November 26, 2024 • 10 mins
The Athletic's film analyst Ted Nguyen joins The A-Team to talk about what is wrong with the Texans offense. He thinks that CJ Stroud's second year struggles are because of factors that he does not control. He also talks about what he sees from this struggling Texans offensive line.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Adam and Adam here with you and now with our
guests talk a little more football. Ted Win, who can
be found on the X platform at FB Underscore film Analysis.
You can find him on YouTube via the just Win
podcast and The Athletic where his work on the game
of football, which we've been talking about almost exclusively today,
(00:20):
can be found.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Ted.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We certainly appreciate the time. I've long admired your work
taking people inside what can be seen on film, and
certainly some focus here for us has been what's been
on the AFC South for quite some time, clearly, and
also the draft from two years ago. And that's actually
where I want to start, because over the last couple
of weeks, the play for the number one overall pick
(00:43):
has gone in an upward direction really for the first
time in his career, and the player picked at number
two it's gone in the opposite direction, a downward direction
for a number of reasons. That's CJ. Stroud here with
the Texas at number two, Bryce Young there in Carolina
at number one. Starting with CJ. What have you seen
over the last handful of weeks or maybe overall in
year two that you haven't liked that maybe surprised you
(01:06):
after you watched him in year one.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You know, I'm not very concerned about c J.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Shroud's game.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I think he's still a very promising quarterback and I
still think he's a top ten quarterback. I had him
as a top ten quarterback coming into the year, and
I'm not going to change my stance on that. I
know the numbers are down, but I think when you
look at what's happening around him, it easily explains that
(01:35):
he's playing in a tough environment. Right now, the Texans
lead the league in third and long attempts. They have
ninety four attempts of third and seven or longer, only
to only the Cleveland Browns are at second place, and
they have nine more third and long attempts in them.
They're fourth in the league. And offensive penalties they're second worst,
and offensive brushing success, which puts them.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Behind the sticks.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And they gave up the sixth most pressures one hundred
and thirty nine pressures and PFF only charges c J.
Stroud with eleven point three percent of those pressures, so
under saying only eleven point three of those pressures.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Are caused by c J. Stroud.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The rest are caused by the offensive lines. So I think,
you know, you're starting to see some missus and you're
starting to see im press a little bit. But I
think he just has to because there's so much stuff
put on his shoulders right now. I think in the
beginning of season he was able to carry to the
team through these issues, and he was able to make
some big plays on third and long. But playing that
(02:33):
way just isn't sustainable, and we're starting to see the
law averages kind of catch up to him.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
The offensitive line is just not a very good one.
They're one of the worst ones in the league.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
That is I think surprising to us that they've fallen
that far. They certainly weren't a good group last year,
but with roughly the same makeup, certainly is the same
scheme and coaching staff, they are significantly worse. Something you
just said there from if you could explain a little
bit more about that, not putting it on CJ. Stroud,
but more putting it on the old line, not on
him these pressures. This last game, I was saying an
(03:05):
all game long about Will Lewis, and I believe you
cut a clip up of the very same thing. Will
Levis would be credited in a bad way with some
of those sacks, some of the eight sacks against him,
because he kept running into them. Here's where I'm going
to go, right where the Texans defensive lineman who otherwise
would be blocked and out of the picture. He kept
running into sacks.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, that's that's Will Love. That's a big problem, and
he's example of kind of an opposite seedy shroud.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
His final numbers look good.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
You look at the numbers, you know, he might have
a three hundred yard passing games, a few touchdowns, but
then you know, you look at the sack number. He
had seven sacks in the first half of the game.
I didn't see what he ended up with. But this
is a bad part of his game where he just
does not have any sort of pocket feel like he
you know, instead of eluding a pressure and stepping up
(03:56):
into the pocket and buying time to yourself, he'll just
run himself into a sack.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And I just don't know if.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
That's going to be a problem that's fixable, because to me,
it is kind of a field thing and he just
has not shown that at all.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
If you're in a situation like Demiko Ryans or even
Nick Cassario, and you're looking at this offensive line and
you know, you've got to make adjustments. You've got to
do probably a lot of things that won't be able
to be done and tell the off season, you know
what's I know that actually they had an injury that
kind of forced their hand at one position on that line.
(04:28):
But what do you do, especially when you're trying to
keep this kid up right and he's started to take
some of the heat for the lack of success due
to probably a big part of it is that offensive line.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, when you have
as many issues on offensive line as the Texans do,
obviously you would like to use a high draftick on
a tackle. But unfortunately, this year's tackle class in the
draft isn't nearly as good as last year, which was
kind of historic with the run of tackles that was
made last year. I think you have to invest draft
(05:02):
capital into this offensive line.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
You have to.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Find guys that are you know, maybe considered singles not
home runs in free agency because you're just looking for
competency and you're looking for a group that could stay
together and build some chemistry.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
But again, you're just.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Looking for guys that could hold up in protection and
and you know, you're just looking for average. Right now,
everything is still below average and it's kind of cumulative.
