Best NFL players at 109 different skills. Did any Houston Texans make the list?

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

ESPN ranked the best players at 109 different skills — did any Texans make the cut?

Transcript

00:00This Texas team, one thing that we know for sure is elite is the defense,

00:05but one of the things that I found interesting was this piece that ESPN put out,

00:08and it's Matt Bowen of ESPN.

00:10They went around and they picked the NFL's top players by specific skills.

00:15There's 109 different skills that they took, and obviously for different positions,

00:20like the most accurate passer in all of the National Football League,

00:24the best deep ball thrower, the best passing mechanics, so on and so forth,

00:29109 of them.

00:31And the question that I have for you, John Lopez, and dear listener,

00:34713-572-4610 is the number to text.

00:39Do you believe that there are Texans that are the absolute best of any skills in the league?

00:43Yes, I do.

00:44Okay.

00:44Yes, I do.

00:45And I don't even know what all the skills are.

00:47Well, I mean, there's 109 of them.

00:48But I can name a couple that I think they are.

00:51Okay, who are the players that you would think of that you're like,

00:55they probably have a skill that is the absolute best in the National Football League.

00:59Derek Stingley would be at the top of my list.

01:02Okay.

01:02And that would be cover, or whatever they call it, in that list.

01:06I would say Will Anderson Jr. would be on the list.

01:12Sure.

01:14Maybe as a – really, maybe like an all-around, because, you know,

01:19he's good against the run, sets the edge, and rushes the passer.

01:22Yeah.

01:23Are there any others I'm missing?

01:26I mean, I don't want to just go down and name the best players on the team.

01:29Well, I mean, that's kind of what happens.

01:30Yeah.

01:30I kind of want to take a shot in the dark.

01:32Well, we're looking at the skill they have.

01:34Okay.

01:35I was going to take a shot in the dark and say maybe Kalen Bullock.

01:39Is he somewhere on that?

01:40Ball skill?

01:41Yeah.

01:42He might be.

01:43Okay.

01:44So, with that being the case, if I'm doing my numbers right here,

01:48I have one, two, three, four, five, six Texans that come in here.

01:58Now, you said Derek Stingley Jr., and, I mean, that's your all-pro.

02:02That's all-pro Sting there.

02:03And he is on here as having the best backfield vision.

02:07The blurb they write, Stingley uses his backfield vision to overlap seam balls.

02:09Plus, he'll get in the weeds looking for work.

02:13He has three interceptions, eight pass breakups this season.

02:15Okay.

02:16That feels right, man.

02:17He's just – but it's interesting because I never think of it as the vision that he has.

02:22Yeah, I think of the way he closes and his ball skills.

02:26Right.

02:26And when you talk about, like, you know, there's all sorts of different DB things.

02:31Closing speed is Denzel Ward here.

02:33In-phase runner is Nate Wiggins, interestingly enough.

02:36But I thought that there would be other DB things.

02:39So, this is deep, deep.

02:41109 different skills, man.

02:42Yeah, yeah.

02:43All right.

02:43So, you said Sting.

02:45You said Willie Anderson Jr., and, yes, he is indeed, according to ESPN, the best at something.

02:51And it makes sense because we've heard him talk about it.

02:55We've heard JJ talk about it.

02:56In fact, we saw it happen in this past game, him demonstrate this particular skill.

03:00That's speed to power.

03:01Yeah.

03:02It's his bread and butter.

03:03A little bit of everything, yeah.

03:04It's his bread and butter is, like, his speed to power.

03:07Or, in fact, who was it that was talking about it?

03:10Was it, oh, my goodness.

03:12It's going to frustrate me to no end to not remember the name.

03:17It was Baldwin.

03:19Brian Baldinger?

03:20Baldinger.

03:20There we go.

03:21Yeah.

03:21That was talking about, like, his ability on third down to feast.

03:24And that's, I mean, it's not inherent that that's absolutely where he's going to go every time he rushes.

