- 14 hours ago
Seth and Sean discuss CJ Stroud's really focused offseason, including cutting sugar, and assess if a story from ESPN on veterans on the hot seat after the draft mentioning Tommy Togiai is disrespectful.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00All right, let's get to DJ Bien-Aimé. He was on NFL Live yesterday in studio talking to the fellas
00:06there,
00:06and they asked him about C.J. Stroud's offseason.
00:11Well, the question was, do you think C.J. Stroud is going to get a second contract?
00:17And DJ said undetermined and then had this to say about C.J. Stroud's offseason.
00:21As of right now, as of late April, the Texans and Stroud haven't had much discussion regarding the contracts.
00:27But C.J. Stroud isn't really too much worried about that from people I've talked to close to him.
00:31He's just worried about being locked in and getting ready to be better than how he ended last season.
00:35He's made a few changes. One notably is his diet. He's got rid of sugary food.
00:40He's got rid of anything of that matter. He's got rid of carbs.
00:43All he really drinks with it is water and lean food.
00:46That's how he's been able to slim down and be slimmer.
00:49I know there's been a lot of talk on social media, so expect a slimmer shot, expecting a better C
00:55.J. on the field.
00:55We've seen and discussed the new slender C.J., skinny C.J., and there's plenty of footage on the Texans'
01:02social media of their workouts yesterday.
01:05They were actually working out on the field yesterday, so there's plenty of footage out there of C.J., and
01:09he looks to be in great shape.
01:11That's the first I'd heard about him getting rid of all the sugary foods.
01:14Getting rid of refined sugars and whatever amount of carbs.
01:16Yeah, the Seth Payne plan.
01:17Now, we've talked about this before because I saw this happen firsthand.
01:21I've been through it myself, and we've seen it with other guys like LeBron James.
01:25This is what athletes, a lot of times in the offseason, you read a bunch of books about this and
01:30that,
01:30and you want to start limiting your carb intake, and, boy, you look better in the mirror.
01:35But the one thing athletes discover is that, okay, reducing your carbs, it's dicey,
01:42and you've got to be really careful about it when you're a competitive athlete.
01:47So you can't reduce them down to the level of the people who are on Atkins and leading a sedentary
01:52lifestyle.
01:52No, no, no.
01:53You've got to have some.
01:54Yeah, you've got to.
01:56Because it happens time and time and time again, and we're going to get seven texts from people on the
02:00text line telling me I'm wrong,
02:02and you couldn't be more wrong about telling me I'm wrong.
02:05You've got to have a certain level of it.
02:07So I'm glad that he did it now and not in July because usually what will happen is it will
02:12happen with an offensive lineman.
02:14He'll lose 30 pounds in July, and he'll feel great.
02:17Then he gets a week into training camp, and he's dehydrating and cramping and passing out.
02:23So now, however CJ has tweaked his diet, he can tweak it again and figure out exactly what the right
02:28amount of carbs is.
02:30If he gets rid of refined carbs, awesome.
02:32Good for you.
02:33But you've just got to throw in a sweet potato here or there every now and then.
02:37For quarterback, it's not as big a deal as it is for other positions.
02:40Right, right, right.
02:41We talked about this a little bit yesterday, but I wanted to bring this up now because I know you
02:44did a bit of a deep dive on this.
02:46One might even call it research, Seth.
02:48I will.
02:49Yeah, well, the question.
02:50Oh, yeah, I made that graphic for you, and I sent it to you.
02:53The question, right, well, the question that you posed yesterday, because we were talking about Skinny CJ yesterday,
02:59was how does this affect his appetite for running the football?
03:03Yeah.
03:03Because he ran the football a lot from really from the postseason two years ago, 2024,
03:11up to the concussion he suffered in that Denver game in week nine this past season,
03:16and then he came back from the concussion.
03:18And statistically, you just had to look at the stats and go, oh, wow, he's not really running the football,
03:22and he's not really running it effectively when he does.
03:2419 carries for 20 yards.
03:26But you, Seth, did the deep dive yesterday on all of the running he did after the concussion,
03:32and it's even worse than 19 carries and 20 yards would indicate.
03:35Right, and I didn't tabulate it.
03:36I just went through and watched all of his runs before his concussion and after his concussion.
03:40I mean, we've heard the statistics before, but it is still kind of just jarring when he ran 29 times
03:49for 189 yards
03:51in the first eight games of the season, including the Denver game when he got injured.
03:55He had a couple nice runs in that game.
03:56Well, he got injured on a scramble.
03:58Yeah, yeah, and he got injured on that scramble.
