- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean discuss Ben Solak putting the Texans in next season's Super Bowl and Manti Teo saying they're just one move away. Do they feel the same or do these guys need to pump the brakes a little?
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00:00Here was Ben Solak.
00:01We played yesterday.
00:02There's a reason we're playing it here again.
00:04But Ben Solak, ESPN.com writer, who was on Kay Adams' podcast, right?
00:10Yeah, Up and Adams.
00:11Up and Adams.
00:13He's very bullish on the Houston Texans.
00:15That entire defense is going to be back.
00:17And they obviously had some – they were quite healthy this year.
00:19And they were always worried about the health.
00:20But that defense was one of the three elite defenses, right?
00:22Denver, Seattle, and then Houston.
00:24And then offensively, that was an unbelievably young offense, right?
00:27You have a rookie running back in Woody Marks.
00:29You have rookie young receivers in Jaden Higgins and in Jalen Knoll.
00:31You have no tanked out for the entirety of the season.
00:33You have a rookie starting left tackle.
00:35They had the offensive line.
00:36And they were shuffling the offensive line over the course of the year
00:37to try to figure out the best group because they had multiple free agent ads, right?
00:40You have Cesar Stroud, who's still a young quarterback.
00:42You had Nick Caley who was a first-year OC.
00:44And over the course of the back half of the regular season,
00:46they were figuring stuff out and they were getting a little better.
00:48Running game was improving.
00:49Jaden Higgins was taking steps forward.
00:51They obviously got deleted by the Patriots in the snow.
00:54Bad game.
00:54It leaves a sour taste in your mouth.
00:56But in general, that offense was never going to be in its final form after one season.
01:01And I think that you're going to see some more investment in the offensive line this offseason.
01:04And you're going to see a much better, more polished, and controlled C.J. Stroud
01:07over the course of next year.
01:08That plus just this defense, right?
01:10That defense is going to auto-print you eight wins, nine wins.
01:13But 11 ESPN analysts made their picks on 2026 champion, MVP, a couple categories.
01:23One of them is Ben Solak.
01:25Of the 11 writers picked their Super Bowl champion, their Super Bowl matchup, and who's going to win?
01:29Ben Solak.
01:31Texans over Rams in the Super Bowl next season.
01:36And he echoes that he tried a paragraph about it.
01:39He kind of echoes what he said in that sound right there.
01:41I'm buying all sorts of Texans' stock as that defense is staying together.
01:45And the offense was showing positive signs of growth in a season with a new O.C.
01:49and a totally retooled offensive line.
01:52I'll add this, which might get retooled again, the offensive line.
01:56I mean, there's probably going to be some new faces.
01:58With an improvement, just to finish out, with an improvement in the running game,
02:01Houston is set for an explosion, he says.
02:03Okay, this is the interesting thing about that.
02:05It's going to have to come most likely with some improvement on offense, obviously.
02:09No doubt.
02:09Especially in the playoffs.
02:10So that's a given.
02:12I spent most of this season talking about the likelihood of winning a championship when driven by your defense.
02:22Really hard to win a championship just with just the defense driving you.
02:28This is a year where you could have made the Super Bowl with that performance.
02:32You could have made it to the Super Bowl.
02:34I don't think the Texans had a very good chance of beating the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.
02:38Even if C.J. Stroud had been playing like the normal version of himself, Seahawks just have a better offense
02:43than the Texans.
02:43We saw that matchup in Week 7.
02:45Yeah.
02:45The defenses kind of negate each other out, and then you've got a Seahawks offense that's a really good offense
02:51versus a Texans offense that's very mediocre.
02:54Obviously, they're not going against each other.
02:56But of the four main platoons, the Seahawks have an advantage there.
02:59Yep.
02:59So I think that – but this is a year that you could have made the Super Bowl led by
03:05your defense.
03:06That's what the Patriots did, the defense, the Super Bowl.
03:10Yep.
