Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of NFL Daily's Power Players,
Speaker 1: where we talk to football people and learn from them
Speaker 1: and pull back the curtain on the sport we love
Speaker 1: just a little bit more. Today. I am so excited
Speaker 1: to be talking to Houston Texans offensive coordinator Nick Kayley.
Speaker 1: Kaylee is a John Carroll graduate, part of that coaching
Speaker 1: in front office fraternity that now spreads all across the NFL.
Speaker 1: After spending his first decade of coaching as a defensive
Speaker 1: coach in the collegiate ranks, Kaylee moved on to a
Speaker 1: dynasty when he joined Bill Belichick's New England Patriots as
Speaker 1: an offensive assistant coach in twenty fifteen. He quickly moved
Speaker 1: up there, becoming the tight ends and fullbacks coach until
Speaker 1: leaving for the Los Angeles Rams tight ends coaching job
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three. In LA where he also became
Speaker 1: the team's offensive pass game coordinator, Kaylee helped install the
Speaker 1: new version of Sean mcvay's offense, using some influential run
Speaker 1: pass concepts he helped perfect in New England, and the
Speaker 1: Rams were off and running. In twenty twenty four, Kaylee
Speaker 1: became the Texans offensive coordinator joining a team that now
Speaker 1: has big time Super Bowl aspirations, including on this show,
Speaker 1: and a clear path of evolution and intention ahead of them,
Speaker 1: especially on offense. I can't wait for you to hear
Speaker 1: Kaylee's energy and thoughts about the game and coaching and
Speaker 1: everything else. Let's get into it. Welcome to NFL Dailies
Speaker 1: Power Players, where we go inside the NFL with people
Speaker 1: who shape the sport. I am stoked today to be
Speaker 1: welcoming Houston Texans offensive coordinator Nick Kayley to the show. Nick,
Speaker 1: how are you? Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 2: Jorgne, I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. How
Speaker 2: are you doing?
Speaker 1: I'm good. I think I'm in a little bit of
Speaker 1: a cooler you know, not cooler like rad but cooler
Speaker 1: as a temperature environment than you are right now. So
Speaker 1: I feel for you, man.
Speaker 3: There's no question about it. It's pretty steamy, pretty hot here.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited to talk to you today because I
Speaker 1: just we've known each other for a while, and I
Speaker 1: just I love the way that you think about football,
Speaker 1: and I love the way that you think about the
Speaker 1: big picture and the little picture of football and how
Speaker 1: it's evolving forward. And building puzzle pieces together and working
Speaker 1: with people especially, and I think that really shines through
Speaker 1: and every stop you've been in. But I really want
Speaker 1: to go back a little bit further. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you can put yourself back in like very very young
Speaker 1: Nick Cayley shoes and tell me about what sparked for
Speaker 1: you for football, Like, what are some some of the
Speaker 1: reasons that it really became your purpose and your why?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, well, the first thing is, I think
Speaker 3: we're all a product of our environments. I was born
Speaker 3: in Kanton, Ohio, really roughly three miles from the Pro
Speaker 3: Football Hall of Fame. So, you know, in the eighties,
Speaker 3: late eighties, early nineties when there were the populations declined
Speaker 3: a little bit, but high school football at the time,
Speaker 3: I mean, it wouldn't be uncommon to see fifteen to
Speaker 3: twenty thousand people at a high school game on a
Speaker 3: Friday or Saturday night. Longest time ongoing high school rivalry
Speaker 3: in in uh, you know, the country, Maslin McKinley. So
Speaker 3: that's been going on for you know, well over you know,
Speaker 3: one hundred games, easily one hundred games.
Speaker 2: So as a kid, I got an opportunity.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, my dad love ball and would take me to
Speaker 3: high school games as an early kid five six, seven
Speaker 3: years old, got an opportunity to just be around you know,
Speaker 3: those players, those coaches, those environments and really caught fire.
Speaker 3: And then mixed that with the fact that the Pro
Speaker 3: Football Hall of Fame's there, that that's the time of
Speaker 3: the year where you just see can't and shine and
Speaker 3: it's it's a great place. It's part of the fabric
Speaker 3: of a culture. It embodies hard work, you know, it's
Speaker 3: it's just it's a passion filled game. And and you know,
Speaker 3: I would say most of the guys that I grew
Speaker 3: up with when we were kids, that's what we did.
Speaker 3: We played football on the streets. We went to the
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame day parade. I used to be on
Speaker 3: my dad's shoulders and take me down to the Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame and shrim and ceremonies when they used to
Speaker 3: be on the front steps there, uh of the Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame.
Speaker 2: So that's where that that's where I got the first taste.
Speaker 3: And it hit me and it really just continued to
Speaker 3: you know, fuel that fireing me.
Speaker 1: You know, to this day, I think a lot of
Speaker 1: us are are really shaped by like the see it
Speaker 1: be it quality, right, Like you see people coaching. You
Speaker 1: were up close to those high school games, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you're looking at the players at the time, and you're thinking,
Speaker 1: I want to be just like them, And eventually your
Speaker 1: path shapes into understanding the game and and like really
Speaker 1: feeling passionate and fueled by like all that goes into
Speaker 1: it to help those players succeed. When did that sort
Speaker 1: of start to switch for you that, like, you know, Okay,
Speaker 1: these guys are in Canton and they're being enshrined as players,
Speaker 1: but there's coaches here too. There are so many people
Speaker 1: behind maybe the headsets that help shape the sport just
Speaker 1: as well. I want to be like them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean probably around the age of seven eight
Speaker 3: nine years of age. To be honest with you, I
Speaker 3: had my you know, a lot of my family members
Speaker 3: went to Camp McKinley High School. Ironically, that's where Josh
Speaker 3: McDaniel's played. I had an opportunity to work with Josh
Speaker 3: for seven years in New England. But his father is
Speaker 3: a Hall of fame high school coach, and I just
Speaker 3: I can still remember going to the Masle McKinley games.
Speaker 3: You know, I had a two cousins There were multiple
Speaker 3: cousins that played at Camp McKinley, my mom's first cousins.
Speaker 3: One played in the National Football League, John Grimsley for
Speaker 3: ten years, seven of which here in Houston, if I'm
Speaker 3: not mistaken at least I think it was seven years,
Speaker 3: but played ten years in the NFL. So I remember
Speaker 3: going to McKinley games. I could hear the crush cinder
Speaker 3: on the sidelines with the cleat hitting. You could smell
Speaker 3: the popcorn, you know, in the in the air, and
Speaker 3: those were times where you looked up the high school coaches.
Speaker 3: They were so respected in my community. And then as
Speaker 3: a kid when you're playing football for the first time,
Speaker 3: first time we could play tackle football. I was in
Speaker 3: the fifth grade, and you just had opportunities to go
Speaker 3: out there and get coached, and you had people that
Speaker 3: poured believe into you, and it was fun, like you
Speaker 3: enjoyed it. It was it was you know, they were intense,
Speaker 3: they were competitive, and you know, it was just it
Speaker 3: was it was what I loved.
