00:00So with Philip Rivers playing at age 44, not just playing at age 44, but basically being pulled
00:07metaphorically off the couch. Yeah, metaphorically off the couch. I don't like people
00:12using that because Joe Flacco actually said, no, literally I was on the couch. He wasn't doing
00:17anything. Whereas Philip Rivers has been coaching football at least and has been engaged in
00:21conversation and whatever, except Joe Flacco looked less like he had been on the couch.
00:26Yeah. He looked like he was in good shape. He looked like he was on the couch. Yeah. Well,
00:31there's no chance Philip Rivers gets any couch time with 10 kids. That is, I promise you. He does,
00:36but he gets kicked in the nargs a lot. Right, right, right. Yeah. They all jump on him. So it's turned
00:41into a lot of players who've retired within the last handful of years. Like, Hey, what if they
00:48called you to play? Um, JJ walkout asked that question yesterday. We know JJ Watts body type
00:55has changed since retiring, but we also know that he hasn't lost as much weight as it looks
00:59like he told us. Yeah. He's lost like, I want to say it was, it was 10 pounds maybe. And maybe not
01:05even that much. I thought he said it was about the same. It was about the same. He's just changed
01:08his workouts. Obviously. I think, I think he could get back into his playing weight. Very,
01:12very honestly, one good leg work. Right. And his playing. Yeah, probably JJ Watt was asked about,
01:19about this. Could you play some snaps right now? What role could you play right now?
01:23Could you go out today and play a game? I could, I mean, especially a third down
01:26situational pass rusher. Absolutely. Now tomorrow would be hell tomorrow would be hell. Um, but I
01:32could do it. I mean, I don't, I don't know how great I'd be. I mean, I still, I still run and do
01:37sprints. I still work out so I could do it full game. No subs, all three downs. I mean,
01:41no, not all three downs full game. I've 65 plays would put me into the ground, brother. I'd be,
01:45I'd be down for the count. No, you want me to come in for twenties pass rush snaps right now?
01:50Absolutely. I'll give you a sack. No question. A sack. No question. No question. That was a big,
01:55that was a, that's where he put his fist down. Yep. Um, uh, yeah. And I believe it. I think a lot,
02:01you know, we've talked to on the pregame show alone, we've talked to Antonio Smith and Earl Mitchell
02:06two interior defensive linemen who came in and very openly said, no, I was not in shape,
02:13but they, they figured it out and they worked their way into shape. And what everything's JJ
02:18saying there about being a situational player. Yeah. Like if he, if JJ only came in on third
02:23downs and you know, gave you some interior pass rush or something, even except I don't think
02:29he'd want to do that. He'd want to be out on the edge. Yeah. He could totally do that.
02:32But the, I think for the Texans, their concern is that they have guys like Danico Autry that can
02:38come down and play inside, but he's not a big body, you know, combination run stuff or pass rusher
02:45that you need in a lot of situations. So they're going to use him increasingly on the interior,
02:51but it's still not the replacement for a true defensive tackle. And, um, JJ could, yeah,
02:56JJ could do it. I think my dream was to always have JJ bulk up the three 15 and be a nose. I know
03:01that would have looked good. I think he always thought I was joking when I told him that I'm
03:04like, no, it would be awesome. And he doesn't, he doesn't understand how much fun he would have
03:08doing it. Eating. You mean he's never eaten with reckless abandon for two straight months,
03:12not for two straight months. Although he'll, he'll shoot out some pictures of stuff that he
03:15eats. Right. Yeah. And then he goes and he runs a triathlon or something like, no,
03:19this is eating all of that and then doing the opposite of a triathlon. Right. Yeah.
03:23Sitting around and sitting on the couch. You can say I came off the couch. It was part of my
03:29training to be a nose tackle. Yep. Um, that'd be pretty bad-ass though. Cause he could,
03:34how serious do you think he sounded in that audio right there?
03:39Oh, he said pretty lighthearted. Yeah. I think, I think he's, I think he, um,
03:42I know he's having a really good time doing what he's doing. Yeah. Um, he's good at it too. Yeah.
03:47Yeah. And he's getting, he's getting better and better at it. I think he's already one of the best
03:52guys out there in terms of, especially in terms of just the average fan enjoying him as a color
03:57commentator, which is, that is the test. It's not whether the football nerds think you're breaking
04:02down the, the, the coverage is enough or anything. The TV executives want to know,
04:07does the average person watching, you know, grandmother, grand, grandson, age groups,
04:14the gender, no matter, like, does the average fan really like him? It seems like he's really got a
04:18lot of, of mass appeal. The biggest keys there are don't talk in terms that the audience doesn't
04:27know. Yeah. You know, if you're going to say 12 personnel, explain that it's a running back and
04:31two tight ends, that kind of thing. The other thing is be funny, have some humor, but don't be,
04:36don't be dorky about it. Also, don't be stuck with a, uh, a fish of a partner. That's number
04:42three. I can tell them all about that. That's number three. All about it. Did you hear what,
04:45did you hear what he just said about you, Ben? Nobody? Uh, they have a good rapport. I think I,
04:51I loved Diane Eagle before he got partnered with JJ. I think it's a great crew, man. And I think
04:56Kevin Washburn does a good job on the sidelines. So yeah, that's, that's really good. JJ want,
05:00I could get a sack definitively. He says it. I don't know if I could talk him into, um,
05:05we should, we should get a, we should get a contingency of former defensive tackles to
05:09just go talk to JJ at his house about how much fun it is. Um, have an intervention. If you only
05:14have to play, if you only have to play 20 snaps in a game, just be a run stuffer. This would be the
05:19first ever intervention. I could see someone having an intervention. If somebody overate and they
05:22were obese and you say, get in and say, Hey, this would be the first ever intervention telling
05:26somebody to get obese. Well, one thing we'll always point out about defensive tackles is
05:30especially nose tackles is a boy. Look at that. Wow. I didn't really like go watch nose tackles for
05:35the first time. I didn't realize you guys took so much abuse. You're just getting double teamed
05:39all the time and everything. And for me, honestly, I enjoyed the combo blocks because you didn't
05:45have to, you just had to, it was like, um, it was like doing a, uh, one rep of an exercise
05:52instead of 20 reps of an exercise. I just got to anchor in and I, you know, as long as I win
05:57initially and then maybe if I make a play, I barely even have to run to go do it. Did you tell
06:02people that when they said, wow, how much punishment do you take? Or did you take the
06:06sympathy? I made them look at me the way they look at a war hero. Yeah. It's the sacrifices that
06:11I've made. Oh yes. But I did it for the cause. Damn it. Yes. Oh my God. Uh, Hey, good question.
