00:00Nick Casario was on Texans All-Access this week, as he is every week,
00:04and they asked him about, hey, as you're playing these teams,
00:08as you're going through the second half of the season here,
00:11are you stacking a board for free agency the way that you stack your board
00:15scouting college prospects?
00:18We know going into our game, whoever the next opponent is,
00:22going to our database, we have a color-coding system,
00:24so you know, okay, this player's under contract,
00:26this player's going to be an unrestricted free agent,
00:28this player's going to be a restricted free agent.
00:30You have a player, maybe he has a salary that may not be commensurate with a role,
00:35so potentially after the season, there's a player that potentially could be released,
00:38so that's definitely a list that we're starting to populate,
00:41and we're starting to kind of prepare and transition,
00:43so once the season is over, we can go through the free agent process
00:47and the free agent meeting and stack the board, essentially, like we do for the draft.
00:50Okay, that makes sense, and I think you could tell from the beginning of that answer
00:54that it was kind of the framing of the question was within the context of, like,
00:58who you're playing this weekend.
01:00Like, they go into the game this weekend, and obviously they're scouting the Titans
01:02to beat the Titans on the field, but Nick and his staff are also looking at these guys
01:07on the Titans potentially with all their color-coding and whatnot.
01:12Hey, our program, you know, could they come over and play for us next year?
01:16Yeah.
01:17So that's not a big surprise there, but I play that as a prelude to ESPN yesterday,
01:22Seth, putting out their top, early top 25 ranking and predictions for free agency.
01:29Yeah.
01:30And would you like to see the Texans spend on the offensive line as a solution this upcoming season?
01:36I would, yes.
01:37I think that what they did this last offseason in terms of signing a bunch of journeyman-type dudes
01:41was a good supplementary plan, and you can get a guy like Ed Ingram or what have you.
01:48The danger is, okay, you spend big money, and sometimes it doesn't work out.
01:52Right, but sometimes it does work out, and your chances of it working out are a lot higher
01:57than taking a center who's played 70 snaps in his career as a former fourth-round pick of the Patriots
02:05and is discarded by the Patriots.
02:07Right.
02:07Yeah, but what the hell does Mike Vrabel know anyway?
02:10Yeah.
02:10What does that guy know?
02:11Yeah, he's only 8-2.
02:12Barely a good chunk.
02:14They're doing all right up there.
02:15He's only 8-2 this year, yeah.
02:16Yeah, so look, the bargain basement shopping, there's value in that,
02:21but what happens is if you have a free agency pickup or two or a trade
02:27and you have some of those journeyman guys that can compete,
02:30then all of a sudden you've got a nice, strong, healthy, with-depth offensive line,
02:36and they don't have that right now.
02:37Yep, yep.
02:38So I'm not going to go through all 25 names because some of them aren't relevant to the Texans.
02:43Some of them are.
02:43Well, it's interesting that some of the guys you picked out, I would say, hell no,
02:47and then you ignored some of the guys that I thought were interested.
02:49Well, just to be clear on my list, you're interested in not shopping for the Texans necessarily.
02:55I think you missed a couple guys that our audience would be interested in.
02:58Right, right, right.
02:59No, I'm sure I have.
03:00I'm sure I have.
03:01Okay, so the very top of the list is Trey Hendrickson.
03:04They're not shopping there.
03:05Number two on the list is Tyler Linderbaum from Baltimore, a center who they could have drafted a few years ago.
03:11I think he gets franchised or extended, except that Tyler Linderbaum did not get his fifth-year option exercised by the Rams.
03:18Well, there's an issue with centers, and it's that for purposes of the fifth-year option and the franchise tag,
03:25they don't break it.
03:26It's just offensive linemen.
03:28It's not.
03:28So the tackles, so you're having to pay your center a tackles wage.
03:32If with the fifth-year option.
03:33With the fifth-year and the franchise tag.
03:35So that's the issue.
03:36I said franchise tag.
03:37I think they probably come to an agreement with him just because of the DNA of the Ravens and how they operate.
03:42Linderbaum seems like the classic guy that, oh, no, we need to have him around.
03:46But they're in a position, because of some of those extensions they've made on guys like that, that it's a lot tougher for them.
03:53They've paid their quarterback, and they've got other high-paid guys on their team right now.
04:00Would you pay Tyler Linderbaum $20 million a year to be the center for the Houston Texans?
04:04Would I pay him $20 million a year?
04:06Yes, I would.
04:07Yeah.
04:08I mean, I would.
04:09Because then, look, I feel good about Titus Howard.
04:11I feel really good about Ariante Ursary.
04:14Ed Ingram, I think that'll be an interesting...
04:17He's a free agent after this year, too.
04:19Yeah, but I don't think he's going to command top dollar or anything, but I think he definitely serves a nice role for the Texans.
