- 1 day ago
Seth and Sean talk with Texans Sideline Reporter, John Harris, about what the Texans are getting in OL Keylan Rutledge and some prospects to keep an eye on in round 2 tonight.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:03With the 26th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Houston Texans select Keelan Rutledge, guard Georgia Tech.
00:14Yeah, man, you're just getting a relentless worker.
00:16Someone that's just going to come in every day, be the first in, last out kind of guy.
00:19A guy that's blue collar, gritty, wants to get after it, wants to finish dudes in the dirt.
00:23And you're getting a guy that's just a great teammate.
00:25I'm going to hold people accountable, and I'm going to push the standard for the whole team.
00:28So I'm ready to get up there and just get to work, man.
00:30And, you know, about me, like I can play all three interiors.
00:33Obviously, I just played right guard in college, but, you know, I'm comfortable snapping, playing left.
00:37Anything the team needs me to do, man, I'm there, and I'm going to be the guy they can call
00:41on.
00:41So I'm ready to get to work.
00:42Yeah, it's a great lead into our discussion with our next guest here, because on this very show two days
00:47ago,
00:48John Harris said that as far as the solutions out there at the center position go,
00:53the very first name John Harris volunteered was Keelan Rutledge, who, of course, played guard at Georgia Tech.
00:58But he's mentioning right there that he can play all the positions on the interior,
01:02and we're joined right now by Texan sideline reporter, NFL draft expert, footballtakeover.com founder, John Harris.
01:10Johnny, good morning.
01:10Did you get some good rest last night?
01:13Oh, man, I'm on adrenaline right now.
01:15I got home, and, you know, everything that I missed during the draft, you know,
01:20the whole Sean McVay doesn't like Ty Simpson thing, you know, he's catching up on that.
01:24So, you know, I had a chance to kind of hang with my wife a little bit before I know
01:28it.
01:28It's 1.30 in the morning.
01:29I'm like, oh, man.
01:30Okay, well, I've got a decent amount of sleep.
01:31I'm not on until 9.
01:32Yeah, I was up at 6.45.
01:34So it's, you know, it's just going on adrenaline right now.
01:37Last night was such a great night.
01:39The party was awesome.
01:40It was really cool, and hopefully you have a great night tonight,
01:42and hopefully the Rockets get it done in game three, because if they don't,
01:45it's going to be a long offseason for those dudes.
01:47Yeah, no doubt.
01:48No doubt about that.
01:50So, Johnny, I guess just we played your audio earlier of you breaking it down
01:54on the draft show last night, so I think people are aware of your enthusiasm
01:57about Keelan Rutledge, but take us a little deeper on that,
02:01your thoughts on the pick, and your thoughts on him.
02:04You mentioned it two days ago about he might be the solution at center.
02:07Do you think he is the solution at center for this football team?
02:11I think he absolutely could be.
02:14I mean, should be.
02:15You know, who knows?
02:15I mean, Nick said it last night, look, he's going to play somewhere
02:19because he's the exact right mentality you're looking for.
02:22And I've thought so much about, as I read through some of the things people
02:26were saying, I saw some jackass yesterday say that Texans traded up
02:31to get the number 59 consensus overall.
02:34You know what?
02:35And this, I feel like this needs to be clear.
02:38Sarge asked this question of Nick on his pre-draft press conference,
02:44and he said, what does best player available mean?
02:47And it hit me.
02:48Best player available means the best player available on our board,
02:54how we set up our board.
02:57And I think about that a lot.
02:59Like, I do footballtakeover.com.
03:00I do it for all 32 teams.
03:01So I'm setting it up just in general for all those teams.
03:04But if I were to set it up for just the Texans and the Texans only,
03:09Keelan Rutledge is probably a top 10 guy because everything that they've talked
03:14about wanting in a trenches player is in Keelan Rutledge.
03:19He is tough.
03:20He is nasty.
03:21He is, like he said, he is willing to hold people accountable.
03:25He did that at Georgia Tech.
03:27He is tough and strong and can move people off the ball.
03:31So if that's right guard, left guard, center, okay.
03:34Either way, that's the mentality you're looking for,
03:37and that's what you want your culture to be.
03:39But it's the best player available on your board.
03:42And I guarantee you there were players drafted,
03:44the 25 players drafted ahead of Keelan Rutledge,
03:47there's a decent percentage of them that are probably not on Nick Casario
03:51and the Texans board.
03:52So you take the best player available for your board,
03:55especially when you're drafting at 28 where they started
03:59and then moved to 26.
