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ITL reacts to unfiltered comments from league executives and what they reveal about how teams really operate.
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00:00What an offseason it's been to this point for your Houston Texans.
00:02At least that's the way that I think we've talked about it
00:05and a lot of us around the team have felt after having real questions
00:09coming into the offseason, how it would look.
00:11Obviously, offseason isn't done with, but you might have even heard
00:14if you were listening earlier to some of the audio
00:17or if you were listening yesterday to Cal and Hannah McNair
00:20joining Texans All-Access.
00:22There's a genuinely good feeling about the way that Nick Casario
00:26and this team has gone about answering some of their questions
00:30when it comes to free agency and headed into the draft
00:33to give themselves the freedom to do things.
00:34If you had to put a letter grade on the way that free agency in particular
00:39and the offseason in general has gone to this point, what would you give it?
00:42I don't think I'm being hyperbolic by any stretch.
00:45I'm going to say A.
00:46I'm going to say an A.
00:48You went in knowing you needed offensive linemen.
00:51You got three that you can lean on.
00:56You have maybe three potential starters automatically
00:59and Braden Smith and David Montgomery and who's the other lineman?
01:05Wyatt Teller.
01:05Wyatt Teller and maybe others as well.
01:09Foster Moreau is maybe not going to be a starter,
01:11but he's going to definitely be in the mix.
01:13I mean, the offense got it.
01:14And then Evan Brown.
01:16The offense got a big jolt, and that's not even to mention Reed Blankenship.
01:20Right.
01:20Yeah.
01:22I'd give him an A.
01:23Yeah.
01:23Fig, real quick.
01:24I would probably give him an A as well.
01:26B plus A.
01:27I would probably lean more towards an A.
01:29Look at all the positivity that's there.
01:31So, I mean, that's generally been the feeling, right?
01:33A lot of people, not even just the ultimate results that we're talking about,
01:36even the process specifically.
01:37You didn't go out.
01:38You didn't overspend in a lot of ways.
01:40I now take you to the Athletic.
01:42Mike Sando of the Athletic, to be particular,
01:44has gone and used his insight and his connections to get a little bit of some insight,
01:49unfiltered from executives and general managers around the league
01:53on how they feel about all the team's free agency.
01:55And, of course, we are very particular interested in how they feel about the Houston Texans.
02:00Obviously, in addition to those things, you signed Daniil Hunter,
02:03Sheldon Rankin's returns, EJ Speed.
02:05Those all get extensions and all of that.
02:08So, I take you to one exec who said,
02:11quote, I think Nick Casario is going to let it go year to year.
02:15He very well may be inclined to draft another guy.
02:19It could be another year of Davis Mills, and then Casario drafts another quarterback.
02:24Quarterback.
02:25When it comes to the C.J. Stroud extension.
02:28Another exec said in the quarterback room that he liked Mills as much as he liked C.J. Stroud,
02:33about whom Casario and ownership have backed this season.
02:37Okay, you know what that tells me?
02:38What does that tell you?
02:39The things that we have been, you know, postulating about and thinking about and wondering about
02:45is around the league.
02:47It's out there.
02:47The C.J. Stroud, or just how they feel about C.J. Stroud?
02:50It's a big, I've said this before, the NFL, you think that it's all prim and proper
02:54and buttoned up and, you know, everybody.
02:58They be chatty patties around there, man.
02:59It's a sewing circle, man.
03:00It's a sewing circle.
03:02It really is.
03:03Did you hear what, especially when it comes to jobs.
03:06I mean, every.
03:07I'm just thinking about a sewing circle.
03:08No, I literally.
03:09Everybody sitting around knitting.
03:11Yes.
03:11Yes.
03:12That is the picture I had.
03:13Did you hear what Nick Casario did?
03:14I had Andy Reid crocheting with the phone.
03:17You know how you wedge the phone between, a physical phone between your ear and your shoulder?
03:21Yeah.
03:21Like, you will not believe what I heard.
03:23Ooh, I'm in Arizona.
03:25I heard C.J. Stroud going through a divorce right now.
03:28I heard the same thing.
03:30I heard, they're having issues.
03:32Yep.
03:33Oh, they're having issues.
03:35I never liked him.
