- 1 hour ago
Seth and Sean hear what CJ, Will and Nico had to say about their contract situations and compare it to what Nick Caserio had to say about each when they talked to him yesterday.
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00:00We're going to revisit some of the things Nick Casario had to say yesterday on the show with us
00:05and do it through the lens of the players that we were discussing.
00:09Here with C.J. Stroud, this is easily the cut from C.J.
00:14over the last week or so.
00:17It was last Thursday that C.J. met with the media when he was asked about
00:22how his contractual situation is affecting his preparation for the upcoming season.
00:27Yeah, I mean, I let my agent handle it, you know,
00:29and, you know, if it's time to do it, then it is.
00:31If it's not, my job is football, so that's what I focus on is just getting better,
00:35and I think I've held my bargain up on that edge.
00:38So, you know, whatever happens, happens.
00:41You know, I'm excited to be a Texan this year and, you know, go from there.
00:44Okay.
00:45Obviously, it was the holding up the bargain that got the most attention from folks.
00:49So this was Nick Casario yesterday right out of the shoot,
00:53and the question wasn't about C.J. Stroud.
00:55We should point that out.
00:56The question was just, hey, do you agree with D'Amico Ryans
00:59that the offense is light years ahead of where they were this time a year ago?
01:05I would agree with D'Amico's assessment.
01:07I'd say overall as a team, we're probably further along this time of year
01:12than we were last year collectively, offensively.
01:15We certainly made a lot of strides and a lot of progress.
01:19I mean, honestly, I think everything starts with C.J.
01:22It's probably been the best spring that he's had since he's been here.
01:26You know, he's had a really good offseason.
01:28He's trained well.
01:30I'd say his on-field demeanor, his presence, his communication, his ownership,
01:34his leadership of offense, I mean, it's really stood out.
01:39And I think collectively, you know, just as an offense,
01:43it seemed like you're going into a second year of understanding the terminology,
01:48understanding some of the nuances that are involved.
01:51And really, you're just trying to put the player in place as a team.
01:56That's what the spring really is about.
01:59So, unprompted, high praise for C.J. Stroud's preparation so far.
02:05It was interesting to me in the ensuing 12 hours to kind of get the feel for how people reacted
02:12or responded to Casario saying that.
02:14Because some people said, hey, I think it's pretty clear that they're going to give C.J.
02:21a contract this offseason because, you know, Casario and the team feels that highly about it.
02:27This offseason.
02:28Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:29And then you've had other people saying, well, you know, Casario's just trying to keep things copacetic
02:36and, you know, be sure there's no drama because they're definitely not giving him a contract.
02:41I think there is a third option, which is Casario's just saying how he sees this thing.
02:46How he feels, yeah.
02:48It doesn't all have to be gamesmanship and whatnot.
02:51And I think also, you know, to go back to that dynamic where whenever anybody says something positive about somebody,
02:58you immediately think, well, what were they doing before?
03:01You know, they're going through it with A.J. Brown in New England right now.
03:04Any compliment he gives to Drake May is automatically an insult to Jalen Hurts or whatever.
03:10But with it, I mean, think about it logically.
03:13Right.
03:13A quarterback going into his fourth year, it should be the best time.
03:17It should be the best OTAs he's ever had.
03:20He wasn't even a starter in year one.
03:22And then year two and year three, he's still growing.
03:25He's dealing with a different offensive coordinator.
03:26He wasn't even out there last year.
03:27So it should be that way.
03:30But for Nick to bring it up unprompted and to go into this why it looks better, I am optimistic
03:36about that.
03:37I think that last year, C.J. talked a couple times about how, you know, with a lot of New
03:42England elements in this offensive,
03:44with Nick Haley coming from New England as well as the Rams, that they watched a lot of Tom Brady
03:50film.
03:51And last year before training camp, I went back and I just watched some Tom Brady film of just watching
03:58specifically how he handled the play clock.
04:00Because that was an issue going into last year, it remained an issue at times last year.
