00:00There is a lot here because this is a dude who is at the intersection of two of the biggest
00:05stories for the Texans in this offseason offense that was, if you look at the numbers, maybe OK, but honestly,
00:12just not effective enough, did not score enough touchdowns.
00:15And then a quarterback who a lot of people have questions on how much they believe in and who is,
00:21you know, who is reportedly, and I say reportedly, we know, who has a strong relationship with Gerard Johnson, who
00:27Gerard Johnson was supposed to have the ear of very well.
00:30And let's be honest, the Gerard Johnson had not been able to get C.J. Stroud to fully recognize his
00:37potential in the way that you wanted to with the Texans.
00:40So now he is gone. Where does your mind go immediately, John Lopez, when you hear this news?
00:44Two places. First, on the parting of ways, not a firing.
00:50It makes me think that Gerard Johnson may have a job here next season, if not here, like with the
00:56Texans?
00:56No, no job. I was like, whoa, OK, with the in the NFL, if not here in the next coming
01:03weeks, because I'm just feeling that this was a parting of ways.
01:08Secondly, on Gerard, nice timing, fellas. Thanks for giving him a shot. OK, thanks for giving him a shot, Nick.
01:14To get out there and go look for a job. Yeah, this is the thing.
01:17This is what? When did the season end for the Texans?
01:21I have wiped the date out of my mind, but it was it was the Sunday before MLK Junior Day.
01:26I remember that for sure.
01:27Yeah, January 19th. Is that what you said?
01:29Yeah, that is what Sean Pendergast said.
01:31Yeah. So five weeks ago, six weeks ago, over a month, that's that's they did him wrong there.
01:36First of all, if it was their decision, which also tells me it wasn't just their decision was kind of
01:40a mutual thing, but maybe which I know is hard to believe.
01:45But yeah, because typically whenever we see the part, I mutually agree with the part ways we are.
01:49Somebody got fired then. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's always more complicated than we know.
01:54But a lot of times we go. Somebody got fired. Yeah.
01:56The timing of this one does make it feel like this.
02:00Well, maybe it doesn't. Right. Because this is one of the questions.
02:03Is this a panic move or was this plan?
02:05Well, if this was planned, this is nasty. This is what I think.
02:07This is what I think happened. Number one, because this timing and as much as I'm criticizing the Texans for
02:14waiting this long to ultimately come to this decision,
02:17I think it also reflects at best there was a lot of conversation about, you know, should we do this?
02:25Should you do you want to stay? Do you want to go, et cetera?
02:28At worst, there was conflict about whether or not Gerard Johnson should should stay because even the Texans know that
02:34they did him wrong here.
02:35You know, if they waited until this week, you know, today to make this decision or yesterday or whatever, that
02:42that that's that's not the way the NFL should operate.
02:45That's number one. So I go to the my bigger point, my second.
02:49And I think this is the biggest takeaway with Gerard moving on and them parting ways.
02:54C.J. Stroud. This is a C.J. Stroud story.
02:57This is absolutely positively a C.J. Stroud story.
03:00He is becoming the most frustrating thing you can be in sports.
03:04Some might say the worst thing you can be in sports.
03:07A coach killer. He's a coach killer. Let's let's let's go back and look at this.
03:11That is heavy. Well, well, let's go. Let's go back and look at this.
03:15They're not going to. They're not going to. I love when Finkie does.
03:19But all that's all that's fitting here, man. Those are heavy words.
03:23That's a heavy label to put on a dude in the in a professional.
03:26I know we have LeBron here, man. Well, let me let me lay it out and you guys tell me.
03:29All right. All right. So you have Bobby Sloick coming in record rookie year when he's a rookie and he's
03:36saying, yes, sir, no, sir.
03:37I'll do whatever you want. Then the second year, it all falls apart.
03:41And so they move on from from Bobby Sloick. Where's Bobby Sloick now?
03:45Oh, that's right. He's an offensive coordinator. The league respected what he was doing.
03:49Then you go back and you bring in Jerry Szaplinski, you know, one of the John Carroll boys.
