- 2 weeks ago
Seth and Sean talk with Texans Executive VP and GM Nick Caserio on the heels of the team trading away Tytus Howard and trading for David Montgomery.
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00:00always great to catch up with Texans executive vice president and general manager Nick Casario
00:05Nick always great to talk as the music bumps you in here it reminds me of the close personal
00:11friends that you have in the wrestling industry where do you come out on the what appears to be
00:17a little tate a tate right now between you have a close personal friend Tom Brady and a close
00:22personal friend Triple H and Tom Brady just called Triple H's way that he feeds his family
00:27cute uh first off good morning great to be here second of all that that intro probably is not
00:34blasting in Tom's house so and my CPF uh group is growing in the uh in the WWE as evidenced
00:42by my uh
00:43my intro to Randy the other day last week on the McAfee show so um yeah I'm not really sure
00:51um
00:52maybe maybe Tom has a change of heart at some point maybe a has an opportunity to sit down with
00:57with
00:57Triple H and Randy at some point and maybe they can just kind of come to a gentleman's agreement
01:01there you go what I would say like what what the WWE and Triple H has done has been very
01:08successful
01:08for a number of years now so um it's hard to argue with uh with the impact cute as it
01:13may be on society
01:15oh all right this is how confused that was Sean you said the way he feeds his family he called
01:20it cute
01:20yeah and you're talking about WWE you're talking about professional wrestling yeah yeah because Tom
01:25Brady has his whole TB12 and nutrition thing and everything I thought you meant literally
01:29the way uh the the Triple H feeds his family no no no it was cute yeah yeah yeah no
01:34like it's just
01:35this is the way we're just trying to support our family with our jobs and do the best we can
01:39that's
01:39right and that's all Triple H and he's done a phenomenal job if I say so myself was Randy cool
01:45you met him at the man Randy was tremendous yeah it was funny so I mean honestly it was pretty
01:50cool so
01:51I was getting ready to go on with Pat and they had mentioned that Randy was going to be on
01:56honestly
01:56I think they kind of coordinated it and they kind of let Randy know hey Nick's a you know big
02:00fan
02:01big fan of wrestling so he came over said hello introduced myself I said hey man like really big fan
02:06have a lot of respect for you what you do I enjoy watching like the RKO videos periodically it kind
02:12of
02:12make me laugh so then we started talking a little bit about the chamber and then Pat asked me on
02:17the show
02:17is do you think Randy's gonna win I said I hope he does and I come to find out that
02:22Randy won the
02:22chamber so it was pretty cool he's enormous honestly god I mean I took I look like I look like
02:27I'm like
02:28four years old in a picture with the picture was crazy I'm like god I didn't realize he was so
02:32big
02:32he's oh man he is like he's jacked yeah he is jacked he's a monster uh Texans GM Nick Casario
02:38joining us
02:39all right Nick so let's get into it you've had a busy week this week so far let's start with
02:43uh
02:43let's start with Titus um so Titus moves on to Cleveland I guess um the the fact that there was
02:50a contract extension on the other end with Cleveland and Titus uh there's all kinds of reading into it
02:56that goes into it when you see that is there connective tissue there with a deal like that
03:01where there was talks of a contract on this end but that he gets one on that end means that
03:05that was
03:05kind of part of the whole thing if you know what I mean yeah no I understand the question there's
03:10always a lot of factors that go into these types of decisions I think the reality is and you know
03:15some of our players a lot of our players understand this I mean Titus did a lot of great things
03:19for
03:19the organization have a lot of respect for him honestly he's been one of the few players that's
03:23still here from when I first got here in 2021 and sometimes you got to make some difficult decisions
03:30um and it's just one of those situations where at some point we were going to potentially have
03:36some dialogue and discussions about that whether or not that was a possibility and whether or not
03:40you know we could extend them or going to extend them or not um and again you just got to
03:44look at
03:45the situation sometimes you got to make some decisions I mean the reality is it's probably going
03:50to be hard for it is hard for us to make commitments to just about everybody or the players that
03:56you know
03:57maybe deserve a contract or looking for a contract so the reality is we're just trying to manage and
04:01navigate through the situation as much as possible I mean I had a chance to see Titus um the other
04:06day
04:06he came into building um he's very appreciative of his time here um he made a tremendous impact
04:14and I told him I said look I have a massive amount of respect for you honestly like what you've
04:18been
04:18asked to do a lot of players could have handled it a lot differently you never bitched you never
04:23complained I mean essentially the guy was moved all along the offensive line so again it's I want to say
04:30these are these are the tough ones I would say and ultimately you got to make a decision and in
04:35the
04:36end you know do what you feel is in the best interest of the team and the organization so
04:40had nothing but respect for Titus certainly wish him well um I'm sure he'll do a good job out there
04:46in Cleveland um you never know I mean I told him I said look the door's never closed I mean
04:50who knows
