- 2 days ago
The Texans' 2026 schedule is perfectly symmetrical, Seth Payne says.
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00:00I'll tell you my immediate thought right off the bat when I looked at it was, my God, it's beautiful.
00:04In terms of just the, there was a symmetry to it.
00:08You almost just cut it right in half, like they bisected it.
00:12And hey, first half of the season, pretty vanilla, all just straightforward noon games.
00:19A London one sprinkled in there.
00:21But by and large, it's, it's, you've got some challenges right off the bat with the Bills and the Bengals.
00:27But I like that the primetime games are all in the second half of the season to where you might
00:32look at that as a show of disrespect.
00:34I look at it as a show of respect.
00:36I think the league's saying, boy, we could really set up, the Texans could be set up for some huge
00:42games in primetime in the second half of the season when they're jockeying for playoff position.
00:47Some of the, some of the, some of the time with those actual opponents.
00:50I like it.
00:51I'm excited about it.
00:52I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm happy, Sean.
00:53You are happy with the schedule.
00:55Yeah, the, the way I looked at it, like Amy and I on weekends, we, there's usually one night we
00:59go out pretty hard and there's one night we just stay in and watch, you know, reruns of things or
01:04movies or whatever.
01:05Yeah.
01:05The first half of the schedule is the night we stay in and watch movies.
01:09It's all noon, other than the London game.
01:11It's all noon kicks.
01:13It's a lot of, it's actually a lot of rivalry too.
01:16I mean, you got four games in a row that are your three divisional opponents and the Cowboys, but you're
01:20right.
01:21It's a very conventional, at least on the clock, a very conventional schedule.
01:25Post-bye week, it's the night we go out and we don't know where we're going to end up and
01:29we get home at three in the morning and we wake up with, you know, Whataburger wrappers everywhere and things
01:33like that.
01:34Yeah, that, the, the second half particularly, Seth, because I think you and I were texting while this was unfolding
01:40on, on, on Wednesday.
01:42It was when a lot of these games started to really drop Wednesday afternoon or Thursday, I'm sorry, Thursday leading
01:49into the schedule release.
01:50Uh, what are your thoughts on four games in five weeks in frigid cold weather conditions, three of which are
01:58primetime night games?
02:00I, I look, that's another one where you look like, Hey, maybe they got screwed on that.
02:05I, I welcome the opportunity for the Texans to play in adverse weather conditions as much as possible.
02:11Then get used to it.
02:12You got your wish rise to the challenge.
02:14And then be, if you haven't secured home field advantage in the playoffs, then you're, you're a tougher, more grizzled,
02:21more weathered team, uh, that you got to do it.
02:24You got to face your, you got to face your demons at some point.
02:27And right now the Texans are theoretically on paper constructed to better handle those conditions.
02:34They should be, if the off season additions and the off season theme works out, they should be a better
02:41running football team and you should be able to enter those environments and, and just, and just flat out be
02:47better than you have been in the past.
02:49That's what I said to Vandy, uh, John Harrison, Mark Vandermeer both jumped on, on Friday with me.
02:54And that's what I said to Vandy.
02:55I think it was Vandy.
02:56I said this too, which was weeks 13 through 17, which, you know, for those, maybe some of you still
03:02are getting up to speed on the schedule.
03:03It goes like this at Steelers, Sunday night football at commanders, noon kick home for the Jags.
03:11So home for not even theoretically, like home for literally your most important home game of the year in between
03:17all this, in between all this winter wonderland chicanery, you have your most important home game of the year.
03:22And then it's back on the road for a four day short week on Christmas Eve at Philadelphia.
03:27Then you do at least get 10 days off before you go to green Bay and play Monday night football
03:32in, in January in green Bay.
03:35So, um, so that's, yeah.
03:38So the, the, the way it, the way it lays out there, um, with all the winter size, what I
03:42said to Vandy, and I think it's kind of echoing what you were saying, that patch of schedule right there
03:47will be the referendum on whether or not their off season on the offensive side of the ball was successful
03:52or not.
03:52Because at that point you've got, when you get to that Steelers game, you've got 11 games under your belt.
03:58You got six games to go in the season.
03:59You got 11 games under your belt.
