- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean discuss and assess what anonymous executives around the NFL had to say when asked if the Texans should pay CJ Stroud.
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00:00Anonymous executives. It's a thing that we're very fond of on this show. People saying things without putting their name
00:06on it. It's good for content.
00:09CJ Stroud's contract extension, DJ Bien-Aimé of ESPN.com. He covers the Texans beat for ESPN.com.
00:16He asked some executives from around the league about CJ Stroud and a contract extension and what their opinions are
00:25on how the Texans should handle this.
00:30We've got the quotes. Let's run through them here and see what we think.
00:36If I had to guess, Seth, I think most of the audience listening right now is in the wait-and
00:41-see crowd with CJ Stroud.
00:42I don't run into a lot of Texan fans that are pounding the table for them to pay him a
00:47multi-year contract extension right now.
00:49Yeah, it's interesting, too. The closest I get to it is even after, you know, sometimes we'll say things like,
00:56Hey, you should wait a year, et cetera, et cetera. And then we'll get a bunch of comments on my
01:03live stream where people say,
01:04CJ's going to prove all these haters wrong. And I don't get the sense that they're talking about me.
01:10I don't know which haters they're talking about necessarily.
01:12But even the people that would adamantly defend CJ Stroud also get it if you realize, all right, yeah, like
01:19right now, why hurry and give a boatload of money to a guy that still hasn't reached where I think
01:27his ceiling is?
01:28Yeah. Or like not his ceiling, but his true potential that you don't have to follow all of these other
01:35lemmings in the NFL that feel like we have to pay our guy after the third year.
01:39Just just because. Yeah. You want to get ahead. You want to be sure that you stay ahead of these
01:44escalating salaries.
01:46Well, the salaries are escalating because the salary cap is escalating. Right.
01:49And it's a lot worse to get stuck with a guy like Tua Tungavailoa or Kyler Murray, who's not worth
01:56the money you gave them, whether it's, whether it's a, you know, cheaper than it would have been or not.
02:01It's just, it's still a bad deal. Yeah. Yeah. Those two in particular, Miami and Arizona might be the two
02:07worst teams in football this year, this year coming up.
02:10And they're going to be digging out from underneath those contracts. I mean, Miami is taking a $99 million cap
02:17hit to get rid of Tua Tungavailoa.
02:19Tungavailoa. Like that's how bad it is. So did you happen to see, before we get into these quotes, did
02:24you see Malik Willis's first pitch that he threw at the Miami Marlins game?
02:27Yeah. Yeah. It was bad. You know who else threw really bad pitches? Mahomes.
02:32Yeah. Mahomes. Joe Burrow has one. Tom Brady has one out there. I saw a montage of various really good
02:39quarterbacks throwing really bad first pitches.
02:41Yeah. Yeah. You know who would tell you, explain to you why? Emai. You know, Justin and that mound.
02:48Yeah. That's true. That's true.
02:50Yeah. Tatsuya Emai would tell you, well, yeah, the mounds, the mounds are different, man. It makes things tough.
02:54Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So let's get to these quotes from these anonymous executives.
03:01Let's start with this AFC executive. This is my least favorite one out of all these guys, Seth. No clue
03:07who he is, but this is my least favorite one.
03:09Quote, it's about CJ Stroud. I think he's plenty talented. I just think just running a more efficient offense would
03:16justify the payday. I think everyone I talk to feels like you got to pay him low bar for the
03:21position. It also could save you money if you extend him now because the market always goes up.
03:27Yeah. Yeah. Like, okay. Nick understands the dynamic of the market always going up. That's why when he feels really
03:33good about players, he pays them now because, yeah, the market will go up and hopefully that guy's a bargain
03:38by the time his actual contract.
03:40Like, Nick understands that dynamic. Yes. But the market, the justification for having a boatload of money committed to a
03:50quarterback that you realize isn't the right guy, that's a real consideration, too.
03:56So whether the market goes up or not, when you've committed $150 million guaranteed to a guy like Kyler Murray
04:02or Tua Tunga-Vailoa, it's a rough spot to be in.
04:05And I also, so this guy, this guy claims that everybody he talks to says they got to pay him.
04:10I think everyone I talk to feels like you got to pay him. That's the quote.
04:14And then DJ, in his article, goes on to talk to multiple other executives, none of whom say, yeah, you
04:20got to pay this guy.
04:22I'm with you. I think this is some AFC executive that's trying to just throw as much flack out there
04:27as possible to goad Nick into making a hasty decision.
04:31Yeah, or create some dissension within the ranks of the Texans, like CJ sees this quote, and he's like, what?
04:37This is like a James Gladstone move.
04:38Maybe.
04:38He thinks he's playing five-dimensional chess.
