- 2 days ago
Shaun Bijani & Patrick Creighton react to X defending CJ & his perspective of the Houston Texans' locker room.
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00:01Sports Radio 610 presents Area 45 with Bishani and Creighton.
00:07I mean, if you really watch the games and you really see what he was doing, as a rookie especially,
00:13it was amazing to watch.
00:15Even just seeing him go about his day, each and every day, he showed up every day, he was the
00:21same person.
00:22You knew what you were going to get out of him every day.
00:24And honestly, he had this sense of unwavering confidence within himself that you just felt like nobody could shake, like
00:32no outcome could shake.
00:35He missed the ball, you knew that the next ball was going to be right on the way.
00:40And you go out there and you play freely.
00:44And you just play to what you know how to do.
00:47He's been playing football since probably like everyone else, since he was five years old.
00:52So it's just all about just going out there and just being you.
00:55And that's what he did.
00:56That was Xavier Hutchinson on Caps Off podcast.
01:01I'd never heard of that before.
01:02It's actually a fan-led podcast.
01:05So it doesn't involve like a celebrity or current or former athlete that does it.
01:10It's just called Caps Off.
01:12And Seth Payne actually did a pretty lengthy YouTube on the podcast in Xavier Hutchinson's appearance.
01:21That you should check out.
01:22Seth did it, I believe, yesterday.
01:25So check out Seth Payne's YouTube page.
01:28He kind of broke that down.
01:30And I found these clips, you know, an email that Tyler sent me.
01:34I asked him to send them to me.
01:35And it was really interesting stuff.
01:37You know, listening to Xavier Hutchinson talk about like the unwavering confidence that C.J. Stroud had and was playing
01:44with in 2023 as a rookie.
01:46And we all know the statisticals, you know, in what C.J. accomplished that year, what the team accomplished that
01:52year.
01:53I mean, hell, they accomplished what nobody really expected them to for a team that was, you know, a laughingstock
02:00for, you know, three years prior in the NFL.
02:04And that raises the question in basically what we're going to be asking for the next three, four, five months
02:12maybe.
02:13And until C.J. Stroud plays quarterback for the Texans in a game that means something.
02:20Is does he have the ability to regain that unwavering confidence that he once had as a rookie?
02:28And I would say that while it wasn't as good a performance-wise, you know, for 17 games of a
02:34regular season in 2024, certainly it wasn't in 2025.
02:40Can he regain that in 2026 for the Houston Texans?
02:45That's going to be the question.
02:48This was Xavier Hutchinson, P.C.
02:50Take a listen to this one.
02:52On that same podcast, and he says he believes right now, from what he's seen, what he's heard, and he's
03:00talked to C.J. Plenty, that No. 7 is back.
03:02I feel like 7 is back.
03:04Yeah.
03:05Just from, you know, what I've seen, you know, we've been able to work out together.
03:08We've been able to throw a little bit while I've been up here.
03:12That fire inside to prove all the people who were s***ing and had all these, you know, wanted to say
03:20whatever, had all these hot takes that they wanted to say.
03:22Yeah.
03:23Like, he's here.
03:24Yeah.
03:25And he's going to prove everyone wrong like he's always done his entire life.
03:29Yeah.
03:29So, I'm happy that I get to sit back and catch the ball with him.
03:33Yeah.
03:33And be on that field with him.
03:35And hopefully all the haters have the popcorn out because it's not going to look good for you.
03:40Love that.
03:41You've got to love that.
03:42That's going to be one that we're going to go back in the well, pull out when times are really,
03:47really good.
03:48We might actually have to pull that out, too, when times are really, really bad if that happens.
03:52You may have to work that into the vernacular every time somebody calls up trying to take a poop on
03:57C.J.
03:57Like, you're getting popcorn out?
03:59Yeah.
04:00Knock it in.
04:01Good for you.
04:03I love it, man.
04:04Now, here's the thing.
04:05Let me ask you this question.
04:06Because all season long, I felt like we dealt with this, right, from fans and even the media.
04:14They, you know, would look, especially the last two games, man.
04:17This is maybe when it really, really got, you know, hot and heavy.
