- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean talk with Texans General Manager Nick Caserio about the Stroud concussion situation, how Davis Mills has been playing, the replay/challenge communication process, Thursday vs the Bills and more.
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00:00good to get a chance to catch up with our friend executive vice president and general manager of
00:05the houston texans nick casario joining us on the show nick we appreciate you making time on a uh
00:10on a short week how you feeling how you doing morning fellas good to be here thanks for having
00:16us i'd be remiss if i didn't say congratulations on your smack off performance so well done my
00:21friend fourth place you so you're okay your fourth place is okay i'm an old guy now nick
00:25see where the standards are well nick here's how i look top five
00:31i mean the competition has has increased since you won your first one back in the day it has and so
00:38has the medium nick and real quick we just we're going to indulge basically me and nick for a couple
00:43of minutes here um so the the as you know they can also do the calls the participants in the gym
00:49rome smack off can also do their calls on zoom now correct and i didn't do it on zoom i was just an
00:54old school pick up the phone guy the three people that finished ahead of me all went on zoom they all
00:59took shots at me too but they all went on zoom i look at it as i'm like the best of the phone i'm
01:04like the intercontinental champion nick i'm like the best of the phone callers right that's a good
01:08way to look yeah the production effect probably carried a little bit more weight for the judges
01:12so but in the end jim makes all the decisions so he can do what he wants frankly uh look uh you're
01:18either a champion or a loser in my book and uh i made sean sean had to sleep on the trampoline out
01:23in the backyard for three nights disgraced our family we'll include you seth in the next call
01:30maybe that'll get him over the edge yes oh yeah we're next week we're on zoom or next year we're
01:35on zoom i just had flashbacks to all my old uh wrestling friends in high school like actual
01:40wrestling yeah psychotic wrestling dads are the scariest dads oh on the power ranking of dads yeah
01:46like literally like one guy made that made his son sleep outside in winter because he lost the
01:51tournament yeah number two smack off dads right behind he's doing great these days
01:56i'm sure hey nick uh always good to talk to you so um so here we are we're five and five heading
02:03into this bills game and i'm curious last year you guys get off to a six and two start this year a
02:08slower start but you've it's been obviously much much better of building between last year going
02:15through the first eight to ten games and this year going through the first eight to ten games
02:18it's interesting that you ask that i would say the overall mentality mindset the energy the philosophy
02:25it's really consistent week to week regardless of what goes on in the previous game i think that's
02:32a credit to domico and the environment that you know he's created we've created here in the program
02:37that we're hoping to continue to build um the players have had a good attitude understanding that
02:43regardless of the outcome in the game we have to come in the following day and just figure out what
02:48are some of the things that we did well what are some of the areas that we can improve and you can't
02:52really you know fix what happened nobody can change the outcome so what can we do moving forward
02:59and i'd say overall we've played pretty good football here the last couple months um say early
03:06part of the year big part of what happened probably a little bit more self-inflicted more than anything else
03:10but in the end you either make the plays or you don't make the plays um and let's say for the most
03:17part here last few months we played better football and the results of you know we still had some
03:22opportunities as well to capitalize and we couldn't quite finish or close it out so the reality is is
03:27it's a week-to-week league and you can you do enough in that particular game to put yourself in a
03:32position to win and regardless of what happens you got to come in the next day but the players have had a
03:38really good approach all year the attitude has been really good it's very workmanlike understanding
03:43that we have to go out there and our execution is the most important thing so we can keep the focus
03:47there focus on the things that we can control and then go out there and execute you know our job is
03:54to do on a week-to-week basis what um what took so long for jarrett patterson to get a crack at it
04:01like the whole dynamic at left guard and just the kind of feels like american idol at left guard over the
04:07last uh first half of the season yeah i would say look the reality is we've had some moving parts
04:12there on the offensive line i think we always felt like we had the answers here internally um nothing's
04:18really linear sometimes things take a little bit longer to get to an end point and i mean sometimes
04:24when you're actually forced into a situation where you got to make some adjustments or whether there's
04:29injuries or whatever else but the reality is is every player that's in the building just has to
04:33repair and when you get an opportunity to take you know when you're put in a position just try to take
04:38advantage of your opportunity i think patterson has done that i think miles bryant is another example of
04:43a player who's been kind of forced into action has really helped us here over the last few weeks so
04:47we always felt good about the people that were in a building we've talked about this numerous times
04:53on this show that whoever is in the building whether you're on the roster on a practice squad at some
04:57point you're going to get your opportunity whatever the rhyme or reason is nobody can really
05:02control that or have a say in that so you know what they in jared's situation he's had a good
05:07approach he's had a good attitude um he's played a little bit more center than guard but he's had
05:11some experience playing um playing guard as well um at least i'm talking about like for for us and
05:17our situation you know back to last year i think we put him in there against indianapolis at left
05:22guard and unfortunately he got hurt so you know we'll see how it goes here we've pretty much had
05:27to play everybody on the offensive line some positions are a little bit more
