- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean dive into ESPN's piece about the top NFL storylines this coming season, specifically those related to the Texans.
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00:00I enjoyed this ESPN piece yesterday 100 days to the 2026 NFL season predictions injuries and more
00:07and basically what they did Seth they got all their nugget hussies and their draft analysts
00:14and their former players and they got them all together you know in a virtual room and said
00:20fellas here's 10 or 12 things I need you to send me and we need 100 nuggets here let's get
00:25crazy
00:26they got they said they called it their ditty party they said uh this is the ESPN ditty party right
00:31man I was surprised that they put that on the headline it's a strange bold move yeah it was
00:35strange branding by them um so we're not going to go through all of these obviously uh I've got the
00:40list of the ones that are Texans related directly or adjacent to the Texans I think out of the shoot
00:47the most interesting not the most interesting one but the first one that pops up here is the section
00:53with the 10 MVP candidates as we just got done talking about CJ if we're looking for a barometer
00:58of where CJ Stroud is maybe compared to earlier in his career they have 10 MVP candidates Seth
01:04Walder has these Seth Walder was charged with um with putting these MVP candidates together he's got
01:1110 of them they're all quarterbacks and none of them are CJ Stroud two years ago CJ would have been
01:16I would say at the middle of this list of 10 he you know coming off his rookie year he
01:21was on the
01:21odds board a top five MVP candidate he's not even on the radar now when guys like Brock Purdy
01:27and Justin Herbert who he's beaten twice in the last two years on there um you know Jordan Love is
01:34on there the guys that after 2023 if you had said uh hey he's not going to be on CJ
01:41won't be on the
01:42MVP candidate list these 10 these 10 guys um you would have understood Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson and Pat
01:50Mahomes yep you would have Drake May you would have said like who wait no him is he always he
01:55turned
01:55out that that good um he was still in college at the time yeah that's right like you're like oh
02:00okay
02:00you must say like so it wouldn't have you would it would have made sense at least yeah um the
02:04ones
02:05that would raise the eyebrows I would think were honestly uh if you said hey three years from now
02:11he's not going to be listed above Matt Stafford you'd be surprised that Matt Stafford was still playing
02:15at the level he is not only playing but is the actual reigning MVP of the league yeah yeah yeah
02:20um Joe Burrow wouldn't be a surprise I think Jordan Love and Brock Purdy would be the two that you'd
02:25think like oh oh what happened wait a minute if someone told you whoa whoa whoa whoa yeah yeah for
02:30sure
02:31for sure so so that that jumped out at me not that I'm upset about it or even surprised by
02:36it but
02:37anytime you see it in writing it's it just it hits home yeah and I think I think see it's
02:43that if
02:43the Texans are going to win a Super Bowl this year CJ needs to be on a list if they
02:49were to make
02:49this a fluid list throughout the year and they do it's called the odds board but I think if if
02:54CJ if
02:55they're going to win a Super Bowl CJ Stroud needs to be in the top eight to ten of MVP
02:59candidates when
03:00the end of the year rolls around I'm not saying he needs to be the leader in the clubhouse um
03:05but he
03:05needs to play at a level where he's at least in sort of top 10 consideration I don't think
03:12have a really good defense I just don't know that the rest of what they have over on the
03:16offensive side of the ball is good enough to make up for CJ being middling at quarterback he needs to
03:22he needs to play well he doesn't need to be elite but he needs to play well um next one
03:26here on this
03:27list of um of nuggets for the upcoming season 100 days till the start of the season bold predictions
03:35Dan Orlovsky makes a makes a bold prediction if I can page down to it here says that uh the
03:42Texans
03:43will be uh fueled by their defensive line they'll be uh a Super Bowl team they will be the number
03:49one
03:50seed in the AFC and go to their first Super Bowl Orlovsky Dan Orlovsky who was very high on the
03:56Texans
03:57throughout last season yeah very high he is high on them again Texans will earn the number one seed in
04:02the AFC and go to their first Super Bowl the um oh somebody else had made the comment about the
04:07uh
