- 14 minutes ago
ITL reacts to what DeMeco Ryans said about Tank Dell and discusses how it could impact the Texans offense moving forward.
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00:00D'Amico Ryan's on if Tankdale will be ready for OTAs.
00:03Oh, let's do it.
00:04Oh, man.
00:04Let's do it.
00:05Oh, man.
00:05We're here, baby.
00:06Quote, Tank, he's grinding.
00:09Great attitude.
00:10This is all according to Aaron Wilson.
00:12Oh, he started with great attitude, huh?
00:14Great personality.
00:15Well, hold that thought.
00:17Yep.
00:18Don't know if OTAs he'll be there,
00:21but I know he'll be back for us at some point this year.
00:25That's shocking.
00:27Okay, let me finish the quote.
00:29Oh, there's more?
00:30And then we'll get back to it.
00:31Because, yeah, that's why I said we kind of need to hijack this whole thing here real quick.
00:35As I told Tank, it's not a matter of getting back to OTAs just to get back.
00:40It's just a matter of getting back in a really good spot physically to where you stay there.
00:45That's the main thing.
00:46It's not about how quickly he returns.
00:50It's just about Tank returning because we've seen what Tank can do.
00:55Initial reaction.
00:56My follow-up question, if I was Aaron Wilson, whoever asked that question is,
01:00did you all see his workout videos?
01:02That's what I was going to say.
01:02I've seen him getting that out of the cut.
01:04I'll pull it up for you, coach.
01:05I kept saying, I don't know, you know, about these workout videos.
01:09We'll have to see when he gets to OTAs.
01:12D'Amico Ryan's just told Aaron Wilson, I don't know if he'll be there.
01:16And I think that's the direct, clearly, of what you're saying.
01:20The indirect, or at least the between-the-lines reading, if I am doing that correctly,
01:24is Tank ain't himself yet.
01:26Right.
01:26And Tank also, like, we're not certain that he'll be himself at any given point.
01:31Right?
01:32We are waiting until he gets to being himself to get him back.
01:35Which, the question that immediately jumped to mind, in seriousness, outside of the,
01:39you know, the jokey jokes of, I've seen him, the videos, right, is, dang, just blanked
01:45in that moment.
01:46Wow.
01:47Wow.
01:47I've done it.
01:48It was there.
01:48I'm so glad it's not me.
01:50I'm so glad it's not me.
01:52I reared back to swing at it.
01:53What I really want to tell you is-
01:55Got up in the air, you travel.
01:57Oh, damn.
01:58Travel.
01:58Like, this is important, guys.
02:00Wait a minute.
02:01No, and the worst part is it's gone.
02:03It's gone.
02:04It's all the way gone.
02:06What?
02:07If you would take nothing else from this conversation, Figgy.
02:11What was it?
02:13Man, you kind of hooked me right there.
02:14I was about to say, what?
02:16No, seriously, guys.
02:18Like, we can hear from D'Amico again later in the show.
02:22But this does-
02:23Do it kind of worry you a little bit?
02:24Yes.
02:25This is the head coach saying, I don't know if OTAs, he'll be there.
02:29That's the nut of it right there.
02:31Gosh.
02:31Yeah.
02:32It's so simple, too.
02:34How much of this is D'Amico and Ryan's just trying to protect the comeback, right?
02:37Not lower the expectations.
02:39Maybe.
02:39Because that's a possibility here.
02:40But, I mean, OTAs does not feel like it's crazy high expectations either.
02:44Now, it is just OTAs.
02:47But this isn't every organization.
02:49But this is an organization that hugely values OTAs.
02:51And not only that, Tank Dell, he'd been around them doing anything.
02:55I feel like when they have lunch at NRG Stadium, Tank Dell hanging around.
02:58Like, he could be here for any and everything.
03:01And so, the idea that he might not.
03:03And, of course, this is, again, a might.
03:04And this is just a month's out from it.
03:06So, only God knows what it actually looks like when we get there.
03:09But the idea that he might not be there at OTAs, that's not a, well, Tank might be off doing
03:13something.
03:14Tank has been here for everything.
03:15It is if he is incapable of being the full version of himself that he will not be at OTAs.
03:19Which, again, feels like an issue considering there was people that were holding their breath on him trying to come
03:24back last year.
03:25Yeah.
03:25I felt like D'Amico said a lot there because I felt like he could have easily lied and said,
03:30oh, yeah, Tank looking good, man.
03:31I'm not sure if he's going to be back at OTAs or anything yet.
03:35But, you know, he's looking pretty good.
03:37So, you know, hopefully he could have said something like that.
03:41I felt like that wasn't it.
03:42Does this then change your outlook on how the wide receiver room is built?
03:46I just put it down.
03:47I just wrote a little note to myself.
03:50Wide receiver two, baby.
03:52We're now both writing notes because.
03:54Wide receiver two.
03:55I was going to say, is this the reason why they did go wide receiver heavy last year?
04:00It could well be part of it.
04:01I mean, and again, this is not to say I don't think, you know, Higgins or, you know, Noel or
04:06anything aren't going to be it.
04:07But you need another wide receiver.
