 1: will take it under consideration. Let's see how this plays out. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: all right. Let's get to the next one here and
Speaker 1: go around the AFC South a little bit more likely
Speaker 1: to have more yards. Daniel Jones with the Colts or
Speaker 1: cam Ward with the Titans. Who's gonna throw for more
Speaker 1: yards this year? Daniel Jones aka the new Alex Smith,
Speaker 1: according to Chris Ballard, or cam Ward the number one
Speaker 1: overall picking the draft playing for the Titans, who sparked
Speaker 1: Mike Lombardi to say that the Titans would win the
Speaker 1: AFCAST South. And I don't know what they're smoking in
Speaker 1: North Carolina, but it must be really good.
Speaker 2: But maybe he's right. Who knows. I mean, stranger things
Speaker 2: have happened. The Texans went from worse to first.
Speaker 4: I think this one is pretty simple. I think it's
Speaker 4: gonna be cam Ward. I think you're a couple of things.
Speaker 5: Number one.
Speaker 4: I think the Colts are going to during games, they're
Speaker 4: going to ride Jonathan Taylor and their run game for
Speaker 4: as long as they possibly can until they have to
Speaker 4: if they get behind, have to throw. But they're even
Speaker 4: if they're down in the second half within one score,
Speaker 4: they're gonna stick to the running game. I think in
Speaker 4: Tennessee it is gonna be they get behind early, they've
Speaker 4: got to throw a bunch late, and that to me
Speaker 4: ends up getting a lot of I don't say hollow
Speaker 4: yards for cam Ward, but I do think there're gonna
Speaker 4: be some games where you look up and go, hey man,
Speaker 4: cam Ward through for four hundred.
Speaker 5: And seventy five. Yeah, they got beat thirty eight to ten.
Speaker 4: So I think you're gonna get a number of those
Speaker 4: kind of games, and I think cam Ward's gonna rack
Speaker 4: up a bunch of yards, kind of like Cam Newton
Speaker 4: did with the Panthers at twenty eleven. Is not a
Speaker 4: very good team, but I remember Cam threw four hundred
Speaker 4: the first two games of the year because they got
Speaker 4: behind against both the Cardinals and the Packers, and to
Speaker 4: get back in it.
Speaker 5: Cam had to throw.
Speaker 4: And what we ended up finding out later is that
Speaker 4: wasn't the way the Panthers wanted to play, but that
Speaker 4: was the way they had to play in twenty eleven,
Speaker 4: I think that the Titans will have to do the
Speaker 4: same with cam Ward and that will put him in
Speaker 4: the thirty eight hundred, four thousand yard category because they're
Speaker 4: trying to come back from behind in games as oppose
Speaker 4: the Colts staying close and then staying close. They'll continue
Speaker 4: to run Jonathan Taylor and get that run game going.
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to remember ten years ago when Blake
Speaker 1: Bortles threw for nearly forty five hundred yards, thirty five touchdowns,
Speaker 1: eighteen interceptions. It's the eighteen interceptions that'll get you every time.
Speaker 1: That's the problem there. I mean, those other numbers are big,
Speaker 1: but those were carbohydrates. I mean that was that was
Speaker 1: not exactly a successful season, now was it?
Speaker 2: The next year? Yeah, the next year they'd make.
Speaker 1: It to the AFC Championship Game, and yeah, twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: because they were loaded up with those free agents, and
Speaker 1: you know, they took their revenge out on the Texans.
Speaker 1: They had that great opening day win here following Hurricane Harvey,
Speaker 1: and they had that demolish of the Houston Texans later
Speaker 1: on in the season. And you got to give one
Speaker 1: of those to the Jags every once in a while,
Speaker 1: just to keep them happy, but I don't want to
Speaker 1: do that this year.
Speaker 2: That's when the Texans are having a down year.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Jags, have your little win, and then we'll
Speaker 1: go on with the streak that never dies. The overall,
Speaker 1: it's not really the streak that never dies, but it's
Speaker 1: it's a run that never dies. Against the Jacksonville Jaguars,
Speaker 1: the team you first beat on the road in the
Speaker 1: history of the franchise in two thousand and two set
Speaker 1: the tone for this series moving forward forever and ever.
Speaker 2: That's how I feel for I love it.
Speaker 4: And I hope it stays the matter where we play
Speaker 4: them in Wembley or we play them in dow A exactly.
Speaker 1: And you say it right as opposed to the head
Speaker 1: coach duringory press conference, we're that's more likely to happen. Now,
Speaker 1: stay with me on this more likely to be a
Speaker 1: tougher quarterback to deal with right now? Matthew Stafford or
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield. Who's tougher to deal with right now for
Speaker 1: this defense Matthew Stafford with the bad back I'm hurting,
Speaker 1: or Baker Mayfield I'm gonna light it up. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he's gonna light it up or not. I'm
Speaker 1: just painting a picture here. What do you think, Well,
Speaker 1: the two.
