- 7 hours ago
Seth and Luke assess the notion that the Texans' WR room is a top 6-10 WR room in the NFL. This seems quite optimistic.
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00:00Maybe I'm the crazy one, but I have still a lot of questions about the Texans wide receiver room.
00:07Payne and Pendergast, I'm Luke Morrow in for Sean alongside Seth Payne.
00:10Feel free to text into the show at any time, 713-572-4610, or also get to us on the
00:17YouTube and Twitch chats.
00:19So this originally came up because I saw a couple people, one in the media here in Houston,
00:25another which is a popular Texans fan account, talking about this on social media where they were talking about the
00:31Texans wide receiver room.
00:33And one said, it's the 6th best in the NFL.
00:36The other said, I'd put it anywhere between 8th and 10th best in the NFL.
00:40And I thought, 6th best wide receiver room in the NFL, top 10, I might put them in the bottom
00:4710 if I'm being honest with you.
00:48I thought these were just local homers being homers.
00:52But then, Seth, you pointed out that, well...
00:55I found three different articles when I just randomly searched, because I would have assumed they'd be somewhere in the
01:02mid-tiers of things.
01:05You know, there's some genuinely abysmal wide receiver groups out there.
01:08But, like, Jaden Higgins and Jalen Knoll just haven't, they haven't proven enough yet.
01:13I like where they're going and everything, but I can't rank them above other people that have accomplished more already.
01:20But this is the problem.
01:21In those articles that I found that all had...
01:26The Tank Dell, like, it's a foregone conclusion that he's coming back and he's going to be the same guy
01:31he always was.
01:32I, which I would love it if that's going to be the case, but you can't in good conscience sit
01:36here and say,
01:38Oh, yeah, Tank Dell is the number two wide receiver.
01:40He very well might end up being the number two wide receiver after Nico Collins.
01:44But we just don't know right now.
01:46And we haven't seen him play competitive football in a long time.
01:49And it's a devastating knee injury.
01:51So, just based on that alone that so many...
01:54When I'm trying to be objective about this, I go and look at what other people are saying.
01:58Like, no, I can't put Tank Dell in that category yet.
02:01So, that puts him right down back there into smack dab in the middle somewhere.
02:04Yeah, we talked about this, I think it was yesterday.
02:06How everybody is just relying on Tank Dell being back and being Tank Dell from two to three years ago
02:13and playing every game and having such a big role.
02:16That's one of the many questions for me with this wide receiver room,
02:19which is why I can't say, like, Oh, yeah, they're sixth best wide.
02:22They might end up at the end of the year, and maybe I'm the silly one for being unable to
02:26forecast that.
02:27But there's just too many questions of you're relying on a couple of second-year guys
02:32and Higgins and or Noel to step up.
02:34So, you're relying on maybe Tank Dell coming back and playing a big role.
02:38But I say this all the time.
02:39I subscribe to the Polar Express theory that I have to see it in order to believe in it.
02:44So, I can't just sit here and be like, Oh, yeah, great wide receivers.
02:47Jaden Higgins is going to be excellent in year two, and Tank Dell is going to be fine,
02:50and he's going to put up his normal numbers.
02:51There's still just too many questions that need to be answered,
02:55where if they're not answered in a positive way,
02:59well, then behind Nico Collins, you don't have a whole lot in that room.
03:02There wasn't. No, and that's...
03:05I mean, I'm kind of impressed that some people got so rankled by this when...
03:10Cody Stutes had the wide receivers ranked somewhere lower than people were happy with,
03:15but I would get it if the Texans actually had a good passing offense in the last couple of years
03:20or something.
03:21I would say, Yeah, this is an injustice. What can you talk...
03:24I know, it's not. That hasn't been the case. It wasn't a good passing offense last year.
03:30Nico Collins was the only consistently productive wide receiver, and he wasn't available for, yet again, a few games because
03:37of injury.
03:38So, I can see where they're capable of being a top-10 wide receiver room,
03:44but they just don't have the guys that have actually put up the same numbers or production.
03:49Whatever excuses or explanations you want to have for the reasons why,
03:53I mean, it doesn't have to be any more complicated than,
03:55aside from it being a lackluster passing offense last year,
03:58Yeah, Jaden Higgins and Jalen Knoll were rookies, and they grew, and they progressed,
04:02and you should expect more out of them this year,
04:05but they haven't actually shown or proven it yet.
