April 24, 2024 • 10 mins
Will Kunkel, sports director at FOX 26 Houston, joins Next Up days before the NFL Draft, which begins with the first round Thursday. The Texans currently do not have a first round pick, but can find value in the later rounds. "We're good at wide receiver right now," but "I don't think you rule out" the position in the draft with a deep class and the reworked Stefon Diggs deal, Kunkel said. The Texans will have a new look for the upcoming season after unveiling four new uniforms Tuesday for the first time since the team's inception; however, next season will feature tougher matchups. "Now people want to beat you because you're getting a lot of love." Kunkel also addresses the Astros 7-17 start to the season, saying "it's all bad." The Astros have "allowed the most runs in the ninth inning" as the back of the bullpen is struggling. The batting lineup has also been an issue. "You got to move Alex Bregman down" and move Jeremy Peña up.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Four matters of the Texans as wellas the Astros. Let's welcome and a
friend of mine for several years now. For those that don't know, we'll
Conkle excuse me, sports director overat Fox twenty six comes to Houston from
Charlotte as I did. Will wasat the cal and Hannah McNair the Jersey
unveil party last night. Good morningtill you, mister Conkle, my man,
(00:21):
what a time last night. Thatwas a That party was done well,
oh, no question. One thingI can say about the McNair family
and the players support this as well. They spare no expense. Now,
the mcnail's are absolutely doling out cash, and that's because they're also making a
ton of cash. We both knowif the mcnaires would have put that team
on the market right now, severalbillion will be coming in. They'll be
(00:44):
all right. I don't think they'regonna do that. But here we are.
So before we get to the strolls, since I'm already here on the
Texas deal, obviously you just heardme give the amon Nico Collins. Have
it talked to you since the additionof Stefan Diggs. The draft starts tomorrow
whide receive a Houston texting your comfortlevel, mister Conker, I mean compared
to last year, Like you workgood at wide receiver right now. But
(01:07):
it's interesting going into the draft becauseI don't think that you rule out wide
receiver because it's so deep, andbecause of what you did with Stefan Diggs's
deal. He's only on a oneyear rental, so maybe you get the
best out of him. You don'thave to pay him. You go get
a rookie you think that can fillin at wide receiver three or four down
the road. Like it's kind ofinteresting. But I mean the wide receiver
(01:30):
room one to three I think isthe best in the NFL right now.
Many would concur with that as well. All right, there were some dudes
wearing some jerseys in there last nightwe went to seven one to three Music
Hall. Gordon was holding us downon Astros coverage, although you and I
did discuss Astros jerseys. Rank themfor me? Of the four? How
you feeling? What are the peoplethat talk to you saying about him?
(01:53):
But I want your personal take aswell, all right? My number one
is that h Town steel blue,Like I love the age super local people
can relate to it. It's nothingthat America is going to really love because
they're not going to understand it andfeel it the same way. So I
think that is awesome for the cityof Houston. I love the white home
of the white a ways. Iguess you can kind of wear them wherever
(02:14):
the hell you want. But thewhites, yeah, super clean. I
love the way that they did those. And then I think the battle Reds
are really fun. I'm not ared guy. I don't love the color
red in that manner like the candyred. I know it's super local,
so I love that so many fansfeel attached to that, and again it's
got local ties to it. Andthen the Blues. I think the Blues
(02:35):
are clean, They're fine. Nothingreally pops out of them for me,
so I don't dislike them. They'rethe fourth my fourth favorite, but I
don't dislike any of it. Ithink they got, generally speaking, all
of it really well done and right, and there's something for everybody. You're
not going to please everybody with everything, but I think overall this was done
(02:58):
really really well by the Texans.It's interesting, well, you know,
we're just seeing the news coming outthe Lions are signing Amnross Saint Brown to
a four year deal. It's interesting. I just try to like it's I'm
still perplexed why they tore up thoselast years of Stefan Diggs. And maybe
I'm sure that was of his agentsasking and all that. But in a
(03:19):
situation where you know Nico Collins isgonna be on the hook for a deal
soon and you tore up Diggs asyears so he's for agent after this coming
year, did the textits make amistake doing that? Because when we see
this money with Saint Brown, man, there's a world where you're not gonna
be able to pay both Nico andStefan. You know, I don't.
