- 1 hour ago
Seth and Sean discuss some fans wanting the Texans to bring back DeAndre Hopkins after he replied that "Houston is always home" on social media, assess if it'd be a smart move, and give thoughts on the Texans' WR room as it is right now.
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00:00DeAndre Hopkins, Seth, did kind of the equivalent of a Reddit AMA
00:04on his Twitter account over the weekend, asked me anything.
00:09And he just, you know, DeAndre's gotten a little bit more active on there
00:12lately in terms of interacting with people.
00:14Out of nowhere last week, he's like.
00:16I sent you a text or a tweet of his a couple weeks ago
00:19where it seemed like it sounded like something that a sports media member
00:23might tweet out.
00:24It was something like, hey, what do you guys think about this team
00:26or that team?
00:27It was, who do you think, who are your sleeper teams in the NFL this year?
00:30Yeah, that's right.
00:31Yeah.
00:31Yeah.
00:32And it feels like maybe he's starting to angle into that side of it.
00:35I want to get into the content creation side of it.
00:37Maybe.
00:38And I don't know.
00:39DeAndre's got a good personality.
00:40He might be good at it.
00:41He might be good at broadcasting or streaming or whatever the case may be.
00:46He, over the weekend, did one of those things where he's like,
00:49hey, guys, got a few extra minutes here, not doing anything.
00:52Why don't you guys ask me some questions?
00:53Let's go.
00:53Fire away.
00:54The one that got Texan fans worked up was a at Texanico YT on Twitter said,
01:04are you opposed to coming back home with the H's emoji?
01:09And DeAndre retweeted and said, Houston is always home.
01:13And I feel like since he tweeted that, I have been getting more and more DeAndre Hopkins questions.
01:20Or if we mention, because I've mentioned that I would like for them to sign a veteran-wide receiver for
01:25that room.
01:25It's a very young room right now.
01:27I think they could use a veteran presence in there.
01:28I think they just need more horsepower at that position.
01:31We don't know what Tankdale is.
01:33Jalen Knoll, you know, he's shown flashes of potential.
01:37Xavier Hutchinson, I think, has kind of hit his ceiling.
01:39He's sort of a third or fourth guy.
01:42And then Jaden Higgins shows a lot of promise, and Nico Collins is a star.
01:45I think that room could use a little bit more juice.
01:48So DeAndre Hopkins' name gets mentioned a lot now by Texan fans,
01:51and I feel like he stoked the embers with that Houston is always home tweet.
01:57The two things that were floating around is either speculation or fake rumors this weekend.
02:04One which was really annoying was a couple of jamokes up in Dallas framed some tweets in such a way
02:10that it made it seem like they were reporting that the Cowboys were going to try to trade for Aziz
02:14Elshire.
02:15Yeah.
02:16Because I saw the way, I kind of tried to figure out what was going on,
02:19and it looked like there was some guy up there that said, he said,
02:22Aziz Elshire is being discussed as a possible trade.
02:26And so people ran with that, and he clarified and basically meant like,
02:31well, no, we're discussing it on our podcast.
02:33All right, bro.
02:36That's technically true, though.
02:37He was being discussed.
02:38That's a violation of the way things are usually reported.
02:42Yes.
02:42Yeah, but people ran with that, and I think some Cowboys fans got delusional
02:46about whether or not the Texans would trade Aziz Elshire.
02:49And I just, I don't think there's any actual, I'm not saying it couldn't happen.
02:54Anything can happen.
02:55I don't think there's any actual flames causing that smoke.
02:58I retweeted the tweet you're talking about with a comment,
03:01and I won't be as graphic as I was in the comment.
03:04I'll just put it this way.
03:05D'Amico Ryans would trade vital organs before he traded Aziz Elshire.
03:10Oh, yeah.
03:10There's no, there is zero chance Aziz Elshire is getting traded.
03:15None.
03:15You know, technically, though, if you're not a lot, if you don't want to say it on air,
03:18I'm guessing which organ you're talking about.
03:20Yeah.
03:20It's not technically a vital word, you know.
03:23It's vital if you want to reproduce, I suppose.
03:25It was one of the two things below the organ you're talking about.
03:28That's what I'm saying.
03:29It's not necessarily vital for life.
03:31That's true.
