- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean discuss what former players look for when the schedule comes out and what jumped out from the Texans' 2026 schedule.
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00:00So let's get to the players' perspective on the schedule.
00:03This was Cody Kessler.
00:05So Cody Kessler, Aqib Tlaib.
00:07Was this from the show they do with Skip Bayless?
00:10The Gridiron Arena.
00:11Yeah.
00:12Arena Gridiron.
00:13I don't know what they're doing with that title.
00:15Yeah, Skip Bayless is streaming his YouTube channel.
00:18Cody Kessler, former quarterback in the NFL, former Cleveland Brown,
00:22talked about the importance of the first game of the season.
00:26With all of that, the most important thing that I looked at
00:28when I saw his schedule was week one.
00:30You put all this effort in.
00:30You want to go out there and set the tone early
00:32and really set the foundation for the rest of the season
00:35and start out 1-0.
00:37But the most important thing for that game
00:39and what makes week one so difficult
00:42is because outside of Thursday night games,
00:44no one has played a game yet.
00:46You don't know what anyone's going to look like.
00:47You have no film to watch.
00:49It's a difficult game to prepare for, but I'm excited for it.
00:51We've got a lot of great week one games.
00:52Okay, let's do these through a Texans lens.
00:55I got excited about that because I thought, wait a second.
00:58No, they know exactly what to expect from the Bills
01:00because all they did was fire their defensive-minded head coach
01:03and elevate the offensive coordinator to head coach,
01:06and you should have a pretty good expectation
01:09of exactly what they're going to be on offense.
01:11If anything, I mean, Joe Brady would move away from the run game curiously.
01:17He's called games like he hates James Cook,
01:21who at any given time is one of the top three rushers in the league.
01:24Right, he's an odd guy to hate, yes.
01:25Yeah, because you've just got to get the ball to Khalil Shakir
01:31or whatever it might be.
01:33That part of it, including you add on to that the fact
01:36that Josh Allen has just been garbage at NRG Stadium,
01:41that of all the potential tough matchups you'd have in week one,
01:45I actually feel good about this one.
01:47It's going to be a tough game, don't get me wrong.
01:49It's just that this opponent is a quarterback
01:53that you had a great game plan against last year,
01:55and he isn't remarkably improved on the receiving core.
02:01I mean, they add DJ Moore, great.
02:04I think that's a tough matchup.
02:06Josh Allen's fearing that matchup way more than the Texans are.
02:09And then if you look at the Texans' offseason theme on offense,
02:14it's all right, we want to be more physical in the run game.
02:16And they added guys along those lines.
02:19The Bills were one of the worst run defenses in the league last year.
02:21Yeah, it's not a great defense.
02:22Yeah, so have their improvements done enough for them
02:26where they didn't make any additions in the front seven?
02:29Yeah.
02:31Are they going to be that much improved versus the run?
02:34I don't think so.
02:35And then it's just a question of if the Texans genuinely improved
02:39running the ball.
02:40Okay, I had two questions for you.
02:42I think you kind of answered one of them, which is DJ Moore.
02:46Doesn't sound like that really does it for you
02:48as far as any sort of changing the calculus on this game at all?
02:51No, I mean, no, it definitely gives him options
02:53and they can stretch the field better.
02:56Like, I just think that it's not something,
02:59it's not like adding A.J. Brown in his peak or something.
03:02No, and it plays right into a Texan strength.
03:04Like, hey, you know, we got DJ Moore.
03:06It's like, all right, well, we still have the best secondary in football.
03:08It's not like the Texans don't have the firepower defensively
03:11to combat that.
03:12I was just curious what you thought of him.
03:13The biggest thing about the Texans' game plan
03:16versus Josh Allen last year was that they did a masterful job
03:19of containing him as a runner.
03:20And they used the spy really effectively.
03:23And there were just times when they read,
03:26the Texans' defense just read the play action to a tee.
03:30So their linebackers were also really good in coverage.
03:33And that's the thing that was their undoing a lot of times last year
03:38was the quarterback not rushing for 150 yards,
03:42the quarterback converting a fourth down or a third down in the fourth quarter.
03:48If it's Bo Nix or Gardner, Baker Mayfield, or anybody like that.
03:54They did a great job of it versus Josh Allen.