04:51what happens here down the road but um you know Titus did a lot of good things to your organization
04:55I
04:55know he's appreciative of his time and we're certainly appreciative of the work that he did for us
04:59um and I know it's tough when you talk about individual offensive linemen because it is just
05:03such a it's such a group effort and that it's hard to talk about individual players necessarily without
05:10acknowledging what's going on next to them I would say over the last couple years I think you and you
05:14and D'Amico do a really good job of not publicly criticizing players and as a former player I appreciate
05:20that but then by if we look at the offensive line the actions of the last couple years have been
05:26okay from 2024 until now we've pretty much swapped everybody out you know so where's the when you
05:35say there was improvement this last year I saw improvement I thought that there was improvement
05:39on the offensive line um but there's also clearly going to be changes and likely a draft pick or a
05:46free agent or something along the way where like where are they right now compared to where you want
05:52them to be and what like what wasn't working over the last couple years yeah every year is a little
05:58bit different um and once one season ends then we kind of look look at where are we for the
06:032026 season
06:04what are some of the things that we're going to do understanding Seth players are going to come on
06:07and off and there's going to be players that are still here there's going to be players they move on
06:11from us I mean we have some players that are in free agency and they're going to make a decision
06:16I mean
06:16you know we're going to talk to all of our players we're going to be able to keep some players
06:19going to be able to lose some players and again the reality is like we very easily could keep those
06:24players they played good football I mean I'm going back to LT he played good football he's one of the
06:28best left tackles in the league Titus has played good football so again we're just trying to look at
06:32the whole picture um to your point I mean we improved I would say especially in pass protection when you
06:38just look at the big picture 24 relative to 25 like our pass protection improvement was amongst the best
06:44in the league I think it was us in Chicago from a pass protection standpoint so we made improvement
06:48there certainly can make some improvements in the run game and the run blocking and some of the other
06:53things it's all tied together so whichever five are out there which at this time last year we were
06:59kind of sitting here we didn't really know who was going to be here who was on the team Ed
07:03Ingram wasn't
07:04even on the team we whether or not I can't remember the timing but this is right around when we
07:09traded LT
07:10so we didn't have a left tackle we didn't really have a right guard I mean we had a few
07:14players that were
07:15returning so again it's just where are we now take a picture and then just try to figure out all
07:21right
07:21what's this going to look like moving forward I mean right now there's some players that are here
07:25that are going to be able to make a contribution and help us there's other players that aren't here
07:29that are probably going to be able to come in here and make a positive contribution so again it's not
07:34necessarily about what happened in the past it's here's where we are building the 2016 and then once we
07:40build the 2016 then we're going to go through the process of the spring and then we'll get through
07:44training camp and then kind of get ourselves ready to go so there's never one particular thing it's
07:49about we need to do this we need to do that it's like all right let's look at a team
07:53what are our
07:53options who's under contract who's not under contract sometimes we have to make some difficult
07:58decisions and we're going to have to bring other players in here that you know are going to have to
08:02fill some roles so the reality is I mean everybody gets the same opportunity so we're trying to put the
08:07five best out there which is what we've always done so I wouldn't say that's an indictment on
08:11those players it's more of like the team building roster construction every year it's going to be
08:17different so what happened one year isn't necessarily going to be what happens the following year so I
08:23mean every year is a little bit different so you know we'll do the best we can try to make
08:26good
08:27decisions try to add players that you know we feel can help our team and just you know go from
08:31there
08:32is with a full year now with Nick Caley and Cole Popovich being in the building in their roles I
08:37know Cole Popovich is obviously there already but um like when it comes to the improvements on the
08:42offensive line just to put it as generally as possible the thing that I liked was that they
08:46just looked more fundamentally sound they looked like a more uniform front there weren't as many
08:50there just weren't as many gaps and run-throughs as there had been in the past so I like I
08:54liked that
08:55I was I thought that I could see evidence of good coaching are those guys now more I guess
09:03not like they didn't contribute to draft discussions and free agent discussions before do you feel like
09:08you have a better understanding of exactly what they like when you're evaluating these players
09:13yeah it's no different this year than it was last year our coaches have always been involved in the
09:18draft process you know offensively defensively kicking games so we take a lot of information we elicit
09:23their opinions what do they think of the player how do they see the role and then we buttress that
09:28up against what do we have from the scouting side and in the end we're trying to pool the information