04:20But, you know, like C.J. Stroud's demeanor, right?
04:24And when things aren't going well, do you like really anybody's demeanor on a football field?
04:28I mean, people that wear their emotions on their sleeve, when times are bad and your football teams, you know,
04:330-4 or, you know, looking up at, you know, three of the teams in your division, you're probably not
04:40going to illuminate, like, great positivity.
04:44The fire inside to prove people wrong.
04:47It's here.
04:48That's what Xavier Hutchinson said about C.J. Stroud.
04:50My question to you is, is that the C.J. Stroud that you want to see?
04:56Is that the C.J. Stroud the Texans want to see?
04:58Is that the C.J. Stroud fans have been demanding to see for months now from their quarterback?
05:05The guy that wants to prove people wrong, that's going to play like he's got something to prove.
05:12You know, when people were all bent out of shape about the Texans in the postseason, C.J.'s too fat,
05:19C.J.'s too skinny, his hair is stupid, his face is stupid, you know, his pants are stupid, everything's stupid.
05:26He wore the wrong hat.
05:27Yeah, you know, even wearing the wrong hat for three years, it doesn't matter.
05:30Well, that wasn't the greatest thing.
05:32You know, there's always some absolute non-football related thing that people got to gripe with on top of, and
05:44he sucks because, you know, he had the two worst games of his life.
05:50Therefore, every other game he ever played never happened.
05:54They get wiped off the books like they didn't exist.
05:57And the only thing that ever happened of these two games where he didn't play well, and I still feel
06:04like we're going to find out eventually he was dealing with some kind of an injury during those two games.
06:10Because I just, I have a really hard time accepting the idea that a guy who's been at his best
06:15when the lights are brightest suddenly forgot how to hold the football.
06:20You know, suddenly just couldn't stop throwing the ball to the other team.
06:24Like, something had to be wrong.
06:26Yeah.
06:27And it's not about excusing the behavior.
06:30It's about understanding the behavior.
06:32Because, for example, like in school, you were a teacher.
06:36If you had a kid who was always straight A's, never a problem, perfectly well behaved, and then one day
06:45he's involved in two fights.
06:46Yeah.
06:47Sums up.
06:47Yeah.
06:48I was a fake teacher, and I taught PE.
06:51And so all the kids had always had straight A's.
06:54Unless you were a total bleep up.
06:57Yes.
06:58And then those total bleep ups would be the ones that would generally get in the fights.
07:02But you're not wrong.
07:03Like, as a person that works at a school, like I did for a long time, like, yeah, you definitely
07:09get to know, you know, the kids.
07:11You definitely get to know the teachers.
07:12And so you notice very quickly when an individual's out of sorts, something's up.
07:18When something's really out of character, something's up.
07:20Yeah, and we all encounter that in our workplace, for sure.
07:23So I do think that eventually we will find out something was up.
07:28We just don't know what it is yet.
07:31Remember, we brought that up, like, the first show after the Patriots game, and we'd said that.
07:38The Steelers game.
07:40It's been a minute, though.
07:41Something might not be right.
07:42And I feel like if there was, though, maybe we'd know about it by now.
07:47But maybe you do have to wait until, like, minicamp or OTAs, you know, are kind of done.
07:52Or maybe the first availability that CJ's got of training camp.
07:56Because generally, he's going to get peppered with the questions like, hey, here's how your season ended.
08:02What did you do this offseason to improve on that?
08:05And then he might drop a line.
08:06Like, let's not pretend we haven't heard this before.
08:09That's why we're asking the question.
08:10Like, well, you know, I had to get some things worked on, you know, because this and that was jacked
08:15up.
08:15And he was like, oh, how long did you deal with that?
08:17Oh, for about the last two months of the season kind of a thing.
08:20Once upon a time, the Jets found a way to hide the fact that Brett Favre had a major injury
08:27to his arm.
08:28And it only came out when Brett ran his mouth like an idiot.
08:32Yeah, yeah.
08:32So, you know, look, teams, if they want to bury it, they've shown they can bury stuff.
08:38We've seen injuries about players not come out like a full year after the fact.
08:43Yeah.
08:44So, look, it happens.