04:00So he had 23.6 rush yards per game before his concussion.
04:08He came back, and it was 3.3 rush yards per game.
04:11But even in watching it, what I realized in watching the cut-ups is, oh, wow, half of these are
04:19QB sneaks.
04:20A couple of them are just botched plays that are classified as QB scrambles
04:25or just a bad snap, and he gets tackled immediately.
04:28That's not a sack.
04:30That's a rushing yard stat.
04:31But his scrambles were, man, they were few and far between, and it was always hesitant.
04:37It was him running out of bounds a couple yards past the line of scrimmage.
04:41It was just night and day, even though you knew the stats.
04:46So before the concussion, he was 6.5 yards per carry.
04:50After the concussion, 1.1 yards per carry.
04:52Yeah, yeah, it was.
04:53And a lot of those yards were coming from getting one or two yards on a QB sneak.
04:59And that's, you know, in the modern NFL, the quarterback who doesn't run for yardage is the exception, not the
05:06rule.
05:06Yeah.
05:07You know, and it does something to a defense where if they've got to be cognizant of the fact that
05:12you can pull it down
05:13and run for 10 or 15 yards, it makes it easier as a passer.
05:16And it just, it was eliminated from his game.
05:19And that, you know, alone, if he just returns, if he psychologically gets over the concussion
05:26and he gets back out there and maybe in feeling a little bit lighter and a little bit sleeker,
05:31maybe you'll feel like you'll better be able to better protect himself from contact and everything,
05:36get down to the ground faster, all of that.
05:38Yeah.
05:38That maybe we just see, he doesn't have to be awesome at it.
05:41He's just got to do what he was doing, really, in the second half of 2024.
05:45Yeah.
05:46And then in the first eight games of 2025.
05:48Yeah, it was, it turned into a bit of a weapon.
05:50Not like Lamar Jackson type of threat or anything like that.
05:54But if you can move the chains a couple times a game with your legs as a quarterback, that's a
05:58big deal,
05:59especially in as many close games as the Texans play.
06:01And so that would be my biggest wish, I think, for C.J. Stroud, Seth, as he's, you know,
06:06trying to kind of get back to the level he's been at before, is that my biggest wish for C
06:13.J.
06:13doesn't have anything to do with throwing the football.
06:15I hope he starts mixing in two or three scrambles a game again.
06:18It's a big deal.
06:20It keeps the defense honest out there.
06:24So, yeah, so no refined sugars for C.J. Stroud, according to DJ Biennale.
06:28Kamari Lasseter was on Ross Tucker's podcast, and Ross dropped that this week.
06:35And Ross asked him about the way C.J.'s season ended and how you're feeling about C.J. Stroud.
06:39Here's Kamari Lasseter.
06:40Yeah, I mean, I talked to C.J.
06:42C.J.'s one of my guys, so it's like I talked to C.J. before the game.
06:46I talked to him after the game.
06:47Win, lose, or draw, we're still going to be locked in.
06:49And the thing is, though, like the speculation and all the outside noise,
06:54whether we would have won the game or lost the game,
06:55whether he would have threw four touchdowns or whatever, whatever,
06:58it would have been, it happens for all of us, you know.
07:01And it's just a matter of when it happens, you know.
07:03And I just feel like with C.J., he knows that we still support him.
07:07He knows that I have his back.
07:08The guys in that locker room have his back.
07:10We trust, we believe in him.
07:12And, yeah, I feel like that's just what we should leave it at.
07:14People, sometimes the ball don't go your way.
07:16Yeah, and Kamari is echoing what everybody, player or coach or GM,
07:22has said about C.J. Stroud this offseason.
07:23I thought it was funny.
07:24He's like, I've been playing C.J. since college, and I forgot, you know,
07:28I hadn't forgotten about it, but, you know, you're reminded of that playoff game,
07:32Ohio State and Georgia, which, ironically, in that game was a game where people are like,
07:37oh, wow, C.J. can run.
07:39Yeah.
07:39You know, he didn't have to run ever at Ohio State in the Big Ten
07:42because they were just dropping 500 yards on everybody through the air.
07:46But you're playing against that Georgia defense, against Kirby Smart and all those players,
07:50all those great players on Georgia, and sometimes you're forced to do that.
07:54And that was the game where, that was the first game, I think, where people kind of realized,
07:57like, oh, okay, C.J.'s got that club in his bag that he can run the ball.
08:01I like being reminded of that.
08:02Yeah, and it was, they had always said that at Ohio State.
08:04He's athletic.
08:05He can run.
