00:00So the Braden Smith signing specifically has made the draft, at least for me, all the more interesting.
00:07It has put even more of a spotlight on what Nick Casario and company are planning with that number 28
00:14overall pick.
00:15If they pick there, whether they trade up or trade back.
00:18But what do they do essentially with their first pick in the draft is now after the Braden Smith signing
00:24specifically is even more intriguing for me.
00:27Because that is what's going to sort of tell me the tale.
00:31You were hitting on this earlier in the show, Reg, about, hey, what are you able to glean?
00:35Essentially, I'm paraphrasing what you were saying, but what are you able to glean from their moves so far?
00:39And early on, it was, hey, I think based off of trading Titus Howard and bringing in David Montgomery, that
00:46tells me they're not spending a lot of money on running back.
00:48They're putting money into this offensive line.
00:51Well, they haven't put a ton of money into the offensive line.
00:55They've brought back Ed Ingram.
00:57Of course, they've brought back Trent Brown.
00:59And they're going to sign Braden Smith, or I guess they've signed Braden Smith.
01:03But none of that, like together, that's some investment.
01:06But they haven't taken that big swing with the offensive line.
01:11With Braden Smith, as you guys know and participated in this debate, what exactly position is he going to play?
01:17He's played right tackle and tackled pretty much his entire NFL career.
01:20But it's naturally a guard.
01:23And the Texans somewhat infamously like to move tackles in the guard.
01:29You know, they like positional flexibility.
01:32They've talked about it at length, and they've shown it.
01:35They talk about cross-training.
01:36I went back to training camp last year where they were like, we're going to cross-train dudes just in
01:39case.
01:40It is a thing here, right?
01:41It is an undeniable thing here.
01:43And so I think it would have been much easier if the Texans had just simply signed.
01:49Let's say Braden Smith is just simply a right tackle.
01:52Always has been.
01:53Always has been.
01:53No guard background.
01:54Simply just signed a guard with no tackle background.
01:57You can maybe fixate on the position that they didn't sign and say, hey, maybe this is what they're targeting
02:02in the draft.
02:03But now that they've got a guy that they can swing back and forth, if they do what all the
02:09mocks, or what a lot of the mocks at least have been telling us that they're going to do,
02:12and you can't read too much into the mocks, but after a while you do sort of develop some themes
02:17here, right?
02:18And everyone that I've looked at, and especially the ones that I talked about last week and earlier this week
02:22when I was on with Seth Payne on Payne and Pendergast in the morning,
02:26it was tackles.
02:28It had the Texans drafting tackles.
02:30If they draft a tackle with their top pick, and they've signed Braden Smith, and they have Trent Brown, and
02:38Blake Fisher,
02:38who a lot of us think is going to get cut, but is still on the roster, okay?
02:42In the last two years, they've invested a second-round pick in a tackle, right?
02:47That's a lot of tackles.
02:49That's a lot of investment in tackle when we all know the glaring weakness is at that guard spot.
02:55And so that would tell me a lot.
02:56That would tell me that's a crowded room for a rookie tackle, Braden Smith, and Trent Brown, all going to
03:02be your tackles.
03:03And it almost ensures that Blake Fisher's getting cut.
03:06But all those tackles together with a pretty decent level of investment, to me, tells me that Braden Smith as
03:14a guard is more,
03:15or would tell me that Braden Smith to guard is a lot more plausible than a lot of people want
03:20to give it credit for.
03:21And you know what also that would be?
03:22That would, in an odd way, and in an offseason where we've been kind of looking at them and going,
03:27they've been doing the lip service of supporting C.J. Stroud, but also at the same time have been kind
03:31of putting onus on him to be better.
03:33That'd be an interesting kind of support of C.J. Stroud, because that would be prioritizing, solidifying the edges of
03:39the offensive line.
03:41Admittedly, typically that is where you invest on the offensive line as the tackles, but you do that to pass
03:47the football.
03:47You don't solidify the tackles for running the football unless you're an outside zone team, which they're not.
