00:00So the Texans, yeah, kicks off at 830, and you can hear it here on 95.7 The Fan.
00:04As far as some, you know, developments here with the Texans, I guess we'll call it,
00:08Caden McDonald got his feet wet, finally, as an NFL player in real game action.
00:13He'd been on IR with an ankle injury, and he came back for the win over the Tennessee Titans on
00:19Sunday.
00:20Here's D'Amico Ryans yesterday giving his assessment of Caden McDonald's debut.
00:25What I liked about Caden yesterday, he showed growth from some plays and things we ran in practice
00:31that didn't go so great, and then he got in the game, and man, he did a really great job
00:37with his technique.
00:38So I'm really proud of Caden's first NFL action.
00:42He was where he was supposed to be.
00:43He played stout in the interior of our line, and that was a big reason why they couldn't run the
00:48ball a lot on us
00:49because of Caden and how he played.
00:51Played strong, played smart, really did a really nice job.
00:55So it's encouraging for me to see him take the improvement from Wednesday's practice to the game on Sunday.
01:04The kid has improved, so he's taking coaching well, Coach Rod, Coach Frank.
01:08He's done a great job of working with him.
01:10Man, he just has to keep going, right?
01:12Just keep getting better each and every week, but I like him where he was for his first outing.
01:17It was a really good game by him.
01:19And Coach Rod is Rod Wright, the defensive line coach.
01:21Coach Frank is Frank Ocam, former Texan, who's an assistant.
01:24I said O-line coach, D-line coach.
01:26Frank Ocam is the assistant D-line coach.
01:29So the play that he's talking about there, I'm guessing he was specifically thinking about the wham play
01:35that Caden McDonald saw on the first drive, which this is what offenses, when they face the Texans' defense,
01:43try to see if they can get the defensive tackles or the wham play,
01:46because the defensive tackles are trying to get upfield as fast as they can,
01:50and they'll try to blindside him with a fullback or a tight end who's aligned in the backfield.
01:56And young defensive tackles especially sometimes have a hard time with that.
01:59Caden McDonald read it perfectly.
02:02The misdirection that they used to try to get him to bite on it,
02:05and this is on the first series of the game.
02:07Caden McDonald's down in there.
02:08They've got a rookie defensive tackle in the red zone.
02:11And he and Aziz Elshire end up stuffing the play because he read the wham play perfectly.
02:16So when D'Amico was talking about, you know, we showed him some looks that didn't go so well in
02:19practice,
02:21I guarantee you they were working on that specifically for Caden in practice.
02:25It's the thing that in 2023 and 2024, the veteran defensive tackles for the Texans were struggling with.
02:32And they got, you know, the Ravens and a few other teams really exploited them with that.
02:36The defense got a lot better at it over the last couple years, but the Titans were going to test
02:41Caden McDonald with it.
02:42It was interesting.
02:43I thought it was interesting what D'Amico said there about how, like, he won't often mention, like,
02:49that a guy didn't look good in practice that week.
02:51Like, you know, like D'Amico bringing that up with Caden McDonald tells me that they were going to play
02:58him in this game
02:58come hell or high water to get his feet wet.
03:01You know, like, I thought there'd be a chance that, yeah, he was activated back onto the 53-man roster,
03:06but I thought there'd still be a chance he might be inactive this week just based on, hey, we need
03:10a win.
03:10Well, you know, there's also, I mean, and this is where it's hard for coaches, and it's hard.
03:15I'm not criticizing coaches for this because they know.
03:19But you're never going to catch a coach, you know, saying, like, all right, listen,
03:23this guy might not be practicing that well, but he's a gamer.
03:26But there are guys who are like that, and I think usually what people think is, oh, he doesn't do
03:31well in practice
03:31because he's not working hard.
03:32No, there's a lot of guys that they don't show up as much in practice because they're being very methodical
03:41about working on things,
03:42and you're not really letting it loose.
03:44And when you're thinking your way through things, yeah, you don't necessarily make as many plays,
03:48but you're trying to actually work on the technique.
03:52My favorite was Dom Capers used to tell me stories about Kevin Green,
03:55and that he said Kevin Green was the absolute worst practice player ever.
04:00Hall of Famer Kevin Green.
04:02Yeah, Hall of Fame pass rusher Kevin Green.
04:04And it wasn't because he wasn't working hard or anything, but he was just always working on something.
04:09And he said, but he'd get in games, and he was a completely different guy.
04:14Obviously, yeah.
04:14So there are some players that there's an element of like, man, we just got to throw them out there
04:19and see what we got.
04:20And I think Caden McDonald might have been just – because I liked during camp watching him.
04:26He was out there early.
04:27Him and Naquan Jones were out there a half hour before everybody else working on stuff.
04:31And I'm watching Caden McDonald in practice and in preseason games,
04:35and what I kept telling people was, look, he's not there right now.
04:40He's not ready, but you just got to be patient with him.
04:45You know, I didn't want to make it sound like I was saying it was a bad draft pick or
04:48anything.
04:49I just – like I've been through everything that he's been going through when you're –
04:52because that's kind of the way I practice too.
04:56And like it was really nice to see.
04:58Because now in training camp, you know, everything I said about practice, yeah, that's true.
05:03But then you got to show up in the preseason games.
05:05And he wasn't really showing up in the preseason games the way that I would have wanted to see him.
05:09Yes, he had that sack, but the sum total of it was I didn't think he was ready for NFL
05:13action
05:14or to be an impactful player, he looked way better in that game than he looked in the preseason.
