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ITL breaks down the Texans offseason and what C.J. Stroud still needs to return to form.
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00:00A dude that you want to get back to getting good moments,
00:02C.J. Stroud, quarterback of your Houston Texans.
00:05Everything this offseason has been focused and filtered through the lens of
00:09how you get C.J. back to playing like the C.J. that we had once seen
00:12and that we had really dreamed of when you selected him number two overall
00:17back in, what was that, 23?
00:19Man, time flies, don't it?
00:20But given all the moves that the Texans have made,
00:22what else do you need to do to put him in perfect circumstance
00:25to get back to that C.J. Stroud?
00:27And we're talking about just C.J. here.
00:28Yes, yes.
00:29Just C.J. being that guy that we saw in 2023.
00:33Is it crazy to think, because everything else is kind of, not set,
00:38but in a position to be, you could play a game tomorrow, basically.
00:42You know, you got your guys and these would probably be the predicted starters
00:47by and large on the offensive line and really, of course, on the defense.
00:50And now you got tight end.
00:52Is it crazy to think that?
00:53Wait, now you got what?
00:55Tight end?
00:55Another tight end.
00:56Okay, I thought you said, like, we got tight end.
00:58We good.
00:58We got him.
00:59Obviously, running back.
01:01Is it crazy to think that they might need a number two wide receiver?
01:05Need, yes.
01:07Or, actually, no.
01:08I don't know.
01:08Is it crazy?
01:09The place that I'll come to is, no.
01:12Because clearly, you need somebody to step up as definitive number two target.
01:16That's what I'm talking about.
01:17The thing is, you've got guys that are possibilities, maybe even probabilities,
01:21when you look at, like, a Jaden Higgins.
01:23You just don't know for certain.
01:24The thing that makes it uncomfortable is, one, the way that last year went,
01:29where the decision makers, namely Nick Haley, offensively,
01:33constantly opted for the veteran over the young dude who was proving that it felt
01:39like he had better production.
01:40Yeah.
01:41And so, I almost don't want to give them the opportunity to make that mistake again.
01:46Right.
01:47But, it does feel like, either, if you don't do that, you bring in,
01:51you add to that room with more youth, where you go, does that, you know,
01:56hinder your ability to get better play there?
01:57Or, do you add another veteran-type player where you open up the opportunity again
02:02that they fall in love with the veteran, as D'Amico Ryans can be sometimes?
02:06Although, he does let young guys play, though, defensively.
02:08Sure.
02:08We talked about that.
02:09But, do they fall in love with the experience of the veteran over giving more runway
02:14for the potential that are in your young guy?
02:16Well, the reason I ask that, Figgy, is we know what it looks like
02:19and what defenses do against the Texans and C.J. Stroud,
02:22specifically, when Nico Collins is out.
02:25Remember, he had the two concussions.
02:26I mean, they were a mess outside of Dalton Schultz, you know, whenever he was out.
02:32And so, yes, I'm very hopeful on Tank Dell.
02:36We don't know.
02:38We got more video.
02:39We did get more video.
02:40I love this.
02:41I love, just go ahead and trickle this out.
02:43Like, I want this to be like a marvel.
02:45Trickle it out, like every other day.
02:46Marvel blockbuster rollout, which is like trailer number one.
02:49Trailer number two, three weeks later.
02:51Trailer number three.
02:52I want five trailers of Tank Dell before we even get to training camp to hype me up.
02:57But, yes, no, that is fair.
02:59Like, if I ask you, is he going to be the solid number two?
03:01No, I can't do that for certain.
03:02Like, I think even if I want to be presumptuous, I go, ooh, Tank Dell's getting in and out of
03:06his cuts
03:07to the point where I think he is your third best wide receiver,
03:10and he has an opportunity to really factor in.
03:12And third best is kind of arbitrary because that would assume that one of these young guys
03:16has absolutely stepped into that role.
03:18But you get what I mean where you go, he is one of those three that you can depend on.
03:21And even that is wildly presumptuous because even seeing him in and out of those cuts,
03:25he looks even smaller because of, you know, I guess probably atrophy or whatever,
03:30not doing all of the workouts necessarily to get himself back off of the injury.
