Speaker 1: What's up? Everybody?
Speaker 2: Welcome into a Friday edition of Texans All Access from
Speaker 2: the Hunted Texans Radio studio John Harris alongside the Voice
Speaker 2: of the Texans, Mark vandermir Mark Dan.
Speaker 1: God, it's Friday. How are you doing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm doing great, Johnny Friday, indeed, and weird still
Speaker 3: with no football during the weekend, but we have football
Speaker 3: every night here at six o'clock, and you and I
Speaker 3: are going to be at the Combine next week.
Speaker 1: Can't wait for that.
Speaker 3: I guess Monday we'll do a little combine best of stuff,
Speaker 3: not really best of the year's past, but maybe our
Speaker 3: combine memories. What's important about the Combine this year for
Speaker 3: the Houston Texans. Can't wait for that, can't wait for
Speaker 3: the whole thing, because.
Speaker 1: Everybody's fired up. Everybody I talked.
Speaker 3: To is already fired up. For twenty twenty four September.
Speaker 3: We have to kind of chill a little bit here,
Speaker 3: as difficult as that is, because I'm fired up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are both fired up. There's no question fired
Speaker 2: up to go to Indy. Love going to Indy. Just
Speaker 2: put this on your radar screen on Tuesday, February twenty seven, Tuesday,
Speaker 2: we will sit down with Demiko Ryans, so we will
Speaker 2: have that Protections Radio for you that night. Wednesday night,
Speaker 2: we will sit down with Nick Cassio. So Demiko Ryan's Tuesday,
Speaker 2: Nick Cassario. Wednesday. They will both meet with the media
Speaker 2: that day and the last thing they will do before
Speaker 2: they move on to the rest of their day is
Speaker 2: sit with us and record, so we can have that
Speaker 2: for you. So Tuesday, Demico Wednesday, Nick. But this is Friday,
Speaker 2: so we got a little bit.
Speaker 4: I got a couple of other things to promote as well.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, all right, So I'm gonna sit down with
Speaker 3: the other voices in the AFC South. This is an
Speaker 3: exclusive club. Sorry, Johnny. Uh, I understand. Put the sock
Speaker 3: on the door.
Speaker 4: We're gonna do the Voices podcast.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: It's really my Keith that puts it together for the Titans,
Speaker 3: but we hijack the audio. I'll put it up here
Speaker 3: at some point, So we're gonna do that. Uh. There's
Speaker 3: also an ESPN so called draft Expert. Now this is
Speaker 3: awkward for me because I don't know if you want
Speaker 3: to be part of this or not. But he's booked
Speaker 3: at a certain point on Wednesday. I think it's Jordan reed, Okay,
Speaker 3: he's not happy about it.
Speaker 2: I mean, okay, this is like you know, one on
Speaker 2: one folks, you know what this is like.
Speaker 3: This is like telling your wife it's not as bad
Speaker 3: as what you think I'm about to say.
Speaker 1: Who booked that for you?
Speaker 4: It's just the ESPN.
Speaker 3: It's just like it's just like telling her, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go for a home cooked meal over in this house. Yep, Okay,
Speaker 3: it's not as bad as what you thought I might say, but.
Speaker 4: It's kind of I guess it's kind of bad.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but I wanted to get in there
Speaker 3: good graces because I'm trying to get some other guests
Speaker 3: through them, so I wanted to say yes, you know,
Speaker 3: it's kind of it's like sales. I wanted to get
Speaker 3: a little sale going and go for the bigger enchilada later.
Speaker 2: So that'll be a one on one that you will
Speaker 2: hear probably Thursday or Friday of of Combi Week.
Speaker 4: Jordan's okay, he's fine. You didn't say somebody else.
Speaker 3: While Johnny's catch you go with Brad Shad Voice of
Speaker 3: the Cowboys by himself, We're gonna stray a little bit here.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I am gonna sit down with Matt Taylor,
Speaker 2: which I've done that every year, you know that. But well,
Speaker 2: we'll probably get the voices from around the NFC North.
Speaker 2: We typically catch up with Jeff Joniak and Paul Allen
Speaker 2: and we play them this year, so it'll matter. So
Speaker 2: there'll always be some surprise guests that really kind of
Speaker 2: pop out of nowhere. One year, I think it was
Speaker 2: last year. Last year was Max Stark's. Yeah, he sat
Speaker 2: down with you. I came over. I was off watching
Speaker 2: you know where such you know where I got him. Well,
Speaker 2: I might have got him because.
Speaker 4: Their table was right on the other side of us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I got him at the combine and
Speaker 3: I also saw him at the owners meeting.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 4: Yeah, good dude.
Speaker 1: You know whose cousin is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you told me this. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't either. He told He was the one
Speaker 2: who told me. He gave me the whole recruiting story.
Speaker 2: Because for those people who don't know, Max Stark's offensive
Speaker 2: lineman Pittsburgh Steelers for a long time did a tremendous
Speaker 2: job of Steelers had gone to Florida before that, I
Speaker 2: actually coached against in high school and he was six
Speaker 2: eight three point fifty, the biggest individual I've ever seen,
Speaker 2: and I mean he is a massive individual, but you
Speaker 2: talk about bright and smart and fun, huge, this great dude,
Speaker 2: great on the air.
Speaker 4: So Travis Johnson's cousin.
Speaker 2: So I finally I get a chance to meet him,
Speaker 2: and I tell him about we coached I coached against you.
Speaker 2: I tell him some of the fun stories fro him
Speaker 2: that I remember. They weren't that fuck because we got beat,
Speaker 2: but just some funny stories looking back.
Speaker 4: And he was like, I remember some of this. So
Speaker 4: we we chopped it up for a while.
Speaker 2: And so I asked him about being recruited at Florida
Speaker 2: and he says, yeah, well, I don't know if you
Speaker 2: know the whole story.
Speaker 4: Do you know Travis Johnson. I'm like, do I know
Speaker 4: trap Ja?
Speaker 2: Yes I do, And so he gave me the whole
Speaker 2: story about how they were supposed to go together, but
Speaker 2: Max lived in Florida and Trapp lived in California, and
Speaker 2: so the time difference kind of messed everything up, and
Speaker 2: so Trapp just commits to Florest State.
Speaker 4: Max thought they were both going to Florida. They wan
Speaker 4: ended up Florest State.
Speaker 6: One.
Speaker 4: I went to Florida.
Speaker 2: Really interesting story to hear from the Max Stark side
Speaker 2: of things. So yeah, Max Starks was last year as well,
Speaker 2: So we always have an interview like that that pops
Speaker 2: up right, real fun.
Speaker 1: Great Casel will stop by.
Speaker 2: I'm sure, like you said, we'll get all the AFC
Speaker 2: self voices, Frank Franjie, Matt Taylor, and Mike Keith.
Speaker 1: They'll be on.
Speaker 2: So we get all kinds of stuff from the combine,
Speaker 2: So you definitely want to stay tune, not only next
Speaker 2: week of the combine because we get so much stuff.
Speaker 2: Sometimes things get pushed, yeah, to the following week, so
Speaker 2: that second week, as you start heading towards franchise tag
Speaker 2: vill and getting ready for a free agency, you start
Speaker 2: getting ready for that.
Speaker 4: So that leads me. Oh and then tonight to also
Speaker 4: promo how we spend like five minutes promoink Indian Cecil.