04:41Maybe, maybe.
04:42An NFC, an anonymous NFC executive said to DJ Biennium about CJ Stroud, quote,
04:49offer him something like top 8 to 12 QB money, I'd try to give him a three-year extension at
04:54like $42 to $45 million per year now,
04:58or plan to franchise him out, franchise tag, him out like Dak Prescott in 2020.
05:05And you pointed this out earlier, and it's a great point.
05:08We're still two years away from the franchise tag even being a consideration for the Texans.
05:13Yeah.
05:13Right.
05:14Yeah, like the franchise tag doesn't, you wouldn't be thinking about that until 2028.
05:19Right.
05:19You know, and that's the, it's one of the weird dynamics with that first executive has said, hey, the market
05:26only goes up, and so pay him now.
05:28Yes, that works out really well when you feel awesome about a guy like Will Anderson, or you feel awesome
05:33about a guy like Derek Stingley.
05:34It doesn't, it's not justification for paying anybody and everybody right now because the market always goes up.
05:41The downside of waiting a year but then feeling really solid about it next year is, okay, you've got to
05:48pay a few million more per year.
05:50The Texans would have the advantage of potentially giving CJ that deal early next offseason before guys like Caleb Williams
05:59are even eligible to get theirs because they're a year behind CJ.
06:03And Nick might set the market, but then the market would quickly evaporate after that for those guys.
06:08The top, here's the other thing too, like top 8 to 12, I'm looking at average annual value for guys.
06:14I'm just trying to keep this as basic as possible.
06:17Jalen Hurts, they're all quarterbacks in the top 10 because Will Anderson is now the highest non-quarterback.
06:23He's 11th.
06:24The 10 top, the 10 top guys are all quarterbacks and they're all over 50 million a year.
06:29You're going to have to get higher than 43 to 45 probably.
06:32Well, the thing that you hope for is the 13th highest paid quarterback by average per year right this moment
06:38is one Patrick Mahomes.
06:40And it's because he signed that huge deal, but then he did what you hope your quarterback does, which is,
06:46all right, if I play well and I stay on this current deal, I'll be a bargain at some point.
06:52But I'm not going to keep agitating for a new deal because that's money that the team can use elsewhere.
06:58So that's the perfect scenario right there.
07:02Patrick Mahomes, to his credit, has not been some guy that after he won his next couple Super Bowls, he
07:07said, I need a new deal now.
07:09He's continued to play under that contract.
07:11But, yeah, you're right.
07:14I mean, you're still talking 50 million per year if you're talking about just even giving them what Brock Purdy
07:22or Justin Herbert or one of those guys got.
07:24That's right.
07:24That's right.
07:24All right, two more.
07:25And I think these two executives, I think, fall more in line with where the market's going with CJ.
07:32NFC executive to DJ Bienneme, they might end up paying more because the numbers will go up.
07:37But you also have another year of information, meaning if they don't pay him this summer, they've got another, you
07:42know, they got his fourth year as some data.
07:45Is he getting better in the second year in the offense?
07:48How is he doing?
07:49Is he healthy?
07:50Maybe it costs you two, three, five million more extra a year, but you're also not tied to that like
07:56what happened with Tua in Miami.
07:58Yeah.
07:59Yeah.
07:59That's the thing that annoyed me about what the first AFC executive said was he was the same guy that
08:05had said something about how you don't pay him now.
08:07Because you don't want to be stuck in the situation that Minnesota's in, which is really weird in a lot
08:12of regards.
08:13Because, for one, Minnesota, if they had chosen to stay with Sam Darnold, wouldn't have been paying the kind of
08:20contract that CJ might theoretically get.
08:23No, no.
08:23Sam's making 30 a year.
08:25Right, right.
08:26Yeah.
08:26Like this right now where CJ and the contract that he might expect based on the precedent of Trevor Lawrence
08:31or something is a lot higher than Sam Darnold.
08:33But the position that the Vikings are in is, oh, they're trying to make a go of it with Kyler
08:39Murray, who was one of those guys that got the huge deal in Arizona, and it blew up in their
08:44face.
08:44Yeah.
08:45Just like it did.
08:46It blew up in Miami's face.
08:47Yep.
08:48So it's just not as simple as, well, you don't want to be in that position.
08:52Sure.
08:53You know what?
08:54The one thing that catches me, though, too, is I think a lot, at least a couple of these executives
08:58that DJ talked to, I don't think, it was almost like they don't understand the actual timeline.
09:03Right.
09:03The one thing that, no, they still have CJ under contract for 2027.
09:09Yeah, two more years.
09:10If they don't extend him.
09:11It's not in a situation where they would have to trade him away or they would have to let him
09:15walk out the door or they'd have to use the franchise.
