- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean dive into what Mike Renner and JP Acosta of CBS graded the Texans' offseason, a McAfee minion picking the Texans to win the SB, and Chris Simms giving them a pat on the back for giving Nico more money.
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00:00Mike Renner, CBS. Guys on CBS Sports were given grades to teams for the offseason.
00:06Here's Mike Renner, NFL analyst on CBS, giving his grade for the Houston Texans.
00:11I liked where they are as a team and how this pushes them over the edge.
00:16I think it's the very first time I feel good about this offensive line, really, in the C.J. Stroud
00:21era.
00:21I think the additions that they made, whether it's Keelan Rutledge in the draft,
00:24who I think is a plug-and-play interior offensive lineman, or Wyatt Teller and Braden Smith in free agency,
00:30you just raise the floor of this offensive line.
00:33I think this is the first time where there's not a starter up front where I'm like, oh, that could
00:38be bad.
00:38I think all of them at least are serviceable.
00:41And I think you'll see the results of that in this offense because of it.
00:44And then secondly, the Caden McDonald pick in the second round.
00:47Truly, like, the one missing piece from this defense was a space-eating nose tackle
00:51in short-yarded situations that can really plug it up in the middle.
00:56And that is, he was as good a guy as you could have gotten in that regard in this draft,
01:00maybe like any draft.
01:01The guy is exceptional against the run.
01:03To get him in the second round, I think, was fantastic value.
01:06So those two reasons are why I'm really high on this Texans offseason.
01:11This team should be the favorites in the South now going forward.
01:15A- is with the grade that he gave him.
01:17I don't know that he ever said the letter grade there, but he gave him an A- for their
01:20offseason.
01:20And I think one thing you heard him say there is that, you know, hey, they've got serviceable
01:27guys, which, okay, well, that's not something you would give an A- for.
01:30I think most people these days feel like that, all right, hey, if you've got five serviceable
01:37guys, then you can have at least an adequate offensive line.
01:41You don't have to have any super.
01:42So, like, they had Laramie Tunsil, who's an awesome offensive lineman for a long time,
01:45while meanwhile having atrocious play.
01:47You'd rather have five serviceable guys than, and I think the potential for at least two
01:54of those guys, or possibly three, to be more Pro Bowl caliber guys.
01:59But I think there's going to be more stability and just less dysfunction on the offensive line
02:05now than there has been in the last few years.
02:06They definitely seem to have guys that are wired the same way on the offensive line.
02:10And that's where I hesitate a little bit.
02:15I'm as excited as I've been about the way they've gone about addressing the offensive
02:21line.
02:21I still have so much PTSD, going back to the Bill O'Brien era, honestly, about this team
02:26just not ever being able to completely put it together on the offensive line, really since
02:31Gary Kubiak was here, if we're being honest, that I hesitate to let my excitement get to,
02:37like, oh, they figured it out.
02:38I've got to see what it looks like.
02:40Yeah, and that's exactly how you should feel.
02:42Because free agency is always dicey.
02:44Free agency is the most dangerous because you're taking guys who are already viable pros,
02:49and it's easy to think just, oh, we're going to plug and play.
02:53And the reality of it is that it doesn't always work out.
02:57And you're more likely to get a good performance than you would out of a second or third round
03:04pick when you have a free agent.
03:06But it's still not a guarantee.
03:08And then the other part of it is, and one of these clips we'll play will address it,
03:12but it's just the injury factor with the offensive line.
03:14Yep.
03:15Here's J.P. Acosta, who was on this CBS show with Mike Renner, saying Texans are all in
03:21on this year.
03:22I think the Texans offseason really is telling us that they are planning to put all their
03:26chips into the table to make the Super Bowl this year.
03:28I think the Wyatt Teller deal and Braden Smith deal are both structured similarly to
03:33where, like, this is the year.
03:34They're going to get everything while this defense and this team in general is still relatively
03:39cheap, while C.J. Stroud still is on his rookie deal.
03:42Go try and win a Super Bowl before you have to make that decision.
03:46So, okay, the part that he said there is go win a Super Bowl before you have to make that
03:50decision about C.J. Stroud.
03:51Yeah.
03:52Which sounds simple.
03:52Oh, it's easy.
03:53I mean, he's right.
03:54I do think, though, when we get back to the carrot-on-the-stick dynamic, I like the way
03:59he framed that, which is, hey, you know, like, okay, maybe we don't do the contract this
04:04year, but, hey, C.J., all you got to do is go win a Super Bowl.
04:07That's it.
04:07And, oh, what do you think?
04:09We're not going to pay you?
04:09Right.