Speaker 4: Things that impact you I think in week one are
Speaker 4: incorporating or learning a new offense and an injury coming in. Well,
Speaker 4: one has one and one has the other. I'd lean
Speaker 4: more towards Baker Mayfield because Mayfield is healthy, and I
Speaker 4: think a lot of what they'll do they've already did
Speaker 4: under Liam Cohen. They'll just continue it there in Tampa,
Speaker 4: I think, and just kind of keep that machine rolling.
Speaker 4: So I think it's new and a new offensive coordinator,
Speaker 4: but I think I thinks they're gonna be similar enough
Speaker 4: to is gonna be really really tough to deal with.
Speaker 4: Kate Odden's hurt. You send me that text. I woke
Speaker 4: up to that on Thursday morning, Like, Yo, Kate odten Man.
Speaker 4: I hope he doesn't play. They already could be without
Speaker 4: Tristan Wurfs. That's a big loss. If they're without Kate Odden. Well,
Speaker 4: that helps out because I think Baker is coming in
Speaker 4: firing forty one and fifteen last year. I think Baker's
Speaker 4: gonna be tougher that back. For Matt Stafford, I mean,
Speaker 4: he might live in his little cryo chamber or whatever
Speaker 4: he's got. But man, if he gets hit a couple
Speaker 4: times by these animals rushing him, oooh, buddy, that is
Speaker 4: going to be tough. Now he's got his offense, he
Speaker 4: knows it backwards and forwards. But they got to incorporate
Speaker 4: Devonte Adams into it. They got to deal with life
Speaker 4: without Cooper cup That I think is gonna be tough.
Speaker 4: So I think with all the weapons that Tampa Bay has,
Speaker 4: the offense sting relatively similar, and Baker being healthy, I
Speaker 4: think Mayfield is a tougher nut to crack, if you will.
Speaker 5: In the first two weeks of the year.
Speaker 2: I got another one for you. This is a college sorry, sorry,
Speaker 2: dear college.
Speaker 1: Football one more likely to happen, more likely to be
Speaker 1: the number one pick in the draft in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a choice here, Arch Manning slash
Speaker 1: Garrett Nussmeyer or the field. You pick one of those
Speaker 1: two qbs or the field for the number one pick
Speaker 1: in the draft twenty twenty six, Johnny the field.
Speaker 5: First of all, I'm not totally sure arch will come
Speaker 5: out now.
Speaker 4: He's kind of refuted what Archie, his grandfather said about
Speaker 4: coming out. But I feel like Arch has a lot
Speaker 4: to prove, and I don't know if he'll prove at all,
Speaker 4: even though he'd been the number one pick. And there's
Speaker 4: also that Manning family trait of We're gonna hang on
Speaker 4: as long as we possibly can to see who's gonna
Speaker 4: end up with a number one pick, and then we'll decide.
Speaker 4: Nuss Meyer is too yolo for me. I said that
Speaker 4: to somebody who asked me the other day in the office.
Speaker 5: Yolo.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you only live once. He is firing, he's ready
Speaker 4: fire aim like. He shoots it a lot of different
Speaker 4: places now. He is gutsy, he is tough, he has
Speaker 4: been well coached. He's a coach's son. I like him
Speaker 4: down to stretch of games. But there's just a little
Speaker 4: bit too much yolo in his game. My QB one
Speaker 4: going into this year, write this name down South Carolina
Speaker 4: quarterback with North Sellers.
Speaker 5: My cop for.
Speaker 4: Him is Andrew luck Oh on many levels, Oh, North Sellers,
Speaker 4: South Carolina, that's my guy.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's your guy. So you went with another quarterback.
Speaker 1: How about Arch making six point eight million dollars this year?
Speaker 5: How about that? How about that? What a six point
Speaker 5: eight million?
Speaker 4: That's what second round picks make, right now, that's what second.
Speaker 5: Round picks are making.
Speaker 2: It's just crazy stuff. Oh my god, that.
Speaker 5: Mean, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 4: Mark He's he started twice in his career. This game
Speaker 4: on Saturday with Ohio State. Julian Saying is the new
Speaker 4: quarterback of Ohio State. Zero career starts. Arch has two
Speaker 4: and these are teams one and three in the country.
Speaker 4: Now there is some serious talent, serious talent. I got
Speaker 4: my keys of the game up at football taker dot
Speaker 4: com and I'm gonna have a draft article coming up.
Speaker 5: Later this weekend as well. Before you get to that game.
Speaker 4: With all the draft talent you need to be watching
Speaker 4: in Texas out of state, they are loaded with dudes.