03:31Yeah.
03:32Because if you only give up one of them, you still got the, yeah, yeah, I guess.
03:35It's really just an appendage, right?
03:36Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:38Yeah, the big part of it is an appendage.
03:41Yeah, yeah.
03:42I said left nut in the tweet.
03:43Okay.
03:44Yeah.
03:44Yeah, it's an appendage.
03:45Yeah.
03:46I guess it is.
03:47Well, it's...
03:47Medical students, text in.
03:48Is a testicle an appendage?
03:51It is a hot dog a sandwich.
03:53Text in.
03:53Answer both of those things.
03:56So, yeah, so DeAndre got people.
03:57Some of these DeAndre answers are interesting.
04:00Oh, no, it's a primary organ, not an appendage.
04:02Ooh, okay.
04:03Okay, thanks, doctor.
04:04But I don't think it's a vital organ because you can live without it, right?
04:08Yeah, but that's not as much fun.
04:10It's not as much fun.
04:11I don't know.
04:11In some ways, life might be more enjoyable.
04:14Maybe.
04:14I don't know.
04:15I'll let you figure that out.
04:16I don't know.
04:17I like having them down there.
04:18It's a dangler's cause.
04:19Yeah, yeah, you can live, but you can't live, you know, like live.
04:24Two fists.
04:25Remember the Heaven's Gate cult?
04:26I remember that was one of the things, one of the quotes they had from one of the members
04:30was after they went through their castration process, said that he felt more at peace and clear-headed.
04:36Well, there is clarity in that, right?
04:38I mean, define clear-headed.
04:40They thought that they were hopping onto a comet that was passing by.
04:43There is that.
04:43He was clear-headed by his own standards.
04:46There is that.
04:47But, okay, DeAndre, he has some interesting answers on here to some of these questions.
04:52Now, one of them is, one location you want to visit, Ireland, since I'm 10% Irish, with
04:58laughing, crying emojis.
05:00I wonder if he did one of those, like, 23 and me things.
05:0323 and me, yeah.
05:03Yeah, and he came back 10% Irish.
05:06Out of the college-wide receivers in this year's draft, who do you think has the most star potential?
05:10Okay, now this is where DeAndre, if he's going to be in broadcasting, he needs to pivot
05:14a little bit.
05:15His answer, tough question, but I like Antonio Williams out of Clemson.
05:20Ah.
05:21Yeah, Antonio Williams is a good player, but I would say just to get some initial smoke
05:27away from you being a homer, DeAndre, you know, pick Omar Cooper out of Indiana or something
05:32like that.
05:33You know, just get away from being just picking the Clemson guy.
05:36Um, this was an interesting one.
05:38Do you feel like you can still be a number one receiver?
05:40I know you love that label, Seth.
05:42Number one receiver.
05:43Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:44Here's what DeAndre Hopkins, someone who has been labeled a number one receiver at times,
05:49says.
05:49Don't want the load as a number one, but when targeted, if not mistaken, I've been very QB
05:55friendly and productive.
05:56When I drop a pass, it seems like World War IV to the world.
06:01But I like being held to the highest standard by others because I hold myself to that regard.
06:06So he, he doesn't balk at the notion of the number one receiver being a thing.
06:10Um, he just doesn't want the load of what, yeah, like, obviously he's not going to be
06:16a number one receiver anytime soon.
06:18He was barely Christian Kirk last year.
06:20The last time this is where he's, you know, with the chief, he ended up having 41 receptions
06:24with the chiefs in 2024.
06:26Yeah.
06:27Um, last year with the Ravens, 22 receptions.
06:30Like 300 something yards, right?
06:32It's been, yeah, 2023 was the last time he had 75, uh, or more receptions.
06:37But even like before that year he did in 2000, gosh, man, that's 75 receptions in 2023.
06:44That was the most receptions he's had since 2020 with the Cardinals.
06:48Yeah.
06:48Yeah.
06:48Since then it's been 42, 64, 75, 15, 41, 22.
06:53Yeah.
06:53And so I, so I, I, I say this to just to tell Texan fans, I would pump the break
06:58on Deandre
06:58Hopkins being a Houston Texan again.
07:00I would just, uh, I think if you had to like Keenan Allen makes a lot more sense if you're
07:04going to bring a veteran guy in, but he was good last year, but Keenan Allen also doesn't
07:07make sense in terms of just like, where are you spending your money?