09:33make sure we have the right picture and the profile of a player and the reality is it might be
09:38a situation
09:39where hey here's a bucket of five or six players we like these players we see them in this role
09:44okay
09:44we'd be comfortable with any one of those particular players so the process is very fluid there's ongoing
09:51discussions I mean we're talking daily I mean we're talking D'Amico and I are talking daily about
09:56players he's watching players I'm watching players we're getting the opinions of our scouting department
10:01we're getting a coach's opinion and in the end we're just trying to make a good collective decision
10:07and make sure that we get the right people and with the right mindset into our program so we value
10:13everybody's opinion at some point D'Amico and I have to make a decision about whoever the player is in
10:18the
10:18direction that we go so and I think the great thing about our coaching staff is whoever we bring in
10:24the
10:24building they embrace that player and they're going to coach the hell out of them and try to get them
10:29to perform at an optimum level so we're not one of these well the coaches said this the scouting
10:34department said this and kind of that that doesn't work that that never works we're never going to
10:39operate that way and that's not how we build the program so again it's a collective effort we value the
10:45opinions of a lot of people we try to get information we try to get different perspectives
10:48which is really what you want and in any end whatever decision that we end up making
10:53then all systems go and we're going to do best we can to try to maximize that player so that's
10:59our
10:59approach and it's certainly not going to change this year Texans executive vice president and general
11:03manager Nick Casario joining us here on sports radio 610 Nick the other deal earlier this week the trade
11:08for David Montgomery can you take us through that and what it is that led to David Montgomery
11:12soon becoming a Houston Texan yeah um you know still obviously these trades are finalized next
11:18week when everybody kind of goes through the physicals in the process but I would say David's
11:23been a very productive player um since he's been in this league uh say his leadership his toughness his
11:29consistency you have a lot of and I've said this have a lot of respect for Matt Campbell and the
11:34program that he built at Iowa State and probably the program that he's going to build there at Penn State
11:39um I mean everything that we had on David even coming out I mean this guy was one of the
11:44I would say toughest I mean elite makeup players that Iowa State has ever had and you saw that his
11:51impact that he made you know for Chicago and then the Lions program as well so um again discussions are
11:59always very fluid we're always looking at opportunities that players that may or may not be available
12:04um I would say like Detroit you know I had great conversations with with Brad Holmes have a lot
12:09of respect for their program him and Dan what they do um is as good as any program in the
12:14league
12:15I would say they weren't necessarily trying to move on from David Montgomery um I think they're similar
12:21to us I mean you'll listen if somebody asks about a particular player I mean the answer is like yeah
12:26we'll entertain it or you know what it's really not an option and then you kind of work through the
12:30process so um you know we feel David is a player um that'll be a good fit in our not
12:37only our offense
12:38but in our building and you know his leadership and toughness is something that we feel can be an
12:43asset to our team and our program now you know naturally on the outside Nick when that trade goes
12:48down all of us out here outside the building are connecting the dots with Joe Mixon what can you
12:52tell us about the latest with that the last time we sat down with you said there's eventually
12:55going to be you're going to sit down with Joe and talk about things where are things with Joe
12:59Mixon right now yeah I would say we're kind of working through the process like no real change
13:03or update from the last thing we talked out there to Super Bowl or whenever it was so um you
13:08know
13:08nothing nothing's finalized there so you know we're going to kind of work through the process and kind
13:13of get some of the medical information and and you know make a decision um at some point that we
13:18feel
13:18you know makes most sense for for everybody involved what uh so as you start to enter the the free
13:24agency the legal tampering process and everything um where's the do you feel like right this moment
13:31you started to have a pretty good idea of which guys definitely aren't going to be retained by their
13:36team and which guys are going to hit free agency if there hasn't been announcements by now you kind of
13:42got the lay of the land for your perspective free agents yeah it's pretty early because again I think you
13:48get in
13:48a situation where okay teams go to the combine agents have a bunch of meetings I wouldn't say
13:54that there honestly is really much that gets done at the combine because really nobody knows anything
13:58so it could be a situation where all the agent says oh yeah I met with you know 500 teams
14:04okay well
14:06like free agency hasn't started yet so um I would say like we're I know this is a shocking development
14:11but like we're not a big meeting team like I don't meet with any agents at the combine like if
14:15I want
14:15to talk to an agent I'll pick the phone up hey what's going on hey who are your players all
14:19right
14:20what are your thoughts okay got it all right let's reconnect here at some point so I mean every team
