- 3 days ago
Seth and Sean talk about the Rockets' big run to beat the Magic last night, discuss trigger points with Texans fans with the team and QB Coach Jerrod Johnson parting ways, and signs pointing to Jerry Schuplinski getting the promotion to QB Coach.
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00:00I think Durant now with an even 40. He's made all 10 of his free throws.
00:06Looking to not foul here.
00:10Biggest comeback win of the season.
00:13The Rockets were down by 19.
00:18Final call. That was Craig Ackerman and Ryan Hollins on the call.
00:21Space City Home Network. That was a good night last night for the Rockets.
00:24For a while, it was not. They trailed 76-57
00:28with five minutes left in the third quarter.
00:31At that point, as we welcome you in on a Friday,
00:34Payne and Pendergast, Sports Radio 610.
00:36Thanks for getting up with us. We appreciate you.
00:38I'm Sean Pendergast. He's Seth Payne.
00:40When they were down 19, Seth, I started thinking back to the Knicks game on Saturday
00:44where the Rockets led by 18 points in that game.
00:48We know how that ended.
00:49I said to myself at that very moment, and I mean this, I said,
00:53why not us? You know what?
00:55Trailing by 19. They coughed up an 18-point lead on Saturday.
00:58I said, why not us?
01:00And then, you know how they responded?
01:0121-0 run over the next three and a half minutes.
01:05The Rockets went on a 21-0 run over a three-and-a-half-minute period,
01:11and it was sparked by Reed Shepard.
01:14Three pointers in that time, and the Rockets get a big win last night.
01:19113-108 over the Orlando Raptors.
01:21Yeah, and it was. It was everything.
01:23I mean, they're two similar teams in a lot of regards.
01:25They got talented players.
01:27Payne was going off.
01:28But it's not like they actually run an offense of any sort.
01:31And when you put Reed Shepard in, just by virtue of him being able to shoot the basketball,
01:40he's a more skilled point guard, despite not being all that skilled a point guard as of yet
01:45by NBA standards.
01:46But he's going to be better than Amon Thompson because people have to respect him.
01:51The defense, you get spacing with other guys, and things can happen.
01:56And it's not like all of a sudden they were playing some elegant version of basketball
01:59or anything during that comeback.
02:02But they had a guy in the court who can shoot.
02:04And everybody else, all of a sudden, lo and behold, is better there, too.
02:07And credit to the Rockets for at least, they tightened up on defense
02:10after they got off to just the miserable start where Orlando was just taking whatever they wanted.
02:16The Rockets tightened up on defense earlier in the game, but they just weren't adding any offense to the mix
02:23either.
02:23No, well, and Durant was awful in the first half, and he was sensational in the second half.
02:26He looked old.
02:28He looked old in the first half.
02:30In the first half, it was 1 of 10.
02:31I mean, yeah, the shots aren't going down.
02:33It looks that way.
02:35He winds up with 40 points.
02:37He winds up eclipsing 32,000 points for his career.
02:41He's only the sixth guy in the history of the league.
02:43That's been one of the underratedly kind of fun things about having Kevin Durant on the team
02:47is he's at that stage of his career where it feels like every third or fourth game,
02:54he's moving up a notch on the all-time scoring list.
02:57He's doing something.
02:59You know, the one last week was he's, you know, he had his 1,020-plus point game in his
03:05career,
03:06which is, you know, he's among the league leaders, obviously, in all-time for that.
03:09Yeah, that's been kind of fun, and it's not like Kevin Durant has an attachment to any
03:14of his previous teams, really, so I don't know that there's a fan base going, ah, like
03:17if Altuve went to the Yankees or something like that, and he got his 3,000th hit there,
03:22I think there'd be a lot of Astro fans like, ah, he was ours, though.
03:24He got like 2,800 of those with us.
03:27That's been kind of fun, like watching Kevin Durant hit all these milestones.
03:31But last night, I think the big takeaway from last night is what you just said, Seth,
03:35which is Reed Shepard needs to be a bigger part of what they're doing consistently moving forward.
