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Seth and Luke compare the current Jaguars running it back to the 2018 Jaguars trying to do the same, and compare that to the Rockets' current mode of operation. Is running it back the right move for the Rockets?
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00:00have we seen this version of the jaguars before and is actually a bad thing for the houston
00:05rockets we'll get to that here on pain and pendergast i'm luke morrow in for sean alongside
00:09seth pain you can always join the conversation on the text line 713-572-4610 or the youtube and
00:17twitch chats as well are the 2026 jaguars like the 2018 jaguars uh if you hop into the time
00:26machine and think back that was so in 2017 that's when they get to the afc title game should have
00:32won uh but you had blake bortles as the quarterback yeah the uh interception that was ruled down that
00:38was uh nullified to pick six right yeah yeah right and it was that they led that game i think
00:43in the
00:43second half and the offense just didn't do anything and patriots snuck by so they should have been in
00:48in the super bowl uh sounds familiar to what we've been saying here in recent months but they had a
00:54really good defense you had blake bortles different style of team obviously i would take trevor lawrence
00:58over blake bortles but my point being after that 2017 season it was so good they said let's just run
01:04it back and that's when they gave bortles a new contract and they made the biggest addition that
01:08offseason was adding a guard to their offensive line uh they let alan uh was alan robinson they let him
01:15walk in free agency somewhat similar to etn or hn uh the running back who left the jaguars and they
01:22felt
01:24felt like hey well let's keep this team together and the following year they went five and eleven
01:29and you know blew up that team eventually somewhat similar to this year where the jaguars had a very
01:35good season last year surprise kind of like 2017 of just truly how good they were and now they feel
01:40like hey we already had the look at what we did last year let's just run this thing back but
01:44we find
01:45so often seth that it seems like that it was almost like lightning in a bottle like that doesn't work
01:49to just try to redo what you found worked last year well and especially you know and if you if
01:56you go to trevor lawrence and the one really impressive stretch that he had with doug peterson
02:02um in what was that 2022 or whenever it was that they had a good surge in the second half
02:08of the
02:08season and people thought oh yep this is it trevor lawrence has finally figured it out
02:13and lo and behold no he had not figured it out and uh the defenses caught up to what was
02:19working for
02:19him and took away his first read and he just ended up being the same inconsistent guy i uh i
02:26i very very
02:28much yeah agree with you that it looks like it's going against the grain when the old wisdom is that
02:34man you don't just you don't just all of a sudden like discover something and then the next year you
02:39just keep doing the same thing and you just keep getting better the offense for the jaguars clicked
02:46when trevor lawrence just looked like he'd figured out how to operate that offense but also they brought
02:51in jacoby myers on that trade and they were different they were different offense completely
02:56it looked like you got a better version of brian thomas jr because he could do the things he's good
03:00at jacoby myers could be the guy taking the the stuff over the middle of jr um but it was
03:07like a it was
03:07one half of a season of impressive offense and they're also but their running game also was
03:13decrepit in that time which shouldn't be as big a deal except you get into the playoffs and man if
03:19you can't lean on your run game it's a lot harder to beat a steady slate of good football teams
03:24and
03:25they just let so even unable to run the football they let go of travis a-chan and just figure
03:31that
03:31okay this committee of tootin and whomever else is uh is is going to be an adequate replacement i feel
03:37like that's a that's a big leap of faith for a team that just couldn't run the ball in the
03:41second
03:41half of last season certainly yeah and i think it's a bit on paper i think it's just a big
03:45drop
03:45off obviously they they know more than me they're in the building they know those guys but i was
03:49surprised by that move and again to take it back like you know the offense wasn't all that strong
03:53for the jacks in 2017 and then they let their best receiver go and and uh the chris ivory was
03:58the
03:58running back and they were just about defense and running the football and it didn't work so well
04:01the next year and bortles was quickly gone it's the cliches of if you're not getting better you're getting
04:06worse yeah and then also either like the adapt or die where teams i say this a lot coaches in