14:24goes about a little bit differently so I mean look until something actually happens I would say nothing's
14:29very nothing's really finalized are there deals that are going to get done quickly on Monday sure
14:33absolutely so I think over the weekend there'll probably be some jockeying and guys are kind of positioned
14:39for okay well they think they got a pretty good situation somewhere else or you know what they're
14:44going to end up returning back to their team so I mean free agency is kind of the same every
14:48year
14:48so I mean in our situation there's going to be some players that we probably retain there's going to be
14:53players that move on I mean there's nothing we can do about that so I mean honestly just know the
14:57market know the players be prepared for whatever situation presents itself and and try to make good
15:03decisions and you know try to add players that we feel can help us so um I'd say it's an
15:08ongoing
15:08process every team is probably going through that a little bit this week just trying to get a gauge of
15:12all
15:13right if we're looking at a certain position hey maybe here are four or five guys you're maybe trying
15:18to get a gauge of what the market is but nobody really knows what the market is until an actual
15:24offer is actually made and then a player ultimately will have to make a decision about it so we'll see
15:29how it goes I mean my sense is over the weekend you know some of this will start to fall
15:33into place
15:33and then Monday I mean it's kind of you know everybody will hit the gas and and be ready to
15:38go
15:38did you guys have any conversations with that Ingram during the season uh not during the season
15:44um you know I think we've been in contact with his reps here you know quite a bit here um
15:49you know
15:50after the season so as a free agent I'd play a lot of good football I mean he's a good
15:55example of you
15:56know he was a player like this time last year wasn't even on a team and then when he got
16:00here you know
16:01really sure what it was going to look like um and Ed went out there and you know played his
16:06best football
16:07probably had his best season took advantage of his opportunity play good football so I mean he's
16:11a free agent so you know we're having conversations with him we're having conversations with our other
16:16free agents as well um you know so we'll kind of see how that process goes do you guys Nick
16:21have a
16:21big board for free agency for next Monday the same way you have a big board for the draft in
16:26April
16:26no it's a great question it's very similar in some respects so we kind of have here's like an
16:31everybody here's literally all the players that are UFAs there might be a few RFAs on there as
16:37well in the event that they're not tendered um and then as these players are released or the
16:42players that get cut those players are added to the board so you kind of have call it a big
16:46big board
16:47and then you kind of have a all right here's our board of a pool of players who okay maybe
16:53fit the
16:54profile of what we're looking for a little bit more realistic there's probably some positions we're
16:59just probably going to be a little bit more opportunity than other positions so take the larger picture
17:05and then dwindle it down into a smaller sample so yeah we're probably working through let's call it
17:12I don't know anywhere from 25 to 30 players across all positions with some positions there's a few more
17:21players than others so again what we don't want to do is just waste time because everybody like we're
17:26not going to be in the market for everybody and everybody's not going to be like in a market for
17:31the
17:31Houston Texans and some of this is what's the market what's the value what's the cost and we're a
17:37well here's what we think the player is all right whatever the role is there's a commensurate value
17:43associated with it all right so if there's a mismatch let's not waste time on those players there where
17:49it's a mismatch let's try to get into a little bit more of a focus group so very similar to
17:54how we
17:55handle the draft for sure okay all right Nick I'm going to ask you about a sensitive topic here
17:59and uh I just there's no correct answer so don't worry and you're going to be wrong answers like
18:05you tell your kids there's no wrong answer no dumb questions I'm going to talk about pro football focus
18:09a little bit here so just be ready am I getting an angry text from JJ Watt or something um
18:14okay I think
18:14they were bought out by teamwork's they were 130 mil yeah oh really yeah they got sold good I'm sure
18:20Collinsworth's thrilled oh Collinsworth has a new grill I'm sure and yeah okay tell me if I'm tell
18:27me if I'm on the right track with this or not because every like NFL teams use pro football focus
18:32they use their data some teams use the grades more than others do whatever I this is the way I
18:37look at
18:37pro football focus where I always try to I use it as a guide to a certain respect but the
18:42biggest
18:43thing and tell me if I'm right or wrong on this is that I feel like let's say with grading
18:47offensive linemen it has value but it also depends on what scheme they play in who's next to them all
18:55the other things and that with a like NFL people with their learned eye and everything know how to
19:01use those grades but if you're just trying to compare offensive linemen like an offensive lineman
19:05from this team to an offensive lineman from another team that it probably doesn't have a whole lot of
19:10value in just looking at the grades is that fair to say I think the best way to view that
19:16it's just a
19:17data point and there's a subjective element from their analysis honestly across positions I have