03:54In fact, I think he was Nick Cacero's running back when Nick Cacero was was the quarterback to help, you
04:00know, with with the offense.
04:02Offensive assistant who. Yeah, we'll talk more about it.
04:05But remember, Aaron Wilson had had some reporting that if they did make a move, that it felt like Jerry
04:09Szaplinski, that guy that he's going to take over a quarterback.
04:12It does feel like he's leader in the clubhouse. We could talk more about that here.
04:14And now you have Gerard Johnson, who they go back to when C.J. Stroud was 15, 16 years old.
04:21And all of a sudden, you know, they move on from Gerard Johnson.
04:27I mean, let's let's look at this from what it really is.
04:30They're trying to find something that connects with C.J. Stroud. That's it.
04:35I mean, this is a C.J. Stroud story. And in a in a different kind of way, this is
04:42a Nick Cacero story for them to wait this long.
04:44There had to be a lot of discussion between Cacero and D'Amico Ryans. There had to have been.
04:48Yeah, those are the two most prominent figures in your team outside of C.J. Stroud on a player level.
04:53Should we? Should we not? Should we? Should we not? They waited damn near six weeks.
04:57Damn near six weeks to ultimately come to the decision.
05:00And and so Nick Cacero won won this argument, it seems.
05:05And Nick Cacero is going to Nick. This is Nick Cacero's offense.
05:09One hundred percent. I've been sort of talking about that here and there.
05:13There's no doubt in my mind that Nick Cacero is pulling all the strings on the offense.
05:16Brings in Nick Cayley. By the way, Gerard Johnson is interviewing for offensive coordinator jobs recently.
05:23Yeah. Yeah. And breaking news. And they don't. Well, it's out there. It's been reported.
05:28He he was, you know, interviewing last year, even after the bad season with other teams and they don't promote
05:36him.
05:37They bring in who? That's right. Another John Carroll guy, Nick Cayley, to run the offense.
05:41And the passing game becomes what it is. And CJ Stroud became, you know, what he was in the postseason.
05:49Look, the Gerard Johnson element of this is clearly, you know, part of the story.
05:55They had to figure something out with CJ Stroud. But this is about CJ Stroud.
05:59Well, but that's interesting because the way you start talking about it, obviously, quarterback coach, he's the quarterback in that
06:04room.
06:04It's going to be about CJ Stroud. But the way you're talking about it, I can make the argument that
06:08this is more about supporting Nick Cayley.
06:10It is a fair criticism that has been levied when you bring in an offense coordinator and he don't bring
06:15nobody but an offensive assistant with him.
06:17Yeah. For his staff. Yeah. Now, I, I, I. By the way, real quick, who does that point to? Nick
06:23Casario.
06:24Does it? Yes. Because if you're like, hey, all the people that are here that were previously helping run a
06:29different system,
06:30they're going to stay and you bring in an offense coordinator. I don't know.
06:34But he's a Casario guy. Hey, thank you for the opportunity. I'll be your offensive coordinator. Who's on my staff?
06:42I mean, it, it, the only thing that I can say with all certainty is that it was one of
06:46those things that was always going to be a tough,
06:48a tough thing to, to navigate. And it's probably part of why you had such a rough start as you
06:54were trying to cobble together and figure out what this Houston offense was.
06:57It's one of the things that I go back to where we're asking like, hey, what is your offense?
07:00And like, hey, you know, this isn't, this isn't a Rams offense. This isn't a Patriots. This is a Houston
07:04offense.
07:04I'm like, all right, cool. But what is that? And it was clear that it took them a while to
07:07get there.
07:08Maybe this is some level of, can we clarify what we're doing with everybody getting to the right spot?
07:13Or maybe you're right. Maybe it is as simple as, as someone on the, on the 713 said here on
07:19the text line,
07:21that this was a situation where, you know, you need to get rid of, they use the word enabler, CJ's
07:27enabler in Gerard Johnson, just a different voice.
07:31And I don't even know, sometimes it doesn't, a change in a position does not even have to be about
07:36better or worse, just different.
