- 3 hours ago
Seth and Sean discuss the Texans extending Azeez Al-Shaair and marvel at the contracts for top players on this stacked defense.
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00:00The big news with the Texans in the last 24 hours is the extension of Aziz Alshair,
00:05the leader of their defense, captain of the team, green dot guy, Walter Payton,
00:09man of the year nominee. There's a lot to like about Aziz Alshair. There's a lot to like about
00:14how they've got this defense set kind of squared away contractually. And I know you brought up a
00:21really good point when we talked about Aziz in the first hour, which is, yeah, you got all these
00:25expensive guys on defense, these draft picks you're making on offense over the next two or
00:29three, four years need to work out. Cause that's going to be your cheap labor over on that side
00:35of the ball. Yeah. It's all in the short term. It's all cool. You know that it actually, this move
00:40cleared up a few million dollars of cap space. And unless I missed a transaction yesterday,
00:45there's still an open spot on the Texans roster that they could perhaps, you know, they could use
00:51some of the space to perhaps sign Derek Barnett or somebody like that. That's right. So in the
00:57short term, it's nothing to worry about at all. It's that when all of these deals really start
01:01kicking in on the defensive side of the ball, they really, they need these picks that they've
01:07made on offense in the last couple of years to really pan out. You gotta, you gotta have as many
01:11guys on their rookie deals as possible. And, but they're still likely going to have to make some
01:15tough decisions on letting some of these guys on defense walk. They may, they may, this is how
01:19they're set up on defense. These are the guys they've got contractually locked in for multiple
01:26years, not just this coming year. Cause guys like Tommy Togiai, he's on a one-year deal.
01:30Henry Toto is in a, he's in his contract year of his rookie deal, but these are the guys they've
01:36got locked up, locked up for multiple years. And granted a couple of them, two or three of them
01:40are on their rookie contracts. And if they're going to stay longer than another year or another
01:45two years, the team's going to need to do something with them, but they've got Kalen
01:50Bullock, Kamari Lasseter, Daniil Hunter, and Sheldon Rankins locked up, not just for this
01:56season, but the following season as well. They've got Jalen Petrie and Reed Blankenship
02:01locked up through 2028. So for the next three seasons, cause I believe Petrie's extension
02:08kicks in this year that he signed last year. He was signed that before the last year of his
02:13rookie deal, Derek Stingley Jr., Aziz Alshair, and the rookie Caden McDonald, they're all
02:19under contract through 2029. I'm putting McDonald in there just cause I think people at this point
02:24are viewing him as a big part of his defense. You know, we'll see how he adapts as a pro,
02:28but I'm putting him in there. And then obviously Will Anderson Jr., who is the linchpin for everything
02:33they do defensively and everything this team represents. He's locked in through 2030. So this
02:39is a rarity in the NFL. Like the NFL is a lot of salary cap movement and revolving doors and
02:45one year guys and free agency and injuries and things like that. Um, this is a defense that is
02:51not only stacked for 2026, but assuming these guys stay healthy and there's no, you know,
02:57real bad attrition. Um, this is gonna be a really good defense for the next several years,
03:01especially when you consider how well coached it is to look, I think part of it too, is that,
03:05you know, whenever somebody signs an extension like this, when I kind of try to filter through
03:10the comments, then the people that are positive on it, negative on it, one of the things that comes
03:14up is every single time any player anywhere gets extended, uh, people will say, well, well,
03:19what if he gets injured, then it's a dumb deal. Like, yeah, well, it doesn't work out in that instance.
03:23If he has a horrible injury, you're playing a numbers game. It's going to happen. One of these guys
03:27very well might end up having a really bad injury and so be it. But the, the key is that
03:33are you
03:34extending guys that you feel are 100% about the culture, the production on the field, everything
03:41else. You want to feel really good about it. And so far, yeah, every guy that they've extended,
03:47you feel like, yeah, this is the kind of guy that D'Amico has been talking about. This is exactly
03:52the
03:52kind of performance on the field. This is the kind of way the guy operates in practice and everything
03:57else that you get more than you want to have, be sure that you're paying for more than just a
04:03bunch
04:03of stats, you know, or just a certain amount of production on the field. And they've done a good
04:08job with that. They don't, they don't hesitate to pay guys like that. And that ideally is what
04:13allows you to fill in some of the other spots. Nick Cassario is one of the most active GMs in
04:18the
04:18league when it comes to signing guys to one and two year deals. So some of the things you get
04:23nervous
04:23about like, Oh girl, this guy, you know, Henry Toa Toa is only on the last year of his deal,
04:27right?