Speaker 2: We'll have that a little bit later. Got to listen
Speaker 2: to the Texas og podcast. That's where you get the
Speaker 2: full podcast. We'll have a snippet for you. And then
Speaker 2: my former co host, our good friend, host of Texans
Speaker 2: pre and post game, Sean Pendergast. Sports Radio six ten
Speaker 2: will sound with Mark that'll be a little bit later
Speaker 2: in the show to get Sean's thoughts and some of
Speaker 2: the things happening in the NFL with the Texans and
Speaker 2: all that going on.
Speaker 4: But Mark, I'm gonna hit you with a number to
Speaker 4: start out me.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now, it's kind of a seemingly random number. Thirty
Speaker 2: four million, six hundred eight thousand, thirty four million, six
Speaker 2: hundred and eight thousand. That could be a lot of things,
Speaker 2: a lot of things. But in your mind, can you
Speaker 2: flash back to nineteen ninety four, think back nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 4: It's a long time ago, both of us NFL context
Speaker 4: of nineteen ninety four, that was the first year that
Speaker 4: the league had a salary cap. Wow, the salary cap
Speaker 4: was thirty four million, six hundred eight thousand.
Speaker 2: Thirty four million, six hundred eight thousand. There are players
Speaker 2: with that as their singular contract.
Speaker 4: More than that. More called and said that's not enough.
Speaker 2: Right now, I bring that up, thirty four million, six
Speaker 2: hundred eight thousand.
Speaker 4: Keep that number of mind. Thy four million, six hundred
Speaker 4: and eight thousand.
Speaker 2: I now give you two hundred and fifty five million,
Speaker 2: four hundred thousand.
Speaker 4: That is the twenty twenty four salary cap.
Speaker 1: You should be.
Speaker 3: Able to invest in the salary cap like it's a
Speaker 3: fundah and be able to grow your money, right because.
Speaker 4: COVID would have got you, but you would have got
Speaker 4: been fine after that, Oh yeah, COVID would have. COVID
Speaker 4: got back, but not as bad as say real investments
Speaker 4: like two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight meltdown
Speaker 4: or y two k at least briefly in the last
Speaker 4: few years until twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: So there, that is awesome growth right there. The revenue streams.
Speaker 3: We just had the most viewed Super Bowl ever. The
Speaker 3: league is doing so well and pre nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 3: Nobody wants a history lesson, but this is worth mentioning.
Speaker 3: Somebody sent us a video. Who it was on our
Speaker 3: Texans radio thread, the San Francisco forty nine Ers plane video.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yes, yes, who posted that on our time?
Speaker 3: But it was interesting because I bring this up because
Speaker 3: the forty nine ers in their heyday with Montana winning
Speaker 3: Super Bowl Eddie de Bartolo, the owner of the team,
Speaker 3: would treat the players so well, yes that today that
Speaker 3: stuff would be considered cap hits. Absolutely all right, you
Speaker 3: cannot pay for their entire families to all go to Honolulu. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you can't do all that stuff. He would shower the
Speaker 3: players with gifts, lavish experiences the team playing back in
Speaker 3: those days. For back in those days, it was ridiculously
Speaker 3: good and you could do some of those things. But
Speaker 3: you can't do all of those things like he did.
Speaker 3: He got in a lot of trouble for it, or you.
Speaker 4: Know, some of it retroactively.
Speaker 3: But you had people pointing this out as you went
Speaker 3: into a cap era, that you cannot give benefits like that.
Speaker 2: Well, the the Oilers were one of the the opposite
Speaker 2: of a beneficiary. They were hamstrung with the salary cap
Speaker 2: because they had to release a number of veterans, including
Speaker 2: warm Moon at the time, because they would have been.
Speaker 1: Well over the salary cap.
Speaker 3: I mean that's even that nineteen ninety three season of
Speaker 3: the Turmoil season.
Speaker 2: They had all kinds of players with money and they
Speaker 2: just had to start siphoning players off and away you go.
Speaker 2: You know, I got on the sidelines to twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: This past year was my tenth year on the sideline.
Speaker 2: It's going until eleven, twenty fourteen. The cap is one
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty three million, dollars in ten years, it's
Speaker 2: nearly doubled. Yeah, that's unbelievable. In nearly ten years, it
Speaker 2: has doubled. In the thirty years since it started in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four, it has gone eight times higher than
Speaker 2: the thirty four thousand, six hundred thirty four million, six
Speaker 2: hundred eight thousand and started with.
Speaker 3: So the cap is based on revenue, right, you get
Speaker 3: a percentage of the revenue. Correct, players are only over
Speaker 3: fifty percent of the gross revenue. But there's some ifs
Speaker 3: in the there's some there's some gray area and then
Speaker 3: but anyway, go with me on this. Think about how
Speaker 3: television has changed in the last ten years.
Speaker 2: That's true, and that's the big that's the probably the
Speaker 2: biggest driver of.
Speaker 4: All of this. We've got into a streaming era.
Speaker 3: We've gotten to the point where to the TV networks,
Speaker 3: the most valuable thing by far, and it was then too,
Speaker 3: is NFL football, but it's gotten even more valuable to them.
Speaker 3: It's the one thing that can get eyeballs no matter what.
Speaker 4: And streaming too.
Speaker 3: Look what happened with Peacock when they streamed the playoff game,
Speaker 3: the most streamed event in history.
Speaker 4: So you know where we're going with this.
Speaker 3: The league is so immensely popular, way more popular than
Speaker 3: the other sports, way.
Speaker 4: More popular than anything.
Speaker 3: Else other than Taylor Swift now, way more popular than
Speaker 3: anything else. So it's going to get the top dollar
Speaker 3: and they can leverage, negotiate, do whatever they need to
Speaker 3: do to keep upping the anti from the TV networks
Speaker 3: and whoever else is giving them money, gaming companies, et cetera.
Speaker 4: One reason I brought this up, We'll get that in
Speaker 4: a second.
Speaker 2: But Tom Pealosara tweeted this, NFL not today salary cap
Speaker 2: will be two hundred and fifty five point four million
Speaker 2: per club, with an additional seventy four million dollars per
Speaker 2: club payment for player benefits, which includes performance based pay
Speaker 2: and benefits for retired players. That's huge, That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: It was an un When the NFL put out statement,
Speaker 2: it said that quote an unprecedented thirty million dollar increase
Speaker 2: per club in this year's salary cap is the result
Speaker 2: of the full repayment of all amounts advanced by the
Speaker 2: clubs and deferred by the players during the COVID pandemic,
Speaker 2: as well as an extraordinary increase in media revenue for
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty four season. It should have followed with
Speaker 2: thank you bezos, because that was a pretty that's a
Speaker 2: pretty darn big number. And apparently Amazon's going to stream
Speaker 2: a playoff game and I think it's one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty million for one playoff game.
Speaker 4: Well, what happens to the peacock game? I'm not sure
Speaker 4: about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know about that at that story, does
Speaker 2: does one replace the other?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 4: How does this all become relevant?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 4: I know what a lot of people are gonna say, Well,
Speaker 4: you got the money, spend it. They're giving it to you,
Speaker 4: Go spend it. You have sixty nine seventy million dollars
Speaker 4: a cap space. We've talked about, you know, those those
Speaker 4: sort of things. But I want to bring up this
Speaker 4: because what also came with the salary cap was the
Speaker 4: setting of the franchise tag.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I think those numbers end up becoming really
Speaker 2: interesting because of the players the Texans have that are
Speaker 2: free agents. Because I after I saw these, I went,
Speaker 2: wait a second, I might I might think about franchising
Speaker 2: that particular play. Oh yeah, so I looked at it
Speaker 2: and went, now, a couple of them. I don't know
Speaker 2: that I will, but a few of them. I looked
Speaker 2: at it and went, I think I might think about this.