04:25And then you've just got to figure out your left guard.
04:28I'd feel good about that.
04:29Yep.
04:29It would be outside of the building on the offensive line, but I think it would get me excited.
04:36They shopped huge on the defensive side of the ball.
04:39You know?
04:39They spent a lot of money on Daniil Hunter.
04:42They did.
04:42They've spent a lot of draft picks on the defensive side of the ball.
04:46They've whiffed on a lot of second round and later draft picks at offensive line until this year.
04:52I think Ariante and Ursary, they may have hit it out of the park.
04:54Yep.
04:55But that frees you up in the draft, especially if you have your center taken care of.
04:59Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce I just put on the list because they're Colts, and the Colts are going to have some things they need to take care of, including quarterback, after the season.
05:09So that's good news, I think, if you're a Texan fan, is that one of two things is going to happen.
05:13Either Daniel Jones is going to flame out the last part of the year, or he's going to make themselves so pricey that the Colts are going to have some serious decisions to make across their roster.
05:22Do you think Daniel Jones gets a $55 million a year contract?
05:25If he ends up going deep in the playoffs, I do.
05:28Yeah.
05:28I do.
05:29I think he, I think, maybe 55?
05:31I mean, Trevor Lawrence got 55.
05:33Brock Purdy got 53.
05:34Yeah, you know, like Kyler Murray got.
05:37What was the second guy you said?
05:38Brock Purdy.
05:39Oh, yeah.
05:3953.
05:40Kyler Murray got 50-plus.
05:42So, I mean, is he better than, is he better than those guys?
05:44He's going to get at least Brock Purdy's contract.
05:46Because Brock Purdy wasn't the, it was, it wasn't as good as some of the top-tier quarterback feels, right, in terms of length and everything.
05:55Right.
05:55It kind of made some accommodations in there.
05:57I think it's something like that.
05:58Yep.
05:59Brees Hall, would you shop at the top of the market for a running back if you're the Texans?
06:03This is where it gets dicey, because you've already spent, you're already going to be spending a lot of money for Joe Mixon.
06:14And, so that would be cutting Joe Mixon and paying Brees Hall.
06:20I would.
06:21I think the pendulum has swung back the other way with running backs where teams are starting to realize, all right, it's not like they're worth nothing.
06:28And it's still dicey, it's still dicey with the health of any running back on his second contract.
06:35But, man, when it works out, it works out great.
06:37Sometimes you win a Super Bowl.
06:38Yep.
06:39I want to make sure we get the two names you added to the list, because they're both at the same position.
06:43And they are, especially the second one, are guys that I thought about adding to this list.
06:47I just don't know that defensive tackle is a position that they're going to spend big in.
06:51But you have Travis Jones and John Franklin Myers on here.
06:54I think having a huge difference maker at defensive tackle is something that D'Amico is going to remain intrigued by.
07:03I mean, they've spent pretty heavily, if you look at the sum total of the defensive tackles that they have and use, and they rotate them a lot.
07:11But I think if they had a guy that they like just sticking in there for 50 plays a game and who's an actual big physical presence, I think that D'Amico is still going to be intrigued by that.
07:22The thing about Travis Jones is he's like 340 pounds.
07:25And any time I bring that up, people say, well, D'Amico doesn't like big defensive tackles.
07:28We don't know that.
07:30He's tweaked his scheme a little bit to make up for some of the run defense issues at times.
07:38And I think there's some of the tweaking of his scheme that he's had to do.
07:42We've seen this over and over again with defenses that run an aggressive attacking style on the defensive line.
07:50At some point, they say, big-ass dude in there.
07:55And trying to tweak everything, get one big, huge guy in the middle, and then everybody else can play super aggressively.
08:02And I could see D'Amico wanting to do that.
08:03You definitely see him wanting it.
08:04I need to know what the price tag is.
08:06I mean, obviously, price tag matters for all of these guys.
08:09So that is interesting.
08:11I put Mike Evans on here, not because I want the Texans to sign him,
08:14just because it feels like it was a week ago that we were debating whether or not the Texans should sign Mike Evans.
08:20That two years went by fast.
08:22Yeah.
08:22I just put it there just because.
08:24Yeah, no, no.
08:24I think they've done – Jaden Higgins and Jalen Knoll have shown enough now,
08:28and you already have Nico Collins in the fold, but I think the appetite for a wide receiver right now.
08:33Going back to the draft, by far, the fan sentiment was give us an offensive lineman, give us a wide receiver.
08:41And some people wanted a wide receiver more.
08:43Some people wanted an offensive lineman more.
08:45But those were the two that were by far the biggest on the wish list.
08:49Yeah.
08:49And as much as the Texans tried to claim that they wouldn't worry too much about which position they draft,
08:55lo and behold, they draft a wide receiver, an offensive lineman, and a wide receiver first in the draft.
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