- 14 hours ago
Seth and Sean discuss what Kamari Lassiter had to say about his offseason focus and goals for this season, as well as the opportunity CJ Stroud has this season to potentially outshine the top paid quarterbacks.
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00:00So this was Kamari Lassiter. He was on Texans All Access this week. He's always a good interview, man.
00:06We just got done talking about the cornerback position with the Texans because the Colts released Kenny Moore.
00:12Seth and I arrived at the conclusion that the Texans should not be shopping in the Kenny Moore aisle.
00:17And part of that would be Jalen Smith, who they drafted last year out of USC, who was injured for
00:23most of the season.
00:24And he was considered a reach at the time.
00:26You know, so for whatever that's worth, the Texans thought a lot.
00:30The Texans thought highly enough of him to draft him a couple rounds ahead of where the consensus would have
00:34had him.
00:35So for some of you, you'll say, ah, great, the guy definitely sucks and they reach.
00:41Some of you might say, well, okay, well, the Texans liked him for a reason.
00:44So, yeah, there's a good chance that with a healthy Jalen Smith, they want to see what they have in
00:50him before they go shopping elsewhere.
00:51Right, and he only played four games, so we don't really know which direction is the right one right now
00:55with Jalen Smith.
00:56But Kamari Lasseter shed some light on it.
00:59Mark Vandermeer asked him about Jalen Smith in year two.
01:02Big things.
01:03Rock knows I expect big things from him.
01:05Like, he has all the talent in the world.
01:06He's got every intangible you can think of.
01:08I just hate that he got injured and missed so much time last year because he was on the perfect
01:11track to just be really good.
01:13But once he gets back on that field, y'all are going to see something special.
01:16Rock is good.
01:17He's really special.
01:17Okay, Rock.
01:18J-Rock is his nickname.
01:19That's why they call him Rock.
01:20So Kamari Lasseter, he's optimistic about Jalen Smith.
01:25And it's interesting because I think Jalen Smith vaguely could be compared to Kamari Lasseter in that, you know,
01:32people had questions about just how fast Kamari Lasseter was, et cetera, et cetera.
01:36But whatever, like, even leaving that aside, Kamari Lasseter just does some things so well technically and from a feel
01:47standpoint
01:48and with an understanding of the timing of an offense and everything, he does a really good job above and
01:54beyond the measurables.
01:55And I think that's probably what the Texans saw in Jalen Smith as well because some of the measurables were
02:00more of a knock on Jalen Smith.
02:02So it's interesting to me to hear Kamari Lasseter talk about him and maybe see some things in his game
02:07perhaps that other people didn't.
02:10Well, we'll talk.
02:11You know what?
02:11I've got a question I want to ask you about Kamari in a little bit, really more about the rookies
02:14this year than we'll get to.
02:15But let's get a couple more Kamaris in here.
02:19What's the offseason look like for Kamari Lasseter heading into year three?
02:23Offseason is really like you take time.
02:25You do offseason really in increments, I've learned.
02:27So, like, you have a time period, like whenever you first get into offseason, you rest.
02:31Then you gradually get back into it.
02:32You start working out.
02:33And then you work on things that you aren't good at.
02:36And then you master the things that you are good at.
02:38And then by the time you get back into the building, it's almost like riding the bike.
02:42Like, you're, like, getting back to hearing the calls, getting back to, like, doing regular football things and a routine.
02:48So, it's like, at this point in the offseason, I'm getting back into, like, my kind of, like, my, I
02:53would say, like, my camp routine.
02:54Like, the routine that I'm going to be in, like, for camp.
02:56And, yeah, you just take it slow because the days are still, like, they're still short.
03:00Like, it's only four hours in a day.
03:01So, you just take it as it comes and you enjoy the rest of the day.
03:04That is an organized dude right there.
03:07Yeah.
03:07That is somebody.
03:08I mean, think about that.
03:09He's, like, first.
03:10I mean, he was off by, you know, 18.
03:1218 hours on the hours in a day.
03:14But I think I know what he meant.
03:15I think he meant, like, in the building, right?
03:18No, obviously, yeah.
03:19No, in a work day, in terms of, you're right, just talking about, as soon as you used the word
03:24incremental, I was like, oh, okay.
03:27This guy's got a plan.
03:28Yeah.
03:29I talked to him in West Virginia last year.
03:31It was a classic Seth Payne interview where I forgot to hit record.
03:35But one of the things that he had talked about, I love asking each of these guys what their pro
03:40-grow tape is.
03:42What is your favorite non-recorded Seth Payne interview?
03:45Just take my word for it.
03:46Yeah, it was really good.
03:47My favorite, okay, so first I'll tell you Kamari, and then I'll tell you about my favorite non-recorded segment.
03:52Was, I can't believe there's an answer.
03:56Continue, Kamari.
03:58Well, he said he wanted to work on his off-ball stuff.