05:32i would say when he's unhealthy has been a starter right guard jake's andrews has been a starter at
05:39center you know we've kind of had a couple different players that have played over there
05:43um at right tackle so you know we'll just kind of take it one week at a time where we are now but
05:48you know patterson's gone in there and done a good job he's a smart instinctive player um you know
05:54and i'd be lying if i didn't say we put him in there because he went to notre dame so
05:57that's probably he has a feather in his cap as well yeah no so he picks up there is a little bit
06:01of a fancy lad vibe about those guys hey hey no the book stuff is what we're saying he picks up on
06:07the intellectual part really really quickly you know but you know what my old saying sean book
06:11smart equals football stupid that's true you have that say that's true that is a saying he has
06:17something dumbest sobs out there yeah look at his wonderlick yeah doing a whole lot of good with
06:22his ankle to bent backwards hey nick though along those lines because and i know some of it a couple
06:27weeks ago you know titus gets concussed and then it you know creates some degree of maybe not chaos
06:32but churn certainly along the offensive line we're not privy to see the the you know where the work
06:39gets done that decisions get made as to who gets elevated who starts you know things like we can see
06:44in game when it happens but what are the is it as simple as this guy was just having you know the 30 reps
06:49he had were just really really good this week or what else goes into that you know you go through
06:54practice you kind of look at everything you go back and maybe took a take a look at some of the
06:58things that happened during the course of the game but i mean the coaching staff each week they get
07:02together domico gets together with the coordinators and they go through it how do we want to approach
07:05a game does anybody have any thoughts and it's a very i would say organic discussion it's free-flowing
07:11it's fluid and at different points and you know sometimes you can't be afraid to just maybe try
07:18something different it doesn't necessarily mean that the result is going to be different but
07:22maybe there's an impetus for for change and you know if you feel that that's the best thing to do
07:28that particular week then you go ahead and do it i'd say i mean i mean i'm probably biased but i would
07:34argue domico has probably done as good of a job this year in all three years in terms of handling the
07:39team coaching the team understanding that we didn't get off to a great start it just speaks to
07:43you know i'd say how fortunate we are to have him as our head coach and leader of this organization
07:49oh you know what nick uh since we're on that whole part of it with domico and domico said in the press
07:53conference the other day obviously they you know if you could do it over again you wouldn't have
07:57challenged that christian kirk touchdown could you explain because i think uh a lot of people are
08:02confused about just the the technological part of how you decide whether to challenge a play or not
08:10like what what's the process that from what what do the guys in the booth actually see and when do
08:15they have to make a decision yeah there's multiple versions of a play and then the replay and then
08:21there's the what do they show in the stadium what do they show on tv then there's a kind of a new york
08:28sort of feed or monitor of what they're looking for and there's a timing element sometimes it happens
08:35quickly sometimes it takes a little bit longer sometimes you're subject to when they actually
08:41show the replay so some happen in real time some take a little bit longer so i would say the
08:48more pronounced games more national games
08:51games thursday night i mean there's more cameras and technology than you can shake a stick at so you
08:59have every conceivable angle when you get to the one o'clock slot maybe you don't have as many shots
09:05and this goes back to the discussion we've had at spring meetings is how to equip the stadiums
09:10should we have cameras on every goal line like where do you put them there's a cost associated
09:15with it so there's it's kind of case by case but overall big picture there is a feed that goes into
09:23the box and someone's looking at it and depending on how long it takes and if the line of scrimmage what's
09:28going on with the play clock so there's sometimes there's a lot of dynamics and factors that are
09:33involved that you know you're just trying to do things in as timely a fashion as possible but is
09:38it so it's more advanced than it used to be though right where it used to be that you didn't even have
09:42you weren't allowed to have a dvr or anything other than the tv copy very much so seth yes very much so
09:47it definitely has changed and evolved through the years i mean there was times when you didn't really
09:51get a replay and then you'd be subject to what goes up on the big screen and then you're looking at
09:57it and then should we throw it and then it just creates a little bit of unnecessary chaos
10:02nick casario texans executive vice president and general manager joining us here on sports radio
10:07610 nick we're obviously going to talk about davis mills here at some point but i'm curious
10:11when cj went down in that game against denver it really felt like he was starting to get to
10:18another level within this offense here how did you feel cj was coming along in the offense when he went
10:23down in that game yeah he i would say emblematic kind of of our team the more we've played and the
10:31further that we got into the proven you know on an individual level on a team-wide level and it's a
10:39cj was certainly in that category i mean he played probably two of his cleaner games when you go back
10:46and look at the you know the baltimore game and then the san francisco game like he played really good
10:51football really clean football really efficient football made good decisions the ball was out on
10:55time um you know look we didn't play our best against seattle um but we still had an opportunity
11:01in the game but there were moments in that game where we were doing things that were similar to
11:07what you saw in some of these other games so um it's unfortunate that situation happened um but
11:14i mean he's a good player i mean he's been a good player for us certainly again sort of emblematic
11:20of our team like i said a little bit earlier you know we were you know moving forward and
11:25i'd say headed in a positive direction so um whenever he does get back whatever the timeline