05:19So he's been working at it even as he's been injured.
05:22One game – we're thumbs up on Caden McDonald one game.
05:24Yeah, yeah, I was really encouraged by it.
05:26Like honestly, I saw some things I liked watching on television,
05:30but it's impossible to evaluate a defensive tackle from television.
05:33So I was kind of expecting to see more blemishes than I saw.
05:38And even the things that – I did a video on my YouTube stream yesterday where I showed all his
05:41plays.
05:42Even the things that I would critique, it was still stuff that you'd be critiquing with any defensive tackles.
05:48Like stuff that any veteran player – mistakes that J.J. Watt would make.
05:52Sure.
05:52You know, within an entire football game.
05:55Yep.
05:55So like that's – yeah, he's way ahead.
05:57I was really, really pleased with that.
05:59All right.
05:59As far as the running back position goes, just to shift over to the other side of the ball with
06:03the Texans,
06:03it's probably going to be the Woody Marks show this weekend.
06:05And at least for the foreseeable future, David Montgomery is out week to week with a groin injury.
06:11Here was D'Amico Ryans yesterday on Woody Marks' improvement.
06:15For me, as I see Woody, it looks like he's just seeing the field so much better.
06:20When he's pressing blocks the proper way, when he needs to make a cut, he's making the proper cuts.
06:25And when he makes a cut, he's decisive and he's still gaining yards by going downhill.
06:31So you talk about the vision is there, but also just the physical nature at which he's running.
06:35Like, it's impressive.
06:37And he had some nice lanes yesterday to run behind our offensive line who did a really good job in
06:42the run blocking.
06:43So we continue to stay after it, continue to sustain our blocks the proper way.
06:47You know, Woody can get some positive yards.
06:49Yeah, 15 carries, 62 yards, long of 12.
06:52Like, when this team breaks off a 12-yard run, it feels like they just broke off a 40-yard
06:56run right now.
06:57It's still – I know D'Amico's upbeat about it.
06:59It's still not great.
07:00I do think – and again, I'll caveat this by saying I hate that it's injury that brings about this
07:05take.
07:06But if the Texans are forced to lean into Woody Marksmore here in the short term, I mean, make no
07:11mistake, this Sunday is a triage situation for the Texans.
07:15If they lose this game and they're 1-5 and 0-2 in the division, then the beginning of the
07:20season is an out-and-out disaster.
07:21At 2-4, it's still not great.
07:23But at 1-5, it's a disaster.
07:25If they're forced to lean into Woody Marksmore because he's been the better runner between the two, then so be
07:31it.
07:31However it gets them to arrive at this conclusion, even if they're forced to, because it feels like every carry
07:36they're giving to David Montgomery right now, Seth, is a wasted carry right now.
07:40I mean, there's a chart that Texans Cap put up where it shows all the running backs in the league
07:46and what's their speed at the line of scrimmage.
07:49So how fast are they running when they hit the line of scrimmage?
07:53And David Montgomery is way down by himself below everybody else.
07:57And I think that matches the eyeball test.
07:59Well, and this was the warning label that he came with from some of the people, the experts out there
08:03that watch film and that look at the advanced stats, that look at the run blocking stats and win rates
08:10and things like that.
08:11is that he's definitely a tough, hard-nosed runner that had good bursts and things like that, but he was
08:19a real beneficiary of the blocking that he got.
08:21Right, and that doesn't mean that he doesn't have value.
08:24It's just that his value might be one of those types of runners that just needs good blocking in front
08:31of him.
08:31And I know that sounds like, that sounds dumb, but that he can be better than a lot of other
08:38running backs.
08:38Like as long as, but you got that one critical thing, you got to have clear lanes in front of
08:42you.
08:42And then, yeah, he can be better than maybe even Woody Marks or somebody like that.
08:46But that's like the one necessary condition that he doesn't have right now.
08:51And I think Woody Marks is just between his vision and his athletic profile and everything else,
08:56he might just be better suited to running behind this offensive line than David Montgomery.
08:59Yeah, look, if David Montgomery's injury means Woody Marks is going to get 20 touches,
09:04which he got 19 touches in this game against Tennessee,
09:07if this means Woody Marks is getting 20 touches, and I got to believe it does.
09:11I think they're going to lean into C.J. Stroud throwing the football more,
09:14but I don't think they're going to go away from the run game altogether.
09:17They're going to need to run the football, especially if they're leading in the second half of this game,
09:20they're going to have to run the football.
09:22The other nice thing about Sunday's game is that, man, you know, offensively,
09:29I want to give more credit to Nick Caley, but there's two things that are holding me back.
09:34One is that, all right, there were penalties, a couple of them were bogus penalties,
09:38but penalties nonetheless that, you know, didn't really, it killed some good drives.
09:45But then, and so I'm not blaming Nick Caley completely for the penalties,
09:49but the second part of it is they got so conservative.
09:52Once they had a penalty, they just settled for field goals.
09:56I mean, it was the classic incompletion on first down, hand the ball off, throw a screen,
10:01try to get like five extra yards.
10:03Like, so I want the foot on the gas.
10:05If we're going to get, look, if you're going to lean into the passing game,
10:08because that's what's working, you can't be, you can't be a blue collar passing team.
10:14You know, you can't be a ground and pound passing team.
10:18No, you're going to lean into it, you best lean into it on second and 19.
10:21You better be greedy as hell, yeah.
10:23I'm cool with you running it on second and three.
10:26Second and 19.
