- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean discuss how the Texans' offseason moves so far stack up against the rest of the NFL as outlined by Benjamin Solak.
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00:00All right, we're going to hit this ESPN article by Benjamin Solak, and Seth kind of quasi-teased it
00:07that there's something weird that he says in here about the Houston Texans free agency class.
00:11Actually, a couple weird things. The first time I read it briefly, I was like, this doesn't make
00:15any sense. And then I read it again, and it makes even less sense. Okay, cool. Well, we'll go through
00:19this here then, and I will pull the veil, you know, we'll pull the curtain back here.
00:25Where are the Texans ranked, according to Benjamin Solak, who covers the NFL for ESPN? 13th.
00:3213th, which feels about right. You know, no huge splashy moves, addressed a lot of need. I would
00:37have it probably a little higher than 13th, just based on the, and maybe some of this, Seth, for
00:42us in Houston, we feel better about this free agency class because we compare it to how they
00:48approached it a year ago. And this feels like a more, this feels like they've got a better plan
00:53this year than they did last year. Well, I think, you know, we went through that article
00:58that Barnwell did the other day, and it kind of confirmed, I think, what a lot of people
01:03know, but you never want to, you don't believe it in the moment, which is that the less heralded,
01:09the less expensive free agency signings tend to have a better success rate than the high-priced
01:15ones. So the bling fades very quickly on average with free agency signings. So when people do their
01:23grades, they're looking at, okay, well, it makes sense that they paid a bunch of money to this guy
01:27and this guy. They're better players than these other guys. And like, I'm so, I'm always comfortable
01:33as long as you're, as long as you're somewhat active in free agency, I don't necessarily need
01:39a lot of huge signings to feel awesome about it. I feel like the right strategy over time
01:44is to sparingly make those splurge purchases. And then most of the time do what the Texans did this
01:51year, which is find competent, viable starters in free agency. Yeah. I think that, you know,
01:56without, without digging into the other 31 teams, like this feels, you know, like they're kind of
02:00near the upper third, didn't make any, like they, they, I think they did a really, really good job
02:05of addressing needs. And I, it's funny. Um, I, cause I, Oh, there it is. He's got David Montgomery
02:11in there. Okay, good. I, cause I would say it's not just free agency. I would say trades and he
02:17includes guys that you were, that are returning as well. So the article is where do they rank in
02:22free agency, but it's really the whole ball of wax of what changes or, or what players did they,
02:27did they bring back? He's got key acquisitions and returning players, Reed Blankenship, Braden
02:32Smith, David Montgomery, Wyatt Teller, Sheldon Rankins, Ed Ingram. And I think he, he nails the,
02:37the, the, you know, the key players there. Um, I agree on his, for each team, he's got a move.
02:43I loved and a move. I didn't love. I agree with him on the move. I love the Reed Blankenship
02:47deal.
02:47He says the second Texan secondary was one infinity stone away from reaching maximal power.
02:54And that empty spot was the strong safety position. Blankenship is not a perennial pro bowl talent,
03:00but he's just needs to be a well-rounded assignment sound leader playing next to star youngins like
03:07Bullock Stingley and Kamari Lassiter. He points out 8.25 million a year, really good value. Uh, just
03:12a few days after cam curl got 12 million a year and Jalen Thompson, 11 million a year is a
03:18huge
03:18feather in Nick Casario's cap. And this is why Nick doesn't do things on the first day of free
03:23agency. Those aren't the deals going on. Although Blankenship might've been a first day. I don't
03:28remember, but certainly he was off. There were others off the board as Solak points out set that
03:33were pricier than Blankenship. And I'm not sure that they're better players than Blankenship.
03:36Yeah. The, the interesting thing about this is that I feel like, um, a lot of it coming from the
03:42media is, Oh good. He's a good leader to come in there. And I kind of, I almost feel like
03:48I'm a
03:48defensive back on the Texans right now where if I were to read that, I'd be like, Hey, all right,
03:53listen, bro. All right. Like we don't necessarily need some guy to come in and lead us. Yeah. And I
03:59don't think that that's how Blankenship has talked about it at all. I think there's guys. Yes. You're good to
04:04have good leadership traits, but he's specifically mentioned in his press conference, you know,
04:09that he's, that he just wants to come in and fit in with these guys and everything. And you can
04:14have leadership traits, but he's only, he's a fifth year player. You know, it's, they're all young
04:18on that secondary, which is awesome, but they play with a lot of maturity. So I think for me more
04:24so
04:24than anything else, it's that he's just, he is that missing piece. Like, like Solak says, he's that
04:30infinity stone that you add to the glove. And all of a sudden you've got, you've got at the very
04:35least at the baseline level, you've got competent plus level starters, and then it goes all the way
04:42up to all pro caliber in the, in the secondary. Yeah. It's the Blankenship thing excites me just
04:48because it, it rounds out an elite defense. That's really, that's exciting. Okay. Now I think we get to
04:54the part where you indicated that Solak says some strange things, really strange. Okay. So you
05:00stopped me when we get to the strange thing, Seth. All right, I'll read this. These are the things
05:04that he didn't love. Benjamin Solak of ESPN, the individual moves along the offensive line,
05:09even if I liked the number of moves made. So he it's the individual moves along the offensive lines,
05:15what he didn't like, even if he liked that they made a lot of moves, this is all perfectly acceptable.