04:08wait now hang on you're looking at Aaron Shatz that was Aaron Shatz who had that bold prediction yeah
04:11yeah no Orlovsky's bold prediction is this the trend of defensive lines dominating the league will
04:17continue to be at the forefront yeah and he lists the Broncos Eagles Patriots Rams Seahawks and Texans if
04:24you want to figure this is what he says if you want to figure out who are going to be
04:28the deep
04:28playoff run teams look at these defensive lines and he says Broncos Eagles Patriots Rams Seahawks
04:34Texans so Orlovsky is kind of making a soft prediction the Texans are going to be hanging around
04:39all season because in the postseason because of the D line Shatz is flat out saying that the Texans
04:45are going to the Super Bowl this year Orlovsky said that before the trade too or he would have written
04:50that before the Miles Garrett trade it's even uh they get doubled down on that yeah the Rams already
04:56had a bunch of good defensive linemen I think the interesting thing about him including the
05:00Patriots and the Seahawks in there is that those guys are they are really good defensive lines but
05:06that are almost kind of no-name defensive lines because even their better players like Barmore
05:12for the Patriots are just guys that are uh they're they're not going to be sack masters or anything like
05:17that yeah so it's and that's what the Texans the Texans look this offseason like they're trying to be a
05:24little bit more like those types of defensive lines where you've got some barroom brawlers on
05:28the inside yeah you've got just got big strong tough physical dudes that's exactly I mean and
05:33those are exactly the types of defensive lines that the Texans had so much trouble with they had
05:37they got physically overpowered by guys on the Seahawks defensive line and guys on the on the
05:43Patriots amen they absolutely did uh so it's just skipping down again to Shatz NFL analyst Aaron Shatz
05:50the godfather of DVOA as we like to call him um he says this about the Texans you know about
05:55their
05:55defense which is one of the two or three best in the NFL the offense made improvements on the O
06:00-line
06:00the addition of David Montgomery okay and the return of Tank Dell should move them up above the
06:06league average I wonder how many of these national people know that Tank Dell is not doing anything
06:13publicly at OTAs so far the big uh well and then the big thing too though is that I think
06:19that
06:19I I I feel like they act like oh he's gonna come back and then he'll be just as good
06:26as he was his
06:26rookie year or whatever I don't think they're doing justice to just what a comeback this would be
06:30because of how bad it is you know it's that they're acting like it's just an ACL tear that you
06:35do that you
06:35get surgery and you come back from and you're the same as you were ignoring the fact that he's been
06:40gone for an entire season right and that he had also been having a rough go of it he wasn't
06:45having
06:45the same type of season in his second year that's right um the big tell is if they say uh
06:49if he comes
06:50back to be slot all right if they say if they don't realize he's not actually a slot receiver then
06:55you
06:55know they're just uh they're just looking at a they're just throwing names out that's a good one
06:59that's a good one um all right next nugget in the CSPN article is they ready us for the 2026
07:04season
07:05they have a section for best bets they have one Texan under best bet you know they've got things
07:10like Cardinals under four and a half wins they've got divisional predictions the Texans prediction I
07:16like this one David Montgomery over 774 and a half rushing yards this year yeah oh 100% I take
07:25that
07:25yeah oh that's a good one look he's the the one time in his career he's had less fewer yards
07:32rushing
07:33than that was last year with the Lions when Jameer Gibbs very much became their main guy and uh I
07:39yeah I think he was only off by 60 yards like he had 716 yards still yeah so I think
07:45if he stays
07:46healthy then that's a that's a foregone conclusion that's right there is just that's a does David
07:52Montgomery stay healthy you're betting on health because they're gonna they're gonna run the ball
07:56a lot and whether you love that or hate that they're they're gonna run the ball um and hopefully
08:02they're just better at it this year but even if they're not incredible at it I think by sheer
08:06volume David Montgomery will get that much or more so they had um they had Benjamin's just meant no we
08:13mentioned Aaron Schatz earlier Benjamin Solak who we played some of his audio on the show before we