03:34But, yeah, like, it's asking a lot to have that expectation.
03:39But if he's there, it makes you feel a lot better about the possibility
03:43because you go with the experience and the comfort of Tank Dell with C.J. Stroud would help.
03:47Then you have the just raw ability of what Jaden Higgins has with the size
03:52as he kind of finds how to use his body more.
03:55And then the Jalen Knoll who just has the pure speed,
03:57if he can find a way to fully, like, I don't know, dial that in.
04:02And I think that you have three really good possibilities,
04:04but you can't say for certain one of those.
04:05That's a lot of ifs.
04:07That was a heck of – everyone had an if.
04:09And that's my point, Figgy.
04:10Like, obviously, Christian Kirk was going to be that guy.
04:12He wasn't.
04:14And so now he's gone.
04:16Tank Dell, if.
04:17Jaden Higgins, if.
04:19Jalen Knoll, if.
04:21I think a number two.
04:22And it could be one of these three guys stepping up.
04:24Let me ask you all this.
04:25Well, it has to be one of these three guys stepping up.
04:27I mean, who knows?
04:28I mean, the draft.
04:28Okay, the question I ask, where do you find the guaranteed number two?
04:31If it's not on the roster right now.
04:34Yeah.
04:35I was going to ask you all this.
04:36Do y'all trust Nick Casario as far as the wide receiver core?
04:41Because I felt like it had been a lot of misses to me.
04:46I hadn't really thought about that.
04:47Like, you got the one year it's the fine digs,
04:50and unfortunately he got hurt.
04:51Remember John Mechie?
04:52I do.
04:53He was picked in the second round.
04:55Yeah.
04:55That didn't work out.
04:57Yeah.
04:57And we got questions about all of these receivers outside of Nico Collins.
05:02And you say, where can it come from?
05:04Hopefully one of these guys in by, you know, second, third game of the season.
05:07We're like, all right, now we're cooking.
05:09Now C.J. Stroud has that other option.
05:10Because defenses are, number one, going to really focus on Nico Collins,
05:14like every team does.
05:15Number two, he had two concussions in a span of three months.
05:19And, you know, who knows his durability?
05:21That's been a question.
05:22And when he is not on the field, these guys might have had a play or two here
05:27and there, but you didn't have a dude that could step up.
05:30Yeah.
05:30You know?
05:31No, I feel you.
05:32But, yeah, the reason I ask that question is because it's more about, like,
05:36the alternative.
05:37There's just, unless you're going and trading for a player,
05:41which I just, I can't see at this juncture, and especially even if you do that,
05:44it feels like it would be, I feel like maybe after the draft,
05:48depending on if some team just finds some dude to become superfluous after that,
05:52and then is that a guy that you can see becoming the number two?
05:55Also, maybe, well, it's not, I don't know, like a Keenan Allen who's out there
06:00just assigning like that.
06:01Yeah.
06:01Is that what you're looking at for this?
06:03Because I don't think that's the case.
06:05The one thing that I can maybe say is possibly the draft,
06:10but I feel like you would have to do it high enough.
06:12Relatively high.
06:13Where, and, of course, we have talked about how you're out of a place
06:16where you're hamstrung by any need in the way that you go about the draft,
06:21but it does make me wonder, though, if that would be prudent, right?
06:26Some level of wide receiver.
06:27If I remember correctly, there was some point where Makai Lemon
06:30was kind of discussed as, like, somebody that the Texans might meet with, right?
06:36Right.
06:37And maybe that shows something, but also it brought up,
06:41this actually is a question I've been asking myself,
06:43how important are the 30 visits and what do they mean for the Texans?
06:46Because I remember we talked about it yesterday.
06:48Caden Proctor is going to be one that the Texans are going to want to visit with.
06:53And then another one that I was, I think that they have,
06:56let me see if I could find where I had some of the visits that they,
06:59at least that we know of.
07:00You mentioned Proctor.
07:01You mentioned Lemon.
07:04There was another one, wasn't there?
07:05There's a couple more.
07:06It's not like there's a whole bunch.
07:07They're supposed to meet with Javon Kilgore, safety out of South Carolina.