Speaker 1: Loaded indeed. And that'll be Saturday at eleven o'clock. That's
Speaker 1: an eleven am game Texas at Ohio State. Can't wait
Speaker 1: for that, can't wait for the Hurricanes taking on the
Speaker 1: fighting Irish Sean pendergast so Alma Mater, Catholics and convicts revisited.
Speaker 2: Really did I go there? I did?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 1: What who cares? We're having fun. Let's do the final
Speaker 1: segment next. Johnny Away in on one of the McClean, topics,
Speaker 1: and everything else we could squeeze in before the close
Speaker 1: of business tonight here on Texans All Access. Hello Texans,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. It's a big one tonight. Mark
Speaker 1: Vandermare and John Harris with you. We have plenty to
Speaker 1: talk about. It's been roster overhaul week, well not really overhaul,
Speaker 1: but get it down to fifty three, get the practice
Speaker 1: squad set up, that kind of week in advance of
Speaker 1: the Texans and Rams September seventh, huge weekend in college
Speaker 1: football coming up. We'll get to all of it, and
Speaker 1: we'll start off the show with the general. Oh Football
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer John McLean. All right, General, we haven't
Speaker 1: had a chance to talk since the roster was constructed.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts on the initial fifty three, the practice squad,
Speaker 1: some of the developments.
Speaker 2: What are you thinking?
Speaker 3: Well, of course, we know that's an ongoing process, as
Speaker 3: net Tosario pointed out at his news conference on Wednesday,
Speaker 3: and I thought Graham Mertz as a third quarterback was unusual.
Speaker 3: He played really well in that last game. Obviously they
Speaker 3: were worried somebody might claim him keeping two tight ends.
Speaker 3: And remember and the listeners got to remember that they
Speaker 3: can elevate practice squad guys like Harris and Brian. He
Speaker 3: can may be added to the roster, Miles Brian, He's
Speaker 3: going to be added to the roster because they only
Speaker 3: have what two slot. They don't even have a backup
Speaker 3: Miles Brian backup slight corner right now. So things will
Speaker 3: change on game day, and boy, game day can't get
Speaker 3: it quick enough because we're all so fired up about
Speaker 3: the season.
Speaker 4: We are definitely fired up about the season. I think
Speaker 4: quarterback one was a little surprising in fact today, earlier
Speaker 4: today it was noted Keaton Slovas is going to sign
Speaker 4: with the Arizona Cardinals practice.
Speaker 5: Squad, So good for him.
Speaker 4: He returns back home where he was a high school
Speaker 4: star there in the state of Arizona. But general's talk
Speaker 4: about those two tight ends for a little bit. Dalton
Speaker 4: Schultz cased over and that's it now. They brought Harrison
Speaker 4: Bryant back on the practice squad. Would imagine he would
Speaker 4: be one of the elevations. But your level surprise in
Speaker 4: the sense that they only kept two tight ends at
Speaker 4: this point catched over adult Schultz.
Speaker 3: Well, considering they traded for Briant, he's on the practice squad.
Speaker 3: It'll be a moot point on game day, but they
Speaker 3: need Dalton shows play the way did two years go.
Speaker 3: And Cage Sedover loves to knock people on their butt.
Speaker 3: And since most players make their biggest and movement between
Speaker 3: the first and second season, I expect a lot of
Speaker 3: improvement from him as a receiver. He's learning Nick Cayley's
Speaker 3: offense just like everybody else for the first time. And uh,
Speaker 3: I think that I love watching Stover block and that
Speaker 3: he may never have a better block. And what was
Speaker 3: it in the practice in the UH joint practice against
Speaker 3: Carolina which.
Speaker 5: Patsy blind Man, it was Derek Brown.
Speaker 3: Dereck Brown knocked him on his tail. I'll guarantee you
Speaker 3: Brown got a lot of grief from his teammates when
Speaker 3: they watch tape of that. But I think tight ends
Speaker 3: not a worrisome position. The biggest worry, of course, is
Speaker 3: running back. I like the fact they kept British Brooks.
Speaker 3: I love to see what he can do in short
Speaker 3: yardage situations. Can't wait to see. I love the fact
Speaker 3: that Nick Chubb is healthy. How that translates on the field,
Speaker 3: we don't know. But he averaged five yards of Carrie
Speaker 3: Damian Pierce. If he stays healthy last year of his contract,
Speaker 3: this is a great opportunity for him, and I can't
Speaker 3: wait to see what he marks, see what Woody Marx
Speaker 3: can do as a rookie, not just as a runner,
Speaker 3: but as a receiver and dargue. But Wally's one of
Speaker 3: their most versatile players and good special teams player. So
Speaker 3: they got a lot of options at running back, but
Speaker 3: it's still going to be a questionable, questionable position until
Speaker 3: they prove they can produce at a level close to
Speaker 3: the way Joe Mixon produced last season.