04:27Well, Toa Toa is not at the same level as a player as the other guys on that defense. And
04:32without being
04:33too cold or callous about it, I think they figured that they're probably going to, if they don't,
04:38maybe they get a bargain deal with a Toa Toa or something, they feel really good about it. If they
04:42don't sign them, they feel like they'll be able to find a veteran or one of the two guys that
04:46they
04:46drafted this year works out or, you know, Jamal Hill comes along. So they don't, they don't sweat that
04:52part of it as long as they've got their core locked down. Yeah. I don't think it's an accident.
04:55They drafted a couple off-ball linebackers on day three this year. You know, that's what Henry
04:59Toa Toa was three years ago. He was an off-ball linebacker drafted on day three. So yeah, I it's,
05:05yeah, I liked, I liked the way you, you laid that out there. I think if we're looking for,
05:09if we're looking for any sort of patterns with the Texans, anything that, that they,
05:13a behavior that, that they repeat that Nick Cassario repeats. And I think it's a good thing.
05:18I think it sends a good message to guys that come into the building here as free agents,
05:22or if you get drafted here, it's that if you are a good player, gotta be a good player,
05:27but if you're a good player that attacks things the way they like you to attack them,
05:31that's in the building, that's doing it the, you know, that's sort of the Texan way and you
05:35like practicing, you, you embody everything that their swarm ethos is about. You're going
05:41to get rewarded and, and, and, and get rewarded to, to the, to the highest degree with some of
05:47these guys, you know? So, I mean, Aziz Al-Shair being the third highest paid linebacker,
05:52I wouldn't have predicted that even after him making the Pro Bowl this past year, that he would
05:56have gotten as much money as he did in this deal on average annual value basis. Yeah. I feel like,
06:02again, in the cult that they've created over there, which is a, it's a good cult.
06:06It's a good cult. Yeah.
06:06You know what it reminds me of is like the whole, uh, that six Sigma thing, uh, that the corporate
06:10folks do where you kind of, you keep elevating one step up, one step up and you're a, you know,
06:16they do it by belts, right? Like karate belts, six Sigma black belt or whatever. I feel like the
06:21Texans, their black belt is that you get extended. If you, uh, you go through all the steps in the
06:26process and you produce a certain way on the field, but you're also one of those guys that
06:31they can point to as an example for young guys, et cetera, et cetera. Then all of a sudden you
06:35get
06:36your six Sigma back black belt in the form of $48 million. I like that analogy. Yes, yes, yes.
06:42I liked what you said before too, when we were talking about Aziz, like it's a great
06:46example for undrafted guys that are in camp or guys that play that position. And maybe we're
06:51drafted late like Aiden Fisher out of Indiana. Um, I mean, very similar thing with Aiden Fisher,
06:57like he's in the NFL because of his leadership. Uh, you know, he's the green dot guy at Indiana.
07:03He plays the exact same position as Aziz Alshair. If you're looking for a, a, a motivational
07:09example for really any undrafted guy, but particularly at that position, Aziz Alshair
07:14is a great one. That's a, that's a really good one. So you're interviewing Aziz later this
07:19week. Are you not on Friday? Yeah, I am on, uh, he's doing a press conference on Friday
07:23and I'm getting a one-on-one with Aziz after that. So I'll, I'm guessing I'll, I'll send it
07:28in. Maybe the fellas can play it in the afternoon. We'll have it on Monday.
07:31Okay. Screw that. Yeah. We get to Monday morning. We get it first. Okay. Okay.
07:37That's no, that's just standard. You go out and you get the interview, then you go ahead
07:42and you debut it and then they, to the victory. There's not going to be anything that's like
07:46news, breaking news or anything to get out right away. Be awesome. If there was though,
07:52that's why we've entered this world where man, it's turned into like whenever, as soon
07:55as you do anything on camera or in a microphone, get it out there immediately. Like it, whereas in
08:00the past people would like to do interviews and sit on them for three months before they
08:03put them out. I know, but I would say this isn't necessarily as topical that yeah, we
08:07can wait until Monday morning. That's true. That's true. I don't think we're being selfish
08:11in that. Yep. Uh, text message, base power text line. Nick is kind of doing his best Howie
08:15Roseman impression right now. They are spending a lot of money and they're going to have to spend
08:19a lot of money over these next couple of years. It's a function of drafting. Well,
08:22there's still, um, he's more like Howie Roseman than, uh, than he has been in the past, but
08:30they're not up to that level of aggressively spending into the future. No, there's still
08:35a manager. There's still a way to see your way through this and manage it in a certain
08:38way. Uh, but they're probably, you know, he's approaching that point where like, okay,
08:42this is that this, if you go more aggressive with this, it's a, this could be credit card
08:47spending. But Aziz was really the last guy other than CJ that we had on the docket for,
08:53okay, these guys are, that are probably going to get extensions. Yes. Yeah. I thought Aziz
08:58and or Toa Toa. I now think Toa Toa. I thought Aziz and or Toa Toa before the draft. Now
09:03that
09:04they've extended Aziz and they've drafted two guys that play the same position as Toa Toa
09:08and they, and they re-signed EJ speed to a multi-year deal too. I would say just by way
09:14of comparison, if you look forward a couple of years in 2028, the Eagles have the third,
09:20the third least amount of cap space in 2028 where the Texans are about middle of the pack
09:27right now. So they're in terms of spending into the future, he's not nearly, they're not
09:32nearly at the level the Eagles are there. The Texans are a credit card spender that if
09:36they wanted to, it could pay off their balance. Right, right. Yeah. You know, they probably
09:40got a good deal. Oh, you know what? I apologize. Texans are actually down about, um,
09:45probably like right at the top of the lower third in terms of cap space. Okay. So
09:49they've, but not close to the Eagles, but still, yeah, way more aggressive than they
09:52had way. This is way different than it looked at the beginning. Yeah. Like if the, if the
09:56Eagles, if the Eagles start to dip as a team with this cap situation, they're
10:02basically the saints post drew breeze, you know, the saints were shoveling out from
10:07underneath their cap space issues for years and years. Like if the, if the Eagles turn
10:12into a seven, a six or seven win team, like they're, they're talking to bankruptcy lawyers.
