- 3 hours ago
Brandon explains why some of Caley’s answers left him wanting more.
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00:00I am trying to give Nick Kaley and CJ Stroud and these offensive line additions that Nick Casario and company
00:08have come up with.
00:09I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.
00:11I want to give them the benefit of the doubt because I think it can work.
00:15I think that there are some positive signs with the offensive line and just the idea of what can this
00:23thing look like if they do have a competent offensive line.
00:26I want to give them a chance.
00:28The thing yesterday I asked Nick Kaley about explosive plays and how they plan to generate more explosive plays.
00:35This is also on the heels of hearing from CJ Stroud the previous week saying that they want to implement
00:39more of the things that he's done in the past and had success with in the past and sort of
00:44bring all of these ideas together.
00:46And he'd already been asked about the relationship with CJ by the time I got to him, right?
00:50So I'm like, so how are these explosive plays going to be generated?
00:53Because in my mind, CJ Stroud wants to probably throw the ball down the field a little bit more.
00:57Without saying that explicitly, he probably wants to do that a little bit more.
01:01It seems like this offense wants to do a little bit more ball control, dink and dunk, let's be smash
01:07mouth, run it down your throat type of thing.
01:09And maybe some basic route concepts, but shorter route concepts.
01:15So how are these explosive plays going to happen?
01:18And this is what Nick Kaley had to say about it.
01:20Yeah, I think first and foremost, you know, everything, it all counts for something, right?
01:25You got to tie in, whether it's in the past game, it's protection, it's being clean on protection, it's route
01:30depth, it's proper reads, it's everybody tied together, right?
01:33Same thing in the run game.
01:34You know, it's hat on a hat.
01:35It's much more looking at the hat and being cleaner and more efficient in those components of the offense.
01:42And then first and foremost, before we design anything, it's who are we talking about the players, right?
01:47It's, you know, players over plays, really.
01:49And just trying to continue to refine our techniques, our fundamentals, tie things together, and be able to put guys
01:55in the proper position.
01:57And like I said, we're further ahead now than we were at the end of the season.
02:01Obviously further ahead than last year.
02:02So we're just going to continue to try those things.
02:04But, you know, the explosives come by doing the right thing consistently and having all 11 tied together in those
02:10things.
02:10And that's where your opportunities come.
02:12And then to piggyback off that, you know, when you do have the ball in your hand, how can we
02:17create more yards after the catch with the ball in our hand?
02:20Is it attacking leverage, attacking entry, being able to set up defenders in the open field?
02:25Those are all things we're trying to attack on a daily basis and trying to make progress with.
02:29So I actually don't hate this answer.
02:31I just don't know.
02:33But do you love it?
02:35But when he goes to the part of the yards after the catch and, like, the players, I'm like, well,
02:42who are these guys?
02:44Who are these guys that we're talking about?
02:46Who are they supposed to be?
02:47And hopefully they emerge.
02:49But I am deeply concerned about the evolution of the offense.
02:54When I heard from C.J. Stroud last week, I was encouraged.
02:57And then when I heard from Nick Caley yesterday, I was like, oh, well, that kind of sounds like it's
03:01going to be a lot of what we already saw.
03:03It doesn't sound like we're trying to really stretch the ball downfield.
03:06We're trying to get yards after the catch, which we're talking about.
03:09We're basically saying, hey, the guys that we had last year, we didn't really have everything that we needed to
03:15create explosive plays.
03:17He started the offensive line and sort of the route, how they were running their routes and everything.
03:23So that's him saying offensive line wasn't good enough.
03:27Nicely.
03:28Offensive line wasn't good enough.
03:30Honestly, what we had in the receiving court wasn't good enough.
03:33Hopefully that that's going to be better.
03:35Well, yeah, I hope so, too.
03:38But, you know, we're more so asking about the offense itself and how it's going to evolve.
03:42Reggie and I had this exact same discussion and wondered the exact same thing yesterday after we heard you, or
03:47Dave, before when I asked that question.
03:49Just yesterday?
03:49Yesterday, yeah.
03:49Yeah, because I was sitting there looking at Reggie going, well, that doesn't exactly seem like, hey, we are going
03:55to open it up in these ways.
03:57We're going to take advantage of these opportunities.
03:58It's like, no, players over plays means let's kind of just do what we do well.
04:04Well, and then when you, you know, kind of balance it, and you brought it up right there, what C
04:10.J. Stroud said, you know, like, hey, we're going to try to maybe do some things that I like to
04:15do.
