New Texans WR Christian Kirk, Rockets Need One and Walker Back To Houston

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking Your Team?
Who Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
A Welcome in to a Thursday edition of the program
Sports Talks seven ninety It is the A Team. Wex
is over there ac right here as we will take
you up until six o'clock tonight and then and then
four I mean four to fifty. I'm sorry, dude, okay,

(00:36):
kind of start the show over. We were talking about
this the other day my wife and I and she goes, listen,
I figured it out. What's wrong with you? And I said, well,
that's a long list. And she goes to call her
and ask, well, she goes, you should we should call
her live, although not right now. She's at the vet.
She goes, I was trying to figure out why you're so.

(00:56):
She goes, you didn't used to be this way, and
she goes, you're not that old.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm younger than her, but I'm not allowed to say
how much and uh, and she's like, you don't get
any sleep anymore? I go, I know when our kid
started having to wake up at the crack of dawn
to start kindergarten, that's when the night owl that I
am just became this worse than I was. I already

(01:21):
had brain farts, already had a brain fart last week.
I chose not to talk about it on the air,
but you know what I'm talking about. And it's just
like it's happening more and more. And so either I
have like the early symptoms of dementia or I'm not
even kidding when I say that it's in my family,
and or I need to go to bed earlier.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
There you go all that to get to the obvious.
Just go to bed earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Man, it's on the schedule. Did you read it?

Speaker 3 (01:44):
No? I mean, just go to bed a little earlier.
I came a little bit more sleep.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
This is what I'm talking like tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
It's a perfect example, right, Thomas catch a nap whatever heat? Yeah,
but see that just not between two and six preferably.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, I had co hosts that would nap during the
show once upon a time. None of them were named
Adam Wexley that week. No, but it's just like I
am tonight. It's a perfect example. The Rockets are going
to play a game. It's not even in the West.
It's a regular start time game. It's gonna start at seven,
it'll be over by nine thirty, provider doesn't go to overtime.
Plenty of time for me to do a quick recap

(02:16):
on the network and then head home. And I'll be
home by no later than ten thirty. And that's the
ultimate latest. And I will sit there until one or
two o'clock in the morning without fail. I won't even
want to do it. I won't even want It's like
that Seinfeld thing. You're sitting there, you're flipping through channels,
you've got like the chips are on your shirt, whatever

(02:37):
you've been doing, and you're like, why.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Don't you go with the reference If you're sitting there
in your robe and your white tank and you're eating
a bowl of ice cream that you're resting on your chest.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, that's that's super sad. That's Tony Soprana. I know,
well that's I mean, I don't want to get into
that kind of physical shape. But he's talking about the
finger on the remote. Whether it's your thumb or the
fair whatever you use, it's probably your thumb. That it's
the last muscle in your body to finally go to sleep.
He's like, go to bed, you're tired. That's me every night,
and yet I can't do it. And then I come

(03:09):
in here and I wonder why I don't have my
bleeed together. So there you go. There's a little personal
insight into my life. I don't know if some of
you guys are going through the same thing, because I'm
inherently a night owl. I just am Our day doesn't start.
Our show starts at two o'clock. Yeah, whose jobs starts
at two pm? Could be better? I know. No, we
don't have a real job. Don't get me wrong. I'm
not complaining, like, oh, I have so much work to do,

(03:30):
but it's like, you know, we don't start our day
at seven am or eight am at our workplace like
most normal people do.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Hey, Judy, how's it going.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, that's happening. Yeah, So I just that that doesn't
surprise me at all. And then tomorrow it's the same thing. Yeah,
we'll make it. It's gonna be Friday and everything. Yeah, yeah,
so you want to talk about it. I another Rockets
play tonight. They haven't played. They better win these next
two games. They're both against the Pelicans. In case, I
do know that, I know that for sure, and Zion

(04:02):
is going to be playing in all likelihood. I mean,
you never know. We know he's playing well, he's playing
this game. He's playing both, no guarantee.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
No. If he gets hurt, then maybe he's scheduled to
play both games, as are all of their currently healthy players.
Well back to backs to worry about. Nobody's on a
rest plan that goes beyond back to back. Same as
true for the Rockets. They have everybody tread because he's
he's not on a back to back plan. He's on it.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
I'm not ready to play plan. He is out for tonight,
but everybody else he's on an I got hurt plan
the first game back after a month.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
I know, But after this amount of time with the
Rockets playing this same basketball.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Don't you agree with me now? No? I would see
he's a huge part of Why Why do you not
agree with me on this? I need to know because
I was going to bring that up today.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Because it's a weak, bleep excuse for the the guys
that are out there. He's one dude.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I'm not making excuses for the other guys out there.
What I'm saying is their offense, which you have been screaming,
is the main culprit here when I think gets the defense.
They both have a nightly base.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
When they had a six game losing streak, those games
were way too similar. Yeah we got a lead, but
we're not gonna hang on to it. Hey we're playing
well offensively through three quarters, but we're not gonna do
it anymore. That was a very common theme, and you
could equate that to many other games. Their last loss,
they were really really good offensively for some of the game,
and at the very beginning of the first fourth quarter

(05:25):
they were awesome offensively, and then they were the worst
fourth quarter they've ever had. It's not an every night thing,
but it's been a common theme in a lot of
the two months worth of Man, I can't believe they
keep losing games like this. Fred doesn't fix that. He
just doesn't. And he also prevents some of what happens.
That's good. I'm not trying to crap on him either,
But Amen Thompson, Jalen Green, Alprin Shoon Now, Jabari Smith,

(05:48):
Tarry Easton, they're too good to say. Yeah, I mean,
what do you want us to do? Win without Fred?
No way can't be done. They can and they have
and they need to, and at some point in the
probably near future, that's gonna be their whole life. Fred,
their security blanket who's not having a good offensive season,
is not gonna be here forever. He might only be

(06:10):
here for twenty plus games plus playoffs, and then he's
not gonna be here anymore. I'm not saying that's definitely
what's happening, but it's certainly on the table.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
He'll be back. He'll be restructured, well, not rest I
guess it's not technically a restructure if he opts out
and they sign him to a new deal, which is
what will actually be the case.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Even I wouldn't to continue that conversation for the points
of semantics that.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Doesn't want to go anywhere. Though he'll be here.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
They have to want him to be here, and I
think they will.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
He's, if nothing else, he's Tree Rollins with the magic
at the end, he'll be a coach who's dresses up
in a costume, as you like to say.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
If he's here, he'sn't teased going. He's not gonna be
Jeff Green yet, no offense to Jeff.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, here's the thing. If he's not here, and they
may very well come to that conclusion next season or
this offseason, you better get a new point guard because
she's not on your roster right now.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
They won't have one tonight. Fred's out again. Everybody else
is good to go. From a New Orleans standpoint, it
shouldn't be much of a concern for them for the
first time in a while. Same guys that have been
out that matter, Dejontay Murray and Herb Jones will continue
to be out. But the guys that have been going
out there since the break for the most part, that
have made this team most nights much more competitive. And
unfortunately this is you know, when you get a couple