Speaker 2: I caught you know, I caught fire.
Speaker 3: And then coupled with that, when I was nine years old,
Speaker 3: there was an NAI school at the time, Alone College.
Speaker 2: It's still there. Leave Ashton.
Speaker 3: Dulin graduated from there, but they were at an ai
Speaker 3: A School and Joe Palomazano was their head coach, and
Speaker 3: at nine years of age, I got to be a
Speaker 3: ball boy and I got to see every interaction. It
Speaker 3: was at Fawcett Stadium now Benson Stadium. There we're at
Speaker 3: the Profooball Hall of Fame Tom Benson Stadium. Prior to that,
Speaker 3: it was Fawcett and I got to sit there and
Speaker 3: have a ringside seat.
Speaker 2: Every single day.
Speaker 3: My dad would drop me off, I'd walk into the stadium,
Speaker 3: I'd sit there for the home games, and then he'd
Speaker 3: come pick me up and I'd go home. And you know,
Speaker 3: you would have thought that.
Speaker 2: Was a super Bowl.
Speaker 3: There may have been a thousand people in the stands,
Speaker 3: but it didn't matter. And so I got to see
Speaker 3: the impact the coaches had on players. I got to
Speaker 3: see the camaraderie. I got to see the collaboration firsthand.
Speaker 3: And it was at the age of nine that I knew,
Speaker 3: you know, look, we all had dreams to one day
Speaker 3: hopefully be an NFL player. I knew pretty pretty you know.
Speaker 3: I had one hundred and thirty five pounds in high school.
Speaker 3: I knew that probably wasn't gonna be my calling card,
Speaker 3: but I did know that ultimately at some point I
Speaker 3: wanted to coach football.
Speaker 2: That was important to me.
Speaker 1: It's cool because I mean, for me, that's English teachers,
Speaker 1: right like you have people who pour belief into you.
Speaker 1: And obviously I'm on the you know, the writing side
Speaker 1: for the most part, I'm podcasting right now. But then
Speaker 1: in like you remember those people who made you feel
Speaker 1: like I can do this, and you want to be
Speaker 1: one of those people for people, I think that's football
Speaker 1: is such a powerful cycle. It can be it can
Speaker 1: be a dangerous and negative cycle, sure, but it also
Speaker 1: in terms of people perpetuating those types of qualities to
Speaker 1: others and then those people carrying them forward. That's one
Speaker 1: of the things that I love the most about the sport.
Speaker 1: And then the perpetuation of ideas comes in that too.
Speaker 1: And then like you hit the real stuff, as you did,
Speaker 1: I know early in your career where you're like this
Speaker 1: is hard, this is this is a grind. I am
Speaker 1: in the you know what right now, and I'm wondering
Speaker 1: what those moments were like to like keeping that like
Speaker 1: real passion for it even though you are in some
Speaker 1: grueling environments, especially you know, as you leave your twenties,
Speaker 1: you're in your thirties in New England, you're in some real,
Speaker 1: real trenches with those guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: It was a laboratory for learning, I mean for sure,
Speaker 3: and some days you're drinking out of a fire hose.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget. So I was on the defensive.
Speaker 3: Side of the ball as a graduate assistant all the
Speaker 3: way through through becoming a you know, a full time coach,
Speaker 3: a position coach at the college level, prior to going
Speaker 3: to the Patriots, prior to getting an opportunity to get
Speaker 3: hired by coach Belichick and the Patriots. And I'll never forget.
Speaker 3: I interview in twenty It was spring of twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3: I was out recruiting and I got a call to see,
Speaker 3: you know, if I would want to come up in
Speaker 3: interview for a possible quality control job. They called a
Speaker 3: coaching assistant at the time, and I said absolutely.
Speaker 2: So, long story short, I get an opportunity to go
Speaker 2: up there.
Speaker 3: I interview installing quarters coverage, defensive back centric, going through
Speaker 3: really a car wash of an interview from seven thirty
Speaker 3: seven to forty five am to roughly about four thirty
Speaker 3: PM when my flight was scheduled to leave. They fly
Speaker 3: me back to Saint Petersburg, floridcause I was out with
Speaker 3: spring recruiting, and when I came back, they called the
Speaker 3: next date off me the job and I flew up.
Speaker 2: It was a pretty quick turnaround. When I got there.
Speaker 3: One of the first stops I made, they brought me
Speaker 3: to coach Belichick's ops and he said, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: going to put you about as far out of your
Speaker 3: comfort zone as possible, and we're going to put you
Speaker 3: with the offensive line. Dave Biguliamo was the offensive line
Speaker 3: coach in twenty fifteen Forest there in New England.
Speaker 2: He said, it's.
Speaker 3: Going to be it'll it'll put you as far out
Speaker 3: of your comfort zone, but it's going.
Speaker 2: To be the best thing that will happen to get professionally,
Speaker 2: and he was right. I remember that first spring.
Speaker 3: I got hired really the weekend of rookie any camp
Speaker 3: in twenty fifteen, so I was already I wasn't there
Speaker 3: for phase one of the off season program.
Speaker 2: And when we got going.
Speaker 3: I just remember, actually Jerry Schaplinsky, our quarterback coach here,
Speaker 3: I took his role, they moved me to offense.
Speaker 2: I took his role.
Speaker 3: He got elevated to assistant quarterbacks coach, and a couple
Speaker 3: weeks in he takes a four inch binder and he
Speaker 3: sets it and drops it right on my desk and
Speaker 3: he goes, here you go, man, I'm giving you one
Speaker 3: day this summer. We're all at answer any questions you have,
Speaker 3: but go figure it out. That's what everybody else had
Speaker 3: to do here. So you're really I'm breaking down film.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to be you know, learn how what our
Speaker 3: language is, what our vernacular is, how we call things,
Speaker 3: in addition to trying to find my way through the building,
Speaker 3: and what our rhythm and routine is that first spring
Speaker 3: and I'll never forget. I'm sitting there going, man, I
Speaker 3: know we used to call this twenty six power from
Speaker 3: a defensive perspective, like, why is this called JAB twenty
Speaker 3: eight power?
Speaker 2: Boss?
Speaker 3: Why is this called JAB twenty six sub? Why is
Speaker 3: this called you know, JAB twenty eight pow, you know power?
Speaker 3: We had all these different variations of power and then
Speaker 3: but it would take it took an enordinate amount of
Speaker 3: time to break down film that the first couple tries,
Speaker 3: I mean really the first month in the summer that
Speaker 3: I got there, because it's not about identifying what's actually
Speaker 3: on the tape, it's putting it into their language. And
Speaker 3: so you felt like you were drinking out of a
Speaker 3: fire hose every day. And then, you know, the only
Speaker 3: thing I says, you just keep drinking, you keep swallowing.
Speaker 2: The water, and you keep going.
Speaker 3: And and then you had great people there to lean on.
Speaker 3: Josh McDaniel's, Dante Scarnakia, listened to Brian Dabel.
