- 1 day ago
Seth and Sean talk about what they'll be looking for at Texans OTAs tomorrow, compare it to what Jonathan Alexander from the Chronicle says he'll be watching for, and see what the listeners want them to watch for.
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00:00An OTA start today for the Texans, so the off-season program gets into full swing.
00:05They've got three sessions this week, three next week,
00:08and then mandatory mini-camp the following week,
00:11and then it's off to summer vacay for about five or six weeks,
00:15and then training camp starts.
00:16Quick reminder, about this time a week from now, 7.30 actually,
00:21Nick Casario will join us next Wednesday, April the 3rd, or April.
00:25The, uh, June 3rd.
00:28I'm sorry, people know what you meant.
00:30Uh, people, there's not anybody out there that's going to readjust their whole schedule.
00:33I like the reward of getting the dates right.
00:35Yeah.
00:36Maybe you should do it for your own, uh, intrinsic motivation, okay?
00:39All right?
00:40That's my bell over there.
00:41How can I do it?
00:42Validation from a bell.
00:43When I can't reach the bell.
00:45No, I don't let Sean anywhere near the reward bell.
00:48Yeah, what the hell, man?
00:49Thank you!
00:50Uh, the, I think the biggest thing, the biggest thing about OTAs is that, look,
00:54uh, you don't, a couple things will happen.
00:56One, I've noticed this this year more than anything else.
00:59It feels like after, after rookie minicamp or any kind of, uh, video from teams that
01:06come out showing veterans working out, man, people evaluate the hell out of these position
01:11drills.
01:12Just guys hitting bags and stuff.
01:14They'll, they'll have breakdowns.
01:16And wow, look at it.
01:17And I'm guilty of it a little bit.
01:19I don't, like, I'm not judging guys by it, but I've, I've done a couple of videos explaining
01:22exactly what they're doing and everything.
01:24Um, but there's not a whole lot of real football that goes on.
01:28The, the things that you look for are a, you don't want any stories about your quarterback
01:33sailing footballs around all over the place.
01:35That's a, that's a, that's a, um, you're going to see some, wow, this quarterback completed
01:4190% of his passes in seven on seven or something absurd like that.
01:45And that doesn't tell you anything at all, dude, um, the seven on seven stats are the
01:50best.
01:51Well, Todd Monk and the Browns coach, he made news off of OTAs because he was complaining
01:55after one of the OTAs about it.
01:57He'd never seen so many interceptions thrown in a seven on seven with no pass rush.
02:01Yeah.
02:02So that's a only, the only actual notable football things that can happen are when guys
02:06are performing really badly.
02:07Or as it was last year with CJ Stroud, not performing at all.
02:10Cause CJ Stroud had a sore shoulder and, uh, if you were concerned about it, you would
02:16immediately get called, uh, an alarmist and you don't know ball and all of that stuff.
02:21And yet, lo and behold, CJ Stroud would go on to look like a guy that could have used
02:25a little bit more time in the offense.
02:27He definitely did.
02:28He definitely did.
02:29I would say of the CJ things, him throwing the football might be third on the list.
02:36Uh, I am most looking forward to his press conference.
02:39As I mentioned earlier, cause I want to, I just want to hear how he handles the question
02:44about his contract that will get asked.
02:48Number two, kind of looking forward to seeing the new slender new hairdo CJ in person.
02:54Yeah.
02:55You know, not just this, uh, obscure phenom that we see on occasional posts on social media.
03:00I want to see up close and in person.
03:03He's got a thinned out face.
03:04I remember seeing him last year in training camp for the first time and thinking, yeah, he
03:08looks beefier, not in a bad way.
03:09He just, he had started, sounded like he had started lifting hardcore for the first
03:13time in his life.
03:14Well, he had been sacked 54 times a year before.
03:17That's true.
03:17So he probably felt like, man, I got to beef up here.
03:19Yeah.
03:20And I wonder this year after his sack numbers go way down and he did a better job of avoiding
03:24them, ended up getting his concussion when he was running past the line of scrimmage.
03:28Yeah.
03:29If he thought, oh, okay, you know what?
03:30Now, if I'm not going to get hit as much, then maybe I can be a little bit more, you
03:35know, a little bit more pliable.
03:36Yeah.
03:37Tom Brady.
03:37Like he, he may not have liked playing at that weight.
03:40Yeah.