Speaker 2: So here we go. Franchise tag amounts.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna give you first of all, first position defensive end,
Speaker 4: all right, so that would be Grenard.
Speaker 2: Okay, the tag cost is twenty one point three million.
Speaker 2: Now you hear that and you go, oh boy, that's
Speaker 2: a lot of money.
Speaker 3: No, No, that doesn't sound like crazybody to me. For
Speaker 3: a really highly skilled defensive end. He backs up double
Speaker 3: digit sacks. Very reasonable as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2: Considering Brian Burns wants thirty per Yeah, what I mean
Speaker 2: between one point three I mean, you franchise a guy
Speaker 2: and you try and figure out what's gonna be your
Speaker 2: long term you know, situation. But that buys you some
Speaker 2: time to be able to negotiate even further all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. But you at least we have the
Speaker 2: one year for twenty one point three million. That was
Speaker 2: the first one that stood up to me. I was like, well,
Speaker 2: that's not I know, people are so listen.
Speaker 4: You have to take what we just talked about and
Speaker 4: now move your thinking ahead a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to move your thinking ahead a little bit,
Speaker 2: all right, So for.
Speaker 3: Those who don't know though, because there are a lot
Speaker 3: of people listening. I hear franchise tager, I know what
Speaker 3: it means. What it means is it takes them off
Speaker 3: the market relative for one year. Yeah, it takes them
Speaker 3: off the market. Now, other teams could possibly trade for
Speaker 3: that franchise player, correct, but they have to give you
Speaker 3: a max. It doesn't have to be a minimum, a
Speaker 3: maximum of two first round picks, and they get the player. Right,
Speaker 3: and they have to get the player, they have to
Speaker 3: pay the player the contract. Now, the contract amount is
Speaker 3: the average of the top five salaries at that position.
Speaker 4: The franchise tag is the top five.
Speaker 3: The franchise tag amount. When you do tag a player,
Speaker 3: the sporting thing is it means you're trying to negotiate
Speaker 3: a long term deal, but you want more time to
Speaker 3: do it, and you want to take them off the
Speaker 3: market to do it so you can arrive at that conclusion.
Speaker 3: At the very least, you're gonna get that player for
Speaker 3: that year. Now, they did this with Jadeveon Clowney, and
Speaker 3: a lot of people were complaining at the time, people
Speaker 3: meeting outsiders saying, are you really interested in signing him
Speaker 3: long term? Right? They ended up trading him, right. So
Speaker 3: with a player like Jonathan Grenard, I suppose. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's always an option with an unrestricted free agent, So
Speaker 3: it's an option for him and.
Speaker 4: We'll see if they do it or not.
Speaker 3: Usually it means hopefully that you're trying to negotiate a
Speaker 3: long term deal before you tag them. You can't come
Speaker 3: up with the agreements you're gonna tag them, take more time.
Speaker 4: It does take him out of the mix.
Speaker 3: That means the Falcons or whoever else can't come up
Speaker 3: and offer him a deal without making that trade for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're exclusive franchise tags non exclusive, so with
Speaker 2: the exclusive it's up to you guys to come up
Speaker 2: with a deal. If not the player signs this franchise tag,
Speaker 2: you have him for one year and then you move on.
Speaker 4: If you get the.
Speaker 2: Non exclusive, that was what Lamar Jackson was tagged with.
Speaker 2: He had the opportunity to kind of go out there
Speaker 2: and see what was out there in the market and
Speaker 2: see what was available and see if there was a
Speaker 2: team that was willing to give up the two first
Speaker 2: round picks and then sign Lamar. Looking back, there are
Speaker 2: probably a few teams that would say, man I wish
Speaker 2: we would have done it. I think all teams thought, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're negotiating good faith, but yeah, we got a feeling
Speaker 2: that whatever he gets from us, he's going to take
Speaker 2: back to the Ravens. The Ravens are going to match
Speaker 2: it and the way they go. So we're essentially doing
Speaker 2: all the negotiating for the Ravens.
Speaker 4: Wasting time in the process. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: So the one year franchise tag costs for a defensive
Speaker 2: end will be twenty one point three That caught my attention, Like,
Speaker 2: in a second, that might be that might be something.
Speaker 4: To what about tight end? Johnny, do you have the
Speaker 4: number for two? And I'm glad you brought that up
Speaker 4: because that was the next place. Okay, because there's a.
Speaker 3: Certain tight end who's slated to become an unrestricted free
Speaker 3: agent here.
Speaker 4: That would be Dalton Schultz. So what do you got?
Speaker 4: Franchise tag cost is twelve point seven million dollars. Yeah.
Speaker 3: See, that's another one where you're thinking, Okay, if we
Speaker 3: can't come up with an agreement, presuming they want to
Speaker 3: resign him, that's a thought.
Speaker 4: That's a thought right there. And then obviously something that
Speaker 4: you brought that up.
Speaker 2: It's like of course, all of what we're talking about
Speaker 2: is assuming the team would like to have these players back.
Speaker 2: We're hoping they do, but you just never know. But
Speaker 2: you're right, that is a big factor. And it's twelve
Speaker 2: point seven million dollars.
Speaker 1: Would you do it?
Speaker 3: Look, I would come up with an agreement with him
Speaker 3: for that, maybe, you know, like.
Speaker 4: A three year thirty seven million dollars.
Speaker 3: Here's the other side off, and they want more than that.
Speaker 3: They want more than the average of the top five
Speaker 3: they feel like. And They'm just generalizing here because I
Speaker 3: don't know what these guys are thinking individually, and I
Speaker 3: don't know what Nick's thinking. I see Nick all the
Speaker 3: time in the hallways. He doesn't stop me usually and say, Manny,
Speaker 3: what do you think of this?
Speaker 4: Who we should franchise?
Speaker 3: No, he does not do that, And if he did,
Speaker 3: I would say, ah, it's up to you, because it's
Speaker 3: not my hide on the line here with all this stuff.
Speaker 2: One of the things to keep in mind with a
Speaker 2: franchise tag, it's a tag. It's one you don't get tagged, like, hey,
Speaker 2: we're gonna tag these four guys. No, you get you one.
Speaker 2: If you pick Grenard, nobody else can be fant gut
Speaker 2: feeling here because are those the two? Is there anybody
Speaker 2: else you would you do it with Nelson at corner?
Speaker 4: Probably not.
Speaker 3: That's kind of the corner. The corner corner number nineteen
Speaker 3: point eight million. See, that's that's a big chunk of change.
Speaker 4: That's that's uh, that's rich. Corners are valuable, but that's
Speaker 4: a big chunk.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 4: Running back, that's a big chunk.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: Running back eleven point nine twelve million, twelve million a
Speaker 4: little too rich for my blood. I would think it's
Speaker 4: it's too rich for my blood.
Speaker 2: I I mean, I do feel like, depending on what
Speaker 2: you know, if you you toss that line out in
Speaker 2: the water and you try and by it, especially running back,
Speaker 2: I mean, I think people throughout the city, I mean
Speaker 2: guys that you know, our guys at six ten talk
Speaker 2: about it at all the other radio stations, and you know,
Speaker 2: people in the media talking about obviously the Texas connections
Speaker 2: with running backs and and all that. I feel like
Speaker 2: the running back number is not going to be far off.