04:08It's just a projection.
04:10Yeah, and even on the text line, someone said,
04:12Nico, to stay healthy all year.
04:13That's another question, too, that Nico's a top-10, probably receiver in the league,
04:18but can we get him for all 17 games?
04:20And without him, there's a lot of questions.
04:24I wanted them to go sign a veteran.
04:25Christian Kirk didn't really work out last year, but I like the idea.
04:28I wanted them to replace him with another veteran to have a little more security.
04:32I would have loved Jawan Jennings here in Houston,
04:34who ended up signing, I think, a one-year contract anyways in Minnesota.
04:38That would have been a nice addition.
04:39Somebody on the text line said, what about Keenan Allen?
04:42Seth, would you have any interest in a Keenan Allen at this point?
04:46Keenan Allen would be, I would be interested, yes.
04:50I don't want to be stuck in the position where I'm, like, thinking too hard about this,
04:55and, yeah, I might be thinking too hard about this.
04:59Like, the only issue with Keenan Allen is he's kind of an unorthodox route runner,
05:03and I think what this offense really, really needs right now is timing and rhythm and all of that.
05:10And, you know, going back to, you know, a couple years ago,
05:14remember when Simmons, the safety, was still on the market as a free agent,
05:18and people were wondering, like, after the Texans had already drafted Kalen Bullock,
05:22they were saying, how are you, you've got to have a safety in here, you've got to have a safety.
05:26And the answer ended up being, okay, well, for one, I mean, Simmons,
05:30there was a whole other story behind that.
05:32But, like, they like Kalen Bullock,
05:34and Kalen Bullock has developed into one of the best young safeties in the league.
05:37And I think, likewise, when, if you trust your draft process
05:42and you trust what you saw from Jaden Higgins and Jalen Knoll last year,
05:46that there's a lot of value in just developing the guys you already have.
05:50And if you're just trying to stock from the outside,
05:54you're going to be overspending,
05:55you're going to be taking away reps from the guys you want to develop,
05:58and you've just got to be sure that those guys actually develop,
06:01and they end up being good players.
06:02So I'm not clamoring for any wide receiver right now.
06:05I just want to see the young guys play,
06:07and I want to see Nick Haley and C.J. Stroud show that they can get those guys involved
06:13and they can turn them into productive forces
06:16instead of just having to always bolster from outside.
06:18True, true, I get that.
06:20Yeah, you kind of have to sink or swim with these guys.
06:21It's almost like Reed Shepard, and why that was frustrating is, like,
06:24you just got to throw them on hand or see if we can learn with this guy.
06:28Yeah, yeah.
06:29So, yeah, but, you know, these rankings are this kind of...
06:31No, no, no, yeah, to go out, I'm glad you brought up Reed Shepard,
06:34because that was, it was, okay, that was what was so frustrating
06:37about the Rockets' whole strategy leading up to the trade deadline
06:40was they're operating like they're cool with Reed Shepard
06:44being the point guard of the future,
06:46and yet they're not giving him any opportunities to develop into that.
06:49It just, that, organizationally, it just seemed like such a mess.
06:53So I'm okay, as long as you...
06:55So Christian Kirk's not going to be there to soak up the reps,
06:58Jalen Knoll gets his opportunities,
06:59maybe they feel way more confident and optimistic about Tank Dell
07:03than they're letting on, which would be awesome.
07:05I think they're being really good and careful about just not making any promises
07:09or setting any dates for Tank Dell.
07:11There is that chance that, no, they feel really awesome about where he is
07:16and that they expect him to be back in full bore, which would be awesome.
07:20But I just, I'm not going to let myself go there mentally
07:22and set myself up for disappointment if he struggles.
07:25Yeah, I'm with you, but maybe that's why all these national media pundits
07:30are just including Tank Dell, like, you know, he's Tank Dell before these injuries.
07:35Until one of those jackasses tells me what happened to Joe Mixon,
07:38I'm not going to believe they know anything more than we do.
07:40That's true, that's fair.
07:41Out here on Reddit trying to figure out what happened to Joe Mixon.
07:45Yeah, still trying to figure it out.
