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ITL debates whether Houston's elite defense could actually be creating challenges for the offense during practice.
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00:00Obviously, OTAs, the training activities are indeed organized and they continue to run.
00:04We're running towards the end of them.
00:06And one of the things that was a conversation point last year in training camp and has come up again
00:11is one Will Anderson Jr.,
00:13how damn unstoppable he is, how much he wrecks everything, including meetings, so on and so forth.
00:20He's just that damn imposing of a dude.
00:23He wrecks everything.
00:24It's awesome.
00:25It's awesome to have that dude on your team.
00:27Or is it?
00:27Okay, fair enough.
00:28Yes.
00:28Because the coordinators of this football team talked yesterday.
00:32We had Nick Cayley live on the program.
00:35But Matt Burke also talked.
00:36And he was asked a very interesting question, right?
00:38The domain of the defense is his.
00:40And so he was asked about, do you possibly think about calling off the dog that is Will Anderson Jr.?
00:45Did you ask Cayley?
00:47I don't know.
00:47You have to ask him more than me.
00:48He doesn't mess up my practice.
00:50That's what I want.
00:51You know, I don't.
00:54I think we held him out the other day, didn't we?
00:55I don't even know.
00:56I don't know if he practiced the other day.
00:57So, like, I think it's hard.
01:00I think Will specifically.
01:02But just in general, like, again, we want our – we don't want to train bad habits for our D
01:06-line and our get-off and the way we approach it.
01:09And I think Will doesn't know any different.
01:10I think he doesn't want to backslide or take a step in the wrong direction.
01:14So, you know, when you tell people, like, hey, kind of half-speed this or, like, it just doesn't register
01:20for him.
01:21And there's a part of it that we don't want to build bad habits of those guys because sometimes if
01:24you're not in your stance and locked and loaded to get out and explode, like, that's creating bad footwork or
01:29that's creating something.
01:30And I think Will is such a believer and a convert in that that he doesn't want to want to
01:35do anything differently.
01:36So that's on D'Amico to make sure that he's controlling it.
01:39You know what I mean?
01:39It's just – I'll give you a little – there was a play the other day.
01:44I can't remember.
01:44We were in the high red or something.
01:45And Will rushed off the edge.
01:47And, like, you know, there's just a fine line of when you're pulling off.
01:49Again, we don't want to be near CJ or be around the quarterback.
01:51And so Will kind of walked it back.
01:56And D'Amico looked at him and was like, hey, man, like, all right, we're good.
01:59We get it.
02:00Like, tempo it down a little bit.
02:01And so the next play, he was like – we used the word shadow technique sometimes.
02:04We just want to kind of shadow the blocks and kind of, like, fit it.
02:07And so D'Amico was like, hey, shadow it, shadow it.
02:10And Will kind of made an inside move and sort of stopped but just kind of kept walking like this.
02:14He was like – he was trying to show, like, I'm still going to get through there if you really
02:17let me go.
02:18So he kind of, like, slowed it down but still kind of, like, made sure he got through the line
02:22of scrimmage.
02:22So, like, I think he's trying to find his balance on that.
02:25But, you know, at the end of the day, we don't want to take away what his superpower is.
02:29And that's it.
02:30So it's fun for me to coach.
02:33Again, you have to ask some of the other guys if they like doing that or not.
02:36This is a tough one.
02:37It really is.
02:38Because the whole – like, the Texans have done everything they possibly can to build up C.J. Stroud, to
02:45get him in.
02:45He's doing everything it seems he can.
02:47In the offense in general, right?
02:48In the offense and the personnel.
02:50Right.
02:50C.J. ends up being the proxy for it.
02:52But the entirety of the offense – and we've gotten glowing, glowing reviews.
02:55Yes.
02:55At least as far as you can actually have during organized training activities when it's just kind of shirt, shirt,
03:00shorts, and helmets.
03:03But, like, you know, pads are a different circumstance, right?
03:05When this thing gets fired up and all of those gains, right?
03:09How do you build on them?
03:11How do you maintain them?
03:13Do they need to actually call off the dogs here?
03:15Well, no.
03:15That's why it's so tough.
03:17Because I think ultimately we can go back to last year's training camp and really the training camp before.