08:17met him in West Virginia last year um he they had him list the 10 best position battles or I
08:25guess the
08:2510 most compelling position battles the very first one he lists Seth the very first one I don't know
08:32if this is in any particular order but it's the first one he has Jake Andrews versus Keelan Rutledge
08:38for the center position of the Houston Texans um for real quick before we read some of it yeah Ben
08:44Solak is uh I think he's secretly or quietly uh a Texans fan I mean he openly say how much
08:50he loves
08:50D'Amico Ryans and the way they operate and everything um but I'm trying to figure out whether
08:54he's kind of like Kay Adams in that every fan base thinks that he loves their team he's batting his
08:59eyes at everybody yeah Adams goes and like plays all flirty with a few of the Texans players and
09:05talks about how awesome they are and people think oh she loves us yeah and then all of a sudden
09:10on the internet you see her doing the exact same thing to 31 other teams yeah he's doing like guys
09:15from the Jets or some ratchet franchise like that yeah um yeah so I don't know I don't know about
09:21Solak but he does he is compelled by this position battle he says the Texans made one of the more
09:26surprising picks with Rutledge he was considered a fringe first rounder played all of his college
09:31snaps at right guard that spot is owned by the recently extended Ed Ingram left guard will likely go
09:37to Wyatt Teller Rutledge was cross training at center during the pre-draft process but for the Texans
09:42to get immediate play out of their first round pick he needs to beat out an incumbent starter in
09:47Andrews kicking to center can be an overwhelming task and Rutledge might not be ready week one I
09:53think uh we know how these things go there will be a competition but whenever it's a first round pick
09:58it's a little bit of a weighted competition because uh you know the personnel people believe in uh their
10:04evaluation and all that so I think that Rutledge physically looks the part and you know
10:12if he if he plays up to his scouting report he should be better than Jake Andrews and yet
10:17he's never taken an NFL snap before so I I think that he's the favorite to win that spot but
10:23it's
10:23just whenever you're making a position change it's never a foregone conclusion that the guy's gonna
10:28you know be better than anybody or even capable not to mention every first rounder can also just be an
10:34abject bust yeah no of course no question I thought it was very telling at least about how open that
10:40position is right now that when D'Amico was asked last Thursday a direct question I think from Cody
10:47Stutes about Jake Andrews and Jake Andrews kind of physical transformation Jake Andrews looks bigger
10:54this this season than he did last year it was a direct question about Jake Andrews and in that answer
10:59D'Amico Ryans did not mention Jake Andrews one time he talked about the overall center position and
11:05they've got six guys in camp that have played center before um yeah so I thought that was pretty
11:10telling because D'Amico is not a guy who's afraid to directly gush or be honest about somebody he's
11:16asked about yeah I think he I think it's a genuine wide open I agree yeah and uh weighted towards
11:23the
11:23first rounder so as as it goes but but but it's not impossible for somebody to beat the first rounder
11:29out
11:30so um I think that's the one that's the one spot that's really up for grabs on the team right
11:36now
11:37and I think the other spot if you were to list the defense as a 4-3 but you know
11:42they don't they play
11:44with two linebackers usually but they do play their fourth their base 4-3 defense let's call that a
11:49starting spot the you know the third linebacker backer yeah and I think right now that's a wide
11:55open count I mean that's extremely wide open yeah and if you know there's five different guys that
12:00wouldn't surprise me if they end up taking EJ Speeds role yep or or if none of those guys are
12:06popping maybe that guy is on another roster or on the street right now who knows yeah I think that
12:11it's more likely I I think it's it's I think in that situation it's very very likely that it's somebody
12:17on the roster because yeah if if they're not they don't have to be super enthusiastic about them
12:22and that's one of those things where all right they just play nickel more often than maybe they'd
12:27totally prefer but um I I think one of these guys will step up yep I hope so um then
12:32we should
12:33mention here if you missed it earlier uh Aaron Wilson of KPRC Channel 2 reporting uh EJ Speed out
12:39for the year so whereas the initial reporting with that torn quad tendon was he's going to miss five or