04:10And you're going to get, you'll get, look, we're willing to pay a certain amount right
04:13now, but you come back here with a Super Bowl championship on this team that we've
04:18spent aggressively to build around you, and then the sky's the limit, my friend.
04:23Is there a scenario where the Texans win a Super Bowl and C.J. Stroud doesn't get paid
04:28after this year?
04:29Doesn't get paid.
04:30I guess, what would be the, have we seen anything like that?
04:33Oh, I can see the question.
04:35I mean, the opposite was Joe Flacco was pulled the most brilliant move of all time, which
04:40was not signing an extension and then going on a run that nobody, including probably Joe
04:46Flacco himself, double up and cashed in on that.
04:50Greatest wager of all time.
04:51Yeah, so there they emphatically paid their quarterback.
04:54Right, right, right.
04:55And if C.J. does what Flacco did, he'll be the highest paid quarterback in football.
05:00Jared Goff, it was a few year lag on it, but you know, you go to a Super Bowl and
05:05you think,
05:06oh, okay, young quarterback going to the Super Bowl, there you go.
05:08But then they paid him, though.
05:10They did pay him, you're right.
05:12Yeah.
05:12Yeah.
05:13He lost 13-3 in a Super Bowl, and they still pay, and it was acknowledged that he was the
05:18thing that was kind of holding them back a little bit, and they still paid Jared Goff.
05:22Now, that was a different era.
05:24They paid him a couple years after also, right?
05:26I think they paid him in 2018, I'm pretty sure.
05:29I'll look it up.
05:30But either way, the Rams were the first ones to pay Jared Goff before he got traded for
05:36Matthew Stafford.
05:36He did get that contract whenever it was after the Super Bowl.
05:39Yeah, to actually win a Super Bowl as a quarterback and to not sign a deal, it's tough because
05:46usually the quarterback, with some exceptions here or there, is pretty much one of the huge
05:52driving forces to a Super Bowl victory.
05:54But you go back to, I don't know how they handled it with Trent Dilfer or Brad Johnson in the
05:59immediate season afterwards.
06:01I'm guessing they didn't get mega contracts or anything, but it's likely going to be a
06:05much different scenario if C.J. wins a Super Bowl.
06:09It's going to be included in it will be a much better performance out of C.J. Strauss.
06:14Jared Goff agreed to his deal the week before his fourth season.
06:19Four years, $134 million with $110 million guaranteed.
06:23That was big money back in those days.
06:25And that was, he'd gone in his third season.
06:26It was after he went to the Super Bowl in his third season.
06:29That's right.
06:30So he got paid, even though I think most people around football said, oh, I don't know.
06:36And then two years later, they got to trade him to go get Matthew Stafford.
06:39So he still got the contract, even though they weren't in love with him.
06:43That's exactly right.
06:44Yeah, yeah.
06:44Yeah, that's what I'd be telling C.J.
06:46All you have to do is win a Super Bowl, C.J.
06:48That's right.
06:49It's not that hard.
06:49Somebody does it every year.
06:50You don't even need to win it.
06:51Jared Goff didn't even score a touchdown in a Super Bowl, and he got paid.
06:55We're not asking the impossible here.
06:57All we're asking is that you do that thing that somebody does every single year.
07:01They win a Super Bowl.
07:02The Texans are kind of, I mean, the Texans are changing the game a little bit here for
07:07the NFL with the way that seemingly things are dug in with, it feels like on the outside
07:13at least, that things are dug in with C.J.
07:15Are they, though?
07:16I mean, the Ravens did it with Lamar Jackson.
07:20Well, I'm just saying three years ago, or two years ago, Trevor Lawrence got a $55 million
07:26a year deal and hadn't done squat in the NFL.
07:29Yeah.
07:29Kyler Murray, you know, I guess, were the Ravens changing the game by doing what they
07:34did with Lamar Jackson?
07:36I don't know.
07:37I mean, they probably made offers to Lamar Jackson that Lamar just didn't like.
07:41I don't even know if the Texans are talking to C.J. about a contract right now.
07:44Yeah.
07:45I mean, Lamar had won an MVP already within his first three years, so I'm sure there
07:49were talks of contracts going on.
07:51Right.
07:51You know?
07:52Yeah.
07:52But I think the fact of the matter is, a quarterback that had accomplished what C.J.
07:58Stroud has accomplished in three years, if this was a couple years ago where the league
08:04felt a little more liberal about who they were giving contracts to, would have at least
08:08an offer that would have been competitive.
08:10Yeah, I guess I just don't look at it as much as a change necessarily, because it's not
08:15something that teams haven't been doing.
08:17You know, like it was 2023 when Lamar Jackson finally got his extension.
08:22It's not like this was like long ago back in the old day or anything.
08:26Yeah.
