00:00We are more than a week removed from the Texans and really more importantly,
00:04D'Amico Ryan sitting down with the Assembly Media and giving a lot of his thoughts
00:08after, you know, the Texans flamed out of the playoffs.
00:10And one of the things that was most notable was, one, when we asked ourselves this Friday
00:15if we were going to get any news, we are a number of days later still haven't gotten any news.
00:18All right.
00:19Do you think that he's gone through his process of evaluating his staff?
00:22I think he has.
00:23He has to have by now, right?
00:24It's Tuesday?
00:25I would hope so.
00:25We might hear something today on any movings.
00:28You think so?
00:28Yeah, I think we might.
00:29Okay, so maybe we just keep our eyes out for that, the possibility.
00:32Yeah, but the other thing he said is literally every player.
00:35Now, they're gone now.
00:36I'm sure they're.
00:37Oh, yeah, they have to have done their exit interviews and everything.
00:39Yeah, but I'm also sure.
00:40Cancun.
00:41Wherever.
00:42Yeah, yes and yes.
00:43Aruba.
00:44Yeah, all of them.
00:44Cancun on three.
00:45All of the above.
00:46I think they're going to Aruba.
00:47They like the wind a little bit more out there.
00:48But I don't know if the coaches.
00:50That's such a dumb joke.
00:51I don't know if the coaches are still there, but I think they probably are.
00:55At least maybe through like.
00:56They probably meet in the day or something like that.
00:58Yeah, through to today or Wednesday or whatever.
01:00But either way, one of the things he said is he's going to give every player,
01:04I don't know if it's a paper or a card or whatever, notes.
01:07A question there?
01:08You know.
01:09He said paper or card like this is 1986.
01:12No, he said it.
01:12He said it.
01:13Like he's going to give them some notes, literal notes on this is what we want you to do.
01:18This is what we expect.
01:19Like the emails we'd be getting from the big boss?
01:21Yeah, I don't really see those too much.
01:22I bet you don't.
01:23But last time you got into your work email.
01:2819.
01:29No.
01:29All right.
01:30Okay.
01:32So what are those notes for CJ Stroud?
01:35Like he wrote down, let's say, three or four, you know, this, this, this, and this.
01:40I can see if it's just one big note that says protect the football because that seems to be the large sentiment that they had.
01:46I think for one, how technical do we want to get?
01:50Like how in the sticks do we want to get?
01:52You're the coach.
01:52You saying notes for the coach?
01:54No, for CJ Stroud because you go off in the offseason.
01:56He's giving every player some notes.
01:58Yeah.
01:58So you go off in the offseason and they are to themselves.
02:00But, you know, it is incumbent upon you as a professional to work on your craft.
02:03Like the players writing the notes.
02:04Right.
02:04No, no, no.
02:05The coaches will give the players notes going into the offseason.
02:08Do this.
02:08This is what we want you to do.
02:09This is what you can work on so that by the time you come back in, you are prepared to jump into our program and we're prepared to be successful.
02:15Come next season.
02:18One of them, I think sincerely, is got to be about, you know, footwork and, well, I mean, I made the joke.
02:26It is protect the football and like feeling more comfortable in those moments making that decision.
02:31I don't know exactly how that note, you know, sets in.
02:34But that's got to be number one, seeing as especially that's the way that the season unfolds and that was already a point of emphasis for them as well.
02:41So that's got to be a part of it.
02:42I do think that there's some technical aspects of it, which is one of them, the accuracy that he had seemed to go.
02:48And I don't know how much of that was like option routes and miscommunications, but there was times where it felt like, man, the ball is sailing on CJ.
02:54And not just in this later stage, but there was points even in the win streak, that run where you go, oh, there's instances where he's throwing the ball high.
03:01And I was like, how much of that is him trying to protect the football from being turned over?
03:05But how much of it is also just mechanical things?
03:07So getting back to that accuracy, getting back to that dude who's putting the ball exactly where he wants to, I imagine that's got to be an offseason.
03:13I think that's a good one.
03:15Mine is going to, my first note is going to be an all bold and maybe all caps, you know, like a strongly worded email you were talking about earlier.
03:23Humble yourself.
03:25And by that, I don't mean CJ is walking around here cocky and all that.
03:29Maybe he is, but I'm just saying that's not the definition I would have.
03:35The great Greg Popovich always used to say, get over yourself.
03:38I think CJ needs to get over himself.
03:42And in this way, we've talked about, well, it's not a fit and CJ Stroud's body language.
03:47And he doesn't seem to really be embracing it.
03:49And then we all know what happened in the Patriots game when clearly, you know, they had had some success, you know, with the D'Amico, you know, slash Casario, slash Nick Cayley style of New England and protecting the ball and run the ball.
04:01We all know that, right?
04:03Yet he still made those, I got to make a big play moments.
04:06I postulated earlier, late in the season, you know, does, is it starting to affect him that he's not being mentioned?
04:14You know, is he trying to make basically a 19 point shot, you know, to use a basketball reference?
04:18You know, is he trying to maybe become a hero, define his legacy on one play or two or three plays?
04:24Whether that's true or not, maybe it's not the best fit for him.
04:28Maybe he could thrive in another system.
04:30Get over yourself, man.
04:32Get over it.
04:33Yeah.
04:34I mean, there's definitely some of that, that the psychological portions of it gets a little tough on how do you handle that?
04:40Because I've seen a number of people say, hey, go get a sports psychologist.
04:43Just get with the one that Sam Darnold might have gotten to with or whatever.
04:47And we'll talk more about that comparison as well over this program.
04:50But I wonder how well that lands when you are, when you're imposing that.
04:55That feels like that's one of those things that has to happen from the inside out as opposed to outside in.