07:12Emmanuel Pregnon was the one I was trying to think of, Oregon offensive guard.
07:16He, they talked to him at the pro days, what happened.
07:19Then Adam Randall is supposed to be a 30 visit, a running back out of Clemson.
07:24But, like, a tackle, a running back, yeah, that makes sense.
07:27But I was trying to look back at the last couple of years,
07:30and I think I went through, like, kind of cursory.
07:33Of the 2025 guys that they had, and this is combine visits,
07:37this is pro day visits, this is 30 visits.
07:42They ain't draft none of the dudes that they had any of these types of contacts with.
07:462024, of the number of guys that they had, that they had those types of contacts with,
07:52they drafted two of them.
07:53Cade Stover in the fourth round, who was a combine visit,
07:56and then a 30 visit was Jamal Hill in the sixth round.
07:59So, like, how much do we actually get from these 30 visits
08:03as we're starting to see some of these come in,
08:05as we're moving through the pro day circuit?
08:07How much do these actually mean?
08:08Because sometimes we're like, hey, maybe this tells us about where they're looking,
08:11but at least in a short, very, very short sample size of the last couple of years,
08:16it has not really correlated nearly as much as we would like to think
08:19with the way that they draft.
08:20I think it also might correlate more, but it's sometimes out of your hands.
08:25I've always believed that the 30 visit is much more important
08:28than any combine visit.
08:29Combine is maybe a little research, 15 minutes,
08:32if this guy ever becomes a free agent in four years or whatever.
08:35You know, we'll have that in our research bag, so to speak.
08:40I think the 30 visit, because that's a full investment.
08:42That's medicals.
08:44It's, you know, obviously, you know, meeting with the higher-ups,
08:47meeting with position coach.
08:48It's an all-day deal.
08:49I don't know if people truly recognize a top 30 visit is an all-day visit
08:54with longer hours, you know, dinners and hour-long interviews.
08:59I don't think you do that unless there is some level of interest in these guys.
09:03Well, can I make an argument then?
09:05And this is kind of devil's advocate in this instance, because you're right.
09:08The medicals is a portion that is a huge part.
09:11And I wonder, though, you get medicals from combine.
09:13Sometimes you get medicals.
09:14But you've got your own people looking at them.
09:16Pro days.
09:17But so, like, you know, maybe these sometimes can be used to get additional
09:21medicals maybe where you might not have them.
09:23Right.
09:23Is it fair that you can make the argument that maybe some of the guys that you
09:27bring in from the 30 visit aren't necessarily your super favorite because you
09:31want to have more opportunities to get FaceTime with them to get a better feel
09:34for what they are?
09:36Oh, like you have questions.
09:37Yeah, like you still have questions on these guys.
09:39No, I think that's more than fair.
09:40But it still means more to me.
09:42The top 30 visit always means more because that means they have been
09:45intrigued.
09:46They just might have some questions.
09:47But the thing about those visits also, you mentioned Pregnon, you mentioned
09:50Proctor.
09:51They could both be gone.
09:52And they could both be at their respective positions first on the Texans
09:56draft board.
09:57But they don't get them, you know, because they could both be gone by the
10:01time they, you know, by the time they get there.
10:03So I think the ultimate interesting thing to me on this whole conversation is we
10:08came into this offseason.
10:09Man, they got to do everything they can to do what they can for CJ Stroud.
10:14They got to do it.
10:15They got to get help the offensive line, maybe get a tight end, go get another
10:18running back.
10:19Well, they've done all that.
10:20You know what else would really help is that wide receiver, a true number two
10:24wide receiver.
10:25Before I get to that.
10:26No, I'm just saying like all of it fits together.
10:28No, I hear you.
10:28Before I get to that, I did want to mention one more thing is because I'm stuck on
10:33the top 30 or I'm trying not to say top 30.
10:35I know people say that it's the 30 visits because it does.
10:37Again, I don't think that that top moniker fits with the way that these things tend
10:41to happen just generally around the NFL, but particularly with the Texans with the
10:4530 visits.
10:46How much do you factor in that there was a point in time in the NFL where 30 visits
10:50were pretty private?