04:01You know, you'll be eight and three, nine and two, seven and four, whatever.
04:04We have no idea what that's going to look like at that point, but you're deep into the season at
04:08that point.
04:09And you are going on the road to multiple places that are the reason why you built your team, the
04:13way you built your team.
04:15Starting in December, that is the referendum on the, the off season.
04:18Assuming the Texans are what we think they're going to be, which is a team that's in contention in the
04:22AFC, right?
04:23I mean, if they're, if they're three and eight or four and seven at that point, then we've already had
04:27the referendum on the season.
04:29The season sucks.
04:29But if they're a contender at that point and they had to Pittsburgh in week 13 with three more games
04:35after that, especially in those environments too, you know, the night, you know, particularly those night games.
04:40I mean, that, that Christmas Eve game in Philly is going to be Thunderdome, man.
04:43That's going to be crazy.
04:44That, uh, and I'm, uh, I'm all in on Wednesday games now.
04:47I decided I'm sad to contemplate it this weekend because I was like, okay, so, um, you know, Rupert Murdoch
04:54met with Trump and, uh, you know, express concern over all of these streaming games and everything.
04:59I get that.
05:00Uh, and I understand people's concern about that and myself included.
05:04I just get tired of signing up for different streaming services, but the NFL kind of pushed back and, and
05:10gave some, you know, gave their side of it.
05:13And the, the biggest fact of the matter is the NFL is citing that the ratings last year were the,
05:18the second best in the last 20 years or however it was.
05:22And I thought to myself, all right, I whine and gripe and complain about these Wednesday games and Thursday games.
05:28And I've never, I've always loved Saturday games, but Wednesday and Thursday games I've whined and complained about.
05:33And yet, where am I when those games are happening?
05:36I'm sitting on my couch watching the course, but what I say and what I do are two disparate things.
05:42And, uh, so likewise on a Wednesday night where I might otherwise be bored with, with no baseball in my
05:49life,
05:50barely checked in on the NBA, depending on what time of year it is.
05:53You're going to watch.
05:54That, that, yeah.
05:55Okay.
05:55There's an NFL game.
05:57Hell yeah.
05:57I'll take my free trial.
05:58On, on, on, on Zillow or whatever new streaming service has got it.
06:03Yup.
06:03Yup.
06:04How about the NBA with a game seven of the conference finals on prime last night?
06:08Like, what are you doing?
06:09Adam silver?
06:11Yeah.
06:11Not conference, not conference.
06:13What are we doing?
06:13Adam silver.
06:14Sorry.
06:14Conference, sorry.
06:15Conference semifinals, not conference finals.
06:17Yeah.
06:17Yeah.
06:17Yeah.
06:18Yeah.
06:18We're saying, what are we doing?
06:19Adam silver.
06:19But at some point that's where the NFL looks like they're headed right now.
06:21Well, but I don't think they'd put, well, they do.
06:24I guess they did.
06:24They had put a playoff game on streaming last year.
06:26Didn't they?
06:27I think there was a, was there a playoff game?
06:28The thing about the, the thing about the NFL, which I, this is where they still have me
06:34and I'm just like, I'm not trying to be a shill for the league or anything here.
06:38They can all go die.
06:39But the fact that in the home markets, you can still watch it on broadcast television.
06:45I think that's a big saving grace because they've moved all of these other games to prime
06:50time, you know, Wednesday or Thursday or whatever, but it's not like those are games
06:55that you would have had the ability to watch without paying extra anyway.
07:00They'd have been buried on Sunday afternoon somewhere.
07:02Right.
07:02Or they would have been, yeah, they, maybe it would have been a, one of the, the Wednesday,
07:05the Sunday afternoon slot or something, but you still have the opportunity to watch those
07:10games.
07:10So I think like compared to other leagues like the NBA or like the NBA or baseball, you still
07:18do have way more opportunities to watch out of market games for free in the NFL than you
07:24do, than you do in the other sports.
07:26Well, and you can watch all your team's home game or all your, all your local team's games
07:31on TV.
07:32Your local team games you can watch on over the, yeah, on over the air broadcast.
07:35So I just, I'm not, I like, there's a grumpy old man in me that doesn't like some of it,
07:39but like by and large, it's, it's more that the NFL has added more opportunities to watch
07:46games.
