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Reggie dives into DT prospects in the draft and explains why he’s not sold on one player linked to the Texans.
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00:00April 23rd is when the first round of the NFL draft will happen this year.
00:05And so, today's March 23rd.
00:07We're a month away from this.
00:09I'm trying to get my hands on some of the, or my head around, rather,
00:12some of the positions, especially that I think the Texans are very likely
00:15to be targeting early on in this draft.
00:18And defensive tackle is probably number one of those, right?
00:21Now that we've gotten to a place where they've kind of papered over
00:23all the holes, really, you're really just looking at where can you upgrade.
00:27And defensive tackle is definitely one of those spaces.
00:30I don't know exactly how I feel about one of these defensive tackles.
00:33And that's Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks.
00:36Right.
00:37He is a dude that we've definitely seen mocked to the Texans a few times.
00:41Ran a 5-0-5-40, but also we found out had injured his foot.
00:46And so, he ran that on an injured foot.
00:48He's definitely an athletic beast, but it's weird because I'm trying to, you know,
00:53and I'm not digging deep into tape, right?
00:55I'm not going to try and purport myself as any level of media draft scout.
00:59I leave that to the folks that do that in a real deep way, like our guy,
01:02John Harris, who I'm going to force to jump back on the show tomorrow.
01:06We'll see if we can make that happen.
01:07Oh, that'd be good.
01:07Yeah.
01:08But, you know, just looking at just some plays, as many as I can kind of call
01:12from the internet, Caleb Banks doesn't look like a defensive tackle,
01:17first and foremost.
01:176'4", 335.
01:19Somehow, he looks like a big old tight end.
01:21Yeah.
01:22But he is.
01:24He's a defensive tackle.
01:25He has the weight to be able to do this.
01:27Nate Tice literally compared him to Tractor Trailer.
01:30Mm-hmm.
01:31And, yeah.
01:32A lot like that.
01:33Yeah.
01:33But on top of that, his run-blocking reps don't really look like polished
01:40run-blocking reps, right?
01:41He just, he kind of just, even if he's double-teamed, he kind of just runs
01:44into the dudes and uses his physicality to push those guys as opposed to using
01:49his hands, using that capability.
01:51Yeah.
01:52And he definitely doesn't seem to keep blockers off of him.
01:56He just kind of uses his beastly physique.
01:58And it is indeed beastly, but he is very much an interior pass rusher.
02:03Like, he will get upfield.
02:06He'll get into the quarterbacks.
02:07So, he lacks polish for obvious reasons.
02:08Hasn't played a lot of games recently, especially.
02:11But he's just a physical freak.
02:13How do you feel about a player like that and the possibility of the Texans
02:16drafting a player like Caleb Banks that is a physical freak, but that polish
02:21isn't there, even though I know that this is a team that can't add that polish?
02:24Remember last draft, last year, how I felt about Shamar Stewart?
02:28Yes.
02:29And he was an Aggie, but I was just like, boy, he.
02:32No production.
02:33The production is just not there.
02:35You know, absolutely one of the first guys off the bus.
02:39Physical traits off the chart.
02:41You know, just he should be better than he's shown.
02:46I think there's a lot of that that I'm feeling the same with Caleb Banks.
02:50And I'm not, I didn't watch every one of his games like I did with Shamar Stewart
02:54and had a real good feel for him as a player, I felt.
02:57But I've watched a lot.
02:58He was an SEC guy.
02:59He started out in Louisville, went to the SEC, Florida, and made some plays,
03:03made some big-time plays.
03:05I said 6'4".
03:06He's 6'6", 327.
03:07Yeah.
03:08Yeah.
03:08No, he's.
03:09So he's big, but he's also tall.
03:11Like, that's, I think that, that's why his frame does not look like what I
03:14imagine when I, especially, I think about that big space eater in the middle.
03:18Yeah.
03:18Which he, I don't think he's a one tech, obviously, but.
03:20He can play anywhere from zero to three.
03:22You know, he's that much of a physical freak.
03:26And so, I don't want to just bash on him, but I'd much rather they go another
03:30route, you know.
03:31Really?
03:32Earlier in the, I just, I get that same vibe.
03:35Like, just an absolute, you know, Adonis-type physique, but you don't get Adonis-type
03:42production.
03:42Yeah.
03:42You know.
03:43And that's, that's also something where he is a physical freak.
03:46I think that there's not very many teams in the National Football League that I feel
03:50confident about building up an interior defensive lineman.