You're just looking for guys that could play at a
seed level and get to some yards and rushing on
early downs and hold up in protection.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So with Ted Winn of at FB Underscore Film Analysis
on social media, the offensive line problems are pretty clear
when we look at what other teams dcs are bringing
to Texans football games to try to go against the
Texans O line offensive skiing Bobby Slok, et cetera. It
appears that all they had to do is look at
what this team did, and look what that team did,
(05:57):
and not only does it work against the Texans repeatedly,
it's something that Texans don't even appear to be ready for.
It's something that Jared Patterson, their center, said this week
about how the Titans defended them with their linebackers and
kind of expecting their front to do their job well
enough that they could then handle just the cutback lanes.
And that's one of the reasons why Joe Mixon was unsuccessful.
Do you believe the Texans have been very easy to
(06:20):
game plan for? With what they're doing offensively.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, I mean, if you're speaking, you know, I know
you're talking about the run game, but offensively, this system
that Bobby Sloke is from the Kyle Shanahan system. The
pass protection scheme is very simplistic. I heard a coach
say that, you know, CIJ. Stroud didn't change one protection
last year because it's not like they don't allow the
(06:45):
quarterback to do it, but they rather just have the
center take care of it.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And they rather have the quarterback throw hot rather than.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know, worrying about looking at different pressures and trying
to scort it out. They would just try to throw hot,
which is just replacing the blitz by throwing a short route.
And the Niners have run into problems with their hot
throwing system against really good pressure teams like the.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Chiefs, and we've seen that, and I think.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You know, some of that is happening with the Texans too,
where you know, teams can manipulate you into throwing hot
even though they're just rushing forward like a show blitz,
they could back out of it, get you to throw hot,
and then just kind of tacking you short of the sticks.
So there's some of that happening. You know, I wonder
if folk will evolve and get away from that system.
(07:30):
I know Kyle Shanahan has been pretty reluctant to do it,
so there's some of that going on. Schematically, it's a
little simplistic.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
When you look at Trevor Lawrence and you know the
Jaguars committing to him financially, and it's something that happens
in the NFL sometimes where you know it happened with
Dak Prescott. But I think you would probably put him
maybe in another echelon of quarterbacks you think they're in
a bad spot. Where where do you assess? I guess
both the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence at his point in
(08:00):
both of their timelines.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, I think Sherml Lawrence had a pretty rough deal
in NFL, having to deal with a lot of the
Jaguarth issues as far surrounding him with talent and another
guy that had to deal with a lot of pressure
on a weekly basis. But unfortunately, I think you know
some of that. When you've seen that your entire career,
it's hard to really build any momentum and get better
(08:24):
year to year and see progress.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
And I hope.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
That he's had a place where you know, maybe if
he finds stability with his offensive line, maybe he finds
an offensive coach that could play to his strength, that
he could kind of rebuild his career. But at the
same time, it's tough. There's so much scar tissue there
with what he's had to gone through in the beginning
of his career.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
We had a conversation about the MVP in the NFL
this year and maybe people have voter fatigue? Could that
keep Lamar Jackson from winning another MVP. I can't help
but keep watching him week after week, and I fully
recognize how their offense changes when you add Derrick Henry,
and they've gone through multiple ocs during his time there,
and he just keeps blowing people away with what he's
(09:09):
able to do on the football field. Is he trending
towards winning another MVP?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
To me, he should. I mean, last year he sort
of won the MVP. He wasn't having a great year
statistically until later on, and I think last year there
just wasn't a clear PET candidate and he kind of
got it by default, even though he was playing very good.
But I feel like this year it's all put together
he's gotten really ingrained into monking system. You add Derrick
(09:37):
Henry to that offense, and they're putting up historic numbers.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I mean they could.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I heard on the Monday night broadcast it could be
the first team to average seven yards per play for
the entire season. So I think he's playing better than
he was last year when he won the MVP.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And I just don't know if.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
There's anybody out there that could really challenge him. I mean,
Joe Burrow is putting up great numbers too, body, the
winds just aren't there for the Bengals, so I think
maybe Josh Allen could challenge him for it too. But Yeah,
to me, I just think he's playing the best ball
in any quarterback in the league right now.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, Ted, we certainly appreciate the time, great inside stuff
and taking a look at what the film is telling you.