04:16Nick Haley didn't really say that.
04:17He says, well, let's just do what we do, but do it well.
04:20Yeah.
04:20You know?
04:20Yeah.
04:21And so, and I do have where I want to give them a little bit of benefit of the doubt.
04:26It's like, okay, when we're talking about stretching the ball downfield, a lot of this comes back to, like, the
04:32Jalen Knoll piece of it.
04:34It's like, who are, when he says, who are we talking about, who are these players, I think it's fair
04:38to ask, who are their explosive players outside of the obvious of Nico Collins, the reliable of Dalton Schultz, who
04:45I wouldn't call necessarily an explosive player.
04:47I would call him a reliable player, but not an explosive player.
04:50Where are these explosive plays supposed to come from, either through scheme or personnel?
04:57And I don't have a great answer.
04:59I'm hopeful about it.
05:00Yeah, I want the best for Dick Kaley.
05:02I want Jalen Knoll to break out of whatever shell that he's been in.
05:05But I don't, I'm concerned.
05:07I don't necessarily know where this is supposed to come from.
05:10I think the concern is fair, right?
05:12I think the concern is fair.
05:13To answer the question, at least in the way that I would, if I was put in the place of
05:18Nick Kaley, the players that we're talking about, clearly, number one is Jalen Knoll, right?
05:23That's a dude who has speed, who showed you the capability of giving some explosive type things.
05:27You hit on another one, which is Nico Collins, who needs to be an explosive player, point blank, period.
05:32I think that Woody Marks being involved a little bit more in the passing game, especially if we're talking about
05:36catching, you know, yards after catch.
05:39I think that Jaden Higgins, with some of the ways I still cannot get out of my head, how excited
05:45D'Amico Ryan seemed when he was talking about Jaden Higgins, how fast he shows, right?
05:49How very fast he is, how, you know, how precise some of these things look.
05:52I think that those are the guys that I immediately look to as that, but the question that comes up
05:57for me is,
05:57if we're talking about getting the ball in their hands, letting them go and create explosive plays with yards after
06:03catch,
06:03it comes back to, are you game planning and scheming up circumstances where they get the ball on the move
06:10after having scheme, creating advantage for them running away from defenders, right?
06:14Because we're not doing the Dalton Schultz sit down in a zone, catching the ball and expecting that to be
06:18an explosive.
06:19That is running your head into a wall. That is setting yourself up for failure.
06:23Now, if we're talking about the, you know, the Jalen Knoll deep over route, where you're throwing the ball to
06:28him
06:28when he's got a defender on his back or behind him and he catches the ball, that is a creation
06:32of explosive.
06:33So that's the thing that I want to see within the offense.
06:35And honestly, it would have been something that I would have hoped to have spoken to there.
06:38And maybe that was his way of speaking to it, but I really wanted to hear that type of thing.
06:42It just seems like so much of the offense's improvement or success is going to be predicated,
06:48and this is obvious, but it's going to be predicated on that offensive line,
06:52the offensive line moves that they've made, and improvements specifically from these second-year guys
06:58that we're talking about.
06:59That Jaden Higgins, Jalen Knoll, Woody Marks trio, if you will.
07:04Yeah.
07:04Like, what are you getting from them?
07:06What's the jump or the leap that they make?
07:08And I think we all came away from their rookie year feeling pretty good about them,
07:12but you're going to need to feel even better about them if they're going to get better offensively.
07:17And then, of course, those offensive line moves.
07:20I think one of the things that we forget about, because C.J. Stroud wasn't on his tail as much
07:24and they did improve and not giving up as many sacks, they were still toward the bottom of the league,
07:30not just in run block win rate, but pass block win rate.
07:35So they were probably, I think, worse in the league in run block win rate.
07:39But in pass block, they were pretty close to worse.
07:42It was something like, you know, 30 or, you know, it was like definitely toward the bottom,
07:47like one of the worst in the league.
07:48And so that kind of, when I say I'm giving Nick Caley a little bit of the benefit of the
07:54doubt,
07:54well, they weren't necessarily all that great in either facet of the game up front.
07:59Yeah, if you just listen to that and ask yourself, okay, what kind of offense is this going to be
08:05based on what he said?
08:06You're thinking precision, control.
08:08You know, you're thinking being deliberate.
08:12Because there was another answer that, I don't know if you asked the question or who did.
08:17He was talking about what can we do just to shorten our down and distance.
08:21He was, in essence, saying, you know, shorten the chains a little bit.
