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Keylan Rutledge has impressed at Texans training camp so far.
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00:0095.7 The Fan. Live from the West Point Lincoln and West Point Lincoln of Sugar Land Studios, here's Payne
00:08and Pendergast.
00:10Today and this week for us will be typical to our in-season week. That's why we're here a little
00:14later in the afternoon.
00:16We want all our guys to get used to our in-season schedule and how we operate.
00:20So we'll go through a normal in-season week up until Tuesday to our joint practice.
00:26And we'll have a really good competitive practice versus the Raiders.
00:29I mean, they're going to give us a lot of good looks, good competition, really good talent,
00:35especially the running back position is talented, the tight ends, their offensive line, fast.
00:39So we got a defensive end as well, Max Crosby.
00:43So for our guys to be able to go against a really talented team is going to be very beneficial
00:48to us
00:49and really helping us progress and get better as camp is going on.
00:52All right, there you go.
00:53That was D'Amico Ryans getting ready for the Raiders coming to town for a joint practice tomorrow.
00:57Game on Thursday night.
00:58You can hear that game right here on 95.7 The Fan.
01:01So we're looking forward to that.
01:03Another 7 o'clock Thursday kick just like last week.
01:07So excited and joint practice tomorrow if you're headed out there.
01:11Joint practices are the best.
01:13Thank you, Byron.
01:15Had to turn my microphone on.
01:17It's one of the little technical things you pick up along the way.
01:20You'll get there.
01:2015 years of radio.
01:22So the thing I'm excited about with the Raiders is that Max Crosby, by all reports, seems to be very
01:28motivated.
01:29I don't think he's going to be coming in there and just pulling vet days or anything.
01:33No.
01:34He's got to showcase himself to get up and out of that place.
01:36And if he's willing to get a little too frisky with his own quarterback and Kirk Cousins, then who knows
01:42what he'd be willing to do to one of ours.
01:44Yeah, that's true.
01:45I don't want there to be a fight, though, because then they cancel practice, you know?
01:50Oh, yeah.
01:50Yeah, I don't like that.
01:52Coaches, as much as people say, like, ah, coaches actually like it when guys fight, they don't like it at
01:57a joint practice.
01:58No.
01:59Like, this is valuable time that they get to get reps against somebody else.
02:02And if you have a big bench-clearing brawl, all of a sudden you've got to cancel practice.
02:06And these two coaches are anti-fighting.
02:08D'Amico Ryans likes chippiness, but he doesn't like full-on fighting, like bench-clearing.
02:12And Clint Kubiak, he basically soft-suspended Cousins and Crosby for one day for getting into it.
02:20You're not allowed to practice today.
02:22You're not allowed to practice today.
02:23You're not allowed to do the showers, but not the group showers.
02:24No.
02:25Separate showers for you, too.
02:26Right.
02:27I don't want to shower in the—there's nothing worse than a fight in the shower, because breaking it up is
02:31like—
02:31Oh, dude.
02:32And you're slipping everywhere?
02:33I saw a buck-naked fight in a locker room once.
02:37It was like an old Greek Olympics wrestling match.
02:41College?
02:41What level?
02:42NFL, huh?
02:42NFL.
02:43It was big old country—big country.
02:46Oh, yeah?
02:46Todd Fordham.
02:47Big old offensive lineman versus—oh, a tight end.
02:51It was another—I can't think of his name right now.
02:53This was back with the Jaguars.
02:55Yeah.
02:55One Kyle Brady.
02:56And he was like, who's going to break this up?
02:58You know, you just kind of—you've got to be very careful jumping in there.
03:05Nudity.
03:05A lot of nudity, yeah.
03:06So, yeah, as far as the—well, this is what D'Amico likes, the chippiness.
03:11It's kind of like those internet videos where you see two dogs barking at each other between a fence,
03:15and then the fence opens, and they're all like, oh, I don't know.
03:19I don't have an issue with you.
03:20How are you doing?
03:21Yeah, like, whatever.
03:22Right.
03:23We'll sniff each other a little bit and go on our separate ways.
03:26I don't need to see that at the joint practice.
03:29You want to have that barrier between them where they're yelling at each other and everything,
03:31but no punch in the throw.
03:31You see Ariante Urshry sniffing Max Crossby's butt.
03:34I don't need that.
03:35You guys are going to naked fight later?
03:37Speaking of Ariante Urshry, we mentioned Keelan Rutledge in the open.