03:24The offense couldn't function a lot of times.
03:27They could not get better because they couldn't – a lot of it back then was their fault.
03:32Well, and we'll see, you know, how the offensive line in particular, you know, can handle things this training camp.
03:39But that affected the whole year.
03:41Like, that affected C.J.'s mood, C.J.'s approach, it seemed like.
03:45Like, and so do you – do you kind of tell Will Anderson and the defense in some cases, hey,
03:54you know, kind of take it off?
03:56I think ultimately I would say the best play would be to give him some plays off, you know, to
04:02let the offense cook.
04:04Do a little bit of one's offense versus two's defense.
04:07Because if the same thing happens again, will the same thing happen again in the regular season?
04:13I mean, I would sure hope not off of the simple idea that you have a lot better talent on,
04:20at the very least, the offensive line than last year.
04:23Right?
04:23I think that we all feel pretty –
04:25You think.
04:25Fair enough.
04:26Fair enough.
04:26I can't say that definitively yet.
04:28But I think we feel pretty confident that that will be the case and that will demonstrate itself to be
04:32the case for the Texans in this upcoming season.
04:36They – it's hard, though, because, like, the platonic ideal of what this is is iron sharpens iron.
04:43You go up against the best.
04:44I see him on the Tex line already, right?
04:46How about we learn how to just block Will Anderson and the Will Anderson's at the NFL?
04:48That's why it makes it so tough.
04:50I don't disagree, but –
04:51There's people that are like, don't start crying about Will Anderson Jr. practicing hard.
04:57But this is the thing that I was thinking about that made me get to a different place on this
05:01than I previously would have, right?
05:03The – just in a vacuum, you go, well, just block it.
05:06That's how you get better.
05:08I want to give you an opportunity to flex a little bit, John Lopez.
05:11I know it's a little bit ago, but you played a little football.
05:13You were an athlete, so on and so forth.
05:15Do you remember what you maxed at on bench?
05:18Yeah, because I hit 300 and never could get over.
05:21Okay, so you hit 300.
05:22You maxed at 300.
05:23Yeah.
05:23Did you always lift 300?
05:25No, I did not always lift 300.
05:27That was the goal.
05:28Well, actually, 315 because I think that was the extra plate, if I'm remembering correctly.
05:31So, whatever, right?
05:33Like, you don't always work at your max.
05:34Yeah.
05:36But trying to stop Will Anderson Jr. is kind of working at your max, especially as you're
05:39trying to develop the muscle that is this offense and all those things.
05:43And so, I think that it ends up being really tough for you to establish what you're doing,
05:48for you to find the finer points of your technique if you are, like, constantly dealing with
05:54Will Anderson Jr. at his peak.
05:55And it's kind of awesome that you have that.
05:57And I'm not saying that you completely go away from that, but, like, when you're trying
06:01to constantly lift your max, that is when you have poor form start developing.
06:06100%.
06:06Absolutely.
06:07That is when you create injuries.
06:08I know that that's not one-to-one in this metaphor that I'm building, but I'm surprised
06:13myself when I started thinking about it.
06:14I'm like, no, they do need to find.
06:15And honestly, the evidence that this is the case is in that Matt Burke quote where he's
06:20talking about how D'Amico Ryans has had little instances, little hints of, hey, Will, pull
06:27it back, not quite all the way, but like, hey, man, you know, getting into the shadow
06:30circumstance that they're talking about.
06:32There are instances, and because ultimately, I know that Will could turn it up, and I know
06:36that the idea is nice, and it sounds good to be like, hey, we always want you to go
06:40100%, and that is the ethos that they build.
06:42I don't want to undercut that.
06:43But more importantly, I think this offense needs to come together, and you need to be able
06:46to have this time establishing a foundation for you to work.
06:49Look, I think ultimately I'll fall right there with you, but kind of with that in mind, but
06:54also a different reason, because like the texter said, don't start crying about Will
06:58Anderson practicing hard.
06:58Nobody's crying about that.
06:59But the catchphrase with this whole team, and D'Amico in particular, is we need good
07:05reps.
07:07We need reps.