08:05He just doesn't need to yet.
08:07And then that bowl game, you really saw it.
08:09And we've seen it here in Houston.
08:10It wasn't a big secret anymore, you know.
08:13And there was a period there where we'd hear from different offensive players
08:18saying that they encouraged C.J. to run.
08:20Joe Mixon at one point said, hey, like, you can do this.
08:23You can make a part of this game.
08:24It's a weird, things have changed so quickly because it used to be that they would tell young quarterbacks,
08:34you know, back in 2010, say, hey, everybody's going to want to label you as a running quarterback.
08:39You've got to be sure that you're a pocket quarterback and show that you can be a pocket quarterback.
08:43And now all the old dudes in the NFL are the ones now saying, I don't know, he can't run.
08:48This quarterback can't run.
08:49I don't know.
08:50In 2010, like, I don't know about this quarterback.
08:53He might be too much of a dual-threat quarterback.
08:56Those same old guys 15 years later and 15 years older are saying, oh, boy, I don't know.
09:02Not enough of a rushing element to his game.
09:03Yeah, we've got to do something about this.
09:06I think you do need it in this day and age, man.
09:08I just think you've got to have at least a little element of it, and hopefully CJ gets that back.
09:13Well, at least part of it is that you get to a point where part of it is just that
09:18they expect more out of young quarterbacks earlier in their career.
09:22You know, Eli Manning, they let him suck for three years before it really started to click for him.
09:27Yeah.
09:27Where now they expect more out of you.
09:29You're not smart enough in your first three years as a quarterback to be doing it with your brain.
09:33So you take advantage of some of these wide-open spaces and run.
09:38And then along the way, by the time you get to the age of 30 and you can't run as
09:43well anymore, you can dissect teams with your arm and your brain.
09:47Yep.
09:48One more from Kamari Lasseter.
09:49This is from the Ross Tucker podcast.
09:53Says he likes big hits.
09:54Said his mom likes big hits.
09:57This is a pretty funny quote, Kamari talking about that.
09:59Oh, yeah.
09:59And Ross had asked.
10:01Ross was surprised that Kamari only weighs 190 pounds.
10:04Yeah, that's in here.
10:05Yeah, it is?
10:05Okay.
10:06Yep, yep, yep.
10:07How much do you weigh?
10:08Like 190.
10:09Is that it?
10:11Yes, sir.
10:11Dude, you play like you're 205-210.
10:15Yeah, I do.
10:16Are you ever, like, afraid?
10:19I don't want to say afraid, but, like, even when it's, like, a tight end in the flat or a
10:23running back, like, you're not just trying to get them down.
10:26You're trying to light them up.
10:28Yeah, I'm trying to run through your phase.
10:30Yes, sir.
10:30Every time.
10:31But that's just, like, I grew up playing the physical brand of football, you know?
10:34So I just feel like.
10:35You're from Georgia?
10:36I'm from Georgia.
10:37Where?
10:37Savannah, Georgia.
10:38Okay.
10:38Yes, sir.
10:39So I just feel like that's just how I play.
10:41And that's how we grew up playing.
10:43That's all we know is physical football.
10:45Like, my mom used to tell me when I was a little kid, big hits all day.
10:47That's all.
10:48Like, that's what we know.
10:48Your mom told you that?
10:50What?
10:50Of course.
10:51Big hits all day?
10:52Yeah, big hits all day.
10:54Oh, my gosh.
10:57Big hits all day.
10:58Dude.
10:59That's much better than bang, bang, chicken and shrimp.
11:01That's way better than that.
11:03Yeah.
11:03Shout out, Chris Polk.
11:04You know, it's funny.
11:05I went through my archives, and one of the files I had saved was Kamari Lasseter, TFL.
11:11So I pulled it up, and I had forgotten about this play.
11:14Kamari's coming off the edge on a corner blitz against the Bills, and he gets credit for an assist on
11:21the tackle,
11:22but he blew up the fullback.
11:24Yes, I remember that.
11:25He blew up the fullback the way a middle linebacker blows up a fullback on the inside.
11:32It was, he just destroyed the guy, and it was, like, that was the play I looked up after he
11:38said,
11:39I want to run through your face.
11:40Here he is coming off the edge, fullback's coming across formation, and he just runs through this dude's face
11:46and knocks him right into the running back against the Bills.
11:48It was beautiful.
11:49Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:51Okay, people weighing in on the base power text line about the guy who asked us,
11:56Hey, are you guys going to talk about Vrabel and Rossini in this new story, which we did at 6
12:01.30 today on the show?