07:46So there's a fear, there's a feeling of missing out with all of it, but, but it's not necessarily
07:52missing out on something that you ever had before.
07:54I'm also legitimately curious how many people are already subscribing to those streaming
08:00services for, you know, like who, who, it's a, for Amazon prime, the majority of Americans
08:05have Amazon prime.
08:06We looked this up a while ago.
08:08It's like 65 or 70% of Americans.
08:10Netflix is the one I'm really thinking of.
08:12Cause that's, you know, Amazon prime.
08:14There's a lot, there's a lot other than the video that comes with that.
08:17You know, Netflix, you're, you're truly just watching for content with, with Netflix.
08:22Yeah.
08:22Um, so that's the one I'm curious about, like Netflix, I know they put a game on YouTube
08:27TV also last year, I think if I'm not mistaken, the numbers, you always see different numbers
08:31depending on which article you're looking at, but it's, it's 45 to 55% of us households
08:36have Netflix.
08:37That's crazy.
08:38That's way higher than I thought it would be.
08:39That's nuts.
08:40Um, cause it keeps getting more expensive and then I open up one of the emails they send
08:46me.
08:46Yeah.
08:47Yeah.
08:47What the hell is it?
08:47What?
08:48No, Netflix.
08:48Oh, I hate you too.
08:50I'll never watch you again.
08:51Ooh.
08:52Yeah.
08:53Ooh.
08:54Seven documentaries this month.
08:55Ooh.
08:56Okay.
08:56Okay.
08:57I didn't know Claire Danes was still around.
08:58Oh yeah.
08:59I'll watch this.
09:00So, so what's your, so you love this schedule.
09:03It sounds like you're, you're excited about, I like, I like, look, there's a Lopez thought
09:08he was getting walked to the gas chamber with this schedule.
09:11I don't think, I don't know.
09:12I have a hard time ever feeling like a victim of a schedule because you're always going to
09:17have, you're always going to have things that are good, things that are bad.
09:21There's going to be weaknesses.
09:22I'm with you.
09:23The Texans.
09:24Now the league will tell you, listen, there's all these graphics about whether, you know,
09:27miles traveled or total, total days of rest missed or, uh, adverse circumstances with
09:34the rest.
09:35The league propagandists will also put out that there's not really any evidence that
09:39the timing of your bi-week or having less rest because of primetime games or whatever
09:45really has an effect on the games.
09:47I'm not buying it a hundred percent.
09:48Yeah.
09:49And yet by and large, the effect isn't as big as you suspect it would be or that, uh,
09:53that your knee jerk feel is.
09:55So I just, I just roll with it, man.
09:57I'm not buying it.
09:58Look, Sean, it was, uh, when I was in my, was that, it was like when I was in hell
10:02week
10:03when I was training to be a Navy seal, right?
10:05You know, before I succumb to stress fractures, you get to a point where you're just like,
10:08listen, you can throw anything you want at me.
10:10Uh, I'm not gonna, uh, just, I'm just gonna, I'm going to withstand it.
10:14Okay.
10:15You just be, you become, you steal your resolve.
10:18Yeah.
10:19Yep.
10:19And ultimately, you know, when they pulled me off the boat there because of my stress fractures,
10:23it wasn't because I quit, it was because they dragged me kicking and screaming.
10:27They forced you out.
10:29You, you would have stuck around.
10:30You would have stuck.
10:30Yeah.
10:31You've told that story many times.
10:32I was going to go back, but then details from my past emerged and, oh, security risk.
10:36Uh, all right.
10:39So, um, do you, uh, do you, have you gone through it?
10:42Do you have a prediction on the season?
10:43Uh, like an early gut feeling?
10:45I, I did my game.
10:46I've got it.
10:46Uh, I, I went through it and, and I came up, I, I, I came up with 13 wins.
10:52Yeah, me too.
10:53Which is, yeah, which is ridiculously optimistic.
10:56Cause no matter how good you are, it's really hard to win 13 games.
10:59That's on brand for this show though, man.
11:01We're, yeah.
11:01I tried and I, I tried to be as cynical as possible and cross check and everything.
11:06And I'm like, I feel okay about 13 wins.