19:24no idea how they come up with their conclusion come up with their rankings again it's a reference
19:29point it's a data point I would say different but in some respects it's a little bit like mock drafts
19:35it's not exactly the same but again you're just trying to get a barometer and a ballpark
19:39on some measurements so to your point Seth some teams certainly put more stock in those rankings
19:46than others so what you have to do is take all the data sources that are available figure out the
19:52ones that may have the most applicability and then ultimately you have to go back to your evaluation of
19:58the player and the things that you see on tape I mean the reality is the people that are grading
20:02these players and evaluating these players they're not in the meeting rooms they're not in the buildings
20:08they're trying to figure out ascertain to the best of their ability what's going on in a particular
20:14play you might assign a negative to a player maybe it's to the wrong player but you don't really
20:20understand that because you don't have the context so you just have to be careful again it's a data
20:25point it's a tool that's available and that's out there and I would say each team is probably going
20:31to use those tools a little bit differently yeah I don't think Derek Stingley's the 42nd best cornerback
20:36in the sport Nick that's my hot take on the whole is that like where he's right yes 42nd out
20:40of 112
20:41of cornerback you know what I actually and I talked to somebody one of the best corners in the league
20:45yes he's 42nd I talked to somebody I talked to somebody who used to work at PFF specifically about
20:52Derek Stingley and he said yeah there's they don't there's certain glitches in the way you know
20:56if you're playing a lot of match coverage for instance that they don't necessarily grade they don't
21:02grade it properly or like they don't grade it the same as other types of coverage yeah yep so there
21:07you go uh Nick Casario Texans executive vice president and general manager joining us on the
21:12show hey Nick I'm sure one of the things that you guys are working on this week is getting some
21:15I'm
21:16assuming is getting some cap space available to go attack free agency we know restructures we see
21:21teams working on that right now and you guys do that every year as well I'm just curious is that
21:26one
21:26of those things like you're able to look and see who your big contracts are and these are the guys
21:30that are restructurable to open up cap space is that one of those things that it's just generally
21:35assumed that guys are going to be agreeable to it or do you get guys sometimes that that aren't
21:40agreeable to how hard is that process for you as the general manager to get that cap space opened up
21:45to go attack free agency next week no it's a great question and all the situations are a little bit
21:50different sometimes there's language where it automatically you know a port salary converts and then just
21:57treated a certain way some of it's kind of built in I'd say there are other situations you might
22:04you know they have a high cap number and then you're trying to figure out is okay what's the best
22:09mechanism and way to go about this and you just try to be honest in those discussions it might be
22:15just
22:15again an auto conversion mechanism where it's just already built into the contract or you might have
22:22a situation where you might have to have a conversation with the agent or player hey here's what we're
22:26looking to do are you interested or you're open to and it can take on many different forms you know
22:32you can add a year to the contract and again sometimes you're doing that to just to deal with
22:39the current year but just to try to create a little bit of space and a little bit of relief
22:43so I'd say
22:44every situation is a little bit different you know we're gonna probably have players each year
22:49to kind of fall into that category um again we're not trying to hide anything or doing any do anything
22:55egregious and you know I think teams know how we operate so you go to them hey here's what we're
22:59looking to do are you okay with this yeah great okay send it over or let me talk to the
23:04player first
23:05or sometimes it's hey you know what he's got a year left on the contract like here's what we're
23:10thinking about like how do you want to go about this and then you try to come to an agreement
23:13that works for not only the team but works for the player as well so I would say you know
23:18we're
23:18in a pretty good spot we're probably going to do a few things to kind of create a little bit
23:22of space
23:22and give us some wiggle room but I mean it's nothing like earth shattering here so this goes
23:26back to just trying to manage the team and just trying to carry as much flexibility as possible as
23:31you get into the the new league year so when um when you do have to do something like that
23:36what's
23:36your window of time where oh okay wow this guy like let's say Daniil Hunter a couple years ago
23:41um oh wow Daniil Hunter is available we didn't realize he was going to be available
23:46we but you're going to have to make some maneuvers and everything to is there like a critical period
23:52there where you got to figure out if you can actually get all that cap space cleared and
23:56everything before you consummate the deal or do you just pull the trigger and then figure it out
24:00afterwards yeah it's really like before the new league year starts you probably have an idea of
24:06here's what we have under contract for the upcoming season here's how much space we have available
24:10what are our options if we need to create a little bit more space because once you get into free