12:04Stop talking about Vrabel and Rossini, guy, here.
12:07Please stop.
12:09Guys, you can't please people these days.
12:11Don't even worry about it.
12:12You're doing a great job.
12:13Thank you, Texter.
12:14We appreciate that.
12:15We appreciate the kind words.
12:16This is a funny one.
12:17I demand that you two run multiple different radio shows simultaneously so that you can please everyone.
12:23I want to please everybody all the time.
12:25Abraham Lincoln said that.
12:27You can please everybody all the time.
12:29That was the end of the quote.
12:30That was it.
12:30Yeah, that was the most famous quote.
12:32It was, you can please everybody.
12:35I think it was in the Gettysburg Address.
12:36It was at the very end.
12:37Yeah, he got up over and standing in front of a bunch of dead people and said,
12:42you can please everybody all the time, and then he dropped his mic.
12:46Mike dropped, twerked, and then crotch chopped.
12:52That was the thing about Lincoln, man.
12:53Put it up on TikTok.
12:54He was such a better dancer than people realize.
12:56They don't realize it, man.
12:57He would have been killer on TikTok.
13:01The ape twerking up there on stage.
13:04Lincoln.
13:06Why don't you all do an entire segment on Lance's fingernail?
13:10Who gives a crap about Mike?
13:11We did.
13:12We did that in the open.
13:13That was the first hour of the show.
13:15Lance's fingernail, Carlos's ankle tendon, and Vrabel and Rossini's prego boat trip.
13:22Yeah.
13:22This is the thing, though, Sean.
13:23As we and the listeners try to just in some way inject some kind of empathy into you,
13:28because one thing we've established this week is that you are a cold-hearted SOB.
13:32I can be, yeah.
13:33It's that you know damn well that you and I succumb to this at times, too.
13:37Like, we'll turn on the radio, and I'll hear Reginald saying something mid-sentence, and
13:42I'll be like, oh, I've got something to add to this.
13:44Oh, yeah.
13:44And I'll text him.
13:45Yeah.
13:45And then you get the text back where he's like, yeah, we'd actually just talked about that.
13:48Damn it!
13:51Damn it!
13:53That was such a good point, too.
13:55I was like, I've become the very thing I deplore.
14:00Yeah.
14:00No, that's true.
14:01We're not perfect people.
14:03COVID raised a text message.
14:04Oh, this is middle screen.
14:06This doesn't surprise me.
14:07COVID radio might have been my favorite era of sports radio ever.
14:10That and peak take.
14:15Oh, the not a crime.
14:17The Rusty Harden.
14:18It's not a crime incident.
14:19Oh, yeah.
14:20Not a crime.
14:21Yeah, there are certain people that did enjoy the COVID era of sports because they like
14:25all the crazy, you know, little divergence off the road and the non-sequiturs.
14:31Well, the middle screen calls it sports-adjacent.
14:33Yeah.
14:34He likes that.
14:35And that is the sweet spot where you dupe people into thinking you're talking about sports
14:40when you're actually talking about life.
14:42Yeah.
14:42Yeah.
14:43That's right.
14:43Isn't that what it's all about, Sean?
14:45That's what I'm told, Seth.
14:46Yeah.
14:46Yeah, it is.
14:47That and Lance's fingernail.
14:48That's what it's all about.
14:50ESPN had a piece yesterday that took a little bit of umbrage.
14:53I think people are disrespecting Tommy Togiai a little bit this offseason.
14:57Tommy Togiai, who had a nice season last year for the Texans.
15:00I saw somebody put out a depth chart on the internet last week, and they put the starting
15:0611 for the Texans.
15:07And I understand why they're doing it, because Caden McDonald's a topic.
15:11You know, he was a big topic, not just for the Texans, but in the draft in general, because
15:15he was the guy that slipped to the second round, stuck around, tears rolling down his
15:20face.
15:20He's going to the best defense in football.
15:22But they put up a depth chart where they had Caden McDonald and Sheldon Rankin starting.
15:26I'm like, a little disrespectful to Tommy Togiai.
15:27Yeah, it is.
15:28No, and well, even leading up to the draft, we could see that, because people rarely would
15:35bring up Tommy Togiai as a strength of the team.
15:38And most of the mock drafts would have the Texans taken a defensive tackle, and they wouldn't
15:42mention Tommy Togiai at all.
15:43They'd say somebody.
15:44They've got to have somebody next to Sheldon Rankin's.
15:46And so, I mean, the fact of the matter is that whether Caden McDonald starts or does
15:51not, they're going to rotate all of those guys, because that's what they do.