03:56My other question is, and we'll go into the betting angles on this schedule
04:01in the 8 o'clock hour, but as long as we're talking about this,
04:04this is one of the few games the Texans are an underdog in this year.
04:08Are you surprised, given the success that they've had at home
04:12against Josh Allen and the Bills
04:14and all the other reasons you just laid out why this is a matchup that's,
04:18you know, as week one matchups go,
04:20it's a pretty good one for the Texans if it's going to be a good team.
04:23Are you surprised that the Bills are favored in this game?
04:26I am.
04:27I was actually genuinely very surprised with that.
04:29I think that probably, as much as we've seen Josh Allen
04:32turn into a puddle of mud frequently there,
04:35I think oddsmakers probably don't factor that in as much,
04:38and they're just going by the...
04:39Obviously.
04:40You know, like in the power rankings, the Bills are a better team.
04:43Yes, they're on the road, so they get knocked down a couple notches for that.
04:47But the oddsmakers basically feel like on a neutral field,
04:51the Bills are 4.5 points better than the Texans.
04:53Yeah, I guess so.
04:54I was surprised, you know, I went through an exercise with this,
04:59you know, with the, you know, who I thought,
05:01which games I thought the Texans would definitely be favorites in,
05:04which ones I thought they may be.
05:06And then I had two games that I called coin flips,
05:09and it was the home, like I didn't know if the Texans would be favored or underdogs.
05:13And it was the Bills game at home and the Ravens game at home.
05:17And it turns out they're favored against the Ravens by a point and a half at home.
05:22They're underdogs to the Bills.
05:23I would have flipped that on its head.
05:25If you had said to me, those two games, one, the Texans are a favorite,
05:29the other, they're an underdog,
05:30I would have bet my life savings that it would have been the other way around,
05:34that they would have been a favorite with all summer to prepare for a guy they already know
05:39and play against really well, and they'd be an underdog 12 weeks in
05:43against a guy who has dominated them in Lamar Jackson.
05:47So one thing that we, the public, tends to do that's kind of irrational
05:51and it doesn't make a lot of sense and we weigh it too heavily
05:54is when we'll start using historical record when it comes to analyzing two current teams.
06:03So you'll say things like, well, the Texans have never beaten this team in this situation or whatever.
06:08Like, okay, we're talking about different coaches, different players and everything.
06:11I don't care about the logos on their helmet.
06:12When it comes to the Texans never having beat Lamar Jackson,
06:16I will throw all that rationale to the wind and say, what the hell?
06:21Until they beat him.
06:22Can you, it just, Lamar Jackson versus some very good Texans defenses.
06:27Very good.
06:28You know, it's not just D'Amico Ryans, but versus some respectable or very good defenses
06:32that the Texans have put out there has just simply had the Texans number.
06:37And a couple of times it's been versus D'Amico Ryans.
06:40So that's the huge question is, is this version, you know, or last year's,
06:45is last year's Texans defense, what would it have looked like versus Lamar Jackson?
06:50Yeah, because he was hurt.
06:51Compared to the year before.
06:51The Texans were a better defense last year than they were on that Christmas Day game two years ago.
06:56But, yeah, I will fold, I'll buy into that historical trend of Lamar Jackson never losing to the Texans.
07:02It's something that intimidates me.
07:04I confess to it.
07:05No, me too.
07:06That was one of the things that was so disappointing about starting 0-3 last season,
07:11is that by the time the Ravens in week five rolled around, there was a part of me, like in
07:16a vacuum,
07:17forget what, put the record aside for a second, there was a big part of me that's like,
07:21okay, this Texans defense, I really do want to see them go against Lamar Jackson.
07:25But the problem was at that point in the season, having started out 0-3,
07:29you were out of any margin for error at that point.
07:32Like, you could only afford to lose another couple games without missing the postseason.
07:37So I was like, all right, well, I guess I'll just savor the fact that we're going to get
07:40Cooper Rush and Snoop Huntley here on a Sunday.
07:44Well, and the other thing about the Ravens is that the Texans did a masterful job
07:49versus, you know, a non-starting quarter.
07:53Like, that offense is completely different when Lamar Jackson isn't in there last year.
07:57But some of the things that the Ravens do work directly against some of the Texans' weaknesses.
08:04And the Texans' defense did a really good job of playing more responsibility-minded defense
08:11on the defensive line against the Ravens last year.
08:14It's just without that threat of Lamar Jackson, things kind of change.