Speaker 2: There were just so many good people. I've in fears.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, I'm going to leave people out
Speaker 3: because there's so many of them. But it was a
Speaker 3: lot at first, and all you can do is really
Speaker 3: roll up your sleeves and go to work. And that's
Speaker 3: what I tried to do every single day. And you know,
Speaker 3: and there was a lot of growth in those moments.
Speaker 3: A lot of hard work, a lot of tough time,
Speaker 3: but there's a lot of growth.
Speaker 1: I love that. And it's interesting to me because when
Speaker 1: you talk about I mean, it's such a vivid memory
Speaker 1: for you. It's almost like when you are talking about this,
Speaker 1: I can hear you setting the binder on the table
Speaker 1: in front of you and flipping it open and being like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. And so I like to think that
Speaker 1: when we have such transformational experiences like that early in
Speaker 1: our careers, the really good coaches, the really good communicators,
Speaker 1: you know, take that forward and remember that always when
Speaker 1: you're maybe uploading something to your new players or your
Speaker 1: young players. We're going to talk about the President of
Speaker 1: the future later on in this conversation, but I do
Speaker 1: want to know, is that something you still think, Okay,
Speaker 1: I remember what this was like, and now this is
Speaker 1: how I'm going to try to help be and be
Speaker 1: really empathetic to people who are maybe learning this language
Speaker 1: and this installation for the first time.
Speaker 3: I think you have a great appreciation for that, and
Speaker 3: you have a great appreciation for the process. And I
Speaker 3: think the thing that was always stated to me, and
Speaker 3: I've stated it to numerous good there's people that Cole
Speaker 3: Popovich came after me. He's our offensive line coach. Carmen Brisillo,
Speaker 3: the offense blind coach for the Tennessee Titans, one of
Speaker 3: my best friends in life. He came after cool. So
Speaker 3: we had a run of guys there, and what we
Speaker 3: always tried to do was help each other out along
Speaker 3: the way, and you know, you never lose perspective of that.
Speaker 2: And as hard as it is, it's it gives you
Speaker 2: a foundation.
Speaker 3: Where there was no shortcuts. You had to earn everything there.
Speaker 3: You had to be a forward thinker about things and
Speaker 3: solve problems and try to figure it out. And that
Speaker 3: was by design to see if you were willing to
Speaker 3: do the work and if you were able to to
Speaker 3: figure out you know, the solutions, and as hard as
Speaker 3: it felt on the front end, it made you better
Speaker 3: every step of the way. And I wouldn't have I
Speaker 3: wouldn't change anything. And you know, I will never ask
Speaker 3: anybody to do anything that wasn't asked of me because
Speaker 3: there's a lot of golden there's a lot of value,
Speaker 3: and there's there's you know, a lot of growth that
Speaker 3: comes from those experiences.
Speaker 1: For sure, Yeah, you touched on something I'm super curious
Speaker 1: about because it's all if you look back on your life,
Speaker 1: Nick Kayley, this is your life, you know, like, and
Speaker 1: you think about all of these moments that kind of
Speaker 1: we're all leading to where you are now. And as
Speaker 1: an offensive coordinator, you have to be so good at
Speaker 1: walking that line between the macro and the micro right
Speaker 1: and all of the little little tiny details and all
Speaker 1: the little communications while continuing to keep that focus and
Speaker 1: also sort of supplement and really be that focus for
Speaker 1: other people if maybe they're very in the weeds in
Speaker 1: certain roles and things like that. So, how did those
Speaker 1: experiences and how did you personally maybe develop that skill
Speaker 1: set over time? I'm sure it is still something you
Speaker 1: are always working on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: You know, I think the biggest thing is, I think
Speaker 3: everything just starts with in terms of relating to the
Speaker 3: people that you work with and interact with. I think
Speaker 3: it's about it's about really understanding who you're working with,
Speaker 3: and understanding the value of having people around you and
Speaker 3: so and and supporting people. And as a coordinator, like
Speaker 3: you know, I can't do this job alone. And I
Speaker 3: I value everybody that we have on our staff. Everybody
Speaker 3: has an important role and you make that role. You know,
Speaker 3: you make of it whatever you want to make of it.
Speaker 3: You know, and and and I truly believe that the
Speaker 3: more you can do, the more things expand for you
Speaker 3: in terms of being able to take on responsibility and
Speaker 3: all of all of the guys we have here on
Speaker 3: our staff, I have so much appreciation or respect for
Speaker 3: and it's just no differently than as a position coach.
Speaker 3: You know, my job as a position coach was to
Speaker 3: support the offensive coordinator, the head coach and in any
Speaker 3: way that I possibly could to help help us be
Speaker 3: at our best. And I just try to keep that
Speaker 3: into perspective, try to try to lead with humility and
Speaker 3: hunger and and really, you know, I learn a lot
Speaker 3: from our coaches. They we pour into each other and
Speaker 3: and it's a you know, I value that. I value collaboration,
Speaker 3: you know, when we're sitting there trying to solve problems.
Speaker 3: And I don't ever want want people to feel like
Speaker 3: they are apprehensive to ask questions, you know, and speak
Speaker 3: in me like I want a psychological safety that permeates
Speaker 3: to our staff because I think that, you know, that's
Speaker 3: how you solve problems. That's a you know, not one
Speaker 3: person has all the answers, and you can conquer a
Speaker 3: lot more with the team. And you know, we tell
Speaker 3: our players that it's the same thing with coaches, and
Speaker 3: and so I think being rooted in that having a
Speaker 3: level of humility and just trying to take a step
Speaker 3: back collectively as a staff and doing everything we can
Speaker 3: to help one another so that we can help our
Speaker 3: players and we can help this team an organization.
Speaker 1: Man, I'm going to write that down. Psychological safety is
Speaker 1: you know, I love you know me, I like words, right,
Speaker 1: So I really that's a that seems to me like
Speaker 1: one of your core values the way that you present
Speaker 1: it like that. And maybe a teaching mantra or a
Speaker 1: philosophical mantra that you try to live by, any others
Speaker 1: that maybe developed for you over time, Things that you
Speaker 1: live by with communication, things that you learn earned over
Speaker 1: time in your career, that you really really try to
Speaker 1: stay steadfast in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean a couple of things, you know. I
Speaker 3: think one thing is the three things that I that
Speaker 3: were told to me, you know, a while back, were
Speaker 3: you know, if you can do these things, if you
Speaker 3: can work hard, you can treat people right, and you
Speaker 3: can tell the truth and be transparent in your messaging,
Speaker 3: you know, it'll go a long way. So everything that
Speaker 3: I try to do a far from clearly, far from perfect.
Speaker 3: Made plenty of mistakes in my life, you know, but
Speaker 3: I try to do things the right way and just
Speaker 3: give everything your best. And you know, Sean used to
Speaker 3: say it all the time in LA and he was
Speaker 3: He's awesome for every reason, but no one likes surprises.
Speaker 3: So trying to be out in front of things, being
Speaker 3: transparent in community from a communications standpoint, you know, from
Speaker 3: h just the intent of what you're trying to get accomplished.
