00:00This is absolutely the deepest team they've had since D'Amico Ryan's got here.
00:03There's no question about that.
00:05Yeah, this is the first time, and a lot of our listeners have echoed that comment,
00:09that this is the most closely they've been watching the back end of the depth chart,
00:13and where it feels like, oh, man, one of these running backs is probably going to get cut,
00:18and it's going to hurt a little bit.
00:20I think people have formed an affection for Jawar Jordan.
00:24How could you not?
00:25He's a small guy that runs like a big guy, or at least tries to.
00:29He goes between the tackles, he's brave, he's flashed in the preseason.
00:33He's looked good.
00:34That's the big thing.
00:35He's flashed.
00:36That's the big thing.
00:36But especially as a smaller guy.
00:38You love the smaller guys that just do everything.
00:40Oh, for sure.
00:40Everything that a smaller guy needs to do, all that.
00:44It looks like he is, but he might just get squeezed out because of numbers.
00:48British Brooks, likewise.
00:49So there's a lot of guys that people really, really like,
00:52and hopefully the Texans can keep on the practice squad,
00:55but who are at risk of being cut in the next 24 hours or so.
00:58Yeah, we'll go through some of those battles here.
01:00I think we'll do it more at 7 o'clock,
01:03and we've got a little bit more room to kind of spread the whole thing out here.
01:06It feels to me, Seth, after doing kind of the chicken scratch math
01:10on the back of a napkin last night,
01:12it feels like there's about six or seven spots that are in a state of flux right now,
01:17kind of fluid, and there's like 14 or 15 guys going for those six or seven spots right now.
01:24We'll lay out all the names and stuff later in the show.
01:26As far as the game on Saturday goes, the end result, you know,
01:31that's not going to impact the Texans nor the Lions one iota during the regular season.
01:35I do think there are a couple of takeaways I had from it, though,
01:37that were encouraging to me that do map more towards big picture stuff.
01:41And first is the depth.
01:43You know, that is your depth out there fighting against another team's depth.
01:46These last two games, the win over the Panthers and the win over the Lions,
01:50look, you won those two games by a combined 46 to 10.
01:53Your backup guys, I don't know if they're more talented than the Lions guys,
01:57but this kind of goes to my second point, which is the way that they've executed.
02:01I don't care if it's been the ones, twos, or threes out there on either side of the ball.
02:05This is at least an indicator of a, on the offensive side especially,
02:09a better coached team than last season.
02:12Yeah, and I think you've already started off taking everything with a grain of salt in the preseason,
02:16but then last week especially because it was the Panthers who were a bad football team last year.
02:21One of the worst defenses, you take that with an extra grain of salt.
02:26This week it's going against the Detroit Lions,
02:28and it sounds like they had a very competitive joint practice on Thursday
02:33when it was ones versus the ones.
02:35But then when you get into the depth,
02:37your team is really taking another good team's depth to the woodshed.
02:44So that's good to see.
02:45And I don't think it's something that we would have seen in the preseason last year necessarily.
02:48I don't know if Graham Mertz, I don't know where the hell that came from.
02:5114 of 16, and the two incompletions might have just been miscommunications
02:55between him and the receiver.
02:58So it was even better than the 14 of 16 might suggest.
03:02He didn't make a bad pass.
03:04He had the miss, the one to Cephas in the end zone
03:07where Cephas tapped his chest on the way back to the huddle.
03:10And I think he just, you know, because the ball was placed right there in bounds
03:14if he had just looked for it earlier and gotten outside.
03:17And then there was the, oh, the one down the sideline.
03:20Likewise, it dropped exactly where the wide receiver could have caught it along the sideline.
03:26So whether it was miscommunication or whatever, I mean, he was, for all intents and purposes,
03:30he basically had a perfect first half.
03:32He did.
03:33Yeah, he was 14 of 16 for 145 yards.
03:35Well, the Cephas one, too, they went right back to it on the other side of the end zone.
03:40Right, yeah.
03:40You know, it's almost like they, it's like, well, let's try it again.
03:43Let's get it right.
03:44And apparently Cephas had a catch like that in the joint practice on Thursday as well.
03:48I don't think he's making the team.
03:49There were a lot of these receivers who aren't going to make the team
03:51who had really good games on Saturday.
03:53That Cornell, um, Cornell Powell, who started off on the TV broadcast.
03:58I felt so bad for Cornell Powell because Tremont Smith had a nice return.
04:01Yeah.
04:03And he was misidentified as Cornell Powell by the broadcasters.
04:08They quickly corrected it.
04:09But I felt bad for Cornell Powell.
04:11I was like, oh, man, the guy gets his name.
04:13You know, they get all excited about him.
04:14His parents might have gotten excited for a pretty moment.
04:16Not even him.
04:17Yeah.
04:17Yeah.
04:17But then he goes off.
04:19Yeah.
04:19He goes off in the game.
04:20Yeah, good for you, Cornell Powell.
04:21Six catches for 63 yards.
04:23Quintez Cephas had four catches for 51 yards and a touchdown.
04:27Now, he did juggle a ball that turned into an interception.
04:30So, that wasn't good for old Cephas.
04:32But none of these guys are making the team.
04:33But some of them make it brought back on the practice squad.
04:36I mean, the guys playing in the second half of that game are campaigning just as much to
04:40get a jersey on the practice squad as the guys in the first half are campaigning to
04:45make the 53 or work their way up the depth chart.
04:48But, you know, there's a lot of fighting going on out there.