03:43Reed Shepard can't be one of the – Reed Shepard cannot get treated, not on this team,
03:47like one of those guys where, all right, well, if his shot's not going down, he's just worthless,
03:51so we take him out and put somebody else in.
03:54The Rockets have had guys like – every NBA team probably has a guy like that,
03:57who's just a sniper who comes in and, okay, if he misses – you know,
04:01if he goes one for his first five, there's not much else he brings to the table.
04:05Without a point guard on this team, you don't have a ton of groups of five
04:09where the offense runs anything remotely close to smooth.
04:14Right.
04:15When he's in there, it's – this is going to be a compliment that's going to sound backhanded.
04:20When he's in there, at least it's not gunked up.
04:22Right, right.
04:23No, and as – I think you pronounce it Shian.
04:27Shian E. on the Dream Shake said something at the end of his article on this,
04:30which is just simply that, hey, Amon Thompson, as great as he is,
04:34you can't defend your way to a comeback.
04:36So, like, it's just at some point you've got to do something to stoke the offense
04:42in situations like this.
04:43And it was exactly what they needed last night.
04:46Versus a better – I like the increasing level of difficulty they faced in their last three wins
04:51where you went worst team in the league to second worst team in the Western Conference
04:56to now, okay, respectable basketball team.
04:59That's true.
04:59I mean, yeah, you're – yeah, like, mathematically you're – like, I just think it's –
05:02Yeah.
05:03Yeah.
05:04It's not inspirational.
05:06No, no, no.
05:07I just think, yeah.
05:08Yeah, and I don't – and when I said that Kevin Durant looked old,
05:10I was talking specifically about the first half.
05:12Yeah.
05:12He went out to be Kevin Durant in the second half.
05:15He was great, man.
05:15He was great.
05:16That was a – you know, I know the – Orlando is a – you know, what are they,
05:21slightly above .500 right now, the Orlando Magic?
05:23Yeah.
05:23Yeah, I mean, they're an average basketball team.
05:25Hey, man, that's a win on the road where you dug yourself a deep hole
05:29and you got a – 21-0 run in less than four minutes is something else, man.
05:35And they're not – it's not like the Rockets' season is teetering on the brink.
05:38Like, I'm not going to make too much of this win.
05:39Like, oh, my God, if they don't – you know, if they lose – if they lose that game,
05:42you know, you've got 20 more of them after this.
05:44But that they did win that game and that they did win it in the way that they did
05:48and that they won it with Reed Shepard in down the stretch
05:51and Amen Thompson out down the stretch.
05:53And I love that Amen was standing up over there on the bench
05:56and cheering the guys on and whatnot.
05:57That was – it was cool, man.
05:59It was – hopefully it's a – you know, hopefully Emeo Doka takes something away
06:03from that win that maybe there's some slight tweaks that go on moving forward.
06:07Yeah, the Magic are 31-27.
06:09Yeah, yeah.
06:10So, they're a decent team.
06:11Decent basketball team with some good players.
06:13So, the Texans yesterday, they move on from – well, I shouldn't say they move on.
06:20The two sides decided to part.
06:22Gerard Johnson and the Houston Texans.
06:25The Texans will have a new – the Texans will have a new quarterbacks coach
06:28this coming season.
06:30The biggest trigger points that I saw for fans yesterday, Seth,
06:34because you and I were on the air when this news came down.
06:36Yeah.
06:37So, we got to sink our teeth into it first.
06:40I don't think we'd realize that there was going to be a – what's been reported.
06:44I don't know if it's made official yet or not, but it sounds like Jerry Szaplinski,
06:47who was brought in with Nick Caley as sort of an advisor offensively, he's going to – it would appear
06:53–
06:53get promoted into Gerard Johnson's old spot as quarterbacks coach.
06:57The Szaplinski part of it, we had not seen until – I didn't see it until we got off the
07:02air.
07:03And the biggest trigger points that I saw for fans on this, one, Jerry Szaplinski went to John Carroll.
07:11That's right.
07:12Which Nick Casario went to John Carroll.
07:15Frank Ross went to John Carroll.