10:16That's what I always get. When people say the cap is a myth or whatever, the cap doesn't
10:20exist. Like they're saying it as the saints existed. Yeah. It's just in cap hell for years.
10:27Uh, it would. And I always worry about when people say that I worry about their own, uh,
10:31their own personal credit situation. Yeah. I feel like they own credit cards and they're
10:35like, turns out I've actually got $10,000. It's not even real. I use actual cash. I've
10:41got it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I handed it to them. They didn't even ask me for cash with
10:45it. Um, um, read Blankenship is the, I guess of all the players I just named that are locked
10:52up with the Texans now for multiple years. Um, the ones that we know the least about are
10:58Caden McDonald, the rookie. Um, and we don't even know how he's going to look playing in
11:04the NFL yet. He's the biggest question mark. Read Blankenship. We at least have a body
11:08of work of being a good player for the Philadelphia Eagles, but we haven't seen him play for the
11:11Texans yet. I think this is from the Texans. Somebody was in the, it's from the, uh, from
11:16the Texans website, iron sharpens iron. Yeah. They did a little iron sharpens iron with
11:20read Blankenship. Gotcha. So they're riding around the car with read Blankenship. And he
11:24talked about, talked about fitting in, in Houston and CJ Stroud reaching out only been
11:28here for what? A few days for what I've seen and noticed like characters, like a
11:33huge deal in this organization. It just feels like a family, like a family ordeal. And my
11:41wife's so excited to get down here. Gotta have her baby first, but the first person to reach
11:50out was CJ. You know, you never think, like think you'd get somebody to reach out like
11:55that, but, uh, it was really cool to, to see his name pop up and just say, you know, welcome
12:01to the Dean, whatever. Nothing crazy. That's what I'm saying. Like it's, I feel like everybody
12:05just like chill. I like it. Okay. Again, now that everybody's chill till that ball gets kicked
12:13off on Sundays and then everybody's not chill on the Texans. Chill until read Blankenship
12:17doesn't address that dinging in his car. Yeah. What's going on? Is he low on gas? What the
12:20hell was going on? Did he not have his seatbelt on? Hmm. Is read Blankenship a devil may
12:26care kind of person? As he's talking about character and how it matters. Him with a baby
12:29on the way. With a baby on the way. Yeah. Guy didn't even get to use a baby seat. He's
12:33got the baby. Yeah. One of the whole NBA was like, look, yeah, I'm about to have a kid,
12:36but I ain't going to let, I ain't going to let it slow read Blankenship down. Tell you
12:40that much. I'm sure his seatbelt was on, but you're right. The dinging was a little bit
12:43annoying. That wasn't the urgent dinging of a seatbelt thing. No, no, no, no. They'll pepper you
12:48with the dings. If you don't have the seatbelt on in most cars, I like CJ reaching out to
12:52him. I've said this about CJ reaching out to the other guys. I, I, uh, I think CJ of
12:57little dribs and drabs that we've seen of CJ or heard about with CJ this off season. Um,
13:04it feels like he is embracing his role as a leader on this team right now. Not dribs
13:09and drabs, less drip, more drab. That's what we want. Yeah. Yeah. Just, uh, is, especially
13:14when it comes to Mariners gear, less drip, less drip, less drip. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, no.