03:52So, like, that would be a little bit of a vote of confidence of sorts for C.J. Stroud in
03:57a roundabout way.
03:58I'm almost there with you.
04:00Almost, because it is, and you laid it out perfectly, and it makes a lot of sense,
04:04and it gives you a little bit of mystery about what you're going to pack, a draft.
04:10Pack? Where am I going?
04:11You tell me.
04:12You going fishing this weekend?
04:14What you going to pack into the draft?
04:16But I keep going back to, yeah, it's a nice thing to say, but the dude has played tackle for
04:22seven years in the NFL.
04:24Eight.
04:24Eight years in the NFL.
04:25He's a tackle.
04:26You know?
04:27I mean, he's a tackle.
04:28But, again, the part that gets me sort of pausing is this is what the Texans do.
04:33They did it with another tackle that just left.
04:36But also, I do think it's important to point out, and I think some of the former players and, like,
04:42you know, heavy football people have pointed this out,
04:45that it's a lot easier to turn a tackle into a guard than a guard into a tackle, specifically if
04:49that tackle already has a guard background, right?
04:52Like, if the tackle over the course of years is big and strong and nasty enough to play guard, but
04:58he loses a little bit of the athleticism you laid it out, he's played tackle for eight years.
05:02So this guy's got eight years of NFL wear and tear and an injury history, right, and was always really
05:09a guard.
05:10And they were able to make the tackle thing work, which was really a credit to him and a credit
05:15to the Colts as an organization,
05:17but not so much, I think, a demerit on his ability to play guard necessarily.
05:23Yeah.
05:23Or did it strip him of naturally being a guard?
05:27I think it's a radical idea.
05:28I agree with that.
05:29I agree with that after a guy has played this much tackle, but if he's ready to make that transition
05:33and if they actually view him as a natural guard,
05:36and we've heard him talk about his style of play, it's not finesse, which is not to say that just
05:42to be a tackle that you've got to be a finesse player,
05:44but he plays tackle kind of like a guard.
05:48He's built like a guard.
05:49Yeah.
05:50And was drafted as a second-round pick and was an All-American guard in college.
05:55So, it's not – like, it wouldn't have been out of the realm for him to play guard when he
05:59was drafted.
06:00I don't know if it's that crazy for him to – like, I don't know if he forgot how to
06:04play guard over the course.
06:05Right, that's why I'm almost there.
06:05It's just like that one thing.
06:07He hasn't done it, but has he forgot how to play guard over the course of eight years?
06:11It's something that he couldn't figure out how to do with an off-season training.
06:16I don't think so.
06:17So, like, that's why I'm all the more interested in what they do with that pick because that tells me
06:21a little bit or could tell me a little bit about what they're going to do with Braden Smith.
06:25No, that's absolutely a fascinating perspective.
06:28That's why maybe I'm lesser waiting until the – what is it, April 24th?
06:32Is that when the first round of the draft hits?
06:34I don't know why that date is specifically sticking in my head.
06:37It's right around that time usually.
06:38Usually the end of April.
06:39I'm not waiting until late April.
06:41I'm like, how are we rounding out free agency?
06:44And maybe they do wait until late April because I know that the hypothetical was thrown out by the morning
06:49guys that I think it's fair.
06:50Could it someone like a Joel Batonio who has talked about not necessarily – or that has been talked about
06:56as not necessarily knowing if he wants to play this year or whether he wants to retire?
07:00Could he wait until the draft and look around at teams and go, all right, now I want to play?
07:05What?
07:06You know, if someone like a Joel Batonio – we've obviously heard a lot of clamoring for Wyatt Teller, so
07:11on and so forth.
07:11Like, if one of them signs in the next, like, week or two, that's when you get your answer, right,
07:15before we even get to the draft.
07:16But it's a fair point.
07:17If there's nothing else done until they get to the draft, it will be really telling.
07:21But also for me, I like the idea of if they do get a guard, the freedom and the information
07:27that you can take in from where they go then as well.