Speaker 1: General I'm going to ask John Harris this question in
Speaker 1: the next segment. So Johnny knows spilling the candy in
Speaker 1: the lobby right here. But John, you tell me, John McClain,
Speaker 1: who the third leading receiver on this team is going
Speaker 1: to be. It's gonna be Nico Collins, Christian Kirk one two.
Speaker 1: But what do you think about the third leading receiver
Speaker 1: who you got.
Speaker 3: Considered Jalen Knowles coming off the bench. You'd say Jay
Speaker 3: Niggins would be because he's the starter. But Noel Man,
Speaker 3: when I looked at what the draft experts, I expect
Speaker 3: the pick that they were most impressed with was not
Speaker 3: Jay Niggins in the second round, that Jalen Nole in
Speaker 3: the third round, and they thought that was a steal
Speaker 3: by the Texans. So I'm gonna say of the whiteouts
Speaker 3: because I think there's good chance Dalton Schultz could be
Speaker 3: number three, But I'm going to say that that Noel
Speaker 3: at the end of the year will end up being
Speaker 3: the third third in catches. You old Christian Kirk can
Speaker 3: stay healthy and be right there behind Nico. You hope
Speaker 3: Jay Niggins steps up and against the ball a lot,
Speaker 3: but I think we all are really eager to see
Speaker 3: Noel Noel when he gets the ball, because he's so
Speaker 3: elusive and quick, and he was great in college.
Speaker 5: General.
Speaker 4: Along those lines are the receivers. There are seven of
Speaker 4: them on the fifty three man roster. Were you surprised
Speaker 4: they kept seven? A few days ago, I said, man,
Speaker 4: after John Metchu's trade, I thought I could see five,
Speaker 4: make jaln Nola punt returner, make Justin Watson expendable. There
Speaker 4: you got five, and then you can pick up at
Speaker 4: other positions, namely maybe an extra tight end, et cetera.
Speaker 5: But they went with seven. They did it last year too.
Speaker 4: Now, Steven Simms only lasted a certain amount of time
Speaker 4: with the team, but they went with seven for the
Speaker 4: first six or seven weeks. Your thoughts about keeping seven
Speaker 4: wide receivers.
Speaker 3: I was surprised. I thought it would be six. But
Speaker 3: last season's a great example of Wayne needs seven. Nico
Speaker 3: missed five games, what digs miss eight? How many did
Speaker 3: Tank Dell end up missing five? So your top three
Speaker 3: receivers missed significant time. You better have guys ready to
Speaker 3: go another system. They've got Jared Wayne. Do they have
Speaker 3: another receiver on the practice squad?
Speaker 4: But when you signed they assigned Josh Kelly out of
Speaker 4: Texas Tech.
Speaker 5: Today.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, Jared Wayne knows the system, so he can
Speaker 3: be elevated if somebody gets hurt. But you've got to
Speaker 3: have multiple receivers. It'd be a great problem to have
Speaker 3: if nobody ever got hurt and they didn't need any
Speaker 3: of those backups. If Nicocillin stays healthy and plays a
Speaker 3: full season for the first time, I'll bet you has
Speaker 3: one hundred catches for over fifteen hundred yards and fifteen touchdowns.
Speaker 2: General, I want you to think about this one.
Speaker 1: Is this the most loaded the Texans have been going
Speaker 1: into a season ever? Or is it second place to
Speaker 1: twenty twelve team. Now, I'm not talking about how they
Speaker 1: ultimately ended up that particular campaign or any particular campaign.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about how you felt about the team's talent
Speaker 1: heading into the campaign at this very moment, what do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 2: Where does this rank for you?
Speaker 3: This team has more depth on defense, and I wasn't
Speaker 3: surprised they kept so many defensive linemen. Those guys earned it,
Speaker 3: and I'm glad they didn't let somebody get away trade him.
Speaker 3: I thought Nick Cassio would trade alignment, maybe a tackle
Speaker 3: for a sixth round pick, and they get hurt, and
Speaker 3: then you know the Nico Audrey has been seems like
Speaker 3: suspended most of the time he's been here, or on
Speaker 3: a list like he is now when he comes back,
Speaker 3: he's still a dangerous player at his age. They it's
Speaker 3: a good problem to have now. Offensively, twenty twelve they
Speaker 3: didn't have. They had a better offensive line, you know,
Speaker 3: they don't. As much as we think about Nico Collins,
Speaker 3: he wasn't Andre Johnason, and so I think defensively this
Speaker 3: team has more. Offensively, that team had more because they
Speaker 3: had a great running back, one of the best in
Speaker 3: the league, and so I would say is offensive twelve,
Speaker 3: defense twenty five general?
Speaker 4: What's your general sense of the running back room right now?
Speaker 5: We don't know about Joe Mixon.
Speaker 4: Obviously that's been uh he's going to be out four
Speaker 4: weeks and that's been a little bit of a point
Speaker 4: of contention in the media lately. But your thoughts about
Speaker 4: what they have with Nick Chubb, with Daria goomblewal A,
Speaker 4: with what he marks with Damian Pearson and keeping British Brooks.
