- 2 months ago
Brandon Scott gives his thoughts on where Wyatt Teller currently stands with the Texans and what his role could look like on Houston’s offensive line heading into the regular season.
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00:00Y'all tell me, how deep into this game is Wyatt Teller going to be playing?
00:05Like, how deep into this game do you anticipate seeing Wyatt Teller out there on the field?
00:10Are you certain he's going to play this game?
00:11How much do you want?
00:12I mean, they said the starters weren't playing.
00:15Last time I checked, he wasn't that.
00:17So, I mean, he might not play in this game.
00:20And that would be a great sign, I think, for Wyatt Teller and especially, like, his standing with the team.
00:24I think that would be a great sign.
00:27But how deep, if at all?
00:29So, let's frame it that way.
00:30How deep into, if at all, do you anticipate seeing Wyatt Teller in this game?
00:35And is it too early to give up on the Wyatt Teller signing overall?
00:40And here's why I asked that.
00:42I don't feel like this was somebody that was brought in to be a depth piece, per se.
00:47And I could be wrong about that.
00:48And maybe I am.
00:50But I thought that they brought him in.
00:52It seemed like from what they paid him and for what his background and pedigree is,
00:56is he was brought in to be a starter but not necessarily promised that?
01:02Obviously, if he didn't win the competition or if somebody won it over him.
01:05And so, is this somebody that perhaps they view as, and maybe he views himself as a potential starter elsewhere
01:12if he doesn't win that job?
01:14And therefore, he's not depth on this team, but potentially a trade candidate of some sort.
01:20Or somebody that they release and let him go find somewhere.
01:23I don't know.
01:23That probably would be a little bit too punitive for what they paid him.
01:26But I'm reaching that point of wondering, like, what is Wyatt Teller's role on this team if not as the
01:35starting left guard?
01:36Because that looked like it's Keelan Rutledge.
01:37They also look like they got fairly decent depth pieces for whatever that's worth along the interior of that offensive
01:44line.
01:44Whether we're talking about Fabecchi or we're talking about, whether we're talking about Jared Patterson or whoever it may be.
01:52So, I don't, like, I just don't feel like that is his Latin life right now.
01:57Or at least maybe he may not view it that way.
01:59Doesn't seem like he was signed to be that.
02:01But, so, I'm curious what y'all think, whether it's too early to give up on the Wyatt Teller sign.
02:07And I'm about there at this point.
02:08This is really interesting because I'll start with the game today.
02:12Remember, game day today versus the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte.
02:166 p.m. on 95.7 The Fan is when kickoff is.
02:203 p.m. is when you get Texans countdown.
02:23Wyatt Teller's played over 100 games in the NFL, man.
02:26I find it, as much as I think you're right, I don't think that he's a starter no more.
02:30Which is concerning, as you mentioned.
02:33A two-year, $16 million deal is what brought him here to Houston.
02:36And so, that is the type of money that you imagine would have had him as a starter.
02:41And it felt like that's where they placed him until, at least my interpretation is,
02:44he got beat out by better circumstances on the offensive line.
02:48But I don't know if he, I don't know if whatever his output right now is,
02:53is still so poor that they feel like they're going to put him out there.
02:58Maybe in just deference to him as a vet-vet, right?
03:02Not just a veteran, but a vet-vet in this league.
03:05So, I don't know if he plays tonight.
03:06If he does, I think that'll be very telling on your second question,
03:10which is, is it too early to give up on the Wyatt Teller experience?
03:14And at that instance, I think that we have a very interesting conversation to be had there.
03:19I still think, though, that even where he is, there's a value in him being an experienced player on the
03:27interior
03:27for this group that you have, where you have Evan Brown, who's played in the league, don't get me wrong,
03:32but Keelan Rutledge, who was new to this, and then Fabecchi Weewoo, who you mentioned, who was new to this.
03:37And then some of the other guys that you have depth-wise aren't exactly new, like those guys, like rookies,
03:41but they haven't been around all that much, and they also could probably benefit from a three-time Pro Bowler
03:47talking to them a little bit here and there, you know?