12:44six months uh I guess after the surgery we've got a little more clarity on that he's going to be
12:48out
12:49for the season so that spot Seth is talking about is is wide open for somebody to take hold of
12:54for
12:54the whole year um that's what uh sometimes it happens Sean because the imaging isn't always
12:59the imaging is not not always as accurate as we love to think it would be especially when there's
13:04a whole lot of swelling or something yeah yeah but that's the worst feeling in the world when you
13:07wake up from surgery and the doctor's like hey turns out it was way worse than we thought have you
13:13had that happen to you before uh yeah yeah but it was already really bad so it was just kind
13:18of like
13:18more all right cool cool I didn't uh where's my morphine it's like I found out that uh after a
13:23car
13:23accident my coffee had spilled as well oh no the upholstery uh I thought I thought we could salvage
13:30the upholstery but now there's a coffee stain on it that's great damn it that is great um all right
13:35the uh the next category here on this article second year bumps so guys who are rookies from last year
13:43heading into year two that uh five guys who could take jumps in their second year and this is Matt
13:48Miller one of their draft analysts identifying these guys none of them are Texans but two of them
13:54are in the AFC South so I thought they'd be worth mentioning here because that impacts the Texans um
13:59and I don't think it's a big surprise who they are uh they're the number one and number two picks
14:04in the draft from that year uh Cam Ward Tennessee quarterback and Travis Hunter
14:11wide stakes list in wide receiver slash cornerback Jacksonville Jaguars and reports are he is going
14:17to play both of those things it looks like this year it's going to skew more towards defense according
14:21to reports but of the two Seth Travis Hunter and Cam Ward who would you be if probably the position
14:30alone makes this an easy answer but which of those two would concern you more if they take the second
14:34year jump that Matt Miller predicts you said it I mean the position matters more and I think that I
14:41think
14:41the Titans will be improved on defense just by virtue of Robert Sala and then some of the additions
14:46they made um so Cam Ward who's got two new veterans offensive front of them they brought it they draft
14:55Carnell Tate they bring in Wandale Robinson they already had Calvin Ridley it seems like the environment
15:01should be better for him new OC with Dayball yeah yeah um and that's the biggest question mark of it
15:07all
15:07I don't know if like Dayball Dayball at this point feels to me like he's one of these classic
15:12hey he's a QB whisperer oh yeah when did he get that reputation when he coached Josh Allen and at
15:19no
15:19other time you're like oh all right so like oh boy did he whisper yeah oh god did he whisper
15:25he knew
15:26how to whisper to he whispered to Josh Allen uh throw the ball to Stefan Diggs and look and it
15:32worked
15:32it worked yeah and he wished and nobody could hear him and he was whispering and it was yeah
15:37and it was not like Josh Allen fell apart after Brian Dayball left yeah um uh yeah that's the that's
15:43the biggest x factor for me is I don't know if Brian Dayball's actually any good yeah I didn't watch
15:47a
15:47ton of Cam Ward last year who would other than the two games he played against the Houston Texans and
15:52in
15:52those games you know go figure the Texans defense did a did a fanat they shut him out in one
15:57game and
15:58then the other game was a 16-13 game where he made two plays yeah in the fourth quarter to
16:03score
16:03the only touchdown they had it was one of those things just from talking to people in Tennessee too
16:07it's that a Cam Ward is very mature so he is classic all kinds of stories about him being the
16:14first in the building lastly all like all that all that stuff you want to hear um but that b
16:19he really
16:20was trying to go through that process of playing within structure but the structure would break down
16:27before he even had a chance to do it because the o-line play was so bad and the receivers
16:33so it
16:34seems like if they if they can actually give him some structure to play in he's very willing and eager
16:40to do that it's just that he there there was just so little structure last year what do you think
16:45about Travis Hunter his prediction on a big year two for Travis Hunter I think look he did some
16:50impressive things versus the Texans and I worry about him more as a defensive back than as a wide