04:09Because and I'm not trying to, you know, oh, my God, you know, the sky is falling.
04:13Tank Dale.
04:13He did say as much as he said, I don't know if he'll be there at OTAs.
04:17He also said he'll be back for us to with us at some point this year.
04:22So there is that.
04:23And then it didn't help anyone at some point.
04:25He might even be thinking at some point being during training camp or whatever.
04:29Well, at some point could mean way too many things for me to be comfortable right now.
04:34Again, you get scarred in this business.
04:35That's right.
04:35And I've been in this business a long, long time.
04:38What were they saying about Joe Mixon last year?
04:41How would you do this to me?
04:44What were they saying?
04:45They would let us know, basically.
04:47Yeah.
04:47And that he might be back this year.
04:50See, I'm not there at this point with that.
04:53Because at least you can see Tank Dale.
04:55At least he's around the facility.
04:56This is true.
04:57I think the Texans had no idea where the hell Joe Mixon was at.
05:01That's true.
05:02I still don't think they know his injury, for real.
05:05They may not have ever known.
05:06Yeah.
05:06Until they cut him, even.
05:08I think the streets might have knew more than the Texans did.
05:11All I'm saying is the perspective changed as soon as I read this.
05:16It changes in terms of, first of all, we thought, you know, again, I kept saying, be careful with those
05:22videos, man.
05:22They don't say the whole story.
05:24Oh, I mean.
05:24Yeah, yeah.
05:24And we all said it.
05:25I think we all know that.
05:26Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:27I'm joking, right?
05:27I'm just trying to have the fun with it.
05:29I mean, just to make the point.
05:30We were all, I think, in this circumstance.
05:32And I think most people who are handling this responsibly go, you cannot depend on Tank Dale.
05:37But even then, that felt like a protection of yourself and less like a, this is a likelihood to happen.
05:42That you're not going to have him, right?
05:45Or that he's not going to be ready.
05:46This also feels like a different thing.
05:48Because the idea in my mind was you can't depend on Tank Dale saying you don't know exactly what he
05:52is yet.
05:53This feels like he might not be ready yet, which is a little bit different, I think.
05:57Yeah, so number one for me is that.
06:01You know, don't put a lot of stock into those videos.
06:03Number two is we've heard he'll be back for us at some point this year, recently.
06:09You know, and that's not to say, they may not, they truly may not know.
06:13I'm not casting any aspersions or anything like that.
06:16I'm saying they truly may not know.
06:17But we've heard it before.
06:18Number three, and this is an important one for me, Tank Dale is not a big dude, and he had
06:24a complete blowout on that knee.
06:26All the CLs.
06:27All the Ls.
06:29All the Ls were repaired multiple times, multiple surgeries.
06:32So number four ultimately leads me to this was, number one, my big worry that this might happen.
06:40And that's why I was very cautious with it all, because we've seen that.
06:43Again, you get some scars in this business, you know, when you do it for 40-whatever years.
06:47And you see, damn, I already got scars, and I've only done it for 40-whatever years.
06:50That's crazy.
06:51So immediately my mind went to wide receiver two.
06:58Wide receiver two, man.
07:00Wide receiver two might be a little much, though, right?
07:03Take a shot.
07:06So you're talking about like draft.
07:09I mean, maybe wide receiver ultimately becomes Higgins or ultimately becomes Noel.
07:13I think that those guys are better situated right now.
07:15But yes, I am talking draft.
07:16Yes, I am talking 100% draft.
07:19So to kind of go back on our second segment today, are you down with trading up for a receiver
07:25now?
07:26Yeah.
07:27I don't know on that.
07:28I mean, I think it's aggressive.
07:30Or stand put for a receiver.
07:31Because I wouldn't.
07:32I ain't have a receiver on my draft board this early.
07:35Do that kind of change now?
07:36I'm still, oddly enough, not in that place.
07:40I mean, that's fine.
07:42I can't tell you what to think.
07:43So you're good with the receiver room right now?
07:45No, I do think that there needs to be something done in the receiver room.
07:48I wonder if it's more of a back-end circumstance where we're talking about maybe free agents, right?
07:53This is where.
07:54Because also, the way that you've built this wide receiver room matters.
07:58You have Nico Collins in the prime of his career.
08:00And then you have a few dudes.
08:02You have a couple of dudes that are really young.
08:03Obviously, the second year, Iowa State Cats and Jaden Higgins and Jalen Noel.
08:07And nobody's quitting on them.
08:08No, and I know, but also, you get another young guy and you go, how does that role sit for
08:14them?
08:14Is that a young guy that you're trying to then put ahead of the development of those other two young
08:19guys that you had last year?
08:20Or is this a young guy that now has his development kind of pushed a little bit to the back
08:23burner as he becomes a fourth or fifth option?
08:28Whatever that ends up looking like.
08:29Or are you capable of getting a veteran guy who can also help facilitate more of that development in there
08:34and can know the role a little bit more acutely?
08:38And that's some of the conversation I think people were already having.
08:41But I do wonder if that becomes more solidified now, especially, and again, you also don't want to, it's tough
08:48because you don't want to prohibit future development.
08:51But you also don't want to assume that development and then not do anything to answer it.