Speaker 3: Just just be authentic and genuine and and be yourself
Speaker 3: and treat people the right way and pour everything you
Speaker 3: have into it. And it's amazing what you can accomplish
Speaker 3: when you get when you do that, and then collectively
Speaker 3: when you have a staff, do that, and same thing
Speaker 3: with our players. So I believe that, I live by that.
Speaker 3: I believe in that, and that's important to me. And
Speaker 3: you know, and then just continue to to just try
Speaker 3: to help everybody be at their best. And I think
Speaker 3: those those you know, I would say, uh, those three things,
Speaker 3: really working hard, treating people right until the truth, they
Speaker 3: take you a long way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd agree with that one you mentioned. Sean McVay.
Speaker 1: I met you when you first came to Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: What was the moment for you where you said, Toto,
Speaker 1: we are not in New England anymore?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: Right when I got there.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I'll go back when I first
Speaker 3: talked to Sean the first time. There was just this
Speaker 3: unmatched energy as everybody knows, but like you could sense
Speaker 3: this passion, this fire, this relatability, high emotional intelligence, elade
Speaker 3: emotional intelligence, no question, he's he's an elite football mind.
Speaker 3: But you could sense it even on the phone. The
Speaker 3: first conversation I ever had with him, it was just different.
Speaker 3: And then once I went there and I walked through
Speaker 3: the door, the door over in kaow Low and you.
Speaker 1: Remember the door in quotations, Yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 2: On the wall it said joy in the Journey.
Speaker 3: And that's all I really had to see because from
Speaker 3: a from a personality standpoint, a vibe standpoint, it really
Speaker 3: felt like home from the time from the time that
Speaker 3: I got there, and it was an unbelievable He runs
Speaker 3: the energy in that building, the way that we, you know,
Speaker 3: go about our day, the way you move throughout the building.
Speaker 2: It's high level football.
Speaker 3: It it's great people that are all motivated as coaches
Speaker 3: and players. And you saw just an incredible synergy between
Speaker 3: coaches and coaches, players and players, coach to player relationship,
Speaker 3: front office. You know, Kevin less Tony obviously integrated with Sean,
Speaker 3: and you saw people just work their asses off to
Speaker 3: support one another, all with the same common goal and
Speaker 3: no egos, and you knew pretty right away you knew
Speaker 3: and those it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I think that those Belichick staffs that you were on
Speaker 1: were obviously so I mean talk about three hundred four hundred,
Speaker 1: five hundred, six hundred level coaching and coursework in how
Speaker 1: to do the job, do your job, But also did
Speaker 1: you ever think that something could be both, that it
Speaker 1: could feel both like you were working maybe harder than
Speaker 1: you ever worked in your life, but also you were
Speaker 1: joyful while doing it. I'm not saying you weren't when
Speaker 1: you were in New England. I know that was a
Speaker 1: bond that will always be shared by those staffs and
Speaker 1: those coaches, but just the I always felt I moved out,
Speaker 1: I moved out to LA to cover the Rams and
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, and I just felt like my brain
Speaker 1: just kept opening up and just kept just kept going,
Speaker 1: almost like there was this space, the space in football
Speaker 1: that I had not even ever considered. And it was
Speaker 1: just like feeling like you're opening these doors everywhere you
Speaker 1: go and like thinking about things differently when you get there.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if it was similar for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say.
Speaker 3: What I realized is, you know, when I was younger,
Speaker 3: even going back to my college experience, right, I've had
Speaker 3: a fantastic opportunity to work for some unbelievable people.
Speaker 2: Every step of the way, I really.
Speaker 3: Have and I'm indebted and grateful for all those experiences.
Speaker 3: When I went to Los Angeles, I was a little
Speaker 3: bit older. We had a third daughter on the way.
Speaker 3: She hadn't arrived yet, Quinn. She's definitely a lot in
Speaker 3: LA girl three years old, just turned three not too
Speaker 3: long ago.
Speaker 2: But what I realized is what I realized was balance
Speaker 2: is good.
Speaker 3: Balance is healthy, and I don't know that I had
Speaker 3: a whole lot of balance, and that's not derived it
Speaker 3: New England. We caught fire. You catch fire in a
Speaker 3: bottle and you put the blinders on and you go.
Speaker 3: And there was a lot of growth. But I felt
Speaker 3: when I really reflect and when I was in the
Speaker 3: moment there being present, totally present when I was in
Speaker 3: LA with Sean, and I try to carry it over
Speaker 3: today every step of the way.
Speaker 2: That when I was able to recharge.
Speaker 3: And Sean does that phenomenal job, just like Denico does
Speaker 3: here from a schedule standpoint, especially in the off season,
Speaker 3: of giving you time to take your your your daughters
Speaker 3: to school, you know, having smiles on your face in
Speaker 3: the workplace, enjoying keeping it light, but also continuing to
Speaker 3: be urgent in terms of, you know, the work we
Speaker 3: needed to get done because we worked hard in LA.
Speaker 2: We worked really hard in LA.
Speaker 3: But there was a balance and there was laughter, and
Speaker 3: there was joy and and and then the time you
Speaker 3: got to stay you know, away and get away and
Speaker 3: go home, it made you help above the neck.
Speaker 2: For me, I was I was held.
Speaker 3: I was at my best because I was completely My
Speaker 3: tank was full every single day. And you know, I
Speaker 3: believe that, I'm I'm convicted in that that that's that's
Speaker 3: that's part of it. And there's a lot of stresses
Speaker 3: in our life. This is a hard job players, I
Speaker 3: mean players physically for sure, and every all the stress
Speaker 3: that they have, but for coaches too, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's when you can be joyful, when you can
Speaker 3: be in those moments where you're you know, you enjoy
Speaker 3: driving in down the one oh one in the morning,
Speaker 3: you know, and the sun hasn't come up and you're
Speaker 3: excited to go to work. I mean, that's that's that's
Speaker 3: what you want, and that's that's what it was there.
Speaker 2: That's what it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, clearly your drive down the one on one was
Speaker 1: before everybody else woke up for the day. Otherwise you'd
Speaker 1: be sitting in grid in Gridlocke, that's true.
Speaker 2: You hit it a little bit on you hit it
Speaker 2: a little bit on Fridays after practice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would hate. You'd hate your life and everyone
Speaker 1: around you at that point. So yeah, it's it's cool
Speaker 1: because my we love the Houston Texans on this show.
Speaker 1: We talk about them all the time. Uh, they are
Speaker 1: big time Super Bowl favorites for us. I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to do the thing where you talk to the pitcher
Speaker 1: who's throwing heat about aspirations or goals or whatever. So
Speaker 1: we're not going to do that, but we we love
Speaker 1: that this team on the show. And what I have
Speaker 1: always posited, especially in this sort of this new era
Speaker 1: Demiko coming over, is that this is a team that's
Speaker 1: trying to do that, that's trying to walk that line
Speaker 1: between this really really modern and progressive workplace style of
Speaker 1: thinking of collaboration, of communication, of building the coaching team
Speaker 1: and the front office team just as intentionally as you
Speaker 1: would build the team on the field, and doing so
Speaker 1: at a high level there too, but then also bringing
Speaker 1: still those old school punch you in the mouth, I'm
Speaker 1: going to outwork you like kind of qualities as well.