Speaker 4: What's your level of confidence in that running back group?
Speaker 4: How do you feel about that running back group?
Speaker 3: Well before Chubb had his knee injury and then broke
Speaker 3: his foot last year, and he's one hundred percent, you know,
Speaker 3: he's one of the best backs in the NFL. But
Speaker 3: he and he and people say he's got a lot
Speaker 3: of mileage. No, he doesn't. He's been rehabbing a lot.
Speaker 3: Joe Mexon has a lot of mileage, is stacking and
Speaker 3: carries in the NFL over I can't remember him the
Speaker 3: last five years to Derrick Henry and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: there's no guarantee Joe Mixon's going to be ready after
Speaker 3: four games, and we don't even know what Nicker Serio's
Speaker 3: asked if he played this season, he said, we'll see.
Speaker 3: We'll take it one day at a time. So right
Speaker 3: now you have to really forget about Joe Mixon and
Speaker 3: I think if Chubb this is really going to be
Speaker 3: a running back by committee. Can't see Nick Chubb coming
Speaker 3: out and filling the role that makes in the held
Speaker 3: last year when Casario stolen from the Bengals, and Jo's
Speaker 3: an underrated receiver. Besides being a really good runner, he's
Speaker 3: been a double digit touchdown guy. Cincinnati got rid of
Speaker 3: him when he scored double digit touchdowns, so it's going
Speaker 3: to be hard to replace him. And it would really
Speaker 3: help if Damian Piers could stay healthy and capitalize on
Speaker 3: this system and come in and back up, do a
Speaker 3: good job as a backup to Chubb, and then have
Speaker 3: maybe Woody Marx, if not dry Gwali as the third
Speaker 3: down receiver.
Speaker 1: All right, General, I don't want to open up a
Speaker 1: can of injury here, but let's do a little bit
Speaker 1: of that. Because you've been covering this game for a
Speaker 1: little while, So what are your thoughts on teams and
Speaker 1: how they handle injuries overall? Because this league, once you
Speaker 1: get into the regular season, you do have an injury
Speaker 1: report every week and you've got guys put on IR,
Speaker 1: and very often you see what the injury is.
Speaker 2: I think you always see what the injury is when
Speaker 2: they go on IR. I believe I might be wrong
Speaker 2: about that. But what are your.
Speaker 1: Thoughts on off season, preseason, that kind of thing and
Speaker 1: what went down this week with Themiko Ryans and Nick
Speaker 1: Assario with the media.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, the media's job is to ask
Speaker 3: about players who are not there, and when it's one
Speaker 3: of your best players who you're being counted on so much,
Speaker 3: you have to ask. You know, they don't have to answer,
Speaker 3: but you have to ask, and your bosses tell you
Speaker 3: to ask. You know, if Nick Casario and Amiko Ryans
Speaker 3: are told to do something about kel McNair, they're going
Speaker 3: to do it. You know, you're asking for the fans
Speaker 3: that pay the freight, You're asking for the listeners people
Speaker 3: want to know. People are constantly talking, well, what's up
Speaker 3: with Joe Mixon? And in almost every case that I
Speaker 3: know of, teams are reactive instead of proactive. You could
Speaker 3: come out and say, well, Joe was working out in
Speaker 3: Florida and he re injured his foot and he's undergoing rehab,
Speaker 3: and we'll talk to it next time, right before he's
Speaker 3: eligible to come off, not football injury less, and then
Speaker 3: the story. That's it. But most teams are reactive. And
Speaker 3: I remember one time O'Brien told me I'm looking for
Speaker 3: any little morsel we can find about our opponent because
Speaker 3: every little morsel can help us win. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: you need more morsels, and Bill I thought about that
Speaker 3: at the time. I asked him, one time, have you
Speaker 3: ever seen a media person win or lose a game?
Speaker 3: Have you ever seen a media person affect the game?
Speaker 3: Including those of us who watched practice, talk to assistant
Speaker 3: coaches and wrote what the team has said about an
Speaker 3: honest injury, not a nagging one where a guy could
Speaker 3: be there next week or the next week, but if
Speaker 3: it was a legitimate one keeping him around a long time.
Speaker 3: I said, do you ever hear about a coach, I mean,
Speaker 3: a media person affecting a game? Well, of course, he
Speaker 3: said no. One time. I'll tell y'all this, Brown's made
Speaker 3: the playoffs for the only time under Bill Belichick, and
Speaker 3: he decided the media couldn't watch practice. Well, now, nobody.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's to watch practice sep in training camp,
Speaker 3: you had to go out stretching. And so that was
Speaker 3: a big deal in the NFL that this Bell Belichick,
Speaker 3: who was not popular, telling the media all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: you can't watch practice. Jack Pardee was the head coach
Speaker 3: of the Oilers and they were in the playoffs, and
Speaker 3: I said, if you thought about doing what that Belichick
Speaker 3: guy is doing in Cleveland, Jack said, I've played fifteen years,
Speaker 3: and I've coached the Redskins, and I've coached the Bears,
Speaker 3: and I've coached the Oilers, and I've never seen one
Speaker 3: time a person in the media have any kind of
Speaker 3: effect on any game. And if I ever do, I'll
Speaker 3: close practice too.