10:52Yes.
10:53And now the 30 visits leak light water.
10:55And so teams know that.
10:57And if there's someone that you're really interested in, you bring them in for 30 visits.
11:01Does that not give some of your hand away on what your board is starting to look like?
11:04If that, if that's what that means, I think it's that what you're saying happens more at
11:08the combine with those combine interviews.
11:10Again, it's an investment.
11:11It's a big investment by the each club to bring a guy in for an entire day.
11:16So maybe to a degree and maybe some have done it.
11:18Obviously, I'm not saying that it hasn't happened, but I think when you, when you bring a guy
11:22in, there's, there is some level of legitimate interest in that person.
11:25Well, as of right now, not a lot of those names, of course, at this moment, we'll see
11:29how the leaks continue to show or what they continue to show.
11:32If that actually means a ton for the Texans and maybe they're just trying to find out
11:37just exactly how swarmy this guy is on some guys when they bring them in for 30 visits.
11:41But to your point on a secondary receiver, maybe we need to widen that out to a secondary
11:45pass catcher because there's a lot of people.
11:47Again, we talked about tight end and that's a place where as much as Dalton Schultz, I think
11:52that he was very good for you, at least making sure that he got a whole bunch of
11:54catches in.
11:55He was there more than any other tight end.
11:57The idea of adding at the top of this, there's a lot of people that are fiending for Kenyon
12:02Sadiq.
12:02Just the one on the text board I just looked at.
12:04Does that, does that fit what you're kind of thinking of possibly?
12:08Absolutely.
12:09Because that is a pass catcher.
12:10That is a guy that, and another physical freak, which is why he's ranked so high.
12:15But, but, and John Harris, you know, if he passes, John Harris made some of those noises
12:19he likes to make when he likes a player a lot.
12:21What's that noise sound like?
12:22He did when we talked about Sadiq.
12:24Oh!
12:25Okay.
12:26Let me try this.
12:27Kenyon Sadiq.
12:29Oh!
12:29Okay.
12:30Yeah.
12:30So I think when you hear the John Harris noise.
12:33We're so unserious.
12:33Oh!
12:34Okay.
12:34So that.
12:35You're, you're, you're talking about a real player.
12:37But yes, that would fit.
12:39Maybe secondary receiver type.
12:41You know, that could be interesting.
12:44I know Eli Stowers is another one that people are looking at.
12:46So if you end up with the Texans making a move, because it does feel like that might
12:51be like a, possibly a move up for a tight end.
12:54That would feel like a, honestly, that might be the most aggressive of the moves that they
12:59would have made to add to CJ.
13:00Where's Sadiq largely mocked?
13:02Isn't it like, he's pretty high.
13:04He's in the teens, isn't he?
13:05Let me, let me look at the, I know a NFL mock draft database does a good job of doing
13:10kind of a consensus mock draft.
13:12So to, to move up from 28 to let's say, you know, I'm just spitballing 14, you know,
13:19something like that's a pretty significant move.
13:21But consensus mock draft has him around 19.
13:2419.
13:24Okay.
13:24I thought I knew it was in the teens.
13:26So that's even better.
13:26Yeah.
13:27About eight, nine spots.
13:30I'm, I'm starting to warm to the idea.
13:32Yeah.
13:33I'm starting to warm to the idea.
13:35Now it would again, because of CJ Stroud, what it would do because of CJ Stroud, which
13:39again, I think that some of that is depends on how you feel about CJ Stroud, which again
13:44is a, it's, it's a spectrum of feelings, but then also that pushes down the defensive tackle
13:49thing, but it does feel like the likes of Lee Hunter or maybe, maybe not exactly the same
13:53way came McDonald are the guys that you could get in that second round area.
13:57It also, it also depresses even more that guard situation or just offensive line, adding
14:02that offensive line depth as we've talked about, which I think still is something that's
14:06on the table for the Texans, but an interesting thought as you're, if, if we are putting everything
14:10in the lens of making CJ Stroud better, a bonafide second pass catcher, or at the very
14:14least another, another good possibility of somebody who could step in and be that number
14:19two pass catcher would be interesting.
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