- 3 hours ago
Seth and Sean discuss the Texans extending Azeez Al-Shaair and dive into a conspiracy theory that ties his extension to the perceived uncertainty around CJ Stroud's potential extension.
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00:00Aziz Alshair got a new contract from the Texans yesterday.
00:04Three years, 54 mil.
00:06Everybody seems pretty happy that Aziz is going to be around for a few more years with the Texans.
00:11This locks up another foundational defensive piece.
00:15Another expensive foundational defensive piece because we know they just agreed to pay Will Anderson.
00:20That's not going to kick in big time for a couple of years, but he's going to get paid.
00:25Aziz Alshair, this is a near top of market contract for a linebacker.
00:29Stingley's already making top of market.
00:31His extension kicks in here soon.
00:33Daniil Hunter is already making the big, big bucks because he's not coming off a rookie deal.
00:38And his thing's fully guaranteed.
00:40$35 million, I think, this year.
00:42$40 million next year.
00:43So they're paying a lot of guys.
00:45They're going to have to pay more guys if they want to keep them all.
00:47Kalen Bullock, Kamari Lassner, just to name a couple.
00:51And who knows if there's an extension coming up for Nico Collins at any point here.
00:55They paid a lot of dudes.
00:56They're going to have to pay a lot of dudes.
00:57The theory I saw on Twitter yesterday, Seth, was they're so just easily paying all these
01:06other guys that this is the sign that they have no intention of paying their quarterback,
01:12CJ Stroud.
01:13Oh, okay.
01:14They're operating like a team who's not going to have a $55 million quarterback extension on the books.
01:19Okay, so if that were the theory you want to put out there, that would also have to mean,
01:23for your theory to be correct, it would have to mean also that they plan on moving on from him
01:29at some point in the next two years.
01:31That's exactly right.
01:31Because if it's a wait and see, there's nothing that would bar them from paying CJ this year.
01:36Like, the Aziz Elshire contract saves money on the cap this year.
01:42It's all money that goes off into the future.
01:44So for you to, if you think that, oh, this means they're not going to pay CJ, that only
01:49makes sense if you're saying that, no, they don't ever plan on paying CJ.
01:53Right.
01:53Because if they're not sure about it yet, yeah, they might wait because they want to keep
01:58that flexibility or that option.
02:01But if they want to pay CJ or they feel like there's a real good chance that, yes, he is
02:06everything we want, we just need to clean some things up, it makes a lot more sense in most
02:10of these situations to pay the quarterback early.
02:12Even though it grates against our old school sensibilities, you just see what happens with
02:16Jerry Jones.
02:17Jerry Jones gets himself into this mess where, you know, he'll say something that's true
02:22where he'll say, well, it's hard to have the three highest paid guys at your position
02:27on the same roster.
02:28That's true.
02:29The problem is that he painted himself into that corner by waiting to pay Dak Prescott,
02:35by waiting to pay all of these other guys.
02:37CeeDee Lamb, Michael Parsons.
02:39Yeah.
02:40So if you pay them early enough, then they're not one of the top three highest paid guys
02:44in their position.
02:45Yep.
02:45So that's where, right now, they've been, you know, their offense, they've been spending
02:51very little money on their offense.
02:54Who are their highest paid guys over there?
02:56With Nico, obviously.
02:58Yeah.
02:58And then probably Dalton Schultz might be next.
03:01Right.
03:01Well, and then the other guys are on short-term deals, you know, like Wyatt Teller or Braden
03:05Smith or those guys.
03:06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:06But I just, without having it in front of me, just the amount of money that they've spent
03:10on offense versus defense.
03:11That's not even close.
03:12I'm going through it in my head.
03:13I won't bore the audience with it, but you're 100% right.
03:15Yeah.
03:15But so what they really do need to do, though, is right now they're not one of those teams
03:21that's heavily leveraged against the future the way the Eagles or the 49ers are.
03:25But they are in a position where they do, they really need their draft picks to work
03:31out.