04:04And the number of times you watch Tom Brady sitting back there with 20 seconds on the clock and him
04:11direct Gronkowski to come,
04:16run a hard count, see that the safety's going to be rotating up,
04:20and then move Gronkowski from outside the formation to down in line so he can be a blocker,
04:28tweak, give a hand signal to the X receiver, probably changing his route from a vertical route to something over
04:36the middle,
04:36and then double-checking with everybody, going up to the line of scrimmage and reiterating the calls,
04:43and then hitting the receiver on a slant over the middle because he knew what play was coming.
04:48That was a level, that's a level of operation that would have been impossible for the Texans to have last
04:53year,
04:53partly because they just, they weren't doing all of the basics right.
04:57And I think that the offense as a whole and then CJ in command of all of that hopefully should
05:02be a lot better this year.
05:03Because they were just, they were never even more close last year to being able to, they were at times.
05:07CJ had a really nice, CJ in the Chiefs game had a really nice rep on the Woody Marks touchdown.
05:14Where he, he kind of looked at the front, moved Woody from the right side of the formation to the
05:21left side of the formation.
05:23Woody blocks and then releases on a route and CJ's got him wide open for a touchdown.
05:28That's what you want to be able to see just more consistently and more often.
05:31And they did it in fits and starts, but I think, yeah, there's a much better chance that CJ's going
05:35to do more of that this year.
05:36The notion, the notion that because you're doing different things now in terms of preparing this year for anybody,
05:45but, you know, for CJ Stroud, that it must imply that whatever you were doing before was horrible or bad
05:52or broken in some way
05:54is, is, is, is a very broken way of thinking to me.
05:57That, that would imply that people that are elite at what they do, never bother to look at new ways
06:01to do things.
06:02Right. Right. Right. You never get better, you know, at what they're doing.
06:06Yeah. Yeah.
06:06But look, it hasn't been good enough, obviously, offensively.
06:10And so it's, it's fair. It's fair to criticize all of it.
06:13I, I, you alluded to this earlier and you know, you just, you never want to make too many excuses,
06:20but my God, I mean, the fact that they've decided to have a rookie offensive coordinator two times in a
06:27row with your young quarterback,
06:29I just, I'm never going to be super comfortable with that. And it doesn't, it doesn't mean,
06:34because like obviously plenty of first time offensive coordinators end up being great coordinators,
06:40but there is an element of just a young coordinator you're working with, a first time coordinator working
06:47with a first time quarterback or a rookie quarterback where I, I feel like you're courting a lot of issues.
06:53Unless it's Sean McVay or some of the kids who's a known genius. Yeah. It's, it's just tough to expect
06:59that to be the best environment.
07:00Well, and a totally different offense too, right? It's not like they brought in some other branch of the
07:06Kubshanistan tree or something. I mean, they, they went with a completely different stylistic offense.
07:12Will Anderson Jr. Was asked last week or earlier this week, was, is your new contract,
07:18is there pressure that comes with being the highest paid non-quarterback in football?
07:23Honestly, no, it didn't add any pressure. I know I kind of like changed my mindset when I look at
07:28pressure.
07:28I was thinking like, it's not pressure, it's an opportunity. You know what I'm saying?
07:31It's an opportunity to go out and continue to be yourself. I think now my, the only thing that's risen
07:36is like,
07:36I want to hit that next stage of my game. You know what I'm saying? Not because of the contract,
07:39not because I owe it to myself because I know how much hard work I put in. I know what
07:43I put into
07:43this game. So like, that's what I want for myself. So it's really nothing about the money, man. It's
07:47just about the work that you're putting in, the preparation and the process. And that's why I'm
07:50always big on preparation and process is because I told him, I was like, you can't get to your
07:54destination without the preparation and the process. So for me, like how much more can I up my
07:58preparation? How much more can I up my process to get to where I want to be as a, as
08:01a player?
08:02Okay. So that, that's Will on his contract. So yesterday we asked Nick Casario, I asked him,
08:08I said, in some ways, he was kind of funny about this too. I think we've got the little
08:12joke he made about me and Seth in here. Um, I said, in some ways, because Will is so elite
08:18at everything that he does, does that make these types of contracts easier to do? Just
08:24because you know, that this is a guy who should be at the top of the market.
