00:00So, it's regular season mode, which means, oh, so-and-so's running with it.
00:04We can't really do that anymore.
00:05Yeah, I know that there's a lot of people that were saluting Sam Warren of the Houston Chronicle
00:08for giving you play-by-play what's happening.
00:10You will not see that today, unfortunately.
00:13So, with that being the case, let's kind of start doing our training camp wrap-up looks.
00:19And maybe we look at this through this lens.
00:22Who has changed their opinion or your opinion of them the most thus far through training camp?
00:287-1-3-5-7-2-4-6-10.
00:30Yeah, there's a few.
00:31You know, from the start of training camp, what I thought, and this person or this thing
00:36changed my mind the most.
00:37Top of the list, I don't even think it's close.
00:40You might.
00:41Xavier Hutchinson.
00:42Xavier Hutchinson, when we started camp, I thought, hell, maybe he's on the bubble.
00:47You know, maybe this guy's not going to be a Texan this year.
00:50At best, I thought of him as a depth piece, does a little special teams.
00:54You know, they brought in Christian Kirk, drafted two receivers.
01:00I was like, Xavier Hutchinson, ooh boy, he's a starter, dude.
01:04Not only that, like, and this is probably a little unfair to characterize it as this,
01:08so I'll try and be delicate with the way that I put this.
01:10We were kind of looking at him as almost standing next to John Mechie, depth-wise, going into
01:16training camp.
01:17Now, that might have been more about us and less about them, because the Texans have been
01:20very clear about loving Xavier Hutchinson, what he brings to this team, but still, we
01:25probably looked at that as a little bit closer to that range.
01:27I definitely did not anticipate being in this place where I go, he's kind of a starter.
01:32And versatile.
01:33You know, they're using him in different ways.
01:36So, Xavier Hutchinson, to me, is at the top of the list, no question about it.
01:40He's definitely one of those.
01:41Another one to me, and I'm wondering what you were thinking at the beginning versus today,
01:46Titus Howard as a guard.
01:49Yeah, and that one feels more circumstantial than anything, because I think the Cam Robinson
01:54injury happens, and then also Blake Fisher maybe not standing up in the way that we
02:00wanted to see.
02:00It seems like there might still be some openings for him to maybe do some level of convincing.
02:04I don't know.
02:05Especially after he had a, Blake Fisher, that is, had a good game versus the Panthers.
02:10But, yeah, we were kind of thinking of, and it seemed very clear that Titus Howard was
02:14going to be a guard.
02:14Again, we had all of the thankful kind of tones from the coaches about, hey, we appreciate
02:21him sliding in and being willing to do whatever.
02:23And lo and behold, he's back out here right tackle, which I actually don't even know how
02:27I feel about this, because last year, Titus Howard at right tackle was one of the things
02:31that we looked at that we were like, damn, this is not sufficient.
02:34Now, of course, the upcycle in the offensive line has been less about the talent, I think,
02:39and more about the schematics and the actual fundamentals and the properties of what this
02:47offense is going to bring to an offensive line and techniques.
02:50So maybe that is ultimately what changed the dynamics here.
02:53But I think if you took a poll of the Texans fan base, you would find that Titus Howard playing
02:59at tackle is ultimately something that people feel good about in a way that they almost
03:03100, 180 degrees felt differently about probably nine months ago.
03:09Yeah.
03:09No, no, no question about it.
03:10Now, not all of them are necessarily a good thing, what you thought at the start of camp
03:15versus what you think today.
03:16Okay, where are you going here?
03:16Well, because at the start of the camp, I was like, I'm quite sure I said these words.
03:21Christian Harris is going to be fine.
03:23He's going to be fine.
03:24He's going to step in.
03:25I think they have confidence in him.
03:27He'll be back, et cetera.
03:28And now?
03:29That's changed for you?
03:30A little bit.
03:31I'm not sure.
03:32I think he's in that same place.