You do a great job of luring us in with
some of your captions. I definitely enjoy them. They get
right to the point and tell you what. Well, I
can't figure this out, but that's what they're doing anyway
at FB Underscore Film Analysis, Ted, we appreciate you joining
us this afternoon, So Palm, thanks for having me on
Adam and Adam here with you and now with our
guests talk a little more football. Ted Win, who can
be found on the X platform at FB Underscore film Analysis.
You can find him on YouTube via the just Win
podcast and The Athletic where his work on the game
of football, which we've been talking about almost exclusively today,
(00:20):
can be found.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Ted.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
We certainly appreciate the time. I've long admired your work
taking people inside what can be seen on film, and
certainly some focus here for us has been what's been
on the AFC South for quite some time, clearly, and
also the draft from two years ago. And that's actually
where I want to start, because over the last couple
of weeks, the play for the number one overall pick
(00:43):
has gone in an upward direction really for the first
time in his career, and the player picked at number
two it's gone in the opposite direction, a downward direction
for a number of reasons. That's CJ. Stroud here with
the Texas at number two, Bryce Young there in Carolina
at number one. Starting with CJ. What have you seen
over the last handful of weeks or maybe overall in
year two that you haven't liked that maybe surprised you
(01:06):
after you watched him in year one.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You know, I'm not very concerned about c J.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Shroud's game.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I think he's still a very promising quarterback and I
still think he's a top ten quarterback. I had him
as a top ten quarterback coming into the year, and
I'm not going to change my stance on that. I
know the numbers are down, but I think when you
look at what's happening around him, it easily explains that
(01:35):
he's playing in a tough environment. Right now, the Texans
lead the league in third and long attempts. They have
ninety four attempts of third and seven or longer, only
to only the Cleveland Browns are at second place, and
they have nine more third and long attempts in them.
They're fourth in the league. And offensive penalties they're second worst,
and offensive brushing success, which puts them.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Behind the sticks.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And they gave up the sixth most pressures one hundred
and thirty nine pressures and PFF only charges c J.
Stroud with eleven point three percent of those pressures, so
under saying only eleven point three of those pressures.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Are caused by c J. Stroud.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The rest are caused by the offensive lines. So I think,
you know, you're starting to see some missus and you're
starting to see im press a little bit. But I
think he just has to because there's so much stuff
put on his shoulders right now. I think in the
beginning of season he was able to carry to the
team through these issues, and he was able to make
some big plays on third and long. But playing that
(02:33):
way just isn't sustainable, and we're starting to see the
law averages kind of catch up to him.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
The offensitive line is just not a very good one.
They're one of the worst ones in the league.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
That is I think surprising to us that they've fallen
that far. They certainly weren't a good group last year,
but with roughly the same makeup, certainly is the same
scheme and coaching staff, they are significantly worse. Something you
just said there from if you could explain a little
bit more about that, not putting it on CJ. Stroud,
but more putting it on the old line, not on
him these pressures. This last game, I was saying an
(03:05):
all game long about Will Lewis, and I believe you
cut a clip up of the very same thing. Will
Levis would be credited in a bad way with some
of those sacks, some of the eight sacks against him,
because he kept running into them. Here's where I'm going
to go, right where the Texans defensive lineman who otherwise
would be blocked and out of the picture. He kept
running into sacks.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, that's that's Will Love. That's a big problem, and
he's example of kind of an opposite seedy shroud.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
His final numbers look good.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
You look at the numbers, you know, he might have
a three hundred yard passing games, a few touchdowns, but
then you know, you look at the sack number. He
had seven sacks in the first half of the game.
I didn't see what he ended up with. But this
is a bad part of his game where he just
does not have any sort of pocket feel like he
you know, instead of eluding a pressure and stepping up
(03:56):
into the pocket and buying time to yourself, he'll just
run himself into a sack.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And I just don't know if.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
That's going to be a problem that's fixable, because to me,
it is kind of a field thing and he just
has not shown that at all.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
If you're in a situation like Demiko Ryans or even
Nick Cassario, and you're looking at this offensive line and
you know, you've got to make adjustments. You've got to
do probably a lot of things that won't be able
to be done and tell the off season, you know
what's I know that actually they had an injury that
kind of forced their hand at one position on that line.
(04:28):
But what do you do, especially when you're trying to
keep this kid up right and he's started to take
some of the heat for the lack of success due
to probably a big part of it is that offensive line.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, when you have
as many issues on offensive line as the Texans do,
obviously you would like to use a high draftick on
a tackle. But unfortunately, this year's tackle class in the
draft isn't nearly as good as last year, which was
kind of historic with the run of tackles that was
made last year. I think you have to invest draft
(05:02):
capital into this offensive line.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
You have to.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Find guys that are you know, maybe considered singles not
home runs in free agency because you're just looking for
competency and you're looking for a group that could stay
together and build some chemistry.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
But again, you're just.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Looking for guys that could hold up in protection and
and you know, you're just looking for average. Right now,
everything is still below average and it's kind of cumulative.