08:28If you're asking me if you and Seth could have done a deal, probably. But I'd say the reality
08:34is, you know, show with a ham sandwich. Just to be clear, Nick, I, that was not what I was
08:42saying. This is a deal that any clown could go do. But anyway, I say we're in, you know,
08:50I have a lot of respect and appreciation for Nicole and the way she operates. And we try
08:55to look, if you're going to do a deal, then you're going to do a deal and you're going to
09:00get it worked out. Um, you know, you still have to have discussions. There's always different
09:04dynamics and components that are involved. So if there's an agreement, um, about the
09:10player and where you think you are on the contract, then you go ahead and try to find
09:14a solution that works for everybody. But I mean, you know, like I said, Nicole does a
09:19great job for a lot of her clients. Um, you know, we'll, um, you know, earn the opportunity.
09:25So, um, again, you still have to work through some different dynamics and some different
09:28mechanics. Um, but you know, it's, you know, hopefully it works out well for, for everybody
09:34involved. Um, you know, Will is a great ambassador for the program, for, you know, the organization,
09:39for the city of Houston. Um, and he backs that up with his play on the field. Um, you know,
09:45nobody practices harder. Nobody plays harder. You know, nobody has the respect of his teammates,
09:49um, you know, more than him. Um, so then again, like that's another situation, that situation
09:55a little bit different than the Nico Collins situation. So we kind of take it case by case
09:59and try to figure out where the gaps are. Can we close the gaps? All right. And in the end,
10:03let's just, if there's a solution to be had, great. If there's not, then we kind of keep
10:06the ball moving forward. Yeah. And then we'll, we'll get to Nico in just a second. What stood
10:10out to you about that? Oh, no, honestly, um, I, I guess this is all he's talking about
10:16Nicole Lynn from clutch, uh, clutch sports. Yeah. The agent, I just, honestly, she's her
10:22clients. It's, it's, it's weird that she doesn't get mentioned more often. Uh, and, uh, in the,
10:28in the, you know, super agent, I mean, she's got Jalen hurts, Miles Garrett, Will Anderson
10:32jr. Quinn and Williams. She's, I mean, she's got some of the highest paid defensive linemen
10:37in the league. She's negotiated at various times, the biggest contract at the respective
10:42positions. Yeah. Yeah. Miles Garrett was a high Mike, Miles
10:46Garrett a year ago was Will Anderson when it comes to the contract stuff, you
10:49know, this is a, she's had some mega, mega, mega deals done. Um, I think that part of
10:54it with, I know the, the concern is always okay. When your team that's doling out contracts
11:00left and right, uh, at some point you got to pay the piper and that's true. It's a
11:04valid concern. Um, you know, you give Nico Collins a pay raise because based on the
11:09response Nick gave yesterday, yeah, it totally sounds like they came to him and we'll
11:14play that in a few minutes. Yeah. Um, that I, it really, what matters is in the long
11:20term. All right. Are, how good are they at just telling the guys that don't deserve an
11:25extension or don't deserve a pay raise? No, we can't do this right now. Um, and there's
11:29a way to do that. You know, I joked with him yesterday bluntly about, you know, how Bill
11:34O'Brien might do it. Um, but there's a way to deal with that. And I think part of it
11:38is
11:38too, is if you've got the right kind of guys in the building that, yeah, you might
11:42have guys that ask for a pay raise, you say no, but it doesn't disrupt the whole locker
11:47room. It doesn't end up being a big, big deal, but that's the, that's the, the long
11:52term concern with that term is they've just, they've done a really good job of drafting over
11:58the last few years and, and developing because Nico Collins wasn't drafted when D'Amico was
12:04here, obviously. Um, but they've developed the hell out of them and they've developed
12:08all of these other guys. And you look at the secondary and some of the guys that have to
12:12get paid. I get really annoyed during the season when people say, well, yeah, it's easy
12:17to run D'Amico's version of football when you've got all of these, uh, when you just have
12:22all this talent. I'm like, all right, are you not going to give D'Amico and the defensive
12:26staff credit for developing that secondary that you're gushing about? There's only one first
12:32rounder in it. There's a one first rounder. So are like the, the, their ability to develop
12:38Kamari Lasseter and to also identify and draft Kamari Lasseter in the second round. Oh, he's
12:43not a first rounder. Okay. No, it doesn't get any talk for rookie of the year or anything
12:47because nobody expects him to do anything because it was stupid 40 time. Yep. But there takes
12:52all, it's a lot of coaching that goes into running what looks to be a simple scheme defensively.
