00:00So the Texans, the talk coming into this season was got to get to new heights,
00:03got to get at least to the AFC title game.
00:06Things are breaking their way right now if they can keep winning these football games.
00:12I got a handful of reasons why it needs to happen this year, at least two.
00:16The first reason, at least two, if not more, of what I'll call the big four,
00:20the four best quarterbacks in football coming into this season.
00:24You couldn't find a list that didn't have these four as the best four in some order.
00:27Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson,
00:31at least two, if not more, of those are trending to be out of the postseason.
00:36Like Burrow, it's going to take a miracle finish to win that division.
00:39Patrick Mahomes, the Texans can end the Chiefs.
00:42We'll talk about that in just a second.
00:44They can end the Chiefs on Sunday.
00:46Lamar Jackson looks like crap right now, even though his team is leading a bad division.
00:50And Josh Allen, the Bills, for an 8-14,
00:52they've been very up and down over the last month and a half or so.
00:55The Bills, I was honestly shocked when I looked at the odds for the Super Bowl winner,
00:59and the Bills, I think, are the third most favored right now.
01:02Still, huh?
01:03Yeah, I cannot see that team making a playoff run.
01:06Well, they'd have to go on the road for the whole playoffs right now.
01:09What's that?
01:09They'd have to travel for the whole playoffs right now.
01:12I don't, it's really, I do not feel the same way the odds makers do about that.
01:19With all due respect to Josh Allen and some of the good players they have on that team,
01:22they just, they don't have enough receivers, their defense isn't good.
01:25I just, there's, you can't hero ball your way through an entire playoff.
01:29Yeah, yeah.
01:30And this kind of plays into the second reason.
01:33The number one, two, and three seeds as of yesterday, as of this morning,
01:37when we awoke this morning, Seth.
01:40Yes.
01:40Our teams that are quarterbacked by Drake May, who's had a great year.
01:43He's been sensational.
01:44He's never played in a playoff game.
01:46Bo Nix, who is, who's an experience.
01:51You know, we watched it here.
01:53You know, Bo Nix giveth and Bo Nix taketh the way.
01:55And he too has never won a playoff game.
01:58And Trevor Lawrence, who I just don't think is very good.
02:01Those are the one, two, and three seeds right now.
02:04So if you're a wild card team that's worried about going on the road right now in the postseason,
02:08again, this is all obviously subject to change with five games to go in the season for most of these teams.
02:13These are winnable, wild cards.
02:18Those are beatable teams in their place if you're the 5, 6, or 7 seed.
02:24You know what I mean?
02:24Like, this is not a great AFC right now.
02:28No, it's not.
02:29And a lot of the teams that, I mean, the thing with the Chiefs is that you can't discount the playoff experience.
02:36I think, and all of those guys, especially with Travis Kelsey, we've seen it firsthand in the game last year.
02:43It was really the only good game that Travis Kelsey had in the playoffs.
02:46But their ability to just, A, game plan for those games, but then also, B, have guys that aren't odd by the moment
02:55and have that experience.
02:56Whether it's, go back to the Astros during their golden era, go back to the Patriots before that.
03:02There's a lot to be said for just having an extreme number of playoff game experiences.
03:07Yeah, yeah.
03:07That's, like, if the Chiefs are able to sneak in and just get inside the velvet rope, they're going to be, they're going to be held.
03:14Like, can you imagine?
03:16Like, you're the New England Patriots.
03:19You've been out of the playoffs.
03:20You've been out of the playoffs for three years.
03:23Oh, my God.
03:24Yeah.
03:24But still, you've been out of the playoffs.
03:26You're back in the playoffs.
03:27Your fan base is super excited about being the two-seed in the AFC.
03:31You're excited about winning the division.
03:33You weren't supposed to win the division.
03:35And you get Patrick Mahomes in a two-versus-seven game in the first round in Foxborough at Gillette.
03:41Right, right.
03:42You know?
03:42I think if you look at the Texans right now, and obviously, you know, you bring up those quarterbacks that just don't have a whole bunch of experience.
03:55But then you look at some of the other quarterbacks in the league right now and how they're playing.
03:59The guys that are the, you call them the big four.
04:02Mahomes, Burrow, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson.
04:06And, like, has C.J. Stroud, when we talk about C.J. Stroud versus other quarterbacks, and, you know, it's not a quarterback versus quarterback game, but, like, C.J. Stroud, am I missing one?
04:19Like, does he have a big-time moment or performance versus one of the other big-time quarterbacks?
04:25Joe Burrow, his rookie year in Cincinnati.
04:28They beat Cincinnati in Cincinnati, and Joe Burrow played in that game.
04:32Joe Burrow threw two interceptions in that game.
04:35What was the score of that game?
04:3630-27.
04:38Last-second field goal by Matt Amendola.
04:40That would be the best one where C.J. Stroud out-dueled another quarterback.
04:44Because the Josh Allen victory, the Bills victories have been more about the Texans' defensive dominance, more so than a quarterback battle or what have you.
04:52I guess the one I thought of was versus Baker Mayfield in 2023.
04:56That was a week before the Cincinnati game.
04:58Yeah, yeah.
04:59So, like, that's not in that.
05:00Well, and remember, too, boy, that was a, I mean, say, in that Bengals game, C.J. had that bad intercept.
05:05At the end of the game.