Speaker 2: For some reason, the NFL just has that kind of
Speaker 2: number in mind that it's gonna be I think, to
Speaker 2: get a to get a bona fide you know, running
Speaker 2: back that has pelts upon the wall. That's kind of
Speaker 2: a you know, I don't say one name kind of guy,
Speaker 2: but like Saquon, Derek Josh Jacobs is a little different.
Speaker 2: But you're gonna have to pay I think thirteen to
Speaker 2: fourteen million at a minimum per year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because of eleven and changes. The average of the
Speaker 3: top five, Well, those guys are all in the top five.
Speaker 3: Henry would say I set the market at the top five.
Speaker 3: Barkley can claim no better than second in that. I
Speaker 3: would think overall, although maybe a healthy Barkley at this
Speaker 3: point in their lives.
Speaker 4: If you could guarantee health.
Speaker 3: Henry or Barkley and forget about the Texans for a moment,
Speaker 3: Team X, you might take Barkley at this point.
Speaker 2: Yes, age absolutely and passing game impact multi dimensional. Yes,
Speaker 2: I like that word multi dimensional. It's exactly what Saquon
Speaker 2: Arkley would be. But I feel like the running backs
Speaker 2: are kind of going to be all around that number. Again,
Speaker 2: I've used this as sort of the because it's the
Speaker 2: most recent one I can think of. Jonathan Taylor signed
Speaker 2: a contract Week three or four of this particular season.
Speaker 4: I can't remember what it was.
Speaker 2: Three years forty three million dollars with the Indianapolis Colts.
Speaker 2: I've been with the Colts. He was coming off an injury,
Speaker 2: but they knew he was the bell Cow. They gave
Speaker 2: a bell Cow number one running back. Yeah, top three
Speaker 2: in the league three years, forty three million dollars.
Speaker 1: And I've asked the question before.
Speaker 2: Now knowing that the franchise tag is twelve point seven,
Speaker 2: and you wouldn't put a franchise tag on on motor
Speaker 2: at that rate, I don't think no, But just to
Speaker 2: give you kind of a gauge, I think that thirteen
Speaker 2: million dollars is about right where you know, kind of
Speaker 2: where you're gonna have to pay for, you know, a
Speaker 2: so called premium.
Speaker 3: For Jacobs Henry Barkley thirteen to fourteen.
Speaker 4: I thinks, yea exactly. I think that's what you look
Speaker 4: at that per year.
Speaker 2: Now again, once you get a long term contract, you
Speaker 2: can structure that contract where you're taking cap pits however
Speaker 2: you want spread the bonus out. You can front load it,
Speaker 2: backload it with cap pit whatever you want to do.
Speaker 2: Most times you backload it, you know, so you take
Speaker 2: a lighter cap hit now, so you could satisfy things
Speaker 2: and you pay the credit card bill later. We know
Speaker 2: teams that have kicked that cane down the road and
Speaker 2: now it's coming back to bite them a little bit.
Speaker 1: Quarterback, I know that's not in our Before.
Speaker 4: You get to quarterback, what do you have inside linebacker?
Speaker 2: Okay, this is interesting because I thought the NFL was
Speaker 2: going to change this. But they were going to change this.
Speaker 2: They have linebacker at twenty four million dollars. What now
Speaker 2: that seems to.
Speaker 3: Be that's outside linebacker, pass rusher, top linebacker.
Speaker 2: I know exactly, so that's I thought they were going
Speaker 2: to separate those.
Speaker 1: But I guess, but does.
Speaker 3: Anybody ever franchise an inside linebacker a middle linebacker?
Speaker 4: Does it happen?
Speaker 3: It must, but I probably don't the of my head,
Speaker 3: right it's all it's all in their cars right now,
Speaker 3: thinking of what about no call.
Speaker 4: In just kidding?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So yeah, twenty four million, it's the second rate one,
Speaker 2: but it's not it's not separate and it's not separated,
Speaker 2: and I don't know, I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't it be great if you could use cap room
Speaker 3: that you have today sort of a what's the college
Speaker 3: fund called? What's that number on the state college fund
Speaker 3: where you're saving up for your kids college education. Oh,
Speaker 3: five thirty five, I want to say, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: five thirty eight, Yeah, something something like that. All right,
Speaker 3: so you use that against the cap? Now, can we
Speaker 3: put away a few million a year on the cap
Speaker 3: for CJ's contract.
Speaker 2: You're saying, like, use ten million dollars of cap this year,
Speaker 2: ten dollars or ten million dollars a cap room next
Speaker 2: year so that you can have twenty or thirty applied?
Speaker 4: Do I like the way you're thinking?
Speaker 3: By the way, how quarter nine it's the five to
Speaker 3: club thirty eight is the is the website that's close?
Speaker 1: Uh, just to.
Speaker 4: Kind of give you an idea.
Speaker 2: Quarterback franchise tag now, I don't believe that any quarterback
Speaker 2: will get franchised. Your unrestricted free agents are Ryan Tannehill,
Speaker 2: Kirk Cousins, Jacoby Brissett. I don't think anybody's getting a
Speaker 2: franchise tag at thirty eight million. I mean, kirk Cousins
Speaker 2: has had it before, but I don't think it carries
Speaker 2: over to.
Speaker 1: A new one much.
Speaker 3: Tua going into year five three, Yeah, he's going into
Speaker 3: year five, So they got to make the decision. They're
Speaker 3: going to tag him, obviously, because you don't have to.
Speaker 3: But you have to decide whether you want him pass
Speaker 3: this year, and do you just go ahead and play
Speaker 3: out that fifth and let him hit the market.
Speaker 4: Then you tag him next year, though, I mean a lot.
Speaker 2: My guess is to his agent's going to ask for
Speaker 2: whatever Justin Herbert got, whatever Joe Burrow got, And I
Speaker 2: know that the Dolphins come back with Burrow went to
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. Yeah, but what about Justin Herbert? I
Speaker 2: mean Tua. Tua's done more than Justin Herbert's done. I
Speaker 2: think it's pretty close. I mean, one went to the
Speaker 2: playoff and lost the wildcard. One went to the playoff, lost
Speaker 2: the wildcard. I don't know yet.
Speaker 3: People have more faith in Herbert seemingly, and I know
Speaker 3: he got hurt this year, but Tua until this year
Speaker 3: had not been able to stay healthy.
Speaker 2: I mean, thirty eight point three million dollars, Hey, franch
Speaker 2: We're gonna franchise to a Tonguo at loa. I I mean,
Speaker 2: I'd much rather if I'm the Dolphins, I'd much rather
Speaker 2: extend him. Let's go four for one sixty eight, that's
Speaker 2: forty two per he say yes to it. I guess
Speaker 2: maybe not.
Speaker 3: You want to know a troubling number for Tua this
Speaker 3: past season, fourteen interceptions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's but at least that number was higher than
Speaker 2: the concussion number, which is good because you didn't have
Speaker 2: I don't think you had a concussion this year, which
Speaker 2: is I mean, seriously, it's good you didn't have that concussion.
Speaker 2: But I don't think anybody, I mean, would Tua take
Speaker 2: four one sixty eight, No, probably not so at that point,
Speaker 2: she continued, going, you're like five at two fifteen. I mean,
Speaker 2: if you're the if you're the Dolphins, you're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're just gonna play us on the fifty.
Speaker 3: Para Johnny, I bet they sign him. They sign him,
Speaker 3: They find a way to come to an agreement with them.
