How Nick Caley and the Staff Unlocked C.J. Stroud’s Buy-In?

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

We’ve talked about C.J. Stroud buying in and making better decisions, but how have Nick Caley and the offensive staff actually unlocked that buy-in? The crew breaks down the adjustments behind the scenes and what they mean moving forward

Transcript

00:00We continue to see the Texans' six-game win streak.

00:03They continue to get better and better, and I'm looking at Stephen's A-list,

00:07and the Texans are up there as a top-five team in the league,

00:10and I imagine some of that is encouraged by the offense showing up a little bit,

00:14particularly in this game, but of late, right?

00:15You beat the Kansas City Chiefs, and your offense is able to show up enough,

00:20and in this game they even show up better against the Cardinals.

00:23It feels like, at least in our estimation,

00:25C.J. Stroud is feeling like he's having more ownership

00:28and feeling more at home in this offense.

00:31What has Nick Kalen and the offensive staff done to help facilitate that?

00:34Yeah, you know, you look at this, and you dig in,

00:36and you go back, and you put the pieces together.

00:39Remember, I forget exactly which week it was,

00:41but Amico Ryan flat out said, and we talked about it, everybody did,

00:45we have to change some things on offense.

00:48Remember?

00:49Yeah.

00:49I was under the impression that that meant personnel

00:53more than, you know, scheme and approach and philosophy,

00:57but now it's getting, it's becoming more and more clear,

01:01and this is huge credit you have to give,

01:05which we weren't going to do by any stretch earlier in the season,

01:08to Nick Kaley, Ben McDaniels, and Gerard Johnson.

01:13The change, and there's some, you know, data points, statistics,

01:18and obviously eye test type stuff that'll back this up.

01:22They've changed, they've changed their entire, I say entire,

01:26it kind of is, their entire passing game approach.

01:30And how many times, and you and I were kind of talking about this

01:33a little bit before the show, but how many times when C.J. Stroud

01:37looked flustered, looked, you know, the body language thing

01:40that we talked about a lot, was going back in the pocket

01:43and, you know, just really, you know, making a lot of mistakes.

01:47How many times was that because of the routes that were being called

01:51and run?

01:52Now you kind of have some information that backs that up.

01:56You know, you've mentioned a lot of times

01:57that they like to run the stick routes.

01:59Yeah.

02:00And verticals, however you want to put that.

02:04That's really just been since C.J. Stroud has come back.

02:07In fact, before C.J. Stroud got his concussion,

02:12his yards per attempt was 6.5.

02:15In the three games that he's played since then, it's 7.8.

02:18It's damn near eight yards per attempt.

02:21That's not just buying in.

02:24It is, but it's not just, oh, I'm buying into what you're, you know,

02:28you're shoveling here, so to speak.

02:30No, they changed their passing game, you know,

02:33and not to get too in the weeds, that's Clint Sterner's job,

02:36that's quarterback guru jobs, that's all 11 guys' jobs that watch this.

02:41But you can see.

02:42My man's only watched one half of the field.

02:43He said all 11.

02:44You got to watch all 22.

02:46All 11, all 22, whatever you want to call it.

02:49But you can see it even with the naked eye.

02:52Like, you know, a lot of people call them stick routes, you know,

02:57comebackers, whatever you want to say.

02:59Hitches is what I meant to say.

03:01Whenever he was having frustration, they were calling a lot more hitches,

03:04hitches, you know, is what I call it.

03:06Sure.

03:07And when you call a hitch route for whatever the receiver is,

03:11the defender immediately has the advantage if the play breaks down.

03:14Yeah, you're sitting down, and that is the end point of the route

03:16for the most part.

03:17Maybe you float a little bit after that, but no, that's the end point.

03:20Now you're static.

03:21You're static.

03:22You're not moving.

03:22I know where you are.

03:23I can not necessarily take my eyes off of you,

03:26but I have a general feeling as opposed to a player in motion.

03:29And you're also kind of cutting the field in half.

03:31Because if he goes to one side of the field,

03:34and there's a hitch route right in front of him,

03:36or a couple or whatever, the whole other side of the field,

03:40you have no shot, and nor do you want to throw the ball over there.

03:43So the defender has the advantage.

03:45But when you start running more verticals and more crossing routes,

03:50et cetera, and the play breaks down, the receiver has the advantage

03:55because that's the old school run to the quarterback,

03:58run across the field, show them your numbers, all that stuff,

04:01and you have more opportunity to make a play.

04:03If you go back and look at some of the plays in the Kansas City game,

04:05those third downs that were big, the Dalton Schultz touchdown in his last game,

04:09those were crossers.

04:11Every single one of them was a play that broke down that were crossers.

04:15So basically, the big change, we've got to change some things

04:19that D'Amico was talking about.

04:21It was like our plays, our past plays have to change.

04:25And that's what I'm saying in terms of you've got to give them credit here.

04:28Yeah, and that's one of the things that we talked about a little bit.

04:31We mentioned that Meena Kimes had made a mention of it on their show,

04:36NFL Live, talking about how this team does well on in-breakers.

04:41Utilize that more.

04:42And it feels like those are the things that you're seeing.

04:43You're seeing those crossers, those slants, those digs across the formation.

04:48And those are giving you opportunities for, one, if he's able to stay in the pocket.