Speaker 1: It's possible to do. And that's my theory about Houston,
Speaker 1: and I think where you come in on this is
Speaker 1: living in both of those worlds and sort of maybe
Speaker 1: walking that line the way you have in your career.
Speaker 1: And it also means you've been around your carrying in
Speaker 1: the experience of the people you work with, including the quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And when I think about CJ. Stroud, I think about
Speaker 1: his potential, which oh my gosh, we are so high
Speaker 1: on here. It's just he feels like he's that type
Speaker 1: of quarterback, that high cerebral but also we'll gut through
Speaker 1: and like get stuff done too. What I mean, You've
Speaker 1: been around some really really great quarterbacks veterans mostly in
Speaker 1: your career, and I'm curious, like meeting him, getting into
Speaker 1: his you know, into his mind, collaborating with him being
Speaker 1: on this development track. Is he's still so young. What's
Speaker 1: that been like for you? What have you sort of
Speaker 1: called back to or maybe carried forward.
Speaker 2: It's been great. I mean it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: I would say the biggest thing too, I mean, over
Speaker 3: the course of the last year, uh, the more time
Speaker 3: on task we've had to get to be, you know,
Speaker 3: around each other and continue to work you know, with
Speaker 3: each other.
Speaker 2: Just gotten that.
Speaker 3: It starts with just the relationship piece of it. And
Speaker 3: him and I have a great relationship and there's really
Speaker 3: no egos. We both want to we both want to win,
Speaker 3: we both want to help each other be at our best.
Speaker 3: And I think the emphasis point for for both of
Speaker 3: us is, Hey, the more we can talk to each
Speaker 3: other and talk about the pros and the cons and
Speaker 3: why I like something and what his level of comfort
Speaker 3: is with certain things, you know, the better off we
Speaker 3: get to understand each other. And everything that we want
Speaker 3: to do here is put our players.
Speaker 2: In the best position to have success.
Speaker 3: And with CJ allowing him to be you know, customize
Speaker 3: our game plans and be able to to really work
Speaker 3: to allow him to play to his strengths. And he's
Speaker 3: done such a fantastic job. He's had a great offseason.
Speaker 3: He loves football, he sees the game really well. It's
Speaker 3: important to him, and so we have great dialogue and
Speaker 3: you know, he'll he'll have ideas, and I'll have ideas,
Speaker 3: and we'll talk and he'll ask me, hey, what do
Speaker 3: you think about this play kills?
Speaker 2: And we'll go back and forth.
Speaker 3: And and and you know, in the spring we try,
Speaker 3: for example, we tried, you know, to to really get
Speaker 3: in a bunch of things that you know, maybe we're different,
Speaker 3: that complimented our players that he liked, or that you know,
Speaker 3: we did kill elaborated on to see to go out
Speaker 3: there and do it and put our guys in position
Speaker 3: and you know, especially ones that he might be convicted
Speaker 3: in here and there. So you know, he's been awesome
Speaker 3: to work with and we have a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: We enjoyed.
Speaker 3: It's he's he's so steady. He's like this every single day.
Speaker 3: He's I'm really proud of him. He's put in so
Speaker 3: much work and we're just going to keep going. We're
Speaker 3: just going to keep going day by day.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: One of the things I was just talking I was
Speaker 1: talking to Jordan Love recently, and he was talking about
Speaker 1: how part of the development process, especially for a younger
Speaker 1: guy who's in this sort of you know, face of
Speaker 1: the franchise position at such a young age, and Jordan's
Speaker 1: journey obviously is slightly different in that regard being behind
Speaker 1: the guy. He was behind for a minute there, but
Speaker 1: you know, learning how to speak up and really voice
Speaker 1: what what you like, but also understand where maybe it's
Speaker 1: not right like that balance and trying things and it's
Speaker 1: okay to fail at certain things you try. And you know,
Speaker 1: the story that Kyle Shanahan always tells is them letting
Speaker 1: RG three run the play he wanted to learn and
Speaker 1: install it from the ground up and like letting him
Speaker 1: run it in one of their closed like ota sessions
Speaker 1: and the play didn't work right, and it's like, no,
Speaker 1: it didn't work, but he felt like he had so
Speaker 1: much ownership over the process. And I think that's that
Speaker 1: comes with like growing up as a quarterback. Right. I'm
Speaker 1: curious your thoughts on this part of it, like so
Speaker 1: much that happens behind the scenes, that is, have to
Speaker 1: be okay with trying stuff and failing first of all,
Speaker 1: and using your voice and really understanding where your voice
Speaker 1: is and what you truly are and who you truly are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's a great point what you're talking about,
Speaker 3: and I think you just look back, we have, you know,
Speaker 3: a core offensive identity, right, we have things that we
Speaker 3: systematically do that fit our players. When I got here
Speaker 3: as the offensive coordinator, certainly philosophic brought with me a
Speaker 3: philosophy that I wanted to instill here core concepts in
Speaker 3: the running and the pass game, a way that we're
Speaker 3: going to deploy our protection systems, et cetera. But what
Speaker 3: we also did was there's some same as between the
Speaker 3: previous system and what we were doing in LA and
Speaker 3: some of the things that I had background with in
Speaker 3: New England, of course, but we adopted some things here
Speaker 3: that may have been really really great fits for these guys,
Speaker 3: and as coaches, we adapted to those and we evolved
Speaker 3: and we tied those in and we tried to do
Speaker 3: the best we could with that. And then over the
Speaker 3: course of the year you find out a lot about
Speaker 3: certain guys that maybe maybe a young guy or a
Speaker 3: new acquisition that you had in training camp, you really
Speaker 3: just didn't maybe have a whole lot of time to
Speaker 3: get to move a guy around or put him in
Speaker 3: as many situations as maybe you had hoped.
Speaker 2: So then throughout the year things come up and you're.
Speaker 3: Like, you know, what, did that pretty damn well, Like
Speaker 3: it's pretty good at it, or hey, let's let's shift
Speaker 3: this way and let's let's you know, have a variation
Speaker 3: of this scheme that we can tailor to this player
Speaker 3: or these players.
Speaker 2: And then you do a dive in the off season
Speaker 2: and it's the same thing.
Speaker 3: Then you get, you know, talking with CJ and being
Speaker 3: able to look at the things, say, we did these
Speaker 3: things really really well. Okay, how do we compliment these,
Speaker 3: how do we protect these, how do we add to them?
Speaker 3: How do we make these even better? And then you
Speaker 3: look at the things that, okay, like this probably didn't
Speaker 3: go the way we wanted to. And for for X,
Speaker 3: Y and Z reason, what's the reason why?