12:58And that's where people lose that. Sometimes they think, oh, okay. It's because I don't
13:04know why they just think, oh, okay. You've all, you must have a whole bunch of talent out
13:07there. Well, yeah, we do, but they're getting the maximum out of that talent and they haven't
13:12spent high draft picks on them. We developed that talent that you gotta, you know, that
13:16you gotta acknowledge that for sure. For sure. Um, it's funny. I, my intent with all this
13:22audio we're playing was not to make everything contractual, but it is so far. It was CJ.
13:26I mean, it's the big, it's the off season. It's the off season. Yeah. There have been
13:29some big contracts told. There have. Yeah. So we, so we saw CJ, you know, we played CJ
13:35is holding his end of the bargain and Nick Casario sounding like CJ is holding up his
13:40end of the bargain. He, that's, it sounded Casario described exactly. It sounds like someone
13:45holding up their end of the improvement bargain that, that Stroud is referring to. We just
13:49played Willie Anderson Jr. talking about no pressure with the contract and Casario giving us
13:53some insight on how that deal came together. Here is Nico Collins. This is probably the
13:58most interesting of the three. Cause this was just a sort of a raise out of nowhere for
14:03Nico. And he was, he was asked about it at his press conference earlier this week. He
14:09was asked, was this contract, is this something you needed to be a Texan moving forward?
14:15Something that I needed. Um, I mean, yeah, of course, you know, you want to set your family
14:19up, you know, for longterm, you know, we know what this business is. It's a business at the
14:22end of the day. Um, it's definitely something that you work hard for, you know, you come
14:27into this league to get extended, you know, get contracts, you know, so, um, it's definitely
14:31a blessing. It's definitely motivation for me and this team to continue to continue to
14:35chop wood, continue to keep going. But at the end of the day, I'm definitely blessed
14:37for that. You know, a lot of people don't get that first, second contract, that third
14:41contract, you know, so it's definitely rare, definitely a blessing. Uh, it's definitely a
14:45great situation for me and my family longterm. And, um, I got to continue to be myself, you
14:50know, not making the situation bigger than what it is. It's a blessing for sure. I got
14:53to use that as motivation.
14:54So Nico got a raise and we know, and, and, and you, the, we'll play some Casario here
14:58because you asked Nick the question, sort of framing it with his extra part, which is
15:03they also got some cap flexibility out of the deal too, by the way the contract was
15:08structured. Texans have a decent chunk of caps. And we actually asked Nick about the
15:11whole cap situation yesterday and he said, you know, where we're at with it and they're
15:16doing things in a responsible fashion and ownership is bought in top down on how they're
15:21going about paying all these guys. And there's going to be more guys. They're going to have
15:24to pay if they want to keep this group together. Um, but you asked Nick about the Nico extension
15:30or the Nico adjustment, we'll call it, um, and what they could possibly do with some of
15:36this cap space that it's been opened up.