03:40You know, with all that extra.
03:41And he kind of, anybody who throws an object, it's always, you got to find that right balance
03:45of, all right, when do I feel like everything's real fluid?
03:48And sometimes you can get a little too bulky.
03:50Nobody ever said, be more like Tebow.
03:53Right.
03:53Right.
03:54Well, that was when, when I watched that Jackson Dart press conference after the OTAs last
03:58week, he was specifically asked a question about, Hey, do you worry about being too bulky?
04:02And he's saying, he kind of said, I'm not, I'm not like I'm Tebow.
04:05And he wasn't doing it to throw shade at Tebow.
04:08He was saying, I haven't bulked up for anything.
04:10He's good.
04:10He's the classic.
04:11He's in the best shape of his life.
04:13You know, Jackson Dart.
04:14Yeah.
04:15He gained some muscle, but lost some fat.
04:17So he's the same body weight and all that.
04:18Yeah.
04:19He did anything happen above the, above the neck with him.
04:22You know, like, did he, has he gotten like, do we know if he's going to get smarter?
04:25No, he said, he said, he said, he's not going to, he's going to be smarter about not taking
04:29hits.
04:29Okay.
04:29That he understands that he's going to be, that he's got to be smarter about when you
04:34take those risks.
04:34I will be anxious to see if he lives up to that.
04:37It's hard if you're, if it's ingrained in you.
04:38That's what I'm saying.
04:39That's what you've been doing your whole life.
04:40I know it's not like I'm throwing shade at him, but it's, it's, he does not play a smart
04:44brand of football if you're trying to stay available.
04:46Right.
04:46No, no, and it'll be fun when the Texans play him because he'll have had to learn some
04:50lessons already, but then he's also going to have to face Aziz Alshire.
04:54And we know what happened.
04:56I can't remember why I was going back and I was watching the Jaguars game in Houston
05:01last year.
05:02Oh, the comeback.
05:03And it was Aziz had, do you remember the play in that game where Aziz was coming in
05:10as Trevor Lawrence was getting tackled on a run and he sailed over the top of him.
05:14Yeah.
05:14But that was dicey.
05:16That was really, really dicey.
05:18I do remember it.
05:18Aziz was not, he was not playing conservatively in that game or worried about it at all.
05:24Yeah.
05:25I, and credit to him.
05:26He, he adjusted just well enough.
05:28I don't know if it would have been a penalty or not.
05:29Um, it wasn't a slide or anything, but man, it would have been a, it would have been a
05:34gruesome hit.
05:34And if he did it again, yeah, he got suspended for three games the first time they need him
05:41out there.
05:41I mean, we saw the one game he missed last year was that Raiders game and Henry Toa Toa
05:46was like a, you know, he's like a dog that you're faking the tennis ball throw to.
05:50He's just, he's all over the place.
05:51He's a mess.
05:52Um, so that's the thing I'm most looking forward to with CJ.
05:56It's not even him throwing the ball.
05:57I'm just looking at the body type and the press conference.
05:59I'm kind of using Jonathan Alexander's biggest things to look for in OTAs as a template here.
06:05If, if people want to text in stuff that they want us to keep eyes on while we're there,
06:09do it.
06:107, 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6, 10.
06:12Jonathan has, can the defense replicate their success in 2025?
06:16I don't know how much we're going to glean from OTAs on that particular topic.
06:20The, I know I'm starting to.
06:22I think of what might happen where I'm like, Oh, this Texans defense is even better this
06:26year.
06:27Yeah.
06:27How are you going to tell?
06:28They're out in no pads versus a, an offense that was already moribund last year.
06:32Right.
06:32Yeah.
06:33That's how.
06:33Dominating.
06:34I think training camp is the big one.
06:37I just want to see actual competition between the offensive line and the defensive line.
06:40Especially this group now this year.
06:41I just, okay.
06:42Can I, can I not, can I not have all of my listeners act like I'm being a, a, a
06:49spoil sport
06:50here and, uh, because I report what I see, which is this offensive line is getting destroyed.
06:55Right.
06:56Yeah.
06:56I'd like to see some actual back and forth between the offense and the defense.
06:59Um, the, uh, this one, I am 100% here for from Jonathan, how will the offensive line
07:05shake out?
07:06Yeah.
07:06Especially this early in the process where they're not in pads for offensive line.