05:19Okay. At this point, it's good that the Texans continued hammering their line with options.
05:25Still, still gets a ding for this. Still good so far. They retained Trent Brown and signed Braden
05:31Smith at tackle. That's factually accurate. Okay. They retained Ingram and signed Teller at guard.
05:37Yes. He's killing it. He's crushing it so far. We've established here. He, in this, in this paragraph
05:43has already said that they retained Ingram, a guard, and that they signed Wyatt Teller, a guard.
05:49Yep. Okay. Okay. But I struggle to figure out how it all comes together.
05:54Yeah. They've typically prioritized supersized tackles. Okay. Buzzer, what the hell are you
06:00talking about? Buzzer, man. Laramie Tunsil. Laramie Tunsil is not a large tackle. He looks
06:07pretty big to me. He was on this team for how long? Nine years? Yeah, a long time. How long
06:13was he on this team? They've typically prioritized large supersized tackles. Supersized tackles, yeah.
06:18What the hell are you talking about, Solak? Titus Howard is a big guy, but he's not a supersized
06:23tackle. He's about 6'5", 320. That's true. He showed up at camp a couple years ago. He's
06:28pretty hefty, yeah. But still, again, he used the plural there. Yeah. Like, what are you
06:33talking about typically prioritizing? The only thing I can guess is that maybe he's taking
06:37in the average of Trent Brown's size and Ariante Ursary's size or something and adding it to
06:43the mix. Use the median, not the average. Yeah. Yeah. Plus, like, Braden Smith, he's
06:48calling him undersized. Oh, let me read that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, continuing.
06:52So, is Braden Smith, an undersized tackle, really moving to guard? Buzz? No. You just
07:01said. Why are you asking this question? What the hell are you talking about? Yeah, that's
07:06weird. No, they're not. That was the point of discussion before they signed Wyatt Teller.
07:10Yeah. And Braden Smith, he's like, he's 6'6". Right. He's, you know what? Braden Smith,
07:16Solak has succumbed to the same thing I did when I first saw Braden Smith with the Colts.
07:21Because he's kind of lean, you think he's a lanky, skinny dude. He's built. Like, so he's
07:276'6", 3'12". Yeah. And you have a tendency to think he's this lanky guy, and he's not.
07:34He's a strong, massive dude. He's just really lean. Yeah. So, he's not undersized. So, let's
07:41see. Wildly wrong on the Texans have typically prioritized, supersized tackles. And wildly
07:48wrong on even asking the question, is he's still moving to, is Braden Smith moving to
07:54guard? No. No. No. You just established they signed two guards. What the hell are you talking
07:59about? Unless somebody gets hurt in training camp, he's not moving to guard. Right. That's
08:03not the, yeah. I think they very much, he could play guard at some point. But no, he's not really
08:07moving to guard. No. After you just brought in a free agent to play left guard. Okay.
08:11So, how about this last thing that he didn't love? Is this more valid? This line is built
08:16for run blocking. Are David Montgomery and Woody Marks capable of being the engine of
08:21a dominant rushing attack? The Texans are acknowledging and acknowledging and addressing the problem.
08:26But I still need to see it to believe it in Houston. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair enough.
08:32I agree with that. See it to believe it. As far as the individuals he cites there, Seth,
08:36can Dave, is, are David Montgomery and Woody Marks capable of being the engine of a dominant
08:41rushing attack? Yeah, I think that's a, like, that still remains to be proven. And I feel
08:45like with Montgomery, I mean, Montgomery has obviously been part of a very formidable rushing
08:51attack now for a long time. But he's played next to Jameer Gibbs, and he's done some great
08:56things individually. He's an aging running back, signed in free agency, so there's going to
09:00be questions about him, especially in a new scheme. And then Woody Marks, I think,
09:04I think everybody's pretty bullish about what Woody Marks, just what is his ceiling and can
09:09he stay healthy? And I think the thing I'm most excited about with Woody Marks is with
09:15the addition of David Montgomery, you can hopefully see Woody Marks used as a receiver more often
09:20now. Because they had to kind of put that on the back burner last year once he became the
09:25main running back. That's potentially really exciting. The part of the offense that I was really
09:30eagerly anticipating last year was them weaponizing the running back as a receiver.