08:26Dak Prescott played his fifth year on the franchise tag.
08:30Yeah.
08:30I think they're stopping a burgeoning trend in its tracks.
08:38Yeah.
08:38Let's call it that.
08:39Okay.
08:40Let's get one more from J.P. Acosta saying that, oh boy, here's my rundown.
08:46But J.P. Acosta on why, oh, he didn't give the Texans, he likes what the Texans have
08:50done, didn't give them an A. Here's why.
08:52I gave them a B largely because I think the offensive line additions, while they are good,
08:56I wonder about some of the injury history for both guys.
09:00Wyatt Teller has missed a lot of games in previous years.
09:03Braden Smith has been in and out of the lineup.
09:05And if those guys go down, you're sort of stuck in the same spot as you were last year.
09:09So I think the offensive line additions and their additions in general even include David
09:13Montgomery to help out in that run game.
09:15If they can really iron out that run game, I think they're going to go really far.
09:18But I think the offensive line still has a little bit too much variance to give them
09:22an A.
09:22That's kind of where I am with it, too.
09:24Like, I just don't, I need to see what it looks like with the offensive line.
09:27I need to see, I need to see these guys they signed who have had health issues the last
09:31few years be available for the majority of the season.
09:35That, those kind of things.
09:36Well, I mean, we're, we're kind of, we're kind of downplaying that.
09:39I know when they signed those guys, and specifically I'm talking Wyatt Teller and Braden Smith,
09:44that it got brought up.
09:45But as the closer we've gotten to these guys in uniform, now that they're at OTAs, we don't
09:50talk about that much anymore, that both guys have been dealing with things the last couple
09:54years.
09:54You know, I think that's worth noting.
09:56Just as far as, because Cody Stutes had the good wrap up on all of the quarterbacks who
10:02had or had not been extended.
10:03And it was between the 2016 and 2023 NFL drafts, 27 quarterbacks were selected in the first
10:10round.
10:10Of those 27 quarterbacks, 14 didn't receive a contract extension after their third year.
10:16And so I think that it's been a trend, and it's been done way more often, but it's still
10:22not necessarily the slam dunk standard thing that you're going to do.
10:26Well, that's when I'd need to see who the 14 are.
10:28Like, if you're talking like Zach Wilson.
10:30Right, right, the guys that just flat out didn't work out.
10:33Yeah, like CJ's not in that category, obviously, so I'd be curious who the 14 are.
10:38Like, I'd be more curious who the guys are that are in that gray area that CJ resides
10:43in right now.
10:44Like, I would argue like Trevor Lawrence and Kyler Murray belonged in the gray area.
10:47Their teams caved and gave them contracts.
10:50Arizona, it worked out horribly for.
10:52Tua, granted after year four, that worked out horribly for the Miami Dolphins in the end.
10:57You know, and so, yeah, we'll see what happens with CJ.
11:04But I'm with Acosta on that.
11:06Like, the O-line, I like the way they went about it.
11:09I like the individuals they picked up on the offensive line.
11:12But I need to see it work out.
11:14I need to see it executed.
11:15This is Tony Diggs, who's one of the McAfee minions there.
11:20He's the guy in the cowboy hat that sits next to Connor the mullet.
11:24And he had some really nice things to say in the McAfee show.
11:29Let's go to one half of the hammer.
11:31God!
11:32Cowboys AP tone, 100 days out from the NFL season.
11:34Who's winning the Super Bowl on this June 1st?
11:36I have the Rams playing the Houston Texans.
11:39And I have the Houston Texans winning the Super Bowl.
11:43Holy f***!
11:45I did not see that coming.
11:48And congratulations to the plus 1,700 Houston Texans on getting a nod from an AP NFL voter, AP tone.
11:58Holy hell, what do you like about him?
12:00Well, I like what CJ has done this offseason versus last offseason when he was touring the world with Micah
12:05Parsons and talking a lot.
12:07He's really just gone to work.
12:08He's been in the gym.
12:09He cut his hair.
12:10I like what they did with their offensive line.
12:12Brought in David Montgomery.
12:13And the defense only got better, and they were the best defense of all time last year.
12:16So I like the Houston Texans.
12:17Okay, so his timeline's a little off.
12:19His Micah offseason was two years ago.
12:21Yeah, yeah.
12:22That was, yeah, I didn't.
12:23Minor correction.
12:24Yeah, people do that a lot with CJ's offseason.
12:27They kind of just, because he was quiet last year, I think they forget about the fact that he was
12:31quiet.
12:31Right.
12:32I've heard a few different people talk about how, yeah, last year, remember he was doing all this stuff and
12:36doing that.
12:37No, I remember that that was two years ago.