03:36I am dead serious.
03:36I never did like him.
03:37He always gave me a bad vibe.
03:38I saw him flirting with Sean McVay.
03:39Yeah.
03:40Did you see what he was wearing?
03:41Did you see what he?
03:44No, but sincerely, like.
03:46How dare he wear that to church?
03:49Oh, the church in the gossip is crazy.
03:51Ooh, he cut his hair.
03:52Did you see that?
03:53Yes.
03:53But I do wonder how much of that is just the circumstance that you're in where, and if
03:58you didn't see the reporting, I think there was a report that, and we kind of knew this,
04:01the Texans aren't going to, or are going to pick up the fifth year option on C.J.
04:05Stroud without the intention of extending him this year, which would take him through the
04:0927 season under contract, which we kind of expect we kind of understood.
04:13But I think that those are the things that those executives are looking at.
04:17But maybe they are hearing some of, like, some scuttlebutt around the league, or maybe
04:20it's even just kind of hypothesizing on, hey, what do you think they'll do, especially coming
04:25off of the last couple of games that C.J.
04:26had.
04:26Players have the same agents as other players.
04:29So do coaches.
04:31And when I say, you know, this agent is, whether it's C.J.
04:36Strouds or another player who's close to C.J.
04:38or a coach or whatever, they talk.
04:42Yeah.
04:42They all talk.
04:43That's why I never really thought, like, I thought it was crazy, but I didn't think
04:47it was too crazy when the whole trade rumors and, oh, C.J.
04:51Stroud, could he be trade, all that type of stuff.
04:53In the sewing circle.
04:54Yeah.
04:55Like, I think it's crazy personally, but I don't think it's that crazy.
04:59I don't think they just picked C.J.
05:01Stroud out of anybody and just said this.
05:03Well, I think some of that is there's a little bit of it feels susceptible, right, in that way.
05:08But how much of these conversations do you also view, like, the person who goes, I liked
05:12Mills as much as I liked Stroud?
05:14How much of that is really just the evaluation of who Mills is, Davis Mills is, and how much
05:20of that is, you think we can jet our mind trick them into letting go of a C.J.
05:25Stroud?
05:25Because, again, we're coming into, I think the context of this, this is an offseason where
05:28you look around at quarterbacks, you go, damn, there's not a lot of great ones to be
05:31had, per se.
05:32I think part of it is that.
05:33I think part of it also is whether this is a coach or a general manager.
05:37Did it say general manager specifically?
05:38These are executives.
05:38These are executives.
05:39Just an executive.
05:40Yes.
05:40Or a pro scout could be a pro scout, could be anything.
05:43Well, a pro scout I don't think would go up to executive level unless they're like a high
05:46level scouting.
05:47But like, yeah, like James Lipford or something like that.
05:49James Lipford could be one of them, you know.
05:51I'm not saying that.
05:52I'm saying, but those types of things.
05:53That'd be weird if you talk about his team.
05:54I liked Davis Mills more.
05:57But you get my point.
05:58Like, these are all represented by, you know, similar agents.
06:02And so, what I'm saying is, you know, when you hear something like, I like Mills as much
06:07as CJ Stroud, that might point back to the way Mills is as a coachable player.
06:13The things he does.
06:15The yes sir, no sir.
06:16You ask him to do this, he does it.
06:18As opposed to what we've speculated on.
06:21You know, I'm not so sure how, you know, how bought in CJ Stroud is to all this.
06:24That's what I'm hearing.
06:26Interesting.
06:26All right.
06:27So, I did talk about the free agency at large.
06:29And of course, CJ Stroud is a big question.
06:31But this is one of the signings you got, Brayden Smith.
06:33So, I take you to one exec who says, Brayden Smith, and this is a direct quote, is one of
06:37those thin, linear guys, just kind of a get-by guy.
06:41Hmm.
06:42That's another executive.
06:44Yes.
06:44That is a particular executive saying, speaking of Brayden Smith, right, that is a, they're
06:48questioning if it made them better than the Titus Howard circumstance.
06:51And I find that to be kind of amazing.
06:54It does feel like, though, what they're, with that executive, even if you were going
06:57to take their analysis at face value, I think what they miss is something that we've been
07:02really particular about is, hey, man, how much can you, how much do you value or how much
07:06can you quantify the value of the toughness that is necessary?
