00:00Keelan Rutledge, the number one pick for the Texans,
00:04they moved up to get, and it looks like, to me,
00:08they moved up to go get their center,
00:11which is interesting because Keelan Rutledge is a guy
00:15over the course of his college career at both Middle Tennessee State,
00:19I know you, I see you, Murfreesboro, and Georgia Tech,
00:22he played 48 career games and never started or played at center
00:28in his college career, did some in practice,
00:31and did some at the senior bowl, but never played in college.
00:34This is him talking about potentially playing the center position
00:39and where he would play next year for the Texans,
00:43and I wonder if this cools or calms your nerves
00:47because Clint is very nervous and others, and I've seen on the text line,
00:50very nervous about a rookie coming in to a team
00:54that has championship aspirations to go play start at center
00:58who has never played center in his college career with C.J. Stroud,
01:03who the last time we saw him, he was peeing on himself on the field.
01:08And has also had a turnstile at center for his career, too,
01:12so that's not great.
01:13Here is the newest Texan, old Rutledge.
01:18I mean, anything coming to the NFL is going to be more challenging, right?
01:21I mean, better players, scheme's going to be more,
01:23it's going to be different, it's going to be more,
01:24but, I mean, I was, you know, Coach Kee prepared me well,
01:27always knowing conceptually what everybody was doing up front at Georgia Tech
01:31and obviously got snaps there at practice and did it with the senior bowl,
01:34so I'm very confident in playing anywhere up there,
01:37just wherever they need me to play, I'll play.
01:38See, listen, fellas, I don't have a fear of a rookie playing center in the NFL.
01:47I don't even have a fear of a rookie who predominantly played guard
01:54jumping up to play center.
01:56I mean, it can happen.
01:57I watched Creed Humphrey for the Chiefs get drafted in the second round
02:03and finish top five in the offensive rookie of the year race from a center.
02:09Yeah, he's been one of the best centers in the league since he got here.
02:12And by year two, he was an all-pro.
02:14And you could see the improvement immediately when he got there.
02:18And we've seen young centers play well.
02:22So I'm not – that doesn't cause me fear.
02:26What does give me concern, if I'm a Texans fan, is all of this together.
02:31Him never playing the position before in college,
02:35him being a rookie in front of a guy in C.J. Stroud that has had a lot of centers
02:41and you feel like does he have a grasp of what's going on
02:44and the fact of who picked him and who drafted him.
02:50I do have concerns about this group and their drafting of offensive linemen.
02:56So when you put all of that together and I look at the track record that this group has had
03:01with drafting linemen, hopefully there are more ursaries than all of the other dudes
03:10that they've drafted.
03:11The amount of first and second round draft picks that they have drafted
03:15across the offensive line who are not here or dead man walking Blake Fisher
03:19is a high volume, too high.
03:25And so I can see a rookie coming in and being successful, Brandon.
03:30It's just when you combine all of that, this group,
03:33this group who has struggled to draft linemen, this group who's struggled to find linemen,
03:38they went and found a guy to go play center because he better play center.
03:42Right?
03:42He's not sitting any of the other two guys down that they paid that much money to.
03:46So he's got to play center.
03:48That that group, they identified the guy who's never played.
03:52You've never seen tape of him playing center and he's going to come and play.
03:55That makes me nervous.
03:57And I think that all of that is very well said and very well put.
04:02Like, I cannot argue with any.
04:04I think all of what you just laid out makes it reasonable to be concerned
04:09about how all of this is going to come together.
04:12Or if not just is it the right guy, but is it the right guys picking at this exact position?
04:19Not just picking, but evaluating this exact position.
04:22And I will say, leading up to the draft, you know, we talked to Nick Casario in the days leading
04:27up to the draft.
04:27I think it was like the Monday before the draft.
04:29And he did talk about some of the nuances of evaluating an offensive lineman to say,
04:34hey, what I'm watching him do in college isn't necessarily what I'm going to ask him to do in the
04:40pros.
04:41And not only can he do it, but might he actually be better for it, better suited?
04:47Like, it's very possible that Keelan Rutledge is an even better center than he is a guard.
04:53And he just played guard because that's how he had to get on the field
04:56or that's what was required of him and what they needed of him at Georgia Tech
05:00and throughout his college career.
05:02Maybe he's perfectly suited to be a center.
05:04But to your point, in terms of, like, their evaluation, them getting it right,
05:10they don't have enough equity built up for me to be, like, optimistic that they're the ones that got it
05:16right.
05:16Now, could Keelan Rutledge himself, like, just as a player in a vacuum, be the outlier
05:22and just be, like, on his own good enough to do this very well?
05:26I just said that because it's very well possible.
05:29But based off of what you've seen from the Texans themselves
05:33and how they evaluate offensive linemen, I get not really being confident.
05:36Yeah, because, like, we've had this conversation with Clint.
05:38Clint is really concerned of a rookie being, in this offense, a rookie being the center for C.J. Stroud.
05:46That doesn't concern me.
05:48I feel like if you can play, you can play.
05:49Yeah, it's a matter of can he play?
05:51Can he play center?
05:52Can he play center?
05:53But for me, when you combine rookie, rookie, you don't have any tape except for senior bowl of him playing
06:01center
06:03and the track record of this group drafting linemen.
06:07Yeah.
06:09They're, like, one for seven.
06:11It feels like.
06:13Like, it feels like they're – and not to mention just from drafting, but also the free agents that they
06:18look at.
06:18Well, it's why I called, like, after they made this pick.
06:21All of that combined is, like, whew.
06:22Well, after I called – after they made this pick, I called all of it, okay?
06:27So taking the pick as the most recent thing and then going all the way to a free agency
06:31and bringing in Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller and all the guys they brought in the offense,
06:34bringing back Ed Ingram and all of that.
06:35To me, this is the summer or the offseason of Nick Casario's offensive line redemption tour.
06:42I called it that exactly.
06:43Like, this is your – just, like, as a thing to call it, the redemption tour.
06:48Hey, can you put together a suitable offensive – can you draft offensive linemen?
06:52And he did it pretty good with Ariante Urshry.
06:54This would be his second hit in a row.
06:56That's what this season is about, is figuring that out.
06:58Am I nervous about it?
06:59100%.
07:00All right.
07:02I can't wait for this.
07:03We – Tyler will be – Tyler will be invested in this one as well.
07:10We had a spirited conversation about C.J. Stroud earlier today.
07:14That I think we need to bring to the people.
07:16And I'm wondering where the people are on this.
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