07:17Nick Caley went to John Carroll.
07:19Those are the ones that I know – I double-checked Ben McDaniels,
07:22because I know Josh McDaniels went to John Carroll.
07:24According to Google, Ben McDaniels went to Kent State.
07:28So, he's not a John Carroll guy.
07:29But anyways, there's – and this is kind of tied into the second trigger point for Texan fans.
07:35A lot of Texan fans wanted Case Keenum to come back and take this job,
07:39even though he's still an active player.
07:41The text page was flooded when you and I dug into this yesterday with Case Keenum talk.
07:47I think these two are kind of tied together.
07:49People want Case Keenum, and they feel like Szaplinski – like, John Carroll is the new Patriot way.
07:54Well, no, and it's not just – you're leaving out a big part of the resume there, too,
07:58or a required part of the resume was Szaplinski spent several years in New England as well.
08:03So, like, that's the – so, from John Carroll to New England to the Houston Texans,
08:09by – sometimes with some detours along the way.
08:12It seems to be, like, the most elite prep school in the world that produces –
08:16in the football world for producing Houston Texans coaches.
08:20Szaplinski, for what it's worth, he spent a good chunk of time with the Patriots,
08:25and then he was on five different teams over the course of the last six seasons.
08:31And, you know, sometimes that happens in the NFL, depending on which head coach you're attached to,
08:36which team you're on.
08:37For whatever it's worth, though, Stroud back in September had said,
08:40Jerry is an amazing man.
08:41He's somebody who is very vocal, challenging.
08:44He's very old school.
08:45He reminds me of, like, a lost uncle, just how he approaches, how he coaches.
08:51So, whoever had asked him about him back then in September,
08:55CJ had very nice things to say about Jerry Szaplinski.
08:58And the other part of all of this is –
08:59That's interesting, real quick.
09:00That's interesting, just because the offense wasn't running all that well back in September.
09:04Well, I don't know if this was before the season.
09:06I went back to try to find which press conference this was in.
09:08So, I don't know if this was before the season had even begun.
09:12It sounds like somebody was writing an article about Jerry Szaplinski for whatever reason.
09:16Yep, yep.
09:17And I think the other part of it, and I'm glad –
09:21Oh, I can't remember who first pointed this out.
09:23Maybe it was Houston Stressens.
09:25Was that Nick Haley didn't get to bring any of his own staff in when he was the offensive coordinator.
09:30And you should expect, I suppose, some changes after the first year
09:35that an offensive coordinator is on a team and he's gotten to know the coaches
09:39and he kind of has the guys that – like, he brought in Szaplinski.
09:44That was one of the few guys that was in addition last year that maybe this was the plan all
09:48along
09:49or that it was potentially one of the things that might happen.
09:53But it's definitely a Nick Haley guy as opposed to Gerard Johnson who was already here.
09:58Makes you wonder how Gerard looked at the whole thing throughout the year
10:03or when Szaplinski got brought in.
10:04Like, you know, Gerard's no dummy, you know, as the offense is kind of very shaky,
10:10as CJ's having a season that's not looking so great.
10:14It makes you wonder – it just makes you wonder if that felt like a writing on the wall situation
10:18when Szaplinski got brought in for Gerard, you know, especially given how it played out.
10:22There's other – there's quotes from Fitzpatrick out there who spoke very highly of Szaplinski.
10:26I got them if you want me to read them.
10:28Yeah, the Jimmy Garoppolo one is interesting because there's one from 2020.
10:32Okay. I haven't seen the Jimmy Garoppolo one.
10:34I've got the Fitzpatrick one in front of me here.
10:37He said – he spent – this is from Ryan Fitzpatrick on his season that he spent with Jerry Szaplinski.
10:44He had to talk to me, treat me, and coach me a different way than maybe he had to treat
10:47young guys
10:48like Josh Rosen and Jake Ruddock in our room.
10:51His ability to know who he was teaching and the way that guy learned –
10:56I'm assuming this is in Miami when the two were there together.
10:58And the way that guy learned and adapted based on who he was talking with is one of his huge
11:02strengths.