Speaker 3: They don't want to go through quarterback on certainty going
Speaker 3: into twenty twenty five, they're going to sign to him.
Speaker 3: They come up with that agreement.
Speaker 5: That one.
Speaker 4: We have to keep track of our predictions, because.
Speaker 3: Will be if I bet never mind bat if I
Speaker 3: throw for a sixty three percent completion clip on my predictions,
Speaker 3: that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if.
Speaker 2: You're right, they wouldn't tall, you wouldn't tag two this year,
Speaker 2: you would.
Speaker 4: Extend him, you'd extend him. He's going into year five.
Speaker 2: His cap hit this year's nine point six million. I
Speaker 2: might try, and I'm not really try and squeeze.
Speaker 1: One more year out of him, but this is me.
Speaker 4: Well, squeeze one more year, but then you're risk kidding
Speaker 4: the market or.
Speaker 2: Having a tame back. My bad, my bad, I read
Speaker 2: the wrong year. His base salary is twenty three million.
Speaker 5: Go to this year.
Speaker 4: That makes more sense.
Speaker 2: So I still probably make him play on that twenty
Speaker 2: three million dollars and risk whatever on certainity you have
Speaker 2: coming next year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can tag him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's messy, as Lamar like, you don't
Speaker 3: want that kind of off season.
Speaker 1: But are you sold?
Speaker 4: I just don't think you give a guy an extension
Speaker 4: until you're fully.
Speaker 3: Maybe they come to an agreement because they feel giants.
Speaker 2: You think the giants are happy with looking back and
Speaker 2: Brian Dable, No, you're happy to give Daniel Jones that contract?
Speaker 2: He'll know and two has been better than Daniel Jones.
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I too, I'm what I might do. Let's see if
Speaker 2: we can get him extended. Let's give him this contract
Speaker 2: offer and see what he says. He says no to that, Well,
Speaker 2: let's cool off. We'll back off.
Speaker 3: And to say, all right, who tweeted the stack comparison
Speaker 3: between Trevor Lawrence and Daniel Jones and eye popping. In fact,
Speaker 3: Jones looked almost as good in every throwing category and
Speaker 3: he blew him away obviously in the rushing yards.
Speaker 4: Yeah, category, that was pretty interesting.
Speaker 3: But Jones can't stay healthy. That's a big That's exactly right.
Speaker 3: He can't stay healthy, and that is a bad thing.
Speaker 3: What's not a bad thing? Our two good friends, Indie
Speaker 3: Kalou and Cecil Shorts. That's next on Texans All Access.
Speaker 2: Look back to Friday edition of Texans All Access from
Speaker 2: I'm not at Texans Radio Studio. I'm your host John Harris,
Speaker 2: football analyst, sideline reporter, and as I teased, the Texas
Speaker 2: Og podcast by Indie Kalu is a wonderful listen and
Speaker 2: this week had a little Cecil Shorts stopping by. Here's
Speaker 2: a little snippet app podcast between two of my favorite
Speaker 2: Texas legends, Indie Kalu and Cecil Shorts.
Speaker 1: Indeed, take it away.
Speaker 7: The Houston Texans, our former team, very very entertaining during
Speaker 7: the season. I always call this the tough part if
Speaker 7: you're a general manager, if you're a head coach, because
Speaker 7: when you have the type of season you have with
Speaker 7: the Texans this past year, you fall in love with
Speaker 7: so many players. There are so many players that helped
Speaker 7: them exceed expectations. What do you think as a guy
Speaker 7: that played quarterback, as a guy that played wide receiver,
Speaker 7: as a guy that played on the defensive side of
Speaker 7: the ball, that understands the entire game, what do you
Speaker 7: think is the biggest need? What is the one position
Speaker 7: group that you feel like the Texans should focus on
Speaker 7: this offseason.
Speaker 5: Ooh, indeed, that's a tough one. It is. That's a
Speaker 5: tough one.
Speaker 6: But I'm gonna do this, and it may be cheating,
Speaker 6: but I look back at I look at the head coach, Dimiko, Right,
Speaker 6: where'd he come from? He come from? He came from
Speaker 6: the San Franisco for the Niners. What did they do
Speaker 6: in the draft when he was there? They went on
Speaker 6: and got Joey Bosa, They down got Eric Armstead, they
Speaker 6: went out and traded for the Forest Buckner.
Speaker 5: Like they take pride in.
Speaker 6: Their defensive line, and if I'm honest, their defensive line
Speaker 6: showed up and showed out last week.
Speaker 5: Yes, they showed up and showed.
Speaker 6: Out like the defense did their part of my humble opinion,
Speaker 6: it's only so much you can do to snow down
Speaker 6: Pat Mahomes.
Speaker 5: There's only so much you can do without helping him
Speaker 5: on offense.
Speaker 6: Right, So I look, I look at the d line
Speaker 6: probably for how he wants to be old as team.
Speaker 6: I look at that as probably the most important part.
Speaker 6: Now there's other important parts, but you need some true
Speaker 6: dogs in that interior defensive line and that detackle mode
Speaker 6: right that can that can be a possibly maybe a
Speaker 6: pass rusher or a guy that can fill a gap.
Speaker 6: And you're completely stopping to run right because to me,
Speaker 6: even if you signed Grenard back, say you got garnered
Speaker 6: and will Will Anderson, ju, you're great. What about that
Speaker 6: interior defensive guys. So I think that's gonna be huge,
Speaker 6: and that's gonna make him comfortable as a head coach,
Speaker 6: uncomfortabley a defensive play caller, like, Hey, I'm starting to
Speaker 6: build my defense up from that line on back, right,
Speaker 6: And I think that's honestly, if you look at today's game,
Speaker 6: it's built around the quarterback. So how do you affect
Speaker 6: the quarterback, well, you get pressure on the quarterback. How
Speaker 6: do you get pressure on the quarterback? Your defensive line
Speaker 6: has to be stout. They have to know their role,
Speaker 6: know what's going on now. So I would say d
Speaker 6: line is one, But I also think cornerback is.
Speaker 5: A big one.
Speaker 6: I think cornerback is huge. I think running back is huge.
Speaker 6: Now how do you address those?
Speaker 5: I don't know. It depends what you want to do.
Speaker 6: I think you should make a big splash, but you
Speaker 6: gotta be careful with that splash, as you know, you
Speaker 6: got to be the right fit for what's going on.
Speaker 6: It's interesting like their position now in the where nobody
Speaker 6: wanted to come here in free agency a year ago
Speaker 6: this time last year, ain't nobody trying to come here
Speaker 6: now with Demiko, with CJ, with the season they had.
Speaker 6: You have your choice and you have the money. You
Speaker 6: have your choice to bring in whoever you want. But
Speaker 6: you have to be particular because what Demico and Nick
Speaker 6: are and the McNair's are building, the culture they're having,
Speaker 6: it has to be the right fit. It can just
Speaker 6: be a great talent, it got to be a right
Speaker 6: fit for what this organization and what they're trying to do.
Speaker 6: Otherwise you can mess things up, right, you know how
Speaker 6: you know personally how one toxic guy can just be
Speaker 6: contagious and the wrong way and can ruin the locker room.
Speaker 5: Right. But I would say D line is number one.
Speaker 6: I would say corner and running back maybe two, aay
Speaker 6: and two.