16:55receiver but I just uh it it's it's probably not going to happen until they really throttle back
17:02this dream of him being a two-way player yeah and let him focus on playing defense you sent me
17:07the
17:07the video of the magnificent Gladstone on his cell phone walking around at practice looking like
17:13somebody yesterday I didn't realize he was so tiny uh and I'm not saying that is a as an insult
17:19to our
17:20short kings out there I'm saying like frail looking he's skinny and he's so young that it does it looks
17:26like there's a teenager in charge yeah yeah like he's when I say he's small I mean like he looks
17:31like
17:32a teenager do you think he was really talking to somebody or do you think he was trying to flex
17:36a
17:36little bit when he was just walking there with the phone on his ear looking like he's you know hey
17:40I'm
17:40I'm out here making deals man I think he was pulling the time-tested maneuver of I don't want to
17:46talk to
17:46the person I'm walking yeah that's a good one yeah I've got to be sure they can't see that it's
17:51on the home screen is your you know I I know if somebody's doing that to me if they really
17:55like
17:55turn away from me so I can't see the screen but yeah the home screen is I did that the
18:02other guy
18:02talking to his home screen it's a good tactic man um all right yeah or if you've got airpods in
18:08but you still have the phone up to your ear yeah
18:13once I was like I don't want to talk to this guy so I put the phone up to my
18:17ear I'm like oh
18:17crap I've got airpods in this doesn't make any sense at all so then I mouthed I was like they're
18:23dead they're dead the pointed to my airpods oh that the airpods are dead that I was trying to avoid
18:28airpods are dead dead battery yeah I'm just using them as earplugs I'm trying to avoid you but my
18:33airpods are dead and that's why I'm okay cool the guy's like all right no problem um a couple more
18:39things on this ESPN list this I would say I would tell you go out of your way to if
18:43I if you if you're
18:44a big NFL fan go out of your way to find this because it it does these hundred things in
18:48blurbs
18:49that are very consumable and sometimes when it's long like when articles are long like this it's
18:53very consumable and easy to skip around the the next thing here set that impacts the Texans the five
18:59most improved teams in the NFL this is Matt Bowen picking his five most improved teams the Texans are
19:06not one of them they're 12 and five last year I think to say they don't have as much room
19:10to improve
19:11as some of these other teams do but I think what is interesting is that of the five teams three
19:17of
19:17them are on the Texan schedule and they're all in the first seven weeks of the season and they're all
19:24at NRG Stadium oh the Bengals in week two the Cowboys in week four and the Giants in week seven
19:35are all on the Texan schedule and Matt Bowen the other two teams are the Saints and the Raiders are
19:43the other two teams he picks the uh the Bengals are an interesting one because they really bolstered their
19:49defensive line yeah most notably with Dexter Lloyd but also Boye Mafe and Jonathan Allen um and
19:57that's that's obviously been the issue with the Bengals it's like man you've you've you've got Joe
20:03Burrow you've got this incredibly potentially awesome offense um but they just get done in by
20:09having one of the worst defenses in the league I just don't know I don't know I guess are you
20:15just
20:15hoping to get if the Bengals can get to be a mediocre defense then they can be one of the
20:21best teams yeah as long as they hold up the offense now I don't know is it enough to win
20:25a
20:25Super Bowl I don't know if in this day and age if you can be heavily so heavily weighted on
20:29offense
20:30anymore and win a Super Bowl with it but they can be a much better football well and they're getting
20:34the Texans are getting them in week two where presumably they're going to be at their healthiest
20:38you know so all the guys you know did you know I also still trying to figure it out on
20:42defense
20:42and maybe they haven't gotten uh automatic with it guys are still thinking their way through
20:46no I think the thing that concerns me most about that if Bowen is accurate with his assessment of
20:51these five most improved teams and again the three the Texans play are the Bengals the Cowboys and the
20:57Giants I think the thing that's concerning there is that two of the three I think are already have
21:03the makings of being a dangerous team the Cowboys and the Bengals on offense so if they improve I think
21:09the Cowboys and Bengals improvement for them means their playoff teams yeah whereas improvement for