07:11It's tough to, it's tough to really take a big step forward in a competition when you're
07:15in no pads or in the offensive line.
07:17And the, the interesting thing will be with Rutledge because if they want to, if they want
07:22him to compete for that starting center spot, then the biggest challenge is mental, you know,
07:27mental.
07:28And then I'd say shotgun snaps too, you know, it's one thing to snap the ball between your
07:31legs and get in to learn how to pass, protect and run block when you're doing that.
07:35Um, when the quarterback's under center, it's another thing when you're, and I speak on
07:39this based on my experience as a high school center, uh, who hated playing center at times
07:44I played, there was, I think my sophomore year I played center or something.
07:47You guys ran some stuff out of the gun?
07:49No, because I was awful at the gun.
07:51So he was under center the whole time.
07:52I don't think we had a shotgun in our, in our, in the old wing teeth.
07:56A lot of high school.
07:57I wonder how many, well, they all do now, but these days, yeah, you know what?
08:01Yeah.
08:01Now it's, now it's no big deal.
08:02If you played any high school center or whatever, it would have been all out of the gun.
08:05Yeah.
08:06Um, the biggest, to your point with Keelan Rutledge, that would be the biggest sort of wow.
08:13If he was consistently taking reps with the ones, which nobody will be there today when
08:19they do this, except for Texan social media, maybe they put something up, but let's pretend
08:24we're all there today at nine 30 when it starts and they trot out the ones and there's whatever
08:28number Keelan Rutledge is going to be at center with the, with what is clearly the first
08:34team, right?
08:34Ariane Terrestri at left tackle, probably Wyatt Teller at left guard, at least to start with
08:38Ed Ingram at right guard.
08:40And then, you know, Braden Smith, Trent Brown, one of them at right tackle, probably Braden
08:44Smith to start out with.
08:45Um, if Keelan Rutledge is a center with that first unit, that's easily the biggest wow
08:50moment potential, right?
08:52Yeah.
08:52Yeah.
08:52And if, well, and if that's the biggest newsworthy, if they're consistently doing it right
08:57with him at center, cause you know what happens to this time of year when the media is only
09:00in there for some of the practices shuffle.
09:02Yeah.
09:03Jake, Jake Andrews might be there the entire day today.
09:05And then when Keelan Rutledge is the first guy out there, people report it or some people
09:10interpret it as, Oh, look at that.
09:12He's the, with the ones in the first group and they don't realize that he didn't take
09:16any snaps at center the day before.
09:18So, um, but if he is over time consistently working with the ones more than Jake Andrews,
09:24then I would say, yeah, this is one of those things where they're, they're expecting him
09:27to start at center week one and they're going to get him as many reps as possible.
09:31Yep.
09:32Um, I'd be excited about that.
09:33I'd be a little nervous, but I'd be excited about it.
09:36Um, where does tank Dell fit in?
09:38And I'll, I'll put it in my own words that that was Jonathan Alexander's words.
09:42What my question is, what is tank Dell going to be doing?
09:46Yeah.
09:46If he's involved in full team work against the defense, I'll be really excited.
09:51That's the high bar.
09:52I don't even know.
09:53I don't even need to know if he gets any receptions or not.
09:57If he's just out there doing teamwork, that's a huge step forward.
10:01The low bar would be him working out on a separate field with trainers.
10:06Yeah.
10:06I think that's the worst case.
10:07It seems like, it seems like he's going to be, I mean, he's always present and there at
10:12the practices, even when he was recovering from his injuries, he was at practice.
10:16Yeah.
10:16But I think as far as doing things, he's clearly doing things now.
10:19We've seen the videos of him working out and cutting and things like that.
10:22And he looks good, looks very skinny, but he always looks skinny.
10:25I'm talking about his legs.
10:27But I think that's the, I think you're right.
10:29I think the, the, the best case scenario is he's out there doing things in, in team drills
10:35and 11 on 11 and seven on seven.
10:36The low bar is he's one of probably what will be a handful of guys recovering from something
10:41that are working out with some of the trainers over on a side field.
10:45Right.
10:45So then it'll feel like, okay, we haven't really made any progress at all from what we
10:50can see.
10:51That'll, if he's not, if he's not doing things with the team, I'll be a little bummed out.
10:56We've already seen him do agility drills and everything just by his social media.
11:00Yes.