04:00Okay.
04:01So they moved up two spots.
04:04I don't even know if I consider that a quote-unquote trade-up.
04:07A trade-up is going to get Will Anderson Jr.
04:11They traded one spot for Will Fuller in 16.
04:14They moved two spots for Keelan Rutledge.
04:16That's not really a trade-up.
04:17That's just kind of a little bit of a pick swap, if you ask me.
04:20So I feel like Keelan Rutledge is going to fit the ethos
04:24of what they are looking for in a football player.
04:27And that's really why it hit me like, wait a second.
04:31Listen to these pre-draft press conferences.
04:36Listen to them closely.
04:38Listen to what they're talking about.
04:40They're talking about the person.
04:41They're talking about the attributes that they're looking for
04:43in that particular person.
04:45Yeah, they're going to get a good player.
04:47But they're looking for the attributes.
04:48And that's when it hit me like, that's their kind of guy.
04:51And they were at the Senior Bowl.
04:53They saw Keelan up close.
04:55They saw Keelan play center.
04:56And I think they worked him out, too, at some point.
04:59I thought I heard that along the way.
05:00I don't know.
05:01But I don't know how you don't listen to that guy
05:03and feel very committed about what that guy can mean to your offense.
05:07Whether he plays guard or whether he plays center.
05:09Left up to me, move him to center.
05:11He stays at center.
05:12Something happens to Teller or to Ingram.
05:15Okay, he slides back over to guard.
05:16But he's got to be a foundational piece for this future.
05:20And not just because he's a first-round pick,
05:22but because of the things they want to do and smash people in the mouth.
05:27Now, if you're going to follow that philosophy,
05:30then running back needs to be on the board.
05:32Because if you're going to run the ball the way they're talking about
05:34or the way it appears, what their actions are telling you,
05:38then they've got to be able to run the ball maybe even more so
05:41than having David Montgomery and Woody Marks.
05:43So I would imagine that a running back might be in the mix.
05:47And with two of them off the board,
05:48Mike Washington Jr. is really the next guy up from that standpoint.
05:52So if that's what you want to be able to do, run the football,
05:56you're proving that by drafting a guy like Keaton Rutledge
05:59on top of all the guys you signed or re-signed.
06:02Now I think running back ends up being probably a higher priority
06:06over the next couple of picks.
06:08You know, John, and I know you've given this out 29 times already
06:12between last night and today, but for a lot of people
06:15that just haven't heard your basic scouting report on Keelan Rutledge yet.
06:20Just who is he as a prospect?
06:21What does he need to work on?
06:23What do you think he's going to be good at immediately?
06:26So it's funny because I actually wrote his report up last May or June.
06:33I think it was May or June.
06:34When I first started studying prospects, he had been on my radar screen.
06:38He had been on my radar screen because I heard the story about his accident.
06:44And it's funny, I think they were playing in Ireland.
06:47And I happened to be watching that game, and I was kind of watching,
06:50not watching, but I heard them start talking about this guard,
06:54Keelan Rutledge.
06:55He'd come from Middle Tennessee State.
06:57And all the adversity had been through.
06:59And then they started talking about Brent Key talking about him.
07:02So it was on my radar screen.
07:03So I watched him and studied him in the spring, and I wrote – this is basically –
07:09this is what I wrote.
07:09Tough guy, guard, center prospect, plays exactly like I thought he would.
07:13He's a little all over the place with his hand placement, aiming points, et cetera,
07:16but he's going to fight on every rep.
07:18He did some cross-training throughout the day at the Senior Bowl,
07:22and he has the future of one of the positions in the NFL.
07:25His toughness might be his best asset, and teams will feel as if that's a great starting point
07:29with an interior player.
07:30Quite simply, he's a mauler with real man strength and a captain spirit.
07:34Rutledge will be the next Wyatt Teller in this league, a refined, intelligent,
07:37man smasher at guard, total stud.
07:40So I went back after the Senior Bowl and wanted to update that.
07:45And I read it, and I went, no, we're good.
07:48I'm good.
07:49I think that's good.
07:51This is exactly what I thought he was, and I'll stick with it.
07:56And I do think – and even Nick mentioned it last night.
07:58It was funny because when he said it, I kind of chuckled because I did say in his report,
08:03like, hey, his hand placement's got to improve.
08:05Sometimes he gets his hands a little wide.
08:07He's got to keep him in tight a little bit more, especially in pass pro.
08:10But he's going to finish.
08:11He talks about putting guys in the dirt, and his film shows that.