11:03It worked well with me because he sees the game as a quarterback.
11:06It's not just understanding what we do at receiver, tight end, or O-line.
11:09He understands conceptually everything that's going on, which sounds simple,
11:13but there aren't a lot of coaches who see it that way.
11:16Yeah. So there's that. Yeah. And CJ seems to like him a lot.
11:21And that – does it matter how much he likes him?
11:24Yeah. To a certain degree. I don't – I wouldn't want this to be a situation where, man,
11:29CJ really was all in on Gerard Johnson and he's going to be PO'd that he's gone or anything like
11:35that.
11:36I know a lot of people right now, myself included, also have a little bit of an attitude of like,
11:41all right, CJ, enough. I don't care. I want to hear about this or that.
11:45Everything – move forward with these coaches.
11:48Because we can only go through so many offensive coordinators or quarterbacks coaches
11:53before we start to train our sites dead on CJ and CJ alone.
11:58Yeah. He's been part of a couple guys getting fired now, you know,
12:00depending on how you frame the Gerard Johnson thing.
12:03Sloic definitely got fired, you know.
12:05And so, yeah, I mean, we're at a point now where there's been a lot of shuffling that's gone on.
12:10Not a lot, but at really key positions that are tied to the quarterback.
12:13Yeah. So, like, CJ needs to get it together. There's no doubt about that.
12:16But, yeah, so those are the – the reactions I saw was, oh, another John Carroll guy,
12:20another New England guy. What about Case Keenum?
12:24We don't even know if Case wants to coach. That's what I would tell people.
12:27And that's what we told you yesterday when you were texting in about it.
12:30And we also – he made $3 million last year to be basically the mentor to Caleb Williams.
12:35He wasn't even the second-string quarterback. That's – you know, that's Tyson Badgett.
12:39Which, by the way, the Bears are kind of floating it out there.
12:42They're – I think maybe trying to raise interest in Tyson Badgett as a trade piece.
12:46Yeah.
12:46Which would be another reason that the Bears might very well bring Case Keenum back.
12:51Right. He might be their backup quarterback.
12:52Yeah. He might be their backup quarterback next year.
12:54So, if I'm Case – personally, if I'm Case Keenum, I'm 37 years old,
12:58I might be intrigued by the idea of coaching in the future.
13:01But as long as people are willing to pay me $3 million a year to be a backup quarterback
13:05with the potential to maybe go play quarterback also, I'm going to – as much as I'd love to go
13:11out
13:11and help out my old young friend, C.J. Stroud, I'm going to push this NFL quarterback thing as long
13:18as I can.
13:18Sock some money away, man. No doubt. No doubt.
13:20Anybody listening right now, ask yourself, if given the option of being a quarterback coach
13:26making much less money, and who knows what your job security is
13:30versus being a backup quarterback for a year in the NFL,
13:33I feel like 99% of people are going to say be the backup quarterback.
13:36I think 99% of people are going to take a $3 million job.
13:40I think that's what it is.
13:40Oh, yeah. I forgot about that little detail.
13:41Yeah. I think they'll take that.
13:44By the way, it sounds like Gerard Johnson, at least according to some of the reports I saw,
13:48I was going to land at Texas A&M in some fashion this coming season on Mike Elko's staff.
13:53Yeah, I never know.
13:54I saw enough stuff that I didn't know if that was speculation or rumors or what.
13:58Yeah.
13:59And it also – it's very possible that the Texans knew they were going to make this move
14:04but were maybe giving Gerard Johnson time to go through that offensive coordinator search
14:11and everything.
14:11It's always – it's always – it's always the easiest time to find a job is when you have a
14:16job.
14:16Absolutely.
14:16When you don't have that stink of desperation or anything.
14:20So the Texans possibly just do them a little bit of a solid or professional courtesy
14:24and saying, hey, we're going to make this move, but just go ahead and go do your interviews
14:28and everything before we do it.
14:29So D'Amico Ryans was at the Combine this week.
14:32I know there had been reports earlier in the week that he was not going to be at the Combine.