05:06But then ended up closing the game out.
05:08Yep.
05:09Yeah, that's, so going back to 2023, him versus Joe Burrow, that's probably the one moment where you could say, okay, a guy who's one of the established great quarterbacks in the NFL, C.J. outplayed him on that field that day.
05:20Yes.
05:21And, but, because other than that, it's been Pat Mahomes, it's been Lamar Jackson, those, those have not gone well.
05:29Yeah.
05:29They beat the Cowboys last year, but it wasn't with Dak Prescott.
05:32You know, they beat the Ravens this year, but it was without Lamar Jackson.
05:34And he definitely outplayed Josh Allen in that game last year.
05:37But your point is a good one, which is that was more about the Texans' defense in that game.
05:41Like, that was a close to the vest defensive type of game, not a shootout like the Tampa Bay and Cincinnati games were.
05:49Yeah, I mean, this is more of, like, maybe an emotional thing than something that actually matters.
05:53But there is something about going up and out-dueling Pat Mahomes, even though he's not the same Pat Mahomes he used to be, but out-dueling Pat Mahomes in Kansas City.
06:02Well, and I think there's a couple other reasons here, and again, the theme here is, like, why the Texans need to make this happen this year.
06:08Get to an AFC title game and maybe further this year.
06:11And I do think that is one of the things.
06:13If they get to an AFC title game, look, I think the Texans are going to pay C.J. Stroud after this year.
06:18I think the odds are they pay him.
06:19I don't think it's a slam dunk, but I think the odds are he gets a new contract after this year.
06:24Put it this way.
06:25There's much worse quarterbacks than C.J. Stroud that have gotten paid big money after year three.
06:31One of them's in the division.
06:32Trevor Lawrence.
06:33And we were laughing the day they gave him that money.
06:35C.J. has been much better than Trevor Lawrence throughout the course of his two-plus years than Lawrence has been in his four-plus years.
06:42So I think the odds are C.J. gets paid.
06:44A run to the AFC title game I think would just give us more peace of mind that the contract is justified than if they lose in a wild-card round in a road game or something like that.
06:55No, and I think that's where this last stretch of the season where you start off with C.J. coming back from concussion.
07:03You beat the Colts.
07:04But, you know, C.J. is not going to grade that as one of his best performances ever.
07:08He looked a lot better after that first touchdown drive or during that first touchdown drive than he did in the first few series of the game.
07:15But that – like C.J. finishing out the season in the postseason looking more like the peak version of C.J. Stroud that we've seen at times.
07:25Pay him.
07:25That's – it's as simple as that.
07:27Then you just go pay the guy.
07:28You know, then it's justified to pay the guy.
07:30You know what, if they go through – if they make it to the AFC title game but it's still very much the defense dragging the offense along with them and hoping that special teams doesn't allow any more touchdowns, then that's not going to feel as good.
07:42No, then you're paying $60 million a year for a souped-up game manager would be the narrative.
07:46You're going to pay for the right to have fewer weapons on offense.
07:50That's what you do when you pay your quarterback.
07:52Yep.
07:52You're paying him knowing, okay, we might not be able to extend Jaden Higgins sometime off into the future or Nico Collins or one of them.
08:00Yep.
08:00We might have to let go of Ariante Ursary or something.
08:04Like it just – it makes it a lot harder to put together a good offense.
08:07And you've got to hit on all your draft picks or most of them because that's your cheap labor that allows you to have the $60 million quarterback.
08:16You know what, if I had to add one more, I'll call it kind of touchy-feely or emotional factor in the Texans, the need to make a deep playoff run this year.
08:26If they make a run in the playoffs, chances are Indianapolis is left in the dust somewhere, either earlier in the postseason or maybe left out altogether.
08:36There's a good chance that Indianapolis doesn't make the postseason.
08:39Their schedule is really hard these last five games.
08:42Their schedule is tough and they've scored 20 points or less in three of their last four games.
08:46That's right.
08:46They're not the best offense in the league.
08:48They're not.
08:49And if the Texans make a run in the playoffs, Seth, they can turn the Sauce Gardner trade into one of the worst trades in recent memory.
08:56Yeah, yeah.
08:56Which would be fun.
08:57Yeah.
08:58At the time they made that trade, I said it was kind of like – I think the analogy I made was it's like if your enemy goes out and cashes in his 401K for a rocket launcher, that's a bad purchase financially.
09:13But if he's aiming that rocket launcher at you, I'm not concerned about whether it was a good deal or not.
09:19Yeah.
09:19So it was a bad deal, but it was one that hurt us specifically.
09:23Yeah.
09:23The fact that Sauce Gardner didn't even decide to stay on the field for that entire game.
09:29Two plays.
09:30Yeah.
09:30He traded away – you traded away two first-round picks, thinking you had quarterback of the future, and then he sucked the last few games.
09:39Yep.
09:40Yeah.
09:40Yeah.
09:41That Sauce Gardner trade was a bet on Daniel Jones in a way, and the bet's not looking very good right now.
09:47So those are just a few of the things.
09:49Like as we try to figure out what the sense of urgency is over these last five games, I think it's not just, hey, let's get back in, let's win the division.
09:57Like, man, the opportunity is here to win some games and make a whole bunch of other teams feel bad about themselves.
10:04Like, let's get back in, let's get back in, let's get back in.
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