03:42The rookie—I'll just say interior offensive lineman because they've had him playing everywhere in that interior.
03:47They've had him at guard.
03:48They've had him at center.
03:49Safe to say, he's been one of the really good stories of camp so far.
03:53Yeah.
03:53First-round pick out of Georgia Tech.
03:55He is going to be one of the five guys—it's just me saying this—he's going to be one of the
04:01five starting offensive linemen.
04:02I guess the question is, where is he going to start?
04:05Here's Ariante Urshry, his new teammate, on Keelan Rutledge and what he brings to the table.
04:11I love the guy, man.
04:12I think that he definitely came here.
04:14He's, you know, a tone setter, a difference maker, you know, a guy that you want at left guard, a
04:20guy that you want on your own line.
04:21Love his mentality.
04:23I think he got, you know, a bright future ahead of him.
04:25All right.
04:26And the reason he's bringing up left guard is that's where he spent some time there this weekend playing left
04:31guard.
04:31Yeah, it would seem like they might be preparing him for—he got his work at center in an NFL game.
04:38Now maybe he might get some work at left guard in an NFL game.
04:41One thing that D'Amico had said a couple weeks ago I've been thinking about is just that he mentioned
04:47that sometimes veteran players,
04:49when they come and now they're trying to learn the way Cole Popovich operates things, that it's an adjustment.
04:54And it's teaching old dogs new tricks.
04:57My words, not D'Amico's.
04:58Yeah.
04:58But there might be some of that going on.
05:01And when I said earlier in the earlier break, when I'm trying to be patient with Ed Ingram,
05:06it doesn't seem to me that they've been messing with his reps as much as they've been messing with Wyatt
05:10Teller's reps.
05:11Correct.
05:11You know, without—I don't know if I've missed anything out there or anything,
05:15but I've just—every time I've looked for Ed Ingram, he's been sitting there at right guard.
05:19I think Ed Ingram might be working on some things and changing the way that he operates.
05:23And why I try to be patient with offensive linemen especially, it's like changing your golf swing.
05:30When you're changing a few things, and it's going to look ugly at first.
05:36You know?
05:37And they already liked what he did in this system last year.
05:39But there's some things where, like when he loses in pass protection, it's a bad loss.
05:44You know, he's got to even out some of the rough edges in his pass protection.
05:48And I think that Cole might be working with him on some of those things.
05:51Is that like in spring training in baseball where the pitcher gets—a good pitcher gets shelled?
05:56And you're like, what the hell's going on?
05:58Turns out he's working on his sinker or something like that.
06:00Well, that's what—you know, J.J. has tweeted about this before about how he hates it these low-light reels
06:05of training camp practices come out.
06:07Because it is—you're trying—as a pass rusher, he might be working on a new move, and it's going to look
06:13bad at first.
06:14And yeah, you're going to get beat.
06:16But people see one little slice of it, or they see a few bad plays, and they—the perception is, oh,
06:21this guy's getting destroyed out there.
06:23And that's where with Ed Ingram, I—when—he's a guy who's already been in the system.
06:27They know what he can and can't do, and they're probably working on a few things from a technique standpoint.
06:32And it might be kind of ugly right now.
06:35But by and large, I think they—they trust him because they've seen him in this system.
06:38With a guy like Braden Smith or Wyatt Teller, there's not as much trust already built in.
06:44Here's Tommy Togiai on Keelan Rutledge.
06:47I think, no, that mentality—I mean, obviously, like, we don't want no fighting, obviously, but, like, we have that on
06:53the O-line, that mentality.
06:55Like, I think we need that—that kind of nastiness, like you said.
06:58Like, we need that on the O-line, and so that's a great mentality.
07:00And then, like we said, we're just challenging each other each day.
07:02Like, he making me better, I'm making him better.
07:04Like, iron sharpening iron each day.
07:06Yeah, and, um, I mean, he's scrappy, and it shows up in his play.
07:10It's not like he's just, you know, trying to start fights after each play or anything.
07:13He's not trying to Trevor Penning it.
07:15But he's also—he's also really athletic, and I think that's the part where I've already—I've moved up beyond being concerned
07:23about the fact that he's a rookie playing multiple positions.
07:26Because we've—you know, going back to the Bill O'Brien days, it felt so many times like they'd rather have
07:31a guy be versatile and bad at multiple positions than good at one position.
07:36Oh, yeah. Yes.
07:36Oh, hey, why—why restrict him to just being bad at left guard when he can be bad at center and
07:43right guard as well?
