00:00Well, we just found out, courtesy of Mike Garofalo,
00:03that the Texans and defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins have agreed to a new
00:10two-year deal that includes $12 million guaranteed for him to return to the Texans.
00:18So this, again, is a key part of the Texans' defensive line.
00:22We were just talking about it earlier, about kind of lamenting the idea
00:26that they could go after a big-ticket defensive tackle,
00:30given what they've been able to do coaching-wise
00:32and just from the committee that they've had at that position
00:35during the D'Amico Ryan's era.
00:37I would argue the best among them has been Sheldon Rankins.
00:41He had that gap year that we mentioned before where he goes to the Bengals in 2024,
00:46but he was here in 2023, came back last year, and now, again,
00:51according to Mike Garofalo, the Texans and defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins
00:56have agreed to a new two-year deal that includes $12 million guaranteed
01:01for him to return to Houston.
01:04Seth Payne, your reaction?
01:05No, awesome.
01:06That was like we were just discussing it in this last segment,
01:11that these are one of the boxes you have to check off
01:14to where you look at a reasonable signing.
01:17You've got still, even before you enter the draft or any of the other free agent signings,
01:24a respectable group of interior defensive linemen,
01:26and we know the Texans are good at signing other guys.
01:29They re-signed Naquan Jones yesterday or today also, by the way.
01:33Remember, he was there at the end of the year.
01:35Very, very small deal for him.
01:36But they do a good job of getting the absolute most out of guys like Sheldon Rankins,
01:42so I'm really happy about this, and it allows, hopefully, the Texans to zero in
01:49on free agent interior offensive linemen, possibly a tackle,
01:53but really the interior offensive line.
01:55The boxes that have been checked off in the last week in terms of extreme need
02:00when you look at the current roster, running back, check off that box.
02:04Interior defensive line, you can check off that box.
02:08The interior offensive line, offensive tackle, I'm a little bit more patient with
02:13because I think that might be something that they get in the draft.
02:16Interior offensive line is where I feel like to make this roster look like something
02:22that you'd actually be confident in on game day, this is one of those items.
02:28The defense didn't really have many starters at all that were exposed to free agency.
02:34Sheldon Rankins was the most notable one, and he's back in the fold.
02:37So I feel good about that.
02:38Yeah, Sheldon Rankins, and of course, I mentioned this earlier, they brought back EJ Speed,
02:43who was kind of an underrated signing at linebacker last year, but played well for them
02:48and somebody that you suspect is going to get plenty of room for them this upcoming year.
02:53But then Sheldon Rankins, like to me, it was always going to be interesting what decision
02:57they made between Sheldon Rankins and Tim Settle.
03:00I thought that Tommy Togia's emergence last year, sort of the revelation that he was last
03:07year, made one of those guys expendable or at the very least lessened the likelihood
03:14that they would retain both of them, if even one of them.
03:18Now we see that Sheldon Rankins is at least one of them that they're going to bring back.
03:22I don't suspect that they'll be able to afford Tim Settle given the rest of their needs and given
03:28what they clearly have now in that room between Sheldon Rankins, Tommy Togia, you mentioned
03:34Naquan Jones.
03:35I imagine they might draft a guy, even if they sign someone else along the margins.
03:40It looks like they've got sort of their nucleus of guys.
03:44It's probably going to be Sheldon Rankins and Tommy Togia in the middle.
03:48I'd be surprised if we see anything different, but we'll see how it goes.
03:51Yeah, you know, the whole methodology for I think most GMs in the offseason is, hey, you
03:59want to enter the draft without feeling like you have any glaring needs, because then it
04:04puts you in a position to draft best player available or be closer to best player available,
04:09and it puts you in a position where you're not stretching to address a need to bring in
04:14some rookie that might not even end up being a good football player.
04:18This is where you'd like to be.
04:19And when you look across the board at the Texans roster right now, it's really just on the
04:24offensive line where you go into the draft feeling like, oh boy, oh man, boy, I'd love
04:33to draft this stud defensive tackle, but we really need an offensive lineman or three.
04:39That's where we are right now.
04:40So in free agency, if you want to be in a good position going into the draft, take care of
04:45the interior offensive line today.
04:47Sign a center, sign a left guard, or at least sometime in the next few days, trade for a
04:51guy, whatever it might be.
04:53And then it puts you in a position of really being able to be calm, cool, and collected
04:57when you get to the draft.
04:58So I feel like we can check off the list of the things that would make you furious if they
05:04were to do this in free agency.
05:06In the previous segment, we were talking about hoping the Texans don't go big ticket item at
05:12defensive tackle.
05:12Then we learned that they're bringing back Sheldon Rankins, and from what I'm seeing here,
05:17it's at a reasonable clip.
05:19So we can at least cross that off the list.
05:23We asked the audience for this, what are some of the things that the Texans could do in free
05:27agency that would make you furious?
05:30We've got one commenter that says on our YouTube chat that getting a lesser guard or tackle in
05:35the market and then not spending the money correctly after freeing up all the cap space?
05:41I think that goes without saying.
05:42You got all this money and you don't spend it correctly.
05:44I think that would be pretty disappointing.
05:46But they mentioned specifically getting a lesser guard.
05:49A lesser guard.
05:50Yeah, that's interesting.
05:52Because when it comes to the names of guards that would elicit excitement amongst the Texans
06:00fans, it's guard.
06:02There are a lot of solid starters out there who would be a definite upgrade over pretty
06:08much, I would include Titus Howard in this, over anybody that they played at left guard
06:12last year.