04:00And that was the thing that, going into the season last year, that ended up being something the Texans would
04:08do a lot of, and he was really, really good at.
04:10So, like, all these guys on defense, usually, the way that D'Amico coaches them, and you hear guys talk
04:17about doing things in increments,
04:20and that's a big part of that is the way that D'Amico approaches guys' development in the offseason.
04:27He makes it very, very bite-sized chunks, you know.
04:31He makes it very attainable in guys' minds.
04:35So when you ask guys on the defense, what are you working on, they usually have an itemized list.
04:39You know, it's not, they don't go into an offseason and think, I've got to just get better, and start
04:43working on 29 different things all at once.
04:46They've got a list of things that they're specifically trying to get better at, and we've watched Will Anderson do
04:51it.
04:51Every year he'll talk in the offseason about what's on his pro-grow tape this year,
04:55and he usually ends up improving in that aspect.
05:00That part of it I like.
05:01My favorite interview that I ever did where I had forgotten to hit record was when Mark Vandermeer,
05:07the first year I was getting into radio, showed way too much faith in me to do a lot of
05:12stuff on my own.
05:13And I would, every week for Texans All Access, I was on with him.
05:16I wasn't doing, you know, full-time sports radio at 610 at the time.
05:19I would interview a doctor from, about just various injuries or whatever, and it was usually a different doctor each
05:28time.
05:28Okay.
05:29So I, and I ended up doing that, I think we started midway through the year, so I probably did
05:3212 or 13 of them.
05:34Yeah.
05:34And I would say in at least four occasions, I forgot to hit record.
05:38Stop it.
05:38No, four times?
05:39Yeah, four times.
05:40And then the one time a guy had had to make, take time out between surgeries to do it, I
05:49did the interview.
05:50It was like five, six minutes, and he had to hurry back to surgery.
05:54Oh, my God.
05:55And I realized I hadn't hit record, so I had to wait like another three hours until he was done
06:00with this surgery for him to come back and do the interview.
06:04Was that doctor cool about it?
06:06Oh, yeah, he was super cool about it.
06:08I think you could hear the trembling voice I had that I was just completely out of my, I didn't
06:14even know how to work the damn computer that I was using to record from.
06:17I was up in the studio.
06:18Yeah.
06:18I was up right there in our, the studio that's behind us there.
06:22And, yeah, those are my favorites.
06:25The doctor interviews.
06:25I like that I would do it with doctors who definitely were better at stuff like, you know, finishing classes
06:32in college and everything.
06:33Yeah, probably could do this job, you know, could, could have done that interview 29 times better than me.
06:38I gotta tell you, I would have liked to have heard that Kamari interview.
06:41I overheard some of it.
06:42I was standing near you, but I would like to have heard it in crystal clear digital audio.
06:47I was at Kalen where my, my tripod fell over too.
06:50I think I was doing it with Kalen.
06:51That was Kalen.
06:52I remember that.
06:53My tripod fell over.
06:54Yeah.
06:54And I like scrambled and put it back up, but it stopped recording when it fell over.
06:59But it's a really cool clip of Kalen Bullock.
07:01You can see his face as the camera's going down.
07:05Yeah.
07:05And you see the sky.
07:07Yeah.
07:08Oh, that's right.
07:09The sky was, that's right.
07:10I forgot about that.
07:11It was aimed up at the sky.
07:12Oh my God.
07:13That's, that's, that's, that's like out of a sitcom.
07:16Uh, what are Kamari Lasseter's individual goals this season?
07:20I feel like I want to, I want to be a good leader on our team for one.
07:24I feel like that's, I feel like we have really good leaders on our team and I've seen the
07:29leadership, whether it's from guys like Petrie, who don't talk a lot, even Sting, who doesn't
07:32talk a lot, with his guys like Will and Dezee who are more vocal, even CJ, like, you know,
07:36just guys who I want to be like a good leader on our team.
07:39I feel like, you know, year one and year two, those are like your younger years.
07:42Once you get into year three, you got to go ahead and make that transition.
07:45So I feel like that's something that I really want to work on.
07:47And then on the field, I feel like I just want the ball.
07:50I want, I want the ball.
07:51I want to, I want more ball production.
07:53Okay.
07:54That's where it's, that's where it's nice having a guy like Stingley on the other side.
07:57Like they're, they're not going to avoid Kamari Lasseter.
07:59You got to throw at one of them every day.
08:01Well, that was a, that was one of the more underrated things about Kamari Lasseter's rookie
08:04year.
08:05And it was that I felt like, I felt like he did not get enough credit nationally, partly
08:12because people, people, when it comes to cornerbacks, unless you're a first round guy, they really
08:19don't think, they think, well, all the guys that are really, really good, just the measurables,
08:22et cetera, et cetera.
08:23Or you need like, or you need like seven interceptions to get on that.
08:27But so he's playing really well.
