- 2 days ago
ITL reacts to Ben Solak's thoughts on C.J. Stroud and what he believes is next for Houston's offense.
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00:00um but the houston texans offense this has been at least for me but i think for you as well
00:04um a a point of fascination is the word that i will use even though i don't know if it's
00:09the
00:09best one just headed into this year two with nick caley at the helm just what is it going to
00:13be
00:13what is it capable of being under nick caley because that ends up being a big barometer for
00:19how like what the aptitude is that they can reach and so we've been talking about a lot on the
00:23ground
00:23but it's always interesting to get a different perspective and shout out to uh garrett uh houston
00:28stressions on twitter uh for being able to sit down with ben solak of espn and they talked about
00:34damn near everything texans they went a lot of different places i obviously salute to him but
00:39there was there was a few things that he got to pertinent to the offense that i found were really
00:42interesting so if you can give me six here fig this was ben select talking about nick caley and
00:47the job that he felt like he did last year particularly making adjustments the way caley
00:51talks about everything the the stuff that he's tried to do on the field the way that they were
00:55you know actively solving prime online season like okay we got to be a jumbo team now because
01:00we have like no tight ends you know okay so it turns out joe mixon's foot is here anymore right
01:04like we're going to be a woody marks team now we you know and this is what we're going to
01:07have to
01:07look like in the running game to make that work like i'm impressed by the way he speaks about the
01:11offense and the way he solved problems live again is he you know capital tg that guy we'll find out
01:17you're too i don't agree with that yeah i was i found that to be very interesting first of all
01:23welcome to the nfl you know you get real-time issues no kidding uh you know you you absolutely
01:29are going to because let's let's talk about those two things in particular that that were mentioned
01:33there uh the jumbo package that was a joke that ended up being a joke they never passed the ball
01:39it was all about i mean well it was all about pass protection i really hope that they should it
01:44was
01:44funny because his his blocking rate was actually lower yes as a regular than as a you know me a
01:50mean tight end it was a necessity because when they weren't it was also it was worse it was also
01:54no like i said he made the adjustment and it was not good yeah and it was it was not
02:00good no i'm with
02:00you and also like and now i need to go back this is where i'll need to go back into
02:04my into my uh
02:05recollection and into my notes it also was something that didn't come along like immediately the jumbo
02:10package like i i feel like this is a incredibly low bar which is one of my issues with how
02:16i'm
02:16trying to figure out with nick haley have i just lowered expectations too far i think that's i think
02:21that's very very possible because like this is also a national level was talking about like the
02:26adjustments that they made and there were some that you obviously have to give them credit for
02:30actively making it but i'm like how much how much credit do we give them for that adjustment and
02:35maybe we could talk about the tight ends or whatever but like that's and then they became
02:40a woody mark again welcome to the nfl and also that one i can definitely make the argument that
02:46it took too long because we could tell that some of us at least could tell that nick chubb did
02:49not
02:49have as much juice as they were at least fit the way that they were utilizing those were two things
02:55that were just life in the nfl and a necessity and neither one was really woody more so but but
03:01neither one was really that uh successful right and so i don't know but for having having somebody
03:05that covers the entire league talk about it and like give him that credit it made me stop and
03:09think like am i am i one is the expectation too low but two am i not giving enough credit
03:14for that
03:14i did think though that when ben solak was talking about cj stroud in particular right and how he
03:18affects this offense uh he obviously talked about one of the things that we know but he put it in
03:22pretty uncertain terms this is cut to him talking about uh cj stroud and the effect of not having a
03:27run game
03:27my favorite stroud related stat is since he entered the league dexans are 31st in epa for
03:33rush 31st in rushing success rate which again is just how are you creating positive plays the only
03:38team worse is the raiders they've had the raiders running game his entire career and defenses know
03:43this and you know you where's stroud gonna rank on the nfl top 100 i have no idea but if
03:48you watch
03:49opposing defensive coordinators how they play the texans they very clearly believe okay let's make the
03:54quarterback beat us because the running games isn't scary enough that's not to say they rank
03:57stroud like patrick malms like i'll please hand the ball off but it's to say that like they for
04:01years now have been very comfortable playing with light boxes playing with nickel personnel they don't
04:05need to put base on the field they don't need to run blitz because they just know they're never
04:09going to be able to just five yard grind us you know uh uh five yards in a cloud of
04:13us down the
04:13field they don't have it in them not only that but they far behind the sticks consistently you know
04:19they had uh second and third and long that it made it even more so uh more difficult on cj
04:24stroud how
04:25how encouraging does that how encouraging does that make you feel about the possibility of this
04:29offense going forward though because again they've the clear effort was to make this team capable of
04:34running the football um do you do you see the ways in which that helps not just cj but obviously
04:40the
04:40offense as a whole like the obvious opportunity because again if we're talking about this from
04:45the lens of nick cayley and we're trying to get more into the actual you know i guess schematics of
04:50it
04:50what is the recourse if you just can't run the football even when you put out the jumble as we
04:53talked about and defenses are just like no you're not going to get me to move off of this and
04:58now
04:58you're having to work through what is light boxes and or maybe not even light boxes but lighter
05:03personnel and with a not not a care in the world about the threat of running football well i mean
05:09they they tried uh you know the old a for effort thing i mean they're trying to to bolster the