It's tough to say they made amistake because we don't know what's really gonna
(03:40):
happen. And I do think thatNick plays a little bit more chest than
Checkers from a standpoint of he thinksa little bit further ahead, which is
why I don't think you take outwide receiver out of the draft possibilities,
because you can let one of thoseguys walk if they're demanding too much money.
And you can't be ignorant to thefact that Stephan is happy until he's
not, and then when he's not, you're gonna know about it. So
(04:03):
maybe it doesn't work. And thiskind of allows you to get the best
of Stefan because he wants to goout there and get his money. And
if you can do that and thensomeone else pays him and you get the
best one year, you take advantageof capitalized and then you're prepared for the
future with Nico, who's a greatlocker room guy, and you want to
pay him and rather have him inyour culture in the locker room, then
(04:24):
then you're set up and you're goodto go. Talker Will Concle, sports
director over at Fox twenty six.You see his work. They're on social
He's all over the place, allover the city, covering stuff and looking
damn good while he's doing it.Texans Draft, okay, we talked about
wide receiver picks forty two, fiftynine, and eighty six, the three
day two picks at Friday night.By the way, you will have some
(04:46):
draft covers right here on Sports Talkseven ninety. We're running the promos for
that as well. Adam Wexland,myself, Dan Matthews will be in attendance.
All right, We's day two up, wex. I'm sorry, we'll
day two. These three picks fromthe two give me positions and or names
that your sources and your instinct suggests. Well, you cannot ignore cornerback.
(05:09):
That is the number one spot.I think they've got to do what they
can do to get up and getthemselves the best corner available without giving up
a ton of draft capital. Ithink defensive tackle is another position they got
to look at as well, butcorner. I've watched Dj Henderson play.
Coaches love him, they watch filmon him, and he does everything correctly,
then all of a sudden in thegame it doesn't really translate, which
(05:31):
is why coaches want to bring himin because they feel like they can coach
him up and make him that muchbetter of a player because his footwork is
so good in practice and so on. Teff Okuda as well, he's bounced
around. I don't know that Itrust him either, So they got to
go out and get corner, cornercorner. I think later in the rounds
you want to get a running backas well, because for whatever reason,
(05:53):
Damian Pierce has fallen out of favorwith the Texans very quickly and just fell
off a Cliff. So those arethe two two positions as well as defensive
techle that I'm really focused in on. It's interesting, well, and I
think you do a good job ofbeing unbiased and telling it like it is
when it comes to all the differentteams, and it's interesting. We've mentioned
it, but we haven't. Ifeel like we haven't talked about it enough
(06:15):
that you're gonna play first place schedulethis year. And when I look at
that schedule and we don't know thedates yet, but I mean you got
road trips to Lambeau, to Dallas, Yeah, to arrowhead home games against
Buffalo, Baltimore, Miami, Detroit. I mean this schedule is about to
get a lot tougher. I justare they doing enough to build up this
(06:36):
roster to make it even stronger.Well, they are from where they've been
allowed to do it so far.Like we haven't gone through the draft yet,
we haven't gotten to the trade deadlineyet, Like that's when the roster
buildings really finishes. After the tradedeadline. To be fair, it takes
a long time. I know,we want to sit here and look at
the free agency, and I thinkthey did a lot of free agency.
(06:57):
I think they got a little bitbetter in free agency. I think they
got worse to the defensive tackle position, which is cannot to be underrated,
like you cannot underplay like they needto get better there and as the corner
as well. Like that's why I'mfocusing on that. But to your point,
I've been saying that forever. Likethey played i think ten one possession
games last year against it very badschedule. You cannot roll out the same
(07:18):
team this year to next year andexpect the same results. Sure, you
can expect CJ. Stroud to bebetter while Jags fans are sitting there be
like there's no way he's gonna beas good. So like you can't sit
on hope that he's gonna be betteror that he's not going better. You've
got to roll out a better teambecause they're gonna be playing a better schedule
and it's going to be that muchmore difficult to win games because you're not
(07:40):
surprising anybody. People now know whoyou are. Now people want to beat
you because you're getting a whole lotof love as well. All Right,
would be remiss if we did notget you to comment on the Astros,
which is where Gordon I argue eachweekday from ten am to noon. Right,
yeah, oh next up, Astrosbaseball in twenty twenty four, will
surmize this performance or these performances forus. Please, I'm bad. Like
(08:05):
it's like it's all bad. Likethey're not winning. They're one of the
worst teams in baseball. They they'rethe second the worst team in the American
League only because the White Fox couldn'tbe a local high school team at this
point. I mean, Alex Bregmandoesn't have a home run, Hosea bray
You doesn't have a home runs,McCormick doesn't have a home run. Like,
(08:26):
they're playing bad baseball. The backend of the bullpen was supposed to
be the best part of the ofthe team. They're the arguably the worst
part of the team with the erasthat they're rolling out there. They've allowed
the most runs from the sixth,seventh, eighth, and ninth innings in
major second most in Major League Baseball. They've allowed the most runs in the
ninth inning in all of Major LeagueBaseball. Like, something's got to change.