03:10So the Texans could have – this is a season where the Texans could have done it.
03:14I don't know if it's going to be like that next year.
03:16You know, there's a good chance that either the Bills or the Ravens or the Chiefs or some other team
03:23that we're not thinking about right now
03:24ends up having a really potent offense, and you're not going to be able to just ride your defense to
03:29a championship.
03:30So it's – for me, it's not as simple as, well, hey, look, if they just get a little bit
03:35better on offense, then there you go.
03:37They need to maintain where they are on defense, and then, yeah, they've got to get a lot better on
03:43offense.
03:43Yeah.
03:43They've got to be a legitimately top-10 offense if you want to be realistic about winning the Super Bowl.
03:48There's two things that broke the Texans' way this past year that I just think it's hard to believe
03:53they're going to break the same way in 2026.
03:57One is what you just talked about, Seth, that the AFC broke in such a way that you had three
04:02very inexperienced quarterbacks
04:04in the top three seeds with Trevor Lawrence, Drake May, and Bo Nix, who didn't even make it through the
04:10entire postseason.
04:11They had to finish out with Jared Stidham.
04:14And that Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, like at least one of those guys is going to
04:19be –
04:19odds are, or more, are going to be back in the postseason next year.
04:23That whole dynamic.
04:25And then the fact that they had five total missed games among the top seven players on defense.
04:32The seven guys on defense that got recognition for either Pro Bowl or All-Pro,
04:37and I'm throwing Jalen Petrie in there because I think a lot of people thought he should have made one
04:40of those two.
04:41Yeah, yeah.
04:41So I'm throwing Petrie in there.
04:43They missed a total of five games.
04:45Those two things are just very, very, very unlikely to happen next year.
04:49And, in fact, the likely thing is that both of them don't happen.
04:53So now you're dealing with a better AFC, or at least a more accomplished AFC, I'll call it,
04:59a more decorated AFC with guys who've actually won MVPs and things like that back in the mix.
05:05And a defense where you're going to have to – you better have some depth,
05:09especially if you lose one of these guys like your two corners or either of your edge rushers.
05:14You can probably – the guys you have at back up there aren't Daniel Hunter or Will Anderson.
05:17Well, but, I mean, it's a big deal.
05:20That's a driving force of why you're allowed to play the coverages that they do play.
05:24You know, one of the reasons they can keep it simple on defense is because they generate a really good
05:28pass rush
05:28with those guys on the edge.
05:30But, yeah, where the injuries really hurt them this year was a defensive tackle.
05:35But they had really good depth there.
05:38And the drop-off from the starters to the backups wasn't as big because those weren't guys
05:43who were the caliber of Will Anderson or Daniel Hunter.
05:45And Togiai becoming what he did was kind of unforeseen.
05:48You know, that was some house money that you got there.
05:50Of those two things, of those two dynamics, the AFC being better, the defense being healthy,
05:59the one that concerns me more is actually the defense being healthy.
06:02Because I think if the defense does stay healthy, then I think you can go against some of those teams.
06:08You know, like, if you start losing guys on defense, I don't know that it matters too much
06:12what the AFC makeup is like.
06:14You know, like, you've got to – so, of those two things, the thing I'm more worried about
06:19is the stuff inside the building there and those guys staying healthy,
06:22more so than what's happening, you know, around the AFC.
06:26There's one thing just off the top of my mind.
06:28Yeah.
06:29Because I've wondered about this at times as a former defensive lineman.
06:31Look, you rotate your defensive lineman, and it's good.
06:34It's the right thing to do.
06:35You keep guys fresh.
06:36You keep them coming in there.
06:37You know, as Matt Burke says, you want them throwing fastballs all the time.
06:40But it is – I wonder how much analytics has dove into just exactly how to rotate everybody.
06:46Because this is what would always be frustrating for me as a defensive lineman.
06:50Sometimes you're just – you're giving guys breaks.