08:47And the Texans are buttoned down more than most any other organization in the NFL.
08:52So if a team is going to be able to do it, it's going to be the Texans.
08:54They've buttoned down the hatches pretty well.
08:57But that being said, do you not expect CJ to come out with the fire of a guy who, you
09:05know, knows what his last two games were?
09:07A guy who has always said, I want to be coached hard.
09:11I expect greatness from myself.
09:13I expect to lead my team to great.
09:15He's always had that, you know, demeanor, those statements, that leadership quality.
09:20So whether you like his demeanor or don't like his demeanor, you know who likes his demeanor?
09:25His teammates like his demeanor.
09:27His coaches like his demeanor.
09:30So if you want to get on that, well, my quarterback, he needs to be smoking a heater and riding
09:36a motorcycle.
09:37Too damn bad.
09:38Jeez, so sorry.
09:411986.
09:41Come on.
09:42My quarterback got to be driving a truck.
09:44Yeah.
09:44Like, you know, you need to get over yourself.
09:46Yeah.
09:47Because it doesn't matter what you think or what you want.
09:50His teammates will run through a wall for him.
09:54They don't do that for you.
09:55No, I think it's a good point that you just made.
09:57Xavier Hutchinson talked about just that on the Caps Off podcast.
10:02He was asked about the locker room.
10:05Here's what he'd said.
10:06Xavier Hutchinson on the Texans having maybe the best locker room in the league.
10:11Best thing I would say is, honestly, this is nowhere else.
10:20But I highly doubt that there's a better locker room than ours.
10:25And how would you describe that?
10:27Just the type of guys that we have in there.
10:29It's almost like we're all too identical.
10:32Like, we may enjoy different things, but, like, at the end of the day, like, all of our moral compasses
10:37point north.
10:38Yeah.
10:39And it's, like, it's fun to be in there.
10:41And I used to be a little nervous in my rookie year to go into the locker room.
10:46Yeah.
10:47Because, you know, you just got so many different people.
10:49It's intimidating.
10:49Yeah, you just got a lot of different people in there, man.
10:52But, like, from the moment that I stepped into that building for the first time, actually,
10:57it was just nothing but love.
10:58Yeah.
10:59And, like, it's, like, some of the probably the best moments I'll forever remember aren't on the field playing in
11:06the Houston Texans jersey.
11:07That's amazing.
11:07It's being in that locker room.
11:08That's amazing.
11:09Because there's a lot of good guys in there, man.
11:11They're all characters and they're all right.
11:14But, like, they're all just, they're down for the cause, man.
11:18I love that.
11:18And, like, you don't come by brothers very much, but it's a bunch of brothers in there.
11:22A lot in common.
11:23Yeah, a lot in common.
11:24All right.
11:24So I think that's saying something.
11:26Now, granted, it is coming from a guy whose, you know, NFL career spans literally just with the Houston Texans,
11:34you know, for four years.
11:35That's the only locker room.
11:36It's the only team organization that he's ever known.
11:38He knows no better.
11:40But, you know, guys talk, players talk, offseason, endseason, the whole thing.
11:43And this, to me, what is pertinent in what he's talking about, you know, in how good the locker room
11:52is that he's a part of, I think it would have been interesting either way.
11:57But this is also a locker room that has had a lot of different personality just over the course of
12:04the last two years in it, PC.
12:05I mean, you got your dudes like CJ Tank and Will Anderson who were like three peas in a pod,
12:12basically, right?
12:12I mean, they do Bible study together and that whole thing.
12:15But it also existed with Aziz Alshire.
12:17It also existed with Joe Mixon, Jimmy Ward, and just some other kind of very more, I would say, brash
12:26-type personalities, right?
12:30But these guys see each other, you know, on the daily now.
12:34I mean, they're over there.
12:35They're working out.
12:36They're putting in the work.
12:36They see each other.
12:37The locker room that he's talking about exists, like, as in right now, 2026.
12:42And I think that says a lot because the locker room that exists right now is going to be leading
12:50and supporting its quarterback going forward.
12:53And it just hits home to me the point that you just made is, hey, as long as those guys
12:59believe in who's leading this team in CJ Stroud at quarterback, that's all that matters.