11:09Yeah.
11:09They're favored in 13 of their games.
11:12They are.
11:12They are.
11:13We'll, we'll dig into that a little bit later.
11:14They're favored in 13 of their games, but it's really interesting.
11:18Just, it's not your classic, like they're favored in 13 of them and five of them are by a touchdown
11:24or more.
11:24Like it's a lot.
11:26It's a lot of coin tosses.
11:28It's a lot of coin tosses.
11:29Yeah.
11:29It's a lot of three points or less.
11:30Yeah.
11:30A ton of it, a ton of it, but which makes it fun, you know?
11:33So we'll see, we'll see how it plays out.
11:37But, but yeah, the schedule is out and we're excited about it.
11:40We'll hit the spreads on it a little bit later.
11:42We'll hit the road trips.
11:44The God, the football, the schedule makers just did not listen to my wishlist.
11:47Even one tiny bit, Seth, like they did the opposite of everything.
11:51Remember I did my wishlist last Wednesday or Thursday, I think it was.
11:54I mean, they just pooped all over all of it.
11:56Hey, give me a cupcake in week one.
11:58Here's the bills.
11:59And that cupcake you wanted is going to be in week 18.
12:02And it's a cupcake in NRG Stadium.
12:04That's true.
12:05Of all the times that you had to face the bills, I feel like week one would be the best.
12:09I was, I was watching Cody Kessler and Aqib Tlaib, you know, the, the duo you expect to see on
12:16your internet.
12:17But Cody Kessler brought up a good point with his long three-year NFL career.
12:21He said that he always wanted to look at when the schedule came out, who the, who the week one
12:26opponent was.
12:27And he said, it's a challenge because you don't have any film on them.
12:29And I thought, well, the bills, all they did was fire their head coach and keep everybody else.
12:35The offensive coordinator becomes the head coach.
12:39And he's not going to have the guardrails of a defensive-minded head coach, which you might think, wow, you're
12:44going to see the best version of Joe Brady.
12:46No, Joe Brady forgets completely and totally at times that he has one of the league's best running backs on
12:53his roster.
12:53He does.
12:54And not that many good receivers and just forgets and abandons the run game.
12:58I welcome the bills in week one.
13:01I feel like that's the best possible time that a first-time head coach, he's probably going to pull a
13:06David Cully, forget to bring his, forget to bring his challenge flag out on the field and all that.
13:10Oh, that's true in week one.
13:12Yeah, he may.
13:12If Joe Brady doesn't decline a penalty to replay third down, I'll be disappointed.
13:21Oh, my God.
13:22Yeah, for those who missed my wish list, I'll do this very quick because we're up against it.
13:26I wanted a cupcake in week one.
13:28True, we got the bills who have been a cupcake at NRG, but I wanted the Titans.
13:31They put them in week 18.
13:33I wanted no holiday gauntlet.
13:35We got a holiday gauntlet.
13:36They're going to play on Christmas Eve, three games in 12 days.
13:39With no bye week right before it, like the last time they did that.
13:43I actually wanted the bills in prime time, for the very reasons you talked about, Seth, to put on a
13:47show for the world.
13:48It got them in noon in week one, and then to keep the cold weather to a minimum.
13:53I mean, they just pooped all over that.
13:55Give it a second buzz for how bad that was.
13:57You know what, though?
13:59I mean, the game in Green Bay is the one that concerns me the most.
14:04I don't look at the Commanders as a northern team.
14:08They're mid-Atlantic, and the weather's not going to be necessary.
14:11It's probably not going to be all that bad.
14:13It won't be Arctic.
14:14It won't be, you know.
14:15I mean, the average highs in those first couple of games, the Steelers and the Commanders, the average high on
14:21those days is 49 or so.
14:23So it's not going to be – it's most likely not going to be ridiculously bad.
14:27The Steelers will be at night, though.
14:28That's the thing.
14:29Right, but still, the average low is like 34 or something.
14:32Is it really?
14:33In Pittsburgh, huh?
14:33Okay, okay.
14:35Yeah, maybe it won't be too bad.
14:37This I know, that's less than the 72 degrees that it is at Reliance Stadium.
14:42That's true.
14:43It is less than that.
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