You're just looking for guys that could play at a
seed level and get to some yards and rushing on
early downs and hold up in protection.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So with Ted Winn of at FB Underscore Film Analysis
on social media, the offensive line problems are pretty clear
when we look at what other teams dcs are bringing
to Texans football games to try to go against the
Texans O line offensive skiing Bobby Slok, et cetera. It
appears that all they had to do is look at
what this team did, and look what that team did,
(05:57):
and not only does it work against the Texans repeatedly,
it's something that Texans don't even appear to be ready for.
It's something that Jared Patterson, their center, said this week
about how the Titans defended them with their linebackers and
kind of expecting their front to do their job well
enough that they could then handle just the cutback lanes.
And that's one of the reasons why Joe Mixon was unsuccessful.
Do you believe the Texans have been very easy to
(06:20):
game plan for? With what they're doing offensively.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, I mean, if you're speaking, you know, I know
you're talking about the run game, but offensively, this system
that Bobby Sloke is from the Kyle Shanahan system. The
pass protection scheme is very simplistic. I heard a coach
say that, you know, CIJ. Stroud didn't change one protection
last year because it's not like they don't allow the
(06:45):
quarterback to do it, but they rather just have the
center take care of it.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And they rather have the quarterback throw hot rather than.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know, worrying about looking at different pressures and trying
to scort it out. They would just try to throw hot,
which is just replacing the blitz by throwing a short route.
And the Niners have run into problems with their hot
throwing system against really good pressure teams like the.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Chiefs, and we've seen that, and I think.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You know, some of that is happening with the Texans too,
where you know, teams can manipulate you into throwing hot
even though they're just rushing forward like a show blitz,
they could back out of it, get you to throw hot,
and then just kind of tacking you short of the sticks.
So there's some of that happening. You know, I wonder
if folk will evolve and get away from that system.
(07:30):
I know Kyle Shanahan has been pretty reluctant to do it,
so there's some of that going on. Schematically, it's a
little simplistic.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
When you look at Trevor Lawrence and you know the
Jaguars committing to him financially, and it's something that happens
in the NFL sometimes where you know it happened with
Dak Prescott. But I think you would probably put him
maybe in another echelon of quarterbacks you think they're in
a bad spot. Where where do you assess? I guess
both the Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence at his point in
(08:00):
both of their timelines.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, I think Sherml Lawrence had a pretty rough deal
in NFL, having to deal with a lot of the
Jaguarth issues as far surrounding him with talent and another
guy that had to deal with a lot of pressure
on a weekly basis. But unfortunately, I think you know
some of that. When you've seen that your entire career,
it's hard to really build any momentum and get better
(08:24):
year to year and see progress.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
And I hope.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
That he's had a place where you know, maybe if
he finds stability with his offensive line, maybe he finds
an offensive coach that could play to his strength, that
he could kind of rebuild his career. But at the
same time, it's tough. There's so much scar tissue there
with what he's had to gone through in the beginning
of his career.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
We had a conversation about the MVP in the NFL
this year and maybe people have voter fatigue? Could that
keep Lamar Jackson from winning another MVP. I can't help
but keep watching him week after week, and I fully
recognize how their offense changes when you add Derrick Henry,
and they've gone through multiple ocs during his time there,
and he just keeps blowing people away with what he's
(09:09):
able to do on the football field. Is he trending
towards winning another MVP?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
To me, he should. I mean, last year he sort
of won the MVP. He wasn't having a great year
statistically until later on, and I think last year there
just wasn't a clear PET candidate and he kind of
got it by default, even though he was playing very good.
But I feel like this year it's all put together
he's gotten really ingrained into monking system. You add Derrick
(09:37):
Henry to that offense, and they're putting up historic numbers.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I mean they could.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I heard on the Monday night broadcast it could be
the first team to average seven yards per play for
the entire season. So I think he's playing better than
he was last year when he won the MVP.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And I just don't know if.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
There's anybody out there that could really challenge him. I mean,
Joe Burrow is putting up great numbers too, body, the
winds just aren't there for the Bengals, so I think
maybe Josh Allen could challenge him for it too. But Yeah,
to me, I just think he's playing the best ball
in any quarterback in the league right now.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, Ted, we certainly appreciate the time, great inside stuff
and taking a look at what the film is telling you.
You do a great job of luring us in with
some of your captions. I definitely enjoy them. They get
right to the point and tell you what. Well, I
can't figure this out, but that's what they're doing anyway
at FB Underscore Film Analysis, Ted, we appreciate you joining
us this afternoon, So Palm, thanks for having me on
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