Speaker 2: Right? Is it salvageable? Do we does it fit what
Speaker 2: we're trying to do? Yes or no? If it is,
Speaker 2: then we can make it better. We're going to make
Speaker 2: it better.
Speaker 3: If not, then we you know, it's like go fishing
Speaker 3: or cut bait. You move on with it and then
Speaker 3: you try to incorporate some other things. So what I
Speaker 3: love about the off season is it, like we had
Speaker 3: just kind of talked about, is you get an opportunity
Speaker 3: to go through there and just experiment with some things
Speaker 3: that have ideas okay that the quarterback might have ideas
Speaker 3: on or I have some things that ay I want
Speaker 3: to I want to try some of these things. Okay,
Speaker 3: we never really got to them in year one, but
Speaker 3: here we go. I think we're ready for them, and
Speaker 3: we have those conversations and there's no this is the
Speaker 3: best that's the best time of the year to experiment
Speaker 3: with those things. And that's that's the gold in that.
Speaker 3: And then when he he brings things to me, is
Speaker 3: you know, there may many times to your point, like
Speaker 3: you know, well, does it fit a protection scheme? Can
Speaker 3: we can we run this concept with this protection system
Speaker 3: versus the front we're about to face. I don't know,
Speaker 3: like it's you know, it's an empty protection. I don't
Speaker 3: know if we can if we can hold on that
Speaker 3: long or yeah we can, let's do it, you know.
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of other factors that go into it, situations,
Speaker 3: you know, personnel, there's other things. But the great thing
Speaker 3: about it, Jordan is when you know, for example, CJ
Speaker 3: will bring me a player, We'll have you know, great
Speaker 3: dialogue during the spring and he's convicted in it you
Speaker 3: give an opportunity to go out there and we'll teach it,
Speaker 3: and we'll and we'll go through it and we'll poke
Speaker 3: holes in at each other with each other. And then
Speaker 3: he has ownership in it and he and he's invested
Speaker 3: in it. And my whole thing is, Hey, we bring
Speaker 3: this thing to life and it fits what we do,
Speaker 3: and he's comfortable with it, and it works and we're
Speaker 3: doing well with it.
Speaker 2: I'm going to call it. It's a good play.
Speaker 3: Then the quarterback and the quarterbacks comfortable and we show
Speaker 3: that we can do it on the field in a
Speaker 3: successful manner, Well, then let's call it. Maybe I should
Speaker 3: call it more, you know, And so there's no ego.
Speaker 2: Does it fit?
Speaker 3: Is there a level of comfort with the quarterback? That's
Speaker 3: important to me? It's very important to me. And you know,
Speaker 3: are we making progress there? And that's why I love
Speaker 3: the off season program in the early part of training camp.
Speaker 3: There's an element of that in training camp as well too.
Speaker 1: That's it touches on something that I think is so
Speaker 1: important that like gets said a lot, and maybe people
Speaker 1: who are never in it or hadn't been in it,
Speaker 1: like maybe don't quite know what it means. And it's
Speaker 1: evolving something forward, evolving a system forward, you figuring out, honestly,
Speaker 1: you're in these two very distinct systems for such a
Speaker 1: long time, in so many impactful ways, and figuring out
Speaker 1: what that looks like with the guys you have, and
Speaker 1: what that looks like in this version of who you
Speaker 1: are as a play designer, as a coach, as a
Speaker 1: play caller, as a guy who's working with the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: and the running backs and the line and over everything,
Speaker 1: but also over all the tiny things too. And I'm curious.
Speaker 1: You know, you've touched on all of a lot of
Speaker 1: the qualities that that takes, that work in the off season,
Speaker 1: the trust to do that with each other. But when
Speaker 1: we talk about like evolving this offense forward, what does
Speaker 1: that mean to you? What does that actually mean versus
Speaker 1: you know, us on the outside. We can write it
Speaker 1: all we want, right, but what is it actually happening
Speaker 1: in that process?
Speaker 2: I think the.
Speaker 3: Evolution for our offense, I mean, from just a big
Speaker 3: picture a starting point, let's say, is just continuing to
Speaker 3: refine and be better operationally and everything that we're doing.
Speaker 2: Let's start with the basics. Okay, don't ever get bored
Speaker 2: with the basics.
Speaker 3: So continuing from the ground up, whether it's the way
Speaker 3: we break, the way we call the play, to the
Speaker 3: way we break the huddle, to our feet getting set
Speaker 3: with urgency, to how we move and shift in motion,
Speaker 3: to how we communicate crisp clean with you know, volume,
Speaker 3: reflex confidence. We're making our declaration, We're echoing any calls
Speaker 3: maybe in the run game or from a protection standpoint,
Speaker 3: We're you know, signaling when that's applicable from the quarterback
Speaker 3: to the skill players and being able to be sharp
Speaker 3: on those things and proactive with those things and taking
Speaker 3: great pride in those things. That's the first thing. The
Speaker 3: second thing I would say is you know our core
Speaker 3: you know our core scheme from a run game standpoint,
Speaker 3: a past game standpoint, including the protections. You know what,
Speaker 3: It's always built around the players. Like I think, like
Speaker 3: I'm not a Hey, we have a core identity in
Speaker 3: a philosophy. But as players change and you lose players,
Speaker 3: or you acquire new players, or you know, you have
Speaker 3: certain guys with certain skill sets, you have to be
Speaker 3: able to adapt as a coach to put them in
Speaker 3: position to be successful. And what we try to do
Speaker 3: here is is allow those guys to play to their strengths.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that we did all off
Speaker 3: season we moved our guys around considerable amount.
Speaker 2: Let's not put a guy in a box.
Speaker 3: Let's see what they're capable of doing in other situations,
Speaker 3: whether it's a receiver getting more inside flex and opening
Speaker 3: up his tree or going inside to outside, whether it's
Speaker 3: moving some of the tight ends and positions in multiple
Speaker 3: groupings that they really haven't had an opportunity to have
Speaker 3: a ton of reps in. You know, it's it's experimenting
Speaker 3: with compliments at making sure we protect all of our
Speaker 3: core plays, okay, so that things can look as consistent
Speaker 3: as similar as possible on the initial stem in the
Speaker 3: past game or from a formation standpoint, so we protect formations,
Speaker 3: we protect concepts, et cetera. And always trying to be
Speaker 3: able to ask ourselves, how can we make the things
Speaker 3: that we have been doing better, and having no ego
Speaker 3: about that, and watching the tape and taking notes and
Speaker 3: poking holes in things and just continuing to have dialogue
Speaker 3: as a staff and pouring it into our players and
Speaker 3: then we you know, sharing that with the players when
Speaker 3: they obviously come in the offseason and just continuing to
Speaker 3: talk and listening to the players. You know, there's certain
Speaker 3: things I've learned. I've learned a lot in my career
Speaker 3: from being blessed by being around some exceptional football players.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously the coaching piece of it, but when
Speaker 3: you talk about the players those I didn't play in
Speaker 3: the National Football League, when the bullets are flying and
Speaker 3: the heart rates up and it's one on one battles
Speaker 3: at the highest level and everything's on the line, and
Speaker 3: there's two minutes in the game and they got to
Speaker 3: make split second decisions. Is there a clarity of thought
Speaker 3: in their mind? Are they playing fast? Do they know
Speaker 3: what to do? Are they confident what they do? So
Speaker 3: you can allow them to cut it loose, and their
Speaker 3: perspective is so critical. I value that we certainly as coaches,
Speaker 3: my job is to make a call on what we're
Speaker 3: going to ultimately do.