03:50Plus, you know, he might be a guy that you could still put in there in case of emergency.
03:55I wonder what his personal appetite is for remaining around,
03:59but I think that with what this team has seen recently,
04:02I don't think it's, or I think it is too early for you to damn the Wyatt Teller experience at
04:08large
04:09because the money that you have in on Wyatt Teller specifically, I just kind of put into a pot.
04:14I'm looking at your offensive line spend in general
04:16because I am not so hard up on individuals need to match their pay.
04:22I am more, what is your general pay, and are you getting the outcome that you needed?
04:26And I think that the offensive line, I think your starters look like they're capable of doing what I can
04:30expect from them.
04:31But then also, in recent years, we've seen how an injury have put you into the Lurch, capital L Lurch,
04:37and I like the idea of having depth that I feel comfortable coming in and having,
04:41whether it's experience or capability, to come and do that.
04:44And I think Wyatt Teller gives you some of that.
04:45Yeah, so I don't know how much I love him as a depth piece at this point,
04:49but I do like how you frame that in terms of viewing it as a pot
04:53because the negative is, hey, is it too early to give up on the Wyatt Teller experience?
04:59Just the whole idea that it's some kind of existential crisis that you might give up on him.
05:03That's the negative piece of this thought.
05:05The positive piece of this thought is, what does it say about the team that you would arrive to the
05:11third preseason game
05:13and just a couple of days out from cutting this thing down to a 53-man roster
05:18and your two marquee offensive line acquisitions and signings in Wyatt Teller and Braden Smith
05:24right now seem to be somewhat of a non to less of a factor, potentially a non-factor right now.
05:30Like, we're not talking about those guys at all.
05:31Braden Smith, the most noteworthy thing that he's done now, has gotten injured, unfortunately,
05:35and was in the process of battling for his position with Trent Brown
05:39and looked like he was on the back end of it.
05:41Yes, it looked like he was losing.
05:42Yeah, it looked like he was losing that battle.
05:44So now we're talking about both guys, right?
05:47Wyatt Teller losing the starting position that I think we had penciled him in for
05:51and Braden Smith potentially losing the starting position that we had penciled him in for
05:57and then what it says about the offensive line that there are two key acquisitions
06:02or what it says about the team in the front office, I should say,
06:05that there are two key acquisitions on the offensive line are potentially non-factors
06:10and we're going into the season actually feeling pretty decent about the offensive line.
06:14Like, nobody's like doom and gloom, oh, Wyatt Teller's not playing up to the expectation,
06:20oh, Braden Smith's not winning his job, what's the offensive line going to do?
06:24No, they brought back Trent Brown and I think some of us might be a little shaky
06:28on how many games he can give you, but we feel pretty good about Trent Brown when he plays.
06:33So let's rock with that.
06:35Keelan Rutledge, I think has become a popular thing for a lot of people to say now,
06:39might be their best offensive lineman or even like if you just want to keep it to the interior,
06:44maybe their best interior offensive lineman on the team period right now and hasn't played a down.
06:50We're able to glean that just from watching them in practice and watching them in the preseason
06:54and just kind of getting a feel for what he's all about.
06:56So to me, the positive side of this is that it says a lot about the work that they did
07:00on the offensive line
07:01that these two guys could look like failed signings potentially.
07:05Potentially.
07:06We don't know that for sure, but potentially it looked like failed signings
07:09and that the offensive line might still be all right.
07:12They still got to play, but I'm not concerned about the offensive line
07:17despite the fact that I'm concerned about the two main guys that they brought in.
07:20Yeah, the roster building portion of this, I think serves as a little bit of a Rorschach test,
07:25that ink block test that they put up to you and like, hey, what do you see?
07:28And I think it says more about you what you see than I think the circumstance itself
07:32where one way you could go is if you are maybe more negative, you go,
07:36those are the two acquisitions that I imagine that you play squarely at the feet of Nick Casario
07:42as he builds this roster and you go, ooh, could these possibly be more strikes on your record
07:46when it comes to acquiring talent?
07:48And I know I hear you, listener, going, well, what about Keelan Rutledge?