03:53Hell, Tommy Togi, I said right there is a starter on your depth chart and starter in
03:57the last few weeks of the season for you is probably one of the, one of the chief guys
04:02that you could point to where he came in and not to say that he was bad by any means
04:06when you first got him, but you see the elevation that they've been able to have, which
04:09obviously D'Amico Ryans, Matt Burke is the defensive line, defensive coordinator, but
04:14then also Rod Wright is the defensive line coach, deserves a lot of credit for that.
04:18I just, it just makes me wonder how much, how much do I trust a guy who has not gotten
04:22really good at using his hands in there?
04:23He definitely is a number one, or rather a first round talent.
04:26It makes me wonder though, if I might be more happy with one of these two other guys
04:31that, you know, looked at, Caden McDonald, right out of Ohio State.
04:34But then the guy that I did kind of almost fall in love with watching him.
04:39It was Lee Hunter.
04:40Texas Tech.
04:41Texas Tech.
04:42He very much, he feels like a one tech baby.
04:45And he stops the run.
04:45The power is sudden.
04:47In fact, it's almost oddly sudden the way that the power happens there.
04:51And the thing that was really fun is that he's really nimble, especially in that tight
04:55phone booth in the, in the interior.
04:57Boy, he just, he knifes through gaps.
04:59Like the, the idea is, or the, the, the scouting report on him is that's a dude that is a
05:04run
05:04stopper and boy, is he a run stopper to eats up two blocks, keeps him at a distance
05:09sheds, gets the, like he does the things the way that you want to, but then he can also
05:13kind of find those gaps with that, with that, you know, that quicks lateral movement.
05:18And you wonder if that helps him in the past rushing in a way that people have not talked
05:22about.
05:22And Jordan Reed actually called him, uh, rather, uh, lightly compared him to Pat Williams.
05:27You remember the Viking, uh, and former Aggie actually.
05:30And I wonder if I wouldn't be happier there, but I also, does that, does it sound like I'm
05:35doing the thing where I go, I like the polished dude who does it right now.
05:38And is that the right way to approach the draft?
05:40Well, I think, you know, and, and the question is, is that the right way to approach the draft
05:44for the Texans?
05:45Yeah.
05:46Uh, because you can, you can make the argument, uh, you can actually make the argument that
05:51they can, they can go either one of these directions, you know, because they have some
05:55depth, uh, they have some, you know, Caleb Banks, you know, can learn, uh, they, they
05:59do coach up.
06:00Um, but on the other hand, you know, the swarming nature of it all, uh, I think fits more with
06:05McDonald and Hunter.
06:06So I, I, I'm not, I'm not going to totally bash the guy.
06:09Cause like I said, I watched him some, and I got, you know, you know, developed this
06:12opinion of him and like sort of a guy that is underachieved for lack of a better way
06:17to put it for, for his physical skills.
06:19But there's a lot, there are a lot of physical skills that maybe can thrive, you know, with
06:24the right, uh, environment and coaching.
06:26Yeah.
06:26And I also wonder how much is, how much is this Texas team going to value somebody that
06:30actually is a nose tackle, nose tackle versus, versus a guy that can do more.
06:34That's also been some of the conversation.
06:35They've had a whole bunch of dudes that kind of profile as a whole bunch of three texts
06:39kind of that, and they'll make it work.
06:40They've pieced it together in a way.
06:41And that almost feels, that almost feels disrespectful to what this Texas team has done to say that
06:45they pieced it together with the defensive tackles that they had in the rotation.
06:49It does feel like if you're going to get a dude like that, you kind of want to get a
06:52big
06:52body dude that is really holding it down.
06:54Uh, which feels like it's maybe more Lee Hunter, but also like, do you not just go again, get
07:01a dude who we know that we can build into something and maybe have, has more of that headway to
07:06possibly have more, a higher ceiling.
07:08And have the room to, to develop.
07:09Right.
07:09You know, here.
07:10And that, that's, that's the thing that I'm, I'm kind of going back and forth with, with
07:13these D tackles.
07:14The funny thing is, give me any of them and I'm happy.
07:17I'm trying to figure out where am I most happy.
07:18Yeah.
07:19No, I, I, obviously I think McDonald has been, uh, mentioned a lot with the Texans kind
07:23of falls in that sweet spot to, uh, to where they are.