07:44It was so bad that Texan fans started to think versatility is a bad thing.
07:48Right, right.
07:48That's how bad it was.
07:50Yeah.
07:50Yeah.
07:51But, no, Rutledge is capable of doing it, so I don't worry about that at all.
07:54I think he's—he's got the potential to be a really, really good NFL offensive lineman.
07:58I'm excited about him, man.
08:00I'm very excited about him.
08:01I'm excited about Tommy Togiai, too.
08:02Tommy Togiai, in his second full year with the Texans, came here in 2024, midway through the season.
08:09Yeah.
08:10And then last year, had one of the stranger kind of arcs for a season.
08:15Inactive week one, gets a contract extension in between weeks one and two, and then was inactive again.
08:21Yeah.
08:21And then, by some of the advanced metrics, had a season where he was one of the best interior defensive
08:26linemen in the sport.
08:27He's really underrated at this point, I think, and just hasn't been around a lot.
08:31And he's also on a defense that's going to rotate their defensive tackles a lot, so he might not amass
08:35the stats.
08:36But I think the biggest thing with Togiai that I keep running into is, I think, because he kind of—he's
08:43got the appearance of a really stout Division II nose tackle.
08:47People assume that he's not that quick or athletic, and he's just a plugger.
08:51He went to Ohio State.
08:52He's really—he's really quick.
08:55Yeah, yeah.
08:56And he's ridiculously strong.
08:57I think the other question that comes up is, wow, they've extended almost everybody beyond this year, who is a
09:04starter right now, except for Tommy Togiai.
09:06I suspect it's not for lack of trying.
09:09I agree.
09:10I think that Togiai's agent probably likely thinks that he's going to get more than whatever the Texans offer him—are
09:18offering him right now if he hits free agency.
09:20Yeah, he got asked about that.
09:21He met with the media on Saturday, and Togiai was asked about the possibility of a contract extension.
09:29Here's what he had to say.
09:30I mean, honestly, I'm just focused on the season and trying to go ball out this year the best I
09:34can, you know, help this team to a Super Bowl.
09:35And that's my focus.
09:37Like, if the contract comes sweet, like, I'll be really grateful and really hopeful for it.
09:40But right now, I'm just focused on football.
09:42Togiai, there's no way Togiai could have imagined he'd been in this position when the Texans are picking him up
09:46off the street for the practice squad less than two years ago.
09:49And that's a credit to him.
09:51And they credit him all the time.
09:53I mean, D'Amico Ryan has said for two years now, our most consistent guy in the building is Tommy
09:58Togiai.
09:59I think he's a classic guy where what you would hope is—the sweet spot is you find a guy like
10:03Tommy Togiai, you feel really good about him.
10:06He's already—you know, he's already been cut once in his career.
10:10And you just think, okay, if he hasn't had a big payday or anything, we get him now, flash a
10:15wad of cash in front of him, and he's going to sign.
10:17Let's give him $10 million a year or something like that.
10:19When realistically, I think he might have elevated himself up out of that.
10:23And if he stays healthy this year, the number of defensive tackles that are making $20 million a year that
10:28you wouldn't think would get $20 million a year, it's getting up there in numbers.
10:33You know, so if, like—I have no idea about actual numbers, but if the Texans tried to say, like, hey,
10:39we'll give him $10 million a year, he's going to love that.
10:41Like, his agent, at least, might have moved beyond that already.
10:44Yeah.
10:45I mean, they're starting to—probably too deep a conversation for the negative 20 seconds that we've got left in this
10:51segment.
10:52But, I mean, they're going to reach a point here soon where they can't just give $10 million to a
10:56guy.
10:56Right, right.
10:56You know, yeah, well, Devon Witherspoon gets his contract this weekend, and people start thinking, well, there's Kamari Lasseter's number.
11:02He got $33 million a year.
11:03Yeah.
11:05It's a slot corner in Seattle.
11:06Nick has spent a lot of money this offseason.
11:09Next year is the year where they might have to start making some hard decisions.
11:12Yeah.
11:12Before anybody says the cap is the myth or not, no, stop it.
11:15Pay attention.
11:17Teams do it all the time.
11:18That's what the Lions are in a position now where it's not like you have to burn it all down,
11:23but you have to start making some hard decisions about who to keep and who you can't keep.
11:27David Montgomery's on the Texans because of that dynamic.
11:29They had to make decisions.
11:31Right, right.
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