09:34And we really just didn't see that many moments of it. It ended up feeling a little bit more like
09:41a classic, okay, that's my dump-off option. Yep. As opposed to the old Patriots style of
09:45getting guys free on wheel routes down the sideline. Yep. As far as other teams in the AFC South,
09:52it's interesting. The Tennessee Titans, who were super active in free agency and in trades,
09:57they traded to Vondre Sweat for Jermaine Johnson, brought in Wandale Robinson, brought in guys on
10:03defense, including John Franklin Myers, the defensive lineman, gave him a huge contract,
10:08signed a couple of expensive corners, 28th on the list in free agency, which, look, we pointed this
10:15out. We did that, you pointed out that Barnwell article that we talked about earlier this week,
10:18Seth, that says that really only about 40% of the big ticket free agents end up being at or
10:25above
10:25the expectation level that you wanted out of them. Yeah. The Tennessee Titans went spending like
10:30drunken sailors. Well, yeah, the Titans did kind of what they're doing up in Baltimore is, okay,
10:36you've got a new defensive-minded head coach. We're going to give the coach what he really wants to
10:41make that defensive go. Yep. And they paid a boatload of money for John Franklin Myers,
10:46who was the best defensive tackle, arguably, in the class, in the free agency class. So I don't,
10:52you know, Solak points out that he's 30 years old, but he's still a really good tackle. If you go
10:58back through the entirety of the offseason, the sweat trade, the, what's his, the first name of the...
11:07Tavondre Sweat. Thank you, Tavondre. Yeah. I wanted to say Montez. The Tavondre Sweat trade,
11:13where they brought in Robinson, the defensive end, that was... Johnson. Yeah, Jermaine Johnson.
11:18You're letting go of a really good defensive tackle who doesn't necessarily fit the scheme.
11:23I don't think Jermaine Johnson is the same level of player, but he fits the scheme at defensive end
11:29better than what they had for, for, um, Salah's defense. Uh, I guess that's where I could see,
11:36okay, did they overspend just to try to get guys to fit a mold as opposed to doing it organically
11:42over
11:42the course of a couple of years? I was shocked by that trade that they traded Tavondre Sweat.
11:46Yeah. And I know, and you pointed out, you know, just now, why? Like, you know,
11:50Salah's familiar with Jermaine Johnson. He was there when they drafted him in New York. He played
11:54with, he coached him for three years, but I was, as a Texan fan, I was happy to see Tavondre
11:59Sweat
11:59get the hell out of the AFC South. You know, he was, he was a problem for that interior.
12:04He was. He may have been a less of a problem for this interior that they built now,
12:08but you got Wyatt Teller and if they make some changes at center or whatever the case may be.
12:11Honestly. So Robert Salah's defense shares a lot of similarities to D'Amico's, obviously.
12:17Um, I was kind of intrigued and a little bit nervous. Yeah. Might've peed a couple of drops
12:22about Salah. If he had decided to keep Tavondre Sweat and kind of just, you know, tweak his defense
12:29maybe a little bit, also just let Tavondre Sweat run upfield like a bull in a China shop. Yeah.
12:34Cause yeah, those two guys, Jeffrey Simmons and every single freaking time I talked about
12:41the Titans defense versus the Texans offense, I would point out what an issue it was for
12:47those defensive tackles versus the Texans offensive line. And I would always get comments
12:53from Jamoaks who would look at like the PFF, uh, the PFF run defense scores and everything.
12:58All right. Seth, you don't know what you're talking about. The Titans, the Titans run defense
13:03is 20, 28th and a rush defense. Shut up. Shut up. Have you watched these football games? I'm not
13:11even saying watch the tape or anything. If you visit, if you just watch the TV copy of the games
13:16and seen Jeffrey Simmons and Tavondre Sweat tossing aside interior offensive linemen, like they're
13:21ragdolls. Yep. Yep. And that's an insult to ragdolls. Exactly. They retired Shaq Mason.