07:08Okay, you can build up to that, you know, and I'm sure they want to face Will Anderson
07:12and the defense at its full capacity, ultimately, but you need good reps.
07:19C.J. Stroud needs good reps.
07:21What's more likely to happen?
07:22Because when he said that one part about, you know, we don't want Will Anderson to create
07:27bad habits, I'm like, in what world?
07:31In what world do you see Will Anderson, you know, creating bad habits?
07:36On the other hand, there is a world where we see C.J. Stroud in this offense creating
07:40bad habits.
07:41We want the offense to perform at a very high level.
07:45We want the offense to get better.
07:46The difference between this team and a Super Bowl is the offense improving.
07:50So I'm not worried about Will Anderson.
07:52I don't think anybody is worried about Will Anderson, quote, creating bad habits.
07:57But if you can get to that point by giving them some good reps, you know, then maybe we're
08:02on to something and we get what we all want, and that's a Super Bowl appearance.
08:06Right.
08:06I mean, just the basic logic of it is just be better.
08:09But just think of how, like, that's such an anti-intellectual way of going about this.
08:15Like, well, just be a better version of yourself.
08:18Well, yeah.
08:18I mean, like, if they could do it, they would.
08:19I imagine there's 31 teams in the league that are doing like, hey, just block Will Anderson,
08:23Jr., it's clearly a tough task.
08:25You block him!
08:26It's clearly a tough task to undertake.
08:28And so I think that you have to be pretty pragmatic about this.
08:31And so, yeah, I don't think that this is just tell Will Anderson, Jr. to never give 100%.
08:38But I think that they need to be pretty diligent about the way that they go about this.
08:41And yet last year serves as some level of a warning, I think.
08:45Like, I, to try and make it seem like this is the only reason that the offense wasn't incredible last
08:53year.
08:53That would be absurd.
08:54Yeah, yeah.
08:55Right?
08:56And, you know, in training camp the last two years, I think we could all easily point to, man, we
09:01saw this in training camp.
09:03They couldn't even get a playoff in some instances.
09:04Remember, that was one, I don't know if it was last year or the year before, where there was like
09:07nine plays in a row that the offense, you know,
09:10either didn't get a playoff or was going to be sacked or whatever.
09:15And no one is worried about Will Anderson.
09:18No one is worried about this defense.
09:20You are worried about the offense.
09:21So do what you can to help it.
09:23And by the way, D'Amico Ryans, do you not want the offense to get better?
09:28I mean, I get it's in his DNA.
09:29We are not going to take our foot off the gas.
09:32But you're also the head coach, you know, of the whole squad.
09:35And how do you feel about this thought that comes in that says it would be different if it wasn't
09:39most of these guys on the line for the first year in this system?
09:42But there are a lot of veteran guys.
09:44No, I know.
09:44But like there are a lot of veteran guys that are trying to congeal and come together in this new
09:48circumstance.
09:49So towards that end, you give them the opportunity to feel this out.
09:53Yeah, to do that.
09:54No, I think that's more than valid.
09:56Yeah.
09:57Yeah.
09:57Honestly, I was surprised when I was thinking through it because I probably would have been, for lack of a
10:01better word, like a hard O.
10:03Well, just, I mean, hey, man, you're going to have to block really good guys in this league.
10:07But I think you work up to it, man.
10:09Like you really and truly, you work up to it.
10:10You give yourself an opportunity.
10:11And maybe that's what like walkthroughs ultimately are what we're trying to say.
10:14But there needs to be some level of effective practice.
10:17And I think that what you're saying is probably some of it, right?
10:20Have them go against the twos.
10:21Like I imagine that getting this done against Dylan Horton with all due respect to Dylan Horton, right, is a
10:26little bit different.
10:27That Will Anderson Jr. absolutely wrecking what you do.
10:30And yes, Will Anderson Jr. has to get his in this.
10:33But I think that you lean on the idea of where he has been, the ways in which that he
10:36works, you know, the motor that he has.
10:39And understand that you're not going to, I don't think you're going to ruin Will Anderson Jr. while giving your
10:43offense an opportunity.
10:44I mean, anybody who says that, you know, come on.
10:46In what world?
10:47Yeah.
10:48In what world?
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