(07:21):
of teams in the league that just have a rass
of injuries. New Orleans roster as it was when the
year began, that's that's not one of the worst teams
in the West. It's not one of the worst teams
in the NBA. Injuries dictated that well. Injuries can also
dictate at different pockets of the season. They're not that awful,
and that's who the Rockets are getting Thursday night, tonight
and Saturday night. Unfortunately, just sometimes it works out that way.

(07:42):
Maybe you catch you know, the Mavericks winning at nine
players are out, which might be the case in their
next game. It's just sometimes good for you, sometimes not.
You deal with it, and you know, the Rockets for
the most part, are are in good shape. They need
to take advantage of that and go out there and
take advantage to go out there and do the things
that you can do well for an entire forty eight minutes.

(08:05):
Is still I think the hardest thing to learn for
young teams, and that I will give you with Fred
not out there, they're a very young team. Dylan Brooks
catches a lot of minutes, and most of the rest
of the guys out there are young players and Jay
Sean Tate and they don't know how to play a
full forty eight for a full eighty two, and they
don't know how to do the things that you did
well early in the game. We'll figure out a way
to continue doing them well as the other team makes adjustments.

(08:27):
They have coaches on the other side, they have players
who also studied film before the game. You just got
to do a better job of your talking points, your
key coaching points that go into these games that they
gotta last the whole game. You got to go back
to that you know when we see timeouts. That's a
lot of what happens there a time out in the
NBA is you guys go to the bench, talk to
each other. Coaches go out to the free throw line

(08:48):
and we'll talk to each other and then for the
final thirty seconds, we'll tell you what to do. Well,
they're really just reminding them of all the things they
told them already. We told you this before the game.
We looked at this before the game. You're supposed to
be here, you're supposed to be there. To you miss this,
you gotta go over the screen. There's reminding him of
all the coaching they've already done. So we'll see how
it plays out tonight again, we'll have that for you.
That'll be over on KTRH Astros Baseball right here on

(09:10):
Sports Talk seven ninety with the Mets. As Cam Smith
told you last night on Astro Line, he was going
to be in the lineup today, and he's not a liar.
He is in the lineup tonight for the Astros. He's
playing third base. I would be almost ready after hearing
what Dana Brown had to say yesterday, I'd almost be

(09:31):
willing to say he's not going to play any innings
in the outfield in spring training, and he might not
play any innings in the outfield with whatever outfit he's with,
the Astros, the Hooks or the Space Cowboys when the
year begins, because I think they're seeing that this is
our answer for the future, and he might be a
lot closer to our future than anybody thought when we

(09:54):
acquired him. This offseason, I hope we see Esak Perettis
catching grounders at second base. It's nice to see him
as part of the middle infield drills and succeeding. He
was the champion in the middle infield drills while he
was competing with Luis ski Orme and Zach Short with
his throw times at second base. That's your second basement

(10:14):
of the immediate future if Cam Smith is your third
baseman of the immediate future. Again, no offense to Mauricio Dubon,
who technically is probably slotted in to catch the opening
day start at second base.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
That's gonna be the guy, like for all intents and purposes,
until all of this shakes out. Don't you think that's
gonna be it?

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah, until it all shakes out. They're just counting the
days again. This sounds harsh to Mauricio, but at this
point in his career, we've been here for five years.
We know what he is. He's an elite level replacement player.
You need an outfielder. He plays a great glove work
in any of the three spots you could put him,
and you need an infielder literally the same thing. He
can play successfully defensively at all four infield positions, and

(10:58):
he's not an embarrassment at the plate. But if he
obviously hit better, he'd be in somebody's every day lineup.
He just doesn't. That's just not what he's going to do.
He's going to make a lot of contact, though he
hasn't so far this spring, and he is a very
valuable piece to a winning team and has shown that
during his time here. He's just like the player they've
had for ten years. The name has just changed. It
was Marwin Gonzalez for a time, he was a leedmis

(11:19):
Diaz for a time, and now it's Mauricio Dubon. Super valuable.
But when they're out there in the everyday lineup, the
general managers are trying to figure out a way to
keep that from happening. Who do we need to go
get who do we need to make sure develops. What
player do we need to find more positional flexibility for
so we can take Dubon out of left field every day,
so we can take Dubon back from second base, or

(11:39):
in the first case, when it happened two years ago,
when Jose's hand going to heal, and it did, And
Marisa has gotten a ton of work the last two years,
and he probably is slated to get a bunch of
work this year because both of the scenarios I played
out for Peretis and Smith, they're not imminent as much
as the hashtag camp Smith hype train born here on
the A team is charging hard towards a twenty twenty

(12:03):
five major league debut.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Do I get credit for that? I mean, I'm the
one that's really really pushing for him to be on
the opening day roster.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, you get half credit. Half credit. I get the
other half the A team, even Steven, but.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
You're the one. You're not. You're thinking you're going all
like you know, principled about it in like normal and
even Keel.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
I mean, I could grab the Astros video they're nice
enough to post on their media site after games that
aren't televised, and I could put that video of him
hitting a ball off the wall and saying he is
going to be on the opening day roster, no doubt
about it. I could. I don't believe it, so I
won't and I don't. But it doesn't mean I don't
want to fill that train engine up with Cole and

(12:45):
have firing on all pistons if it were a vehicle
and drive that Campsmith Hivee train whooo like I do
every day.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Well, that needs to be a little drop that we
have on the show.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Doesn't need to be a drop? Why because I'm sitting
right here. Don't need to drop.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
What if you get sick and you're not able to
do it.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Then you guys won't have me to talk about it.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
All Right, We've got a short show today. Obviously we
will be preempted by Astros baseball. We will have Rockets
basketball later on here on the iHeartMedia Empire Cluster. But
in the meantime, a lot to get to, including next
segment where I'm going to ask Wex the question. Well,
I'm going to run a scenario by him and then
see if he might not pass out from rolling his eyes.