06:51You're trying to keep them on a pitch count and everything.
06:53You're trying to keep them fresh for the fourth quarter.
06:55But then there's times in a game where all of a sudden you've got your entire backup defensive lineman line
07:00out there.
07:01And, you know, the offense is backed up on their own 10-yard line.
07:05But they convert, like, three first downs in a row.
07:08So what – like, just – and it all – back in my day, in the dinosaur days,
07:14it was very much a combination of the coach doing it by the seat of his pants.
07:19It's the individual players and where they were on the pecking order
07:22and deciding when they were going to play, like, insert themselves back in.
07:25Yeah.
07:26You know, because a lot of times the players – the starter himself sees a couple of first downs.
07:31I'm going in.
07:31Screw this.
07:32I'm getting back in there.
07:33Helming on, yeah.
07:33But, yeah, it's a big part.
07:35I'm guessing Casario has dug into this, and maybe the Texans are advanced with it.
07:40But – but because it is – it's – a fresh backup a lot of times is a better player
07:47than a gassed all-pro guy.
07:49Totally, yeah.
07:49But you've got to find that balance but still have your key guys on the field in the fourth quarter
07:53and fresh.
07:54Yep, yep.
07:54That's interesting.
07:56Manti Teo on Good Morning Football had this to say.
07:59I guess the question they were doing is name a team that's one offseason away from being in the Super
08:06Bowl.
08:08The defense that you have over there in Houston, you just need an offense that won't lose you the game.
08:14You don't even need an offense that's going to win you the game.
08:16There's so many times that we saw last year, even especially in the postseason,
08:21that it was a defense that kept giving you opportunities.
08:24Not only giving you opportunities, but was saving you from bad opportunities.
08:28When you have a defense like what D'Amico Ryans has over there,
08:31you need an offense that just gets the job done and doesn't mess it up.
08:37And so, if there's one team, guys, that I think is just one offseason away,
08:41just one free agency signing away, it's the Houston Texans.
08:45Okay, that last part where he says one free agency signing away.
08:49Yeah.
08:50I feel like there's a little bit more work to do than that.
08:51I just – it's funny because he's saying a lot of the same things that I was a proponent of
08:57in the first part of this segment, and yet the one catch there is you do need more than that.
09:03I mean, you need to get to a point where I think the Texans, the way they were constructed this
09:08year,
09:08where in the regular season, it was an offense that was just, hey, you're not losing the game.
09:15You're taking where you are, and you're doing just enough to win the game
09:18because the defense is so good.
09:20And that was enough, and it probably would have been enough to get to the Super Bowl
09:23if you would continue to play that way in the regular – or in the playoffs.
09:26But I don't think it was going to be enough to win the Super Bowl.
09:30So that's where it's – whether it's one free agency signing or one draft,
09:36it's going to be more than one player.
09:37But it's also got to come along with the development of Ariante Urshry.
09:41C.J. Stroud continuing to get better.
09:43A running back – I would say three off-season acquisitions by the draft or free agency.
09:48That's the thing I was going to – I was going to kind of frame it.
09:51Like when he says one free agency sign, look, they're going to sign more than one free agent, obviously.
09:55But I can see it being one big, like, splurge of free agency, assuming that you hit on your draft
10:01picks.
10:02They've got a lot of draft picks, and they've got three in the top 59.
10:05If you can hit on those three and they're contributors, they don't even necessarily need to be starters.
10:09I'd like one of them to be a running back who is your starter.
10:12And it's funny, most of the – we'll start doing mock draft injections here in the pretty near future
10:17because they're all – the mock drafts are starting to flow now.
10:20Now, they all, that I've seen, have the Texans taking a running back in the first or second round.
10:26That is an acknowledged – even with the rookie year that Woody Marks had,
10:30the experts out there in the draft seem to think, like, yeah, the Texans, they need some more juice.
10:35Even if – forget about what you think Woody Marks' role is.
