00:00Bill Barnwell has a long article about free agency in the NFL this year. I like the way he lays
00:05this
00:05out. It's just for the offensive side of the ball. I'm assuming there's a defensive article
00:10coming pretty soon as well. But it's for each offensive position, and it separates the free
00:17agents, Seth, into tiers, you know, tier one, tier two, et cetera, all the way to tier six.
00:23And I skipped straight down to offensive linemen because I think that's the aisle that the Texans
00:29are going to be shopping in probably for at least one player, if not more. A couple things from this
00:36that I think are very relevant to the Texans. There is only one tier one, and tier one is
00:43franchise player at that position. Among all the offensive linemen, tackles, guards, centers,
00:50there is one tier one franchise level player, and it is Tyler Linderbaum, who we went deep on
00:58yesterday. I did a video on Tyler Linderbaum yesterday. Oh, you did? That should be who
01:03the Texans really zero their sights in on. Yeah. And I'd be comfortable overpaying for Tyler Linderbaum
01:09just because he's that good. I mean, to use a dated comp, Jermani Dawson for the Steelers
01:18was a guy that could do a lot of things. Probably, I'd have to go back and watch the film,
01:22but
01:22probably better than any other center who's ever lived, but could pull, could do things, you know,
01:29block defensive tackles who are at a three technique from the center position. All this stuff that
01:35is really rare that centers are able to do it well. You played against him, right? Yeah, I played
01:39against Jermani Dawson. It sucked. The only good thing about playing against Jermani Dawson was that
01:44you were basically given a free pass that, like, listen, he's going to really get it. He's really
01:49going to, there's going to be a few plays in this game that you're not going to be happy about.
01:53Don't worry about those plays. He's just still got to play aggressively, but he's really going to
01:57make you look like an idiot a few times. You got mulligans because it's Jermani Dawson. No matter who
02:00you were, yeah. Yeah. And I think there's a little element of that with Linderbaum. But, you know,
02:07with me, I feel like the original sin in how they've handled CJ Stroud is, A, the offensive line for
02:14the entire three years that CJ's been the quarterback, but especially in year one, when the
02:18plan going in was to have a rookie center snapping the ball to a rookie quarterback while the plays
02:24are being called by a rookie offensive coordinator. That's just too much rookie in there. There's too
02:28much green in there. Too much Peter principle. Yeah, and a veteran center, a smart center,
02:33and then just a really good center makes, I don't want to use the point guard analogy because that's
02:41not 100% right, but somewhat like a point guard makes everybody else around him better by managing
02:48the show. He makes the guards better than they actually are. And then by some of the play calls
02:54that you can make in the run game, because Tyler Linderbaum can do all these things, it makes
03:00everybody else that much better. And that's why even though center isn't considered a high dollar
03:05position, it's kind of like safety. You know, like nobody thinks safeties are all that great,
03:09but when you've got a really, really good one, it makes a difference. Sure does. And likewise with
03:14centers, okay, great. Lots of guys can play center, but, but when you've got a really,
03:18really good one, that guy's different. It's almost like he's playing a different position.
03:22Yeah. Well, Barnwell's projected average annual salary for Linderbaum, 20 million's the low end.
03:27Do it. 20 to 26 million, he says. 26 million. Well, that's too much. That's a lot.
03:33That's a lot for a center with all my high pollutant talks about. You just said 26 million for a
03:40center.
03:42The other interesting thing about the other interesting thing about this and look, it's
03:48free agencies a few weeks away. We're going to be circling back to a lot of this. Obviously
03:51the there's, there's not even anybody in tier two. It says tier two is pro bowl caliber starters.
03:58First Linderbaum's unique status makes him the only pro bowl or better caliber lineman to hit free
04:03agency. So Barnwell's got one guy in tier one. He's got nobody in tier two, tier three capable
04:12starters. Okay. Here's where you start to see some of the names that we've kicked around on this show.
04:16You know, Joel Petonio, Wyatt Teller, uh, Elijah Vera Tucker, guys like that. I'm, you know,
04:23he has cap casualties in here. We mentioned Elston Jenkins from the Packers yesterday.