15:55It does, if you think about it, almost like a basketball team.
15:59You know, we talk about how you want your wide receiver room, kind of like a basketball
16:03team, where you've got different body types and different skill sets.
16:06That's the same way with this defensive line, or just the defensive tackle position.
16:11They want to have different guys for different situations.
16:14And there's times now where you're going to have Tommy Togiai and Cade McDonald in there
16:19at the same time, and possibly a Naquan Jones or something, just because, all right, we
16:24want more beef in there.
16:25We've got to stop the run here.
16:27But we still have, you know, we have the ability to get pressure on the pocket with those guys.
16:32Logan Hall's another guy like that, too, where he can play in run situations.
16:36He can go out and play edge at certain times.
16:40That they've got more options for different scenarios and different offenses.
16:45So, I'm like, this is a frustrating thing when you're a player, too, on the defensive
16:50line, when you rotate a lot.
16:51Yeah.
16:52You might be the starting defensive tackle, but if the offense comes out in a certain
16:57personnel group, like, wait a second, we need the run, stop, and package out there.
17:02Yeah.
17:02And you're out there, and then you don't get the start on your stats.
17:05Oh, yeah.
17:06Yeah.
17:07And, like, that's a...
17:07Pro football reference.
17:08You've got the G column for games played, and the GS games started.
17:13Back in the day when teams weren't in nickel all the time, it was more of a rarity.
17:18But, like, say, like, I'm the starting defensive tackle, but I'm only a first and second down
17:22player.
17:22Right.
17:22But then all of a sudden, the offense comes out with three wide receivers.
17:26So, okay, you send nickel on the field, and then you don't get the start.
17:29Oh, man.
17:30Did that affect contract negotiations at any time?
17:33No, no.
17:33No, it's just your ego.
17:35Yeah, yeah.
17:35It's your ego, mostly.
17:37A bruised ego.
17:37That's all that it is.
17:38It's nice to see 16 starts on the stat line.
17:41I bet it is, yeah.
17:42So then your kids and your grandkids, when they go look up your stats, will be like,
17:46oh, wow, look at that.
17:46You're a full-time starter.
17:47Well, you just look more durable.
17:50That's true, too.
17:51You know what I mean?
17:51Like, it's like, when it says, when I'm looking at you, I'm looking at the back of your
17:54football card right now on Pro Football Reference, and I'm like, yeah, your
17:58rookie year, you played 12 games.
18:00You started five.
18:01You know, the next year, you played six.
18:03You started one.
18:04But boy, then.
18:05I got injured, yeah.
18:06But you had a stretch, dude.
18:08I mean, from your third year through your sixth year, you played every game, and you only
18:13didn't start in two of them in your second to last year in Jacksonville.
18:17Well, that's a, you look like a rock on this one.
18:20Yeah, I was.
18:21I just, I had early, I had early injuries in my career, and it was cool, and then I tweaked
18:25my diet and rest and recovery and all of that, and I was, I was never going to get injured
18:29again.
18:30Yeah.
18:30And then I got injured every time.
18:33Yeah, you had a couple rough ones in there.
18:34Yeah, it just, then it got really, really bad.
18:38Yeah.
18:38It just, I really set myself up for disappointment.
18:41I wish I'd gotten injured somewhere in that little stretch somewhere in the middle, so I would
18:44have had a dose of what was coming.
18:46Yeah.
18:46I really thought, I was like, yep, I don't miss football games.
18:49Yeah, but you might have got paid in that, like that, but did you get paid at some point
18:52in that stretch of durability?
18:54Yeah, I did, I did, I did.
18:54Yeah, so I don't know.
18:55Oh, no, no, no, it wasn't all bad.
18:56It's not like it's a, you know, sad story or anything.
18:58Yeah, yeah, no.
19:00Tommy Togiai, 9.7% stop rate according to NextGenStats.
19:04That's where you tackle somebody and it's a negative EPA for the opposing offense.
19:09Yeah.
19:10Highest among all defensive tackles in the sport last year.
19:12Yeah, the, so.
19:14He was really, really, really good last year.
19:17That's why there's times where, you know, when the, when you got to stop the run, you
19:22absolutely have to stop the run, or the offense comes out with a real run-heavy personnel
19:27grouping, you've got, you know, Tommy Togiai and Caden McDonald in there.
19:31Yeah.
19:31And a guy like Naquan Jones.
19:33I don't want to leave Naquan Jones out of all of this, but that's where, that's where
19:39Caden McDonald is going to play a bunch.
19:40But also, yeah, you're right.