15:38Yeah. Every contractual discussion or situation is, is really different. It's really case
15:44by case. We've shown just the propensity to be flexible with our thought process and
15:49adaptable and kind of look at each situation and figure out if there's a discussion to be
15:53had great. And then you engage in those discussions or dialogue. So, um, you know, we're in a decent
15:58spot right now. We do have a degree of flexibility. I think one thing that kind of gets lost sometimes
16:03is you kind of have to plan a little bit for your in season spending. So practice squad,
16:08injured reserve, replacement players, potentially leave yourself enough room or if you get to
16:14the trade deadline. So we try to just create as much optionality and flexibility for us
16:20as possible. Um, Nico's been a good player for this program for a number of years. So we felt
16:25this particular situation, um, it made sense for both sides. So we're glad that we're able
16:29to reach a resolution. Trade deadline was an interesting little drop in there that he's
16:34like, you know, keeping that dry powder for the trade deadline. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some
16:38of that where we look at and say, Hey, they've got $30 million in cap space. Maybe something's
16:42coming down the pipe and it, no, it might be that we're, we're, we're ready to move, you know,
16:47we're ready to go Jim Crane on their asses if we need to at the trade deadline. Um, I thought
16:52that, yeah, the party, honestly, the big, I guess that a Nico had come in either, you
16:59know, either made a polite request or tried to do something more was a, he used the word
17:03resolution. Yep. So, okay. There's a, we, we came to a resolution. Yes. Typically you
17:08resolve a problem or an issue, right? Yeah. And that's a, some kind of conflict. Yes. Uh,
17:13I think this is the thing. So again, going back to when you hear that you give somebody a pay
17:19raise and it wasn't necessarily anything that necessarily helps out the team, just you give
17:24a guy a pay raise because he, because he asked for it or maybe, maybe, maybe hinted it wanting
17:29a trade or something. Um, it, it really does come down to whether or not as a GM and as
17:35an
17:35organization, you're willing to make it case by case. It, it only becomes a precedent if
17:41you allow it to be a precedent. So it, it, it's kind of like a junior high, uh, social
17:49dynamics where, look, you gotta, you gotta be, you gotta be able to take a joke, but
17:55also you also don't ever allow yourself to become a punching bag, you know? So at some
17:59point you can take a little bit of, okay, this, this kid's coming at me a little bit,
18:03that's cool, whatever, fine. You know, but if it starts being every day and if all of a
18:07sudden every single damn kid in the classroom is take a, you know, taking shots at you, you
18:12gotta, you gotta go develop some wit and comebacks or something. Yes. So does, yeah, does
18:17Casario have the wit and the comebacks to, to, to get the junior high students from
18:21coming at him constantly? That's great. Um, so you asked him also, what do you, what
18:27do you tell people who ask or players that come to you and you told a really
18:31funny Bill O'Brien story, um, which we can get to, but what if, if this does set a
18:37precedent, giving Nico Collins a raise, um, what do you tell people who are looking
18:42for a raise themselves? With something like that, if a player comes to you and asks, you
18:46know, for a pay raise or whatever, I think the immediate reaction from guys
18:51like us or fans is, all right, are you creating this precedent here where now all
18:54of a sudden everybody's going to get, want to get paid? Like, have you ever been in
18:59that situation where you've just had to flat out say to somebody, listen, you're,
19:02uh, you're no Nico Collins, okay? You kind of said it, but every situation is
19:07different. It's always case by case. And that's all you can do is just communicate
19:11to the individuals involved, the thought process behind it to some degree. Um, not
19:17everybody's going to agree or necessarily understand. I mean, that's the reality of
19:21it. So ultimately we just try to look at the big picture and ultimately just try to make
19:25what we feel are the right decisions for, you know, the organization, um, and everybody
19:29involved.
19:31Do you want to tell the O'Brien story for people who missed the O'Brien story, which
19:35we have no idea if this is true or not, but I don't think you told this story to Nick
19:39during
19:39the interview. Yeah. Which was that, uh, a fringe roster player, a defensive lineman
19:44came in to Bill O'Brien's office and told Bill O'Brien that he wanted to trade. And Bill
19:50O'Brien looked at him and said, who the ass do you think you are? Deacon Jones? Get out of
19:55here. On brand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I, I approve of that Bill O'Brien story.