07:29What do they prioritize?
07:31Not even just in position, but if they do have the best player available approach, what talents and abilities are
07:39they actually taking?
07:40Because some of the times we talk about the best player available, but a lot of times that position and
07:43need pops back up.
07:44If they got a guard, they would be as free as I think that they've ever been in going into
07:48a draft and being able to just select what they want.
07:50Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be, just as far as, like, level of concern and panic, there's no
07:56need to get too concerned until really you get to OTAs.
08:00Yeah.
08:01And, you know, like, after you've had an opportunity to, like, trade, okay, so post-draft, an opportunity to trade,
08:09I'm not too concerned about exactly what they end up with or the fact that they haven't gotten a guard.
08:16Like, to me, as long as those guys that you just mentioned, Wyatt Teller, Betonio are still out there, and
08:21you haven't gotten OTAs yet,
08:23these guys are unsigned.
08:25There's still opportunity to go out there and trade for somebody.
08:28We've seen them make key moves in the past, and Ingram was a perfect example, even though he was traded
08:33for around this time last year.
08:36But there's still opportunity for them to get that guy, even if it's not something that we can see just
08:41yet.
08:41So I'm going to give them a little bit of the benefit of the doubt just because there's still opportunity
08:45there.
08:46But I feel like the moves that they've made so far are kind of showing their hand a little bit.
08:49You know what's funny about all this conversation is we're still not even, we're just almost assuming that Jake Andrews
08:56is going to be the center.
08:58Well, which we were not doing a week ago.
08:59Well, that's because a week ago there were still.
09:01And we should not do.
09:02Right.
09:02A week ago there were still viable free agent answers.
09:05And if there's not viable free agent answers.
09:06But there is a draft.
09:07You look at the draft.
09:08Yeah.
09:08But we can also look at the profile of centers in the draft.
09:12And when you look at those, there aren't dudes that you go first round pick, you select them, and he's
09:16definitely a starter day one.
09:17There's guys that you go day two.
09:19So whether it's second, third round, or day three, early on where you go, we can draft them.
09:24Maybe they're a starter at this point.
09:25Maybe they work their way to being starters.
09:27But it's just bizarre to me.
09:29In that instance, you're talking about a circumstance where it's a competition as opposed to a,
09:35a definite replacement.
09:36Was it the Bears who traded for Garrett Bradbury last week from New England Patriots?
09:40Yes.
09:40When I saw that, I was like, yo, Texans, what are you doing?
09:44I saw that and I understand that response.
09:47I know who Garrett Bradbury is.
09:48And I'm not super excited about that as an upgrade from Jake Andrews.
09:52I'm just saying in general, in terms of being proactive, and I actually do think it would
09:56be an upgrade.
09:56I don't think it takes much, or is saying much to be an upgrade from Jake Andrews, to be
10:00honest with you.
10:00To what degree, though?
10:01How much of an upgrade are you getting for whatever you've given up in that instance?
10:04I mean, what, did they give up a six-round pick?
10:06Yeah.
10:06Yeah, I mean, what is a six-round pick?
10:08Sure.
10:08So, I mean, yeah, no, I mean, you needed to, that just, to me, explains the urgency of the
10:13situation that I'm saying, hey, go get me Garrett Bradbury.
10:16The Bears themselves thought it urgent enough to do so after Drew Dahlman retired.
10:20Yeah, I feel you.
10:21But that's because they had no answers.
10:23You have an answer, just not the perfect one.
10:25Not even close to the perfect one, but it's not the perfect one.
10:27Y'all got me out here defending Jake Andrews.
10:30Can y'all let me live, okay?
10:31Jake Andrews truther over here.
10:33I was going to say, you know that the Jake Andrews bot was over here.
10:36All right.
10:37Is that Jake over there?
10:38You know what?
10:38Are you related to Jake?
10:39You're trying to work on your first throwing out of the interloop, aren't you?
10:42I see you over there.
10:42Jake from State Farm.
10:45I see you over there.
Comments