06:13Because I think Titus, it's cool that he's capable of playing left guard, but it's not
06:17like as a left guard he's a plus starter.
06:21There are a lot of free agent guards out there.
06:23So I think that the Texans, I'll be surprised if they don't sign somebody who, as of right
06:29now, is a viable guard and an upgrade over last year.
06:33And yeah, so I'll be really disappointed if they don't sign one of these guys, because
06:37there's a whole lot of them out there for the taking.
06:39Doesn't mean it's 100% slam dunk that he works out.
06:42Guys fall off at whatever point in their career.
06:45But I'm reasonably confident right now that they're going to do that.
06:48This other comment that we get just doesn't even feel like an option.
06:52And again, we're going over the things that would make you furious if the Texans were
06:56to do this in free agency.
06:59We get one commenter that says, no offensive line moves would really burn me up.
07:04And I think that would also mean that CJ coming back or being signed long term would be dead
07:11in the water.
07:11Look, I just don't see where that's a viable scenario or realistic scenario.
07:16And we're talking about things that will make you mad.
07:17And I understand no offensive lineman, if it's just like if they come back, Seth, and
07:24it's Ariante Ursary, let's say either a rookie or Jared Patterson or something other like it,
07:30left guard, Jake Andrews, Ed Ingram, and let's say another rookie again, again, or even Trent
07:37Brown, that would be that that almost feels like it's impossible.
07:42But that would be the ultimate disappointment if that were to be the ultimate outcome.
07:45It feels like it's impossible.
07:46And yet the reason people fear it is because that's what they did last year.
07:50It is.
07:51You know, like it is.
07:52We've seen the movie before.
07:53Yeah.
07:54You're going to the CJ Stroud's third season.
07:56And they decided to just have a rolling tryout at left guard.
08:02Like that's, it's a hundred percent understandable that people fear that.
08:06And I don't know.
08:07They did it in games.
08:09Yeah.
08:09Not even just in training camp.
08:11They did it in a game.
08:13They, they had city.
08:14So I was out there starting one.
08:15They did it again.
08:16They experimented with city.
08:18So they, I don't know.
08:19Throw them out there.
08:20Let's see what happens.
08:21Right.
08:22So I, and I'll be honest and completely transparent.
08:25I have to examine myself and try to figure out why do I feel optimistic that
08:30they're not going to do the exact same thing they did last year.
08:32I don't have a good reason for it.
08:35I'll give you your desperation.
08:36Well, I'll give you other than sheer desperation.
08:38I'll give you the reason.
08:39And I think we've articulated it through the last couple of shows that we've
08:42done together.
08:42And you and Sean have done so as well.
08:45It's just there for the taking man.
08:48Right.
08:48Like, I don't think that you could say, and I'd have to go back and look,
08:51but I don't feel like the market out absent of doing what the bears
08:55did in just being super aggressive and trading for their new offensive line
09:00absent of doing that.
09:02And I know a lot of us were wishing that they had done that last year,
09:05but absent of that,
09:06there was not quite the opportunity to address the interior offensive line the
09:11way it is this off season.
09:13So in that sense, it feels, I've said this before,
09:16even if it happens by accident,
09:18I'd have to give them credit for it and just have to just take it sort of in
09:23stride because the opportunity is there.
09:25There's enough money there.
09:26It is inconceivable that they would come away from this free agency period with
09:32no new offensive lineman specifically along the interior.
09:35And if you think about last year, what the approach was,
09:37they signed Lake and Tomlinson and I get it.
09:40I get the thinking.
09:41He's an older guy experience,
09:43but he's on the downside in his career and he'd already showed signs of it.
09:46But they signed him to a one year, $5 million deal.
09:49The market will tell you exactly what we should have thought of Lake and Tomlinson,
09:54you know, and I tried my best to, to, to, to get excited for it.
09:59But this is the gauge I go by.
10:01Am I excited to do a YouTube video about this guy?
10:03And I just couldn't, I couldn't, I just, I did one on him.
10:07I did one on Cam Robinson and those ones that felt laborious to go through and
10:12make, you know, convince myself that, all right, yeah, this,
10:14this makes sense and you should get excited about this.
10:16Ed, Ed Ingram, I was actually excited to do a YouTube breakdown about,
10:20because I saw the upside in that Ingram.
10:23And that one worked out.
10:24I wasn't, I'll be frank.
10:26I didn't think Trent Brown was going to play at all last year.
10:28I was, I was pessimistic about that.
10:30I thought that was a nice flyer on a one year, $2 million deal.
10:33If it works out, then great.
10:35And it did.
10:36So good job on that.
10:38But I, yeah, I need,
10:39I need deals where I'm excited to take,
10:42go back and take a look at this guy.
10:43Because I know that there's still a lot of good football left in him.
10:46Just because I'm a peculiar human,
10:48I am going to go back and try to see what those Lake and Tomlinson YouTube videos,
10:52what kind of numbers that they did for Seth Payne,
10:55who does great numbers on his YouTube page.
10:57But I cannot imagine that that juice was worth the squeeze for my man over there.
11:01The Cam Robinson one, I remember doing a pretty,
11:04I did a,
11:04I did get relatively optimistic about what Cam Robinson might offer.
11:08And I remember I did a pretty positive video on him.
11:11And it's still,
11:11it's one of those things where, man,
11:13you say nine positive things and then one negative thing.
11:16And I had like two people that were,
11:18were coming after me on social media about being so down on Cam Robinson.
11:22I don't know.
11:22They haven't followed up on it.
11:24I never heard from them after the Texans traded away Cam Robinson.
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