08:18So this is where a guy, having a guy like Caden McDonald in there should help a lot,
08:24theoretically, versus the Ravens.
08:25You can, there's times when you've got to worry about this run-pass threat and reading the option
08:33and doing all of those things that having a big-body guy in there makes it a lot easier.
08:38And that's where hopefully, by the time they face the Ravens, that Caden McDonald is a big force
08:43against the run.
08:44Cody Kessler had another one here.
08:46Here is Cody Kessler talking about the schedule and the timing of games.
08:50And I think most importantly is when are those primetime games and which ones are they?
08:54Is it a Sunday night?
08:55Is it a Monday night?
08:56Or is it a Thursday night?
08:57Because those Thursday night games really change your schedule and your preparation.
09:00The other thing that you look at is the international games.
09:02If you have one, you know, when is it?
09:03Where are we going?
09:04You also want to look at your divisional opponents.
09:06When do we play them?
09:07Where do we play them at?
09:08Do we get them at home early?
09:09Do we have to travel to play them at their place later on in the season?
09:12How important are those games going to be towards the end of the year?
09:15Okay, the Texans play two Thursday night games and they're both in the second half of the season.
09:21They play the Colts.
09:22They come back from Cleveland.
09:24So they come out of the bye in week eight, play two road games.
09:27Their first time back at NRG Stadium in nearly a month is a Thursday night home game against the Colts
09:34in week 11.
09:35Their other Thursday night game is Christmas Eve in the middle of an Arctic December schedule for them.
09:42This is exactly what I would be looking at if I were, like Cody Kessler would say, as a player.
09:47Remember Cade Stover?
09:49It talks about how he didn't like these night games.
09:51When he was a rookie, he was coming out of Ohio State and they played a fair number of, you
09:55know,
09:55a lot of night games.
09:56Yeah.
09:57Games that he likes the daytime games.
09:59I feel like this probably comes down to whether you're an early riser or not.
10:02As an early riser myself, I despise the night games because it screws my entire schedule up.
10:07Oh, dude, I'm imagining you sitting around a hotel all day long.
10:10Yeah.
10:10Oh, and if it's on the West Coast, I am up at 2 a.m. Pacific time and there's nothing
10:16I can do about it.
10:17Yeah.
10:18And it just ends up feeling like forever.
10:21So, yeah, like personally, I don't, I hate those evening games because it throws off my schedule so much.
10:28So I'd be looking at figuring out exactly when, okay, well, after the Colts, the nice thing about a Thursday
10:34night game
10:35is that you've got a long week of rest.
10:37So I like that they have the Thursday night game in week 11, 10 days before they face the Ravens
10:42at home.
10:43Yeah, that's true.
10:43That's a good thing.
10:44That's a lot of time to recover.
10:45So you've got a big game, but then you get three extra days to recover, rest, the next game against
10:52the Ravens.
10:52And not travel either.
10:54That's a home game against the Ravens too.
10:56I really like that.
10:57And then the Eagles game being a Thursday night game, the fact that it's Christmas Eve,
11:00I would actually, that would be the rare Thursday night game I'd be excited about it being on Thursday night.
11:04Yeah.
11:05Because, look, it's not just atypical, it's super atypical because it's Christmas Eve.
11:12But it does, you get that long rest again before you have to go face the Packers.
11:16It's a super long rest.
11:17Yeah, through the holidays.
11:19And that Packers is a Monday night, or a Monday game.
11:22Yep.
11:22So, yeah, you get Christmas at home, and D'Amico's probably going to give them the day after Christmas off
11:27as well.
11:27So you can just rest, recover, recuperate during that time.
11:31Plus, because the next game is the Packers and it's on a Monday night, you get an extra long,
11:37it's like having an extra bye week almost there at the end of the year when you really need that
11:41rest.
11:41Yep.
11:42So I feel like for the Thursday night games, it couldn't have worked out any better.
11:45You like that.
11:46You give up the, okay, great, we've got to work on a short week.
11:49The other team, the beauty of Thursday night games is the other team has to work on a short week.
11:53Sure.
11:54So you just, it doesn't feel like you're at a huge disadvantage.
11:57You've both got the same set of challenges.
11:59And then you've got, so you've got an extra long rest before two of the potentially toughest games on your
12:04schedule.
12:05Is it a disadvantage?