04:14the
04:14first year can catch the league by surprise the the easiest example that always comes to my mind
04:19first is brian dable won a playoff game his first year in new york and then they didn't have a
04:24winning
04:24season after that like a lot of times coaches come in they have a good first year but then you
04:28have to
04:28as you know seth you have to keep up because defenses will figure out or offenses will figure out
04:33whatever it is you have to stay one step ahead and if you're not adapting you're you're falling
04:37behind and so those would be if i was a jaguars fan those would be my concerns of like are
04:41we
04:41actually getting better or are we setting ourselves up to take a step i guess the danger is also though
04:47if you look at it from the other side it's it man whenever anybody's operating like they're smarter
04:51than everybody else you feel like oh you're setting yourself up for a big fall but then every now and
04:57then they actually are smarter than everybody else so if you go to you know epstein with the dodgers or
05:03jeff luno with the astros yeah boy oh these guys think they're smarter than everybody else
05:08young whiz kids gonna reinvent ah crap they did it ah crap that they actually followed through on it
05:15and they were smarter than everybody else i don't know if i just don't think that it's that possible
05:21anymore to get that big of a jump through analytics or others because every other team
05:29every other team is using analytics to a pretty extensive degree so that all of a sudden james
05:34gladstone the gm of the uh the jaguars is all of a sudden going to be the guy that really
05:39understands
05:40and knows how to use analytics and that's why he's doing so many things outside the grain i'm just i'm
05:45just
05:45even more skeptical because i don't know if it's i don't know if it's possible in this day and age
05:49to
05:49get as big an advantage as teams did in baseball back when they started getting into analytics right
05:54right yeah i would agree on the text line somebody says aren't we doing the same thing with our defense
06:00just simply running it back the no they're not because they added so that's a the the big thing
06:07like that's exactly the counter to what luke was talking about because they they drafted a defensive
06:15tackle that addresses a weakness or perceived weakness that they had and their inability to
06:21stop the run in critical situations in certain situations which was the other huge concern
06:27especially when it comes to that defense allowing too many explosive plays the rest of it is they
06:33brought back a bunch of starters who are good starters you know that that's the they're not just
06:39saying okay we'll have to we'll hodgepodge it together and we'll see what happens and i would argue
06:43because i immediately as i say that people are going to say well what is henry toa toa exactly
06:47they drafted two linebackers and they traded for marty mapu in the offseason and that was before ej
06:55speed got injured so i know i don't now they they don't have to be as aggressive on the defensive
07:00side of the ball but there's there they definitely don't look like they sat on their hands and figured
07:07like oh yeah we were awesome last year we're going to be awesome again this year i think
07:10domico understands exactly what we're talking about here is that you never just say well we're good
07:16and it's just going to be a pre-packaged product and we'll roll it out again next year so um
07:20i yeah
07:21i just uh i would my answer to that question would be no that's not what they're doing on defense
07:25also
07:25i would say the defense clearly for the texans was maybe the best defense in the league certainly
07:30top three where i don't think the jaguars if we're talking about them specifically here i don't
07:34think they're on that level in any of the areas it's not like hey this run game's so good
07:38hn can leave we'll be fine or you know this offense is so good we don't need one of our
07:42best
07:42skill set players we'll be good like i think they still have more questions to figure out kind of
07:47like i was comparing to 2017 where they thought blake bortles like ah he seems fine we'll give
07:51him a contract and run this thing back i think there's still more for the jaguars to figure out
07:55than specifically the texans defense in my opinion well you brought up um a great analogy or a
08:02comparison which would be just their rockets operating a little bit like the jaguars are
08:08this offseason where there was a a glimmer of something that you saw last year uh but you know
08:14hey now once we get well fred van vliet which you thought was a certainty coming back um we do
08:20it now
08:20we just don't know um but just in running it back are they are they looking at what this is
08:27what i
08:27would fear i would fear that that that last month of the season when it actually looked like they