13:19Yeah. Uh, who was the, uh, Oh, it was Rutledge. Rutledge, uh, talked about how CJ actually came
13:25to his hotel. That's right. Visit him with a little bit. Yep. Yeah. Ask him what they
13:28were talking about. And Rutledge just said, dudes being dudes. Yeah, man. Yeah. Dudes being
13:33dudes. We're just hanging out. Just hanging with the old lineman, man. Um, here's one more
13:37from Reed Blankenship real quick. As far as on the CJ side of things, I do think the, I hate
13:42reading
13:42into this, but it's the world we live in. There are other quarterbacks heading into their fourth
13:49year who have decided not to participate in the off season program. Uh, and it's just like
13:54these little slow protests or quiet protests of not having an extension. So it's just CJ
14:01showing up is notable in that. Okay. That was the first point where there could have been
14:06some drama. I think I, I expected him to show up for the off season program and I would have
14:11been surprised if he didn't, but that's, that's the first place where, okay. If he was upset
14:17about anything and not getting an extension or if he was trying to negotiate, that would
14:20have shown up so far. So good. Yeah. If he wanted to apply pressure, this would have been
14:24his first opportunity to do so. As far as we know, he hasn't unfollowed anybody important,
14:29uh, Instagram or anything posted rap lyrics on his, on his platforms and whatnot. He has not.
14:35Um, here's one more from Reed Blankenship excited to play with all these, all these dogs on the
14:41Houston defense. I think it's just going to be so fun. I mean, it's just insane. These dudes are
14:45like flying around, but like, like CB and all them sting, like they're chill. Like JP, he's quiet
14:53until they're on the field and they're just freaking maniacs. I'm just, I just hope I can contribute a
14:59little bit. Cause they already have everything, man. Like Houston was honestly like the last team
15:04on the list that I think would reach out and want me to come to the team. But I mean,
15:11it just makes
15:12me feel a little bit better as a player and as a person that a team that already has a
15:17really good
15:18defense wants to pick me up and to help contribute. And that's football, man. Like just want to be
15:24around guys that love the game. And I think this is a great group of guys that do that. So
15:30yeah,
15:31I'm just juiced to just to play football again, no matter what, I mean, this new team for me. So
15:37I still want to continue that, that path to, to get a ring. So it's always nice to have some
15:44jewelry.
15:45Yeah. I think, uh, well, he's got a ring, right? He was on that. It was, was he, he was
15:49on the Eagles
15:50team that wanted a couple of years ago. So he's, he wants more jewelry accumulate. Yeah. We don't,
15:54fault people for being greedy. No, no, not at all. I, um, I was funny. He's like, boy,
15:59Houston, Houston, Houston was the last, they were down on the list. It seems I thought might call
16:04me and I felt like going, you need to go back and watch some of the games and watch the
16:07safety
16:07position last year. No, no, a hundred percent, you know, and just, or the various guys, the five
16:13or six different guys that were the other starting safety. I mean, if you go back to, you go back
16:18to
16:18before training camp and Jimmy Ward was going to be playing opposite of Kalen Bullock, uh, and then CJ
16:22Gardner Johnson. And then four more guys after that, the, um, no, I think that that part of it
16:27is cool that I think there's obviously a certain humility about him. Um, and he's still a younger
16:33guy. He's a veteran player, but he's still a younger guy. And I think sometimes when you go,
16:39sometimes when you go to a second team and all of a sudden you're not a, you're, you're somebody
16:44that as soon as you enter the door, people are treating you like a veteran player. That's the first
16:48time you actually feel like a genuine veteran player. They're like, Oh yeah, these guys didn't know me
16:51when I was young and dumb. Uh, like, this is just like, I'm a fully formed adult walking
16:56into this building. And that's kind of cool, especially when, and it's cool that he was
17:00flattered by the Texans wanting to talk to him. I will bring this up, Sean, because we
17:05talked about this off air. Remember Nick Casario, when they drafted Keelan Rutledge was talking
17:09about Rutledge and, and he said something along the lines of, you know, he transferred up from
17:13some, you know, program nobody's hardly ever heard of. And I'm like, wait a second. The other
17:18guys have gone to middle Tennessee. Uh, I've seen, I played with it. Oh wait. Yeah. It
17:24was, uh, it was Reed Blankenship. I know. I wonder if Reed said anything to Nick about
17:31that. That's I didn't know. I knew, I knew Rutledge was a transfer. I didn't know where
17:36he had transferred from. Yeah. So the way Nick framed it made it sound like some, some non non-accredited
17:42juco or like a juco Bible school or something like that. Like it was, and, and I looked it
17:47up. I'm like, no, it's a, that's an FBS school. They'd like, it's, it's, and they've had quite
17:51a few NFL players, including one you just gave $8 million a year. Yeah. Yeah. Kevin
17:56Byard went to middle Tennessee. There you go. There you go.
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