03:31If you want to start worrying about 2028, 2029, when a lot of these contracts kick in, that's
03:38when it gets a lot tougher to operate.
03:41But by that point, though, too, there might be a couple of these guys who have gotten extensions
03:45that, at that point, you're ready to move on from them.
03:47Maybe, maybe.
03:48You know, it's like, these are not 10-year commitments.
03:50No, no.
03:51And there never will be.
03:52But that's the one thing.
03:53I guess there's one thing we should do as a disclaimer at the beginning of any of these
03:56conversations.
03:57People need to understand that these contracts generally don't kick in for a couple of years.
04:01Aziz is different, but the heavy cap hit doesn't kick in for a couple of years either.
04:06Yeah, yeah.
04:07The ones that are coming off their rookie contracts, I think, really fit the bill you're talking
04:12about, which is, hey, they get extended after three years, or in the case of C.J., it would
04:16be after four years.
04:17And he's still got his fifth-year option, which is a cheap year and that kind of thing.
04:21You're right about that.
04:22This is just how I feel about the theory, because the people expressing this theory are expressing
04:27it, Seth, with great gusto and great verve that this means they are not going to commit
04:33to C.J. Stroud.
04:35Here's the thing.
04:35If he's good this year, they will commit to C.J. Stroud.
04:39Right.
04:39Tell me the team that had good quarterback play at a point where an extension made sense
04:45that didn't extend the quarterback.
04:47Maybe Baltimore and Lamar Jackson, but eventually it got done.
04:50It got done eventually with them.
04:52Teams extend bad quarterbacks.
04:54I would say, you know what?
04:56Teams commit to bad quarterbacks.
04:58I think where things have changed so much to where now it's become the standard almost
05:02that you extend a guy after his third year.
05:03The last guy that was, I can remember, one of the last guys I can remember it being a really
05:07big debate and they didn't extend him was Baker Mayfield.
05:10And he ended up, and then he goes, they don't extend him.
05:13He has that year where he's got his really bad separated shoulder, and that was it for
05:18him.
05:18Yeah, they traded for Deshaun after that.
05:20I think most teams these days probably would have extended Baker Mayfield after his third
05:24year because he was on the upswing.
05:27He won a playoff game for the Browns.
05:29Yeah, right.
05:32Is that a cautionary tale, or is that just evidence that Baker Mayfield needed to end
05:37up eventually in a place where he could actually show the best version of himself?
05:40Yeah, I don't think the Texans are doing something right now that precludes them from being able
05:47to extend C.J. Stroud.
05:48There's no chance.
05:49They're like, nope, I can't wait to get rid of this bum after next year.
05:52They're rooting for him to be good, so they have to deal with this issue of extending a
05:56franchise quarterback.
05:58Yeah, nothing about what they did this year would keep them from extending C.J. Stroud
06:01right now.
06:02It's like, they're almost, I don't want to say they're completely independent, but these
06:05are not moves so far that make a C.J. Stroud extension this year impossible.
06:09No.
06:10So, yeah, I don't feel like they're, you don't have to tie the Aziz Elshire deal to the C.J.
06:16Stroud.
06:16No, and some people are trying to do that.
06:18Now, maybe they're suggesting that because of the sequence of extensions that it would be
06:22as Will Anderson and now Aziz Elshire, that clearly the priority is on those guys.
06:27That's another thing I would caution people against is don't read too much into the sequence
06:32of any off-season deal because there's just each, a lot of times these negotiations are
06:37going on simultaneously, and it's not necessarily a mark of the priorities of the team.
06:42It's just that that's the way it works out.
06:44Here was one of their signings.
06:46Speaking of C.J. Stroud, I liked hearing this.
06:47This was Reed Blankenship, Texans' new safety, talking about fitting in in Houston and C.J.
06:53reaching out to him.
06:54I've only been here for, what, a few days?
06:56From what I've seen and noticed, like, character is like a huge deal in this organization.
