00:00that the Texans are signing back some of their players before free agency officially hits.
00:05How are you liking some of these deals? Obviously the big one, Ed Ingram, three years, 37 and a half
00:09million dollars. The average annual value on that is 12 and a half million dollars per year,
00:14which is significantly lower than what we had kind of heard was probably going to be the number for
00:21him. And he did not get to the free, like the open market to get it. That usually feels like,
00:27and maybe I'm making too much of it, but that usually feels like some level of vote of confidence
00:32for the team and what they're doing from the player. I don't think you're making too much of
00:37it at all. His market value was 13 to 15. That is what we heard. That is what had been
00:41reported.
00:42Yeah. So here's, here's how I would describe what we've seen so far. And I was, I was getting a
00:47kick
00:47out of Seth and, and B Scott sort of like, Oh, okay. Now, now what are they going to do?
00:52It's
00:53not even time yet. I mean, we still have a 51 minutes until it's officially the tampering period,
00:58but I get it because we want everything to happen yesterday, but here's what, how I would
01:03characterize what we've seen so far. This is all setting up the aggressive moves that we want.
01:09Agree. It's also the Dalton Schultz deal, the Joe Mixon thing, the deals we saw with Petrie and
01:14Stingley last week, you know, some of, some of those at Ingram at a, at a lower value, you mentioned
01:19at 12 and a half average annual value. The Sheldon Rankins two years, 12 million. They got
01:26Naquan Jones for a year and 2 million. These are all relatively lower spectrum deals that are setting
01:32up money to make the big deals. So this is something to be excited about. If you're a Texans fan
01:38and you
01:38want to see them make their big splash. Now there's always the, Oh, you know, because Ed Ingram coming
01:43back on the interior line and we're, we're wondering about another guard and another tackle and what's
01:48going to happen at center. So I think it's setting up big moves there, but there's still
01:52something to wonder about if they're going to actually make them, you know, you mentioned
01:56the, Oh, of Ed Ingram. Let's talk about Ed Ingram himself. Cause obviously I think we're all super
02:01interested in what this then means, the ways in which I think that they've narrowed down their scope
02:06of, of, of, of things that they need to address where it had previously felt like you got to get
02:10a
02:10whole bunch of offensive linemen. Now you're limiting even further to, it feels like you got to see if you
02:15can answer two spots within the next few days when it comes to free agency, as opposed to the
02:20entirety of the interior offensive line. But at Ingram himself, how do you feel that you have
02:27your right guard locked in for the next few years, at least? And he's a devil, you know, in a
02:33way,
02:33right? And maybe that's unfair to call him the devil in general, because, you know, I know that some
02:37people are just, you know, blown away by this deal and the possibility of having a dude who had one
02:41of
02:41his better seasons, if not his best season, relatively young still has a, you know, an
02:46opportunity to really be a good scheme fit. When you talk about gap scheme, getting a downfield,
02:51you know, impact, imposing your will in the run game. How do you feel about Ed Ingram,
02:55right guard for the team? Well, I think there's some clear positives, but there are some negatives.
02:58And so let's just kind of go through them and I'll see what you guys think. The positives for me
03:02is
03:02you mentioned it. He's still just 27 years old. Yeah. I think he's 27. That is not old at all
03:09for an interior lineman. Good, good to very good in the run game. And that's what this team wants to
03:15do. Now, you know, he might've had some nagging injuries for, for the fade. So that's why you,
03:20maybe it's still durable guy plays a lot of games and he's got that swarm that, that we talked out
03:26on top of that, of all the offensive linemen, he's probably the swarmiest that we can talk about
03:31right now. He in nursery on top of that, you know, he's got the good contract. So there's some real
03:37positives with him fits the scheme. Very familiar. The devil, you know, uh, then now the negatives
03:42are, it almost points back to CJ Stroud, right? Pass blocking is where he's probably, uh, is,
03:48is not as strong. He's, he's not nearly as good in pass blocking. And that speaks directly to CJ
03:54Stroud. What does it mean at center? Now, is it going to, is that good news or bad news, uh,
03:59in terms
03:59of what you're going to do with, uh, uh, Jake Andrews at center? So there's, there's, there's some
04:04indefinite positives and the other, the only real negative that I'm sort of kind of wondering
04:10about, he's really only had one good year. He really has. Remember he was benched at Minnesota.
04:15Oh, I remember he was, I made a big deal out of that. He was benched at Minnesota. So he
04:19had the
04:19one good year. Now you're committed for three years. We'll see. Yeah. I like it. I very much
04:24have gotten to a place where, especially because of the way that you were able to get this done,
04:28the number you're able to do may again, I mentioned this, I might be reading too much into it,
04:32but the idea that an Ed Ingram coming off of, as we mentioned, one of his best years and a
04:37time
04:37period where people are looking for guards. He was, people was looking for him. He did not,
04:43or he foregoes the opportunity to go into this free agent market. The Texans still could have
04:47possibly signed Ed Ingram two days from now. They went ahead and were able to get this done at a
04:52number that was pretty comfortable without them and without Ed and his agent going and looking around
04:58at teams and having those conversations and seeing what could be gotten. That means something.