08:15And not in a Trevor Penning way.
08:17Yes.
08:18He's not going to do it like, you know, taking a little corner from northern Iowa
08:22and put him up to the second, you know, level of the bleachers.
08:25You know, he's going to go take a linebacker from Clemson and put him on his wallet.
08:28So, that means a little bit more to me than, you know, a guy like Trevor Penning.
08:32So, that was my report on Rutledge.
08:35And, like I said, when I went back and read it at the Senior Bowl, I was like, yeah, I'm
08:38good.
08:38We'll stick with this.
08:40Johnny, we're talking to John Harris, Texans sideline reporter, footballtakeover.com.
08:44Outside of the Texans, Johnny, what was your big, like, holy bleep moment from –
08:49or was there one from last night for you?
08:51What was the thing that intrigued you the most outside of the Texans in the draft last night?
08:55Well, I think the discussion around Ty Simpson got interesting.
08:59You know, I can't remember who – somebody had broken a story about the fact that
09:03when Ty Simpson was trying to figure out whether he should go out in the draft
09:07or take six and a half million dollars for the Miami Hurricanes, they contacted Les Snead.
09:12And I think there's a connection there because his dad coaches, you know, Les Snead's from Alabama.
09:18There's probably some connection there.
09:20And so they apparently contacted Les Snead to get his thoughts on it.
09:24And, you know, so that was kind of interesting.
09:27You know, is that team in win-now mode?
09:29Well, if they are, then they just drafted a future quarterback.
09:32It was just, okay, you could have gotten a tackle to replace Rob Havenstein.
09:36So when Stafford gets sacked and the tackle gets beat, the camera's going to go to Ty Simpson and go,
09:41hey, you drafted this guy instead of drafting a tackle.
09:43He's a horrible pass protector.
09:45Yeah, Ty Simpson.
09:46Yeah, Ty Simpson.
09:47Horrible feet.
09:47Yes, exactly.
09:48He needs to work on his hand placement.
09:50Yeah.
09:50I think the other one was my reaction to Malachi Lawrence getting drafted by the Cowboys.
09:56I was really – I was angry.
09:58I was very, very angry of all the teams.
10:00And I hated saying this, but I felt like Jerry and Steven and the Cowboys –
10:06well, let's do this right.
10:08Will McClay, who runs the drafts for the Cowboys, did a masterful job moving around the board.
10:15To get Caleb Downs and getting Malachi Lawrence and getting some draft lanyap,
10:20as Mark likes to say, a little bit later in the draft.
10:23Will McClay did a fantastic job.
10:25And that, to me, stood out.
10:26I thought the Cowboys with those two picks, they needed help defensively in the worst way.
10:31They didn't get an inside linebacker, but I think they will try and do that over the next couple days.
10:36And there's still some really good inside linebackers left on the board.
10:39But those two guys are going to be program changers.
10:42They're explosive players.
10:43There's Caleb Downs will be the CPU of that defense.
10:46So, I thought the Cowboys – I hate to say it, but they did a wonderful job last night.
10:50No, they draft well, you know.
10:52That's what's kept them buoyed up all these years.
10:54The fact that no team has just tried to have a secret meeting and lure Will McClay away to be
10:59a GM somewhere else.
11:02The Cowboys either are paying him really well or he just loves the Cowboys.
11:06It's annoying.
11:07Because Jerry does everything he can to destroy the good work of Will McClay.
11:11Yep.
11:13John, so we're looking at right now – you know, I kind of have been focused on defensive line and
11:19offensive line so much that sometimes we forget, all right, there are other positions on the football field.
11:25And I'm looking at the guys that might be really good deals to get him in the second round right
11:30now.
11:30And there's a good chunk of cornerbacks, aren't there?
11:34There are.
11:35In fact, remaining on my board right now, number 22, Avion Terrell from Clemson.
11:42Number 24 overall, Colton Hood from Tennessee.
11:45Then I've got Brandon Cease, who I like – I really like from South Carolina.
11:50Plays a lot like Kamari Lasseter, really good athlete.
11:53A little lighter.
11:54He's 189, but I don't think Kamari's much past 190.
11:57But he plays a lot like Kamari does, and I like the way he runs supports, you know, fearless.
12:01Those guys.
12:02And then there is the conundrum that is Jermaud McCoy, number 36.
12:07So that's one, two – and that's four that I've got in the next how many ever available, top 10
12:12that I've got available.
12:13And McCoy becomes a really interesting one because obviously we know Sting and Lasseter are the two – that's the
12:20best duo in the league.