08:31figured some things out offensively that it you know it looked like kevin durant had a better plan
08:37and mode of operation and figuring out where he was going to go with the ball when when he got
08:40attacked um and then when durant gets injured in the playoffs is it too easy for them to say well
08:48you know what we actually did have it kind of figured out and now with fred van vliet coming back
08:53that where it's that simple and then we'll we'll have the absolute best version i'm as i'm not as
08:59comfortable thinking that it's as simple as that yeah i i get all of the um anxiety i suppose for
09:06rockets fans this offseason especially when you see other teams making all these moves um like
09:11specifically in the hornets i know dorian finney smith was just traded there and he was lousy this
09:15past year but the hornets have just acquired like four different good three-point shooters here this
09:20offseason alone you see these other teams making moves and you wish your team would and i am concerned
09:25to this idea of like ah let's just get fred van vliet healthy steven adams healthy run it back
09:30we'll be fine going back to what we were just saying about the jaguars i think that anytime a
09:34team fails to try to take a step forward you're actually taking a step back and so to think
09:40steven adams another injury and another year older fred van vliet whatever is now coming off this
09:46knee injury where his knee exploded whatever phrase he used blew up and your star kevin durant's now
09:51another year older who's 38 i think the idea of like yeah let's just run this group back we'll be
09:56fine um that's that's something that uh i i can understand the anxiety because i don't know
10:02how improved they'll be on paper or even from a win total this year by simply trying to do the
10:07same
10:07thing can we just reflect on dorian finney smith for a moment and like that he had he had a
10:1427
10:14percent three-point percentage this year which is by far the lowest he's had in his entire career
10:20like uh it's from from since 2016 he's the lowest he ever was was 29.3 percent in his rookie
10:29season
10:30and uh since then he's been up in the 30s uh you know and well into like into the 40s
10:36at points
10:37and he's 27 percent this year in the 37 games that he played just uh just just just a remarkable
10:43remarkably disappointing addition last year yeah it really was and it took uh three draft picks just to
10:50foist him onto the the hornets over the weekend they said you don't need to give us anything just
10:54take him away from us take him out of here that's how disappointing he was this past season 33 percent
11:00field goal percentage like drastically ridiculously lower than anything he's had before it's just
11:05incredible yeah yeah it didn't work out i wonder if there's some sort of uh i wouldn't say curse but
11:10the idea that the rockets just they still need shooting year after year and they bring in these guys and
11:15they just they they just can't shoot it well enough uh but donovich is going to be the next one
11:19of just
11:19like yeah we just can't figure this out we can't figure out the shooting thing if you have a kind
11:22of
11:23offensive creates catching these and that that goes a long way towards that i mean that's a
11:28yeah the idea of and that was what in the hodgepodge of whatever the hell that offense was last year
11:34they're just there's so many guys that just weren't even getting close to being in the position to do
11:38what they do best either by design because you're asking non-point guards to play point guard or just
11:44because guys like that should be you know catch and shoot sharpshooters aren't getting those same
11:49opportunities either yeah yeah it's true uh someone on the text line said the jags kind of operate like
11:54jim crane does with the astros yeah i could see the similarities at least after 2017 this offseason
12:00there but they're especially i i think where they really look like they're they think they're smarter
12:05than everybody else's with their free agency strategy this offseason where they hey we're
12:10going for the compensatory picks you know we're going to let our running back go we're going to
12:13get let devin lloyd our linebacker go and we're not going to be aggressive in bringing anybody else in
12:17because we want to be sure we get those third round picks a couple years from now they're playing the
12:22long game and i appreciate that that's a good strategy to have but at the same time there's also like
12:27you know gladstone you gotta you gotta prove that you deserve your job in these first couple years too
12:31yeah yeah that's true uh the lesson the takeaway from all this is to continue to grow and try to
12:37take a step forward i don't think the jags have and i worry that the rockets are in that same
12:42trap as well heading into their next season
12:45you
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