24:14agency like those contracts don't actually hit until you actually sign them and turn them into
24:21the league so sometimes there's a little bit of a grace period so again you have to be cognizant of
24:26commitments that you're making you don't want to over commit you just like oh we're going to agree
24:31with like eight free agents and then okay there's an opportunity and you commit to it you better make
24:36sure that you have the space because ultimately those contracts are all going to hit so and again
24:42the one thing too on these free agent signings there's going to probably be some big deals that
24:47are signed across the league the reality is you can really minimize the cap hit in that first year
24:53anyway so regardless of the size of the contract the first year cap hits probably going to be pretty
24:57manageable so it doesn't necessarily preclude you from making a big commitment to a player or several
25:04players it's really more in future years where you might have to account for that where the cap hit
25:09you know builds up a little bit texans executive executive vice president and general manager nick
25:14casario joining us so nick you've gone through the combine now uh you'll i'm you'll have the pro days
25:20and the 30 visits and stuff like that coming up as far as this draft class goes how is it
25:25shaping up
25:25are there certain areas of strength that you're seeing with this draft and are there certain areas
25:30where this draft might be a little bit light uh yeah no different this year than it is other years
25:35some positions looks like there's a little bit more depth than others um i'd say honestly it looks
25:40like there's a lot of quality players throughout the course of the draft so i know everybody focuses
25:44on the first round but it looks like there's a decent amount of players here let's call it in the
25:48middle of the draft and there's probably going to be some opportunities for some players late and
25:52then there's going to be opportunities honestly for players after the draft as well so um yeah so i mean
25:58you know look we're not in a quarterback market so you know that's a position we're not really
26:01focused too much on that so let's say some of the other positions i mean it looks like there's
26:05decent depth on on the fronts looks like there's a decent group of receivers here i mean it looks
26:11like there's some quality depth at the running back position you know there's a bunch of good
26:14secondary players that are out there as well so i mean overall um you know it looks like there's
26:19going to be some good football players kind of litter throughout the draft so we'll try to take
26:23advantage of our opportunities when we pick you know whatever round that is and whenever we're
26:27scheduled to pick and you can't make any guarantees that there will be a pick at the draft party this
26:31year right i cannot make a guarantee that that will happen i just want the people to know i just
26:35upset like probably 10 000 people that are planning on showing up or however many people show up to
26:40that draft event so as long as you end up taking jayden higgins jayden higgins turned into a good
26:44player you know so you take good players it's okay i guess i know the whole city of houston's
26:49get mad they're probably mad at me already so i'd probably be more mad if we trade out of the
26:53first round this year so well i can't uh look i don't want to i can't remember what was reported
26:57and what you i know you talked about openly last year about trying to trade up uh maybe maybe or
27:02at
27:03least discussing trading up when uh when the draft was in the late teens or in the mid teens um
27:08in
27:09the first round and then there was a report that you guys tried to trade back up into the first
27:13round
27:13after you had traded out of it i can't remember if you confirmed that or not but let's say hypothetically
27:18you had it was that just mostly did you actually that's not accurate that that's not accurate no
27:23not at all like once we traded out like we were out like we weren't like i mean maybe i
27:28don't know
27:29what report who had that report i mean it's probably the same people that reported we were trading cj so
27:33who the hell knows i don't think anybody even reported that that was one that took on a life of
27:39its own simply by everybody shouting down the the speculation that there was uh that you don't want to be
27:46in our world nick you're uh it might be stressful being an nfl general manager but trying to figure
27:51out what's accurate and what's inaccurate and what's even an actual report anymore it's uh it's
27:55it's you guys are much better at that than i would be so that's why everybody loves listening to you
28:00sean sean played a clip from ryan clark that was six years old yesterday that he thought was fresh
28:06it's only four years old
28:09yeah yeah yeah okay so no we have our days you did not try to trade back up into the
28:14first round
28:15after you traded out of it we just got some news that was pretty good good job seth uh nick
28:20casario
28:20joining breaking news yeah breaking news something didn't happen a year ago something didn't happen
28:25last april that was reported by some i like that too because now i'm just picturing you guys after you
28:31make that trade at 25 you're like well we're not picking until tomorrow and just close up your
28:34laptops you can go home spend a little time with the family we wait to the final pick just to
28:39make
28:39sure you never know yeah yeah yeah it's true yeah you do you do never know nick casario joining us
28:43on the show hey nick i'm curious about this from a general manager's perspective um the uh drew
28:49dolman center for the bears 27 years old just announced his retirement earlier this week and and he was