08:24That tells me they're going to run the hell out of the ball and they're going to run safe passes.
08:27And that's not exactly, you know, what you think C.J. Stroud might want, you know?
08:32And I do wonder, right, how much of the idea of when we get our explosives is
08:36we're going to run the football in such a way where teams are going to have to focus more on
08:39the run
08:39and that will create more of the space to get these explosives, which, I mean, it tracks.
08:43I'm good with that.
08:44But it means that you have to hit every link on that chain to get to that explosive.
08:47Right.
08:47And it goes back to that offensive line point.
08:50Like all of this just really starts up front.
08:53And we're in a space right now where we don't really get to evaluate that.
08:56That they're all out there, so you can kind of see them standing together
08:59with nobody's being physical yet, right?
09:02They're not really hitting each other yet.
09:03But you're like, okay, it's a bigger, beefier offensive line,
09:07even more talented offensive line, at least in theory.
09:11So we'll see if that is something that they're able to put in practice
09:15and translate into some success.
09:17Just to make sure that I, you know, cover you up, clean you up here.
09:20Run block win rate.
09:21The Houston Texans were 32nd of 32.
09:23So worst.
09:24Okay.
09:25Pass block win rate.
09:25They were 30th.
09:27So you were 100% correct.
09:28I was almost about to give them a little bit more credit and put them at like 27.
09:31They were 30th?
09:3330th.
09:33See, I saw.
09:34In pass block win rate.
09:36So with that, I would like to ask you, gentlemen, a question that is unfair
09:39because we have not seen them in pads working against anybody in the current configuration.
09:42We don't even know exactly what the current configuration is.
09:46But with that being the case, give me your prediction for what the pass block
09:50and run block win rate, at least rankings, rankings of the Texans are.
09:53Because, again, this was a question that I was asking in the midst of them trying to rehabilitate.
09:57How much is a reasonable expectation of a jump for them in production when it comes to this?
10:02Like, is it that they're 16th in pass block win rate?
10:05Yeah.
10:06So to give you—
10:07That'd be a huge jump.
10:08Not to be too serious, but to give you a serious and honest answer,
10:10I'd have to do more studying of everybody else's offensive line.
10:13Right, right, right.
10:13Of course.
10:14Which I have not done.
10:15But just kind of just giving a general feel.
10:16But to have fun with this, I'm just going to predict that they go from 32 in run block win
10:24rate to like 18.
10:2518, which would be a notable jump.
10:28But still sub—just low average.
10:30I mean, they kind of have to.
10:31They have to.
10:32Because of the type of offense that they want to run.
10:34And then pass block, this one is a little harder to do because I don't know if they got as
10:38good as pass blockers.
10:40Everything was focused on the run block.
10:41Yeah.
10:42When it came to—
10:42This one's harder.
10:4330 to like 23.
10:46I actually think that it might be higher on pass win rate only because of their offense.
10:51Because of what we're talking about here.
10:52Get the ball out.
10:53I mean, they were trying to get C.J. Stroud to do that last year.
10:56And there were some breakdowns with that.
10:58So I couldn't give you a number per se.
11:00I mean, I could throw something out there.
11:01I'd say 25 on pass rate.
11:07That's my win rate.
11:08Yeah.
11:09And 27 on run.
11:11Aw, damn, you're it.
11:12You've tapped into the nerd.
11:13You've tapped into the nerd in me.
11:15I'm probably going to spend the rest of the day thinking about this.
11:18Well, here's the tough thing about it.
11:19There's not a way to do this either because you're going to go and look at all these other teams
11:22that have changed their offensive lines and go,
11:23how am I supposed to gauge that yet?
11:24Right?
11:25Like, there's no way to do this.
11:26My larger point is just, what is the year—how much of a year-over-year change can you make in
11:31an offensive line?
11:32That is what this entire thing hinges on.
11:33I'm just mad at you because I was supposed to watch Love Island today.
11:37Like, I was going to unplug.
11:39And now I'm going to be looking up people's office.
11:42Because he got a good—
11:43Because it's terrible.
11:44It's awful.
11:45And there's something—
11:46He wants to turn his brain off after a week of football.
11:48I tapped in once.
11:49It's the worst television—
11:50I tapped in once.
11:51It's the worst television ever created, and I cannot put it down.
11:55And I was like, I can't put it down.
11:57What am I looking at?
11:59It's so bad.
11:59It's so bad.
12:00It's so bad.
12:01It's so bad.
12:02It's so bad.
12:02It's so bad.
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