04:27That's in here. I thought, and we'll end up talking about these guys at some point, I'm sure,
04:32uh, multiple times over the next few weeks. Um, but the, uh, the one that's interesting to me is
04:39Ed Ingram. Who's all the way down in tier five backups likely to get guaranteed money. So Ed
04:48Ingram, who started every game for the Houston Texans dish. Well, he was in, he was not banged up
04:54for a couple of, when he was healthy, he started, he was your starting right guard. When he was,
04:58when he was healthy, he was your starting right guard. I don't know how many games he played,
05:02you know, whatever, 13, 14, whatever it was, um, had a really good pro football focus grade
05:07played well, played better than what you gave up to get him. I mean, that was a win for Nick
05:12Casario, a six round pick for what Ed Ingram gave you this year. He is viewed by Bill Barnwell as
05:18a
05:18backup likely to net guaranteed money, which puts his price range in the two to $4 million a year
05:24range. Yeah. I think with Ed Ingram, the, the big thing is that last year was such a stark difference
05:29from what he had been previously in his career. And, um, I guess them calling him a backup. I mean,
05:35he was a starter in Minnesota until that last year when he was benched. So he's been a starter. Um,
05:41there's two things about him. One is, okay. It was last year, just an outlier, but then two,
05:47it's that he was really good in the run game. He had some bad moments in pass protection. So that's
05:53where my Linderbaum part comes back into play. Like I said, I think really good centers make the guards
06:00better. They sort things out. They handle the games on the interior. Really? Like that's one thing
06:05Linderbaum does. Cause people will say that Linderbaum is not that great of a pass protector.
06:09Screw that. Like, yeah. Okay. If you need him to, if you need him as a center to be one
06:14-on-one all
06:14the time versus defensive tackles, he's not your guy necessarily, but you don't need him to be that.
06:19You need him to be a guy who can direct traffic, pick up games, set, help set the protections,
06:24all of that. And he can do all that. And it makes the guards better where I am with Ed
06:29Ingram is,
06:30look, I agree. I don't, I think he's probably overvalued in some respects because
06:35of his PFF grade and all of that. But he is a competent starter. I disagree with Barnwell. I think
06:42he's a competent starter who's familiar with the system. So if you don't, I don't want the Texans
06:47to break the bank to sign him. I don't want them to be given him like bonafide. Hey, this guy's
06:52been
06:52a three-time pro bowler type of money, but I'm cool with them paying him a starter salary because then
06:58that leaves, you've got a competent starter at right guard. And then you've got two other positions
07:03on the offensive line that you can be aggressive with either in free agency trade or the draft
07:08that you can get a Linderbaum and then one of these other free agents perhaps, or maybe you'd take a,
07:13take an interior offensive lineman or one of those tackles in the first round. And then,
07:18then you've got five respectable guys on the offensive line.
07:22I think it's, it's starting to feel like with Linderbaum that you brought this up yesterday
07:27that, you know, Linderbaum, that the Texans would be a good place. Like if I were a free agent,
07:31I'm looking at the Texans, that would be a place I'd like to play. D'Amico Ryans feels like a
07:36head
07:36coach you'd like to play for. The team is obviously good. A few more tweaks, which would include you,
07:42Linderbaum yourself. And, you know, maybe this offense gets moving in the right direction.
07:47I'm starting to feel like the Texans though, will probably have to be like maybe high man on the
07:52pay scale for Linderbaum, just cause he's, they're going to have to pay more than Baltimore.
07:57Obviously it seems like that would be a spot he could go back to. And the John Harbaugh dynamic
08:01in New York is a very interesting one to me. You know, how does he view the giants are clearly
08:07a
08:07worse team than the Texans, but how does he view playing for John Harbaugh, the upside of Jackson dart
08:11and the defense has some good pieces on it playing in New York versus, you know, playing in
08:16Houston, that kind of thing. And one more quick note about Linderbaum and I, maybe some Texans
08:21fans might not be as high on Linderbaum. Cause it's not like he jumped off the screen and the
08:25Texans came, the Baltimore offense, uh, didn't do a damn thing against the Texans until it didn't
08:31matter. Uh, I credited the Texans defensive tackles. They, they made it really difficult for
08:36Linderbaum. Linderbaum didn't have, it's not like he had a bad game, but they, boy, the defensive
08:42tackles played really well in that game. They did. Um, like Tim settle jumped out a few
08:46times as having some really good reps versus Linderbaum. Um, and, uh, it's, it, which goes
08:52to the old other side of, okay, are they going to bring back Sheldon Rankins? Are they going
08:55to bring back Tim settle? Yeah. How much does all of that cost? Yep.
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