12:06I mean, obviously it is a, it's definitely a disadvantage to have to go on the road.
12:11How big a disadvantage is it on a short week to have to travel to a Thursday night game as
12:16opposed to hosting a Thursday night game?
12:18I feel like it ends up not being as much of a disadvantage as going on the road in a
12:22regular week.
12:24Because neither team really gets in a full practice.
12:27Yeah, that's true.
12:28They're just walkthroughs and things like that.
12:29Both teams, look, there might be extra, there's extra physiological fatigue from the travel, whatever.
12:35But I think that those Thursday games just feel so weird.
12:39Yeah.
12:39And I just, I can't explain it because I didn't get to, it wasn't a big deal back then.
12:44It was just every now and then you'd be playing a game on a Thursday, like on Thanksgiving or whatever.
12:48They're playing two in five weeks.
12:50Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:51But it's just like you kind of have to keep reminding your body to get going.
12:55And you just kind of, so you're constantly reminding yourself that you've got to really stick to your routine on
13:00game day to try to be sure that your body is up and ready.
13:03And you maybe, you know, maybe you get a Toradol shot when you don't typically get a Toradol shot.
13:08Yeah, you know.
13:09Something like that.
13:09Yeah, hypothetically.
13:11Yeah.
13:11It's trying to, that's why, if you don't typically get the Toradol shot and then you do, oh my gosh,
13:16it's, you feel like you've gotten a superpower.
13:19Oh, yeah.
13:20You feel like you're, you know what?
13:21You feel like one of those, uh, one of those scare videos they used to show us in, uh, back
13:26about PCP, angel dust.
13:28Oh, yeah.
13:29You know, the danger with angel dust is that you feel no pain.
13:32Yeah.
13:32And you're sitting there as a young person being like, yeah, that sounds, that sounds horrible.
13:35I'll never go.
13:40Toradol is PCP.
13:41But that's what it feels like.
13:42I feel like I have no pain.
13:44I'm in Debo's chicken coop.
13:45I'm ready to go.
13:46Oh, here's Aqib Tlaib on the first thing that he would look for.
13:54Former defensive back with the Broncos and the Bucs and the Patriots.
13:58Here was Aqib Tlaib on the first thing he would look for when the schedule was released.
14:03When the schedule come out for the guys, you checking them primetime games.
14:06How many we got?
14:07Who we got?
14:08And where the primetime games at?
14:10If you want to be a pro bowler or a pro, you better ball on them primetime games.
14:15Yeah, that was Aqib and Cody didn't have the same concerns about that as those two were talking.
14:20Cody Kessler never brought up.
14:22You didn't pull the part where Cody Kessler talked about wanting to show out so he could be at all
14:26pro?
14:26I was right.
14:27I looked at the schedule and I thought, if I get out of the third string quarterback spots this week,
14:32this is my week to shine.
14:33Oh, my God.
14:35So this is, so the Tex, here's what the Texan schedule looks like from that perspective.
14:39And I want to, if you were a player on the Texans right now, Seth, and you have the same
14:44mindset as Aqib Tlaib,
14:45and you're like, man, I want to see what these big stage games are where we can show out here.
14:50The only standalone game they have, I'll call it standalone game, not necessarily primetime,
14:55in the first half of the season, pre-bye week, the bye week's week eight for the Texans,
15:00is that London game against the Jags.
15:02So if people are getting up early.
15:03It's the opposite of primetime.
15:04The opposite of primetime.
15:05But it's the only game on, so people will be watching it.
15:09The primetimes, I cannot remember a primetime schedule like this for the Texans,
15:16where certainly they've had more primetime games at times in a season than four.
15:21Not many times, not often, but they have.
15:23But four primetime games, two of them Thursdays, all in a six-week, no, sorry, seven-week span from week
15:3311 to week 17.
15:35Three of them are on the road within four weeks of each other in cold weather, obviously at night.
15:43And they're all playoff teams.
15:47The cold-weather primetime games are all playoff teams.
15:51You know what, my knee-jerk gut reaction to that is I went through this,
15:55and I tried to look at it from the perspective of a current player,
15:58is that I see primetime game at night against a notable opponent,
16:03and immediately I think, my mind goes to the Chiefs game last year in a cold-weather game late in
16:10the season on primetime,
16:11and I go to the Steelers game, which was a primetime game.