07:38I'm, I'm very intrigued to see what this is. And if you have maybe more of a synergy and alignment
07:43overall with this offense.
07:45Yeah. And if CJ Stroud like sticks to it, cause that was one of the things we talked about.
07:49Did it feel like he was sticking to the plan in the, in the post season?
07:52It very much felt like he was going, he went into business for himself and that can't happen.
07:55Well, and at minimum, whether you think Gerard Johnson just didn't connect, he was an enabler.
08:00Whether you think that, or you think, you know, that, that, that the Texans, you know,
08:05this is a CJ Stroud problem and Nick Asario's kind of pulling all the strings over there, puppet master,
08:11whatever you want to call with the offense somewhere in between is this.
08:14It's, it's still about CJ Stroud.
08:16They still have to figure out whether it's Gerard's fault or someone else's fault.
08:22It's still about, you got to figure something out with CJ Stroud and making,
08:26and making it work in this offense.
08:28How much of the Nick Cayley coming into the staff that was previously there might,
08:31previously there might be a sign of a small, maybe insignificant even,
08:36but fissure between the brain trust that we have been told is so damn strong.
08:40Cause you're purporting this.
08:41And I think that it's fair to point to the connections that are there.
08:43Nick Cayley and his guys,
08:45the other guys are the guys that Bobby Sloan came with that you could probably put
08:48as D'Amico's guys, guys that he has a level of loyalty to.
08:52How much of that is the, you know, the friction there between those like, Hey,
08:56should we, if we're bringing a coordinator,
08:57you should be able to build this out.
08:58But D'Amico having a loyalty to some of these assistants that didn't do anything
09:02wrong,
09:02but you still want to find a way to have a place for them like someone like
09:05Gerard Johnson.
09:06Well, the one good thing about this from a Texas perspective,
09:09from a Casario perspective is they are all now on the same page.
09:13They are all pulling in the same direction in terms of philosophically,
09:18because Casario, you know, Patriots and John Carroll,
09:21Nick Cayley, Patriots and John Carroll,
09:22Szaplinski, Patriots and John Carroll,
09:24Cole Popovich, Patriots and John Carroll.
09:26Yeah.
09:26So at least now there's not that other guy that, you know,
09:29is a quarterback's coach, but,
09:31but from various systems go back to Kevin O'Connell and, you know,
09:35some of the West coast stuff that Gerard has really cut his teeth on.
09:38So there was one element in that room that was more West coast,
09:43Sloic style, O'Connell style, you know, and all that.
09:47Whereas now it's all Patriots, Patriots, Patriots, Patriots.
09:50This is interesting because the secondary,
09:52another question that I really want to ask is, are we,
09:55are we sure this is a good move or a bad move?
09:57Cause you're, you're describing like a diversity in that room.
10:00And I thought that, um, that Mike Vrabel, who was,
10:05who was talked to, I think it was yesterday.
10:07He had a quote about diversity in your hiring and your coaching staff and the
10:11benefit of that.
10:13There is something to be said for having, you know,
10:16a staff that is aligned, but they also did have a diversity in their coaching
10:20staff.
10:20And this is one step that pulls you.
10:22And I'm not talking about Gerard Johnson being an African-American man.
10:25Male, obviously that's something, but a diversity in ideas.
10:28Correct.
10:28As you were describing, like trees and stuff.
10:30Yes.
10:31And how much does that, how much does that impact that?
10:34Is that a good thing?
10:35Does that help them?
10:36They do have that going for them.
10:38They're all on the same page now.
10:40Yeah.
10:40You know, we'll talk about, I mean,
10:41obviously this is the big story here in the city of Houston,
10:44because it pertains to, again, the two biggest things,
10:46CJ Stroud and finding a way to put your last,
10:49this last ditch attempts is to make it attempts rather to make it sure that he
10:53is the type of guy that you want to pay.
10:55And then to get this offense right,
10:56to match a defense that was absolutely super bowl worthy.
10:58This is the biggest thing that's happening right now.
11:01So I find it very,
11:02very interesting that this has happened.
11:03And I love all the texts that are coming in.
11:05713-572-460.
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