12:21But we know that there was a problem with the number three corner, especially when J-Rock went out with
12:26an injury last year.
12:27Now, you want to believe in J-Rock because what you saw from him in training camp, what you saw
12:33from him at USC, he's your kind of guy.
12:36But because he's coming off an injury, there's a question mark.
12:39Well, so is Jermaud McCoy.
12:40He's coming off an injury.
12:42But that dude is almost 6'2", 190, and covers as well as – when healthy, he probably covers better
12:48than anybody in this draft,
12:50including Mansour Delane, who went to the Chiefs at number six.
12:54Do you take a flyer at number 38 and go, you know what?
12:57We can sit him and let him continue to rehab.
13:01And for when he's ready, we're getting a rock star cover guy to go with the two rock stars we
13:06already have.
13:07And he's in the second round, so he is young and cheap.
13:10You could do that.
13:11And the reason McCoy was not drafted last night is there is a thought out there that he's going to
13:16need an additional surgery on his knee that he injured back in January of 2025.
13:21So the medicals do scare you.
13:23Because it's been over a year since he tore his ACL, and usually, yeah, you'd expect that guy to be
13:28100% by now, right?
13:29Right, right.
13:29And that does scare you a little bit.
13:31So you're kind of relying on your medical staff, which I know the Texans medical staff I love, led by
13:36Roland Ramirez.
13:37They do such a great job.
13:38That's a little bit of a roll of dice.
13:40But it's not like he's the only guy there.
13:42Like I said, I got four guys in the next top ten that could be there.
13:45So, yeah, I think corner can make sense.
13:47In fact, I don't really have a number of offensive guys in the next probably 10 to 12 picks.
13:53I've got Pregnano, Besantis.
13:55But I've got corners, linebackers.
13:58I mean, all the linebackers beyond Sonny Stiles are still on the board.
14:02C.J. Allen, Jacob Rodriguez, Anthony Hill Jr.
14:06Those guys are on the board.
14:08So 38, to me, I'm really excited about that.
14:11And it wouldn't surprise me if they felt like with the two big guys up there, too, Caden McDonald and
14:16Kristen Miller,
14:17hey, do we need to move up a few spots and give up, I don't know, something maybe even from
14:22next year
14:22to go move up and go get the guy that we absolutely have to have?
14:27They could do that.
14:28But I just like the depth of what's there.
14:29So I think sitting at 38, they've got to feel really good about it.
14:32There's some edges on the board, too.
14:34Zion Young, T.J. Parker, Cassius Howell, if May and Em still on the board.
14:37So a lot of options.
14:39No doubt, that is the great John Harris, Texan sideline reporter and founder of footballtakeover.com.
14:46And you'll be able to hear him tonight, Johnny.
14:48Six o'clock, things start, right?
14:50It gets popping right away tonight at six o'clock.
14:52Yeah, and if it goes like last night, man, it was awesome.
14:55Eight minutes between picks.
14:56By the way, I don't know if you guys are watching or listening or whatever.
14:59You can't watch the draft on TV anymore.
15:01You just can't.
15:01They're three picks behind.
15:03I mean, it was ridiculous.
15:04We were announcing picks, three picks before TV had the pick.
15:08I mean, we knew Makai Lemon was going to Philadelphia before Makai Lemon knew he was going to Philadelphia.
15:14So from that standpoint, just listen to us.
15:17We'll keep you updated.
15:18But I'll be with you tomorrow starting at 11 o'clock for day three, one of my favorite days of
15:22the year.
15:23Yeah, and last and certainly not least, go Rockets.
15:25Don't go out like a freaking lamb.
15:28Go fight.
15:28Go compete.
15:29Go Keelan Rutledge's thing tonight.
15:30Yes, and pray for Kevin Durant's ankle and his knee, both of them.
15:35Jeez.
15:36Jeez.
15:37Come on, KD.
15:38Come on, man.
15:38Do it one time.
15:39Let's go.
15:40All right, Johnny, keep killing it.
15:41You're doing awesome.
15:42Can't wait to do some radio with you tomorrow, and we'll listen to you tonight at six o'clock
15:45and get to footballtakeover.com for all kinds of great draft stuff from John Harris.
15:49Appreciate you, Johnny.
15:50Appreciate you, boys.
15:50Love you.
15:51I'm hanging up listening to you.
15:52I love you too, man.
15:52Appreciate you.
15:53That's the great John Harris joining us here on Pain and Pendergast Sports Radio 610.
15:57I love you too, man.
Comments