00:00where can the Texans improve this year from a coaching standpoint what's a coaching area that
00:07you believe that the Texans can improve I ask this because they have officially announced
00:12their coaching staff as of yesterday we got the official coaching staff for the Houston Texans
00:17going into the 2026 season one of the big notes of it is something that I think we already
00:22expected after Gerard Johnson and the team parted ways last week and that was that Jerry
00:27Chaplinsky would be promoted to the quarterbacks coach but I wanted to use that piece of news
00:33to just ask a question to both Seth and to the audience what is a what is an area for
00:40the Texans
00:40that you feel like that they can improve not necessarily trying to call out a particular coach
00:46or a particular player but something that you would say you could point to and say this could be better
00:52from a coaching standpoint for the Texans by the way I'm Brandon Scott in for Sean Pendergast
00:56here with Seth Payne what say you on this matter Seth where can they improve from a coaching
01:02standpoint in your opinion obviously uh the fixation is going to be on the quarterback position
01:07and uh the like yes you took my answer of it would be spoiler alert you took my answer yeah
01:14yeah yeah I
01:15think when it comes to the the pre-snap operation what you hope that maybe Jerry Chaplinsky can help out
01:21with is anticipating the blitz and making adjustments not just in pass protection but also
01:30on the routes and your hot routes and getting guys eyes on CJ and having options early in the down
01:38when when the pass protection breaks down I think that's a that's a huge part of it you go back
01:43to
01:43that the Chiefs game and it's tough man when you're on the road in Kansas City even though the Chiefs
01:48defense wasn't as good this year as they have been in the past um they're still really good at
01:53disguising their intentions and one thing that the one thing that the Chiefs are really good at with
01:58the blitz I think the Seahawks and a few other teams are good at this too is they're they're waiting
02:03to see which protection you set and then they change their blitz to attack that protection and it takes
02:10intelligent defensive players to be able to do that but they do a good job of it so you got
02:16to go into a
02:17game against a team like the Chiefs pretty much accepting that at times you're not going to get
02:21the blitz picked up properly that's when it's on the quarterback and the receivers to have an answer
02:26for that and that's that's that's got to get ironed out if they want to you know genuinely take a
02:32step
02:32forward so that's on not just the quarterback and the offensive line but also on the receivers
02:38themselves so I I hope that looks better this year on the defensive side of the ball you know Dino
02:45Vasso has done an incredible job with those young defensive backs and they're one of the best
02:50secondaries in the league they're still not stellar in terms of allowing big big explosive plays at
02:58times they're of the of the top defenses they were the worst in terms of the numbers of big plays
03:05they
03:05allowed or one of the worst amongst so I'm saying it doesn't mean they were the worst in the league
03:09at
03:09allowing big plays but amongst the top defenses they were not nearly as good as some of the some of
03:14the
03:14other top defenses I think some of that it's partly coaching but it's still also partly
03:21the fact that you're dealing with a young secondary yeah you know Kalen Bullock Kalen Bullock or Jalen
03:27Reed not necessarily playing with the right leverage early in the that Patriots game some of that is
03:32the the the moment and being aggressive when you shouldn't be aggressive or not necessarily playing
03:39with the right leverage that's that gets better with time but it's obviously something that needs
03:44to be continued to be coached and coached out of them yeah I was just gonna ask you you kind
03:49of
03:49answered it there but I was gonna ask you how much of that the the big play sort of vulnerability
03:56that
03:56the Texan secondary has that you're talking about there how much of that has to do with a bit of
04:01the
04:01turnstile that they had at the other safety spot and even the fact that when they did have someone
04:07there especially once MJ Stewart got hurt that person ended up being a rookie ended up being
04:12Jalen their best option in their mind ended up being somebody that has not played or had not played
04:18in the NFL up to that point as opposed to when that guy was MJ Stewart who was not like
04:25necessarily the
04:26most talented guy in the world but is lauded for his communication and professionalism or an Eric
04:33Murray who say whatever you want to say about Eric Murray but there was a reason why it felt like
04:38he
04:38was here for 10 years is because he was a reliable veteran who they felt like they could depend on
04:43of
04:44course the Jimmy Ward situation we know how that played out of the the CJ Gardner Johnson situation we know
04:50how that played out those ended up being basically swings and misses in terms of last season so how much
04:56of
04:56that communication that drop-off in communication had to do with the fact that the guys that were out there
05:01were
05:02young and then they were missing a guy they were missing a piece in terms of their whole
05:07communication apparatus if you will yeah and uh and well go back to the Rockets game I think it was
05:13last night that Udoka was talking about the importance of communication yeah it was and just how