03:33And now, also, part of what does this is, I don't know if you saw this, the Texans put
03:37out yet another death chart.
03:39And, of course, take it with a grain of salt.
03:41D'Amico says that he didn't put this out.
03:43But I think that that is like a slight, I don't want to call it a lie, but it's a slight
03:48misgiving on what happens here.
03:49I do think that there is some level of communication, but I don't think that it's a full accounting
03:53of how they feel about everything.
03:55However, with all that being said, Christian Harris still slides in as that second team
04:01linebacker where EJ Speed is behind him.
04:04And now what makes it interesting is Jake Hansen is on that second line next to Christian Harris.
04:08So I don't know what that means about Jake Hansen or whatever.
04:11But ultimately, Christian Harris, he's not been able to get out there a ton.
04:15But that's why.
04:15But I still think that, again, he is the type of guy that we know what his caliber is.
04:19And when he is out there, they will believe and they will trust in him.
04:22And he just recently has gotten back out.
04:23And we were talking Pro Bowl with him, you know, and now, you know, that's where he is.
04:29Here's another one.
04:29Oh, so like, so your thought change is not that he would be on the team and be factoring
04:34in.
04:34You thought that he would use Henry Toto.
04:36Yeah.
04:36Be what he was in the postseason that one year.
04:40And here's another one.
04:42At the beginning of the camp, I'm like, man, this team is really deep at safety.
04:46Really deep at safety.
04:48Well, Jimmy Ward happened.
04:50Yeah.
04:50CJ Gardner Johnson happened.
04:52And now, you know, you're, you know, you're sort of wondering, you know, who's who on the
04:57depth chart at the safety position.
05:00Yeah.
05:00I think that's a fair point.
05:01We've seen Jayla Petrie get some reps yesterday at safety.
05:05Just kind of, I imagine, to give some additional coverage.
05:08Yeah.
05:09I don't know how much that shifts for me.
05:12It really is.
05:13And it's the Jimmy Ward thing that shifts it.
05:14It seems like CJ Gardner Johnson is already working his way back.
05:18But I think part of what, not to put words in your mouth, but if I'm assuming what you're
05:22kind of thinking correctly, the idea of even if he's willing to go or ready to go week one,
05:27CJ Gardner Johnson, there's still the thought in your mind, what happens if a re-aggravation
05:31happens, right?
05:32Playing the car crash sport on whatever happens with that knee.
05:34Absolutely.
05:35That is fair.
05:35I think I have found over the last week a little bit more respect for MJ Stewart than
05:40I had previously had, because it feels like they trust him deeply to do all the things.
05:45And by and large, he's kind of stood up in the way that you wanted.
05:48But yeah, I very much felt stronger about when you had Jimmy Ward and you felt comfortable
05:53with him playing all of those roles.
05:55Also, even just being the backup for Jayla Petrie as well in that nickel role.
06:01Because now that is a Miles Bryant that's probably the next man up that feels, it feels like
06:05a half step down from Jimmy Ward.
06:07So I do think that that's fair, but it probably all hinges on Jimmy Ward.
06:10I don't know that I've swung a ton, but I think that I have definitely, I'm with you.
06:14I've moved a little bit here.
06:15All right.
06:15Tell me what you think about these last couple that I have from the start of training camp
06:19to today.
06:19I, and this isn't necessarily, maybe it's good and bad, maybe it's neither.
06:24I thought Jaden Higgins is going to step right in and be that guy at the top of the depth
06:30chart and Jalen Knoll might take a bit of time to develop.
06:34It's kind of role reversal.
06:36To some degree, but I think that funny enough with that supposed role reversal, they kind
06:40of end up in the same place for me, which is obviously you're going to lean on Nico Collins.
06:45He's the best wide receiver on your team.
06:47He's one of the best in the league.
06:48You're going to lean on Christian Kirk, veteran guy that knows exactly how to get to his spots
06:52and seems like he fits very well with what you're doing offensively.
06:55And then it seems like they're going to depend and trust in Xavier Hutchinson.