11:30is on that so i mean it's going to go back to work and practice and timing and execution um you get
11:36better at football by playing football so the more you can play and the more time you have on task
11:42the better it is for for everybody involved um you know when when you were doing whatever you guys do
11:47up in new england you're you're stuck up in new england before you got here um ryan mallet
11:53superbowls yeah right ryan mallet replaced ryan fitzpatrick one year what was it 2014 here 2014
12:00yeah um and look like ryan fitzpatrick obviously was a better quarterback than ryan mallet but ryan
12:07fitzpatrick in the couple of games that he spent on the sidelines said okay watching ryan
12:12mallet mallet and his offense fitzpatrick learned some things even though he was a veteran but because
12:18mallet had been in the system before similar system before he kind of operated a little bit
12:23differently is there anything that davis mills has been doing in the last couple weeks that's maybe
12:28different or just is guided by more experience that cj could learn from uh it goes both ways sometimes
12:36when you see somebody do something or you're watching a game through a different lens you might be
12:41able to pick something up i mean i can't speak from a player's perspective but i mean part of our
12:46job is when you're watching you're observing and it's just like a player whether it's a off-season
12:52habit or training or program or something that they're doing on the field you might see something
12:58and maybe it resonates and maybe you're able to incorporate it into some of the things that you're
13:02doing and sometimes things illuminate a little bit more than they would otherwise so um again every
13:09situation is going to be a little bit different um i think we're all trying to learn from one another
13:13on a day-to-day basis um that's why it's important when you're in a meeting to have open discourse open
13:19dialogue have constant communication back and forth what are some of the things that you like what you
13:23see there and i think that's kind of when you're from the starting quarterback perspective the value of
13:28the backup quarterback he kind of has a different purview and a different lens and he might be able to
13:33disseminate and articulate information to the quarterback again player to player sometimes is
13:39better than player to coach depending on the situation doesn't mean that the coach doesn't
13:44have importance but it just means that the player might be able to offer um a different lens so to
13:49your point like the whole mallet fitzpatrick dynamic both sides of it um they probably learned
13:56from one another and then when you see somebody do it then you might be able to go back and say okay
14:01maybe have a better understanding of that or oh that makes a little bit more sense now so um yeah i
14:05mean in the end we're all trying to learn from one another and that's a benefit of you know having
14:10good teammates and just trying to help one another because in the end we're all trying to accomplish
14:14the same thing whatever it looks like davis's davis's career arc is interesting nick i was thinking
14:20about this this morning because he was the the most of the time starter back in 2021 2022 he was the
14:27name starter going into the season and then he's still in the building when you guys draft cj so
14:32he's the backup to a rookie and then i think it's really interesting that davis choosing to stay he's
14:38you know he signed not one but two extensions now to stay here as the backup to cj that feels very
14:44unique to me it feels like a lot of guys would want to go try at least go be a backup if not a starter
14:49somewhere else what does it say about davis what does it say about the program that you guys have
14:53yeah i mean hopefully it says you know some decent things about what we're trying to do
14:59and then i would say in davis's experience he had to deal with a certain level of volatility
15:05over the course of his career early on um but by the same token i think over the last call it you
15:12know since domico's been hired you've seen a little bit more hopefully stability within the program
15:17um with what we're doing on the field what we're doing away from the field and every player has to
15:24make the decision that they feel is in their best interest like what relative to what your options
15:30may or may not be sometimes there's someone maybe some players i mean seth can probably speak to this i
15:37mean maybe they cover it maybe a little bit more certainty and understanding and if you believe in the
15:41people and believe in the system and believe in the program then you want to try to to stay involved
15:47as much as possible as long as you do your part um but i think from the the time that davis walked
15:54into the building which again there's i mean not a lot of people were here for that but i was but
16:00i mean we had to deal with a number of things it's no mystery but i'd say davis has always handled
16:05himself very professionally he's a smart kid he works very hard he's improved he has a vast
16:11amount of experience sort of across systems it's interesting i happen to be watching the
16:16philadelphia game the other night and they put on the screen the number of different offensive
16:21coordinators that jalen hurts has had going back to alabama and oklahoma to where he is now and
16:27essentially it was a different person every year i mean that's a lot for any player to handle so
16:33if you have a situation that you feel comfortable that you like the direction of the program that you
16:40believe in the leadership and you believe in a coaching and believe what you're doing
16:43and then in the end you really never know when the opportunity is going to come but your job is to
16:50prepare and put yourself in a position to take advantage of those opportunities which i would say
16:56davis has done from the time he was here to where he is now it's different but i would say when you look
17:01at um and i happen to be talking to stidham before the game um when we played denver um but he was kind of
17:08in a similar situation drafted my one program now he left
17:11but then denver even though bow was there um and i'd say jared you know feels comfortable with
17:20what they're doing in denver coach payton and their system you know and jared's played a lot of good
17:26football in the preseason um and if something happened to bow denver probably feels comfortable
17:31with jared having to go in there and play which is similar to kind of how we feel about davis so