21:14the Giants I mean the Giants were four and 13 last year with a rookie quarterback who we don't know
21:19if
21:19he's even going to survive to week seven and all kinds of turmoil in the locker room right now all
21:24that going on I think the Giants could improve and still be a bad football team whereas I disagree
21:28with turmoil in the locker room but as far as the the actual giant like the optimum Giants incredibly
21:34unfounded at this point yeah um and like Jackson Dart if there's ever a quarterback poised for a
21:39sophomore slump it's the guy who basically played college football in his rookie season and defenses
21:46have uh they've figured out a way to to to handle and deal with that not to mention can he
21:51stay healthy
21:52but it's early in the season you're right Malik neighbors Malik neighbors might not be playing at that
21:56point and I don't know about Cam Scadabo either yeah we'll see um so last one Benjamin Solak again
22:04five must watch games these are in chronological order not order of preference uh but week one the
22:10very first one he lists bills at Texans five must watch games on the it's not the five must watch
22:15games
22:16for Texan fans five must watch games in the NFL this year and he's got the the bills and the
22:22Texans in
22:23week one noon such a great game they put it at noon on CBS um but they he talks about
22:30how this
22:31is a matchup the last couple seasons it's been really good where the Texans have exposed Josh Allen
22:38in some ways and in some ways exposed Joe Brady too who was promoted from the offensive coordinator
22:43to the head coach of the bills yeah they brought in you've got a new defensive coordinator now for the
22:47first time uh since whenever McDermott was hired uh that it'll be a different defense um I guess
22:54this is the when there's an in-house promotion like this and you keep a lot of the same staff
22:59around
23:00I just there's a there's a reason that in-house promotions are so historically bad and one of them
23:06I think is one of them is that there whatever old baggage there was and whatever infights or
23:14grudges people had against them it gets 10 times worse the guys that there the guys that get passed
23:20over or the guys that are disgruntled the McDermott maybe got fired or whatever um it just comes with
23:25so much baggage it always feels like a recipe for disaster for with me um and that's not something
23:30that you ever it's not going to be reported and you're not going to see it necessarily but they had
23:34issues last year where I felt like Joe Brady Joe Brady as an offensive coordinator was looking like a
23:41guy that was in love with the passing game when he should have been leaning into his run game
23:45and that's when he's got a defensive-minded head coach who's probably telling him hey we do have
23:49James Cook yeah like he we do we got one of the top two rushers in the league why are
23:54we moving away
23:55from him in this three-point game right now yep like now without that backstop I don't I don't know
24:01exactly what it looks like with with Joe Brady as a head coach we'll find out in week one we'll
24:05be the
24:05first ones to find out in a real game in week one uh with the Texans and the Bills at
24:10NRG Stadium can't wait
24:11countdown is on um Seth I got a text I know who's at the podium today are you ready yeah
24:16D'Amico
24:17Ryan's obviously um heard of him Will Anderson Jr. is at the podium today good good good we get that
24:23so we're going to get at least one question about him wrecking practice yes Nico Collins I'm not
24:28criticizing that question it's an appropriate question yep okay Nico we get Nico today yep fresh
24:33off uh fresh off getting a nice pay raise um and we get oh yeah we didn't get uh Nico
24:38Collins
24:38press conference after they redid his we didn't yeah that's not really a press conference type of
24:42scenario no okay and I'm assuming this means he's also practicing he didn't practice last week when
24:47we were there but uh so Nico is going to do podium today and Jaden Higgins ah Higgins is a
24:54good interview
24:54so that's that's not bad no and Jaden Higgins will anytime you get Will Anderson at the podium the floor
25:00for that day at the podium is like a b-plus they can put two mutes up there after Will
25:05and it's still
25:05going to be a great day Jaden Higgins uh we played that Steve Smith senior audio uh gosh it was
25:12probably a couple months ago now um but I I do think he's an underrated guy to watch league-wide
25:18as a guy who really I think grew a lot in terms of understanding NFL football where he fits in
25:27the
