00:00I think that maybe the most important thing for Texans, for the Texans, is getting a better idea of how
00:07Nick Casario sees things, which we were able to get yesterday.
00:10Through a few various things, right?
00:12Him being on the podium and answering questions generally.
00:15Then going off to the side, talking to local media specifically, which I thought had some really interesting things.
00:19And then also Texas All-Access with Mark Vandermeer and John Harris.
00:23I thought that we got a really interesting landscape of stuff.
00:26So we'll be talking about that all day.
00:27But obviously the big thing, and we talked about this yesterday, but it's worth returning to, was his pretty patent
00:32dismissal of C.J. Stroud trade rumors and just the idea that he would not be the quarterback for this
00:37team this year.
00:38Well, you know, the term Easter eggs has been used a lot out there, you know, just in pop culture
00:45and society.
00:46An Easter egg is, you know, dropping some sort of a hint, some sort of a precursor of what may
00:55be to come.
00:55And I kind of felt that.
00:57I don't know if you did, Figgy did, or our listeners did, because you're right.
01:01I mean, you use the term moronic.
01:03That's pretty straightforward.
01:06Yeah.
01:06You know, that's pretty emphatic that the whole trade rumor thing about C.J. Stroud is silly.
01:12But when you listen to the audio, it always comes back to he's our quarterback now.
01:18There was no, like, C.J. Stroud is our quarterback moving forward.
01:24We anticipate, we envision him being this or that, you know, for our franchise.
01:28It was always for now.
01:30And I think Figgy has some of this for us.
01:33Yeah, let's actually hear a little bit.
01:35This was him with Mark and John on Texas All Access, him being Nick Casario, the general manager of this
01:40team.
01:40And he was clearly asked a number of times about C.J. Stroud.
01:44Thoughts on C.J. and where things are at this moment?
01:48Yeah.
01:48I mean, he's our quarterback.
01:49Glad he's our quarterback.
01:50I mean, all of us have areas and things that we can improve on individually, collectively as a team.
01:55And that's what the offseason is about.
01:57So C.J.'s played a lot of good football.
01:59He's had a positive influence and impact on the program.
02:02There's always things that all of us can do better.
02:04And I'm sure when we kind of take a step back, you want to look at what we accomplished during
02:09the year.
02:10What are some areas that, you know, we did well?
02:13What are some of the things that we did well?
02:14What are some of the areas that we needed to improve?
02:15And that's what the offseason is about.
02:17It's about improvement.
02:18You want to reflect on what happened, but you can't spend too much time on what happened because we kind
02:22of have to prepare for what's in front of us.
02:24You know, and he just kept going back to it.
02:26He went to it three times at least about things you need to improve on.
02:30We all need to get better at certain things, et cetera.
02:33And it just, it kind of felt like that little Easter egg thing.
02:35Like, yes, he's our quarterback.
02:37It's moronic.
02:39But he is putting, he's putting it on C.J.
02:41Like, you know, we need you to be better.
02:44We need you to fit in.
02:45We need you to be surrounded by the right people.
02:48And that's Nick Casario's job.
02:49But there was no, there was no like adamant, you know, statement about this is stupid.
02:56He's going to be our guy, you know, hell or high water.
02:59Yeah.
02:59Well, I mean, there was maybe one time where he's like, no, I mean, we, we, we, we,
03:03we support him.
03:03We believe in his capabilities, but you're right.
03:06They, they did not let him off the hook for clearly the performance in the playoffs.
03:10And just generally, right.
03:12We talked about this yesterday in hearing some of the things that he said specifically
03:15on the podium there at the combine where, you know, they, they still, you know, have
03:21some, we, we know we've seen him do good things.
03:24And if you play well, right.
03:26Things go well, things to that nature.
03:27There was still an understanding that CJ Stroud needs to deliver.
03:31You had some questions though, that jumped out, jumped out off of this, right?
03:35Yes.
03:36And the first one, I think a lot of fans are, might be wondering this, you know, he clearly
03:40was emphatic.
