- 6 weeks ago
Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast kick off Friday's show by breaking down their biggest takeaways from the Texans' joint practice session.
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00:00Joint practice, training camp, joint practice, takeaways.
00:03So this is the thing.
00:04It's like watching a joint practice and trying to take in everything.
00:11It's the old what I say to you, Sean, all the time.
00:13Try to watch everything, you end up watching nothing at all.
00:15Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:16The starting defense and the starting offense are both out in the field at the same time.
00:20Yep.
00:20And it's almost like watching two movies at the same time.
00:23It is.
00:24And then immediately after being like, here's how everything went.
00:26We're like, why did Michael Corleone do that?
00:28I don't know.
00:31It's because it had something to do with that.
00:34Is he watching a few good men while watching The Godfather?
00:37So afterwards, I tried to, you know, a lot of good people, both fans and the media,
00:42do a really good job of documenting the drives and everything.
00:44And I kind of use that as my notes.
00:46But it's interesting because depending on when somebody might have checked in on social media yesterday,
00:51there were a lot of people who thought it went really poorly for the offense.
00:54Because early in practice, C.J. Stroud had gotten frustrated here.
00:57He'd thrown an interception there.
00:59If you had checked in at a different time, you see that C.J. Stroud was like 75% completion, five touchdowns, one interception.
01:08It was a brilliant day for the offense.
01:09That's the trouble with these joint practices or any scrimmage at all where there's no score kept.
01:14You just, if you want to, you can look at it through any lens that you want to look at.
01:18I did see some very promising things out of the offense in terms of pass protection.
01:23Still a work in progress with the offensive line in terms of the run.
01:28I guess I'll say all 11 because all 11 people are involved in the run game.
01:32But the run game didn't look as good as the pass game.
01:36But I think for what's the raw nerve for all of us, the pass protection.
01:40Oh, for sure.
01:42The run game's related to the pass protection.
01:43But still, we just don't want to see C.J. lose a kidney at this young age.
01:47I'm just, right, right.
01:48I don't need C.J. on dialysis to get ready for a game.
01:51At age 24, yeah.
01:52Happy birthday, C.J.
01:53Here's your new dialysis machine.
01:55It's so funny you bring up the run game because one of the, I'm just thinking, you're right.
02:00You dip in on social media and it's schizophrenic.
02:03Like it's either the worst practice ever or the best practice ever.
02:05And there was one, there was one video some fan took.
02:10There, that Nick Chubb looked like he had a little bit of wiggle.
02:13And then they kind of stopped.
02:15And then he just keeps going.
02:16And they're like, Nick Chubb, going to have a big comeback season.
02:20I thought I saw that Nick Chubb wasn't as explosive as he used to be.
02:24But look at him here running for a long distance, but clearly not as explosive as he used to be.
02:29Right, right.
02:30Okay, so for the benefit, the benefit of people who A, are up at 6.04 a.m.
02:35and B, got all their opinions on the practice yesterday, all these divergent opinions on social media.
02:40But what is the Seth C. Payne summary report card for joint practice yesterday?
02:45And again, yes, and a lot of this was me looking at some of the people that I like.
02:49Respect.
02:50Some of the fans that are in the stands, and I won't name any of them because I'll forget.
02:54If you follow my social media feed, I retweet these guys.
02:56I try to.
02:56You combine it all together, and we had a better view of the defense than the fans did.
03:04So, because the defense, the Texans defense was working on the middle field there where
03:09the Texans offense was working closer to the fans.
03:11Well, and some of the fans had a better view of the offense.
03:12Right.
03:13Oh, yeah.
03:13Because the players made a wall there.
03:16Oh, 100%.
03:17So, even the one Nico Collins touchdown, I got a really good shot because of somebody
03:23who, oh, it was the Texans video, but the pass protection was great.
03:28Yep.
03:28And there were times where the pass protection was really good.
03:31I know the exact play you're talking about.
03:32I'm like, it gets to like two seconds with CJ back there.
03:36I'm like, something's going to happen.
03:37I'm like, I've been so conditioned in this camp.
03:39I'm like, I've been so conditioned in this camp for him not to be able to just stand
03:43back there and survey the field that you're right.
03:45It was really good on that play.
03:46You know what?
03:47You know what I went to, too, is the Panthers, two fans, not the most vicious of fan bases
03:54between the Panthers and the Texans.