Speaker 4: General was footing around the interwebs and social media, and
Speaker 4: I went to the NFL Game Day account and they
Speaker 4: NFL dot Com made some award predictions. If this were
Speaker 4: to come true, tell me what do you think that
Speaker 4: says about both the player and the defense and the
Speaker 4: team of the Texans If this comes true. Their prediction
Speaker 4: for Defensive Player of the Year is one Will Anderson Junior.
Speaker 4: If he is Defensive Player of the Year, what do
Speaker 4: you think it says about what this team could do
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: It means the Texans had a great defense. And remember
Speaker 3: these awards were only being done for regular season, but
Speaker 3: you know who's going on in the playoffs. It means
Speaker 3: he would add fifteen to twenty sacks, and it means
Speaker 3: the Texans would have won the division and be a
Speaker 3: team to be reckoned with, especially the defense led by
Speaker 3: Will Anderson Junior, a serious candidate for NFL Defensive Player.
Speaker 2: Of the Year general.
Speaker 1: I'm in the oppressed minority of people who missed the
Speaker 1: fourth preseason game, but I suppose I like the seventeenth game.
Speaker 1: I like more games to count, but I still miss
Speaker 1: this one Thursday night before Labor Day.
Speaker 2: I kind of enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: With the reserves playing the rookie, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Are you ready to give it up now that when
Speaker 1: they go to eighteen games, and it's pretty much when
Speaker 1: and not if, that they will play on Labor Day
Speaker 1: weekend eventually, and they used to play on Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 1: I know that you think they're dead set against it,
Speaker 1: but if they go to eighteen. When they go to eighteen,
Speaker 1: they'll probably have two buys. They're just going to run
Speaker 1: out of calendar at some point, don't you think they'll
Speaker 1: play on Labor Day.
Speaker 3: No, there's no need to play on Labor Day because
Speaker 3: you can move the super Bowl whenever you want. Every
Speaker 3: seat gets super Bowl has to keep all the rooms
Speaker 3: and everything available for February, so you can move it back.
Speaker 3: Eighteen games to two games off when they got out
Speaker 3: of Labor Day is because TV ratings always started poorly.
Speaker 3: Now maybe the NFL so big right now it wouldn't matter.
Speaker 3: But I think they like the build up, the hype
Speaker 3: for the extra week. Players like having off. Will have
Speaker 3: two games, starters will play a little bit in one
Speaker 3: game and the others will not. They may have another practice,
Speaker 3: a couple of teams at three joint practices. So I
Speaker 3: don't see them playing on Labor Day because if they
Speaker 3: did and the TV ratings were down from last year,
Speaker 3: that's all they care about, and there's no need that
Speaker 3: you couldn't move the Super Bowl back another week.
Speaker 5: I'd like to seem started Labor Day, but that's okay.
Speaker 4: I like the fact that Labor Day will be saved
Speaker 4: for college I know there's a decent number of games
Speaker 4: that are taking place tonight. Nebraska Cincinnati at Arrowhead is
Speaker 4: definitely one of them. But it's a longer Thursday Friday
Speaker 4: slate then you would normally expect. You know, you don't
Speaker 4: have a ton of great games, but you know you've
Speaker 4: got decent ones in that Nebraska Cincinnati game is going
Speaker 4: to be a decent one.
Speaker 5: So I mean, I'm okay with that. General.
Speaker 4: Mike Tannebaum was on First Take City across from Oh,
Speaker 4: you know where I'm going.
Speaker 3: With smoking okay taking.
Speaker 4: If you haven't heard Mike Tannenbaum when asked who was
Speaker 4: going to win the AFC South, he said, with convey
Speaker 4: and then try to argue it.
Speaker 5: The Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 4: Now you may not want or may see the Texans
Speaker 4: winning the division. That's fine, but his logic was so
Speaker 4: fast Awkwards it was unbelievable. Your thoughts about Tannebaum saying
Speaker 4: something dumb again and it being the Titans winning the division.
Speaker 3: It's the first time I've agreed with Steven A. Smith
Speaker 3: on anything, because the way he looked at Tannebaum and
Speaker 3: just tore him apart, And there's no way you can
Speaker 3: justify something like that. Now, if it happens, he'll look
Speaker 3: like one of the all time geniuses. And if it doesn't,
Speaker 3: he'll look like a former GM can get a job
Speaker 3: in football. Again. I thought that was of all people
Speaker 3: are always looking for something different, but that one was
Speaker 3: so out of left field. It wasn't in the ballpark,
Speaker 3: and I thought Mike looked like such a dumb ass.
