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00:00that most of the conversation revolves around the offense getting better.
00:04Luke, if you had, if there were one thing for you that the Texans could do better,
00:10that they could improve upon this year offensively,
00:14that you think will help our chances of making a run at an AFC championship,
00:19kicking a door down and getting into a Super Bowl and potentially making that kind of run,
00:23where do you land in that thought?
00:25Yeah, it's a good question.
00:26You know, yesterday we were talking about how they still need to add speed to the offense,
00:30and I would tend to agree with that.
00:32But I think first and foremost for me, number one on the list would just be a more productive run
00:37game.
00:37And maybe that's too broad or too vague, but they just need to be better running the football.
00:41I mean, last year they were fourth worst in rushing success, you know,
00:45bottom 10 in yards per contact, before contact per rush and stuff rate.
00:51Bottom five in runs of 10 yards or more.
00:55Or just, they were bottom five across the board in all sorts of different rushing stuff.
01:00Bottom 10 in rush success.
01:01So, I think if you could have a better run game, and hopefully David Montgomery and the changes on the
01:05offensive line bring that,
01:07then it opens up a whole lot.
01:08I mean, for one, I think that's what they want to do, right?
01:10That's D'Amico Ryan's preferred style is to play defense and run the football.
01:14We talk so much about C.J. Stroud, and the Tex have already come in on him,
01:17but it makes it easier on him if he could just hand the football off more frequently and pick up
01:22some yards
01:22and have success on the ground, and that helps him with the play-action game and everything else.
01:26And so, try to maybe take a top off a defense, too, through that process.
01:30So, for me, I think it just starts up front, I guess, specifically with the run game.
01:35I hope David Montgomery brings something to this team that they didn't have last year.
01:38A little more explosiveness on the ground and just a little more, what's the word I'm looking for,
01:43being a little more consistent with the running game where it's not bottom 10 in pretty much every rushing.
01:48Just give me an average rushing attack instead of one of the 10 worst in the league.
01:53Yeah, I think big picture, you're spot on.
01:56I think that would have the biggest impact on everything and really the ability to win ballgames offensively
02:01because I think if you run the football, then obviously the play-action is different.
02:04Obviously, they can't lean and tilt coverage the way that most teams do towards Nico Collins
02:10because you know if you take him out of the game, then you've got a real chance of slowing the
02:13offense down
02:14and getting off the field defensively.
02:15But I'm going to go that route.
02:17I'm going to go the Nico Collins route.
02:22You know, this team is built offensively in a way that you absolutely have to maximize Nico Collins.
02:32And I'm going to tell you, man, you know, you look at the number of catches in critical games for
02:44Nico Collins.
02:45I mean, if you just look down the stretch at last year's games and, I mean, the most important games
02:54he's got later in the season, I mean, his last six games, he had three catches, five catches, four catches,
03:04three catches, four catches, three catches.
03:06I mean, he's averaging, you know, less than four catches a game in the last month plus the season.
03:14I mean, with the exception of maybe two or three games where the catch number got up there,
03:18you know, the target number got up there and the catch number got up there
03:22and maybe eight, nine, a couple of times.
03:24I mean, the usage of Nico Collins just leaves a lot to be desired.
03:30It is so easy to defend.
03:34And it just, it leaves so much to be desired.
03:38And ultimately, you're putting a lot of pressure on those guys.
03:41Last year, it was Christian Kirk.
03:43Christian Kirk messed the bed.
03:45Christian Kirk was ultimately a bad sign by Nick Casario,
03:49whether you look at the injury or you look at the lack of production once he got out there.
03:54It was a problem.
03:55And I think you solve all of, you know, last year you look up and you go,
04:00yeah, but Dalton got hurt and Brevin Jordan got hurt
04:03and Cade Stover was hurt a good chunk of the year
04:06and Christian Kirk was hurt and didn't perform.
04:09And so you end up having to lean on guys because of injury a lot more than you should.
04:14And in reality, I think you should be leaning on Nico Collins more
04:19before the injuries ever happen.
04:22Like Nico Collins has to be a bigger part of this offense.
04:26Like Nick Cayley, D'Amico Ryans, anybody involved with the Texans,
04:33barring that you're beating the brakes off of somebody
04:35or you're running the football for 300 plus yards a game,
04:40if you're in the locker room after the game,
04:43I don't care if you win, lose, or draw.
04:44If you're in the locker room after the game and Nico Collins has three catches,
04:49there should be coaches meetings about it.
04:52There should be a come to Jesus type of meeting.
04:57Your offense's success can't be so heavily dependent on Brevin Jordan
05:02and Cade Stover and Higgins and Christian Kirk and Noel
05:07and you just leave Nico Collins sitting over there stagnant
05:10and not doing much with him
05:11and letting the defense take him out of a game plan.