17:36the quarterback position as we all know it can be very fleeting and i think we feel pretty fortunate
17:43that you know that quarter our quarterback room is as good as any in the league including you know i
17:49know mertz hasn't played and he's a little bit more of a developmental prospect and probably nobody
17:53wants to see him play but i mean graham's done a really good job and he's prepared and right now
17:58he's the backup you know if davis is a starter without cj so um going back to the original question
18:04as it pertains to davis so i mean it says a lot about him and who he is and you know hopefully
18:09it's reflects that you were doing you know some pretty good things with the program
18:14texans gm nick casario joining us here on uh sports radio i had something to say and it
18:20completely blank you completely yeah yeah i was looking at seth looked like he was ready to say
18:25something into the mic and then randomly points at me no and it is when you what you had mentioned
18:29you know just about the everything you were talking about about being comfortable in a system
18:33and everything it is i think sometimes people underestimate that like yeah hometown discounts
18:38and free agency are overblown a lot but when it comes to guys that never get to free agency
18:44there is an element when you're a player that like if you like where you are you don't you don't want
18:49to move for one moving in general is a pain in the butt but then yeah you know about the nightmare
18:56that it can be elsewhere that and you probably you know see this a lot more than even us as players
19:02would see it because you're having these conversations there are a lot of guys that
19:06really don't want to mess with a long drawn out negotiation necessarily because they just like
19:10where they are for sure and i think sometimes it's important agents definitely play a role and
19:16there's a lot of good agents um in our business but ultimately like the player they have to do what
19:22they feel is in their best interest and as part of their responsibility to articulate that to their
19:27representatives um in any end it's about the player and it's about doing what they feel is best for their
19:34individual situation and some of these players they have families they have children and maybe again
19:40every situation is going to be different i can't speak from a player perspective because i've never
19:43been in that situation but if you're somewhere you like being there and you're doing your part
19:50and there's you know reciprocal relationship between the team the team wants you there and the player
19:54wants to be there then let's try to figure out if it doesn't work out then you might be forced to
20:00make a decision or go somewhere else and then there's also the situations where sometimes a change
20:05of scenery is better for everybody involved so what you have to do what we have to do is just
20:10evaluate the situations take the player try to figure out what do we think makes the most sense
20:15i think if you look at our track record history since we've been here we try to as best we can get
20:20ahead of it and sometimes it works out the way that you hope sometimes it maybe doesn't go the way
20:26you want to go but i would say whether it's davis mills whether it's togei whether it's what we did
20:31with hansen um you know if the parties feel good about where they are let's try to figure it out and
20:38if it works itself out great if now we got to go to free agency just because you go to free agency
20:41doesn't mean you can't um still retain the services of the player you just might have to get into the
20:47open market and negotiation that's involved so um that's why we try to be as flexible and adaptable
20:53with how we approach the team building element um and our goal is to try to keep the right people and
20:57the best people around here for as long as possible i'm glad you brought up togei because
21:01i was watching him do some good things the other day and i was thinking man that is a classic case
21:06of uh i know you guys you guys and the way you operate between your coaching and your personnel
21:11people it feels like you're much more like your your personnel guys have an appreciation for the
21:16coaching side of things there's some situations where it's almost like separation of church and
21:20state like the personnel people are the personnel people and the coaching people are the coaching
21:24people togei seems like the classic case where a lot of teams might have looked at him
21:27and the personnel guys would hate him but the coaches would absolutely love him because they're
21:32like you see him on film and he's making plays but on the personnel side you're looking at like okay
21:37this guy doesn't move the same way these other guys do no and that's where i mean this is i'd say
21:43the beauty of our program i mean domico and i talk literally about everything and as it pertains to
21:49a player like his thoughts are as important as anybody so if we're aligned on that and we have a
21:56discussion hey what do you think what are your thoughts hey what if we try to do this yeah okay
21:59yeah let's see you know if it can work itself out so you have to keep that dialogue and the
22:05communication constant to your point set you can't have it doesn't work there is no separation of church
22:11and state the good organization and there's constant dialogue and communication when you look across
22:19sport i mean those what those there's a reason why some of the the better teams maintain a certain level
22:26hopefully of performance over the course of a period of time um you know we're not perfect like we have
22:31certainly plenty of things that we can improve but i mean i feel strongly we feel strongly about the relationship
22:37that domico and i have and we're always trying to do what we feel is in the best interest of the
22:41organization and it doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks outside of the building or
22:45how another team or individual will view a player or perceive a player we need to do what we feel is
22:54best and again we're going to make mistakes like every decision that i'm not going to sit here and come
22:58on the radio and say every decision we make is perfect and works out the way that we hope it doesn't go
23:02that way but hopefully we can be make more good ones and bad ones and you know try to take advantage
23:09of our opportunities and i would say in tommy's situation and there was a player and he's literally
23:12on a street and put him on a practice squad and again ultimately it's about the player and their