(08:48):
I think that you've got to moveshortstop kids name two yeah, yeah,
Jeremy Panya put Jeremy at two,like the dude is getting on base.
He's getting on base. I hada three fifty seven clip. I'm
sorry, that's Gordon Alvarez. He'sgetting on base. I had a three
fifty eight clip. You put himon base, then you can have guys
(09:09):
bat him in like Gordon Alvarez.You gotta move Alex Bregman down in the
lineup. Are his obp right nowis two eighty nine. I know what
his name is, I know whathe has done for. Yeah, But
like the good teams stay ahead ofthe trends and they they've got to see
(09:30):
that Bregman right now, ain't it, JOSEA Bray you right now? Ain't
it? Yes? You give themat bats, and you give them opportunities
to earn their way up in thelineup, just like I'm saying Jeremy Panna
did. Like last year he wasterrible, Well this year he's not.
So let's not look at the backof his baseball card from last year.
Let's look at the back of hisbaseball card from this year and getting on
at a three fifty seven clip,Let's get that guy on base and then
(09:54):
move your down down and allow himto bat him in the same thing with
Jiner. You know he's getting onit at a fine clip for a catcher.
Put the guys in position to succeed, versus saying, no, it's
gonna work out. Now, it'sgonna work out. Now it's gonna work
out. Well, it's not workingout. I would look forward to hearing
more of your thoughts and coverage thereover at Fox twenty six. Please follow
(10:18):
my brother. He is at WillConkle. K U n k E l
f o X stands for Fox,says in Fox twenty six at Will Conkle.
Fox. Will appreciate you dropping byhanging out with Gordon and I for
a little while. Brother. Wewill see you on the beat. I'm
sure you got draft stuff to getto. We'll have to get you back
on after Casario does his magic.All right, boys, I appreciate you
listen every day. You guys arethe best line. Thank you man much
(10:41):
love. Appreciate my brother Will Conkerover at Fox twenty six.
Four matters of the Texans as wellas the Astros. Let's welcome and a
friend of mine for several years now. For those that don't know, we'll
Conkle excuse me, sports director overat Fox twenty six comes to Houston from
Charlotte as I did. Will wasat the cal and Hannah McNair the Jersey
unveil party last night. Good morningtill you, mister Conkle, my man,
(00:21):
what a time last night. Thatwas a That party was done well,
oh, no question. One thingI can say about the McNair family
and the players support this as well. They spare no expense. Now,
the mcnail's are absolutely doling out cash, and that's because they're also making a
ton of cash. We both knowif the mcnaires would have put that team
on the market right now, severalbillion will be coming in. They'll be
(00:44):
all right. I don't think they'regonna do that. But here we are.
So before we get to the strolls, since I'm already here on the
Texas deal, obviously you just heardme give the amon Nico Collins. Have
it talked to you since the additionof Stefan Diggs. The draft starts tomorrow
whide receive a Houston texting your comfortlevel, mister Conker, I mean compared
to last year, Like you workgood at wide receiver right now. But
(01:07):
it's interesting going into the draft becauseI don't think that you rule out wide
receiver because it's so deep, andbecause of what you did with Stefan Diggs's
deal. He's only on a oneyear rental, so maybe you get the
best out of him. You don'thave to pay him. You go get
a rookie you think that can fillin at wide receiver three or four down
the road. Like it's kind ofinteresting. But I mean the wide receiver
(01:30):
room one to three I think isthe best in the NFL right now.
Many would concur with that as well. All right, there were some dudes
wearing some jerseys in there last nightwe went to seven one to three Music
Hall. Gordon was holding us downon Astros coverage, although you and I
did discuss Astros jerseys. Rank themfor me? Of the four? How
you feeling? What are the peoplethat talk to you saying about him?