05:18it's something that happens with young teams in any sport it's or younger players is that sometimes
05:24they're just they're either they don't realize how loud they need to be with their communication or
05:28because they don't necessarily have the same confidence as a veteran safety there's communication
05:33breakdowns sometimes pre-snap and afterwards and it is it's just it's a matter of youthfulness
05:39more than anything and just absolutely flat out knowing exactly where you're supposed to be
05:44like Kalen Bullock Kalen Bullock's awesome and I think in some respects he's one of the best safeties in
05:49the league already he's gonna continue to get better and it's especially with the safety position
05:55so much of it is about from the neck up and just seeing the reps and having the experience and
06:01making some of those mistakes he's gonna keep getting better at that side of it so I think it's
06:07going to improve and you know because your question was okay where can the coaching improve things I
06:13don't the last person on that team that I want to criticize is Dino Vasso so like I want to
06:18be clear
06:18I it's a matter of him continuing to coach those younger guys better because they got better from
06:242024 to 2025 in terms of big plays allowed they made a lot of improvement and I think that they
06:31just got
06:31to continue that improvement this year yeah you mentioned improvement if there is something to be
06:35really optimistic about or excited about when you talk about this Texans team and I think there's some
06:41obvious things right there they're a young team they finish in the top eight in each of the last three
06:46seasons but it is if I if I was gonna pinpoint one particular thing especially on the defensive side
06:52of the ball it would be the year one the year two jump that Kamari Lasseter and Kalen Bullock made
07:00like that was a that was an off-season narrative that felt like it was really easy to tell because
07:06they had these really good rookie seasons and they're really good friends and they're always together
07:10and so let's tell this really cool story about these two guys working hard together and how they're
07:15going to improve this year and I'll be damned man they actually did that they they literally did
07:21all of the stuff that they said that they were going to do in terms of being more cerebral players
07:27and and and improving some of these things that we're talking about right now so that that's something
07:32to actually be excited about and I think Dino Vasso deserves a great deal of credit they they deserve
07:37credit as football players first and foremost but the job that he's done with them with that unit overall
07:43hell it got him defensive coordinator interviews this offseason so that goes to show you how he's
07:50thought of the job that he's doing how it's thought of overall but I would switch over to the offensive
07:55side when we have this conversation about things that could be improved I can't get out of my head
08:00this early part of the season thing where they couldn't they couldn't block stunts they couldn't there
08:08there were there were moments and this this did improve so maybe this is unfair of me but you know
08:14we're talking about the coaching changes and Jerry Chaplinsky is going to have a much larger role with CJ
08:19Stroud as the quarterback's coach and you know it's year two of Nick Kaley year two of Cole Popovich
08:24as the offensive line coach you want to see everything look better in year two with those guys and then
08:31of course Chaplinsky now in this elevated role but the amount of times early on in the season
08:36when they would max protect and couldn't block you know yeah max protection actually became like
08:43their worst even eight guys into block it meant that there were going to be two guys coming free
08:48yeah what are we doing that Jaguars game that first Jaguars game was a real hallmark of that that was
08:53it
08:53that was it and so that that's something that I would like to see not not improve throughout the season
09:00the way it did last year I would like for it to be and maybe I'm being greedy here so
09:04forgive me
09:05but from said go from the initial starting point for that to be something that they have sort of
09:10nipped in the bud and at the at the very least they can account for those sort of things yeah
09:15coaching standpoint no yeah 100 percent I mean and that is the the fact that it improved as the season
09:21went along and part of that is just when Titus Howard went to left guard and Trent Brown went to
09:25right tackle he had more veterans on the field yeah that I that's hopefully a good sign you know I
09:31think
09:31to add to that too I don't know man it feels like I just I always hesitate to say why
09:39can't they run
09:40screens why don't they run more screens because it feels like why don't they why don't they sit I I
09:44know I just you know why because even sometimes when teams do a pretty good job running screens it
09:49never feels like you do it enough or you don't do it effectively enough yeah but I just yes it
09:54feels
09:55like the simplest and basic most basic thing in the world that my god if they're going to struggle
09:59with blitzes can we at least can we at least have some screens to offset some of this I don't
10:04I don't
10:05know why it's so difficult I don't know why it's so hard but yeah could it could just some of
10:10these
10:10basic things that that you're screaming about from your couch I'd like them to be able to do so I
10:16want
10:17them to do the things that people uh are screaming for about from their couches better next year
10:22you
10:22you
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