23:17performance so the the player and the coaches are the one that deserve most of the credit and then it's
23:23all about the work that you put in into putting yourself in a position where the organization feels a
23:29certain way about you and then you can reward them accordingly hey ben be sure you save nick
23:34saying there is no separation of church and state uh just isolate yeah some controversy right there
23:41yeah um nick casario joining us all right nick i don't even know if this is a question i just want
23:46to kind of go into fan mode with you here we know that you guys all sit in that in that booth down at
23:50the other end of the press box from where we are third put us in your shoes man that throw to nico
23:58that might have been the throw of the year from davis mills right there what was what was the uh
24:02what was the vibe in the booth what were you thinking when that ball's getting snapped because
24:05i'm telling you we were thinking like okay titans have all three of their timeouts left this thing's
24:10going to get punted the way that game was going was so low scoring put us in your shoes on that play
24:14because that was amazing yeah third and 16 um you know good throw good catch all right looks like
24:19he's in all right it's first and 10 all right let's get the next play call in and i mean again you try not
24:26to get caught up in the emotion of the game i mean you kind of have to i mean i'm not trying to be
24:30callous here but you got to take a pragmatic approach and just from a team standpoint so it's
24:35like all right what's the next thing like okay it's a catch we're out of bounds all right the play
24:39clock has started all right like we got to get moving so then it's about what do we do on first
24:44down and then you know we had a number of positive plays after that um you had i think we hit schultz
24:50whatever it was and then we had the three runs to woody um put ourselves in a position where we
24:55could go finish the game there and you know we're on the other end of kind of what's called the
25:00denver game the tampa bay game where essentially we lost you know two walk-offs um so now we're in a
25:06position where if we execute and do what we're supposed to do then you know we're going to come
25:10out with a victory and you know we're fortunate that that's what happened there on sunday so i mean
25:15credit to the players credit to the coaches um you know two good players making a really good play
25:19in a critical situation no high fives no hugs no nothing just on to the next one oh none of that
25:24no that's that you're not gonna get that for me no i know i'd be a terrible coach you know i'd be
25:30hugging everybody it's funny because when on this same day it's been a really great comeback of their
25:36own and my favorite part of the game was at the very end of the game shangun ties the game at the
25:41buzzer at the end of regulation and they they go to the players faces shangun no emotion whatsoever
25:48uh yeah uh i'm in thompson no emotion whatsoever they're just like they're on to overtime it was
25:53really cool i would also be a terrible basketball player yeah look i think that's i mean that's a
25:59pro like that's emay i mean kd i mean that's their mindset it's like all right like we're in overtime
26:05let's go out there and and try to win it and i mean they're doing a great job i mean it's a great
26:10organization you can see the growth and development overall team um and you know it's it's impressive to
26:16watch and see and you know look i we've talked i mean i'm a fan of sport i mean i enjoy you know
26:21watching other teams other programs what are some of the things that they're doing um but you know
26:27there's a couple you know example there shangun's a player who's really grown and developed and
26:31honestly become one of the better players in the league um is a very unique player and creates
26:37obviously a lot of matchup issues for for the opposition so um but no those guys are doing a
26:42great job and yeah i was reading about that you know i think kd hit a three with whatever it was
26:47to tie it you know and they went to overtime and won it so um you know credit to those guys they're
26:52doing uh they're doing a great job i feel like yeah emay and d'amico aside from their names kind
26:56of sounding similar i feel like those are the two coaches uh in in recent use of memory where i feel
27:01like if you swapped those two in terms of their personality and everything i think the teams would
27:06still look the same yeah i think if d'amico were a basketball coach they would be ridiculously good
27:11at rebounding and i feel like if they would be very what's the best euphemism i can use for yes
27:18physical physical teams look like they're tough as hell yeah it looks like they're i mean and that
27:23starts at the top with the leadership and and emay and and d'amico have that in spades no question
27:29about it no question texans gm nick casario joining us so nick um where where are we with joe mixon
27:36from a standpoint of are we just basically kind of just leaving the door ajar all season for the
27:41possibility here i guess yeah i think that's kind of how we've approached it look it's i know we've
27:46been asked about this multiple times and it's not i'm trying to be like evasive it's just a very
27:51like gray situation and you know joe's worked at it and there are times when he's made progress and
27:57other times when the progress has kind of stalled there a little bit so i mean players in his status
28:02of situation are on a reserve list until they're not um so you know i mean joe's doing everything he can
28:09um obviously we're getting pretty late in the game here um so you know i don't want to you know
28:14establish any sort of expectations or you know i know i i mean a month ago or whatever it was i
28:19mentioned we probably have a better idea here you know in the next three or four weeks or whatever
28:23it was um you know i don't think we have any more clarity at this point so i think at this point
28:28he's he's out until he's not um you know and again it's just a very i would say gray there's kind
28:36a lot of ambiguity not a lot of clarity it's nobody's fault it's just the reality of the
28:39situation um so i'd say that's kind of that's kind of where we are uh you're listening to klt am klt
28:46fm hd2 houston at odyssey sports station and i guess if we're talking about medical ambiguity
28:51and and i spend a lot of time talking that situation before where um i think people and fans and then
28:59radio hosts everything they uh you want to believe that okay yep they know exactly what's going on