(01:53):
But I want your personal take aswell, all right? My number one
is that h Town steel blue,Like I love the age super local people
can relate to it. It's nothingthat America is going to really love because
they're not going to understand it andfeel it the same way. So I
think that is awesome for the cityof Houston. I love the white home
of the white a ways. Iguess you can kind of wear them wherever
(02:14):
the hell you want. But thewhites, yeah, super clean. I
love the way that they did those. And then I think the battle Reds
are really fun. I'm not ared guy. I don't love the color
red in that manner like the candyred. I know it's super local,
so I love that so many fansfeel attached to that, and again it's
got local ties to it. Andthen the Blues. I think the Blues
(02:35):
are clean, They're fine. Nothingreally pops out of them for me,
so I don't dislike them. They'rethe fourth my fourth favorite, but I
don't dislike any of it. Ithink they got, generally speaking, all
of it really well done and right, and there's something for everybody. You're
not going to please everybody with everything, but I think overall this was done
(02:58):
really really well by the Texans.It's interesting, well, you know,
we're just seeing the news coming outthe Lions are signing Amnross Saint Brown to
a four year deal. It's interesting. I just try to like it's I'm
still perplexed why they tore up thoselast years of Stefan Diggs. And maybe
I'm sure that was of his agentsasking and all that. But in a
(03:19):
situation where you know Nico Collins isgonna be on the hook for a deal
soon and you tore up Diggs asyears so he's for agent after this coming
year, did the textits make amistake doing that? Because when we see
this money with Saint Brown, man, there's a world where you're not gonna
be able to pay both Nico andStefan. You know, I don't.
It's tough to say they made amistake because we don't know what's really gonna
(03:40):
happen. And I do think thatNick plays a little bit more chest than
Checkers from a standpoint of he thinksa little bit further ahead, which is
why I don't think you take outwide receiver out of the draft possibilities,
because you can let one of thoseguys walk if they're demanding too much money.
And you can't be ignorant to thefact that Stephan is happy until he's
not, and then when he's not, you're gonna know about it. So
(04:03):
maybe it doesn't work. And thiskind of allows you to get the best
of Stefan because he wants to goout there and get his money. And
if you can do that and thensomeone else pays him and you get the
best one year, you take advantageof capitalized and then you're prepared for the
future with Nico, who's a greatlocker room guy, and you want to
pay him and rather have him inyour culture in the locker room, then
(04:24):
then you're set up and you're goodto go. Talker Will Concle, sports
director over at Fox twenty six.You see his work. They're on social
He's all over the place, allover the city, covering stuff and looking
damn good while he's doing it.Texans Draft, okay, we talked about
wide receiver picks forty two, fiftynine, and eighty six, the three
day two picks at Friday night.By the way, you will have some
(04:46):
draft covers right here on Sports Talkseven ninety. We're running the promos for
that as well. Adam Wexland,myself, Dan Matthews will be in attendance.
All right, We's day two up, wex. I'm sorry, we'll
day two. These three picks fromthe two give me positions and or names
that your sources and your instinct suggests. Well, you cannot ignore cornerback.
(05:09):
That is the number one spot.I think they've got to do what they
can do to get up and getthemselves the best corner available without giving up
a ton of draft capital. Ithink defensive tackle is another position they got
to look at as well, butcorner. I've watched Dj Henderson play.
Coaches love him, they watch filmon him, and he does everything correctly,
then all of a sudden in thegame it doesn't really translate, which
(05:31):
is why coaches want to bring himin because they feel like they can coach
him up and make him that muchbetter of a player because his footwork is
so good in practice and so on. Teff Okuda as well, he's bounced
around. I don't know that Itrust him either, So they got to
go out and get corner, cornercorner. I think later in the rounds
you want to get a running backas well, because for whatever reason,
(05:53):
Damian Pierce has fallen out of favorwith the Texans very quickly and just fell
off a Cliff. So those arethe two two positions as well as defensive
techle that I'm really focused in on. It's interesting, well, and I
think you do a good job ofbeing unbiased and telling it like it is
when it comes to all the differentteams, and it's interesting. We've mentioned
it, but we haven't. Ifeel like we haven't talked about it enough
(06:15):
that you're gonna play first place schedulethis year. And when I look at
that schedule and we don't know thedates yet, but I mean you got
road trips to Lambeau, to Dallas, Yeah, to arrowhead home games against
Buffalo, Baltimore, Miami, Detroit. I mean this schedule is about to
get a lot tougher. I justare they doing enough to build up this
(06:36):
roster to make it even stronger.Well, they are from where they've been
allowed to do it so far.Like we haven't gone through the draft yet,
we haven't gotten to the trade deadlineyet, Like that's when the roster
buildings really finishes. After the tradedeadline. To be fair, it takes
a long time. I know,we want to sit here and look at
the free agency, and I thinkthey did a lot of free agency.