(13:29):
But there is a chance that one of last season's
best quarterbacks could be headed right here to the Houston
Texans Division. We'll explain when we return.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Back to Adam Clinton had Adam Wexler the eight on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
A team rolling along here on a Thursday edition of
the program Sports Talk seven to ninety, wex and ac
with you. So we talked a lot of NFL yesterday,
just because we're at that time of the year where
deals are being restructured, guys are getting extended, wish lists
have well really technically they've already been made, but maybe

(14:22):
some of those wishes are coming true. And I think
you know, as you mentioned yesterday, or we were talking
about it for like a split second, Sam Darnold was
not franchise tagged, and I have long thought, even before
the season was over, that that would be one of
the most fascinating storylines of this offseason. That's not Texans related,

(14:47):
because he was clearly one of the best quarterbacks last year,
or at least he was the starting quarterback for one
of the best teams. Is that fair to say? I
guess probably a better way of putting it.

Speaker 3 (14:56):
He had a nice season, man like if he's got
a ways to go because he hasn't been on the
field enough to advance to the level of the two
who are always named. But I can see that happening
in the future.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Meaning if he just got the same playing time he
got this last year, because.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
You got to he's he's starting in the NFL next year.
Sam Darnold, Okay, well, he had a really good year,
just one of the best quarterbacks in the NFC. It
would have probably been better for him if he finished
his year like he played most of the rest of
his year. And I definitely think he's gonna start for

(15:35):
a team that's probably not anywhere near as good, anywhere
near as much talent as Minnesota. So the way they'll
play in the expectations and the long term future, it's
very very different.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
And not having Justin Jefferson to throw to anybody.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
I mean, they had a great offensive line they had
and even though they had to go out and make
a play for Cam Robinson, even though they knew he
wasn't great, they had to do it. They had Aaron Jones,
they I hope people realize Jordan Adison's pretty awesome second receiver,
and they showed that in Minnesota, got players back as
the season went on and utilized them, and their defense
is incredible, extremely good defense. He's not playing with a

(16:11):
better defense on his team this next year. But then
they closed the season with back to back nine point
performances and he was playoff teams.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
He was bad in it last the last one.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Well, he was bad in both if you asked me.
They didn't generate any offense against Detroit in the game
for the number one seed, granted it was in Detroit.
And then they went and played at the division winner,
the Rams in the opening week of the playoffs, and
they were bad again offensively, and the offensive line that
was good, not great for him. Last year they were good,

(16:45):
they were easily, they were average. They were good enough,
I guess is the best way, good enough to win with.
And then they were awful in the playoff game against
the Rams. Awful. So he is gonna go into free
agency taking on probably a little bit more than he
should of the blame. I mean, he was no question
he was running for his life in that game. Now,
when you go from five sacks to nine sacks in

(17:07):
a game, how many of them are really on the
D or the O line or where a few Did
you hang on to it too long? Did you try
to make a play? Yeah? Probably, it was a playoff game.
You didn't just think I will get him next week
or we'll get them a series from now. It's a
little bit different there. But instead of heading into free
agency off of a nine ten eleven game winning streak,
which is what he was headed towards, he heads into

(17:28):
a free agency if he truly gets there, off of
two bad games for a quarterback whose history prior to
last year was poor.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Well, we're also in the season where people write articles
like this just predicting where people land, and actually this best.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
Free agent landing spots for Sam Darnold.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Its best. It's basically six guys that are free agents
that are stars as this article describes them, but you know,
basically trying to predict where they're gonna end up going.
And editor's note, one of them already did because they
actually got it right predicting that uh Zach bron or

(18:08):
Zach Bonne should say was going to stay with the Eagles,
where he was gonna get he was going to get
an offer from the Falcons, and then the Eagles, I
guess gave him more money, barely have a few million.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Frillion for a guy who is breaking the bank with
his first huge contract. He also gets to continue playing
for the Super Bowl champions.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, I just uh, Howie Rosen's best GM in NFL. Right,
I don't think anybody's arguing that right now. It's hard to.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
I mean, Brett Veach is pretty good.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Well, he ain't the defending champ.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yes, how he has won. Veach has a lot more
than one. Well, he has the latest one. He has
the latest one. So also one in one against each
other in the Super Bowl, also true. So here's the
thing about Sam Donald though. This is very interesting for
a couple of reasons. One is that this this particular
article has different teams that'll give these players offers, and

(19:04):
some of them have as many as I think four
or five teams offers, you know, for the same player.
In the case of Sam Donald, it's got the Raiders
offering him three years one hundred and twenty five fifty
five guaranteed, or the Titans going with three years one
twenty but with eighty five guaranteed. And I bring all

(19:25):
this up because this particular article has him landing with
the Titans, which instantly it will make them better simply
because they can't get much worse at that position right now,
like on his best day, what's Will Levis?

Speaker 2 (19:40):
What's the comp all time? I don't even know the all.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
Time comp for Will Levis, as are all the quarterbacks
that aren't very good. So I don't know who you
want to pick out of that hat. He's not a
good quarterback. You don't need a comp. He can't play.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Oh, that's what I say.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
I liked Ale years in. He's had plenty of opportunities.
He makes the same mistakes. He turns the ball over
a ton, both with his a throws, bad decisions and
his lack of ball security. They're I mean, they're telling
him on game day, dude. I'm sorry, man, we just
we gotta play this guy. We got to play the

(20:12):
guy that's that's backing you up. Well, who's that? It's
Mason Rudolph. But that's not important. You want to play
Mason Rudolph over me because I'm playing that badly.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yes you are.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
You're bad. Sorry, Mason stinks too, But this is where
we're at. That's why they're a team interested in Sam.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Darnold hard to argue with any of that. Well, that's
what they say. The higher guaranteed money swings it, which
is usually the case, by the way, I don't know
if you guys are aware of how free agency works.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
Look at Alex Bregman, and you know Sam got you know,
top pick in the draft type of money, close to
the top pick in the draft money for the first
several years, and then he had to piece it together,
got a nice backup deal with the Niners, and got
a nice deal with the Vikings, and now he's gonna
get his huge deal. This is it. This is the one.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
For sure.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
He might get another one if things work out tremendously well,
but this is the one.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
They say here, this meaning this setting, Donald would have
a little bit of a concern that the Titans might
also take a guy in the draft, leaving him to
potentially get Kirk Cousins, which I don't know who they're
taking that would do that because this draft is y.
But the Raiders also bring that concern. This is more money,