29:04they're holding from is the reality is a lot of times when you're going through a medical situation
29:08you don't you just don't don't have a clue like why it's why it's taking as long as it is or what
29:12have you um i feel like the concussion protocol is a little bit like that in that the league tries to
29:19remove the coaches from the decision making as much as possible and that are you guys in in these
29:26concussion protocol situations are you kind of just putting in an observer role where you just
29:32wait to see what happens because i obviously don't have much input into it yeah i'd say it's
29:37one of the things that the league has implemented that's really to the benefit of the players and
29:41then they have to go through multiple stages and they just want to make sure that they're actually
29:46physically cleared to be able to do their job to do their job because you don't really want to put
29:52the player um at risk unnecessarily um to your point seth we stay out of it i mean we let the medic in
29:59that situation as well is let the medical process kind of take care of itself they keep us informed
30:05about the player and he gets through he clears this step and then if he gets to the next step
30:10and if the a lot of this is all symptom related anyway so whatever a player is feeling or whatever
30:16he's going through that's essentially out of our hands um domico's talked about this i've talked about
30:23this i mean the health and well-being of our players is the most important thing i would say from our
30:27perspective just the way we operate we're never going to force a player to do something not fair
30:36to the player it's not the right thing to do by the player and however long it takes it takes and
30:42then we'll adjust accordingly so i would say that's how we've handled it that's how we'll continue to
30:47handle it and i would say specific to the concussion protocol once they clear whatever stages and steps that
30:54they go through and then once they tell us he's been cleared he's completed the protocol then he's
31:00available then you make the decision that is in the best interest of everybody involved is the one
31:05part of the protocol it's interesting for quarterbacks to me at least is that that fifth stage where you
31:10have to go through by the rule uh full contact practice um and then not have symptoms afterwards but
31:16with quarterbacks obviously they never have any kind of contact in practice so um i know it's up to
31:21the independent neurological consultant to figure out what he wants to see from him but what do they
31:26what do they do with quarterbacks to kind of simulate contact in that last stage yeah no that's
31:31it right there you just at best you can try to assimilate okay when you're moving you're gonna make
31:36you know have to do some things from the pocket i mean obviously you're not gonna put the quarterback
31:40back there like a crash test dummy and let the defensive end get a running start and then hit him and go
31:45hey how do you feel you get a two-per with jalen petrie just have jalen petrie oklahoma drill with
31:50jalen petrie and cj stroud that'd be the responsible thing to do yeah so there's some things that you can
31:55do there's some drills i mean you guys watch us um you know do drills so when the quarterbacks are
31:59doing drills you can have a coach with a bag and kind of hit them because you have to deal with
32:04some contacts so there's different ways sometimes you got to be creative um but you just want to make
32:09sure that again he's physically ready to endure and then how does he respond accordingly so um every
32:19position probably a little bit different do you knock them down like onto a mat or anything like
32:24that there's things that you can do it's like when you practice the the punt block drill or with
32:29receivers they're simulating falling going out of bounds so you're not going to have them go to the
32:34ground because they could potentially hurt themselves so can you use a device or a mat
32:39or something to simulate that activity to the best of your ability you should do a tell me you're
32:45going to do a trust fall and then just you know do the old yeah yeah back away we'll put him in a
32:50ladder match and you know wwe yes put him on a table and those see how he handles but it says with
32:55quarterbacks though i mean it's it's not like there's a boatload of data out there to know exactly
33:00just how a quarterback is going to come back from it is there still a little bit of a hesitation that
33:05even if a guy clears protocol man that's a that's a position where the mental functioning needs to be
33:10so quick and so fast that you just want to be double sure about it no that's a huge part of it i mean
33:18that position probably more than anything any rely you rely on your mind and your ability to process
33:23information so if anything that can kind of cloud that like you just want to make sure that you have as
33:28much clarity as possible so that when you're in the game and the other thing too when a coach is calling
33:34a play going into your helmet depending on if you're playing on the road and you got a voice
33:38screaming in your head i mean does that give you a headache does it not so there's some things that
33:42are specific to the quarterback position that are a little bit different maybe some others
33:46nick casario joining us on sports radio 610 hey nick i think this is the first time that we've talked
33:51since the trade deadline with you and i know you yeah you it looked most of the action around the
33:57league was it positions that i would say you guys don't necessarily have a real acute need at
34:02it was largely defensive um what what can you share with us about what maybe happened on the
34:07offensive side of the ball in the trade deadline was the market just was it a little too high was
34:11it just not real active how did that go you know that's fair i think you summarized it uh very well
34:15sean so we we made some calls we probably had communication with just about every team throughout
34:21the course of the league who's potentially available who's not what's the cost associated with that
34:26player if you are going to move a player so um we had a few lines in the water nothing really that
34:31kind of came to fruition um some of it is kind of exploratory like again it always goes back to when
34:37you do a trade it takes two parties and if you might have a position or a player they're interested
34:42in but if that player is not available then like you can't like just create it out of thin air and
34:48osmosis so um to your point i'd say a lot of the trades that took place like we weren't really