13:28Shaq Mason couldn't come back from that. They killed Shaq. Tavondre Sweat treated Shaq Mason
13:36like a drunk at the bar. Oh my God. He killed Shaq. Oh my God. Oh man. Um, so he's
13:45got, uh,
13:45Solak has Titans 28th. This is, and if you're just getting in your car, these are rankings of the
13:50really off season. I says free agency, but it's really the, the total of what, of what all these
13:56teams did, uh, Colts 27th. He's got the Jags ninth. Now this is having, having read Benjamin
14:03Solak for a long time, having seen and met him at the green briar Solak. And I say this with
14:09zero
14:09shade does strike me as somebody who would love the compensatory pick approach of a magnificent
14:15Gladstone where he's signing. Nobody he's letting, Hey, we're letting Devin Lloyd and Travis ATN and
14:22Greg Newsome walk out the door and not signing anybody because we're going to get third round
14:28picks for Solak. So like is a hundred percent like, uh, James Gladstone. And I, like, honestly,
14:34I had a conversation with him and I like, so like, say some things sometimes that I think are a
14:38little
14:38odd, but I think he's a really bright kid and he watches a lot of film and everything. So I
14:41was like,
14:41I want to talk to him. I was curious and it, I got, you know, sometimes, sometimes you like the
14:46brash, young, smart kid, but he was talking to me. Like he was telling me all about the way
14:51football operates. And, uh, and I just, I'm like, no, you will not come work for me. Young man.
14:59Uh, this is, if you do, you're going to be getting me coffee for the first six months.
15:04Uh, cause you need to be bucked down a notch or seven. This is what I need to have happen.
15:08This is what I need to have. I need to go on vacation for a day and I need to
15:11have you think
15:12that somebody like Johnny or Brandon Scott, you know, somebody who you like doing radio with when
15:16I'm gone is coming in and then they call in sick at the last second. And Parker goes and
15:21gets Benjamin Solak to do a four hour show with you. There's no at all attitude on the
15:27sport of football. And I want to watch that on YouTube and see how that goes.
15:32I really, it was just funny. Uh, it was one of the first times in my life that I felt
15:37like,
15:37uh, maybe like, uh, like an older adult with, it's actually got some maturity to him. Cause
15:42I was like, I was analyzing it as I was talking to him and I was kind of thinking I
15:46was able
15:46to be entertained by it more so than be offended. It would have, if I were younger, I would
15:50have gotten offended, but I was just kind of seeing it for what it was. I was like, Oh,
15:54this kid really is that stereotype of just, he really, he really just think he gets it
16:01in a way that other people don't. Okay. All right. Oh man. Uh, we're getting a few texts
16:06on the, um, uh, we'll hear from Ed Ingram in, in just a second on why he came back to
16:10the
16:11Texans, but just mixing in, uh, some texts on the base power text line, Trent Brown automatically,
16:16uh, but on average makes you into a line where they think that you've got really big offensive
16:22line. That's right. It's like, it's the math. There's something about the shock and awe of
16:26seeing Trent Brown in person for the first time where you just be like, wow, they love big guys.
16:31Yeah, right. Right. It's exactly right. Uh, text message. Do you think Nick should call
16:38drew Dahlman who just retired from the bears at age 27 several weeks ago to see if he might want
16:44to play this season now that he's had time to think about it? The problem, I don't know if
16:47he's capable of thinking that that's why he's retiring. Yeah. Didn't he have a boatload of
16:52concussions? I, yeah, I'm pretty sure. I, yeah, that's well, and here's the thing about that.
16:57He's still the property of the bears. Yeah. So just cause you retired doesn't mean you're
17:01contract goes away. He's still the property. He's still the property of the bears. And I
17:05would be skittish. And this is, this, this is, I say this was zero judgment. I would be skittish
17:10about going and trying to convince somebody to play football again, that they might up
17:13and leave in the middle of a season. No, no, no. And he retired because of reportedly concerns
17:19over his multiple concussions. Is that what it was? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so I guess, yeah,
17:24that's what you might not be aware of or not, obviously. Yeah. Um, whoever asked that question.