(21:22):
and as you pointed out just now, Donald would still
get to hit free agency again at twenty nine or
thirty provided he played well. Sam Donald with the Titans,
though there's worse options for the Titans to go with,
including drafting a guy. In my opinion, well, you might
do both.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
I'm not sure that you want to necessarily do that
for a player who you've guaranteed money for beyond this year.
That's I wouldn't want it to be like that's what
the Falcons did. And they also did not have the
number one pick in the draft, and at the time
they did the deal, they had not fully fallen in
love with Michael Pennock Junior, which they ultimately did, thus
they drafted him. But if the Titans did both, that

(22:01):
would mean they are making one mistake. That means they
don't believe in the quarterback they're drafting, because they already
know they have the number one pick today, if they're
gonna fall in over the quarterback, well, okay, we have
the number one pick. This is what we're doing. We
can get a backup. We can we can sign Gardner Minshew.
We can sign somebody to be good in the film
room and good in the quarterback room and take him

(22:23):
out to dinner and back him up on game day
or start at the beginning of the year. Well, we
can't sign a guy that has to play over him
because we're paying him forty million dollars for this year
and maybe next year and maybe the year after that.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
I'm still and it hasn't happened yet. I mean, the
Vikings could well.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Sam Darnold to the Titans is one of the two
teams in this division that clearly doesn't have a quarterback.
The Colts are. I guarantee you there are going to
be reporters because I watched them say it this morning.
Don't rule the Colts out just yet. Keep an eye
on the Colts, you know, with their situation. I think
it's an awful lot of money to give to another
quarterback when you drafted Anthony richards the number four overall.

(23:02):
But if you think your roster lost last year because
Flacco and Anthony Richardson were bad, well, then this is
the kind of move you make. You're you're you're not
really bringing in competition for richards Kyler Murray. What did
they do?

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Well, They've drafted him and pivoted very quickly from the
guy before him because he just they didn't feel like
he was going to be Oh you mean he was
the Donald? Yes, Okay, I guess it. Was a reverse Donald.
But what I'm saying is why I don't know why
more team I understand why more teams don't do this,
meaning figure out that this guy's just not going to

(23:39):
be the guy. I know sometimes it takes more time,
but I'm just surprised that more teams don't pivot more quickly,
since even though there's a lot of money involved, even
though you sometimes need to play it out to see
if a guy's really not going to be the guy.
What do we always talk about with bad quarterbacks getting
coaches fired. You're just getting the next coach ready, his

(24:01):
roster ready for him if you don't move quickly. It's true,
it's a man, it's a slippery slope being a coach
in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
But he's he's so different. I think it's good's it
was going to take time, no matter what. They know
more about him for the day to day stuff, which
stuff they talked about, his leadership, you know, being focused,
being you know, paying attention to all the little details
before you get to games, before you're in the games,
before you're playing the games. But his athletic skill set
at quarterback is basic. I don't know if it's unmatched.

(24:31):
It's just different than any other quarterback in this league.
He's the biggest quarterback in the NFL. He's capable of
using that to his team's advantage. Does it come at
your expense because you're shortening his career because you're turning
him into Cam Newton to a certain degree, And he's
gonna get beaten up every game, and how he's gonna
play eleven games a year instead of seventeen. And I
think there's a little battle with that. They got into

(24:52):
the very first season he got hurt in his you know,
the very first few games of his career against the Texans.
And then there's those again. They see him every day.
Can he get a little bit better? Is he missing
throws because he still doesn't have his footwork down the
way he needs to be. He still doesn't have the
timing down, he's not got his dropbacks down. Whatever the
case may be. In two years in you might think, okay, enough,
you should have this by now. But it's hard to

(25:14):
It's hard to cut loose a player you drafted fourth
overall with all of the skills you see. I mean,
as bad as his season was, he still did things
that like three other quarterbacks do four or five other quarterbacks.
So I mean the Texans who made him have what
should have been considered an awful day. Yeah, but I
still threw those three long touchdown passes. Yeah but I

(25:34):
still was able. He still has those plays that make
you go, I'm not ready to close the door on
that and turn things over to a one time successful
Sam Darnold, which is still truly what he is, unsuccessful
in multiple stops as a very high draft pick that
his team had a hard time saying get out of
here too, which is the exact same story for different reasons.

(25:54):
That's why I put him in Indianapolis put him in Tennessee.
They are both better teams this year, and neither would
be threats to the Texans in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
No, no, but I can't a. I can't believe the
Vikings are just gonna go with JJ McCarthy and not.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
Gone yet, right, They were talking like he is. They
just decided they would not franchise him while they continue
to see if there is a contract that works for
both parties.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
And I can't believe that Anthony Richardson has already done.
I mean he's not, but he is if the colts
do this, So just saying, all right, the best of X.
We do it every day around this time. It's next.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety s.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Hey listen to Rockets Radio or your smart device. Just
ask lay four stock seven ninety on iHeart Radio.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Should put it out?

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Between five and ten posts day, four hundred people were
arrested for things that they said on.

Speaker 5 (26:59):
Social History repeats itself type Benuel's succeed ever doubt that you're.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
The one two pussle, No one bid you're the best X.

Speaker 5 (27:13):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best of
X posting every single day. You know you're the best
of X, breaking the entire internet.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
So last night X. Because a lot of things we
come up with.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Thirty here on the eighteen, we check in with our
six who's thirty seven? First of all, it's time for
the best of X. Continue.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Please what do you have? Clanton brain over there? You
don't even know what time it.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Is, staring at the clock, So thirty m.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Normally what my routine has become lately because the little
guy has completely thrown himself into Minecraft, which I'm fine
with because now we can play video games together. It's
not what I would prefer to play, but I'm not
going to complain. He's six and a half. We can
shoot people on call of duty soon enough. But in
the meantime, that's how we're bonding. And so what it's

(28:11):
become is like this window that he has figured out
where he can squeeze in some more gaming time while
Dad's also home before he has to go to bed.
And during that little window is when I'm usually if
I'm able to perusing social media to find whatever I'm
going to bring to this particular topic in this segment
of the show every Day last night, that did not happen.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
Oh you got You're just that was a whole, big,
long setup to set on I nothing.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
I got nothing because look best of X if I
was able to peruse X for hours on end like
you do.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
Or Instagram or TikTok oh no, no, I know Blue
Scotch or I mean I don't like we've ever had
an entry from Pinterest, but it's out there.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
I cannot use the selection I sent to you from
Instagram the last time I sent you something from Instagram,
but it is a scene hall Pass.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Her song from Who's whose the band that was singing
that song? Uh?