Speaker 2: That's my job. I take a lot of pride in that.
Speaker 3: But I value the input as you go because a
Speaker 3: lot of those guys they're sitting there, they may see
Speaker 3: it a different way, or they may be struggling with something,
Speaker 3: or they may interpret something a little different. So having
Speaker 3: those conversations are healthy, Whether it was, you know, coaching
Speaker 3: James Devlin, my fallback in New England, who's one of
Speaker 3: the you know, most intelligent, hardworking human beings, was you know,
Speaker 3: a Pro Bowl fullback for us, to Gronkowski who who
Speaker 3: never came off the field, who was in every spot,
Speaker 3: to Hunter Henry and john Us Smith, you know, and
Speaker 3: then you know to Tyler Higbee uh In La and
Speaker 3: David Sallin and Hunter Long and those guys. There's so
Speaker 3: much great insight that those guys have pooka Cooper Edelman,
Speaker 3: a mindel like you. You you can learn from so
Speaker 3: many people about their perspective and try to help them
Speaker 3: navigate some things. And it's a partnership, it really is.
Speaker 3: And when it's a shared vision and there's there's a
Speaker 3: level of accountability and a commitment with with you know,
Speaker 3: to that process, that's where you know, the best teams
Speaker 3: I've been a part of. You see coaching players, coaching
Speaker 3: staff players, they work together and and that's that's I
Speaker 3: believe when it's at its best, when when everybody's porn
Speaker 3: in the same direction and you're all on the same page.
Speaker 1: More on that in a second. We're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick break and get back to it. On the
Speaker 1: other side, I think I'm a little jealous, honestly, And
Speaker 1: you're kind of in the catbird seat because you also
Speaker 1: get to coach against one of the games best in
Speaker 1: Demiico and Matt Burke and Diino Vaso on that side
Speaker 1: of the ball, and you are you're competing against them
Speaker 1: in these spring and summer practices which are also functionally
Speaker 1: you know, installing and doing all those things. But you
Speaker 1: guys get to share those perspectives and working with Demiko.
Speaker 1: But I know you you talk to the defensive players
Speaker 1: a lot, ziz Al Shaier and yourself, I know, have
Speaker 1: a really special relationship and and to to pick their
Speaker 1: brains too, to have I mean, it's it's like one
Speaker 1: of the best defenses we've ever seen. And I mean,
Speaker 1: and I'm you know, I'm only thirty five, so I
Speaker 1: guess I can't really say that, but it's an incredible,
Speaker 1: incredible defense, one of the best we've seen recently for sure,
Speaker 1: And and the people on it, the players on it,
Speaker 1: are so authentically themselves, and it strikes me that they
Speaker 1: are very open in speaking what they think and what's
Speaker 1: working and what's not working. So I'm curious. You mentioned
Speaker 1: that collaboration and picking people's brains and getting things in
Speaker 1: an egoist way, and what is that like with with
Speaker 1: this defense that I think the only thing I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be jealous of is going against them in practice. But
Speaker 1: what is that like for you?
Speaker 2: It's awesome, you know.
Speaker 3: They we have great coaches that that are a joy
Speaker 3: to be around, that are really really good at what
Speaker 3: they do. And we have great, great players, uh you
Speaker 3: know obviously on that side of the ball, with elite
Speaker 3: football character. And what you see is the thing that's
Speaker 3: so impressive is you know, there's there's a lot of
Speaker 3: talent in this league, right there's a lot of team
Speaker 3: that play really really hard.
Speaker 2: And have success.
Speaker 3: The guys on our defense, they are they're they're all connected.
Speaker 3: They play relentlessly for sixty plus minutes until the final whistle,
Speaker 3: and they do it with a spirit and an energy
Speaker 3: that is infectious. And you could just close your eyes
Speaker 3: at practice and you can hear the communication. You can
Speaker 3: you can hear the hitting, you can hear them swarm
Speaker 3: into the football and that's such a testament to that's
Speaker 3: the defensive staff, the coaches, the players, they're they're just
Speaker 3: they're all in it together, and uh, it's awesome and
Speaker 3: and you get you know, and it's it's a joy
Speaker 3: talking to Jalen Pea Trees and Disease and Will and those,
Speaker 3: I mean, all those guys. I mean, they're they're fun
Speaker 3: to be around, and they make us better every seman.
Speaker 2: We we we get.
Speaker 3: We're buckling up every single day. I mean, it's every
Speaker 3: day is so competitive. And Demiko does such a great
Speaker 3: job with that. But it's awesome. It's it's on and
Speaker 3: you know, and and and you know, to Piggy Vick too,
Speaker 3: Like the guys talked about players like you've got guys
Speaker 3: like Dalton Schultz here who's a highly intelligent player. And
Speaker 3: see and like there's great David Montgomery. There's great collaboration
Speaker 3: and you just see both sides of the ball. It's
Speaker 3: it's really a connected team. And and you know, we'll
Speaker 3: get one on ones or we'll have a competitive team
Speaker 3: period and you'll see you know, the dbs and the
Speaker 3: receivers talking and you know, A Z's talking to the
Speaker 3: backs about a route that they just ran in a
Speaker 3: seven on seven period or whatnot.
Speaker 2: And we're all trying to grow.
Speaker 3: And you know, to be always talked about an iron
Speaker 3: sharpening iron like, that's that's what it is. Every single day,
Speaker 3: I mean every single day. That's what we're trying to
Speaker 3: do in our defense. They bring it, they bring it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I was really excited to hear I
Speaker 1: saw some some you know, chatter about this version of
Speaker 1: the offensive line you guys have and some of the
Speaker 1: guys really trying to take it to the really trying
Speaker 1: to take it to that that defensive line is formidable, right, so, really,
Speaker 1: really really good, really good. Yeah, it's an amazing problem
Speaker 1: to have, right, So I think if you're the offensive guy,
Speaker 1: at least, Nick, I wanted to ask you one more
Speaker 1: thing before we let you go the front office. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think to me, I've been following this team build
Speaker 1: for years, right, and the way that this Nick Caserio
Speaker 1: and his group, you know, Liftfort Blanco, Debik, all these
Speaker 1: guys have have taken this team from being a real
Speaker 1: question mark a few years ago into I think one
Speaker 1: of the most complete rosters in the NFL and certainly
Speaker 1: helpful as well, when when the quarterback is still on
Speaker 1: his rookie contract. And I think that for me, if
Speaker 1: I'm a coach there. I'm looking at this and really
Speaker 1: learning from that as well. What do you sort of
Speaker 1: look at when you take a very sky high view
Speaker 1: of what the Houston Texans are and how they are built,
Speaker 1: and how do you communicate with those guys in the
Speaker 1: front office. How do you guys as coaches work with
Speaker 1: them to community traits and skill sets and things that
Speaker 1: will fit the totality of what they're creating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I mean they first of all, Nick
Speaker 3: and Dimiko do an incredible job.