07:09With all due respect to Titus Howard, I think that it feels like a night and day difference
07:13in the perceived toughness that is brought to the building by having Brayden Smith as your
07:19right, starting right tackle, as opposed to Titus Howard.
07:20Well, toughness is part of the culture here, too.
07:25You know, it's part of the fit, per se, on this type of offense.
07:29So I agree with you.
07:31I think some of that, you can just look at it as just as a player, and maybe as a
07:35player
07:35that fits your system, but not as a player that might fit this system.
07:39Yeah, so, yeah, the decision of wanting to run the football and everything.
07:43Right, right.
07:43That, seeing that, my initial reaction being close is like, hey, man, that feels like that's
07:48Hayden.
07:49But then when I stepped back from that initial knee-jerk reaction, I was like, hey, I think
07:53that this will be something to watch is, what is the actual factual playing difference between
07:59Titus Howard and Brayden Smith?
08:00Oh, yeah.
08:01And, well, that's part of the big story here.
08:02Right.
08:02And I will be intrigued to watch that once we get out to training camp.
08:05Some other things that were in there, one GM, or one executive, I should say, said,
08:10it seems to me that Nick can't decide on an offensive line.
08:12He's drafted them high, moved them on.
08:14He signed them and moved on.
08:16He extended Laramie, moved on from them.
08:18At some point, you have to pick a lane, which, how closely have you been paying attention to
08:23that dog?
08:23Like, I do think that this is an interesting thing to look at, though, is how much do
08:27executives, as much as they talk around, how much do they actually understand what's
08:30happening with other teams in a more full way?
08:33Because if an executive says that, it makes me wonder, how much do you understand what
08:38is very publicly visible from this team?
08:41Because, look, we understand why a lot of those iterations of the line did not work.
08:45I mean, you can even see some, he drafted them, moved on.
08:48Which draft guys are we talking about that he moved on?
08:50Kenny Green?
08:50Did you see where he landed and how he has played since?
08:53Right?
08:53Like, who are the guys that we're talking about as this?
08:56Maybe there's more, I guess, validity in the Laramie, Tunsil, Titus Howard types of moving
09:01on.
09:01But ultimately, it just feels like that is a lack of understanding where the Texans are.
09:05That's where they're saying, like, they're getting that, is the Laramie Tunsil thing.
09:08Because you traded Laramie Tunsil, and you didn't really replace that.
09:12I actually agree with him.
09:14I actually agree with that.
09:15We've talked about it.
09:16You know, mixing and matching, getting it right, trying this, then trying that.
09:20And that's not even to mention the guys that never even really started, you know, are very
09:25limited starts that he moved on from, you know, pretty.
09:27No, I actually, I think that's a fair assessment.
09:30I thought the criticism, though, that that person was loving was, hey, man, why are you
09:34bouncing around and not sticking with a lane?
09:35I think the sticking with a lane thing is the wrong thing.
09:39His ability to accurately evaluate offensive linemen and get the right ones in there is
09:44the fair criticism that we have.
09:46Yeah, and then some other things that they mentioned, I think the only other thing I
09:48see for the Texans from a general, from an executive, I should use the right terminology.
09:52Read Blankenship, clearly a scheme fit for D'Amico Ryans.
09:55You're darn righty.
09:56Also, they went on to say, brought in Brayton Smith and Evan Brown to their offensive line.
10:01Do I like either of those for the future?
10:02Probably not.
10:03They're both 30 or almost 30.
10:05It would make a lot of sense if the Texans were putting a lot of effort into the O-line
10:09in the draft.
10:10So there's still executives that go.
10:11I can see that.
10:12Hey, what y'all have done is cool.
10:13That paper's over right now.
10:14But we know.
10:15We know.
10:15We know.
10:16We got like a good year or two.
10:17Yeah, we know.
10:18Offensive line, you still need.
10:19So that's something that we've talked about, and that's another confirmation around Lee.
10:23So that's a little bit of a, I guess, execanon from the athletic where it seems like some
10:29of the execs are indeed hating.
10:30But if one thing we know, they out here gossiping, baby.
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