05:15running
05:15game on the offensive line we don't know i mean it's the story of the year along with cj stroud
05:20you know how much this this ultimately uh pays off if it doesn't we're going to have a repeat
05:25of last year sure but the thing that i i was thinking on and again you know i am i'm
05:30the person
05:31who has been perpetually kind of questioning of just how good can this running game get even with
05:35the investments that you've had right again he just laid out different statistics that were like
05:39you were second worst running the football in these circumstances and how much more can you expect
05:43that to change with just the moves that you have made and i say just not to be undercutting but
05:48you get
05:48what i'm saying here i think may it might be possible that just being competent forces defense
05:53to at least have to think about something else because they were at a place where just defense
05:57no for sure and like i said all if they are just average at quarterback and average in the run
06:02game
06:03i think it it makes them better as a whole simply because you know you because of what you just
06:08said
06:08you can the defenses don't really know as much that they have to really uh defend one thing more
06:13than the other and maybe that gives nick caley a capability to be a better version of himself
06:18and it remains and he even said it at the end of that last of the previous one right if
06:22is he a
06:23capital t the guy yeah even he's like we'll find out i don't know and so i remain in this
06:30place where
06:30i'm just like i don't know what to feel but been so like and i guess we'll leave it at
06:34this but maybe
06:35we can come back to some of the other conversations that he had with our guy garrett um this was
06:38him
06:39talking about um how he feels about cj having a better year this year i am very confident this upcoming
06:44year would be better for cj simply because nobody is well calibrated to cj should have right now like
06:50you know cj played 14 games last year 11 of them were sick three of them were terrible multi-turnover
06:56games and all three of those were nationally televised island games so those three games
07:00dramatically anchor and bias people's understanding of him so i'm as confident anything else that i'm
07:05predicting for the 2026 season that cj will have a you know better year a bounce back year because i
07:10think
07:10he will just continue to play well as well as he did in the nick kelly offense if not better
07:13he will
07:14have a second you know second year of jayden higgins he'll have a healthy tight end room you know and
07:17then the the the subsequent improvements around him and the stability and the fact that he largely
07:22wasn't that bad last year means that he'll have that bounce back performance year will they have the
07:26running game necessary to like really have a healthy offense i'm gonna ask me august 31st so pretty you
07:32know kudos to him confidence bounce back year i'm not there yet say that cj stroud can you
07:40that i you're confident he's gonna have a bounce back first of all define bounce back i lean heavily
07:45well a better year than this year yeah um i lean heavily that way i have to be entirely honest
07:50like
07:50i lean heavily that way that it it should look much better for cj stroud because what he's talking
07:56about like you even in the circumstances where the nick hailey whatever we felt about year one
08:01and the ways in which his hands were tied talk less of however you felt about what he did once
08:06his
08:06hands were tied the actual games in the midst of the season were not as bad as people want to
08:12try
08:12and remember them well i agree with that but i don't know yeah in a in a circumstance where hopefully
08:17the run game is better which it feels it feels likely that that's the case and some level of growth
08:22from from nick hailey whether that's just defense is not being the key in but hopefully and a better
08:28understanding of what they're trying to do um cj stroud is capable of handling that plus i just don't know
08:33i don't know if i agree though with the idea that like teams just aren't going to be aware of
08:37what
08:37he's capable see that's where i am that's why you know again kudos to him he's he's taking a stand
08:41cj is definitely going to have a bounce back year the reason i can't quite go there is you need
08:47a
08:47better running game better offensive line and better tight ends and better nick hailey i think you
08:53you definitely have for cj to be better you need all four of those things or at least three of
08:57them
08:58i need a better nick hailey better offensive line better running game better tight ends
09:04that's a that's bold to say oh yeah he's he's going to be better because i i mean i hope
09:09so
09:09because all those things you name were an issue right well you definitely have better tight ends
09:14you definitely do yes barring injuries barring other injuries knock on wood because like we are
09:21headed into that time of year where where it all kind of fell out from under you but barring injuries
09:26a run game i that is i feel like that's likely to happen even though i cannot say for certain
09:32um how much better has always been my question but the idea that it will be better feels pretty
09:36given the better nick hailey is is the question that's the big one that is that is a very very
09:41big question for me i think you got the better running game right now than all the other things
09:45you named for sure because i felt like last season i would i would go with you on that because
09:49last
09:50season you know you ain't had joe mixing and that was your start running back yeah no i'd go with
09:54you on
09:54that but again you still need you know tight ends to catch the ball and produce and i agree with
09:58you
09:58that it looks on paper better but the offensive line you know people have questioned yeah they
10:03they're nasty they're you know veterans i am people yeah and then also nick and nick kelly is the
10:09biggest one yeah yeah yeah and so yeah again come to the same place with all these various people
10:14weighing in on the texas offense you still come down to is is the chef going to put it together
10:20all
10:20right right right and what remains to be seen i just cannot wait like i really and truly
10:25if there's anything that i'm like chomping at the bit to see it is how this offense comes together
10:30not even just the pieces but how it is put together yeah it's fascinating to me and so it
10:34makes it even more exciting that uh we are what about a month away from a training camp getting
10:39started for your houston tech
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