00:00That's right, The Drive is live, and we are live here on a Tuesday.
00:05Let's stay safe out there.
00:12I'm with you, J-Lo.
00:13I'm with you.
00:14Just not quite comfortable there yet, man.
00:16I just keep looking at this map.
00:20So let's stay safe here, man.
00:22Stay safe out there.
00:24We'll get through this one together.
00:26Clint's in the building.
00:27We'll get through this one together.
00:28So Tyler's in the building on YouTube and Twitch.
00:32That's right, The Drive is live.
00:34There's old Reggie.
00:35There's old Reg.
00:36There was old Reggie.
00:37Now this is The Drive is live, Reggie.
00:41But you know how you can be a part of the show, 713-572-4610,
00:45on the text line, phones, YouTube, and Twitch.
00:48You can jump in and be a part of things.
00:51Clint, we were wondering yesterday, this happened late in our show,
00:58that they were not just bringing Revin Jordan back
01:03and he was going to be a part of the practice squad or something like that.
01:06Nope, they were signing him to the 53-man roster.
01:08You had talked about hearing reports about Dominique Robinson,
01:11the defensive end, who didn't initially make the 53,
01:15that they were going to be bringing him back.
01:18And we were trying to figure out, well, what does this mean?
01:21How are guys going to make this 53 work?
01:27And what we were able to find out, Clint,
01:30is they are moving a couple of those offensive linemen to the IR.
01:35Braden Smith and Sam Hagan are moving to the IR,
01:38and they're going to miss the first four weeks.
01:41They've got the same situation that Tank Dale has.
01:45And now it is going to be Dominique Robinson, Brevin Jordan,
01:48joined the 53 in their spot.
01:51So now we're starting to see over the last two days,
01:54this thing start to make sense a little bit more.
01:56Yeah, starting to work itself out.
01:58It wouldn't shock me if they weren't done yet.
02:00I mean, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they weren't done moving and shaking.
02:05You know, on either side of the ball, in any position.
02:08But, yes, when we left here yesterday, we were wondering,
02:11how in the hell is Dominique Robinson and Brevin Jordan going to be added to this?
02:15And when they do, who's going to bounce?
02:17We figured it would be an offensive lineman,
02:18considering they had 12 on the initial 53.
02:23And now we know exactly how it's going to go down.
02:26So, yeah, man, it was – I mean, I love both the moves.
02:30Dominique Robinson is an obvious got to make the move,
02:33got to have it type situation.
02:35Brevin Jordan makes the tight end room really interesting.
02:39You've got five active – or five tight ends on the 53-man roster.
02:43All of them obviously will not be active on game day.
02:46But having five tight ends that fill the roster,
02:50that is an interesting way to fill slots.
02:54And Brevin Jordan being one that is kind of on the outside looking in,
03:00I would imagine, given that he's been injured most of training camp,
03:04there's still a wonder of how do you use all these guys.
03:07Now, I think one thing that D'Amico Ryan – I'm sorry,
03:10that Nick Casario did say in his press meeting today was that they view it,
03:17the running back position, the tight end position, kind of together as one.
03:20Mm-hmm.
03:20And without having a fullback on the roster in the running back room,
03:26obviously one of the tight ends, one of the hybrid tight ends,
03:31Cade Stover or Brevin Jordan, could be slotted as a fullback
03:34in terms of just taking up that spot on the roster.
03:38So I know it sounds odd, three running backs, five tight ends,
03:42but if you really start looking at kind of how guys are slotted
03:45and how positions can complement each other or can cross over,
03:50it makes good sense.
03:52Now, still, five tight ends is a lot of tight ends.
03:54They won't carry all of those guys on an after bus.
03:56Yeah, he said it'd be hard to get five in on the roster on game day all at once.
04:02So, yeah, they'll swing some things around with that.
04:05But also, obviously the story of those two guys jumping on,
04:10but as you said, it looks like things are working itself out.
04:13It looks like the offensive line room is starting to work itself out
04:17because that was the big thing, right, 12 on the roster as that jumped out.
04:21Now we're starting to see you take two right off the bat that go to IR.
04:25And as he kept saying, they use both the practice squad
04:32and the main roster.
04:34It's all one when they come in each and every week.
04:36So certain guys may not dress and certain guys may not.
04:40But it looks like he even said the names of them settling on the offensive line.
04:45Not only those guys did they get down, but he settled on the five that ran out there
04:50in front of CJ, which was Ursary, Rutledge, Evan Brown, Ingram,
04:55and then Trent Brown.
04:58So he settled those.
04:59Those are the five out there, Clint.
05:02But, boy, his words that he had about Keelan Rutledge, that was impressive to hear,
05:13almost a bit surprising to hear him actually say it.
05:17I agree with him.
05:18Here was Nick Casario earlier when he was talking to the media,
05:21speaking about his offensive line and speaking about his young rookie.