25:27offense all of that but he's so much like Nico Collins and his ability as a big guy to sink
25:33his
25:33hips and the way he's capable of running his routes I like I feel like he might very well
25:39follow that same trajectory of Nico Collins is where hopefully at a faster pace but where
25:44you know he's unheralded the first year and then all of a sudden oh wow look at this guy this
25:49guy's
25:49polished he's put I probably put on a little bit of you know just mature body weight and everything
25:54and I think he's I think he's got a lot more potential than people realize he's one of the biggest
25:58x factors for this team this year yeah if Jaden Higgins if he's one of those guys that you know
26:04we just did the the category uh year two players five of them that could take a big leap that
26:09somebody
26:09I forget who from ESPN I think it was Matt Bowen picked him and you know one of them was
26:14Cam Ward
26:14one of them was Travis Hunter if at the end of the year we're talking about Jaden Higgins as one
26:18of
26:18these year two guys that took a big leap then I think that spells really good things for what this
26:23Texans offense looked like throughout the year he needs to become he needs to become the number two
26:29kind of playmaker on this team when we went through that exercise last week Seth of all the
26:34Daniel Jeremiah 12 foundational pieces of a team and three of them were offensive playmakers and we
26:42were having we were struggling to get three of them and finally I think we almost just by by you
26:47know
26:47just we conceded Dalton putting Dalton Schultz in there yeah Jaden Higgins needs to be the answer to
26:52one of those three this season for the Texans the funny thing about Jaden Higgins is um you know
26:57because if you don't have an electric 40 time you know you immediately people think of you as a
27:01certain type of way yeah um I just when I when when you look at his actual measurables and we
27:08know
27:08now that teams teams care where way more about the GPS data and everything than they do the actual 40
27:13times but like he's in the 85th percentile above for just about everything except this 40 yard dash
27:21so like when it comes to his vertical his broad jump uh his wingspan arm length height weight all
27:29of that stuff um he's he's up there it's just that the the some of the more traditional stuff that
27:36people like to look at for the eye popping factor isn't there but that's that's exactly how it
27:41translates with Nico Collins in a lot of ways Higgins and or Noel have to take big steps up this
27:48year
27:48this this is not a I think it's a wide receiver room that that people can get excited about because
27:53it's so young especially with those two guys but we don't know what tank is right now I think Xavier
27:58Hutchinson has kind of established his level which is fine I think he's going to be in the league for
28:02you know for another five or six years being a wide receiver four but I think if Xavier Hutchinson is
28:09one of your top two guys then you're probably a little challenged at wide receiver going to carve
28:15himself out a nice career um but you got Nico who's elite and then those the like the Noel
28:21Higgins factor is the huge question mark in that room if they if they make the strides that I think
28:28the team hopes they can make and thinks they're capable of then this is going to be a really exciting
28:32receiving room if they don't then they're they're going to have trouble at times against good defense
28:37and I think that's too when you think about last year the first half of the season offensively
28:43when you know they would have loved Jalen Noel to get on the field more I think and like because
28:48people were clamoring for it or more targets and all of that the problem is that it's he's sitting
28:53behind a veteran and Christian Kirk who just flat out is going to know and understand how to place a
28:59lot receiver a lot better and I think there were times where Jalen Noel just wasn't where he was
29:03supposed to be right on time and in the routes and and CJ you know it's hard for CJ to
29:09trust a rookie
29:10when they're playing that way so it was going to take some time for those guys to get it going
29:14especially when you've got two of those guys in camp that when you heard D'Amico last week talk
29:19about how far ahead of how far ahead they are at this point this year than they were last year
29:24I think a lot of that is I think people think of the offensive line but really it's the young
29:30wide
29:30receivers who are now a lot closer to being veterans and you don't have to be working on
29:34the remedial stuff with them
29:35yep
29:35you
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