Speaker 2: Nick the scouting department in the front office. Uh.
Speaker 3: The one thing I would say is they're aligned. Okay,
Speaker 3: there's a complete alignment with those guys and with our team.
Speaker 3: And you know the players you know that that Nick
Speaker 3: and his staff are looking for, you know, their players
Speaker 3: that that we want in this building as Houston Texans.
Speaker 3: And and they they have great football character, and they
Speaker 3: play relentlessly regardless of position, and and we you know,
Speaker 3: I would say like throughout the year, they're very detailed,
Speaker 3: They're very thorough.
Speaker 2: It's just it's.
Speaker 3: Such an efficient process. They're great at communicating throughout the year,
Speaker 3: whether that's you know, right when the season ends, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, when we're in the pre draft or the
Speaker 3: free agent period of just being able to to dive
Speaker 3: into you know, who are the players out there that
Speaker 3: are possible people that we might want to on board
Speaker 3: here and bring bring into be a Texan and being
Speaker 3: able to really have good discussions and and and really
Speaker 3: spend time watching the tape and how what is their fit,
Speaker 3: you know, what is their fit here, what's their role
Speaker 3: going to be?
Speaker 2: How can they help us?
Speaker 3: And then being able to pour that, you know, bleed
Speaker 3: into the the UH draft process. Rather it's the same thing,
Speaker 3: very detailed, very systematic, very thorough, but really trying to
Speaker 3: to you know, leave no stone unturned, and there's a
Speaker 3: there's such a level of detail, but also an efficiency
Speaker 3: in the process not not not not a point of
Speaker 3: detail where it slows you down and its paralysis by analysis.
Speaker 3: It's the it's really the opposite. They do so much
Speaker 3: work on the on the front end of it, and
Speaker 3: from a coaching staff standpoint, you really appreciate how hard
Speaker 3: they work because they they allow us to to basically
Speaker 3: make an evaluation, you know, be able to speak you know,
Speaker 3: our opinion and what our evaluation is on a player,
Speaker 3: and then ultimately, you know, they make decisions on those guys,
Speaker 3: and we.
Speaker 2: Brought in really really good people.
Speaker 3: I haven't been here certainly, this is only one on
Speaker 3: my second year, but high character football, people that play
Speaker 3: really really hard, that are unselfish, that want to help
Speaker 3: our team have success, and you know, it's it's a
Speaker 3: roster full of them.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's great to hear. And I mean I
Speaker 1: just to speak. I mean I only was there covering
Speaker 1: you guys for a brief moment there in the post
Speaker 1: right before the postseason. And that locker room, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was a weird game, but that locker room was
Speaker 1: so was so connected still and so like the vibes
Speaker 1: were very good, don't I don't know what I expected
Speaker 1: going in there, but it was like everybody was with
Speaker 1: each other. It wasn't offense or defense. Everybody was around
Speaker 1: each other still. And it was a road game for
Speaker 1: you guys, but it still was like not nobody was
Speaker 1: rushing each other. You know, it was like very I
Speaker 1: don't know, it was very It felt very familiar to me,
Speaker 1: and that to me seems like whenever I feel that
Speaker 1: around to team, I think there's some real speciality, some
Speaker 1: real potential there. So thank you for sharing a little
Speaker 1: bit more about that. You know, I kind of warned
Speaker 1: you about this. I can't. I cannot let you leave
Speaker 1: this set or this like virtual set without giving me
Speaker 1: a couple of music Rex or band Rex Eric, our producer,
Speaker 1: and I have a very similar taste in music as well.
Speaker 1: You know, we're kind of the warped to our kids
Speaker 1: here at NFL Daily. So I'm curious anything good you
Speaker 1: want to recommend to the listeners, anything you're listening to.
Speaker 1: I know you're a big music guy.
Speaker 3: I love music, yep. I mean you know, I would say,
Speaker 3: you know, I love Dave Matthews. I could listen to
Speaker 3: Dave Matthews about it from sun up to sundown.
Speaker 2: Dave Matthews band just went to the Woodlands.
Speaker 1: I pranked you on that pretty good one time with
Speaker 1: Kevin Dummoff too.
Speaker 2: You did, he did? He got me really good. I got.
Speaker 3: I got Jerry Schapplinskier quarterback coach, to you know, come
Speaker 3: out to the Dave Matthews. He was like, ah, Dave Matthews,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm like, Jerry, just just we have
Speaker 3: we're off tomorrow. Man, Like, what are you gonna sit
Speaker 3: on your what are you gonna sit on your couch.
Speaker 3: We can go to Dave Matthews man actually with berg
Speaker 3: Uh came in town and so we ended up going
Speaker 3: and I go afterwards, I saw him.
Speaker 2: I looked over.
Speaker 3: I said, I saw him singing to himself, because Dave
Speaker 3: blends and will do all the interludes where he brings it,
Speaker 3: you know, different different songs and stuff and intertwines him.
Speaker 2: And I look over and he's singing. Afterwards, I say, man,
Speaker 2: how was he goes? It wasn't bad, I.
Speaker 3: Said, yeah, I told you you just gotta be over minded.
Speaker 3: But I would say, you know, Dave Matthews, the ones
Speaker 3: I've been listening to recently, O A R.
Speaker 2: I'm always going to rock out with O R. The
Speaker 2: early two thousands of State jam band.
Speaker 3: I mean they they they're always good to to listen
Speaker 3: to and dispatch I could. I I can crank dispatch
Speaker 3: from just about any time.
Speaker 1: And smiling really big behind the glass, right nice Paul.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I like being a little bit more of a
Speaker 2: calming mood sometimes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I listened to I listened to everything awesome.
Speaker 3: And my two little ones, my two little ones are
Speaker 3: going to be Jordan, They're gonna be out probably listening
Speaker 3: to be out in LA you know, probably hitting some
Speaker 3: concerts in about another fifteen sixteen years there.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I love you.
Speaker 1: Tell them to I'll give them the good spots. I'll
Speaker 1: get them the good, the good, the good venues to
Speaker 1: get to and and kind of go under the radar
Speaker 1: a little bit. So I got I got him, I
Speaker 1: got them covered here, Nick, don't worry about that.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm so glad that you joined us today. Uh Nick,
Speaker 1: This is Nick Kaylee. For those listening, Offensive coordinator of
Speaker 1: the Houston Texans. I'm coming up later this week on
Speaker 1: NFL Daily. We are back in your feeds. It's training camp.
Speaker 1: We've got practice reports, we've got news updates. We're continuing
Speaker 1: to go in granular detail to every single team in
Speaker 1: the league as training camp continues. Stay tuned in your
Speaker 1: feeds and thanks for listening.