03:41Is it justified to, to, to, to have CJ's back so emphatically given, given how it ended?
03:47I think so.
03:48Even though I understand how it ended.
03:51I see it on the YouTube page.
03:52CJ is the reason we lost.
03:54You can't ignore that with that Patriots game, but also there was a lot of winning that you
03:59did during the season that you can absolutely say, you know, a tribute to CJ Stroud holding
04:03down the way, the way in style that they wanted you to play football.
04:06It's one of the reasons why it was so frustrating at the end is because he seemed to deviate from
04:11what had been working in the ways in which he had been making really good decisions in,
04:16in handling the way things go.
04:18We've seen the high water market CJ.
04:20We played Bryce Young's audio.
04:21Uh, was that last week what he said when he was sitting down with the pivot podcast?
04:26And yes, I understand he's not going to trash CJ, but he's like, it's, it's the same thing
04:30that we've heard from everybody.
04:31We've seen it.
04:32We've seen the product of CJ Stroud being a really good quarterback in this league, but
04:36it's cutting time.
04:37And it wasn't just the Patriots game.
04:39Uh, and so that's why I'm saying, is it justified another question?
04:42And what we might circle back around on this too, but this is, this is the one that I keep
04:47going back to you.
04:48Are they being too forgiving for that post-season collapse?
04:51Have you read them being forgiving with the post-season collapse?
04:53Cause I found it very interesting in the ways that they've just kind of been like CJ's our
04:57quarterback, but they haven't done the full throated that we can see at times with quarterbacks
05:01where we have no doubts and all those things.
05:03They stopped short of that.
05:04And I think that that is intentional.
05:06And that's, and I say that the context of that is we've heard this Texans team talk
05:11about various different players and the ways in which they go.
05:13We have in essence, right?
05:15Cause I'm not quoting directly a hundred percent believe all of this.
05:19They have not done that in this recent stretch with CJ Stroud, but I think that they, their
05:23MO is wanting to protect their guy.
05:25And I think that it means something that they have protected him without going all the way
05:29to the place where they absolutely absolved the way that here's the counterpoint.
05:33Is it a little too kid glovey compared to other things?
05:37Nick Casario himself, and we won't play the audio here, but himself said he was asked about
05:42in another, in another instance with Texans all access about defining the players.
05:46If there's a deal breaker, so to speak on, on players that can't be Texans.
05:51And he said, if you're not team first, if you're not, you know, tough and, and they believe
05:56in you, then you might as well not even think about being a Texan.
06:00He said that about all, you know, all positions in general.
06:03And yet here we are like, well, kind of kid glovey.
06:06You know what I mean?
06:08That's maybe it's because it's the quarterback.
06:10I hear maybe it's because the quarterback also, one of the things that can frustrate us.
06:14And I want to say us, I mean, me and you specifically, uh, John, you know, on this
06:17program is the ways in which at times they'll get up in public forums and not even intimate
06:23in some ways, uh, the, the, the, I guess, quote unquote accountability that we want
06:27to see to some players, but we are assured time and time again, that in that building,
06:31the accountability shows up.
06:32So in this instance, it would fit within their MO that they're going to protect him.
06:36And even that they're not doing as full-throwedly as I think they have a possibility to, I can
06:40only imagine what those meetings sound like.
06:42And the conversation sound like, I think that that is where they might not be as kid glovey.
06:46And that's one of the things that we have to try and balance.
06:49I don't know how much we like that as Texans fans paying attention to the Texans where it
06:53feels like, Hey, you're, you're handling this really lightly.
06:56Um, we are assured time and time again, that when they actually have those conversations,
07:00remember Aziz Alshair has talked about it, D'Amico Ryan is actually really tough when
07:04he's coaching those guys internally, the expectations are high.
07:07I think that this might be one of those places where I have no choice, but to look at it
07:11and
07:11say, I hope that that is the case.
07:13Cause otherwise I understand your frustration.
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