04:53Now you're getting guys come through a couple of windows at times

04:55as opposed to kind of sitting down and having to peace out

04:57or find out those spaces in the zone.

04:59But then also, in the instances where something breaks down,

05:03or even if CJ feels uncomfortable and maybe escapes a pocket too early,

05:06he can move.

05:07And you have, as you mentioned, opportunities for off-schedule, right?

05:10It's off-script, but there's also maybe some of this is post-script,

05:15if you allow me to take a little bit of poetic liberty, right?

05:18But that's what I'm saying.

05:19It's off-script by design.

05:20So kind of post-script.

05:21Like, hey, this is not the actual script of what we have,

05:23but if things go wrong, there's an in-case-of-emergency feel to it, right?

05:28Where you have Dalton Schultz who either, if he's working away from where CJ is,

05:32he can slow down and you have that defender who's been moving in motion.

05:35Maybe he does not keep up.

05:37And now you have that guy move away from him and you create separation.

05:40Or,

05:40if you have that crosser from across the field, right?

05:43There's some of these instances where you're booting.

05:44Now that's more of a design.

05:45And you have a dig coming across.

05:47Is that guy going to be able to cover all the way across the field?

05:50It's one of the things that actually got Damone Clark in a negative way in this game

05:53is that you have Trey McBride in front of him.

05:56Damone Clark has outside leverage.

05:58Trey McBride goes across the field.

06:00Damone Clark's never catching up.

06:02Those are some things that you've got to utilize in this.

06:04And they have utilized a lot better.

06:06And I think that's made CJ a little bit more comfortable to stay in.

06:08And when he escapes, he's escaping laterally instead of backwards, which has been an issue

06:13for me.

06:13You said the thing that I think is most important here.

06:16You know, for CJ Stroud, he's sitting back there.

06:19Look, see, he's just wired in such a way that he wants to throw the ball downfield.

06:23He wants to take shots.

06:24He wants to put the ball in between defenders, in the seam, et cetera.

06:30But when you're running these hitches, he can't do that.

06:32If you give him the opportunity to make these off-script plays, if he has to make them, then

06:38all of a sudden he's like, I can work with that.

06:40And he has.

06:42And you just noticed, I mean, I just said the yards per attempt is almost eight yards per

06:46attempt now.

06:47So he's basically saying, this whole buy-in, he's buying in because he's like, well, that

06:52I can do.

06:53You know, if it breaks down, I can do that.

06:55And even if it doesn't break down, I think it makes it so that the stakes aren't as high.

06:59Yeah.

07:00You know, word of De La So.

07:01So, like, sometimes if you're talking about, here's a skin, you've got to hit it at this

07:05moment of the route, or else the moment's gone.

07:08Like, that is a lot of pressure to be like, I need to hit this at this very moment.

07:12But sometimes if a guy's coming across, if I don't get that first window, I know that

07:16there's a second window coming, or there's instances to make additional opportunities.

07:20That was one of those things where, watching this game, where CJ absolutely did play incredible.

07:24There's also, like, the Dalton Schultz play that I was fawning over yesterday, that we

07:28all should be fawning over.

07:29He throws it in a keyhole.

07:30Before he gets there, there's probably a play to the left side of the field that he could

07:34hit before he gets to that place and he escapes out to his right.

07:37But I think that that's a comfort, is like, if I make that first play, cool, but if I

07:41also don't, there's still plays to be made, because it's not about being perfect, it's

07:45about being able to make your plays, and as D'Amico Ryan says, finish, in this instance

07:49in a play, a modular play situation, rather than the entirety of the game, but they're

07:54giving more opportunities to be successful.

07:56And that's what the job is as a coordinator, is not to get the job done in the way that

08:00you want, it's ultimately just to get the job done in a way that feels sustainable

08:04for this offense, and it feels like they're moving there.

08:06And the other job for a coordinator is to do what's best for your quarterback, especially

08:11a franchise quarterback that makes plays like this, or can make plays like this.

08:15I mean, a lot of credit has to go to Nick Cayley, not just for changing things, but for listening

08:20to the other coaches in the room, who clearly have helped him with some of these concepts.

08:27But that was the charge, that was the expectation.

08:29Bobby Sloak wouldn't have done that.

08:30No.

08:31Bobby Sloak on my way or the highway.

08:32From what we've heard afterwards, that is a thing that I think we could say.

08:37But ultimately, this is the charge.

08:39This is you living up to what you sold us on the front end, because what was the watchword,

08:45what were the things that were said frequently, is that we are going to fit our game plan to

08:48our players.

08:49This is a manifestation of that.

08:52I mean, in week 13, 14, 15, but nonetheless, it's coming to fruition.

08:57And we know that the offense isn't required to do a lot.

09:00So maximizing what you have, even in the context of just making sure you protect the football,

09:05making sure that you matriculate down the field.

09:07You still got to be better in the red zone.

09:09And to be fair, I also think that this helps them.

09:11This should eventually help them in the red zone, having more concepts across instead

09:15of deep.

09:15When the field is only 20 yards deep, as opposed to having the fullness of 40, 50 yards in

09:21front of you, it changes where having all these vertical routes doesn't make sense.

09:25Having routes that go horizontally should help you get a little better.

09:28So yeah, hopefully this helps them.

09:30Obviously, it has to this point.

09:32Hopefully, there's still room to grow with it offensively.

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