Speaker 1: How are they feeling about that defense? Because total yards
Speaker 1: they look pretty good last year, but they were getting
Speaker 1: the ball of the drive. Starts were ridiculously good for
Speaker 1: the opponents. And we're not talking about a scoring defense.
Speaker 1: We're talking about yardage surrendered. That offense was top two
Speaker 1: in giveaways, so your defense is at the thirty and
Speaker 1: even if they score, you only gave up thirty yards,
Speaker 1: but they scored. I thought those stats were really massed
Speaker 1: the total yardage defense. What do they think coming into
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five? How are they feeling in general general
Speaker 1: in Nashville about this team.
Speaker 3: They will never say this publicly, but they would love
Speaker 3: to double their win total and go from three to six.
Speaker 3: And cam Ward show a lot of promise as a
Speaker 3: quarterback who can get better. Gods are he's not gonna
Speaker 3: play seventeen games. He'll get hurt or he'll go through
Speaker 3: a bad stretch and get managed because he doesn't have
Speaker 3: a lot of talent around him. They're backup running back
Speaker 3: Kayse Spears is out for at least four games, and
Speaker 3: they got Pollard. Their wide receivers are not very goods.
Speaker 3: Back to their offensive line to be good the last
Speaker 3: two years and it hasn't been. And yes, their defense
Speaker 3: is good, but man, they're gonna be involved in a
Speaker 3: lot of love scoring games.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're gonna be. It's gonna be tough for them
Speaker 5: to do much.
Speaker 4: I think offensively, I think, if you're right, General, if
Speaker 4: they can get the five or six wins, I think
Speaker 4: they're gonna be feel good about it. What I find
Speaker 4: interesting with them is what happens to Brian Callahan. If
Speaker 4: they win five or six, they're showing enough that they
Speaker 4: keep him around, et cetera. Because they've changed GMS. General,
Speaker 4: the New England Patriots have one player from a nine
Speaker 4: player draft.
Speaker 5: In twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: The GM or whoever pick those players is still the
Speaker 4: guy picking those players, but it's a new head coach.
Speaker 4: What do you think this means with Elliott Wolf and
Speaker 4: Mike Vrabel there in New England is as simple as
Speaker 4: Vrabel is just gonna work his magic until he has
Speaker 4: that personal department the way he wants or do you
Speaker 4: think Vrabel and Wolf will eventually kind of work together
Speaker 4: the way they want to and have a relationship called
Speaker 4: Nick and Imiko Iven Houston.
Speaker 3: I think that Mike Grabel wouldn't have taken the job
Speaker 3: if he didn't have final sale on personnel and might
Speaker 3: not say it in his contract. But Elliot will's going
Speaker 3: to draft who he wants. And the previous regime, you know,
Speaker 3: they were bad all around, and so some of those
Speaker 3: guys might have stayed if they had kept the same coach.
Speaker 3: But Brabel's basically starting over except for Drake May could
Speaker 3: be a great young quarterback. But that roster you talk
Speaker 3: about being churned, that is embarrassing. You know, they started
Speaker 3: going down draft wise when Cassio came here. That was
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty one. If you go back and look
Speaker 3: at their draft, they were not good. I always was
Speaker 3: told there. Nick would tell Belichick, Okay, I think we
Speaker 3: should do this this, and Belichick would do whatever he wanted.
Speaker 3: Sometimes he agreed with Nick, sometimes he didn't. But that
Speaker 3: was a significant loss for that franchise. When the Texans
Speaker 3: stole Nick Cassario from.
Speaker 1: Them, general, let's continue talking about things going on around
Speaker 1: the league and go to the Horseshoe because Daniel Jones
Speaker 1: is the starting quarterback, Chris Ballard said, and do we
Speaker 1: believe him about this? He reminds me of Alex Smith
Speaker 1: in Kansas City.
Speaker 3: Thoughts, No, you said the Horseshoe. I thought you were
Speaker 3: talking about Columbus in the second biggest game of the weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll talk about that Baylor. Sure.
Speaker 3: I think Chris Ballard has to say that he could
Speaker 3: be out of a job. You know, new owner and
Speaker 3: Jim Mersey's oldest daughter is heavily involved and has been
Speaker 3: heavily involved. You know, the odds are they could be
Speaker 3: starting over at this season. They need Daniel Jones to
Speaker 3: bail the mouth, or they need Anthony Richardson when he
Speaker 3: gets a chance to play the way they hoped he
Speaker 3: would when they drafted him. Right now, he's one of
Speaker 3: the biggest buss in history, and I think that would
Speaker 3: surprise me at all if they don't have We're not
Speaker 3: talking about the new coach regime next year with a
Speaker 3: new GA and a new head coach and a rookie
Speaker 3: quarterback drafted.