03:55They're not out talking smack about the other team all over the place.
03:59So, I thought it was some pretty even-handed analysis from the fans of both the Panthers
04:02and the Texans.
04:05Panthers fans, many of them were distraught that they couldn't get a pass rush.
04:09going versus this offensive line, this Texans' offensive line.
04:12So, I like that.
04:13I like that.
04:14Same time, I say, well, they had good pass protection, but it's that Panthers' defensive
04:18line.
04:19Yeah, yeah.
04:19You know, it's a Friday.
04:20I choose to look last half full.
04:21Right, right, right, right.
04:23Okay, my 35,000-foot view of things.
04:26Will Anderson was very critical of the defense and himself because they made a lot of mistakes
04:31in terms of jumping off sides, penalties, some things that hurt them just from a let's
04:37clean this up standpoint.
04:39They allowed some big passes, though, too.
04:41Some of them were, I'll be honest, really nice throws by Bryce Young.
04:46Bryce Young, it was very much a reminder for me.
04:49Oh, yeah.
04:50Okay, when a 123-pound, 5'2 quarterback gets drafted, the Gymkata quarterback gets drafted
04:57number one overall.
04:58There's a reason for it.
04:59He does.
05:01When he throws with anticipation, when he has time to throw, when he has Ted McMillan
05:05the rookie to throw to, he made some beautiful.
05:07So some of the deep shots were contested.
05:10Beat Stingley on the deep shots.
05:12Some of them, but the Stingley one wasn't as contested, at least from what I could see.
05:16It was more just he had a good angle on it.
05:18There might have been a safety.
05:19That's the other one, though, too.
05:21Anytime, if Stingley's getting beat on a crosser, there's a good chance that maybe a safety
05:25was supposed to be in support.
05:27No doubt.
05:27So without seeing the all-22, I don't have defense yesterday with some of those things
05:33where the deep shots, or even some of the smaller completions, but where receivers or
05:39tight ends were wide open.
05:41So that's where I start to worry, was it a linebacker?
05:43Was it a safety?
05:44Safety is a very sensitive topic right now for the Texans.
05:48That's my one area of concern, is that the defense is always going to make huge plays,
05:52but just like last year, they undid some of the great things they did with big plays allowed.
05:58All in all, though, I'm not concerned at all about the defense.
06:01I came away more impressed with Bryce Young than anything else.
06:04Now, if Bryce Young had to go through a whole game of tackle football, and he had the likes
06:08of Daniil Hunter and Will Anderson and so forth hitting them, that's where the size becomes
06:14an issue.
06:14That is the thing.
06:15If I'm a Panthers fan, I'm feeling optimistic, way more optimistic now than I did this time
06:21a year ago about Bryce Young.
06:23More optimistic than I did in November last year about Bryce Young.
06:26He put together a nice last six weeks or so of the season.
06:30That's the problem.
06:31To your point, 5'2", 123, exaggeration alert.
06:35But the small quarterback, he can look awesome in training camp.
06:38It's always going to be lurking around the corner, that size thing.
06:41It's always, always going to be, he can be amazing.
06:45He's never not going to be 5'9".
06:47And including, too, look, size for a long time, height for quarterbacks was overrated
06:53in a lot of respects.
06:55It is still a factor, and shorter quarterbacks will tell you that.
06:59Tall quarterbacks are throwing blind a good percentage of the time.
07:02Shorter quarterbacks are throwing blind a lot.
07:05Yeah.
07:05Brock Purdy's not even that short.
07:07He's maybe 6'1".
07:08But he's had about 60% of the target when he's throwing it.
07:12The size just looks so tiny out there.
07:14So when you get into game situations and a pocket is, even if there's no sacks, but the
07:18pocket is compressed and collapsing, that's where it gets interesting.
07:21But I was impressed with Bryce Young yesterday.
07:23On the offensive side of the ball, I thought the Panthers' defense, without J.C. Horn out
07:27there, did a good job of limiting the deep shots by the Texans.
07:30But that's what we saw last year.
07:33You know, teams are going to try to take away the deep ball.
07:35Can you take advantage of everything else in the shorter and intermediate game, and then
07:41in the run game?
07:42I thought the Texans, C.J. Stroud in the ones, did a good job with the short passing game,
07:47with the intermediate passing game.
07:49If you don't get a deep ball, you don't get a deep ball.