03:29But more often than not, it seems like when he gets to that point where it's, like, it is time to feast, that speed to power comes out.

03:36Yeah.

03:36And that's what helps him be absolutely dominant.

03:38Bless that center's heart.

03:41He just made him look like a fool.

03:45Look, I mean, for a second, I was wondering if he was going to send him to the upper room.

03:48I'm telling you, man.

03:49All right, so when it comes to the other Texans that are on here.

03:51I'm trying to think.

03:53I mean, don't think too hard.

03:54It hurts when I do.

03:57It hurts.

03:59Who are they?

03:59I think there's some possibilities out there.

04:02If I tell you best spin move.

04:04That would be Daniil Hunt.

04:04That's right.

04:05Yeah, that would be Daniil Hunter.

04:06Without question, in fact.

04:08Like, he falls in with a legacy of, like, I always think of when I think of spin move.

04:12Like, Julius Peppers.

04:13Yeah.

04:13He used to just, he used to spin move himself into oblivion.

04:16But he used to kill people.

04:17And Daniil Hunter absolutely is there.

04:19It makes sense that both of your edge rushers have an elite skill because that's what we're seeing.

04:22That's what we continue to see in them being capable of ending games.

04:26The beauty of it is that they don't rely on one skill.

04:28Like, they've continued to advance this.

04:30Daniil, obviously, from a place of veteran.

04:33But Will, that's the thing that's kind of scared of me is that he is still committing more of those to memory and doing them in a consistent way.

04:40So there's two left.

04:43I don't know.

04:45Someone said, all right, y'all are telling jokes on the text line now.

04:48832 said, Stroud for best emotional.

04:51Okay, very good.

04:53If it was a category.

04:55Another 832 said, Joe Mixon at evading.

04:58Which, I get what you're actually doing there, running back-wise.

05:01And I'll talk to running backs.

05:02But third-level range.

05:04If I told you third-level range defensively.

05:08I would say Kalen Bullock.

05:09There you go.

05:10And he does that in a great degree.

05:12And it's one of the things that makes him a great ball hawk is that he just covers so much ground in the secondary.

05:20And you notice a trend here?

05:21All defense.

05:24A lot of defense.

05:25I gave you Will.

05:26I gave you Daniil.

05:28Best hitter?

05:30Jalen Petrie.

05:32Which is funny because I would have thought that.

05:33They gave it to Aziz Alshire.

05:35Okay, that's fair.

05:36That's no problem.

05:38Body slams coming.

05:39It's starting to work out now, huh?

05:41But interestingly enough, I'm glad that you brought up Petrie because Derrick Henry was asked who's the hardest tackler in the NFL.

05:47This is what he said.

05:50Hardest tackler in the NFL.

05:54Petrie got me pretty good this year.

05:56He's a good attack.

05:57Yeah.

05:57Jalen Petrie got me pretty good.

05:59I ain't even seen him, man.

06:00He snuck me.

06:02But I respect his game.

06:03He can hit because he's a good tackle.

06:05You don't think about a guy like Petrie because you think about, you know, the run stuffing, defensive tackles and stuff.

06:09But, you know.

06:10Yeah, he flies in there.

06:11He don't care.

06:12Yeah, and the velocity.

06:14Like, they're coming from farther back and they're going to get snucked.

06:17You see him, you're going to get snucked.

06:19All right, two things.

06:20First and foremost, is it a compliment or is it shade that he said he snuck me?

06:24Yeah, I think it's a compliment.

06:27I think because he, first of all, it came to mind and he credited him.

06:30I did go back and see the play that he's talking about.

06:33And Derrick Henry literally, like, got up and looked to see who hit him.

06:38Like, if you go back and look at that play and it's been shared, you know, all over,

06:45he kind of gets up and spins his head like, man, who was that?

06:47You're like, oh, it was number five?

06:50Holy crap.

06:50I just thought of another one.

06:51Is there another Texan on the list?

06:53There is one more Texan on the list, which is funny because you have pointed out this

06:57skill, but I don't think you'll guess it.