19:42It's weird.
19:43It seems relatively rare for people to just pencil in a second-round pick on the starting
19:48depth chart at this point.
19:49Yeah.
19:50Yeah, yeah.
19:51That's a, that's a weird part about it.
19:52A lot of, that is, I would take that as disrespect from the people like rlads.com if you're a
19:58Tommy Togiai.
19:58Yeah, I just think, I think it's, I, look, I looked at a list yesterday, Seth, of the
20:03top 30 free agents for next year, for 2027.
20:07And, and I think, and Tommy Togiai's not on there.
20:10I think there's a better chance he should be on a list like that than some list of, he's
20:13going to get snaps taken away by a rookie.
20:15Yeah.
20:15You know, like, I think Tommy Togiai, look, he's under, he is playing on one of the best
20:20contracts in football this year.
20:22If he gives you this year, what he gave you last year, they gave him an extension.
20:27It was one of the strangest extensions I can remember because they gave it to him in between
20:32two games where he was a healthy scratch.
20:34He was a healthy scratch games one and two last year.
20:36And if I'm not mistaken, in between those two games, Nick Casario extended him by a year
20:41for like 3 million bucks, which at the time, Tommy Togiai is, Togiai is probably like, oh
20:46my God, I'm a healthy scratch.
20:48And they're going to give me another $3 million next year.
20:50Sure.
20:50Let's go.
20:51And then he becomes a regular part of the rotation on the defensive line.
20:55And you could argue he was their best interior defensive lineman last season.
20:59I mean, they had a bunch of guys who played well.
21:01Tim Settle, when he was healthy, played well.
21:02Sheldon Rankins had a really good year.
21:04Togiai might've been the best out of all of them.
21:06And he's going to be playing on a 3 million.
21:07He's going to be playing essentially on the equivalent of like the last year of a third
21:11rounder rookie deal.
21:12You know, like it's basically like a rookie contract almost for Togiai this year.
21:16I think he should be on those free agent lists for next year.
21:19No, I think that, well, and that's one of the questions of the
21:21off season.
21:21Are they going to extend Tommy Togiai like they did last year at the beginning of the
21:25season?
21:25Yeah.
21:25They tacked on a year to his contract.
21:28And yeah, I wonder with Togiai if, yeah, Togiai might just play it out.
21:33Yeah.
21:33This might be his only bite at the apple to get a nice deal if he has another big season
21:38like he did last year.
21:39Yeah.
21:39And I think that, I think the one thing I would caution against is I think just because
21:45the Texans have had a really good defense with a bunch of these journeyman type of contracts
21:51with their defensive tackles.
21:52I don't think that that's proof that they're never going to pay a defensive tackle.
21:57You know, a lot of people thought that because the Texans had made do with a certain body type
22:01of defensive tackle, they would never draft a guy like Caden McDonald.
22:04That was just the way the cookie had crumbled to where D'Amico said himself, we've tried
22:10to get bigger guys in here and wanted them.
22:12It's just never worked out.
22:14That Tommy Togiai might be that guy that they give a more lucrative extension than people
22:19expect.
22:19Yep.
22:20That would be, I mean, I wouldn't mind it.
22:22Look, at some point the numbers are going to catch up to the Texans at some point with
22:26all these contracts.
22:27But having Togiai around, I can't complain about that.
22:30Well, I was on with Bucky Brooks yesterday on his podcast, on his Believe in NFL podcast,
22:35I think.
22:36But he was kind of laying out the future of the Texans and said, wow, you got all these
22:40guys on defense locked up and now you only have to worry about the offensive side of
22:44the ball.
22:44And I had to remind him about Kamari Lasseter and Kalen Bullock, at least.
22:48And there will come a time at some point where either to extend those guys, you have to let
22:55one of the older beloved veterans walk, or you got to just make a decision, kind of like
23:00the Texans had to do with Mario Williams back in the day, that we can't pay Arian Foster
23:05and Andre Johnson and everybody else and also pay Mario Williams, so they just let him walk.
23:12Yeah, they let him walk.
23:13I mean, you had J.J.
23:14Watt and Connor Barwin on that team, and Brooks Reed, which allowed them to, and I think
23:18that's one of the things that I know you and I have expressed some nervousness about,
23:24you in particular on the edge, which is like, okay, and I know your concern is about this
23:28season, that the depth behind Will Anderson Jr. and Daniil Hunter really doesn't feel like
23:33it's there right now.
23:34The guys they have back there are not guys that really get you super excited about those
23:3920 or 30 snaps they need to take a game.