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Tonight's den I it's uh sticks, So no sticks for
the Best of X and no curbside.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
I mean Fred needs to, you know, be smarter than that.
That's all I'll say. It's her fault? Are are you our?
Is half of our audience listening right now?

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Did you hear what he have done?

Speaker 3 (29:30):
That? It was her fault?

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Would he have done that?

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Knows what he's talking about? Neither does he, But that's
what he's going to say. It was her fault. Why
did he do what he did?

Speaker 5 (29:40):
No?

Speaker 3 (29:41):
No, there's one more line I have to hear from you.
She made him do it, she didn't, that's what you're
trying to say.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
And she didn't allow him to do it either.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Uh yeah. So Best of X will take it to
something I put out earlier. And this goes right back
into the conversation we were just having, just in a
different position and affects the Texans a little bit differently.
And I wrote, so this is the player you want
the Texans to trade for and spend thirty million dollars
aav on And then I added some context. I put

(30:14):
numbers for the people to peruse on the X platform.
Wide Receiver A one hundred and thirteen targets, seventy seven receptions,
nine hundred and seventy five yard six scores, Fifty five
of those receptions went for first downs. Wide receiver B
one hundred and eight targets, sixty six receptions, nine or
ninety two yards five scores, fifteen yards per catch, and

(30:36):
thirty five of the catches went for first downs. Also,
wide receiver A on the field less almost one hundred
and seventy snaps less than wide receiver B. Is this
the wide receiver you want the Texans to trade for
and give thirty million AAV two? Approximately? Some people have
suggested a certain receiver that's yoked up and he and

(30:57):
his team have decided it's okay for him to seek
a trade might be getting thirty million in AAV as
he wants more than just the one year remaining on
his contract. Of course, one of those two receivers is
DK metcalf And if you were listening, it's harder on
the air than it would be if you were staring
at the X platform. The numbers are pretty darn close.
They were specifically chosen for a reason, you know, wide

(31:19):
receiver A had five more targets and eleven more catches.
He had one more touchdown, he had fewer yards per catch,
twenty more of his catches went for first downs, and
he did all that with less field time. That's Juwan Jennings.
The other guy's DK metcalf.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
Interesting, I'm not the other guy that you're gonna say.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
Stats to me were similar enough to bring them up.
It's not always easy to say, well, how hard is
it to find a Juwan Jennings, But that is the
point I am making. Juwan Jennings is a run of
the mill draft pick. He's still a good player. He's
enhanced his ability to help his team's offense each year

(32:00):
he's been in the league, to the point where last
year his numbers were worthy of comparing to DK metcalfs.
He basically doubled his career totals and this was year four.
First three years in the NFL, he was a small
part of the Niners offense for different reasons. Kittle was
a bigger deal, Samuel was a bigger deal. McCaffrey was
less hurt, and he just had not established himself quite

(32:22):
to the point that they countered on him and trusted him.
Last year, they had a bunch of other guys hurt
and he was out there as much as anyone. And
he had a season that was just shy of a
thousand yards, had a couple of monster games that hook
people up on the fantasy football waiver wire. And what
did they do to get him? They used the two

(32:43):
hundred and seventeenth pick in the twenty twenty draft to
get him. Now they had to go through all four
years of his rookie deal to see him produce like that.
So these aren't, like I said, it's not always that
easy to find them. But if player X is trade
your and Diane Rassini of the Athletic probably pretty good

(33:05):
guess at what the trade haul might be for the Seahawks. Well,
we tk Metcalf's great, he's a true number one, he's
a big target, he's got great speed. Look at the
things he's done with us. We don't want to let
him go. He's not gonna it's not gonna make us better.
But just contract says we got to move him. And yes,
you're gonna pay a lot of money for him, but
he's gonna take a first round pick to get him.
And in her estimation, a first and third round pick

(33:26):
to get him. So you would prefer the Texans send
the twenty fifth pick and we'll call it the ninety
first pick or should be should be in that neighborhood
eighty high eighties. There aren't any comp picks in round two,
so you wanted to trade those two picks and shell
out a four year, one hundred and twenty million dollars

(33:49):
contract to DK Metcalf in the current state that the
rest of the Texans team is in. No new rookie
at twenty five, no new rookie in the third round,
and a lot of the space you have created is
eaten up by DK Metcalf for at least three years,
not only this year, but two more years at least.

(34:10):
That's the best way to build this. I'm not telling
you you're getting a better player. The rookie your draft
may or may not be better, but there is a
chance he actually could be at that level. That's how
good some of these receivers are. The twenty third pick
in last year's first round was Brian Thomas Junior. Brian
Thomas Junior is a DK Metcalf caliber receiver, if not better,

(34:32):
and He's going to show it every year of his career,
including last year where he with Mac Jones and Trevor
Lawrence was significantly more productive than DK metcalf.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
You know, how does I am? I thought you were
going to say that the other receiver was Chris Godwin. No,
Chris Godwin. His numbers are probably better.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
His numbers were pretty good, but last year not a
fair comparison because he missed so much time and he's
he's an older receivers, he's been in the league a
lot longer and Diggs in that way, Uh just yeah,
probably a little bit, but he wasn't coming off an injury,
and he was super productive in Buffalo. The only reason
digs last year in Buffalo wasn't one of his best
years is because they decided to do this year. They

(35:12):
decided to get that started last year. I've gone through
this before. The Bills told digs By how they used
him the second half of last year after they changed
OC's we don't want you here anymore because we don't
need you here, because we're not gonna run our offense
like this anymore. Instead of giving you twelve targets, we're
gonna give four to Shakir. We're gonna give five to
this guy. We're gonna give three to this guy. We

(35:33):
don't want to run the offense like that anymore. So
your fault's not our fault. This is just what we
want to do. And that's why Josh Allen won the
MVP last year because he didn't have Oh my god,
this guy's on. He's just through to everybody, and they
felt like it could work. Turned out they were right.
Their offense was very good without him, but his personal
numbers only went down because this is what they decided
to gamble on. And it was correct last year when

(35:55):
they had him, and it was obviously correct this year.
But he's healthy all year, and it was coming off
multiple season of consecutive health, and obviously Goodwin would not.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Be and it's the fine guy here, and he was
not healthy of course.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Yeah, I'm not just saying what I'm just saying. You're
getting a guy who's recovering from injury.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
All right, We'll leave it that.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
The whole point is what did people think of this analysis?
We'll share that with you next.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety back to Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
So we left you with the best of X, which
takes you back to the best of X, because really
going to analyze what X provided for us there. It's
an interactive platform. Some people say this is the worst
place on Earth, even though it's an imaginary portal on
the Internet, and some people think it provides us with
great content both for our program but for our daily lives.