06:59Really?

07:00Yes.

07:01Because I was thinking offense.

07:02It's not offense.

07:03Okay, I was thinking Nico yards after catch.

07:06Ooh, that's interesting.

07:07Yeah, I was thinking Nico yards after catch.

07:09Let's do that and see what are the ones that you would think and see where they are placed

07:13on this.

07:14Yeah.

07:14The final Texan that comes in on this list of, like, the players that demonstrate the 100,

07:19that are the best at the 109 skills in the National Football League.

07:23Best field goal blocker.

07:25Oh, yeah.

07:25Nico Autry.

07:26Nico Autry, yeah.

07:27It's one of those things that's really niche, but it's kind of, it's been very vital for

07:31you in this season.

07:33It's funny because we haven't seen it very often recently, but I'd be interested in seeing

07:38that come back.

07:38He gets close a lot, too.

07:39He does.

07:40It's not just the two.

07:41Has he had two?

07:42Yeah, and what's funny is I wonder how much that changes decision making.

07:45Like, that's the thing is, for me, and I'm going to make this personal deal with it,

07:49I have longer arms and people don't acknowledge it.

07:51They don't recognize it when I'm playing basketball until that first time I get a steal off you

07:55or a block off you and you're like, wait, hold on.

07:57Yeah.

07:57And it changes the way that people play.

07:59You're like an octopus.

07:59I wonder if that happens for, if that's happening for teams with Nico where they recognize,

08:04hey, we might not be able to kick here because the trajectory isn't right.

08:09Yeah, he's blocked two, he's come close with a penalty on another, and then he's come close

08:13a lot in general.

08:14Yeah, I like that one.

08:15Yeah, so when it comes to receivers, the ones that they have is like, okay, so you're talking

08:20about best yak or something, best after the catch?

08:22Mm-hmm.

08:23Does it make you mad at all that Jamar Chase gets this instead of Nico Collins?

08:26No, no, not at all.

08:27That's good.

08:28I think what the thing about Nico is he doesn't necessarily, I mean, he has, but he doesn't

08:32necessarily always break it for 20 extra yards.

08:35He consistently gets like six to 10 extra after a catch.

08:39Just like he makes the catch and doesn't just fall down or lean forward.

08:42He'll go six or eight yards more, and it's just consistently he adds yardage to his catches.

08:49I do wonder if Joe Mixon even gets to, well, not wonder.

08:52I'm fairly certain Joe Mixon is not in any of this because he's not played at all this year,

08:57but the 8-3-2 saying that him being like evasive.

09:00The most elusive rusher is a running back that you've seen and handled up decently.

09:05McCaffrey?

09:05James Cook.

09:06Oh, okay.

09:08McCaffrey's pretty elusive.

09:09Yeah, he, I mean, and also when you talk about best rushing vision and instincts, Jonathan

09:14Taylor is there, another running back that you've seen and he handled up pretty well.

09:16Vision for sure.

09:17That is a layup as far as I, he sees everything.

09:20All right, real quick before we wrap this up, were there any other ones that you were

09:23like, I would imagine a player on the Texans should have been acknowledged from this?

09:27I thought Nico offensively and not really, not really.

09:35Do you have any?

09:37Yeah, that's what I was trying to think.

09:38And I'm like, there's not anything.

09:40Well, Bullock.

09:41But he was acknowledged on the one.

09:43Yeah, maybe like just the ball hawk nature as well.

09:45But yeah, it's, I mean, again, it seems to track what we have that all of this is defensively

09:51when we talk about like the elite skills, which maybe you can say is, it helps, it helps

09:56inform the way that they've gone about their offense.

09:59But again, tying back, I still am trying to find the balance between these are all the

10:03elite skills that you have.

10:04The defense is clearly elite.

10:06So you want to kind of have this path that makes the most sense, but I still go, I feel

10:10like you should have more than one way to do this.

10:12Yes, I feel like you should have more than one way to do this.

10:14Sorry.

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