05:24I mean, with all the inside players, some of it is, okay, whatever they've played in college,
05:28if they're playing inside, can they play another position?
05:31Can a guard play center?
05:33Can a center play guard?
05:34Can a right guard play left guard?
05:36So, again, we're going to look at all that, and then at some point we're going to say,
05:40all right, in the end, we feel like this is probably the best spot for that player,
05:43understanding that those reps that they get at the other position
05:46could potentially come into play at some point down the road.
05:49But in the end, we feel like Keelan's right now the best left guard.
05:53I mean, honestly, he's probably the best offensive lineman that we have.
05:57You know, so I'm glad he's here.
05:59You know, so if he has to go play center at some point, I'm sure he could do it.
06:02But we feel like right now the best spot for him is a left guard, you know,
06:05with Evan at center, and then with that at right guard.
06:08And I got to say there's a couple of things there.
06:10First one, I can't tell you how much I love the fact that Nick Casario said it.
06:17Right?
06:18Like.
06:18Bad MF-er.
06:19That he said, like, he walked himself down it.
06:22He's our best left guard.
06:24He's probably one of our best offensive linemen.
06:25And then he said to hell with it.
06:26He is our best offensive lineman.
06:30I am, you know, and then some of it comes from that tree.
06:34And we sit and we watched it for years with Bill O'Brien.
06:37Like, oh, you know, rookies don't know nothing.
06:40They don't matter.
06:41He came out and just said, like, straight, like,
06:43this is our best offensive lineman.
06:44I am glad that he didn't try to follow any kind of rules or anything.
06:48He just came out and said it.
06:50And we are going to put him in the best position possible.
06:54And I think that speaks to a lot of what you were saying.
06:57It seemed like you were in their meeting rooms yesterday when you said,
07:00this is what kind of makes sense with Andrews and how they handled the center situation is
07:05they want him to play there.
07:07And they're going to do everything they can, injury-wise or whatever,
07:11to keep him at that position.
07:13I love the way they've handled Keelan Rutledge across the board, right,
07:17is center is one of the hardest positions in football,
07:20definitely the hardest position on the offensive line when you couple in
07:23the communication piece and the processing piece, right?
07:27I love the fact that it was plug and play him early.
07:30Let's see what we've got.
07:31Let's figure out whether he can handle it or not, if this is the best position.
07:35We know, based on what we saw at center, we know he can play guard.
07:40The physicality, yada, yada, yada.
07:42Obviously, if he can play center at an even average level in training camp,
07:48then we know he can bump over and play guard and be given instruction on what to do.
07:53So, I love the way they handled him.
07:56They started him out at center, bumped him over to guard.
07:58I love the way that they're handling with the fact that they keep,
08:01as you just mentioned, Jake Andrews to be the backup center.
08:04So, it would take two centers getting hurt for the rookie to have to then,
08:08you know, bump over to center and play different positions
08:10so he's got some stability at that left guard position.
08:14And, Ron, to your point, I just thought about this when you said it, right?
08:16Because I heard Nick Casario stand behind Keelan Rutledge
08:20as well as his best offensive lineman.
08:23The wildest thing in all of sports, team sports,
08:28is when an organization or a coach, they draft or acquire a guy
08:34and say, you know, I need this guy to change the, in this case,
08:38the offensive line meeting room, the offensive line, their personality.
08:42Like, I need him to take over.
08:44I need him and his traits to take over this entire room.
08:47As a rookie, there's veterans in there.
08:49There's all kind of different players in there.
08:51There's a coach in there, obviously.
08:53And then that organization or that coach then goes out
08:57and does things like we typically hear from, let's call it Nick Casario.
09:02Ah, we ain't building around that guy.
09:04Ah, he's a rookie.
09:05He don't know what he don't know.
09:06Ah, we'll see, man.
09:08Ah, you know, I don't know.
09:09I don't know what position he's going to play, man.
09:10We'll see if he's in the best five, you know.
09:11You do everything you can to roadblock that guy
09:15from literally taking the room over, right?
09:17It's a beautiful thing when an organization,
09:20and in this case, the Texans and Nick Casario and D'Amico Rhines,
09:24when they draft a guy and they immediately, one, they hit on him,
09:28but they draft a guy and they immediately, Ron,
09:30start saying the things publicly that need to be said
09:34and need to be heard by the other eight or nine or ten,
09:37in this case, 12, I guess, offensive linemen in that room need to hear.
09:42Like, the minute that Trent Brown hears D'Amico Rhines
09:45talk about his physicality, well, I can't question it.
09:48He can't question a young guy's physicality at that point.
09:51The minute that they say, hey, man, they hear the general manager,
09:55hey, this is the best offensive lineman in that room.
09:56Hey, you better fall in line.
09:58You better, I mean, that's how you better treat this guy
10:00like he's the best.
10:00Like, he didn't mean no disrespect by it.
10:03I think he just, I think he just said it.
10:05But a lot of times you don't get people who want to say that about a rookie.