08:55So I don't know that I want to put somebody that I definitely know is going to be ahead of
08:58some of these other guys, even Tank Dell, who, again, still has the possibility of making his return, even for
09:03OTAs.
09:04But maybe you get somebody who's a little bit of a veteran who can fit nicely in that if we
09:08need you cool.
09:09And if not, I think you'll be all right.
09:10It sounds like we're kind of nervous about the current room with the, I call them the rookies, but the
09:16two from last year seem like we're kind of nervous about that development.
09:19I think I'm not nervous, but I'm glad you said that.
09:21For me, it's not nervous as we don't know.
09:23So, you know, I love what I've seen from Jaden Higgins in spurts.
09:29Jalen Knoll, we really didn't see a lot in the rotation, so to speak.
09:32We saw other things.
09:32But I'm glad you mentioned that because let's take D'Amico Ryans for his work.
09:38Not sure he's going to be there for OTAs.
09:40That means that at OTAs, you're going to have Nico Collins, of course.
09:44Xavier Hutchinson, how do we feel about that?
09:46I think he's fine with where he is.
09:48Jaden Higgins, Jalen Knoll, Justin Watson.
09:52That's right, Justin Watson.
09:53Josh Kelly.
09:56I'm not sure.
09:57You need a wide receiver.
09:58You need a wide receiver.
09:59Whether it's the route that you're thinking.
10:01And I know you said, you know, I don't know if I'd, you know, put a guy, you know, immediately
10:05draft a guy in a place where, like, he leaps into that spot.
10:09Yeah.
10:09My point on that is, why not?
10:12Yeah.
10:12I was going to say, are y'all truly comfortable with Nico, Higgins, and Noel?
10:17You can still find gold.
10:18Right there.
10:18You can still find gold with Higgins.
10:20You can still find gold with Noel.
10:21Yeah.
10:21But why not, you know, hey, let's go get this dude, you know?
10:26It just feels like, one, I think you can end up with too much youth where there's not the right,
10:31like, a balance in the room.
10:33But then on top of that, I have liked what I've seen out of Higgins.
10:36He does feel like a wide receiver, too, that kind of steps in.
10:40And maybe we're not even looking at this at the right place where we're talking about those spaces.
10:44Maybe we need to be looking at in the way of Tank Dell, if he's not available, and also coming
10:49back off an injury maybe doesn't provide you the one thing that you were hoping to get from him, which
10:53is that speed.
10:54So maybe it's where can you find somebody who applies a level of speed to your wide receiver room, regardless,
11:00on top of a Jalen Noel who, again,
11:03while he is one of your options, I think that there's a particular type of speed that feels like it's
11:07a little different.
11:07And he did not get enough time last year, and I still wonder what went into that.
11:13I'm inclined to believe that that was more of a Christian Kirk pushing him out of the way, you know,
11:18erroneously from the offensive decision makers.
11:21But maybe there is something there where there's a little bit of hesitation on exactly what Jalen Noel is.
11:26Now, that's not anything that they've said, but based off of what they did, there's still a possibility that that's
11:31the case.
11:32So maybe there's just an add-another-speed type guy or a guy that has, you know, a particular speed
11:38to what you're doing here to have another option.
11:40Maybe that's the way that we need to look at it.
11:42And whether that's the draft, which feels a little bit less likely in my mind for some reason, or it's
11:46free agency, that's how you go about it.
11:48Texters, 832s, it said, tank freak out.
11:52Yeah, I mean, you know.
11:54And that's what I'm trying not to do because, again, the possibility that maybe he won't be there, that's only
11:59one side of it.
11:59If you want to be an optimistic, there's still a maybe he will be, right?
12:03And he is, again, coming off of this injury that was really drastic.
12:06And maybe just another extra month is what is necessary until he's all the way back.
12:10And, of course, D'Amico couches that in.
12:12It's not just about getting him back.
12:13It's about getting him back as close to 100% as possible.
12:16Right.
12:16And so that is effective.
12:17That is a logical perspective to take.
12:19It's just an interesting one when you start thinking about having, or maybe not having to, but the possibility of
12:25maybe depending on a tank deal.
12:27You maybe want to put yourself in a circumstance where you don't have to do that.
12:31Somebody said, I think Will Fuller is still available.
12:32Don't you put that even on me.
12:34I wonder how he's doing, man, just in general.
12:37I just kind of want a wellness check.
12:39He's hanging out with Joe Mixon at this point.
12:41All right.
12:42I mean, you haven't seen or heard anything, you know.
12:44I mean, at least people saw Joe Mixon at the damn game in the suite.
12:48We haven't seen anything from Will Fuller.
12:51I wonder, like, really mentally, how is he doing?
12:54Because he just, no, seriously, he just disappeared.
12:57Yes.
12:58I mean, I feel you.
12:59Like, I don't care about the game and all that stuff at this point.
13:02I just wonder how is he doing?
13:04You're all right?
13:05Yeah.
13:06Figgy, after this segment, is going to get on Instagram and just go and see if he can find Will
13:10Fuller.
13:10No, I'm dead serious.
13:12Like, you good, bro?
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