07:10How are you distributing the targets?
07:12All of that.
07:12I think they really liked Jaden Higgins and you know, Steve Smith on his podcast, he called
07:18Jaden Higgins the next Larry Fitzgerald based on what he saw from him last year, which was
07:24a pretty high compliment.
07:25I think I'm compliment.
07:26Yeah.
07:26Yeah.
07:27Yeah.
07:27What did he, did he expound upon that?
07:29Like what?
07:30He was talking about his size and his ability, his ability to sit down on, on, on his breaks
07:36and change direction and all of those things that he really did.
07:40There was a lot about him that reminded him of Larry Fitzgerald.
07:42I had to double check to be sure that it wasn't his scouting report from before he drafted,
07:46but yeah, just in Steve Smith, Steve Smith's podcast is good for breakdowns of players.
07:51He goes through and shows a lot of examples and everything, but he was very, very impressed
07:55with Jaden Higgins last year.
07:56Where are you on the receiver room as a whole right now with the Texans?
08:00I feel good about, I think Jaden Higgins is going to continue to get better.
08:04I think that Jalen Noel is really the big question mark.
08:07And I think a lot of it last year was really just the classic two things.
08:12One, he had Christian Kirk in front of him, but two, he also was a rookie learning how
08:17to play in this offense where there's a lot of mental stuff going on more so for him than
08:23there is for Jaden Higgins.
08:24When you play in the slot more, it's just that much more reading of defenses and everything
08:28and adjusting your routes.
08:30So I think the, I mean, in the, the Steelers game, for instance, where Christian Kirk was
08:35going off, the one play, the one throw that, man, I wish, I wish Jalen Noel could have pulled
08:42in.
08:43It was a hard catch to make because he was taking a collision.
08:45It wasn't a great pass by CJ.
08:47It was, it was kind of a downfield shot.
08:49Over the middle.
08:49There was one over the middle.
08:50Yeah.
08:51That he, um, that he took a big shot on, but he, like he was open and CJ just couldn't
08:58quite get it to him.
08:59Right.
08:59But, um, like, I think he's going to be obviously without Christian Kirk in the mix, he has to
09:03be a more viable option this year.
09:04He's got to be, you know, tanks back, but I don't know the tank, you know, tanks got to
09:08be helped.
09:08Anytime we mentioned tank Dell understand that I get it.
09:12The warning label on tank Dell right now is we got to see what he looks like in pads.
09:16I don't know that there's a ton of overlap with tank and Jalen though.
09:18Tank plays a lot on the outside.
09:20So that it's exciting to think of the possibility of, of them kind of flooding the field with playmakers
09:26out there.
09:26I think that's where you are too, is that man, you got to see where is tank Dell?
09:31How does he look?
09:32And to sign a veteran receiver right now, before you really know exactly what you're going to
09:37get out of tank Dell, it feels like a useless spending of money that, okay, we can go out
09:42and trade for, or find a veteran receiver.
09:45If at some point we feel like we need to, but the prospects of tank Dell coming back and
09:49adding him into the mix, the, you got to play that out first because, okay, you know,
09:54you signed Keenan Allen right now and all of a sudden, if tank Dell looks really, really
09:58good during training camp, you're, you're kind of like the Astros having too many infielders.
10:03Hey, great.
10:04We got great.
10:05We got a lot of guys we feel good about, but this is a, this was not a wise spending
10:09of
10:09money.
10:09Yeah.
10:10Yeah.
10:10Well, depending on what the money is, I don't know what the, I have no, I'm usually pretty
10:14good about gauging what the market is for certain guys.
10:17I just have these veteran wide receivers that are sitting out there right now that are not
10:21that far removed from being, from making play.
10:24Hell Keenan Allen made plays last year.
10:25There's a point in the season, late in the season, he led the league in, in chain moving
10:29catches in first down, you know, and so I, so, but he's old, you know, and he's, and
10:33he's been injury prone too, because Keenan Allen has just gone off versus the Texans in
10:37his career.
10:38So, uh, you got to remember like, okay, wait a second.
10:41Wait, am I being too swayed?
10:42See the little Texan signed T Y Hilton.