08:29Well, at the same time, playing opposite of Derek Stingley, who was already an established
08:33made man and they're going to test the rookie and he got tested a bunch.
08:39And I, yeah, I felt like people really slept on him last year.
08:43It felt like the national recognition went way up, partly because the Texans defense were
08:47very much a topic of conversation.
08:49And anytime people watch the Texans play, Kamari jumps off the screen at you.
08:54And if you make it, if he makes a big play, you, you, you really notice it because he's
08:59slapping his head like a maniac.
09:00He's just so different than, than a lot of cornerbacks.
09:03Well, yeah, you know what?
09:03So physical.
09:05That's where it really helps too, in terms of people knowing about him nationally.
09:09So many former cornerbacks would do little videos about this.
09:14This is how you come up and play the run as a cornerback.
09:17Adam Archuleta loves Kamari Lasseter, you know, and a few other guys have kind of singled
09:23him out and done little film breakdowns of, wow.
09:25Yeah.
09:25If you're a cornerback, this is how you set the edge.
09:27If you're a cornerback, this is how you come up and tackle.
09:30And people love, people love a guy that plays really an old school version of football while
09:35still being, usually the guys that come up and play the run that effectively don't cover
09:39as well as Kamari Lasseter does.
09:41And he covers.
09:41They're like, they're cover two type corners.
09:43Yep.
09:43Yep.
09:44Yeah.
09:44Guys do not get behind Kamari Lasseter.
09:46That's for sure.
09:47What do, okay, I've not listened to this one yet, but I'm curious.
09:51Am I setting my expectations too high on this answer?
09:54I don't know.
09:55But he was asked, what do the DBs talk about amongst each other on the Texans?
09:59Let's see.
10:00Let's see.
10:00We were just, I'm not going to lie.
10:01Before I came in here, the reason it took me so long, we were just having a full blown
10:05debate about whose college team would have beat whose team.
10:07Like we were literally, we were just in there.
10:09Oh, wow.
10:10Like they think, so me and CB sophomore year, they lost to Utah.
10:14I'm like, bro, I went to Georgia.
10:15I would, we would never have lost to Utah.
10:17Yeah, that's right.
10:18Like, cause they were going to, uh, in the playoffs, they, they play Utah and then we
10:22play, who do we play?
10:23It doesn't matter who we play, but we're going to meet them up in the next round.
10:25And we're like, okay, we're going to play USC.
10:27Yeah.
10:27They lost to Utah.
10:27So we didn't play.
10:28And then it's like this whole big deal that everyone's college team that think that they
10:31could beat us.
10:32And I'm like, yeah, I don't think so.
10:33You've done it.
10:34Poor Reed Blankenship.
10:36Just sitting there on the side.
10:37It's like middle Tennessee state.
10:39These are his new teammates also.
10:41This is probably like the first group conversation he's even been a part of.
10:46Reed's like, well, what if you guys played us like in an opening, you know, kind of, what
10:50if you guys had taken us lightly, you know, and you end up being that classic game that
10:54gets taken down by middle Tennessee state, you know, paid us $500,000 to take an L.
10:59They're all like looking at him.
11:03That's an interesting one though.
11:04I guess the most heated debate would be Kamari's Georgia championship team versus Stingley's LSU.
11:13Boy, I don't know, man, that, that LSU team that Stingley was on is one of the greatest
11:18college football teams of all time with Joe Burrow.
11:20Yeah.
11:22Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, were there wide receivers on that team?
11:27Yeah.
11:28You know, that's a great, that's a boy.
11:30That's a great one for Kamari to argue against just because obviously he's talking about how
11:34the defense have done.
11:35They have fun simulation.
11:36I'd like to see, you know, let's simulate Kamari's Georgia versus that.
11:39I mean, between the Baylor teams that Jalen Petrie played on, middle Tennessee state and
11:44then USC, I feel like it was, it was mostly just Kamari and Derek Stingley arguing with
11:50And I would pick Kamari in a debate over Stingley because Stingley doesn't talk.
11:54Yeah, that's true.
11:55And at last I checked, to win a debate, you need to talk.
11:58Well, that's where the other guy's coming in and who's sticking up for whom would have
12:02mattered the most.
12:03Okay.
12:04And if you're like Jalen, Jalen Petrie just feels like he'd have a great debate persona.
12:10I feel like, well, and I feel like he's, he's a big enough football nerd where he's probably
12:13done all the research on the teams and stuff like that.
12:16Yes.
12:16If I'm Stingley, kind of like Game of Thrones where Tyrion had to pick somebody to fight
12:20for him against the mountain to stay alive, he had to pick a champion.
12:24If I were Derek Stingley Jr. because I don't like to talk, but I wanted somebody to argue
12:29the merits of my LSU team against Kamari Lasseter, it's got to be a defensive back.
12:34I think it would be Petrie probably.
12:35It'd probably be Petrie that I would use.