06:59And then we're going to filter in some Higgins and some Knoll.
07:02So it kind of feels like they're in that same place.
07:03But I think a little more confidence in Knoll.
07:06Well, I found a little bit more confidence in Higgins as well, seeing like some of the routes
07:10that he's run.
07:10And also to be fair, he has not been running as much with the ones as Hutchinson, but he's been
07:15making plays with the twos.
07:16Like him and Davis Mills seem to have a really good connection that I'm sure him and CJ Stroud
07:21could facilitate in that same way.
07:23I just don't think that he's going to be the immediate.
07:25He is the on the other side of Nico Collins and having the huge impact in the way that
07:30I think some people had.
07:31And to be fair, I think there was a number of people that were like, hey, let's probably
07:34be a little bit slow in walking into the idea that he's just going to be Nico Collins
07:38number two on the other side because he's 6'4 as well.
07:41Right.
07:41And here's the last one.
07:42And this is more me.
07:44Maybe you and Figge might have fallen into this category as well.
07:48But at the start of training camp, I've said it on this show, I thought Cade Stover would
07:53develop into more of a complete tight end, would fit much better in this style of offense,
07:58could maybe be an every down tight end.
08:01I don't see it yet.
08:03And that's fair.
08:03But I think that there was people with this team, right, when you heard them talk, you
08:08heard John Harris, who was a very valuable football mind to consider, really rave about
08:13that possibility.
08:14So I understand where that was coming from.
08:15But yeah, it seems like there's still room to develop that.
08:18I think that that's still a possibility as the season continues.
08:21But there's a lot that's happening when it comes to building in this offense and establishing
08:26what they want to do headed into the season.
08:28And yeah, it probably wasn't fair to be like, hey, Cade Stover, with your offseason and then
08:33with this training camp, we expect you to kind of like have taken your, you know, pass
08:38catching thing, you know, dynamic from one place all the way to a whole different level.
08:43Is there anything that you at the beginning camp, you thought, OK, this is what I'm thinking?
08:48I'm sure you agree.
08:49I mean, you agreed with me on some of these, like especially Xavier Hutchinson.
08:51But things have changed.
08:53And by the way, kudos to them.
08:54They came in talking about competition.
08:56You know, everybody's fighting for a job every day.
08:59You stack the days, all that good stuff.
09:02And lo and behold, there has been some competition that has made us look differently at this team.
09:07And that was where I was going to go.
09:08Like offensive line as a whole, I was still holding out belief in the idea that we're just
09:13going to have, you know, all five fingers in a glove.
09:17We're going to have all these guys pulling the same direction.
09:19We're going to find a level early on.
09:20So it seems like there's a possibility that they have that.
09:23Now, of course, again, I've talked about the fact that that's the Panthers' defensive line.
09:27They weren't good at stopping the run.
09:29But the physicality, the nastiness, the things that they professed that they wanted on the
09:32offensive line has shown up in the offensive line early.
09:35So that's good.
09:36But the results continuing to show, especially against higher level teams, I think remains to be seen
09:41or at least remains to be proven, per se.
09:43I think tomorrow will go a good way in kind of giving us a little bit of an idea of that.
09:48So, yeah, that's the part that I'm interested in continuing.
09:51But I honestly did not think that they would have this level of smoothness, especially even
09:56during camp.
09:57There was a number of weeks where we're looking at this offensive line saying, yeah, I don't
10:00think they're going to hit the mark.
10:01And it feels like they're getting a lot closer to hitting the mark that they wanted when they
10:05started making these moves early on in the offseason.
10:08And tomorrow is a big, big day.
10:09To me, the last big day before we go to L.A.
10:13Yeah.
10:13So, yeah, training camp really is starting to wind down.
10:17There's been some big opinion shifts over training camp.
10:19So we'll continue to kind of talk about that.
10:21And as you mentioned, we could have some even bigger shifts depending on how your Texans
10:26show up against the Lions.
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