07:46On the text line, someone said,
07:47even a healthy tank doesn't make us a good enough receiver room.
07:51That's something, that's some mass, what is it when you can't remember things?
08:00I don't know.
08:01You know, when you can't remember something from the past,
08:05you're going to a coma.
08:06People have collective amnesia.
08:08Nationally, people really do.
08:11I've seen otherwise smart people say things like,
08:14well, remember they were really humming along and then Tank Dell got injured that year
08:18and then Stephon Diggs got injured.
08:20Like, no, no, they weren't humming along.
08:24And then those guys got injured and that made it that much worse.
08:27But it wasn't, Tank Dell wasn't having an awesome year in his second year.
08:31But nobody was really doing anything offensively that you were hoping or expecting them to do.
08:36So hopefully it was just a matter of that more so than that, you know,
08:40Tank wasn't going to make it as an NFL receiver.
08:42On this list, people had the Texans ahead of the Seahawks and the Patriots,
08:47who both obviously played in the Super Bowl.
08:50And, you know, just for comparison's sake, I brought up, like, their depth charts.
08:54I think JSN is in the conversation, like him and Nico Collins I'd put on the same level.
09:00But even behind that, like Cooper Cup, even Rashid Shaheed a little bit.
09:05Like, you have some veterans who have proven themselves.
09:07Well, I think with Cooper Cup especially, it's that you've got, you know,
09:11you've got a slot receiver who's not what he used to be.
09:15But in him complementing Jackson Smith and Jigba, it's just more of a formidable,
09:21like he does exactly the role he should be doing in that offense,
09:24especially in running that scheme.
09:26We're having a big slot like that really helps.
09:30And the proof is in the pudding again.
09:33Like, that group, you might like the upside of Jaden Higgins more.
09:36You might like the upside of Jalen Knoll.
09:37But that group just flat out produced at a much higher level
09:41than the Texans' passing offense last year.
09:43Yeah, same for the Patriots.
09:44They had, like, the number one down tack.
09:47And then they add A.J. Brown this offseason.
09:49And even Romeo Dobbs is decent.
09:52But you throw them in with the group they already had.
09:54That's where I thought, like, this is kind of ridiculous.
09:56We're putting the Texans' receiver room ahead of these two
09:59that were just in the Super Bowl last year,
10:00where the Texans, again, it's just nothing but questions.
10:04And, sure, if they get good answers to every question,
10:07everything works out perfectly, yeah, it could be a good receiving room.
10:10But if they don't get those good answers,
10:13I said at the start of the baseball season,
10:15the Astros have a bottom three outfield in baseball.
10:17And I got pushed back on the text line.
10:19Yeah.
10:20I was wrong.
10:20They have a bottom one outfield in baseball.
10:22And it just feels kind of similar to this Texans' receiving room.
10:26I'm not going to say it's going to be the worst,
10:27but it just feels like it could be maybe bottom ten
10:29if things don't work out perfectly.
10:31You've got to remember, though, when you start getting into the bottom ten
10:33of things, like, there's some, like, the Dolphins have Malik Washington,
10:39Jalen Tolbert, and Tutu Atwell.
10:43Like, the Jets have Garrett Wilson, which is awesome,
10:45but then whatever the hell A.D. Mitchell is now in Omar Cooper Jr.
10:50I, like, it's, I, that's where, like, if you go to the bottom ten,
10:55there's just some, especially when you get to who the third wide receiver is
10:59in a lot of places, that's where it's,
11:01there's some genuinely horrific circumstances out there.
11:04I hesitate to put the Texans down in that category.
11:07Yeah, it's fair.
11:08There are some bad wide receiver rooms.
11:09It's just, it's more about, like, the feeling.
11:11Like, if I tried to do a back of the napkin type of thing,
11:13it's like, ah, they kind of feel like they'd be in the bottom ten range
11:16until you actually sit down and do a list,
11:17and maybe I would see how many bad receiver rooms there are elsewhere in the NFL,
11:21but I wouldn't go as far as, apparently, a lot of people right now.
11:26So, top ten wide receiver room.
11:27I hope the NFL isn't that bad right now at the wide receiver position.
11:31Passing game's taking a step backwards, man.
11:33It's all about running backs and three tight ends these days.
11:36It's true.
11:36It's true.
11:36We're heading that way.
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