11:00So it's the team stuff and it's the drills and, you know, catching passes from CJ against,
11:06against defenders.
11:07That's a really interesting part.
11:09Yeah.
11:09Um, the last one Jonathan has here is can Nick Caley take the next step?
11:14And again, I don't know what we're going to see at OTAs.
11:17That's going to have us feeling like, oh yeah, Nick Caley, he's, uh, he's going to be on
11:21all the hot head coaching lists this year.
11:24Yeah.
11:24I don't really adjusted to what Matt Burke was trying to do to him there.
11:28To your point, training camp is when I think training camp is when we're going to learn
11:31about the offensive line.
11:32Yeah.
11:32It's when we're going to learn more about Nick Caley.
11:33Okay.
11:34Um, I would say from Sullivan and what kind of an offense they want to be, I think it's
11:40going to look a lot like what they did last year where they did a whole bunch of early
11:45in camp there in training camp.
11:47It looked like the, the only run play they were going to run at times.
11:50It felt like it was duo, which is just mashing right up the middle is very, it's just, you
11:55got it.
11:55You take those defensive tackles and you move them into the laps of the linebacker.
12:00Um, those are the types of guys they signed and they drafted are guys who can run that
12:06type of a system.
12:07Yeah.
12:07And I think we're probably going to see that last year.
12:10I think Kaylee wanted to do that and it just, they, they had to realize over time.
12:15All right.
12:15Well, these, these guys just are, um, not physically capable of doing it.
12:19So we got more guys who are physically capable of doing that now.
12:22Do you have any that you would add to Jonathan's list here that when you go out there, you're
12:25going to be going to be keeping eyes on or anything like that outside of, uh, read
12:30Blankenship.
12:30I just want to see how he fits in, in the secondary.
12:32And you know, I'm like, he's okay.
12:34He's going to be the starter opposite of Kalen Bullock.
12:36I think there's a lot of versatility you can use with those two guys now too, where I
12:40think Kalen Bullock has more of an ability to come up and be a guy that, uh, either plays
12:46in the box or, you know, plays underneath and doesn't have to be a true free safety.
12:51Um, and read Blankenship being there helps that out.
12:54I think you can really maybe hopefully use Kalen Bullock's ranginess more effectively
13:01because you've got a veteran safety next to him that, uh, that can be the, the deep
13:06center fielder at times.
13:07People are weighing in as to what they're interested in out at, at, uh, OTAs, uh, then just to
13:12be clear, I'm not calling him a box safety.
13:14He doesn't have that physique, but, but, but up there near the line of scrimmage, you know,
13:19use him creatively.
13:19Yep.
13:21Um, text message.
13:22I'm interested in hearing about what as in Fisher, the two rookie linebackers, what do
13:25y'all expect from those guys?
13:27Yeah.
13:27Uh, okay.
13:28So what has is the one who's more athletically intriguing and that's why he got drafted higher
13:33Aiden Fisher.
13:34I think I'm, I'm really interested in seeing how he looks speed wise from, uh, out there
13:41against other NFL players.
13:43Cause he's not a fast guy, but he was very productive.
13:45He was on a very good defense at Indiana and he was a team leader and it was classic guy
13:52that sees the game really well, makes the right reads and all of that, but you've got
13:56to just be nails with that stuff.
13:58If you're not actually all that fast, you know what that pick feels like to me?
14:03And I'm not saying it is, it's just feels that way.
14:05He was a seventh round pick.
14:06He was their last pick that they made in the draft.
14:08That feels like one where like Nick's like, D'Amico, you go ahead, pick it's the seventh
14:13round, you pick, pick whichever guy you want.
14:15And D'Amico basically picks like the Indiana version of D'Amico Ryan, you know, obviously
14:20not as physically talented as D'Amico.
14:22Cause D'Amico was a second round pick, but D'Amico gushed about him more than any day
14:27three pick.
14:27I think I've ever heard him gush about.
14:28This is where it's interesting when it comes to D'Amico evaluating linebackers.
14:32Cause, um, if you go way, way back, Sam Mills, Sam Mills was a guy who was a hall of
14:37fame linebacker.
14:38And I used to get told stories about him all the time because Dom Capers was the one
14:43that got him into pro football, uh, with the generals.
14:46I think, I think that was his first time, the New Jersey generals, US in the US of, uh,
14:50I think he was, I think it was Philly, but no, yeah, Philadelphia.