07:26Uh, and I think, you know, the, the, the swarm mentality is, is such a big thing with this
07:31team that it does matter for guys like that Hunter, Hunter, especially.
07:34Yeah.
07:34Yeah.
07:35I think Hunter, the kid, the kid from Texas tech is going to definitely be that.
07:37Yeah.
07:38Uh, and I mean, you talk about Jacob Rodriguez there at Texas tech and the ways in which
07:43that front line keeps them clean and makes them better.
07:45Imagine what, uh, have you, by the way, have you seen the Dallas Cowboys fans on the internet
07:50just basically salivating at the prospect of possibly trying to steal his ease.
07:54I'll shy.
07:54It's the weirdest thing that's happening on, on Twitter right now.
07:57As if, right.
07:58That's the thing is they're like, Oh yeah.
08:00What if, you know, the text, the Texans, maybe you can, maybe you could trade, maybe you
08:04could trade something to get them.
08:05And I'm like, do y'all know who Demetrius is and the relationship he has with his ease.
08:09That buddy couldn't go anywhere.
08:10If he tried on the list of things that were at least in the, in the near term will never
08:14happen.
08:15I mean, there's a higher likelihood that they'll trade CJ Stroud over Aziz Alshair.
08:21It's been the weirdest thing because they, I don't know how much they're actually convinced.
08:25Like if it was a scale of one being not convinced at all and 10 being maximum convinced, I wouldn't
08:30say it's like eight or nine, but it's a solid like five or six where they think they get
08:34them when in all reality, it's a one to zero.
08:36To me, they, they don't really know the situation down here.
08:40They're probably just looking at the contract and say, oh, they probably ain't going to
08:44want to pay him.
08:44So they could, no, you don't know the relationship.
08:47We'll figure that out, man.
08:48You don't understand.
08:49They're like, yeah, there's a lot of money being spent.
08:50Maybe they'll move on from Aziz.
08:52No, they won't.
08:52Nope.
08:53No, they won't.
08:53But the point I was going to make is the way that Lee Hunter absolutely helped Jacob Rod
08:57Rodriguez be the best version of himself, keeping him clean.
08:59I could easily see him doing that for the likes of Aziz.
09:01And Henry, Henry Toto.
09:05So yeah, I think I'm, I think I'm falling more in love with Lee Hunter, but I'm still
09:10trying to figure out how I feel about Caleb Banks as it relates to the Texans and likelihood
09:14is with some of the, some of the mocks that I'm seeing, Caleb Banks might be gone before
09:17you even get it.
09:18Could, could well.
09:18Honestly.
09:19So, all right.
09:19You're in the loop here on sports radio, 610, 8, 3, 2.
09:21I like Hunter, but I love and refer his teammate, Jacob Rodriguez more.
09:27And yeah, the Jacob Rodriguez is one of those.
09:28I just don't know.
09:29I just don't know that that's somebody that the Texans are going to have an opportunity
09:32to, but not the thing is, yeah, you'd have to see how the draft falls because he's going
09:37to go earlier than I think people think 7, 1, 3.
09:39So you don't think the Dallas Cowboys have an offensive lineman.
09:41We would trade a one for one with Aziz Alshire.
09:45No, that's the thing.
09:46That ain't going to happen.
09:46No, I don't.
09:47They don't, they are not doing that.
09:48They do have, they do have some linemen that you would think about trading.
09:52They ain't about to trade no offensive lineman for Aziz.
09:55Like Tyler Smith is one of those that I would actually, he might be.
09:58This ain't Madden.
09:59As much as I wish it could go down like that, that ain't happening.
10:04Yeah.
10:04If they're dumb enough, especially for an offense that was that high power to then try
10:07and take apart their offensive line, I don't think that that's something that they would
10:10be willing to do.
10:11And if they did, Jerry Jones might go the way of Nico, what was it, Nico Harrison?
10:15Yeah.
10:16Yeah.
10:16Like I'm trying to think, would you take Cooper Beebe from them for Aziz Alshire?
10:20No.
10:21They wouldn't.
10:23I don't think they would.
10:24The Texans?
10:25Yeah.
10:25Would you like, it's Tyler Smith is who you would go for.
10:29If it was that easy to get one of their offensive linemen, I would be calling them right now.
10:33But also, I wouldn't do that for Aziz, who's the heart of your team.
10:36Yeah.
10:36I would give you a draft pick.
10:38If it was that easy to get your offensive linemen, I'd give you a draft pick.
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