23:41If you extend it out further, they need solutions when Daniil Hunter's contract is up at that position.
23:47You know, they need solutions at corner if they have to move on from, let's say they
23:52have to move on from Stingley because the dollars just get too big in the secondary.
23:56I'm just picking Derek Stingley randomly here, but let's say, because you could trade him
24:01and get some good draft capital, something like that, but yeah, but you've got to have
24:04somebody to take his spot, you know, and that's the thing with this team right now are
24:09the young guys that they've got at some of those positions defensively, if they do have
24:13to start moving on from guys.
24:15Right, well, you think about that.
24:16You know, they moved on from Mario Williams.
24:18That was the 2012 offseason.
24:20Yes.
24:21And at that point, yeah, Brooks Reed had gone off in the playoffs, and you had Connor Barwin
24:26already, but you're thinking, okay, well, Brooks Reed isn't going to be Mario Williams,
24:30but maybe, you know, he can bring, you know, by committee you can at least replace some of
24:37the pass rush.
24:38And he didn't end up being nearly that same level.
24:42No, no.
24:42Of course, J.J. then became the defensive player of the year.
24:45That helped.
24:45No, you're right, but J.J. also hadn't looked like he was going to be a future.
24:49You were banking on youth at that point.
24:51You were, definitely.
24:52And you just, that was, it worked out in some ways, yeah, with J.J. Watt, but the Brooks
24:58Reed dynamic.
24:58Well, and then Connor Barwin had to walk a year after that and go to Philly.
25:01Like, you just, you, you, when you, and this is a point that we've been making the last
25:06week or so, and you were the first one to bring it up when we were, I think it was
25:09after
25:09the Aziz contract where you brought it up and said, look, they've got to draft really
25:14well.
25:14If they're going to spend this much on the defensive side of the football, they got to
25:17get these draft picks right on the offensive side of the football.
25:20That's where the cheap labor is going to be.
25:22You know, Keelan Rutledge has to work out for this team.
25:24You know, the, the other guys, if they, you know, Jaden Higgins has to work out for this
25:28team.
25:29They, they've got to, they've, they've got to play well on these rookie contracts.
25:32If you're going to be spending these exorbitant amounts over on the other side of the football.
25:36So there's a lot of pressure on Casario and his staff to, to get it right with the, you
25:40know, I won't say all the draft picks, nobody's ever going to get them all right, but I would
25:44say more than their fair share.
25:45If you're going to win a Superbowl, these are the things you, if you're going to win a Superbowl
25:48and be the team that, that overpays, that pays top of market to all these guys.
25:54You can't do that without getting more than your fair share of the draft picks, right?
25:58You just can't.
25:59But, and that's where these last couple of years, if you're trying to put the best environment
26:05possible around CJ Stroud, they started to make inroads on it with the offensive line
26:10last year.
26:11This, this needs to be the cherry on top.
26:13If you really want to find a pristine environment, but then the biggest thing, I mean, kind of,
26:18kind of like as it was with Fred Van Vliet and the Rockets this year.
26:22I mean, Joe Mixon all of a sudden becoming a complete and total non-factor right before
26:27the season last year, right before training camp, that threw a wrench into everything.
26:31I mean, the, the improvements on the offensive line would have, you know, they didn't really
26:36click until midway through the season last year.
26:38It would have looked a lot better if they had Joe Mixon in the backfield, you know?
26:42I, I said something on Bucky Brooks podcast where I said that CJ hadn't had a really good
26:47rushing attack the entire time he's been here.
26:49And, and I understand why people outside of Houston would have this objection.
26:53I saw in the comments, a couple of people said, Hey, Joe Mixon at 1200 yards rushing.
26:57Yeah.
26:58And you guys say, well, no, yes, he did.
27:00And it was a, it was a heroic effort by him, but those came in games where he would get
27:06hit
27:07behind the line of scrimmage five times in a row.
27:09Yeah.
27:10Then you would break off a big run.
27:11Yeah.
27:12It wasn't a good rushing attack.
27:13Joe Mixon had some good, impressive runs in a few performances and it wasn't his fault,
27:20but it wasn't steadily churning out yardage.
27:23His success rate was the lowest it had ever been since he became a full-time starter in
27:27the NFL.
27:27Yeah.
27:27Like it was the lowest since his rookie year and his rookie year, he wasn't full-time.
27:31That was, it, it, it, he's just, there wasn't a good rushing attack that year and it hasn't
27:36been in any of the three years that CJ's been here.
27:38Totally.
27:39No, that's a, that's, that's the perfect assessment.