04:59I mean, that's hard, good, hard coaching.
05:01Good, hard coaching.
05:02Get over yourself.
05:04Well, but, but, but, but no buts.
05:06You know, here's the other thing.
05:07Figain, I know you have one.
05:08Like, you're not, at this point, you're not going to win any PR battle if you're C.J. Stroud.
05:14You're just not.
05:15Well, yeah, right.
05:16And that probably ties in with one that he definitely has said to him, which is don't get on the internet.
05:20Just go ahead and call whoever, AT&T, Frontier, whoever, whoever provides your internet.
05:25Go ahead and cut that off.
05:26Like, we just don't need to have contact with the outside world.
05:29You are, you are the butt of everybody's joke right now.
05:31Yeah.
05:31But you need to find a way to avoid that and, more importantly, not, find a way to not let that impact you.
05:38Because it's hard to be, like, not care about that we're human beings and whatever.
05:41Right.
05:41Because, but he needs to very much, like, look internally and not, not externally.
05:46And that's one of those tough things to kill within ourselves.
05:49Yeah.
05:49The one thing I was thinking about, if, if I'm D'Amico Ryans and I'm giving them a note, I will probably tell him to trust the process, maybe.
05:59Yes.
05:59Yeah, just trust, trust, trust the, um, trust the system, trust the process.
06:04Because I felt like CJ might've trusted it a little early on.
06:09Eventually, later in the season, I think he just kind of started doing his own thing.
06:13Like you said, I think he really, I think the one thing I look at, too, is Davis Mills when he came in.
06:19I felt like he just followed the system.
06:21He didn't try to play hero ball or anything like that.
06:24100%.
06:25He followed the system, even if it was three and out and putting it.
06:28He followed that.
06:30He just did what the system did.
06:32And I think CJ kind of didn't do that in the last two games, or at least the last two playoff games.
06:37I think you're right.
06:38And as much as I just said, you're not going to win any PR battles, you're also not going to, they're not going to change this.
06:43Maybe they'll tweak it, but they're not going to change their philosophy for you.
06:46That's why I think you should just say, trust the system at this point.
06:50But that's also another conversation that we can have about whether or not that is the right way to go about things.
06:55I think they should tweak it, to be honest.
06:56Yeah.
06:58How do you think about this?
06:59Because it seems like somebody said they would go out of their way, okay, to avoid the chatter.
07:02Or maybe they're saying, I wouldn't.
07:03How much do you think maybe the idea should possibly be, hey, actually, maybe dive into this, see what this is, and steel yourself to it, and find a way to use it as fuel?
07:14Is it possible that you can counteract this?
07:17And maybe, because there's been conversations about how soft CJ is or whatever.
07:20And whether or not you agree with that, is there a possibility that you go, all right, let's address this.
07:25Let's hit this head on.
07:26Because there's obviously a different way to handle it.
07:28You can end up being a person that avoids it, or maybe you can go to the place where you look at it head on, and you go, don't run from this.
07:36Don't hide from this.
07:38Steal yourself to it and run through that wall.
07:39I think a lot of that has to do with the makeup of the individual.
07:43And I'm not going to sit here and say I know CJ Stroud inside out and what really drives him and all that.
07:49But from the outside looking in, I think he's a guy that should probably avoid the internet and not lean into it.
07:54Yeah, I think it's kind of deeper than that.
07:56It's not like a Baker Mayfield type thing where you see the chatter.
08:00Now, Baker, I would say lean into that.
08:02Yeah, no, he do lean into that.
08:04But I think CJ, I think it's a little deeper than that.
08:06I think he really needs to focus on, honestly, some of his mechanics, man, just getting this offense together.
08:13This is bigger than just some trolls on the internet, just getting after his game.
08:18He really got to focus on his new offense and get it together.
08:22I will say, and this is one of those things that we've talked about.
08:25I wonder how you implement it in the offseason.
08:28But utilizing his legs, and maybe I'm doing too much recency bias because we've seen Drake May in the way that he's done things.
08:34He has gotten a lot of credit for the way that he escapes, not just that he escapes.
08:39You saw him running football in that game, in the AFC Championship game, was a large part of what he brought to the game.
08:45Otherwise, not doing a lot.
08:47But he escapes, and he escapes forward.
08:49He escapes up the A-gap, and he goes and gets yards that way.
08:51And C.J. Stroud at times demonstrated the capability of doing that.
08:55You have to imagine that some of that hit that ultimately takes him out with a concussion for a number of weeks might have shifted that appeal,
09:02and you end up kind of escaping outwards and trying to escape backwards.
09:05How much do you go, hey, let's get back to escaping forward.
09:09Let's get back to addressing that portion of your game and seeing how you can attack teams with your legs as well.
09:14No, I agree, and I also want to just emphasize, I do think the Texans are not without fault here.
09:19They do need to make some tweaks and adjustments for C.J. Stroud, but they're not going to change what they want to do,
09:24philosophically, not with this defense, and clearly they're going to address the run game.
09:28But largely, C.J., get over yourself, man.
09:32A32 says, be more aggressive, hit the weights, and get stronger.
09:35Didn't he say that it was weightlifting that ultimately put him in that place where he had that shoulder shortness
09:41that kind of kept him in the nebulous place?
09:43Well, we never really got an answer.
09:45No, we didn't because we moved past it, and then we were in the football season,
09:48and nobody was going to go back to it.
09:49Yeah, but maybe let's be careful about the weights so that we can get in and jump in
09:54and immediately be ready to attack the offseason and the training camp regimen that you have.
09:59Whatever it is, you hope that he attacks it with vigor and that he comes out with real progress
10:04because that's going to be necessary to redeem his reputation,
10:06which right now is unfortunately on the Internet in a very, very bad place.
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