(36:52):
And like when I was talking to Judy earlier at
the water cooler, just stuff to talk about you might
not otherwise know. So I put out that pretty generic,
no deep analytics, no talk about their respective quarterbacks, or
time missed or games they weren't there, or what schemes
they were playing, just some broad strokes to see what
kind of response it would receive. When I compared these

(37:14):
two wide receivers, one of whom is definitely available, and
their performances last year, Dk Metcalf and Juwan Jennings Metcalf
with Seattle and Jennings with the San Francisco forty nine ers,
two teams that underperformed last year. Neither team made the postseason,
though their quarterbacks played fairly similarly. At least I believe

(37:35):
that they did, and that was one of the responses
I sent to Somebody once said, dude, had Gino Smith
for a quarterback, I wouldn't hold his stats against him.
I don't need to cite all the stats, and you
could definitely disagree with me, but I don't think Geno
Smith's season in Brock Perty's season were all that dissimilar.
In an area where Perty might have been a little

(37:55):
bit better than Smith, which was probably taking care of
the football, Smith was a little bit better than Perty
it finding his target. He was one of the most
accurate passers in the NFL last year. Granted that also
means he's throwing shorter passes. That also led to why
DK Metcalf only had thirty five first downs on his catches.
A lot of factors, but those were facts that there

(38:18):
are opinions I guess that I think help you know,
tell the story. Some a bunch of people responded with
the simple stuff, it's DK Metcalf. You want him. If
you can get him, you go get him. That is
again at the expense of what it costs to go
ahead and do that. And I thought TC Tyler set
made a very good point. One of them is the
defense's number one priority, and the other is you know,

(38:41):
three four five when healthy, which is probably true. And
we talked about all these wide receivers yesterday, and the
list is growing on a fairly daily basis, you know,
from Lockett and Tabarcus Robinson and Cooper Cupp and Christian
Kirk and Elijah Moore. We're gonna keep talking about all
those names. Most of the names on the list are
not going to keep defensive coordinators up at night until

(39:04):
they're deep into the night and they've already said, well,
how are we gonna stop this guy first? But it's
gonna be true with everybody other than DK Metcalf. If
you're talking about the Texans, because the Texans already have
Nico Collins, that's who's keeping defensive coordinators up at night
for the six days prior to playing the Texans. If
you add DK Metcalf, well now they don't even bother

(39:25):
putting their pjs on because there is no sleep. I
totally understand that there's there's a big difference between signing
free agent Christian Kirk, trading for Cooper Cup or trading
for DK Metcalf. Although some might have an argument about
Cupp and his involvement. This point is a good one though.
You're gonna make your team better by adding Kirk, by

(39:45):
adding Lockett, by giving your quarterback, and you're oc more
to work with. But it isn't the same as adding
a metcalf. That's what the Eagles have. They have DeVante
Smith and aj Brown. That's two number ones. I still
can't believe I have two number ones, legitimate, no question
about it. And they don't always have to be wide outs.
I think when Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelcey were chiefs together,

(40:09):
Pat Mahomes had two number ones because they were at
that caliber. But there aren't that many teams to do.
It's definitely something you could build. The Bengals are continuing
to build that. T Higgins is a number one. He's
a one to a in Seattle because the number one
is Jamar Chase. But there's other ways to do it,
and that's why I'm trying to I'm definitely trying to

(40:30):
sway people with how it was presented. Is it really
better for the Texans and all their other spending possibilities
to spend thirty million on an average annual basis? His
captain would be a little bit lower than that this
year or significantly lower this year on Metcalf, while also
trading away probably two draft assets, one of them is
probably your first rounder. Versus keeping all of your draft

(40:54):
assets and paying a lot less money for a receiver
that complements your offense, help your offense, compliments Collins, and
using that money and draft capital to make the rest
of the team better. How about adding two receivers. You
draft one at twenty five, you signed Christian Kirk, You
spend money on one of the free agent offensive linemen,

(41:14):
Will Fries Kevin Zeitler. There are options or trade for
DK Metcalf, I believe not gonna happen, despite the fact
that two different people in the reporting world mentioned the
Texans as a team that could be interested.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
I'll mention I will talk about a retort to that
very scenario right there that you mentioned. Plus I'll tell
you what I think they should do. Plus I'll tell
you why the Astros shouldn't be that worried or at the.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
Astro should definitely not trade for DK Metcalf. They have
Col Smith, he could play.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
He could probably play second base better than Mauricio Dubon.
What all right, Well, we'll explain to start the three
o'clock hour next.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
The A Team Yorts Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
But first we're gonna do what we like to do
every single day here on the program, at some point
in time during the show, doesn't matter how long it
is or how short it is. In this case, we're
gonna tell you to go to Big City Wings. And
why wouldn't we There is so much going on here
this time of year, especially in this city. Crawfish is back,
a new shrimp boil, Saint Patrick's Day special with green

(42:25):
beer and green waffles. Big City Wings also your basketball headquarters.
And so you take the food that I mention, and
that's like barely scratching the surface wex. And then you
combine all of the screens they've got for all that
basketball you're gonna be watching sooner rather than later. Why
would you go anywhere else for anything?

Speaker 3 (42:41):
Did you just say it was double boneless Wings Day? Yes,
awesome Thursday, daily special, daily drink specials. So we had
allar butt lights and ultras all day, awesome awesome stuff
at Big City Wings. You might notice the Big City
Wings when we talk to you about them, we say,
hit them up at Big Citywings. Dot com Houston's wing
Joint and find the location nearest you thirteen Houston area

(43:03):
locations and more on the way. Will we say more
on the way, because, as they told us again yesterday
via their social media, the Big City location Cyprus Tuckerton
build is ongoing and hopefully soon to be ready for
you to enjoy it. You and your family, you and
your friends. Sports. Yes all apart of Big City Wings

(43:23):
Houston's Wing Joint.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams series,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Some one of these days I will have to bring
that to the public domain. We'll have that argument, but
not today. It is the A Team Sports Talk seven
ninety wex and AC with you, our number two of
the program, been talking a lot. We've been solving the
world's problems as it pertains to the Houston Texans offseason
and as it pertains to what they do at the
wide receiver position. Mentioned yesterday with all this talk about