14:53Yeah.
14:53It was, uh, that's where, uh, that's where Fangio and Capers were stars, but anyway, like
14:59he was an undrafted in a 12 round draft type of guy, maybe a 12th round pick, um, and was
15:04a classic, didn't test real well.
15:06He was really small, uh, but he was the type of guy that didn't have a good 40 time or
15:12anything,
15:12but his reads and his first step in the path he took to the ball carrier were all just light
15:20years ahead of most other guys.
15:21His instincts and his football IQ were so high that he was able to become a hall of
15:26fame caliber linebacker just because he was so good from the neck up.
15:30Um, and I think that D'Amico's probably got a knack for seeing guys like that, for just
15:35understanding, all right, this kid, this kid sees the game differently.
15:38So there's upside there.
15:39I would, I don't think it's going to be anything that stands out when there's no pads on, it's
15:44gotta, it's that kind of, and sometimes guys like that, it doesn't stand out until you
15:49get into the regular season and you can actually game plan for people.
15:52This is what used to drive me crazy about sometimes the camp heroes that are the guys who are the
15:56most physically impressive and nobody's going truly a hundred percent and there's no scouting
16:02report or anything.
16:03The guys who are combine warriors stand out in these environments.
16:06Yeah.
16:06It's when you get into the, the rhythm of a, of a regular season and you actually have to
16:10scout the opponent and you can pick up on tendencies and everything.
16:14That's when those guys tend to really show their worth.
16:16But, but a lot of times they just, they don't get an opportunity to even make the team because
16:20they don't look as good in training camp.
16:21There's guys, there are guys who are genuinely gamers and it's not because they're lazy in
16:26practice.
16:26It's because they just, the, they, they don't get to display how much their brain helps them
16:33in practice.
16:34In practice.
16:35It, it only shows up in the regular season.
16:38It's like Kevin Green, Kevin Green was like that.
16:41The, uh, because Dom Capers used to tell me stories about him and he said that he'd never
16:45seen a guy that was so horrendous in practice and it wasn't because he wasn't working hard
16:49or anything, it was just because he was, he was always working on something.
16:53And then he's a hall of fame pass rusher because he had, he had notebooks full of every offensive
17:00tackle and what their tendencies were and what the offense's tendencies were.
17:03Yeah.
17:04That's good stuff, man.
17:05That is good stuff.
17:06So I think that's where D'Amico might see some of those intangibles in Aiden Fisher.
17:10Uh, text message, things to watch for offensive line attitude from skinny jeans and spa days
17:15to savage headhunters.
17:16Yes.
17:17No more skinny jeans on the offensive line.
17:19Sloppy, nasty, poor hygiene offensive lineman.
17:23Do you think that the guys, do you think that when Titus and Laramie were here that the
17:28other guys like Blake Fisher and Jared Patterson and the guys who are in the building felt pressured
17:33to have skinny jeans in their closet and have them.
17:36And now that both Titus and Laramie are gone, they're going to have some sort of skinny
17:40jean burning ceremony or something like that.
17:42Like finally.
17:43Yeah.
17:43We can get back to being, you know, wearing sweats.
17:46I don't have to, yeah, I don't have to try to, you don't have to keep up on Instagram
17:50or anything.
17:51Right.
17:51It's probably very liberating, I would imagine.
17:53You don't have to keep up with all the fashion trends and everything else.
17:56Rutledge, uh, Rutledge, what'd he say?
17:59He had one pair of khakis.
18:01The, he said he doesn't own a suit.
18:03Doesn't own a suit.
18:03Yeah.
18:03He said he's got, you know, like two pairs of khakis.
18:06He had to buy the Texans golf shirt that he wore to his introductory press conference.
18:10My understanding is he got that at the team store.
18:13Ed Ingram.
18:13I don't know what, I, like, I don't, I'm not an Instagram and I don't, and, uh, I just,
18:19I feel like Ed Ingram strikes me as a guy who's kind of a grimy, uh, old school offensive
18:25lineman.
18:25So I don't want to, I don't want to know if I'm wrong or not because he plays that way.
18:30Yeah.
18:30He plays, he plays like he'd rather go have a beer, uh, at a sports bar than to be sure
18:37that he's, uh, you know, I got a reservation at the best sushi place in town.
18:40He plays grimy.
18:41Yes.
18:42He plays grimy.
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