Speaker 7: And to be what's tough about that question, Especially when
Speaker 7: you're as close to the team as we are. People
Speaker 7: take that as a knock. It's not a knock against
Speaker 7: any individual player that's currently a defensive lineman. But that's
Speaker 7: why I love the fact you brought up what San
Speaker 7: Francisco did. It's not about saying, oh, it's the D
Speaker 7: line because those guys aren't aren't playing well. It's more,
Speaker 7: you can never have too many defensive linemen. You can
Speaker 7: never as a guy that you know, most of my
Speaker 7: twelve year career, most of the years I was considered
Speaker 7: a second string player, but a role player because we
Speaker 7: just put different.
Speaker 5: Waves of pass rushers out there.
Speaker 7: So yeah, I don't care how great you're starting for
Speaker 7: or when you talk about defensive line, you could always
Speaker 7: have you know, big studs that are backing up Will
Speaker 7: Anderson backing up Jonathan Grenard. They if they're able to
Speaker 7: bring them, because you need those fresh pass rushers.
Speaker 6: Tell me, oh, you just said it. Tell me how
Speaker 6: important that is? Like, tell me how important? You know
Speaker 6: how hard it? Tell me how hard it is to
Speaker 6: stop when you played right, a fresh pass rusher.
Speaker 5: The tackles, we're not rotating tackles on offense, right.
Speaker 6: You're taking guards and the center on offense. So you
Speaker 6: got one guy coming at you, it's third down. You're
Speaker 6: bringing a whole fresh guy at his job is to
Speaker 6: bring pressure. Please tell us and everybody like, how important?
Speaker 6: How much of a advantage that is?
Speaker 1: No, it's huge.
Speaker 7: So during my years in Philadelphia where we had some
Speaker 7: nice runs, it was almost like tag team wrestling. So
Speaker 7: Hugh Douglas would just go out there and wear out
Speaker 7: an offensive lineman. We're out of offensive lineman. And as
Speaker 7: soon as he taps his helmet, that's saying, hey, nd
Speaker 7: come on, let you know, annou it's your turn.
Speaker 1: And I'm running out there.
Speaker 7: That offensive tackle is like, oh god, dag, here comes
Speaker 7: that crazy Nigerian dude with no technique, but he's one
Speaker 7: hundred percent high motor. After I had to deal with
Speaker 7: Hugh Douglas for thirty plays in a row. So now
Speaker 7: and not only is it importancy, so it's important to
Speaker 7: get guys to accept that role and understand who they
Speaker 7: are and what they are in regards to the pass rush.
Speaker 7: So now it's a it's a beautiful thing when you
Speaker 7: get everybody in place and understanding their role and just
Speaker 7: throwing those fat at those quarterbacks. Then when you look
Speaker 7: at the other side of the ball, here's where I
Speaker 7: get in a lot of disagreements with guys. And it's
Speaker 7: not that I'm knocking the running back position, but I've
Speaker 7: seen so many examples of success at the running back
Speaker 7: position where you didn't have to spend a bowtload of money,
Speaker 7: where you didn't have to use a first round pick.
Speaker 7: I've always been of the belief, if I'm a GM,
Speaker 7: if I'm a decision maker, the onus is on me
Speaker 7: to find production after the third round, like I'm just
Speaker 7: sorry or not signing a big free agent. I just
Speaker 7: feel like nowadays the days of Emma Smith Barry Sanders
Speaker 7: are over. You can use that two three headed monster
Speaker 7: at the running that position. I'm gonna get your take
Speaker 7: on that.
Speaker 6: I can't disagree. I can't disagree because you see signs
Speaker 6: of that everywhere. I think every team has a one
Speaker 6: two bunch or one two three right guys they feel
Speaker 6: comfortable what they can put back there. I watched the
Speaker 6: Ravens this year. God got hurt, they put another guy
Speaker 6: innother guy get hurt, they put.
Speaker 5: Another guy in. It's like, just hey, we're gonna get
Speaker 5: get guys going. But it's hard.
Speaker 6: Hard for me to look at the Texans and say, hey,
Speaker 6: if I can get say Climb Barkley at a decent price,
Speaker 6: that's hard for me to pass up on that. I
Speaker 6: want to keep it Singletary because I think him having
Speaker 6: a career year here and him being the productive way
Speaker 6: that he was, he was perfect for the system.
Speaker 5: It's tough for me because.
Speaker 6: I don't want to give up on Damien either, right
Speaker 6: because I think Damien can get it. It's just he's
Speaker 6: never been in this guy in that type of system.
Speaker 6: He always just downhill. I'm running power. I'm gonna run
Speaker 6: hard as I can through the whole. But it takes
Speaker 6: a little finesse, takes a little patience to learn that. Right,
Speaker 6: Arian was so dangon good because he was so dang
Speaker 6: on patient, he might be the smoothest running back in
Speaker 6: NFL history.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, smoothest, just I mean my dad would saying O. J.
Speaker 6: Simpson the juice and Gail Sayers or Washing Painton. This
Speaker 6: dude Arian was smooth, but he was patient reading the
Speaker 6: defense right. That's not easy to do. So I get
Speaker 6: it to ask your question, Yes, today's in fail. If
Speaker 6: i'm I'm with you, I'm not spending huge money on
Speaker 6: a running back because I think it's you're productive by
Speaker 6: running back by committee. I think that's the most productive
Speaker 6: way in today's game, especially when you have a guy
Speaker 6: like CJ. But it's gonna be hard to pass up
Speaker 6: on a special one in free agency for the right
Speaker 6: price in the same bank for Sinqua r not But
Speaker 6: if he will come for a certain number, I don't
Speaker 6: know what that number is. That probably depends on the GM.
Speaker 6: Right he comes for a certain number, man, you can't
Speaker 6: pass that up.
Speaker 7: The one running back that makes me question my own
Speaker 7: thought process in regards of running backs Christian McCaffrey. Like,
Speaker 7: when I watch Christian McCaffrey, I'm like, you know what
Speaker 7: I break the bank for? It just seems like he
Speaker 7: has a more of an impact than any other running
Speaker 7: back that's currently currently playing. And keep in mind, I'm
Speaker 7: not watching all thirty two teams every single week, but
Speaker 7: when for some reason the five or six games that
Speaker 7: I watched with the forty nine ers, and maybe that
Speaker 7: it was his best games, Christian McCaffrey's at one running
Speaker 7: back where I'm like, man, he truly does have an
Speaker 7: impact on the game.
Speaker 6: He's I would say him. I would even throw Derrick
Speaker 6: Henry in there.
Speaker 7: Today's Derrick Henry or two years ago Derrick Henry.
Speaker 5: Oh, I guess you're right, maybe two years ago Derek.
Speaker 6: Now, I'll tell him. Because McCaffrey can catch, Yes, he
Speaker 6: run routes. You can line him up in the slot,
Speaker 6: you can line him up outside. He can run between
Speaker 6: the tackles. I didn't notice about him until I watched
Speaker 6: him this year. He got some dog in them, like
Speaker 6: he got some he got some like he'll talk trashy,
Speaker 6: he'll get in your face, like he got someone that
Speaker 6: want to in him, which I appreciate, Like I just
Speaker 6: I love to see that.
Speaker 5: But he's probably the best back in the league right now.
Speaker 7: And I feel like I'm missing somebody by saying that.