16:15And you forget about the Patriots, because that's the way my brain works.
16:20As a player, you're just thinking about the positive and the upside.
16:24That was an afternoon game.
16:25This team, look, those weren't the offensive performances that you're going to write about in the history books or anything,
16:32in the Steelers game or the Chiefs game,
16:34but those were really big, important games played up north in cold weather under the lights,
16:40and I like that.
16:41They've already proven to a certain degree that they can do that.
16:44The Patriots was a mess for multiple different reasons.
16:47The weather certainly was a factor, but the cold itself doesn't concern me.
16:52I worry about wintry mixed weather conditions when it comes to freezing rain and everything.
16:58That doesn't matter if you're a northern team or a southern team at that point.
17:01It screws every quarterback up.
17:03But the cold weather, I actually get excited about now.
17:05I don't remember, I don't recall how they ran the ball against the Chiefs in that Week 14 game.
17:10I remember the Steeler game, and they steamrolled the Steelers in that game on the ground.
17:15In the second half especially, they really just started.
17:17And that was versus a defensive front that I was a little bit concerned about.
17:20Yep.
17:20Because that's a 3-4 front with big, physical, strong, brawny dudes, and they took care of them.
17:27They go and face a similar style defense the next week.
17:30You know, that's actually one thing I was optimistic about with the Texans, what an idiot, going into the Patriots
17:35game,
17:35was there aren't that many teams anymore that just run like a base 3-4 look.
17:40The Steelers and the Patriots are a couple of the ones where you see,
17:43and it looks like they're lined up the way they might have been in 1993.
17:47Yeah.
17:47But I thought that could be, if not an advantage, at least the Texans had seen a heavy dose of
17:52it against the Steelers,
17:53and they did a really good job against it.
17:55It's going to be fun.
17:56Spoiler alert if you haven't watched the game yet.
17:57It didn't turn out that way the next week.
17:59Dude, our sleep patterns in the second half of the season, though.
18:05Four primetime games in a seven-week span.
18:08Now, granted, one of them is, you know, like it's Christmas Eve, so we'll have a day off after that.
18:13Well, I'm working Christmas Day.
18:14I know you're taking it off, but whatever.
18:16You're not working Christmas Day, are you?
18:18I might.
18:18I might.
18:19I might do a Christmas-themed solo show.
18:20It's a day after a game.
18:21It is a day after a game.
18:23There would be stuff to talk about, for sure.
18:25I'll do a solo show on Christmas morning.
18:27Do it.
18:27It'll get me out of something.
18:32I love where your head's at.
18:34Sorry.
18:34Brandy loves that.
18:36Brandy loves telling people, sorry, you have to work.
18:38That's the most Sean thing ever.
18:40Yeah, but it's so bogus because nobody believes that it's actually worked.
18:43No, I know.
18:44I know.
18:45I'd be like, oh, it'll work, didn't he?
18:46Yeah.
18:47I'd be like, in my family full of farmers and brick machines.
18:49Talk about your sports and whatnot.
18:53Someone brings up this point about the Ravens being an underdog to the Texans in that home
18:58game in Week 12.
18:59The potential for Lamar to be injured by that game may factor into the Texans being favored.
19:04It's a good point.
19:04I thought about that when the lines came out.
19:06I'm like, maybe this is a hedge.
19:07Maybe they're trying to get some Ravens money early here in case.
19:10So they've got some on that side.
19:12Because I can tell you right now, if Lamar Jackson's not playing, the money will be on
19:15the Texans.
19:15You can't make a number high enough for the Texans at home against whoever the backup
19:19is for the Ravens in that game, probably.
19:21So that's a good point, Texter.
19:23Good point.
19:23All right.
19:24You ready to do some acknowledgements here, my friend?
19:27Oh, yeah.
19:28I'm eager to.
19:29Look, I'm the guy that works on Christmas Day because I love giving so much.
19:32That's right.
19:33That's right.
19:34So let's acknowledge some people.
19:35Okay.
19:35Well, let's acknowledge some people.
19:36I'm anxious to see if you follow through on this working on Christmas Day thing.
19:41It's out there.
19:41Ben and I are putting a pin in this room.
19:42When did I say that?
19:4418 seconds ago.
19:45I don't recall making that promise whatsoever.
19:46Yeah, 18 seconds.
19:4726 seconds ago.
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