Speaker 4: High Okay, General, I saw this earlier today and I
Speaker 4: just want to read you the first paragraph of this
Speaker 4: because it is so incredibly juicy. It might be the
Speaker 4: biggest story in the NFL, not even on the field.
Speaker 4: Written by Todd Archer, Adam Schefter, and Dan Graziano ESPN.
Speaker 5: Several teams have.
Speaker 4: Spoken to the Dallas Cowboys about a potential Micah Parsons trade,
Speaker 4: and for the first time, the Cowboys appear willing to
Speaker 4: at least listen, according to multiple sources, your thoughts about
Speaker 4: everything going on in Dallas with Michah Parsons, David Mulage,
Speaker 4: Jerry Jones, and the Cowboys.
Speaker 3: With all due respect, John, that's not the biggest story
Speaker 3: in the NFL. The biggest story in the NFL's Kansas
Speaker 3: City Travis Kelcey and Taylor swept Turners worldwide story. Now
Speaker 3: there's a low Cowboys story. You know, they'd be stupid
Speaker 3: not to listen to teams to call. But one of
Speaker 3: the problems is before you can make a trade, they
Speaker 3: got to sign you to a contract. Obviously, he wants
Speaker 3: a lot of money. He wants to be the highest
Speaker 3: paid non quarterback in the NFL, and if he can
Speaker 3: get it more power to him. I still don't think
Speaker 3: he's going to be traded. Jerry Jones does not lose players.
Speaker 3: He wants to keep over money and he's been able
Speaker 3: to do that throughout his history. But he has one
Speaker 3: contract issue after another, and I'm thinking people say, well,
Speaker 3: green Bay would give them two ones, Well, they could
Speaker 3: possibly be low to ones. I wouldn't trade with a
Speaker 3: team that's good that your number one picks are going
Speaker 3: to get every year are going to be low. I
Speaker 3: want to trade him to a bad team where you
Speaker 3: can get high picks.
Speaker 1: Interesting, well, before I get to college football. Taylor Swift
Speaker 1: is no way the greatest female pop vocalist ever. But
Speaker 1: who is, in your opinion, the greatest female pop vocalist,
Speaker 1: not writer, pop vocalist ever.
Speaker 3: Well, she's the most popular and her popularity is worldwide.
Speaker 3: But I think when it comes to singing, Diana Ross
Speaker 3: and Lady Gaga, off the top of my head, both
Speaker 3: of them were outstanding. They can hit any notes, sing
Speaker 3: any kind of music. Diana Ross was in a class
Speaker 3: by herself. Whitney Houston. Even though she had all of
Speaker 3: her drug issues and everything, she was incredible when she
Speaker 3: was healthy and at the top of her game, so
Speaker 3: to speak. But those would be three great ones. There
Speaker 3: are many others, but as far as entertainers, you can't
Speaker 3: beat Taylor Swift and her popularity very popular. How much
Speaker 3: of a pre nap do you think he has to sign?
Speaker 4: Oh, boy, that is gonna be large general, How excited
Speaker 4: are you for a Baylor Bear football this year?
Speaker 5: And b Baylor v.
Speaker 4: Auburn, which is one of the better openers of the
Speaker 4: college football season.
Speaker 3: And so I haven't been this excited about a Baylor
Speaker 3: game a long time. Last year, I thought David Randa
Speaker 3: was on his way out. They started that way. They
Speaker 3: won their last six and average forty point three parts
Speaker 3: a game, and Sawyer Robertson became one of the best
Speaker 3: quarterbacks in college football. I'm pumped about that one. I'm
Speaker 3: pumped about the Longhorns. All my friends hate the Longhorns,
Speaker 3: want them to lose. I want them to win now
Speaker 3: that they're not in the Big twelve. I want to
Speaker 3: see him win. I want to see the Hages win.
Speaker 3: I want to see all our schools win, and Baylor
Speaker 3: started one and one. I'd rather beat Auburn on on
Speaker 3: TV and then lose at SMU then lose to Auburn
Speaker 3: and beat SMU, but if they start over to Baylor,
Speaker 3: people are going to be.
Speaker 1: Rushed, all right, General, great stuff. As always great to
Speaker 1: visit with you, and we will check in next week
Speaker 1: prior to the Texans taking on the Rams in the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five season openers.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much, Mark and John, Thank you guys very much.
Speaker 3: As always, is the best time of the
Speaker 1: Year, the best time of the year, and it's the
Speaker 1: best segment when we get to other than the general segment,
Speaker 1: when we get to more likely to happen, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk to Texans receivers, running backs, we'll talk AFC South opponents,
Speaker 1: all of it coming up here on Texans Radio.