27:41And think about it, you'd rather have a guy rushing for 110 yards in a game where his
27:46long carry was 12 yards than a guy rushing for 110 yards in a game where his long carry
27:50was 62 yards.
27:52No, they were, remember that Patriots game, both Damian, Damian had a big run too.
27:56Yeah.
27:57And Joe Mixon had a really respectable yardage, but after the game, nobody thought, oh yeah,
28:02we ran the ball really well.
28:03No.
28:03It was like, no, we got stuffed over and over again, but we had three big runs in the game.
28:07Yeah.
28:07If you just look at it in terms of number of good plays, just put your hand in the game.
28:11Hand over the yardage, just number of good plays.
28:14And yeah, that rushing attack last year probably had the fewest number of good plays.
28:19Two years ago.
28:19Two years ago.
28:20Yeah.
28:20Sorry.
28:20Two years ago.
28:21Wasn't great last year either, but yes, I meant two years ago.
28:24Yeah.
28:24It was, it was, uh, they, they, yeah, it wasn't, you're a hundred percent right about that.
28:29A hundred percent.
28:30Right.
28:30Um, you guys should change text message, base power text line.
28:34You guys should change your auto reply to this on the text page.
28:37But those that don't know, you get an auto reply from our text page, thanking you for
28:40texting pain and Pendergast message.
28:42Data rates may apply.
28:43It says you should, the auto reply should be thanks for texting pain and Pendergast on
28:47sports radio 610 message and data rates apply for the latest on Vrabel and Diana Rossini.
28:53Click here and then put the hot link to the odyssey app show page.
28:56We, uh, you know what we could do except that it would, uh, it would add to Ben's workload.
29:01And I don't want to do that is, uh, just have our complete show rundown in the reply
29:05text.
29:06Just, uh, be like, this is a, you know, when we talked about this.
29:10Yeah.
29:10Yeah.
29:11Time stamp.
29:11So somebody texts like, how come you guys haven't talked about Vrabel and Rossini at
29:15all?
29:15That would be good.
29:16And, uh, and even though we just did in the previous segment, then, uh, they, they would
29:21see, oh, okay.
29:22Ben, that would really improve our mental health, Seth and myself.
29:25Cause then we wouldn't get upset with people texting us like, Hey, why aren't you guys
29:28talking about bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, you know, that would be nice.
29:32If you could do that, Ben, you could find the time.
29:34You know, one thing I noticed, uh, last year with, when CJ was, we were talking about CJ
29:38running and how he just pretty much stopped running after the concussion was, uh, in a
29:44couple of the still shots as I was looking at stuff is like, oh yeah, that big encyclopedia
29:48he had in his wristband, uh, to make all the calls that they gotta, they gotta be, they
29:53gotta get a better Velcro system.
29:55Do you think that gets uncomfortable with the thing flapping against your arm like that?
29:59It's uncomfortable for me.
30:00It's still a little stressful to watch.
30:01It's almost like watching somebody.
30:02It's like watching a kid run with a notebook where the, the papers are all just about to fall
30:08out, you know, it's just, you're like, oh, no, this is, uh, I'm worried for the kid.
30:12So likewise, I'm worried for CJ when he's got that.
30:15That is stressful.
30:16It's like he's, he, it's like he's a pilot with his checklist, you know, in an emergency
30:20or something.
30:20Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:21That is, that is stressful.
30:23How depressing was that watching all his carries yesterday in the second half of the season?
30:27The, uh, it was, I honestly, I knew the stats, but visually going through one after
30:34the other, it was, yeah, it was kind of depressing.
30:36The, I, he just looked so uncomfortable when he did decide to run.
30:41Yeah.
30:42Um, he just looked reluctant, you know, and I, and I don't think, I mean, obviously we've,
30:46we've kind of tied this into the fact that he's slimmer and whether that means that he
30:51might be a better runner.
30:52I think the biggest obstacle is just psychologically, whether he was, and I know that he was asked
30:59about it a couple of times last year and he said he doesn't think about it or anything.
31:02I mean, it's, it's just jarring how different it was six and a half yards per carry before
31:08the concussion, 1.1 yards per carry after the concussion.
31:11And half of those carries give or take were QB.
31:15That's the biggest thing to me.
31:16It's not even the numbers.
31:17It's the nature of the carries.
31:19Yeah.
31:19It's not how few times he actually pulled it down and, and, and attempted to really get
31:24serious yardage running the ball.
31:25He just didn't do it often at all.
31:27He was usually just running, running for a couple of yards past the line of scrimmage.
31:30Yep.
Comments