Speaker 7: And I'll be the first to raise my hand, but
Speaker 7: oh I'm missing someone. But Derrick Henry, Yes, a couple
Speaker 7: of years ago, hands down. But right now, I think
Speaker 7: Christian McCaffrey, just like you said, as as small as
Speaker 7: he is in stature, even though he's very muscular and solid,
Speaker 7: he runs in between the tackles. But then you break
Speaker 7: him out, he lines up a slot receiver and he's
Speaker 7: just as dangerous. So yeah, correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 7: I don't know what running back out there has that
Speaker 7: same kind of impact. If Saquon Barkley can do that
Speaker 7: for the Texans, poof that, that would be a beautiful thing.
Speaker 5: Well, that would be huge.
Speaker 6: But you look at like tag him in with Singletary, Yes,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying. Like, so he doesn't have
Speaker 6: to have three hundred touches or three hundred carries. He
Speaker 6: can have you know, two twenty five or one hundred whatever,
Speaker 6: And Singletary can give you that break as well. So
Speaker 6: you can bring a guy in like say Quon or
Speaker 6: whoever at the right price.
Speaker 5: I think it got to do it.
Speaker 6: But I'm I agree with you. I think it has
Speaker 6: to be a committee type of thing.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: Two my favorites right there in d Klu and Cecul
Speaker 2: Shorts appreciate them for stopping Bigo. Check out Texans OG's podcast.
Speaker 2: There have been some great ones since indy started back
Speaker 2: in the summer. Some really really good stuff from nd
Speaker 2: Kalu and Cecil Shorts coming up next, Sports Rare six
Speaker 2: Tens Sean Pendergat stopped by for a long podcast. Make
Speaker 2: sure it'scheck out vander Meir's View podcast for that one.
Speaker 2: Great stuff with Sean and with this segment coming up,
Speaker 2: Sean talks about the NFL franchise tags, Texans free agency.
Speaker 1: All that kind of stuff with Mark van Mein.
Speaker 2: Next right here on Texans All Access, we are one
Speaker 2: final segment this beautiful Friday it issue of Texans All
Speaker 2: Access from the Honday Texans Radio studio. I'm your host
Speaker 2: John Harris, football analyst, sideline reporter and once the co
Speaker 2: host of One Shawn Pendergast who is now on the
Speaker 2: morning show Painted Pendergast Sean Pendergast on Sports Radio six
Speaker 2: ten Texans pre and post host as pre game of
Speaker 2: Seth Payne his morning show co host and then postgame
Speaker 2: with Clinch Sterner, who you can hear on afternoons with
Speaker 2: run show Hugley The Drive from to six at Sports
Speaker 2: Radio six ten. Now, Shawn and I started our radio
Speaker 2: career together. So this podcast that Seawan did with Mark
Speaker 2: Ghost for like an hour plus, it's great, and it
Speaker 2: talks about Shawn's background, which I know a lot about
Speaker 2: because Shawn and I started and read together two thousand
Speaker 2: and seven, which seventeen years ago, which is wild, but
Speaker 2: seventeen years ago, man, I'm having.
Speaker 1: Trouble with that.
Speaker 2: Anyways, They talked about Shawn's getting into radio, how he
Speaker 2: did all of that. But if you can meet Sean
Speaker 2: peddergass On, you got talk to him aboutootball, you got
Speaker 2: ask him about what's going on with the Texans, get
Speaker 2: his thoughts about free agency and everything happening.
Speaker 1: And Mark Vandimier did exactly that right here.
Speaker 3: Take a listen, all right, joining us Sean Pendergast, co
Speaker 3: host of Painted Pedergas Sports Radio six ' ten, longtime
Speaker 3: sports radio host.
Speaker 4: Sean.
Speaker 1: Welcome, good to be here, Vandy. This here we go.
Speaker 1: I get to be a guest in this studio.
Speaker 3: Yes, you're in the studio a lot, interviewing players postgame,
Speaker 3: talking to Clint Starner, talking about Texans victories. Lately, which
Speaker 3: is awesome after going through some tough time. So this
Speaker 3: year must have been so much fun.
Speaker 1: It was so great. It was funny. This is when
Speaker 1: I knew, like that Clint Clinton and I that the
Speaker 1: last few years had been rough. Clinton. I were literally
Speaker 1: getting on the elevator in our building one day sometime
Speaker 1: between the twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three season,
Speaker 1: and we ran into a lawyer in our building on
Speaker 1: the twentieth floor and we were we were going down
Speaker 1: the elevator together and we got talking. He knew who
Speaker 1: we were, and he knew that we did the postgame
Speaker 1: show for the Texans. And when we got off the
Speaker 1: elevator at the bottom and we kind of went our
Speaker 1: separate ways to go to the parking lot, the guy
Speaker 1: literally said thank you for your service, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, you don't need to be
Speaker 1: thanking us like we're you know, like it's combat pay
Speaker 1: or something. But that was a rough few years, you
Speaker 1: know that as well as anybody. And this has been
Speaker 1: amazing being in this studio talking up the Demico Ryan C. J.
Speaker 1: Stroud Texans has been and really the whole group. It's
Speaker 1: just such a great group of dudes. Man, it's been awesome.
Speaker 1: It could not be any better.
Speaker 3: It feels like, right, that's why I thought, is this
Speaker 3: the team of destiny?
Speaker 4: Is it gonna happen this year?
Speaker 3: As they were going on their late season into the
Speaker 3: playoffs run. Obviously it stopped, but the future is so bright.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's incredible. And then you sprinkling Andre Johnson going
Speaker 1: into the Hall of Fame like the cherry on top
Speaker 1: of just what was a great year, And I think
Speaker 1: a great night at the Super Bowl week, like I
Speaker 1: don't know, like I I my feeling in the moment
Speaker 1: maybe got swept up in it. I thought that was
Speaker 1: the greatest night in Texans history when when Andre goes
Speaker 1: into the Hall of Fame, which is like the closest
Speaker 1: thing we've got to a super Bowl right now that
Speaker 1: the city can celebrate, and CJ and Will kind of
Speaker 1: winning those two awards, but kind of affirming what was
Speaker 1: also a really good night a year before that in
Speaker 1: the draft. I thought that was sort of an epilogue
Speaker 1: to that. Yeah, it's great, right, this is fun and
Speaker 1: we're in free agency and it's fun to be It's
Speaker 1: fun to know that the Texans are a team that
Speaker 1: when they call people, they're gonna be picking up the phone.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a destination for a lot
Speaker 1: of guys.
Speaker 3: I heard what you said about that night, and I thought,
Speaker 3: and you know how I like to weigh in on.
Speaker 1: These You're the history, and I checked with you first.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, I think it's fine.
Speaker 3: But as far as non game day, game night situations,
Speaker 3: it's definitely in the top five, maybe top three, maybe
Speaker 3: top two.
Speaker 1: With the draft.
Speaker 3: Because I think you said it well, it's bookends to
Speaker 3: the magical season of twenty twenty three. Would you look
Speaker 3: at the draft night and then look at that night
Speaker 3: at NFL honors? What could be more validating for you
Speaker 3: picking ZJ. Stroud than moving up investing in that pick
Speaker 3: to select Will Anderson Junior, and bang They're both being
Speaker 3: honored on that night and Onray Johnson's getting into the
Speaker 3: Hall of It would have.
Speaker 1: Been a great night if just one of those two
Speaker 1: things had happened, you know, the two Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year awards being won and Andre being the other, and
Speaker 1: the fact that it happened just all within minutes of
Speaker 1: each other was so cool. I'm still waiting for the
Speaker 1: Internet if they've made this already, let me know. But
Speaker 1: I'm still waiting for the internet to take kind of
Speaker 1: one of those like a like a still shot or
Speaker 1: a short video of Will and CJ hugging backstage at
Speaker 1: the draft, and it sort of like morphing into the
Speaker 1: hug they had, Oh yeah backstage after winning the Rookie
Speaker 1: of the Year award, you know kind of thing.