12:37It's Petrie and then maybe Bullock because I feel like Bullock probably has a healthy
12:40like brother on brother rivalry with Kamari Lasseter and Bullock would throw a lot of emotion
12:45into it just to beat his best friend, Kamari Lasseter in a debate.
12:49Yeah.
12:50But it'd probably be Petrie.
12:51Where'd Marcus Ingram go?
12:53Buffalo?
12:54Uh, yeah, he would not, he, he'd be sitting next to Reed Blankenship.
12:58They'd just be sitting on the bench watching everybody argue.
13:01It's the State University of New York at Buffalo too.
13:04Is that what it is technically?
13:05It's annoying about University of Buffalo.
13:07It's not University of Buffalo, it's University at Buffalo.
13:10Oh, really?
13:11Yeah.
13:11Okay.
13:12I did not know that.
13:13I learned something new today.
13:15Um, one more from Kamari Lasseter and this is going to, this will be the burn-in period,
13:20I guess, is that there's a bunch of guys every year that change their jersey numbers.
13:23This messes with me at every training camp.
13:25I thought that 25 was Kareem Jackson for like the first two years after Kareem Jackson was gone.
13:30Like, there's just certain numbers you get used to.
13:33Yeah.
13:33Kamari's going from four to three this year.
13:36Yeah.
13:37So, um, so here's a better number.
13:39What's that?
13:40It's a better number.
13:41Yeah.
13:42Three's a sleeker number.
13:43Even though as I'm still trying to adjust to this brave new world of single digit, uh,
13:47position numbers and everything, uh, three's definitely a better defensive player number
13:51than, uh, four.
13:52I would say so too.
13:53Um, here's Kamari Lasseter on why he's doing that.
13:56You take three, then Woody takes four.
13:58Your decision to go to number three.
13:59Easy.
14:00Uh, I knew I was going to three from the moment I got here.
14:02It's just a matter of, it's a matter of when.
14:04So, you know, uh, I knew, I knew Tank wanted one and, uh, he knew I wanted three.
14:08So we had already, we had already talked about that a long time ago and then we finally just
14:12did it.
14:12And then Woody wanted number four.
14:13So it was easy.
14:14But obviously like my name and my number are similar.
14:17Yeah.
14:17So it was hard for other people to call me K3 when I was wearing four.
14:20That's right.
14:20But my name and my number have nothing to do with each other.
14:22But it's just a much easier now.
14:24Even though you've already established yourself as four in the league, pro bowler, people
14:30know you now as four, but that's okay.
14:32It's all good.
14:32I feel like I define a number.
14:34Okay.
14:34So my play is going to, number four is going to be a good memory, but three is going to
14:38be even better.
14:39I mean, he was three at Georgia.
14:40Yeah.
14:40Um, I don't know if he was three the entire time at Georgia, but all the pictures you
14:44look at, he's wearing a three.
14:45Yep.
14:45Uh, yeah, I don't, uh, I'm not, I'm not, uh, I feel like an old man here too.
14:49I feel like, uh, the, the, the number changes are way more frequent these days.
14:52And it's hard for us olds to keep up.
14:54I don't like it.
14:55I just feel like, Hey, you got to get your four for a couple of years.
14:59And yes, three is a better number than four, but don't, um, like let, let people kind
15:05of let it burn into their, into their consciousness.
15:08Oh yeah.
15:09That's Kamari Lasseter.
15:10He's number four.
15:11Change numbers.
15:12Uh, Kate Stover is now number eight.
15:15Yeah.
15:15There's a lot of stuff.
15:16I don't, I don't even try anymore.
15:17I see people get all worked up about this and they tweet about it and everything.
15:20I just, I figure it out.
15:22I'll, I'll figure it out when the season comes around.
15:24Hey, here's a question I wanted to ask you about Kamari Lasseter is rookie minicamp starts.
15:30I don't, I don't, they practiced yesterday or not.
15:32It's open to the media today.
15:33So this is the first one we've been able to see.
15:35They're on the field doing like their, uh, they, the, whatever their teaching work is.
15:39They were.
15:40Okay.
15:40Yeah.
15:40So this is the first one we get to look at today.
15:43Well, I mean, with some veteran players too and everything, just on field work.
15:47Oh, okay.
15:47Are you sure?
15:47I thought it was just rookies, uh, either way.
15:50So, so either way, there'll be rookies out there.
15:52I think this is rookie minicamp today.
15:54I'm pretty sure.
15:55So, um, today is rookie minicamp.
15:57Today is rookie minicamp.
15:57Yeah.
15:58So, um, so the, a couple of years ago, Kamari Lasseter felt like an anointed rookie.
16:04Like he, from rookie minicamp on was treated as a starter, especially, and once they mixed
16:12the veterans in, he was still the first string cornerback when OTAs and things like that
16:16start, do you see the potential for any of the rookies this time around to make that
16:23sort of impression on the team?