20:04A hundred percent. A hundred percent. I'd love to get Bill O'Brien, uh, someday at a bar
20:09and, uh, you get a couple of beers in him and ask him what the, the actual story was. He's
20:13been told so many times that who knows that it feels like that's something that could totally
20:19have happened. I'll say this Bill O'Brien, there was a time where Bill O'Brien was coming
20:23on the afternoon show with us on a somewhat, somewhat regular basis on Fridays back when
20:29John McClain had a good relationship with Bill O'Brien. And there was one show that we were
20:34doing. This is back when we were doing Fridays at Little Woodrow's. Most of the time he would
20:37call in, but we happened to be at the Little Woodrow's in his neighborhood. So he came out
20:41to, uh, to Little Woodrow's and sat down and did like two hours of radio with us. And this
20:46is, this was before he became the GM. I feel like when he became the GM, things changed a little
20:51bit. This is when he was still the, just the head coach. And he was, he was great. He
20:55was taking pictures with fans. He stuck around for like an hour after the show. This is what
20:59makes me think, what makes me think of this, of you saying that, like he's a really funny
21:04storyteller. Yeah. He's a really good storyteller. And he told some funny stories on the air,
21:09told some even funnier stories off the air. Um, so yes, I was also, yeah, he was a big sports
21:15radio guy just growing up. He used to listen to Boston sports radio. Yeah. Yeah. He, uh,
21:21yeah. Yeah. He was, he's, he was, uh, I was, uh, no, I'm just laughing at when he decided
21:27to also take on the job of being GM while having the help of a former team chaplain. Uh, that
21:33is it. It's, it's just hilarious to me when somebody is like, well, all right, I'm just gonna,
21:39I'm just gonna take on these extra duties of a job that normally people work about 80 hours
21:44a week. Yeah. Oh, well you must have a pretty easy job yourself. No, I work 80 hours a week.
21:50Yeah, I do. Yeah. Basically I'm just planning on working just, you know, through efficiencies
21:56and duplications and whatnot. I'll just work 127 hours a week. Yeah. Hey, just how many hours
22:02are there in a week? Uh, several. Um, so, uh, uh, just hypothetically here with Nico and I'm not
22:11saying this is what happened. I'm just, it got me thinking like when you brought up the
22:15red, the word resolution being used. So usually when Nick says we came to a resolution, then
22:20that implies there's a problem that needed to be solved and resolved and they resolved
22:24it. What do you think you'd get in a trade if you traded Nico Collins? All right. As a,
22:30the easy is always a first round plus, uh, I mean, AJ Brown just got traded three days ago.
22:35So that's your, I think you're right. What was his compensation? First round, a first round
22:39and a fifth rounder. Yeah. Yeah. That's his first round plus. I don't, I, I guess, um,
22:45it's, I'm not trying to punt on the question. It's just that when it comes to those top tier
22:49players, it's, it's all over the board, you know, like there's no, there's no going rate
22:53for things that ultimately are really unique situations. So I, that's why the, the miles Garrett
23:01trade to me seemed like, all right, it, it, it made sense because Jared verse, I think Jared
23:07versus way more valuable as a trade piece than a lot of people realize. So for me, it made sense
23:14because he's a, he's a guy, he's not even eligible for an extension yet. So would you rather have a
23:19first rounder or a guy who's almost as young as a rookie and still cost controlled for at least a
23:26year or two it, but you know, for sure, he's really, really good. That's Jared verse. You get a
23:31first round pick. There's a 50, 50 chance. Even if it's a top five pick, it'd be any good. Yeah.
23:37So like that for me was almost better than two first round picks, but there's other people who
23:42think that was, they, they think that the Browns got fleeced. I guess a better question would be
23:46not so much. What do you think you could get for him? But what, if you were Nick,
23:49what would it take for another team? Like, let's say, you know what? Okay. Because the B,
23:55because of the unique situation, the Texans don't have enough playmakers still as of right this
24:00moment. They don't have any big impact playmakers on offense. Yes. I think they can be better this
24:05year. I think they can be more consistent. I worry that they don't have enough big time
24:09impact players like they do on defense. Yeah, man. So for the Texans, I'd say the price to trade
24:13Nico is a lot higher than if you're in a team that's just, you know, loaded to the brim with
24:18a one and a two at a minimum for me, a one and a two and maybe two first just
24:22because of how
24:23crucial he is to, to this roster right now. Well, and especially at this time of post draft,
24:30especially, then you're not, you know, you're, you're hurting your team currently to, you know,
24:37other than, other than if you use some of those assets for a trade deadline. Yeah. And again,
24:41they're not trading Nico Collins. In fact, Nick was asked about that at the press conference that
24:46he did for whatever the one that he did heading into, you know, the off season program or whatever.
24:51He's like, we're not trading Nico Collins. And I'm just, I like workshop and that stuff sometimes.
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