07:51Sometimes that's the way it goes.
07:53But you also, if that's the game that teams are going to play, I want to see a run game.
07:57And I didn't, I keep inhaling my, I was listening to Will Anderson audio before we came on, and
08:05I think that's why I'm trying to keep pace with his.
08:07Just go at your own pace.
08:08So, Sean, the run game, it is better in some regards in that you don't see as many unblocked,
08:16penetrating defensive linemen into the backfield.
08:18At the same time, though, I didn't really see a dominant push all that often.
08:25And you combine that with the fact that, you know, I don't know what Nick Chubb is.
08:29I don't know if we really will know what Nick Chubb is until we see him playing tackle football.
08:33Damian Pierce isn't practicing.
08:34Damian Pierce is out there in slides and a backpack.
08:36Yeah.
08:37He looked like Bryce Young did last year when he showed up to camp with that big oversized backpack.
08:41Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:42I thought Damian Pierce was some college kid out observing or something.
08:45Yeah.
08:45Yeah.
08:45And Christian Harris, too, didn't practice yesterday.
08:48So, they really need Joe better versus this Texans offensive line than he did last year.
08:55And he did pretty well last year, but a lot of it was self-made or self-created.
08:59I do think there have been some improvements, but you also just, you don't have a genuine
09:04tier one starter out there running back right now.
09:07Text message early on here.
09:09Seth, I know we aren't supposed to get too high off of anything we see at camp.
09:11Is there anything you are currently low on?
09:13Are you waiting for the game tomorrow to make any judgments on the bat?
09:17What was bad that you saw?
09:18I feel like I went over the things that were bad, or at least that are still a concern.
09:22And a lot of them are the things that we've been talking about this all off season.
09:25The defense to be genuinely elite needs to eliminate some of these deep shots and some
09:30of these big plays they're allowing in the run in the pass game.
09:32And we saw that bubble up a little bit yesterday.
09:34Offensively, the offensive line has been a huge talking point, but you got to include
09:42the tight ends and the running backs when it comes to pass protection or run blocking.
09:46You have to include the wide receivers as well.
09:49I think they've made improvements in the run game, but it's not there yet.
09:52Part of that is I just want Joe Mixon out there.
09:55They've made a lot of improvement in the quick game, I think.
09:59So last year, the first five games, Bobby Slowik almost just seemed aghast that teams would
10:05play so much, you know, too deep, take the top off the defense type of conservative defense
10:13and didn't know what to do with it.
10:14I think Nick Haley understands the assignment and wants to attack all areas of the field.
10:20I think they've shown progress there.
10:21I think that Woody Marks in pass protection has been kind of a revelation that for a rookie
10:28running back field, especially if he's a pass-catching running back is, all right,
10:35if you got Woody Marks in the backfield and he doesn't know what he's doing in pass protection,
10:40then teams are going to blitz the heck out of you and it lets them know a little bit more
10:46of what you can and cannot do.
10:47If you've got a running back back there who's actually good in pass protection,
10:51then, all right, is he going to stay in and block?
10:53Are they going to release him right away?
10:55It adds an extra wrinkle that makes it a lot more difficult for the defense.
11:00I'm optimistic about him.
11:01He's a smart rookie, I think.
11:03The running backs in general had a good game doing that on Saturday against the Vikings.
11:07They were good.
11:08Like, if that's just one little kind of under-the-radar wrinkle they shore up, that's a big deal.
11:12Yeah, and I would say again, with the offensive line, I turned and I said to Paul Gallant,
11:17and I wasn't joking, but he laughed because it actually, it's a funny joke, except I pathetically
11:24meant it, which is they had a meager run.
11:27They got like two yards, you know, no tackle.
11:30Who knows?
11:30Maybe it would have been three or something.
11:31I said, yeah.
11:32I was like, well, it's second and eight instead of second and 12.
11:35Hell yeah.
11:36That's something.
11:37Last year it would have been second and 12.
11:38That's a factual thing.
11:39Second and 12 or cause fumble or something.
11:41So that, without playing full tackle football, et cetera, et cetera, they're just a cleaner
11:47operation on offense.
11:49It's a cleaner operation on the offensive line than it was last year, and it's going to take
11:53some time to develop these things, but it is, it's a work in progress still.
11:58The good news is you have a defense that gives you, should allow you some time to, you
12:02know, get your sea legs early in the season if you're the offense.
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