16:24I don't think so.
16:25And just real quick, just to clear it up, like they were doing, I mean, cause the Texans
16:28Twitter account posted the stuff of this.
16:30They do it on field work with the veterans, but it's like, I'll teach type stuff and everything
16:34like CJ's handing the ball off.
16:36Yeah.
16:36And everything.
16:37So that rookie minicamp is a different thing.
16:39It's just rookies that are out there.
16:40Right.
16:40Um, the, as far as the guys this year that could possibly make a showing like the way
16:49Kamari Lasseter did in OTAs last year, you know, like Kamari Lasseter was out there and
16:53he was working in with the ones very, very early on.
16:56Um, I don't think there's necessarily somebody that even has the opportunity to jump out like
17:02that.
17:02How come?
17:02Because the guys who are the early draft picks are all guys where the pads matter, you
17:07know, Keelan Rutledge and Caden McDonald and Fabecchi Wee-Woo, those are, they're, they're
17:11linemen.
17:12And if they're taking reps with the ones or the twos, there's only so much you can show
17:15when you're not wearing pads.
17:17I would even throw Marlon Klein in there because he's probably got to make an impression
17:20blocking.
17:20Yeah.
17:20I was going to, yeah, I was going to kind of work the way down on physicality.
17:24Marlon Klein would be next amongst the guys that are high draft picks.
17:27He might show something as a, as a receiver, but you're still even, even as a receiver,
17:32you got to get off the line of scrimmage.
17:34You got to do all these things.
17:35The physicality still matters too much for tight end for him to, I think make, you know,
17:40to, to make a great leap or bound in, in OTAs.
17:43So I think that the later draft picks like Kamari Ramsey or Lewis Bond or somebody, maybe
17:49they show up at some point, but they're, they're also not in positions where it's, there isn't
17:55an entrenched starter.
17:56Kamari, it was him versus a bunch of journeyman type veterans competing to be a starting corner
18:02back.
18:03There's not really that position in the skill position.
18:06It's a better roster now.
18:07Yeah.
18:07It's just a better roster than it was a couple of years ago.
18:09Yeah.
18:09Yeah.
18:10Yeah.
18:10I'm excited to see it still just, you know, seeing the new guys in their uniforms and whatnot.
18:14So that, yeah, that's today at 10 45.
18:17And I think there's going to be media afterwards.
18:19Some of the rookies are going to be meeting with the media.
18:20So we should have some good audio for, for Monday and for this afternoon on the station.
18:25I was thinking about this, Seth schedule releases next week.
18:28So by, they're still doing this thing where they're the NFL, where it's either going to
18:32be Wednesday or Thursday.
18:34I don't know what is so hard about nailing down a date for this thing every year.
18:38It's just the announcement of the schedule.
18:40We'll start to get, uh, I would imagine little trickles of the schedule coming out Monday,
18:45Tuesday, next week.
18:46That always happens.
18:47Like leaks usually, or they announce like when the opening game is going to be all that.
18:52Yeah.
18:52They're planned leaks.
18:53Like that's true.
18:54We'll get, we'll get the international games before the regular schedule comes out.
18:58Yeah.
18:59We'll get like one-offs and it always feels like the Texans are never one of those games
19:03that gets, that gets, uh, dripped out there.
19:06Like, except the year of the Christmas games got announced.
19:08They did.
19:08That did get announced early, like Tuesday, the day before the whole schedule got announced.
19:13So I say all that to say, we'll start to get nuggets of the schedule early next week.
19:17We'll get the full schedule either Wednesday or Thursday.
19:20I still, I started thinking about it.
19:21I was kind of listing who the opponents were.
19:23Yesterday on the back of a, you know, sheet of paper.
19:26And it's a really, it's a fun schedule.
19:28It's when the schedule is this challenging from an opposing quarterback perspective, it's
19:34a fun schedule when you have a good defense.
19:36It's a scary schedule when you don't have a good defense, but it's intriguing because a
19:40lot of heavyweight matchups that way.
19:42Uh, I never used to care about the schedule release until 2020 when for one, we had nothing
19:49else going on because it was COVID.
19:50Yeah.
19:51But two, that man, for a Texans team that had made a lot of bold moves in the off season,
19:58they, it was a test immediately.
20:00Their first, their first onslaught was the kind of schedule that gets a coach fired.
20:05Yes.
20:05And what happened?
20:06Remind me what happened.
20:07Bill O'Brien got fired.
20:09And he went over four games.
20:10Yeah.
20:10It's the, it's, that's the, that's the, one of the few times I can remember where you
20:15look at a schedule and you say, this is going to happen.
20:18And then it actually happens that way.
20:19Right.
20:19You're like, okay, this is void.
20:21They're going to find out real quick.
20:22They're going to be put to the test whether all these bold moves in the off season were
20:25worth it.
20:26Yeah.
20:26Spoiler alert.