(06:57):
I think they got a little bitbetter in free agency. I think they
got worse to the defensive tackle position, which is cannot to be underrated,
like you cannot underplay like they needto get better there and as the corner
as well. Like that's why I'mfocusing on that. But to your point,
I've been saying that forever. Likethey played i think ten one possession
games last year against it very badschedule. You cannot roll out the same
(07:18):
team this year to next year andexpect the same results. Sure, you
can expect CJ. Stroud to bebetter while Jags fans are sitting there be
like there's no way he's gonna beas good. So like you can't sit
on hope that he's gonna be betteror that he's not going better. You've
got to roll out a better teambecause they're gonna be playing a better schedule
and it's going to be that muchmore difficult to win games because you're not
(07:40):
surprising anybody. People now know whoyou are. Now people want to beat
you because you're getting a whole lotof love as well. All Right,
would be remiss if we did notget you to comment on the Astros,
which is where Gordon I argue eachweekday from ten am to noon. Right,
yeah, oh next up, Astrosbaseball in twenty twenty four, will
surmize this performance or these performances forus. Please, I'm bad. Like
(08:05):
it's like it's all bad. Likethey're not winning. They're one of the
worst teams in baseball. They they'rethe second the worst team in the American
League only because the White Fox couldn'tbe a local high school team at this
point. I mean, Alex Bregmandoesn't have a home run, Hosea bray
You doesn't have a home runs,McCormick doesn't have a home run. Like,
(08:26):
they're playing bad baseball. The backend of the bullpen was supposed to
be the best part of the ofthe team. They're the arguably the worst
part of the team with the erasthat they're rolling out there. They've allowed
the most runs from the sixth,seventh, eighth, and ninth innings in
major second most in Major League Baseball. They've allowed the most runs in the
ninth inning in all of Major LeagueBaseball. Like, something's got to change.
(08:48):
I think that you've got to moveshortstop kids name two yeah, yeah,
Jeremy Panya put Jeremy at two,like the dude is getting on base.
He's getting on base. I hada three fifty seven clip. I'm
sorry, that's Gordon Alvarez. He'sgetting on base. I had a three
fifty eight clip. You put himon base, then you can have guys
(09:09):
bat him in like Gordon Alvarez.You gotta move Alex Bregman down in the
lineup. Are his obp right nowis two eighty nine. I know what
his name is, I know whathe has done for. Yeah, But
like the good teams stay ahead ofthe trends and they they've got to see
(09:30):
that Bregman right now, ain't it, JOSEA Bray you right now? Ain't
it? Yes? You give themat bats, and you give them opportunities
to earn their way up in thelineup, just like I'm saying Jeremy Panna
did. Like last year he wasterrible, Well this year he's not.
So let's not look at the backof his baseball card from last year.
Let's look at the back of hisbaseball card from this year and getting on
at a three fifty seven clip,Let's get that guy on base and then
(09:54):
move your down down and allow himto bat him in the same thing with
Jiner. You know he's getting onit at a fine clip for a catcher.
Put the guys in position to succeed, versus saying, no, it's
gonna work out. Now, it'sgonna work out. Now it's gonna work
out. Well, it's not workingout. I would look forward to hearing
more of your thoughts and coverage thereover at Fox twenty six. Please follow
(10:18):
my brother. He is at WillConkle. K U n k E l
f o X stands for Fox,says in Fox twenty six at Will Conkle.
Fox. Will appreciate you dropping byhanging out with Gordon and I for
a little while. Brother. Wewill see you on the beat. I'm
sure you got draft stuff to getto. We'll have to get you back
on after Casario does his magic.All right, boys, I appreciate you
listen every day. You guys arethe best line. Thank you man much
(10:41):
love. Appreciate my brother Will Conkerover at Fox twenty six.
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