10:44Yeah.
10:45Like, isn't, isn't he one of the best receivers this century?
10:48Yeah.
10:48I believe he is.
10:49Yes.
10:50The two, my two favorite ones from the bill O'Brien era were Lamar Miller, who in that
10:55game in 2015, where the Texans got run off the field by a Dan Campbell coached Dolphins
11:01team, Lamar Miller had like 200 yards in that game.
11:04And next thing you know, he's a Houston Texan the following season.
11:07And then Chris, remember Chris Polk?
11:10Yeah.
11:10Bang, bang, chicken and shrimp guy.
11:12Yeah.
11:122014, he ran all over the Texans as a Philadelphia Eagle.
11:15The next season he's a Houston Texan.
11:17And that one was funny because there was a scene in hard knocks where Bill O'Brien is
11:24watching Chris Polk film with Rick Smith from the previous season.
11:29And Rick Smith is ragging on Bill O'Brien saying, damn, Billy's putting this guy in the hall
11:33of fame right now.
11:34This Chris Polk.
11:35And then he ends up signing with the Texans.
11:37Yeah.
11:37You got to be careful just because they take your team to the woodshed doesn't mean you
11:41should be giving them money and free agency.
11:43They also, you know what?
11:44It was just the one game.
11:45Well, no, because he had a big game in the playoffs too, right?
11:48Who's that?
11:48Even though it was Keenan Allen.
11:51Well, they only played one game in the playoffs.
11:54No, he didn't.
11:55I don't think he had a big game in that one.
11:57But no, it was 2019.
11:58He had 183 yards receiving.
12:00Yeah.
12:01So his career stats versus the Texans are pretty impressive.
12:03But he also, they shut him down a couple of times.
12:05That's good.
12:07Here's an interesting thought.
12:08Pretty sure Jaden Higgins is further along in his progression than Nico was at this point
12:13in his career.
12:13We need to focus on making this a Higgins, ooh, a Higgins-centric offense.
12:19I don't think that's going to happen as long as Nico Collins is on the Texans.
12:23Well, no, I don't think it can't happen.
12:25It's just that you've got to remember, too, let's put things in context a little bit.
12:30Like Nico Collins was playing on a tanking football team.
12:34His rookie year was the David Culley season.
12:36Yeah.
12:36His second year was the Lovie Smith season.
12:38They were tanking.
12:39Yeah.
12:39You know, that's what it was.
12:42So, yeah, I can't.
12:44So saying that as Jaden Higgins is playing opposite of Nico Collins, that somehow he's further ahead
12:50of where Nico Collins was.
12:52Well, Nico Collins is a rookie, was playing on a tanking football team.
12:55I don't think it's fair to say.
12:57It's not fair to Nico.
12:59You know, it is, you know, Nico taking a couple years, even on a tanking football team, like,
13:06I don't think anybody's expecting Nico to turn into this, what he's turned into.
13:11Well, Nico was always an interesting one because he was a guy, I remember, during his rookie
13:15year, just watching him during camp, if somebody, if I had walked out to Texans camp and didn't
13:20know anything and somebody pointed me to Nico Collins and said, hey, he's their first round
13:26pick this year, I would have said, oh, okay, that makes sense.
13:28Yeah.
13:29Big, fast.
13:30Look, he's got good hands, all of that.
13:32Like, okay, that makes sense that he's a first rounder.
13:34But that was a little bit of, you know, because he hadn't played during the COVID year.
13:39There was a, there was some unknown about him where you're taking a flyer on a guy that
13:43might've been ranked lower because of the COVID situation than he otherwise would have
13:48been.
13:48Yeah.
13:48He, he played 14 games his rookie year.
13:51He had 60 targets.
13:52He had a little over 400 yards.
13:53His second year, boy, if you take his numbers and extrapolate them, he only played 10 games.
13:59He only started seven games his second year.
14:01He had almost 500 yards receiving in 10 games on a really bad football team in 2022.
14:06And then, then obviously he blew up after that.
14:09Like the last three years, he's been sensational.
14:11He's been, he's been one of the best 10 receivers in the league.
14:14The biggest thing about him too, is I remember if you look at his catch rate from those first
14:19couple of years, there are a lot of people that thought that he didn't have good hands
14:24or something when it was actually in fact, he was dealing with so many errant throws from
14:28Davis Mills.