17:29So I don't, I, uh, Hmm. Yeah. I doubt it. I mean, trade for him. I don't want to trade
17:35for him. Yeah. Yeah. You'd have to give the bears a pick. And I mean, if they wanted to
17:38take a seventh round pick or something, maybe that's, uh, yeah. And say, that's one thing
17:42our, our one listener got really upset with us the other day because we're talking about
17:45the Montgomery trade. And I said that the Texans basically gave them a fourth round pick
17:49and, uh, or the equivalence of a fourth round pick. And he was, he was furious because he felt
17:55like I was misleading, uh, the public. And I tried to explain to him, no, the way the
18:00point system works, when they calculate the value of this, it was a 28th overall pick
18:04in the fourth round and a set in a future seventh and juice scrugs. So like, even if
18:11you calculate out juice scrugs as a, like a fifth or a sixth round pick, because it was
18:16a 28th pick overall, it still calculates out to like a fourth round. It calculates out to
18:21David Montgomery, like the third pick of the fourth round. Yeah. Yeah. 28th pick
18:25of the fourth. So it's just, I think, and to be clear, I would not, I don't think juice
18:29scrugs was going to get a fifth round pick. Like juice scrugs might've gotten a seventh
18:33from somebody. He was a throw in in that trade. Like, yeah, yeah. So it was, um, nobody's
18:38worth. Yeah. And that's one of the things too. I think, I think people, when they, and the
18:44reason that I kind of framed it that way is you got to remember, it's the equivalence of a
18:48fourth round pick is that a lot of people are skeptical of the Texans trading so much
18:53for David Montgomery. They're like, no, they traded a future seventh and juice scrugs plus
18:58a late fourth round pick, right? It's not, it's it don't, don't try to act like this.
19:02It was this mega spend to get David Montgomery in the building. Yep. Um, here was at Ingram.
19:07He was on Texans all access this week, signed his new three year, $37 million deal to return
19:15to the Texans. Here's at Ingram on why he decided to come back to the Texans before even hitting
19:20free agency. I'm not going to lie. I was, I was very nervous because I didn't know like
19:24what wasn't like in store for me. Like I could have ended up all the way in Cali or a
19:30different
19:30team somewhere that I didn't really like and stuff like that. So that's why I was worried about maybe
19:35getting into a bad culture and being here in Houston, I've experienced lip like being in a good
19:40culture. So it's like, I didn't want to lead that or chance it. So I'm glad we was able to
19:44come to a
19:44deal. Yeah. And how about staying in Texas as a whole? I mean, you're a Texan. So it must feel
19:50good
19:50that way. No state tax. How about that? Okay. We've talked. Okay. I want to ask you as a player,
19:56does
19:56that, does that matter? Oh, it definitely matters. Come on. I'm like, I was in Minnesota and those
20:01taxes was like taking all my money. So being here, the paychecks are looking different. Well, I heard some
20:07guys talk on the radio the other day and they're like, ah, it's too much made in that. It doesn't
20:10really matter. I'm like, man, you're on California. You're paying 13% state tax. Yeah. That's,
20:15that's taking a lot of your money. So Texas is pretty much ideal. Yeah. I think he's, you know
20:20what? John was probably listening to me talk about it and I do, I've come around on this. I do
20:25think
20:25like for, for a long, long time, I think very few players put as much into it as they should
20:33have.
20:33I think today's athlete is smarter in this regard. Cause I've heard multiple guys mention
20:38it, um, this year more so than I have in the past. Maybe it's the NIL effect, even though
20:44Ed Ingram didn't play under NIL or anything. Um, but yeah, I, uh, I applaud the modern athlete
20:49for understanding just how punitive state income taxes can be in some places, but it's at the
20:56upper level deals. That's where I still think a lot of guys, um, it depends on whether their
21:01ego is getting involved or not. Sure. Like some guys just want, they want to be the top,
21:06the top paid, or they want to be able to have that, whatever, whatever their ego gets stroked
21:12by the total amount in comparison to their peers. They worry more about that than they
21:16should instead of looking at the bottom line. So sometimes you got to go to California to
21:20get that contract. Is that Ingram was saying, or, or Minnesota where their taxes are brutal,
21:24that kind of thing. It's one of the, it's one of the nice things about football though,
21:26too, is that you basically just because of your work schedule, you're, you become a resident
21:32of Texas. You know, um, there's other sports where you might not end up, you know, you can
21:38play baseball and not, not be in the state for over six months. Right. Um, wait, what does
21:43that work out with baseball? Yeah. Cause you're in Florida for March. Yeah. You're April through
21:47October. So, uh, it's pretty easy to establish, but I remember when I moved, um, like I was lucky.
21:54I played in Florida and I played in Texas where there's no state income tax. I know.
21:58I remember talking to Jeff Loggeman about this when I was in Jacksonville cause he had played
22:02for the jets and that was when they were based in New York. So they had those super high
22:06New York income taxes and his first couple of years, like the state of New York was coming
22:12after him. They were like, Hey, where's our money? Where's up? No, you got to prove he had
22:16to show, he had to show receipts of airline tickets and, uh, like proof that he had been
22:21in Florida for at least six months that year. Yeah. That's, that's, uh, so anybody coming
22:26to Houston, like Braden Smith, I would tell them, Hey, be sure you, uh, you know, document
22:30everything about exactly when you're in the state. Absolutely. Absolutely.
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