28:55one year into a deal he signed there in free agency and i i've heard some people make this point
29:01in the
29:01aftermath of that the guys are making enough money nowadays to where they can make different
29:05decisions than players did even 10 or 15 years ago because they're the money is so life-changing
29:10with that even the first contract but certainly the second contract as a general manager is that
29:16something now that possibility that you've got to factor into the calculus either when you're
29:20you're vetting guys or you're just sort of evaluating the tapestry of putting your roster together
29:25uh it's an interesting question honestly you can't really try to get into any hypotheticals and i think
29:35the big thing is like look every player ultimately we're going to support the players and do everything
29:41we can to help them and at some point if a player makes a decision that feels is in his
29:46best interest
29:47we're going to support them and you know certainly wish them well and do anything that we can to help
29:53them it's not about well then we want you know recovering money and doing some of the other
29:57things so look this is a hard job you invest a significant amount of time i can't speak to the
30:04players but just it's very taxing both mentally and physically and players deal with a lot not only
30:13when they're playing football but they have other things going on outside the building as well and
30:17they know themselves and they know their body better than anybody else so we're never going to
30:23question that you know we're going to support them so i mean it's happened maybe a little bit more here
30:29recently than maybe in years past but every player every situation is different and the reality is maybe
30:34that player has been dealing with something that is really like got to a point where it's just it's
30:40just too much physically or too much mentally so um again you put the team together you make a
30:46commitment and you do everything you can to help those players and give them all the resources that
30:50they need and after the season you know if player makes a decision that he says you know what it's
30:54time for me to move on you're going to shake his hand you're going to thank him for everything that
30:58he did for your organization wish him well and let him know that the door is always open and there's
31:03anything that you know we can help you with then you know we're here to to do that good stuff
31:08nick casario joining us on the show um hey nick since we last talked to you uh the announcement
31:13was made that the team is going to be moving its headquarters its practice facilities pretty
31:17much everything but game day out to the toro district out in bridgeland i'm curious from a
31:22general manager's perspective i i'm i'm sure you were part of conversations about all this and what
31:28you hope it looks like and whatnot what are like two or three wishes that you have for the new
31:34toro
31:34district from your perspective that toro shows up every day and greets the people that come into
31:40ability no um no look i mean i know you guys have talked to mike and the mcnairs but i
31:45would
31:45just say like they put a lot of work and a lot of time a lot of energy and i
31:48know there was a lot
31:49of conversations that took place with multiple entities so i mean the reality is to have that
31:53support um to be able to kind of look ahead into an opportunity like that that hopefully is going to
31:59continue to enhance the things that we're doing organizationally you know they deserve a lot of
32:03credit um and you know we certainly are appreciative of the support that they provide us as it pertains to
32:09what that's going to look like those are some of the things that we're going to kind of work through
32:12here probably over the next however many weeks months and or years i think the most important
32:17thing is like making sure that we continue to pour into the players and have the resources that are
32:22available so they can maximize their performance um and we set up the building in in such a way that's
32:29very i would say conducive to i would say a good workflow for the players different but similar to kind
32:36of set up an nrg i mean it's not going to look exactly like nrg but you know we try
32:41to do some
32:41things to enhance whether it's the locker room whether it's a performance area whether it's a weight
32:45room and everything kind of works in close proximity proximity to one another so i think the big thing
32:52is is are the things that you know we can continue to do and provide the players with the resources
32:56they need to be successful whether it's recovery whether it's nutrition whether there's some
33:01technology that's available so again those will be very fluid ongoing discussions um but you know
33:07that'll be the focus and i think that's what the mcnares and and mike are focused on is it's doing
33:12everything they can to you know support our football team and you know damiko and i are certainly
33:17appreciative of that um we're two years into tom brady as a color commentator now and i thought i thought
33:24tom brady's arc has followed what i expected it to he took it really really seriously the first year
33:30and it felt like he was kind of thinking his way through things and then this year he got way
33:34more
33:34comfortable and i i really enjoyed watching tom brady this year how many of his games have you watched
33:39and uh what is your scouting report on where he needs to go i know you watch the tv copy
33:47at times
33:47yeah no i've you know there are times after we played where and when i get home you know if
33:52uh there's a game
33:53on fox i'll flip it on look i'd say look tom's one of the smartest players in the history of