(44:06):
DK metcalf and you mentioned that a couple of writers had,
you know, attached his name to the Texans, and that's
all that people are doing these days. It doesn't mean
they necessarily know anything.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
This is a team that could show interest, right.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
And the funny thing about you mentioning that is that
I saw two different places. I believe even the Athletic
might have been one of them. I can't remember the
outlets where several teams were listed as you know, a
great destination where he might land, and the Texans were
not on either of those lists. Because that's what this
time of year is all about. But I'll tell you this,

(44:40):
and I said this yesterday, and it kind of plays
into this. If DK Metcalf and these others you know,
keep becoming available, it's going to not dilute the talent pool.
It's doing the opposite, but it's it's making it easier
for the Texans, in my my opinion, to do what

(45:01):
I think they should do as it pertains to the
wide receiver position, which is retain the guy they had.
I'm all about bringing Stefan Diggs back as much for
the familiarity as anything else. And I think some of
these players that are out there that'll end up getting
a lot of money that maybe Stefan Diggs was hoping
he'd get his hands on, and he'll still get paid.

(45:23):
But what I'm saying is I think all these other
players becoming available make it easier for the Texans to
be you know, because of a combination of factors, the
team that gets Stefan Diggs for twenty twenty five. But
as it pertains to the draft and giving up assets
and capital, if you're doing that at all and you're
the Texans, it better be for an offensive lineman. And

(45:45):
that's it. I don't want to see any other scenario
where they're giving up draft capital, especially this year or
even in future drafts, for another position out there, because
I just don't think it's worth it anywhere else on
their roster.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Yeah, I think that's what makes the DK Metcalf acquis
or before him, a Cooper Cup acquisition via trade. It's
just it's hard to make that make sense. You can
still win, you're going to make it more difficult to
do so for your quarterback, even though he has an
elite target, and it could really open up things for
how Nick Caley wants to do things. It's some if

(46:18):
Cooper Cup is a Texan, it should be because the
Rams could not find a trade partner and they let
him go, and the Texans were the team that gave
him the offer that brought him here. It's again a
lot of money. It would probably take even on the
open market off of multiple seasons of injuries, which is
a risk for the team signing him, but it wouldn't

(46:39):
cost you draft assets to do it. Are any of
these wide receivers we're talking about really answers to the
Texans problems for more than the twenty twenty five season,
And the further you look through the list, you really
should be looking at more of the younger group, or
else you're just going to be right back here now
Tankdell as a Texan difference maker. Probably not. We're in

(47:00):
twenty twenty six, so that has to be under consideration.
If you're signing one of the one of the wide
receivers that's available, and you think he's gonna help you
next year, well's he gonna help you the year after that?
Or are you in the very same position a year
after that, wondering, well, how are we gonna get Nico
Collins the ball? Because the other team just shades their
safeties over to him and puts their number one guy
over there, and they add another player. That's the only

(47:23):
thing they'll be looking at you have to have more weapons,
you have to have more of a reason for them
to care about your offensive personnel, or can't you just
get again? I maybe I feel like this is what
everyone sees the last couple of years. There's so much
talent in the draft, and this talent is ready to play.
They're ready to play in year one. I mean, I

(47:43):
was just looking at a list of rank these rookie
wide receivers from this past year. Marvin Harrison Junior went
the top five. Not long after that Malik Neighbors went,
and then not long after that, there goes Brian Thomas Junior. Second.
Early in the second round, there's Lad McConkie, and of
the five and forgetting who the fourth one is, the

(48:07):
one who was drafted first was really good and had
a good season, but he was the fifth best of
the five. As in getting to the tenth pick and
the twentieth pick and the thirty fourth pick, you're still
getting in soup, Like does anyone come out of this
last playoff game the Texans played at Energy Stadium and
not think Lad McConkie is awesome. He's phenomenal. That was

(48:27):
Year one was a wide receiver year one. They're in
this draft too. They're Jaden Higgins, They're Luther Burden the third,
They're Matthew Golden, They're meccagbuka. They're there. The Texans might
only have a chance to draft one of them. Whoever
is still on the board at twenty five, almost assuredly
is not on the board at fifty seven, and then

(48:48):
you're now thinking it maybe Jalen Oil or some other
players of that caliber who could end up being really, really,
really productive. And just keep in mind, yesterday I kept
going on and on about the Bucks and if they're
going to be the team that brings Godwin Goodwin back,
Chris Godwin back, or are they just going to say, well,
there's a reason why we spent a draft pick on

(49:10):
Jalen McMillan, even though it wasn't a super high draft pick,
because they thought he could play, and they knew they
were looking at their future as much as their present.
They need somebody to be there more than just for
the right now. And that's what the draft does for
You've drafted guy in the first round at wide out
and he's a good player. You got him for five years,
six or seven. If you want a franchise tag him,

(49:31):
which happens a lot with wide receivers, or you got
him for four years, he's drafted him anywhere outside the
first round, which is where McMillan falls in. He was
the ninety second pick in last year's draft, aDNA Mitchell
fifty second pick. If he wasn't playing with Anthony Richardson,
he would have had a good year production wise. Keon
Coleman not a first round pick. Xavier Worthy was the
other receiver on that list. Now that I rethink it,

(49:54):
unbelievable talent in last year's class, probably a little bit
better than this year's class, but not enough to where
you mortgage all these other parts of your team when
you can just send the name into the commissioner or
whoever's announcing your second or third round pick.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
So, you know, like we talked about how basically September
call ups are no longer a thing, give or take.
I mean they are, but they're not like they used
to be. Where don't you feel like.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
You put eight or nine players on your bench for
forty days and then the teams that were in the
race were ticked off that you who weren't in the
race were playing them. And they're like, come on, man,
these are free wins. That's not fair.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
So is basically a year one wide receiver can't contribute,
and we'll have difficulties in the NFL a thing of
the past with so many guys making a splash and
still figure to be coming up this upcoming season.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
I tend to think so. Yes, two of the ten
best receivers in the NFL last year were rookies. If
I tell you that Brian Thomas Junior was one of
them and Malik Neighbors was another, I mean I might
if we really got into it. Maybe it's they're only
eleventh and twelve to thirteenth and fourteen, but you get

(51:10):
the point immediately. And in their case, one team thought
they could make the playoffs and weren't even close, and
Jacksonville and the other team just completely blew it with
And think about what Neighbors did. He did it with
who throwing in the football. It was incredible how poor
their quarterback play was all year, and all he did

(51:30):
was have twelve hundred yards and one hundred and nine
catches as a rookie, probably get the worst quarterback he's
played with in five years.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
That's where I make the DeAndre Hopkins joke because he
kept putting up those numbers with all these bad quarterbacks
over the years.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Right, So if I told you you just drafted DeAndre
Hopkins for the next four years, you'd be a static yeah,
looking at.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
What his career numbers were, Which makes my scenario where
you are only you know your draft is basically spent
on the offensive line, although I guess I that doesn't really.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
I know we'd have to wait till Monday of draft
weekend for them to make their first and second and
third round picks because we won't have a show Friday
after the draft has taken place that night. I can't
wait for that Monday show when the Texans drafted no
wide receivers and no offensive linemen with their first three picks.