14:36He was there, had a competition committee meeting, met with some of the prospects there,
14:41and sat down with Judy Batista from the NFL Network.
14:45And this is – I saw you point this out on Twitter, Seth,
14:49and I thought it was a really good point about D'Amico being exceedingly transparent
14:55in what the needs are for their football team this year.
14:59Where are the areas that you're focused on in terms of maybe improving the roster?
15:04Yeah, for us, it's for the offensive side of the ball.
15:06We're looking to improve at the offensive line position.
15:10To start there, we're looking to improve our running back.
15:13Okay.
15:14Yeah.
15:14And then he went on to talk about improving other parts of the team and everything,
15:17but those were the only two specific positions that he mentioned.
15:20Yeah, yeah.
15:21And if – because Houston stresses, and I both felt the same way,
15:26and I talked about it yesterday in my live stream, was, man,
15:29this is the most openly that Nick Casario and D'Amico Ryans have talked about
15:37improving specific positions.
15:40In my memory, since he flat out said we're going to draft the quarterback a couple of years ago.
15:45Remember, C.J. Stroud said there's a couple of really good quarterbacks,
15:49and we're going to draft – or excuse me, D'Amico said there's a couple of really good quarterbacks,
15:52and we're going to draft one of them.
15:53The national media promptly ignored that and went on to speculate that the Texans
15:57weren't going to draft the quarterback at all.
15:59And then, lo and behold, the Texans draft the quarterback.
16:02So the fact that D'Amico and Casario have both said we're going to try to improve the offensive line,
16:10D'Amico says we're going to improve the running backs,
16:12but it tells me they're going to be either aggressive in free agency and trades
16:16or aggressive in the draft or both to upgrade those positions.
16:20I think both.
16:21I think it's going to be both, and I think they're going to –
16:25I'm not going to say they come out firing in free agency
16:28because I don't think Nick Casario is ever going to be a GM that's making signings
16:32at 12, 15 p.m. on the first day of legal tampering like some teams do.
16:36But I think by – you know, that's on Monday the legal tampering begins.
16:40The league year begins Wednesday the 11th.
16:43I think by the time Wednesday the 11th rolls around,
16:46I think there's going to be a couple of deals in place that the Texans have
16:49that are going to be like, okay, they are serious about this.
16:54Not Lakin Tomlinson for one year, four million bucks.
16:57You know, like I think one of these top interior linemen, I think,
17:00are going to become a Houston Texan, and I think – you know,
17:03I think they're going to be in on Etienne,
17:07and I think they're going to be in on Walker.
17:08I don't know that they'll ultimately be the high bidder for them.
17:11But, look, we talked about this yesterday.
17:13Nobody is more active in free agency than Nick Casario and the Texans
17:17just in terms of the sheer number of players that they go to.
17:20Well, and also, yeah, I agree with you.
17:23I don't think Nick's ever going to be that 12.01 p.m. guy
17:27because that's where the stupid money is.
17:30That's where you're really overspending for guys.
17:32But he's been pretty aggressive with trades too.
17:35So some of the bigger additions are going to come between that first day of free agency
17:38and the draft where a lot of the trades happen after things kind of shake out.
17:44Teams have to maneuver with their salary cap
17:46because they've signed some of the big-name free agents.
17:48And so that makes it also more – it's nice for us
17:51because we get to drag out the process a little bit longer.
17:54Spreads out, man.
17:54Yeah, the Diggs trade, which is probably the biggest –
17:58other than the Deshaun Watson trade –
18:00is probably the biggest, most noteworthy trade that Nick's made as a GM.
18:04That happened on April 3rd.
18:06Yeah.
18:06So it was right smack dab in between the draft and free agency.
18:10How deep into free agency was the Mixon trade?
18:12Was that –
18:13It was like the third – like right at the very beginning.
18:16Because all those running backs got off the board immediately.
18:19That was the year where Joe Shane was acting like,
18:22we got all these running backs to choose from.
18:25It'll be easy.
18:26It'll be cheap.
18:27They ended up overpaying Devin Singletary.
18:28Or Devin Singletary.
18:29Yeah, exactly.
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