09:17No, no, it's not.
09:20Anonymous AFC executive, this is the last one.
09:23Waiting lets him bet on himself, too, which is what you want from the guy.
09:27No need to come close to resetting the market prematurely.
09:30That I agree with.
09:31These got progressively closer to, I think, how you, me, and a lot of people feel about this thing.
09:37That's how I kind of organized it in my brain.
09:40Like, the order I put them in there, that was how I, it went from, we started off with, okay,
09:45initially in the offseason there was speculation the Texans might try to trade CJ Stroud.
09:49That would have been the most extreme.
09:50Yeah.
09:50And then you go on from that as like, okay, give him a, instead of, instead of that, let's go
09:55extreme and give him a huge market setting contract.
09:58Like, all right, that's a little too extreme in the other, the other side of things there, Goldilocks.
10:02The, the middle path is, all right, let's wait a year.
10:06Yeah.
10:06You know, you're just, and, and CJ, bet on yourself.
10:09And I, I have a sneaking suspicion based on nothing at all.
10:14Like, zero information.
10:15I'm being 100% genuine when I tell you that.
10:17I just have the sneaking suspicion looking at everything that, I think CJ himself feels like he's capable of more.
10:24I think the Texans feel CJ's capable of more.
10:26And there's an environment with the Texans where they've rewarded guys who have shown just what they're capable of.
10:32Yeah, yeah.
10:33And that CJ, sure, I'd like, he's a human being.
10:37Of course, he'd love to get $150 million guaranteed.
10:40Um, but understands, man, you know what?
10:43I can be better than I've been the last couple of years and the money will be even like the,
10:49the, the payday will be even that much higher.
10:51So I'm just going to bet on myself.
10:53Yes.
10:53And I think if you're a Texan fan, who's worried about this, that this somehow lands in their front yard
10:58in a negative fashion throughout the summer,
11:00I would point to CJ proactively reaching out to new teammates.
11:06I would point to the fact that he's in the building right now.
11:08You know, he's, he, if, if he wanted to make any sort of statement about his contractual situation.
11:13Yeah.
11:13The first thing he could have done was not show up for voluntary stuff.
11:16He's there.
11:17He's in the building working out with his teammates.
11:20Well, the other, the other important nugget from this article by DJ BNMA, and you might've said this already.
11:25I apologize if I missed it, but it was that they, there haven't been any discussions.
11:29So, so in DJ in the article says that according to his sources, there haven't been any discussions, um, about
11:38a new contract, right?
11:39Which I, I just, boy, it seems like a really big deal to just kind of put off until, until
11:44further on down the road.
11:46You'd think that if maybe the Texans were seriously considering it, there might've been some kind of, uh, you know,
11:52some kind of balloon thrown up there,
11:54unless they were waiting to get Will Anderson and his, maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe.
11:58And that, and that's, I, you and I have workshopped this question before, which is, okay, well, who picks up
12:03the phone first?
12:04Yeah.
12:05To, are the Texans calling David Mulligetta or is David Mulligetta calling the Texans to get these talks started?
12:09And maybe there's some sort of staring contest going on.
12:11Who knows?
12:12David Mulligetta and, uh, and Nick Casario, is there standing, you know, next to a spring game somewhere?
12:19Yeah.
12:20Kind of just, they're just kind of like, you know, moving closer to each other.
12:24And Mulligetta is like looking at the ground and saying, I don't know.
12:27I mean, just, is there anything you want to talk about?
12:29Like a junior high dance?
12:30Yeah.
12:30Nick's like looking up at the sky.
12:32Like, I don't know.
12:33I just, I don't know.
12:35Hear things.
12:35I don't know.
12:36It's just like, yeah.
12:37That's how a lot of those contracts get done, actually, is what I've heard.
12:40Yeah.
12:40They just slowly sidle towards each other and act like they're 11.
12:43Yeah.
12:44You play footsie a little bit.
12:45That's right.
12:46That's right.
12:46All right.
12:47Final segment coming up.
12:48Have you ever played footsie with somebody?
12:49Like with any suggestive intent or anything?
12:51Like somebody that you hadn't already?
12:53Like, have you ever had, has anybody ever?
12:55Back in, back in like elementary and junior high school?
12:58I probably did at some point.
12:59I mean like as an adult, like you see in the movies.
13:01Like, have you ever been at a dinner table and all of a sudden a woman has her foot up
13:04against your leg?
13:07I don't think so.
13:08Not that I can remember.
13:09I can't either.
13:09One time I thought it was, but it was actually the dog underneath the table.
13:15So that was about it.
13:16That's the closest I've come.
13:17So what'd you do?
13:19I pet the dog and I got him some treats.
13:21Yeah.
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