05:14Luke, I think the number one thing that, and there's no excuse,
05:17I agree with you that the bigger impact is if you can run the football,
05:20but that means about three or four coaches have to be great.
05:23That means that five offensive linemen have to be great.
05:25That means that C.J. Stroud's got to get him in the right run,
05:28in and out of the right play.
05:29That means David Montgomery's got to hit and stay healthy.
05:31That means you've got to hope you get more out of what you saw out of Woody Marks.
05:35I don't disagree with your point.
05:37I think it's going to be harder to get there.
05:39I think what I'm talking about is low-hanging fruit.
05:41What I'm talking about is any offensive coordinator, any offensive scheme,
05:48it should be an absolute requirement that Nico Collins
05:55is one of the most targeted weapons in the NFL.
06:00And I don't want to hear nothing about, well, he can't stay healthy.
06:02You know, he's got this hamstring problem.
06:03He's got this.
06:04It don't matter, man.
06:05I mean, Nico Collins is one of the top wide receivers in this league.
06:09And you've got a supporting cast problem.
06:12And you've got a quarterback that with, at the very least, putting it nicely,
06:18inconsistency problems.
06:18He can't be consistently good, right?
06:22He can do it in regular season and kind of just not,
06:24if you're good is don't turn the ball over, right?
06:27If you're good is stay ahead of the chains.
06:28But, like, he's had a hard time since his rookie year
06:32of living up to those expectations.
06:35And one way that you relieve a ton of pressure off your quarterback
06:39is you get real creative with your number one receiver
06:42and get him easy touches.
06:43You get real creative with your screen game and get him easy completions.
06:47There's none of that in this offense.
06:49And so whether we're talking about easy completions, easy production,
06:54you know, decisions that are one receiver decisions,
06:58one progression decisions,
06:59or we're talking about just simply getting the best player on your offense,
07:02Nico Collins, the football more often.
07:05Either way it goes, Luke, I think this offense, if you're D'Amico Rhines,
07:10you've got to sit down with slow – I mean, slow it.
07:12You've got to sit down with – don't sit down with slow it.
07:14That wouldn't do you no good, right?
07:17You've got to sit down with Nick Kalen.
07:18You've got to say, hey, man, look, I'm not stepping on your toes.
07:20I'm not telling you how to run offensive football.
07:23But I'm telling you number 12 is one of the best in the league.
07:26We cannot play – they played five straight games.
07:29And, yeah, you won it.
07:30You can always lean on, well, we won 10 straight.
07:33I don't want to hear about all that.
07:33They played five straight games.
07:35He averaged less than four catches in those five games.
07:38That absolutely cannot happen.
07:40It's like the old Randy ratio at Randy Moss where when Mike Tice was his coach
07:44in Minnesota and he said we have to throw him the ball 40% of the time.
07:48And Moss got, on average, 12 targets per game and had over 1,600 yards
07:52and 17 touchdowns that year.
07:54Similar idea of just feed him the ball.
07:56And similar now with a lot of – with a lot of stars.
08:00I mean, I still watch the Minnesota Vikings.
08:01I grew up with fans.
08:02So it's similar.
08:02I always say the same thing.
08:04Just throw it to Justin Jefferson.
08:05Let him try to make a play.
08:06Let something happen.
08:07But it also says something about the Texans' offense where we're sitting here
08:10talking about pretty obvious things to try to improve this offense, right?
08:13Like try to improve the run game, which is usually a tentpole.
08:16That's very basic.
08:17And get the ball to your best player more often.
08:20Yes, great point.
08:21Right?
08:21Two very simple or basic things, and that's what we're asking for out of this offense.
08:26So hopefully they can try to do those things.
08:28I'm with you on the Nico Collins.
08:29When you have a receiver like that, like I said, a Justin Jefferson,
08:32just throw him the ball.
08:33Throw it up.
08:33If you're in trouble, whatever it is, give him a chance to make a play.
08:36Hey, it's better than checking it down to some lesser talent
08:40or throwing the ball away, whatever it might be.
08:41Give him an opportunity.
08:43And then I think also that might go hand in hand.
08:44But the other thing I was going to say as well,
08:46and maybe this is too specific to try to just wave your wand
08:50and add it to the offense, but yards after the catch as well.
08:53Because when you look last year, like the two teams that made it to the Super Bowl
08:56were the two teams that led the NFL in the regular season in yards after the catch.
09:01The bottom 12 teams all missed the playoffs.
09:03Six of the top seven all made the playoffs.
09:04The Texans were, I think, around 18th in the league.