Speaker 3: Were you bitter or disappointed or what was your reaction
Speaker 3: to Dmico Ryans not getting Coach.
Speaker 1: Of the Year In the moment, I was, I was disappointed.
Speaker 1: I was okay. In the moment, I was surprised. I
Speaker 1: thought Stefanski was going to win it. I was surprised
Speaker 1: it was as close as it was. Okay when I
Speaker 1: saw that it was, and I would have voted for Demiko,
Speaker 1: but I just thought it was a regular season award.
Speaker 1: The votes were all in before that win over Cleveland
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, So as far as I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the closest thing you can get to ahead to head
Speaker 1: matchup for an award is Week sixteen. Two coaches who
Speaker 1: everybody's talking about for that award at the end of
Speaker 1: the year, and we know what happened in that game,
Speaker 1: so I thought Stefanski was gonna win it. But boy,
Speaker 1: when I saw the tweets about it was tied in
Speaker 1: overall points and Stefanski won it on a first place vote.
Speaker 1: In the moment that night, I was like, oh, well
Speaker 1: that stinks. Boy, it would have been really cool. I've
Speaker 1: actually gotten more bitter about it since then. I'm like,
Speaker 1: the more I think about it, I'm like, that would
Speaker 1: have been an amazing night. Caught up in the moment
Speaker 1: of everything good that was going on, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to get disappointed. But now I've had a couple weeks
Speaker 1: to let it synk in, and now I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: Demiko should have gotten that thing.
Speaker 3: My beef with Stefanski is you've won it before. What's
Speaker 3: happened since then? Everyone makes a big deal about four
Speaker 3: quarterback starting games. I know they had the fifth and
Speaker 3: the meaningless game, but the four quarterbacks, and I'm thinking, well,
Speaker 3: you had two last year. Yeah, so he had less
Speaker 3: injuries at that position and a worse record, So what's
Speaker 3: the problem with last year or the year before? But
Speaker 3: I get it. I get how this goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be harder for Demiico to win it.
Speaker 1: In year two, even though he's listed as one of
Speaker 1: the four or five favorites like he's I think he's
Speaker 1: tied for fourth on the board. I check these kind
Speaker 1: of things, as you know, I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: harder for it will be harder for him to win
Speaker 1: it because I went and looked and other than outliers
Speaker 1: like Stefanski winning with four quarterbacks, or like Bruce Arians
Speaker 1: when he was substituting for Chuck Pagano who had cancer,
Speaker 1: like other than, like you know, just strange circumstances. Almost
Speaker 1: by rule, it's either a first year head coach who
Speaker 1: way over achieves, or a longtime head coach or a
Speaker 1: veteran head coach I'll call it, who has one of
Speaker 1: the two or at worst, like three best records in football.
Speaker 1: So Dimiico can win it, But the Texans are gonna
Speaker 1: need to go fourteen and three or something like that.
Speaker 3: I was just gonna say fourteen and three would be
Speaker 3: a record that I would think would be necessary for
Speaker 3: that award. He's put himself at a higher level now
Speaker 3: where the expectations are there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is a great thing for the franchise. I mean, ultimately,
Speaker 1: if he wins zero Coach of the Year awards in
Speaker 1: his career, but we get a couple of Super Bowls.
Speaker 1: Who cares? Who cares if he goes fourteen and three
Speaker 1: against this schedule? Yeah, holy smoke. Wow, Yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a fun schedule man. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well it's funny because twenty eleven was a real breakthrough
Speaker 3: season for them.
Speaker 4: Twenty twelve, that schedule was pretty tough.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as you looked at it laid out there, you
Speaker 3: had the Ravens coming in a lot of similarities Packers.
Speaker 3: I know, they lost to the Packers that year and
Speaker 3: they end up going twelve and four. Right, they were
Speaker 3: eleven and one at one point, as you know. So
Speaker 3: who knows. I don't know how it's all going to
Speaker 3: play out. We don't even know who's on the team yet.
Speaker 3: People are asking me how they're gonna do. I don't
Speaker 3: even know who's on the team. Got over thirty free
Speaker 3: agents you gotta deal with.
Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. The way I look at the upcoming season
Speaker 1: is the level of quarterback play that you're facing is
Speaker 1: much much higher. And to contextualize it, like Burrow and
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson were the two best quarterbacks they face this year.
Speaker 1: Who is the third best like Baker Mayfield, Trevor Lawrence, Flacco.
Speaker 3: Maybe look going into the year, Trevor Lawrence was this
Speaker 3: dangerous rude and we don't look at him the same way,
Speaker 3: but he could possibly have a bounced back.
Speaker 1: And you thought Aaron Rodgers was going to be on
Speaker 1: the schedule, and this and that, right, there were other games.
Speaker 1: Cj finished fifth in the Pro Bowl for the AFC
Speaker 1: was a second alternate, so there were four quarterbacks ahead
Speaker 1: of him for the Pro Bowl. He eventually ended up going.
Speaker 1: This is where I'm going with this. The four quarterbacks
Speaker 1: that were ahead of him are all on the schedule
Speaker 1: this year. So you're talking about the third best quarterback
Speaker 1: of the entire schedule this past season being maybe Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield or Trevor Lawrence. They play Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: two a Tongue Ba Looa and Josh Allen. You can
Speaker 1: feel however you want about two or whatever. But he's
Speaker 1: in that mix. And then then Rodgers Lawrence twice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then go over the NFC. You know you got
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott on there, you got Jared Goff, Jordan Love
Speaker 1: had a nice second half to the season. That game's
Speaker 1: in Green.
Speaker 3: Bay very tough. Yeah yeah, dak in the regular season
Speaker 3: is tough.
Speaker 4: We all know that.
Speaker 1: So do Are you hoping for Thanksgiving?
Speaker 3: I am, but I'll be okay either way.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: I think that everybody who plays Dallas or who has
Speaker 3: Dallas on the schedule thinks they're gonna play on thanks tonight.
Speaker 4: We're gonna be there for Thanksgiving. It's gonna happened.
Speaker 3: I love that the Oilers were there during one of
Speaker 3: their AFC Championship game seasons and they beat them. I'd
Speaker 3: love to be able to do that on a Thanksgiving Day.
Speaker 3: That'd be phenomenal. So I know you feel the same
Speaker 3: way you.
Speaker 2: Have thought about this whole Thanksgiving Day thing.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2: Every team that has the Cowboys as a road team
Speaker 2: always feels like they're gonna get Thanksgiving game.
Speaker 1: It would be a great Thanksgiving game.
Speaker 2: I know that, But I don't know either way. I
Speaker 2: just want to go up there and beat them. Beat them.
Speaker 2: Went up there in fourteen, couldn't do it, went up
Speaker 2: there in twenty two, couldn't do it. Twenty four has
Speaker 2: gotta be the year that we go up to Dallas
Speaker 2: and beat the cowboys up there.
Speaker 1: That will be a fun trip.
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, it was a fun trip with Sean and with
Speaker 2: Mark of course with all of you guys. A big
Speaker 2: thanks to Indian Cecil. We'll see you guys on Monday
Speaker 2: as we get ready to go to the I'm buying
Speaker 2: see that everybody does. Always go Texans m