05:02That's a belief in what you're doing here. That's a comfort with what you're doing. Obviously that's
05:06a credit to Nick, uh, sorry, uh, Cole Popovich, a credit to Nick Caley and what they're doing as an
05:12offensive line that you were able to get that done in that way. And I think the biggest thing for
05:16me,
05:16because again, I have to give him his credit for the way that he executed last year, the possibility of
05:21continued growth in the same system and comfort. It gives me a lot more confidence in the way that
05:26they will attack, attack the rest of this offensive line as well. An offensive line is still an entire
05:31project. Individual wins only mean, but so much. If you don't have all of this together, what's the
05:35popular saying? You're only as strong as your weakest link. And that really holds true on the
05:39offensive line. We've again, limited down the scope. I'm not looking for two guards, maybe a center
05:45and then possibly an upgrade at right tackle. Now I'm going definitely one guard at the left guard,
05:51probably a look at upgrading the center as they've talked about. And then at this point,
05:55it does feel like right tackle might be one of those. We draft a guy and we have a rookie
05:59either
05:59if he's ready, if he's ready, he can take the job. If not, Trent Brown can hold it down until
06:03he's
06:03ready. This is a lot more manageable. We have made this a lot more bite-sized by handling your
06:10business the way that you have. And you've done it in a way where you haven't overexerted yourself
06:15financially. Because the thing that we had talked about at one point was, would you be comfortable
06:20if you got, if you answered the question, but you had to overpay for it. And free agency is one
06:24of
06:24these times where while we're in it, especially those of us on the outside looking in that don't
06:27have to actually do the accounting of the books, we go, it doesn't matter. Just spend the money.
06:31We are also hypocrites because when it comes down to it on the other end, we will hit,
06:35hit back and say, you spent all this money. You didn't get commensurate value. Yeah. This feels
06:39like a deal. That's very easy to get that value on because this is a reasonable deal for a guard
06:44who played pretty well. Every, all these deals allow you to take a big swing and maybe spend a little
06:50more at the other positions. I think that's what this, this is all a setup that, you know,
06:54all these are really good contracts that I've seen so far, at least, you know, compared to,
06:58to what the market value is on spot rack and, and, and other places. So I think this is the
07:04setup.
07:04They know they're going to have to pay and I'm with you. I think they're going to get two
07:08linemen. I've been saying it for a while now, two linemen via free agency. And I think your
07:12scenario is, is the right one. They're going to draft the tackle probably at 28 and see how that
07:17plays out with Trent Brown at right tackle. I do think the center and left guard are going
07:22to be where they're looking. Are you encouraged about the prospect of their free agency just
07:26because of the deals? I think that it feels like, you know, a lot of the things that the
07:33Texans do are to make sure that players feel comfortable playing here. And at times I've
07:39wondered when teams are in or when players rather in negotiation with the Texans, how much
07:46they take into account that this is a team that, you know, when a player doesn't have
07:49a role and they ask, Hey, can you trade me? This is a team that will let them go. This
07:55is a team that will get a deal done a little bit earlier at, you know, and maybe not the
08:00best deal that they could ultimately get if they had fought you with it, but they're not
08:03going to fight with you with it. And they're going to make sure that you, you know, you're,
08:05you're, you're taken care of. This is a team that's going to protect you, uh, information
08:09wise to the death. And you wonder how much those things factor in. And is this one at Ingram
08:15deal the benefit of those types of things? But two, as we step into this free agency
08:20for 2026, is that going to be an edge for them? Especially if they are going to be aggressive
08:26contractually in the market, is that going to be an edge for them to get a player that
08:29you want? I think it absolutely, it's already an edge. Uh, you know, players talk all the
08:33time, uh, either to friends of friends who have been on the team or people on the team.
08:38They know what the Texans do and how they operate. They also know that there is money to be
08:43made. Uh, there's money to be made and, and, and positions to be, to be won, uh, in Houston
08:48because the defense is, we know what it is offensively. I think a lot of these guys, uh,
08:52I think a lot of these guys have the Texans on the radar for sure. By the way, uh, one
08:56of our listeners just texted. I don't know if this is real or not. I just fixed the elevators,
09:00John. Thanks man. I'm not going to lie. And we'll talk about this a little bit more at
09:051040 with the, uh, minor conveniences to drive you up a wall. I do think that maybe one of
09:10the elevators was up. I did have to go around about way, but I did use one of the normal
09:13elevators to get up here. I didn't have to do the roundabout way. If you didn't hear
09:17earlier, the elevators in our building, how long did it take you? Not, not that long at
09:22all. Uh, I was afraid that I was going to have to take the stairs, which honestly, it
09:25wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world for me, you know, get that extra, get
09:28that extra cardio. I'd have been up here sweating on the microphone, but, uh, that
09:31would have been, that wouldn't have been all right. So I'm not, I'm not complaining
09:34too much about that. I'm definitely not complaining about the way that the Texans have
09:37handled their business to this point. Can they land the dismount? That is the
09:41question to be.
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