06:20Do you think Earl Mitchell and Antonio Smith want to play any football right now for the
06:24Texans? Uh, let's see. Of those two guys, I don't think either of them really looked like
06:27they were actually Tony was yoked. Yeah. Antonio Smith looked good. I'm being, I'm being tongue
06:33in cheek just for the audience. Just so they know. Yeah. What do you mean? Well, I'm, well,
06:36I'm joking. Oh, about actually bringing them back. Well, you said it right after you said he
06:40looks good. Yeah. I'm being tongue in cheek. No, he does look good. He looks pretty built.
06:45Yeah. Um, I mean, talking about your being tongue in cheek. No, he looks amazing. Yeah.
06:49And I was being serious about that. No, I think, um, I think that, oh boy, it's, I am genuinely
06:56concerned about the defensive tackle situation. That's my question. They've got Nikwan Jones who
07:00played a few snaps, but he's been bounced around and now the Texans though, have gotten the very
07:04best efforts out of a lot of their interior defensive linemen through the years, including the current
07:09bunch that they have right now. Yeah. Every year, this is what happens. The Texans will
07:14sign Sheldon Rankins and people say, uh, all right. I, great. You signed Sheldon Rankins.
07:19Sheldon Rankins leaves in free agency. I can't believe they just let him walk out the door.
07:24Just let him walk right out the door. Yeah. It is. Yeah. They, they do this with multiple
07:29guys. Malik Collins. All right. I don't know. I guess they got Malik Collins. I can't believe
07:34they let Malik Collins right out the door. Well, you know, that's going to be this off
07:39season. Tim settle. Yeah. Tim settle is a free agent after the year. And nobody was excited
07:44about the Tim. I know for a fact they were, I remember when they signed him and I remember
07:49being like, this is a salute. I was one of them. I'm like, this is a solution on the interior of
07:53the defensive line. And now I will be like that. You got to bring back Tim settle by God.
07:57Oh, they extended Tommy Togiai, I guess, whatever. Now if Tommy Togiai hadn't been extended, I
08:04can't believe they let Tommy Togiai walk out the door. If we're measuring value, I'm going
08:08to do the Woody Marks thing that I did a couple of weeks ago. If we're measuring the value of
08:12a player in part, because of how, how little depth is there is behind him. Tommy Togiai and
08:18Sheldon Rankins are incredibly valuable football players to this. No. And honestly, like, there's
08:23no part where you can criticize Casario for not having enough defensive tackles. They
08:27had, I mean, it's gone. Kurt Heinisch, uh, fully fought a Cosi, Tim settle, Mario Edwards,
08:34four guys who could have been conceivably starters, um, for the Texans this year were on the roster.
08:41Now Kurt Heinisch never was, you know, he's been injured the entire time, but you still got
08:45three guys who could start on a good defense, um, who aren't available to you. And they still
08:51have two viable starters, but that's, this is one of the positions that they were deepest
08:56at in terms of having viable NFL players. And it's been tested to the extreme. This
09:00is where, this is where they've got to hope for in the last three weeks of the season they've
09:05got, and I don't know who it would be. They've got to hope for some veteran defensive tackle,
09:10you know, probably journeyman type on a bad team to say, Hey man, can we just, can we just
09:16part ways and then hope he doesn't get picked up on waivers that it drops to you in waivers there.
09:22So, um, that's honestly, if that were to happen this week, that's one of the good things about
09:26being the seven seed right now is you probably won't have many teams outside of the playoff
09:31picture looking to pick up a journeyman defensive tackle off waivers. What we do know about Nick
09:35Casario, who by the way is going to join us tomorrow on the show at seven 30. So we'll ask about
09:39this, this conundrum, this issue on the interior of the defensive line. We'll talk about it with the
09:45Texans GM tomorrow and a whole lot of other things, but he's not afraid to pick guys up
09:49off of waivers. I mean, Tierra tart a few years ago is one particular defensive lineman that
09:54I remember. Tierra is another guy that's gone on and like he really well. And, uh, so they
09:59do have a knack for getting the best out of defensive tackles. It's just, how can you do
10:03it? Mid-season like this with guys who have only been on the roster, like Naquan Jones for
10:07a week. Yep.
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