20:27They were not, they were not worth it.
20:29And you've not read the story of the 2020 season.
20:31It was, it was Kansas city in the season opener that remember that was Thursday night football
20:36season opener because Kansas city had won the super bowl the year before and then Baltimore
20:41at home and then Pittsburgh on the road.
20:44And then Minnesota was sort of the Minnesota was Bill O'Brien's last stand and they lost
20:51all four of those games.
20:52And I think it's, it's the way that they lost, particularly the first two, like they just
20:56looked like they didn't really belong on the field with Kansas city and Baltimore.
21:00And those are the teams you're, those are teams you're proclaiming.
21:03You can be superior than dude, all these big moves that you made in the off season.
21:07It was, uh, it was, and then also by the way, yeah, because it's 2020, uh, those, those
21:12tough opponents at home, you got no home field advantage.
21:16Sorry.
21:16Nope.
21:16Nope.
21:17There's going to be, there were like 12 of us in the, in the entire building.
21:20They didn't, it was so weird.
21:21Well, that was for week, the first home game.
21:23And then they didn't let you and I back in the building all year to do pregame and postgame.
21:27No, no.
21:27Yeah.
21:27That was really, yeah.
21:28We were just there for the Vikings, right?
21:29We got to go to the, yeah, the, yeah, the, yeah, the Vikings or Ravens, whichever the first,
21:32Oh no, no.
21:33It was the Ravens.
21:34Yeah.
21:34Yeah.
21:34Yeah.
21:35So it's, um, so here's, but here's where I'm going with this before we, before we hit
21:38the point that I'm about to make, let's just reset.
21:41This was D'Amico Ryan's on CJ Stroud's contract situation.
21:45The contract things I always still got, they take care of themselves.
21:48So it is never a need to panic or do anything different.
21:52You just keep improving as a player.
21:55You keep working on your craft.
21:56You keep doing all those things, you know, behind the scenes that, you know, improves your game.
22:01The contracts and those things will take care of themselves.
22:04Okay.
22:04So the, you know, just do your job, do it.
22:07Well, you're going to get your contract extension.
22:10CJ Stroud.
22:11This is the opportunity he has Seth.
22:12If we're just looking at it through a contractual lens, the top 10 highest contracts in the league,
22:20according to average annual value, all belong to quarterbacks.
22:23Okay.
22:24They all belong to quarterbacks.
22:26Will Anderson Jr.
22:27Is 11th on the average annual value list right now.
22:30By the way, the NFL measures these things.
22:32CJ Stroud is going to be playing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine of
22:37the top 10 are on the Texans schedule in terms of the highest paid quarterbacks in football.
22:45Dak Prescott is number one.
22:47They get Dallas at home, 60 million.
22:50And then you got five guys who are in the $55 million a year club.
22:54They're all on the Texans.
22:56Well, I take that back.
22:57I've got Trevor Lawrence in here twice because he plays them twice.
23:00So they've got eight of the top 10 quarterbacks.
23:02You got Trevor Lawrence twice.
23:03So nine games with eight of these quarterbacks.
23:05Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love all make $55 million.
23:11The Texans play all of those teams.
23:13$52.5 million, eighth on the list.
23:15Justin Herbert, the Texans play at the Chargers again this year.
23:18$52 million.
23:20Lamar Jackson, ninth on the list.
23:22The Texans host the Baltimore Ravens.
23:23Tenth on the list, Jalen Hurts, $51 million a year.
23:28The Texans play at Philadelphia this year.
23:30That's nine games against the top eight paid quarterbacks in the league.
23:34C.J. Stroud is going to have plenty of opportunities here.
23:38And by the way, they're going to play Deshaun Watson probably, who's $46 million.
23:43Two games against Daniel Jones, who's $44 million.
23:45He's got a game against Jaden Daniels, who's going to be in that same pool of quarterbacks
23:49trying to get more than Dak Prescott next year.
23:52There will be plenty of evidence for David Mulligetta to point to if C.J. Stroud has
23:56a good year, where it's not just I had as good a statistical year as some of these guys.
24:00I beat these guys.
24:02I beat, you know, I beat, you know, obviously the Texans defense.
24:06Or if you outperform them, you know, in those games, which you've got a good chance of doing
24:10because, yeah, you've got the Texans defense on your side.
24:13That's right.
24:13Yeah, that's, you know, you and I were talking about this off air yesterday.
24:17When it comes to C.J. Stroud's contract, you know, a whole bunch of different factors
24:22and dynamics that go into it.
24:23But the overall sum total of it, when you look at quarterback contracts and the top
24:29of the market, it's been kind of stagnant.
24:33And I think there's just an assumption that, oh, well, yep, the next round of quarterback
24:38contracts are going to blow it out of the water.
24:40I just, I wondered necessarily maybe how much that is true and if maybe we haven't actually
24:47reached, for now at least, a little bit of an upper limit.