34:53involved in a lot of those players so there were some other players in some positions where we made
34:58some calls on um nothing really uh manifest itself um so i mean we were in a position where if it
35:05worked out great if it didn't then we felt comfortable with the people the players that
35:09were here um and then we were prepared and planned to adjust accordingly regardless of the result and
35:14outcome is there a balancing act nick that goes on because you know this trade deadline's happening
35:19in like week nine you guys are three and five at the time is there a balancing act with like okay
35:23here's what our record here's what the chances are of us making the playoffs and would you like to see the
35:28trade deadline push back maybe a little bit yeah it's a it's a good question that's really never
35:32entered our team take the record out of it look at the team what are your options is there an area
35:41that you're trying to supplement in some capacity and if we have the opportunity to do it does it make
35:47sense and then what's the compensation that's involved so it's short term versus long term so
35:54we look at everything i would say whenever the trade deadline is like we'll be prepared um but
36:00the record really has no bearing on what we're doing it's really more specific to the team the
36:06player what are we doing do we actually have a need because we've had multiple injuries or whatever
36:11the case may be so um i think there was a couple proposals when they actually we talked about this
36:16the spring meetings they moved it to whatever week it is now there's been discussions about doing
36:21it later nobody really wants it earlier um so whatever the league decides on that like we'll be
36:27prepared to handle it um accordingly what um i'm gonna forward you the athletics uh playoff calculator
36:34uh and and i missed that one i haven't seen that one i spend about 45 minutes a day on it and i'm sure
36:41d'amico that's where d'amico needs to carve out 45 minutes a day because i know he doesn't pay
36:45the big hypothetical guy that will that will carve into my 45 minutes of reading that i can do on a
36:51day-to-day basis so i'd rather do that than worry about some simulator that doesn't matter it is i
36:56obviously the the only game that matters is the next game and uh the next game is the bills obviously
37:01this is a very important game for a lot of reasons but um josh allen i we were talking about
37:06josh allen a little bit earlier and i think the most amazing thing to me for him is that
37:10there's so many other young quarterbacks where you guys four different offensive coordinators and
37:17how can you ever how can you ever you know develop as a quarterback i mean josh allen just keeps going
37:23through coordinator after coordinator after coordinator and he keeps producing and i know
37:27it's been very up and down this year but what what about the offense that you see in the bills this year
37:33is maybe an explanation for why it's been inconsistent and then obviously like why do you still very much
37:40have to worry about the team that put up however many points against the bucks yeah i mean you have
37:44to worry about the bills and josh allen because josh is a great player and they have a great team and they
37:49have a great program so i think more than any year that i can remember the notion of week to week in this
37:57league is really i mean manifests itself seemingly on a on a regular basis um and whoever you're
38:05playing like if you that other team makes more plays than you do maybe they do some things and i'd say
38:11the other factor that always comes into play are turnovers so turnovers can impact the game
38:17significantly on a week-to-week basis so i would say specific to the bills i mean this is a very
38:23very formidable team like the reason there's a reason they played i don't know how many afc
38:27championships and you know josh was the mvp of the league last year i mean he's a great player
38:32he's very unique there's not many players like him in the league there haven't been a lot of players
38:36like him through the years um got a really good quarterback really good running back i mean they
38:42got a good defense i mean this is a good team and they're seven and three um and very easily could
38:47you know have a better record but they are where they are and we understand the challenge that's in
38:51front of us here um you know and you know we're expecting their best um and when you watch the
38:59tampa bay game i think you know they made a number of explosive plays which end up tilting that game
39:05um in their favor should be really good man should be a fun thursday night against the buffalo bills
39:10nick before we get you out of here um i know that you saw last night at least the highlights i know
39:15you you may not have been watching it live but the new york giants had like four or five football
39:19players on the front row at the barricade right there uh on monday night raw and they got into
39:24what i'm sure was a very organic scuffle with some of the talent with wwe i'm sure it wasn't planned
39:29at all i'm sure our friend that didn't have that written in the uh in the script no no no it looked
39:34to be very it actually did look to be somewhat physical i thought if i was a giants executive i'd be
39:38like hey guys uh ixnay on the ocean a little bit yeah yeah but if you had to pick if you had to pick
39:44you know three or four texans to send a monday night raw to represent the texans appropriately
39:49who would it be yeah uh let's go with the uh dynamic duo of a hunter and anderson that law firm
39:56uh i would put kamari lassiter in that group um you know since titus you know is such a big wrestling
40:02fan we probably need to send him um and i would probably send jpad as well to get some you know
40:08more offensive line reinforcement so there you go that could be a pretty good uh group to go up
40:13against uh whatever group you want to throw any of them the judgment day whoever they throw it we
40:18had kamari on the post game show a couple of games ago man he is one serious dude he's like that all
40:25the time like all the time great great kid serious as hell and the way he plays
40:33plays the way he practices his mentality his mindset so however he was with you he's the same
40:41in the building you know i was busting his chops the other night because before our team meeting
40:45you know he was watching the georgia game uh on his phone i said look like don't get distracted now
40:51let's keep the focus on tennessee and he actually gave me a little smile and i got a little laugh out