09:07So that's another thing where if you could be more explosive
09:09after getting the ball in your receiver's hands, such as Nico Collins,
09:13that would be something else I would say that I would love to see
09:15from this offense more in 2026.
09:17Yeah, and again, Luke, to your point, that's a great pull on the stat.
09:21I mean, you look at those offenses, and particularly you look at Seattle's offense,
09:28and they're a high volume to JSN, right?
09:33And the run after catch is still there.
09:36I think there's just a huge opportunity to improve in Houston.
09:39Overall, before we ever get to Nico, I just think run after catch,
09:42if you've got a good screen game, you can help your completion percentage,
09:47you can help your quarterback's decision-making and his ability to –
09:51or his willingness or the defense's ability to overwhelm him.
09:54You can obviously – you've already got – the craziest thing about Houston,
09:58to me, offensively, is you've got a group over here that literally will lead
10:04with their wide receivers if you've got to be able to block.
10:07Like, you've got to be able to block if you're going to be a Houston Texan
10:09wide receiver.
10:09And then your screen game sucks.
10:11Yeah.
10:12Like, typically, you would think that they're out there just bulldogging folks
10:15out wide.
10:17And it just – I don't know, man.
10:19There's a lot of room for improvement, but I think the one that is an absolute
10:22non-negotiable, no-brainer.
10:25He's one of the best.
10:26The league recognizes him as one of the best.
10:28He's made plays for you.
10:29You know it.
10:30D'Amico Ryan should not be able to look himself in the mirror after games.
10:34Win, lose, or draw.
10:35He should not be able to look himself in the mirror after games
10:38if Nico Collins has got three or four catches.
10:40Because guess what?
10:41When you bump up – because if you're not, right, you're talking about –
10:46because a lot of people want to look at the playoff game and say,
10:48well, you didn't have his best weapon.
10:49And while I agree, the whole approach offensively throughout the whole season
10:55is to minimize when you lose a guy like that, it doesn't impact the offense much
11:00because, hell, for the last six weeks, he's averaged under four catches a game.
11:04So you shouldn't miss that too much, right?
11:06You shouldn't have too much of a problem overcoming that.
11:08We're just going to throw the ball to the open guy.
11:09So I don't want to hear about, boy, well, man, Nico Collins wasn't out there,
11:13and that's why the offense looks so bad.
11:15Look, man, you were – he had three catches the previous three weeks.
11:19I mean, like, so I don't know, man.
11:21I just – I don't – it's hard for me to understand, to your point,
11:25how they kind of handle Nico, how they handle the offense overall,
11:30but definitely Nico Collins.
11:32Hopefully they can run it better.
11:33Hopefully Nico can stay healthy and he can catch more,
11:36and it'll help this offense take the next step.
11:38Because, boy, if this offense – we do a lot of complaining.
11:40I do a lot of complaining.
11:42But, boy, if this offense can take a step at all, I mean, boy,
11:47you're talking about a team that can make a serious run.
11:50For real.
11:50I mean, that's what held them back last year.
11:52They should have been in the Super Bowl.
11:53Very well could have gone and won the whole thing.
11:56The defense is there.
11:57We know that.
11:57It's a Super Bowl-winning defense.
11:59You don't even need a great offense.
12:00You just need a competent offense, which it was far from in the postseason last year.
12:05But that defense is good enough where you could be somewhat like the Trent Dilfer Ravens
12:09and the Brad Johnson Buccaneers.
12:10Just take care of the football.
12:12Don't turn it over like they did in the postseason.
12:15Do enough to win.
12:16But, yeah, it's fun.
12:17You know, football is that one sport for some reason.
12:18Like in basketball, you always get the best player, the ball, in their hands.
12:22Obviously, you go back to Jordan now, guys like LeBron, Durant here in Houston.
12:25When you need a bucket, you get it in their hands.
12:27And when it's not in their hands, fans are very critical,
12:31and you wonder why LeBron passed the ball away.
12:33Baseball, if you have that bat off the bench,
12:35you're going to pinch hit them in the biggest at-bat,
12:37and you bring in your best reliever in the biggest moments.
12:39But for some reason in football, teams get away from that,
12:41maybe because there are so many moving pieces.
12:43Obviously, as an NFL quarterback, Clint, you would know better than me.
12:46But oftentimes, we see teams go away from those weapons too frequently.
12:51And credit to the defense, because that's their whole game plan, too.
12:54But like Nico Collins, I referenced Justin Jefferson earlier.
12:57There's plenty of other examples that you wonder,
12:59how come they're not throwing them to them more often?
13:01Four or five targets a game.
13:03And I feel like it happens far more often in football than the other sports
13:05that coaches don't make that a top priority
13:08to make sure the ball is in their best player's hands as often as possible.
13:11It's wild.
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