24:50Even though the cap has gone up, I think guys like aging Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl,
24:56Sam Darnold winning a Super Bowl, various other cast-offs making it to championship games,
25:01has maybe lowered teams' appetite or fervor for thinking,
25:07we've got to, we've got to pay this guy as much as money possible because we've got to
25:11have him forever.
25:12So it just, it makes me a little less nervous necessarily about, okay, is right now the
25:19right time to sign him because the market's only going up?
25:21Yeah.
25:22Dak Prescott's been there at the high water mark for a couple years now.
25:25Two years.
25:26He signed it.
25:26We looked up the date yesterday.
25:27It was September 8th, 2024.
25:29So right at the beginning of two seasons ago is when Dak reset the market by like $5 million.
25:36Like he jumped the market by a pretty big sum.
25:38And that Josh Allen contract, Seth, it's $55 million that's got him tied for second.
25:42He just signed that.
25:44He just signed an extension that was $55 million a year.
25:47So the MVP from two years ago and the guy who was in the mix for the MVP this year,
25:53some would argue the best quarterback in football, Josh Allen, did an extension with
25:57the Bills where he still came $5 million away from Dak Prescott from resetting the market.
26:03Now here's the thing, though.
26:04Let's remember what GM we're talking about here and what team we're talking about here,
26:08the Houston Texans.
26:09If you're one of these other teams that is on the verge or the cusp of having to pay a
26:13quarterback, you should be rooting against the Texans this season because we know that
26:18if CJ gets to Texans, maybe even to an AFC title game, but especially to a Super Bowl,
26:23Nick Casario, not afraid to reset a market.
26:26He's not afraid to reset a market, but a lot of times he does it with a shorter contract than
26:31what other standard contracts are.
26:36Will Anderson's contract is a three-year extension where a lot of people would have expected a
26:40four-year extension for a guy like Will.
26:43And I think that there's other teams out there that might prefer to operate that way too.
26:49And I don't know.
26:50I think that there's a real good chance that CJ either resets the market or it's a top of the
26:55market, but it's a huge percentage guaranteed and it's a shorter deal.
27:00And the Texans are comfortable taking off risk in bite-sized chunks like that.
27:06And I would be comfortable with that if they came to an extension deal.
27:10If they extended CJ Stroud this offseason, but it was just a shorter-term deal than the
27:16typical quarterback extension, and that, okay, great, it's a bunch of guaranteed money,
27:20which who cares?
27:21Usually it ends up all getting paid anyway.
27:23I'd be cool with that.
27:25So I'm not as nervous about that part of it.
27:27Would you suggest yesterday like three years, 150 or something like that?
27:31Three years, 150, like virtually all of it guaranteed.
27:33I'd be comfortable with that.
27:35Okay.
27:35See, so you are...
27:37Because you can move on from that.
27:38You can move on from...
27:39You know, like if something doesn't work out or whatever, it's a manageable amount of...
27:43It doesn't crush your organization for the next decade the way Deshaun Watson says
27:50with the Browns.
27:50You're married to him for at least a couple of years, though.
27:54Right, right.
27:55For at least a couple of years, you know?
27:57Right.
27:57Which is still, again, when you're balancing the risk, okay, what are the chances that
28:01you're going to...
28:01The problem with this Texans team, if you were to move off of CJ Stroud, is you're not going
28:06to have...
28:07You're not going to have a high draft pick, most likely.
28:09Yeah.
28:10You know, you can't look forward and say sometime in the next couple of years you're going
28:12to have a high draft pick.
28:13Your defense prevents you from tanking.
28:15Yeah, you're going to...
28:16Right.
28:16So you're going to rip the Band-Aid off at some point, and look, CJ has been...
28:22Like this last year, he was an average NFL quarterback.
28:25Would he be worth...
28:26Would it have been worth paying the top of the market?
28:29No.
28:29So, but the downside risk is still, it's unlikely that all...
28:33It's not like all of a sudden CJ's going to turn into a complete pumpkin, and you're not
28:37going to be a competitive football team.
28:38So you've got a deal, you work it out, you know, you see if it works for a couple of
28:43years,
28:43and then if you decide to move on, then you do it, but it's still not a death blow to
28:49your entire salary cap.
28:51Yeah.
28:51I would be very curious what the reaction of the fan base would be if they did something
28:55like that.
28:55I'm with you on that.
28:56Matt, I'd be very curious what people would say if we got a Schefter bomb about a three-year
29:02extension for CJ Stroud of nearly fully guaranteed, pretty good money.
29:05You know, that's...
29:07Well, yeah, well, maybe we'll find out.
29:09I don't think...
29:09And look, and according to DJ B&A's article, they haven't even talked to him yet, and it
29:14might just be that, you know, maybe the Texans have an appetite for something like that,
29:17a shorter-term deal with a lot of guaranteed money, and maybe Mulliguetta and CJ just flat
29:22out don't, you know?