12:39Two years ago, yeah.
12:40Last year he had kind of just, yeah.
12:42Just laid low.
12:43So, yeah, I think, yeah, that part of it, I think it's been a steady kind of narrowing of the
12:49focus and an understanding.
12:51And CJ talked about it himself, like, that, yeah, you learn something every year and you start to learn what
12:56you should and should not focus on.
12:58That doesn't mean that he was a complete jackass or something two years ago.
13:02So, it's a steady process over time that you figure these things out.
13:08Yep.
13:08Last one here, national folks talking about the Texans.
13:11This is Chris Sims of Pro Football Talk with Mike Florio.
13:15And he loves the way Casario is going about building this team.
13:19They continue to make all the right moves in Houston.
13:21I mean, again, you know, if Howie Roseman is the king of GMs in the NFL, right, and Nick Casario
13:28is second, they get in front of contracts, they take care of guys that deserve to be taken care of,
13:34usually.
13:35It's incredible team building.
13:36And, yeah, with this case right here, again, you know, wide receiver is a dicey position, no doubt about it.
13:42Like, I always joke, there's 20 top 10 receivers, really.
13:45It's deep.
13:46It's talented right now.
13:48But Nico Collins was definitely being paid less than players that I would go, no, he's better than this player.
13:55And so, I can understand that.
13:57And, of course, he's been a model citizen and a great teammate and done all the right things there.
14:02He's super important to how good they are.
14:06I mean, he's been one of the most explosive receivers in the game.
14:09And last year, if he didn't have that, you know, injuries with his hamstring a little bit, it could have
14:14been even a bigger year statistically.
14:16But good to see them get that done.
14:18And, yeah, you know, Nico Collins, for me, is a top 10 receiver in football and deserves to be paid
14:23like one and maybe even better than that, really.
14:26I do.
14:26That is one big thing.
14:28You can say what you will about the dollar amounts they end up arriving at with some of these guys
14:31that maybe are they overpaying a little bit.
14:34But that gets a little complicated when you consider for guys like Willie Anderson and Derek Stingley, the extensions don't
14:40kick in for a couple years.
14:42So, when you average it out with what's still left on their rookie deals, the deals look a lot better
14:46than just what the agents season is at.
14:50I like that he gets out in front of this stuff.
14:53I like it.
14:53Just all you got to do is take a look four hours north to see what the opposite of that
14:57is.
14:57And Jerry Jones just kicking the can down the road with things, you know, and waiting until the last minute,
15:02pissing people off, ending up trading Micah Parsons after the whole thing, you know?
15:07And with, I mean, without knowing exactly how it all worked out and what was given and not given up
15:14and everything, just even with Nico Collins where they did give him a pay raise,
15:18they also added voidable years and cleared up some cap space for this year.
15:23So, it might end up not being completely without, you know, team-based reasons.
15:31It might not have been just, hey, here's a nice gift, what have you, that they might end up using
15:37that for an aggressive trade at some point.
15:38Then the pieces of the puzzle really come together.
15:42But, yeah.
15:44By the way, Texter, Trent Dilfer got the boot after the Super Bowl.
15:48Yeah, he did.
15:48He wasn't even their leading passer that year for the season.
15:51It was Tony Banks.
15:52That was the example that, and I told you, that's what, I think CJ, somewhere in the back of his
15:58mind,
15:59after spending the entire season playing carefully and cautiously and understanding that defense was the driving force,
16:06there's got to be a part where you're like, I can't be Trent Dilfer.
16:10I don't want to be Trent Dilfer.
16:11I can't be.
16:12I can't be the Trent Dilfer of this team.
16:15I have to be something more than Trent Dilfer.
16:18It's a golden rule of life.
16:20When you try too hard not to be Trent Dilfer, you end up being even worse than Trent Dilfer.
16:25The worst version of Dilfer.
16:26The one with those four picks.
16:29So, Sean, you're 100% right.
16:30The numbers of the guys that didn't get after, extended after the third year, it includes a whole lot of
16:38Dwayne Haskins and guys like that, obviously.
16:41I think that Baker Mayfield is one of the ones where you wonder, okay, in the modern, like even a
16:49few years later,
16:50does he become a guy that totally would have gotten extended?
16:52It's just been, it's been like a five-year trend of it happening for a lot of guys.
16:57Guys drafted really from 2017 and later where they started getting an extension after the third year.
17:06But it's still not a hard and fast rule.
17:08It's just, it's been a strong trend.
17:10I think that, I think everything's getting handled the right way right now with the Texans.
17:14Regardless of what precedent is and how other teams have done it, the Texans are handling them this way.
17:18I would like them to handle it, which is really at the end of the day all I care about.
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