13:05And so when you hear something like that, I mean, hell, we should be rooting for it, not to be
13:10rooting for our own opinion to be right in that you need to get rid of CJ Stroud or CJ
13:14Stroud ain't the guy, you know, or just waiting to say, I told you so, you know, six, seven, eight
13:20months from now.
13:21Look, even if you are maybe a little cynical about the way people push their religion, maybe every time you
13:28hear one of these guys and every other word out of their mouth is praise God, God this, God that,
13:32God that.
13:33That we all believe in God in our own way and worship in our own way.
13:38And some people are really pushing out there more than others.
13:42Maybe that turns you off.
13:43Doesn't turn off his teammates.
13:45And that's all that matters.
13:48If CJ was out there with the whole, hey, man, God this, God that, and his teammates were like, dude,
13:55you're phony.
13:55Shut the hell up.
13:56That would be a problem.
13:57Or if he wouldn't live in that way, you know, that would be another problem.
14:01What Hutch said about how they all kind of have the same moral compass.
14:07Bingo.
14:08Right?
14:09That was the most important thing he said in that statement.
14:14They all have the same moral compass.
14:16They're all on the same page on right and wrong, on their faith, on how they go about their lives.
14:24You haven't noticed, you know, when you see players in trouble with a DUI or a DV or any other
14:34things that NFL players seem to get themselves in trouble with, it's not Texans.
14:40And this isn't like the old Texans where, oh, well, we're not going to sign a guy, you know, who,
14:47you know, might have, you know, spit on the sidewalk type of thing.
14:49No, they're drafting these guys.
14:51And the guys they're drafting, they're all team leaders, team captains, guys with phenomenal work ethic.
14:58And you look at the way they have drafted the last four years.
15:04All of these guys have tremendous work ethics.
15:08They're kids who have never been in trouble.
15:11Right?
15:12This is their model, but they're finding the elite athletes who fit this model.
15:18They're not saying we're going to pass on the elite athlete and we're going to take this guy who's like
15:23a fringe player because he holds the Bible the right way.
15:28And this guy, you know, dropped, you know, the Lord's name in vain.
15:33It's not the old Texans in that regard.
15:36It is a focus on leadership, a focus on character as well as talent.
15:42And they don't get in trouble.
15:44They are a very tight knit group.
15:46And when things go sideways, when you're a tight knit group, as you heard Hutch talk about, hey, it's never
15:53anything but hugs in the locker room.
15:56X has had his share, especially his rookie season, has had his share of flubs.
16:01Not running routes the right way, rounding routes off, you know, breaking a route the wrong way early in his
16:08career.
16:09Like he had his issues, right?
16:11The number one reason that he struggled to get on the field more often was that his route running wasn't
16:16sharp.
16:19He never got clubbed over the head in the locker room for it.
16:22They just kept trying to coach him up, coach him up, coach him up.
16:25And even as a, you know, what would you call him, a fourth receiver?
16:29Who, Hutch?
16:30Yeah.
16:30Yeah.
16:31All right.
16:31When he's on the field, he usually makes a big catch for them on third down.
16:35I was going to say, at least, you know, he has saved the Texans bacon at one point, too.
16:40You know, that 34-yard gain on that scramble drill in a playoff game, wasn't it?
16:45When C.J. Stroud had nowhere else to go.
16:47It's usually Nico.
16:48Nope, Nico wasn't there.
16:49But Hutch was.
16:50You know, he's made some plays, too.
16:52It's been a slow but steady trajectory up, I would say, for Xavier Hutchinson.
16:58With a handful of big spikes every now and then, where Hutch will make this big play out of nowhere.
17:03And like you said, a lot of times they're on scramble drills, they're on broken plays,
17:06they're totally out of nowhere, and they're in, you know, conversion downs.
17:11Yeah.
17:11Right?
17:12They're in, you know, third and long conversion.
17:16These seem to be when C.J. and Hutch hook up for these scramble drill type plays,
17:24and Hutch makes a big play happen.
17:26Mm-hmm.
17:27100%, man.
17:27He's Patrick Creighton.
17:29Sean Bajani, we're area 45.
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