14:29Like it was, he, his, his catch rate is rookie.
14:32And a second year was 55 and a half percent where like, since then he's averaging about
14:3868% on his catch rate.
14:40Yup.
14:41Yup.
14:41I was having, I was having this discussion with a buddy the other day about Nico.
14:45It's good bar room argument.
14:47Is Nico, is Nico set up for another run?
14:51Like Andre Johnson's probably a reach as a Texan.
14:56Andre is on a level of his own that I'd have a hard time believing Nico is going to, is
15:02going
15:02to catch what Andre Johnson did.
15:046,000, 6,000 yard seasons.
15:06Um, two that would have been a thousand yard seasons, but they were cut short due to injury.
15:10Six pro bowls, multi-time, all pro led the league a couple of times in, in yardage once in
15:17receptions.
15:18I don't know that Nico's ever going to reach that.
15:20Does Nico, does Nico pass DeAndre Hopkins?
15:24Does he have a chance of passing DeAndre Hopkins as the second best receiver in the history of the
15:30franchise?
15:30You know, DeAndre, DeAndre was one of the three or four best receivers in football for about
15:36a four or five year period there.
15:39You know, he made all pro first team three times from 2017 through 2019.
15:44Nico hasn't reached that level yet, but he's, he's, you know, he's kind of, he's living in
15:48that same neighborhood right now.
15:50So that's, that's what we were.
15:52We were kind of, I think Nico's on a very similar career path to DeAndre Hopkins.
15:56You know, DeAndre wasn't lighting the world on fire as a rookie either.
15:59He was pretty good.
16:00No, he wasn't even starting for, uh, for chunks of it.
16:03Yeah.
16:03So, um, so yeah, like does Nico, is it, I think there's a clear pecking order right
16:08now in the franchise history.
16:10It's Andre Johnson on a planet of his own.
16:12It's DeAndre Hopkins in his own orbit.
16:14And then I think Nico's kind of, I think he's a few more seasons away from maybe catching
16:18DeAndre.
16:18But I think the thing about Jaden Higgins is that there's a lot about him that is, you
16:24can, you can look at him and say that he can do the same things Nico is doing in terms
16:29of like same size, same type of size, same type of athleticism, all of those things.
16:35And if he just really continues to try to emulate Nico Collins.
16:40And if you think about Nico right now, that's like, he runs routes much, much better than
16:46he did in his first couple of years.
16:47He was a bigger guy trying to learn to run NFL routes.
16:50And a lot of the things that he does really impressively for a big guy, his ability to
16:53sit down on comebacks and things like that.
16:56That's what Jaden Higgins looks like he's making progress doing.
17:00So I just, I'm not going to put a cap on Jaden Higgins right now.
17:03I think he has a lot more upside than maybe people outside Houston would think.
17:08How much progress would Jaden Higgins have to make in the next year or two for them to
17:12commit long-term to him and let Nico Collins walk?
17:16I don't know.
17:17I guess, how do you define progress?
17:19Like just, I don't know.
17:20I'm giving you the canvas to define progress.
17:23I mean, he would have to have the same types of numbers as Nico Collins.
17:26There's your answer.
17:26Yeah.
17:27That's, that's, yeah, that's.
17:28He would have to perform like Nico Collins.
17:29Yeah.
17:30And then at that point you say, okay, well, he's younger.
17:32He doesn't have the injury history that at some point it's time to move on.
17:35And then my follow-up would be, do you think he's got that type of potential, Jaden Higgins?
17:38I think he does.
17:39Yeah.
17:39But, but again, it's like, yeah, lots of guys do.
17:42It's, you know, there's, there might be 20 other guys right now who were rookies last year.
17:48Right.
17:48Well, not rookies last year, but 20 young receivers who maybe have that potential.
17:52Sure.
17:53So it's possible.
17:54Yeah.
17:54But I'm not predicting it.
17:55No, no, no, no.
17:56But, but he's, but, but he at least showed signs of it.
17:58Like for example, like John Mechie is a bad example because he had cancer for a year and
18:02then, you know, then, then came back from it.
18:04But he was drafted right around the same spot Jaden Higgins was.
18:07And we would never have said that at any point about John Mechie.