04:50Yeah.
04:50And, you know, Cephas has been here before.
04:52But both those guys, I think they – yeah.
04:54One of those guys, at least, might have made himself – gotten himself an insurance policy
04:59if he doesn't get picked up elsewhere.
05:01Because I think the Texans are going to want to keep at least one of those guys.
05:03When you were a rookie, you were drafted in the fourth round.
05:06And did you – on this day, you know, the day or two days after the final preseason game
05:13where they're cutting down the roster, did you think you were making the team?
05:19Yeah.
05:19Yeah, I was pretty sure.
05:20I think a coach had basically told me, don't worry about it.
05:23Yeah.
05:23Okay.
05:23And I'd had a pretty good preseason.
05:25I had – you know, I had – I knew from the offensive lineman that I was probably going
05:31to make the team.
05:31Okay.
05:32Yeah.
05:32Because the next day, the next 24 hours, from everybody you've talked to who've been
05:36on the bubble before, is they're sitting around hoping their phone doesn't ring.
05:40If your phone rings, that's a bad –
05:44Kind of a shock to me was when I started seeing guys from my rookie class get cut.
05:48Yeah.
05:49And just kind of – I showed up at the facility as a couple of them were walking out.
05:53And I, you know, stopped and talked to one of them.
05:56And it was – you've got to remember, for a lot of guys, this is like the first time
05:58in their life they've ever been rejected from a sports team.
06:01That's right.
06:01You go through your entire life, usually being the best – one of the best guys on
06:05every team you've been on.
06:07Yeah.
06:07And all of a sudden, you've got a football team picking you last at recess.
06:13They're not picking you at all.
06:14Not even picking you.
06:15Yeah.
06:16Yeah.
06:16Not even –
06:17They're like, no, I'm going to take the kid that eats his boogers.
06:20You, no.
06:20No, we're not taking you.
06:21And sometimes you don't get picked because you're the new kid and you just moved in.
06:24They don't know what you can do.
06:25This is after watching you for eight jillion snaps through the preseason.
06:29And they're like, yep, we watched you and we still don't want you.
06:32I saw that kid get his shoelaces tied up in the jungle, Jim.
06:35There's no way in hell we're having him on our team.
06:37That's right.
06:38That's right.
06:38Yeah, so it's a shock to the system when you've been rejected for the first time in your life
06:42like that.
06:43And, yeah, I remember seeing one of my – one of the guys in my rookie class kind of – I
06:47could see he had tears in his eyes and everything.
06:49He's just walking out.
06:50Yeah, man.
06:50His dad.
06:51Yeah, a lot of them, it's the last time they –
06:53Buck up.
06:55Get a hold of yourself, man.
06:56Yeah, like the godfather, shaking by his lapels.
06:58You can act like a man.
07:01Gave him the old movie slap.
07:02Yes.
07:03Front and back slap.
07:04With a glove.
07:05You pulled a glove out of your pocket and slapped him in the face.
07:07You're going to pick yourself up off the turf and you're going to get back in there.
07:11He actually ended up doing really well.
07:12That's good.
07:13Financial, financial, yeah.
07:14Oh, not in football, though.
07:15Yeah.
07:16No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
07:18What's your biggest concern still coming out of training camp?
07:24It's in the secondary.
07:25And D'Angelo Ross did not help me feel any better about that.
07:28The D'Angelo Ross –
07:30He won't be here.
07:31Missing an arm tackle on that kickoff return.
07:33That's what started it off for me.
07:35You mean D'Angelo Ross?
07:36Who is that?
07:37Who's on the team for special teams purposes?
07:39Who is that just casually throwing the left arm in the direction of the returner before
07:44he goes another 30 or 40 yards?
07:46Oh.
07:46And then –
07:47Yeah.
07:47Okay, great.
07:48I guess this Tesla has been having a great camp and whatnot.
07:52But I don't know.
07:53Could you put up a fight a little bit?
07:54Yeah.
07:55So, the depth in the secondary right now is a lot of guys who have been the depth in
08:00the secondary in previous seasons when we've thought, I'm not so stoked about depth in
08:04the secondary.
08:05No, no.
08:06MJ Stewart might be starting at safety for you in week one if C.J.
08:09Gardner Johnson doesn't come back.
08:10That's not ideal.
08:12Yeah, like guys like Tremont.
08:14It's not ideal, but it's also MJ – I'm not as concerned about the one safety.
08:20I like C.J.
08:21Gardner Johnson a lot better.
08:22Of course.
08:22They've played good defense out there with MJ Stewart on the field.
08:25Yeah.
08:26The cornerbacks – the cornerbacks are just so crucial.
08:29Yeah.
08:29And right now, I just – I don't feel all warm and fuzzy inside about it.
08:33That Jalen Smith, the third-round rookie, is as vital to the infrastructure of the secondary
08:39right now?
08:40Yeah.
08:40You're right.
08:41Is an indicator – you know, he's been a pro for two months or whatever it is.
08:44And now, like, if Jalen Smith goes down, you drop off a cliff at that slot corner spot.
08:48Well, and that's where, too, if Jalen Petrie goes back and plays safety, then – or
08:54if Miles Bryant goes back and plays safety, then that depth at cornerback is tested even
08:58more.
08:59There's a nuance of the transfer.
08:59I just want to do it.
08:59Sure.
08:59Okay.
08:59Sure.
09:02I mean – thank you.
09:03Well, let me try.
09:03But you just want to do that for me.
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