33:57the nfl he's got
33:58a great perspective um and some of his insights and anecdotes that he's experienced to be able to
34:03relay that to the fans and kind of view it through you know kind of a player coaching lens um
34:09you know
34:09it's very unique um you know tom's great at a lot of different things so whatever tom puts his mind
34:14to
34:15like he's going to be good at and you know i mean i don't have really an assessment i think
34:20tom i mean
34:20again i don't really know color commentator like what's good what's not you know what's bad i mean
34:24you know i'm not the authority on that but i mean i think i've enjoyed listening to tom enjoy the
34:29insights that he's provided um so i mean overall i think that you know he and you know he and
34:35his
34:35partner do a really good job and they create a good uh insight provide good insight and create
34:39good perspective for the fans i think one of the most enjoyable things about him that i didn't expect
34:43is that as he does all this media he's become much more of a grumpy old man uh who doesn't
34:48approve of
34:48the younger generation and i like that uh but uh i i do what happens when we get older that's
34:54yeah i think tom and i are like the same age so he's so disgusted we're both grumpy old men
34:59i know
34:59yeah he's well he also i like because he kind of he judges quarterbacks almost as if he acts like
35:06there were a bunch of tom brady's running around back in the day and because these guys aren't
35:10operating at the same level he was i feel like he's disgusted that they're not they're not him i don't
35:15think he necessarily understands like how exceptional he was but one of the things i've
35:19always liked about tom brady is just when he talks about his process and his preparation and everything
35:24and you know he's talked multiple times about how he would practice with wet footballs and just
35:29crappy old worn down footballs that are hard to throw and everything and when you get to the
35:34playoffs you can see where that can have a benefit you know whether you play in foxborough or not
35:38is that something that that cj does do they have cj out there throwing wet footballs randomly at times
35:44during the year well i think one of the reasons we like to go outside um and regardless of the
35:48conditions is because at some point you're going to have to play in some of the elements and
35:52environments that we see during the course of the season so um you know it doesn't get i'd say cold
35:58that much in houston oh it depends who you ask i mean you know people in my neighborhood it's like
36:0340 degrees are out there in scarves and gloves and they got winter jackets on it's not really cold but
36:07anyways you know sometimes the temperature is a little bit lower but when we go outside like we play in
36:12in climate weather so when it rains like we go out there and you know try to practice outside as
36:16much
36:16as possible so to the best of your ability you're trying to maybe simulate some of the environments
36:22and situations that you're going to plan but the reality is it's unpredictable you really don't know
36:27what it's going to be like so i think practice is your best opportunity to prepare for whatever the
36:33situation is going to be during the course of the game sometimes you have the opportunity to do that
36:38and the weather cooperates and other times there's really not much that you can do so
36:42but practice is about preparing yourself and you know to your point i mean i'd say guys like brady
36:48breeze peyton manning they were maniacal about their preparation because they wanted to make sure that
36:54regardless of what was thrown at them they had either gone through it had experienced it and are kind
36:59of ready to go and then if you have to make some modifications or adjustment relative to equipment or
37:04rather than ball handling etc then you know you try to do what you know you feel makes the most
37:09sense
37:09that's texans executive vice president and general manager nick casario nick uh i like that i hope some
37:15of your neighbors listen because i love that you just called all of them soft on this show so i'm
37:20hoping that they're listening right well it's funny like a couple years ago or maybe it was last year
37:23it did snow we had that stretch where it snowed for a couple days and there was some accumulation
37:27yeah so i was out there with a shovel shoveling my walkway shoveling my driveway and people are
37:31looking at me like i had 10 head 10 heads like you were shoveling i'm like yeah like that's what
37:35you do so i walked around the neighborhood and started shoveling a bunch of walkways oh see but
37:40then you're a sucker but then the temperature rose and then the snow melted yeah and it was like i
37:45wasted all that time but it was good workout it was a good work i was just i'm not complaining
37:48as you could skip the versa climber that day yes absolutely hey nick we know you got to go we
37:53appreciate the time as always hey go get some good ones next week in free agency and we'll talk
37:58to you i'm sure sometime uh before the draft we appreciate the time always thanks fellas always
38:03appreciate you yep you too that's uh nick casario joining us on the show all right i want to recap
38:06a few of the things that he said because i think we got kind of confirmation on a couple of
38:10things just
38:10based on some of his answers um i like to think about his one neighbor that was probably looked out
38:15and saw that casario was shoveling his driveway his like the neighbor's driveway and thinking like
38:20shouldn't you be working on the salary cap right now get the airpods in probably it's someone guiding
38:26him on the salary cap yeah
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