10:38They just don't have enough guys in running back.
10:39Well, and part of that, too, is I think that the development,
10:43the hopefully continued development of Jaden Higgins and Ariante Urssery,
10:48that's still a draft playing out.
10:51Those first three years, those guys hopefully – think about Jalen Petrie in his third year
10:55versus Jalen Petrie, well, in his second year especially when he got benched.
10:59But Jalen Petrie got a lot better over the course of his first four seasons.
11:04Yep.
11:04So hopefully Jaden Higgins is becoming more of an impact player.
11:07Ariante Urssery, I think, is going to be just fine.
11:09Could potentially be really good at left tackle.
11:12But he's going to be better next year than he is this year.
11:15And just either a running back, an interior offensive lineman that comes in
11:19and plays – like the Seahawks had Gray Zabel this year who started for them all season long.
11:25Yeah, those – the running back and somebody on the interior offensive line,
11:29if they hit home runs on those draft picks, that could be a big, big deal.
11:33We went through that Fox Sports list of 100 free – the top 100 free agents yesterday.
11:39More through the lens of the Texans' own free agents and guys that – the people who wrote this article
11:46had the Texans actually signing.
11:48The one – the only outside free agent they had the Texans signing on this list was Brayden Smith,
11:52the right tackle for the Indianapolis Colts.
11:55You and I were both, I think, kind of so-so on that, on them bringing in Brayden Smith.
11:58Yeah.
11:59It was just that he's been injured every year for the last –
12:01He feels like an offensive line version of Christian Kirk.
12:04They had them bringing back Sheldon Rankins.
12:07Yeah, they had Christian Kirk going to the Colts on a low-level deal.
12:10They had them bringing back Sheldon Rankins, which I like.
12:12They had them bringing back Ed Ingram, which to me is, show me the sticker.
12:17Yeah.
12:18You know, show me what the sticker price is, and I'll tell you whether or not I like that one.
12:22I'm curious about that one because Ed Ingram seemed like the kind of guy that maybe they reached out to
12:27during the regular season.
12:29Oh, to try to extend.
12:30Yeah.
12:31Yeah.
12:31And I wonder if Ed Ingram – because especially with a guy like Ed Ingram,
12:33who had had a rough go of it his first few years in the NFL, was a starter,
12:37but then was benched midway through 2024, and then had the best season of his career.
12:43They probably thought, okay, maybe this guy might be primed to sign a reasonable deal,
12:50but he might be thinking, no, what do you think?
12:52I just had the best season of my career.
12:54I'm going to test free agency.
12:55Yep.
12:56I saw a graphic earlier today, and I think we'll see a lot of this, Brees Hall.
13:00Yeah.
13:01Brees Hall and Kenneth Walker III are probably the two best running backs out there on the market,
13:05so the Texans chose to fill that need through free agency.
13:09And the Texans, they had like four logos on the Brees Hall graphic, Seth,
13:14and one of them was the Texans, and I would imagine we'll see quite a bit of that.
13:19Well, yeah, and Brees Hall is only – he is – I think he's 24.
13:23Yeah.
13:24I don't know if he turns 25 or not, but he's still – it'll be a second contract,
13:27but he's still a young player.
13:30So, yeah, he'll be 25 years old next year.
13:33Okay.
13:33And, yeah, the second contract for a running back doesn't concern me nearly as much as it used to,
13:38especially if it's a guy who's still young.
13:40You know, Joe Mixon was an older guy, and the Texans extended him after they traded for him,
13:45and now it's been the entire – the old cautionary tale about signing older running backs.
13:51Great.
13:51You got some good usage out of him, but then you had an entire season of zero out of him.
13:55Yep, you did.
13:57And we'll see what happens with Joe Mixon over the next weeks.
14:00Nick Casario said on this show they're going to sit down with him at some point,
14:03and they're going to figure the whole thing out.
14:04So, yeah, we'll see what happens with Joe Mixon.
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