29:23So maybe there were minimal discussions, and they were so far apart that they're like,
29:27ah, let's just kick it out.
29:28This is pure speculation.
29:29Yeah.
29:30Pure speculation by me.
29:31I think it's best for everybody that CJ bets on himself this year.
29:35Yeah.
29:35I think that's the best solution.
29:36That's where we started, is that I don't think...
29:38I think there's a good chance that we've kind of reached a short-term ceiling on how
29:42much the quarterback contracts are going to be.
29:44So the risk of him playing really well this year, it's not like all of a sudden you're
29:51going to be paying him $20 million more per year than you would have if you...
29:54We're not going to $70 million a year as opposed to $60 million, yeah.
29:58Hey, let's stay in the division for a second.
30:00One of the big reports this offseason from multiple outlets had been that Travis Hunter
30:04was going to have his workload dialed back.
30:06The, of course, revolutionizing the game, part-time corner, part-time receiver, two-way
30:13player, that was James Gladstone, the magnificent Gladstone, the GM of the Jags, who had said
30:18that when they were introducing Travis Hunter the day after they picked him.
30:23There were a lot of people saying he's only going to be cornerback this year with maybe
30:26a little bit of wide receiver mixed in.
30:29James Gladstone on the Jags in-house radio refuted that earlier this week.
30:35Are we done with the two-way with him or not?
30:39Absolutely not.
30:40No, he is set to play both sides of the ball.
30:43The piece that I think we can expect to see is actually an uptick in corner usage, right?
30:48Last year, it was a higher volume, higher percentage of wide receiver usage than it was corner.
30:55I think we can expect to see that corner percentile and count go up as we move forward.
31:00That's not to say anything impacts his availability and usage on offense.
31:05It just means that that cornerback usage will increase.
31:08Gladstone, Liam Cohen, Tony Buscelli, these guys have...
31:12Cohen and Buscelli have echoed what Gladstone just said right there.
31:15Yeah, did he really refute anything, though?
31:17We kind of, because he said...
31:18Because the report had been set that he was going to be a full-time corner with a little
31:22bit of receiver.
31:23Yeah.
31:23Gladstone is saying, if anything...
31:25Because he played mostly receiver last year.
31:26Yeah.
31:27He just said that, if anything, there's going to be an uptick in the amount of corner he's going
31:30to play.
31:31But not affect the offense, which means he's just going to play more overall snaps and
31:36play more corner.
31:37So he is refuting that.
31:39I don't know.
31:39There was a lot of vagueness there.
31:40I feel like you could have described what he's saying there as...
31:44Until at the end, where he said it's not going to affect his usage as a receiver.
31:47I mean, unless the uptick in corner is just a tiny little uptick and he's being, you know,
31:52he's just being literal.
31:53Like, yeah, he might get five more corner snaps a game.
31:56Yeah.
31:56I don't know.
31:57Like, I read into that saying that he's...
32:01And obviously, this is all open to them changing their mind on all this.
32:05Some of this feels like they're kind of pissed that there are reports out there about this.
32:09Yeah.
32:09And they're just trying to make the media look bad.
32:12I have no idea.
32:12But I definitely did hear something there that they're refuting, in part, what the media
32:17has been saying about it.
32:18They're...
32:18I also...
32:19You always wonder with this, too, like, how much of it is...
32:21How much do they have to be careful about what Travis Hunter wants to do?
32:26And, you know, he wants to be a two-way player.
32:28He'd play every snap if he could.
32:29They might be starting to feel like, okay, he had two major injuries last year.
32:34Or at least enough that he missed a bunch of the training camp in training camp.
32:38And then he ends the season on IR.
32:40He's a tiny dude.
32:42And at some point, this just isn't going to be sustainable if we have him trying to
32:47play both sides of the football.
32:50And they'd love to make him more of a full-time cornerback.
32:52But they probably made a promise to him, like, yeah.
32:55I mean, they said it to the world.
32:58They introduced him as the guy who's going to reinvent the way we view the game of football.
33:03That's right.
33:03And what's even possible.
33:04Yeah.
33:05Yep.
33:06So, yeah, I don't know.
33:07He was...
33:08I just don't think he'll be able to do it.
33:09Whether Gladstone and Cohen and Buscelli can say whatever they want to, I don't think
33:13his body's going to hold up.
33:14And you and I both said that last year.
33:16And we were right.
33:17Yeah.
33:18His body didn't hold up.
33:19Last year, he was two-thirds receiver, one-third cornerback.
33:22Right.
33:22In terms of total usage.
33:24So, they switched that over to two-thirds cornerback and one-third receiver.
33:28I feel like you've still got a guy that's a young player who might be injury-prone, who
33:35is dividing his time on both sides of the ball and probably not the best version of what
33:40he could be on either side.
33:42If he had just focused on one side.
33:43Yep.
33:44Yep.
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