07:51Interestingly enough, shout out to Cody Stutes.
07:53They did a little interview with Keelan Rutledge, I believe this week,
07:57and there was a little nugget that I found to be interesting in that apparently Nick Casario
08:02didn't talk to Keelan Rutledge at all in the pre-draft lead up.
08:05It was actually Cole Popovich.
08:07So how much of the credit do we give to Cole Popovich for making good analysis
08:12of their upside offensive line acquisitions within this?
08:17I think at the other side, you go with what you were starting to get to,
08:20which is it all forms together like Voltron and looks like an offensive line
08:24that is ultimately ready to go, that is moving guys in the run game,
08:28that is at least very much doing what they need to do against bad run defenses,
08:32and hopefully we'll see exactly what it looks like against better run defenses
08:36as we go through the season.
08:37But that is a hop, skip, and a jump away.
08:40In fact, more than that, it is a far cry from what it had previously been
08:43in the last couple of seasons with offensive line on this team.
08:46Dare I give Nick Casario credit for leaving it up to the experts?
08:51Because if I were to ask you as a Texans fan,
08:54everybody that's listening right now that's a Texans fan,
08:56I would ask you right now, who do you feel more comfortable with right now
08:59evaluating your offensive lineman of the future?
09:01You're about to draft a guy.
09:02You might want to draft a guy.
09:03Who do you feel more comfortable with making the evaluation at this point
09:07on the offensive line specifically?
09:09Is it your general manager, or is it your offensive line coach
09:12that helped improve the offensive line, albeit not that much of a talent
09:16to win the year before, but you could see some things get better coaching-wise?
09:21It would probably be the coach.
09:24And so part of leadership—
09:24Which everyone gets to the right answer is really the answer.
09:26But right now it seems like that's the coach, right?
09:28But I think the receipts that we have would tell you that the other guy
09:31would lack the trust to be the answer to the question, right?
09:34So the tip of the cap, though, would be game-recognizing game
09:40and leaning into your resources.
09:43That's one of the key parts of leadership is knowing what you know
09:45and also knowing what you don't know
09:46and being able to recognize the people that work under you
09:49that might have a skill that you don't have
09:51or insight or talent that you might not have
09:53and to be able to compensate for your blind spots or to see them.
09:59So shout out to them for doing that.
10:01And hopefully Cole Popovich is the one that's evaluating
10:04the offensive lineman going forward if this is what we're going to get.
10:07Yeah, agreed.
10:08Now, ultimately, to the question that you originally asked,
10:10is it too early to be out on the Wyatt Teller experiment?
10:12I think it is, in part because, again, I am trying to have my mindset
10:17not just what does it look like in week one, what does it look like in week four.
10:20No, this is a team that is fully judged by four as opposed to 17.
10:24And I say that to say they are judged by what the outcome is
10:27in the latter portion of the season and, more importantly, the playoffs
10:30and what they're capable of doing there.
10:32In order to get through the entirety of hopefully 20 games or whatever,
10:3721 games, I guess, right?
10:39Well, 20 if you win enough in the regular season, right?
10:42I think that it is a war of attrition type sport, is the car crash sport,
10:45and I would like to have more people that I can turn to in moments of danger.
10:49And I think the Wyatt Teller still exists as that,
10:50even if he's not a starter for whatever he calls.
10:53Yeah, I've just been a little concerned from what I've seen in training camp.
10:56Been on the ground a lot.
10:57And normally, a guy can outplay, like play well,
11:01and it doesn't necessarily translate from training camp to the regular season.
11:05But normally, when a guy is struggling in training camp,
11:07that does not bode well for just suddenly flipping a switch
11:11and being a thing once the regular season comes.
11:13Have you liked Fabachian Wee-Woo more?
11:15I think I have.
11:16Okay, I was about to say, because you hesitated to a point where I was like,
11:18if that's enough of a hesitation, I think he hangs around.
11:21You know what I mean?
11:21Yeah, but I think the value is going to be the other part that you talked about.
11:25At least he has the experience, has seen it all, former All-Pro, three-time Pro Bowler.
11:30So there is some value in that.