07:04It just feels like a family, like a family ordeal.
07:07My wife's so excited to get down here.
07:09Got to have her baby first.
07:14The first person to reach out was C.J.
07:18You know, you never think, like, think you'd get somebody to reach out like that, but it's
07:22really cool to see his name pop up and just say, you know, welcome to the team, whatever.
07:28Nothing crazy.
07:28That's what I'm saying.
07:29Like, it's, I feel like everybody's just, like, chill.
07:33I like it.
07:34Okay.
07:35You pointed this out.
07:36I noticed it more the second time we played that.
07:38His car is making some dinging noises in the background there.
07:41Yeah.
07:42He's definitely violating something.
07:44I'll have to watch the video.
07:45I haven't actually watched the video before.
07:47So his wife is pregnant.
07:48Sounds like she might be super pregnant if she's not able to come to here.
07:52Well, obviously, you know, she's planning on having the baby wherever she's going to
07:54have the baby.
07:55Yeah.
07:56How do you like him referring to it as her baby?
08:00She's got to have her baby.
08:02I like it.
08:04She's got that thing going on.
08:06Listen, I'm old school, okay?
08:08All right, just hand out some cigars to my buddies when it's all done.
08:11Right, right, right.
08:11You know who's paying for this, right?
08:13Yeah.
08:15I don't even like football that much.
08:17But they have a good health insurance plan.
08:19That's probably something old.
08:20She's got her kid coming on the way.
08:22I have to go back and look.
08:23That's probably something I said at some point.
08:25That's probably one of the reasons I'm on my second marriage now.
08:27I might have referred to my kids as her babies or her baby or something.
08:29Old Sean probably would have done that.
08:31So, Reed, you're okay.
08:32You're all right.
08:33Your second marriage is going to work out fine.
08:35Don't worry about anything.
08:36In terms of how much the Texans are spending on offense versus on defense,
08:39last year on defense they were –
08:43God, I hate these sites that don't give you numbers next to things.
08:47Last year on defense they were spending, like,
08:51in the bottom third of the league on defense.
08:53Really?
08:53That's what – yeah, it doesn't seem –
08:55Okay, well, Will was on a rookie deal.
08:57Yeah.
08:58You know, a lot of guys – actually –
08:59Stingley's hadn't kicked in yet.
09:01Stingley was still on his – yeah, no, that makes sense, actually.
09:04Even though they're high picks, Stingley and Will on rookie deals.
09:06Kalen Bullock, Kamari Lasseter, rookie deals.
09:10Yeah.
09:10Henry Toletola, rookie deal.
09:12And then the defensive line, we know they don't spend big on interior defensive line.
09:16Yeah.
09:17That number's going to go way up pretty soon.
09:19Way up.
09:20That was – yeah, did I have it right, though?
09:21Was I doing the – yeah, so this – no, I – okay, see, damn it, Sean.
09:25I'm not looking at what you're looking at right now.
09:27I know, I know, I know, I know.
09:29I'm sorry.
09:29I do – I'm not supposed to look up stats during a segment.
09:31I was wrong on that.
09:32They were actually like seventh or eighth highest paid defense.
09:35Well, that makes sense.
09:36Yes, that makes sense.
09:37After I just got done trying to explain.
09:39Well, no, you were trying to figure – no, your first reaction was 100% correct.
09:42Yeah.
09:43I was like, oh, that doesn't seem to make sense.
09:44Yeah.
09:44So Seth isn't allowed to look up stats during the show.
09:47Well, that's on me.
09:47Not this complicated stuff like that.
09:48You told me to stop you when you do those things, but I was genuinely curious about what you were
09:53looking up.
09:53Yeah, I know, I know, but I shouldn't have.
09:55But now when it comes to – you know, salary cap, I just got to let you and Texans cap
10:00handle that.
10:00Handle that stuff.
10:01Okay, you got it.
10:02You got it.
10:02When it comes to the actual specifics.
10:04Yep, yep, got you.
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