40:55of him so that was probably more than anybody's gotten out of him in a while that was big getting a
40:59laugh out of hey i said before we get you out of here as long as we're going to college football
41:04one more before we get you out of here because i was thinking about this because the transfer portal
41:07is bananas right now from an evaluation standpoint what's the biggest effect the transfer portal has
41:12had on your ability to do your job well you just got to keep track of the players you know where they
41:18are and they just understand the reason and the rationale that they ended up switching schools or going
41:23somewhere else so you don't want to penalize a player just because he's leaving so just make sure we
41:28understand the big picture and i think the benefit in in some situations is that they have an opportunity
41:34to play more football so when you're looking at guys that the game started is 40 41 42 45 40 50 games
41:43they have a lot of experience so they might be a little bit more prepared for what they're going
41:48to endure when they get drafted by whatever team they go to so but i think it's just going back to
41:53understanding when you as an example when you look at indiana so there's a number of
41:58players that were with coach signetti at james madison that they transfer to indiana so there's
42:04obviously a reason that they they not follow the staff but like they follow the staff or the staff
42:09wanted them there so okay that's one situation and then conversely if there is like you know what
42:16better off going somewhere else because i think i'm going to have a better opportunity now if a player
42:20is going somewhere else because okay i want to be to pay the most money like we need to know that as
42:25well it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with that it just means that their motives may be a
42:29little bit different than you know some other folks i think kirby said something about this either
42:34after the game or recently that you know it's not about the check for them like if you want to check
42:39like go somewhere else because their program is built on toughness physicality do they pay the
42:44players sure they pay the players as a part of it so our job is to understand the dynamics involved
42:50in an individual player situation yeah i guess that's what i'm thinking has it just created a
42:54lot more questions for you guys to ask yes and no it depends you know because if the kid like his
43:01makeup is you know wherever he was the previous school is you know sixes and sevens or whatever
43:06it's really good all right well it's just all right look what happened why do you leave okay got
43:10it and then you move on to the next thing now if they do a little bit deeper dive like that's part
43:14of our job and responsibility to do that just so we understand the profile of the player that we're
43:18getting when they walk in the building who's the uh who's the player in your time in the nfl that
43:23was the best pleasant surprise compared to like maybe his character grade beforehand uh you know
43:32like maybe you heard bad things from coaches about him or something but then he ended up just being
43:36an awesome guy for you no it's actually a group i'll give you i mean he's in the hall of fame or going
43:41to the hall of fame but maybe it's not a good example but i would say when we traded for moss
43:46the the the perception of randy moss was whatever it was i would say you know you heard a lot of
43:53you know negative attitude or whatever else and some of his shenanigans but i would say when he got
44:01in the building and i was fortunate i mean again i was coaching him but like i wasn't really coaching
44:06randy moss but he was one of the best teammates and players and smartest football minds that
44:16that i've been around so you talk about like perception versus reality i mean it couldn't have
44:21been any different again regardless of what happened wherever else randy was but i would say i had nothing
44:27but respect and appreciation for when randy you know was in our building and then working with him on a
44:34day-to-day basis i mean he would see some things and we'd be going through the film and he would see
44:38some things um we'd go through it and be like you know what wow that's you know very like astute and
44:46aware um perception that that he has so again that's not maybe that doesn't answer your question
44:52seth but like i would say just on a larger scale i'd say that's an example like that i went through
44:57on an individual basis where i mean couldn't been more like again whatever happened happened but i mean
45:04he was just a pleasure to be around and a pleasure to coach and his teammates loved him you know i
45:09think uh yeah that's a good one the setting and like the environment you're in sometimes it's just
45:13a mismatch or wade phillips told me that once about just how he learned you know a long time ago that
45:18when the the previous coach will you know try to do right and give you a scouting report on everything
45:24and like he said that there were just so many times where the guys that those coaches said were a bum
45:30ended up being great guys for them and vice versa that it just it was a better fit that you just
45:36don't know until um like as you always say get a guy in the building and just see it see how the fit
45:42is you can't prejudge you can get the information and then at least have a baseline and then once the
45:47player walks into your building then what do we observe on a day-to-day basis and then we can make
45:53our own interpretation about what we think we have in the player you know that's if you try to if
45:58you're disciplined and try to keep the focus there let the players be who they're going to be and our
46:03job is to kind of guide and direct them and help them as best as best we can that's what it was
46:06about the first five years i was working with sean before i had to realize i realized you know what i
46:11don't think he's the bastard that everybody says i was antonio brown for the first five years
46:16no you weren't
46:17i was with antonio brown i know i was gonna say now do antonio brown nick uh all right
46:25nick casario texan we'll uh we'll get you out on that note texan's executive vice president and
46:31general manager dick casario hey nick uh really appreciate the time especially on a short week
46:35like this we always enjoy the conversation appreciate you guys take care thanks you too
46:39that's nick casario joining us here
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