(52:24):
That gonna be awesome. At two o'clock on the nose
when you get in here, rate my rage level one
hundred out of ten.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Cashman making it to the World Series and mentioning the
Astros right out of the gate, is it?

Speaker 3 (52:36):
That's like level you were ragey about that, you were
ecstatic These guys can't get get away from the ash that.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
I was just beside myself I'll know to disbelief. I'll
be rangy. I would be pretty.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Surprised, very very surprised. There's the best player available is great,
but the best player available for the Texans probably plays
one of those two positions.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
I would hope so.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
But well, they'll they'll know a little bit more about
their team between now and then, because keep in mind,
we would have basically been through free agency. You're gonna
still make additions. There'll be a couple of players here
and there that become available after the draft and before
you get to your opening game. Sure, but maybe they
did spend money on an offensive lineman that walks in
day one as their best interior alignment, and maybe they

(53:18):
have signed one of these wide receivers. Secondarily that we're
talking about, Well, they've accomplished something by draft day. If
they do that, they've eliminated where they sit today today.
They have holes today, have holes that absolutely have to
be fixed. But the draft isn't today. The draft is
after a free agency.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
I just don't feel like they're making a big splash,
and free.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Agency, well, they will have the ability to do it
more than the number that people thought they were going
to have. I almost hated to give people the Texans
cap situation, and everybody in every NFL market should be
hesitant to do so.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
It's not the final cap situation.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
The Texans were in a situation that suggested they have
to do certain things, which they are going to do.
One of them was restructuring Nico Collins. There's probably at
least one other restructure, if not two, coming. They have
multiple options as post June first release cuts that they
haven't made and don't have to make and don't have
to announce immediately. But all of these things are available

(54:17):
to them when they sit with three million dollars in
cap space, which is now up to eighteen million dollars
in cap space, which could easily get to twenty and
twenty five and beyond. The Cowboys are an ideal example
Sadie Lamb's restructure and Dak Prescott's restructure. They're in one
of the best cap situations in the NFL now because
they were able to They have two players making massive

(54:40):
dollars inline for restructures. Now, it's not quite like what
happened in Cleveland and that restructure.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
We'll talk about that restructure as well as I'll make
you feel better Astros fans, if you're worried about twenty
twenty five, when we come back.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety, I'll tell you
what all always make you feel better is Kushatta Casino Resort.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
They have been just killing it for the last thirty years.
Oh did I mention they're celebrating their anniversary. Yeah, it's
their thirtieth anniversary. It all got started way back in
nineteen ninety five, and it has become an absolute oasis.
You make that short drive to Kinder Louisiana and you'll
see it. Well, you're gonna see a lot of things,
but you're going to see the largest gaming floor in

(55:25):
the Lake Charles area. They got something for everyone at
Kushata Casino Resorts.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
I'm always sending you to Kushatacasino Reresort dot com for
events and promotions and contests and concerts. Well, they got bingos,
red hot bingo every Saturday. They got the thirty thousand
dollars Lucky Day promotion. Guess what it's surrounded by. Guess
what day that is. That's March seventeenth. Some people call
that a holiday. I'd be one of them, so would you. Guys.

(55:52):
They got a big concert coming up this weekend. They
always have great things going on at Kushata Casino Resort.
Visit them online at Kushata Casino Resort dot com and
make your weekend plans. It's the weekend after all, right
now to visit.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
Back to Adam Clinton at Adam Wexler.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
The Eight on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Y I know I teased what would make Astro's fans
feel a little bit better. I didn't realize that I
was gonna have to go with three different stories this late,
this one and it's you know, maybe this wasn't a surprise.

(56:34):
Well it probably wasn't a surprise to Cincinnati fans. The Bengals.
This came out about an hour ago on Adam Schefter's timeline.
Have taken the rare step of granting All Pro defensive
end Trey Hendrickson permission to seek a trade quote. It's

(56:55):
been an honor and privilege to represent Cincinnati over the
last four years. I love this city and organization. I
appreciate the privilege of now being allowed to explore my options.
That's from the NFL sack leader, if you need him.
One of the responses was at dan Orlowsky seven, who said,

(57:17):
what the heck is Sinsey doing? And another one and
this is where the Astros come into play. Some guy
named at Whiskey Tailgate tweeted, letting your only defensive player
walk so you can pay two wide receivers is definitely
a choice.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Blah blah blah. The Texans just traded for Christian Kirk.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
Oh okay, well forget that did just come down?

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Yeah? Multiple reports, including Adam Schefter and Tom Pelsaro, they
the Jaguars had let it be known through reporters. Uh,
looks like they're gonna release Christian Kirk. And just like
last year when the Bengals did that with Joe Mixon,
Let's tell all the reporters, make sure everyone knows we're
going to release Joe Mixon. Hello, Yeah, this is Nick

(58:04):
Cassaria with the Texans. Anyway we could pull off a
deal so you don't send him out there into the
free market. Well, let's talk. Apparently he did the exact
same thing this year, and the Texans are acquiring Christian
Kirk for a twenty twenty six to seventh round pick,
which will be shuffled through Houston but originally belongs to

(58:25):
the Rams. Money side of it, he's in the last
year of his seventy two million dollars deal.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
They were planning on cutting him.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
Yes, but normally and again more mixing similarities extremely unlikely.
This twenty eight year old wide receiver is playing in
Houston this year under his current deal. Just like with
Mixon last year, the Texans and Kirk will have him
playing under a new deal of some variety for multiple

(58:51):
seasons moving forward. But one major hole with the Texans
is partially filled with the report that Christian Kirk is
being sent to the Texans via trade from inside the
division from the Jacksonville Jaguars for a late round twenty
six draft pick. Well, I think this is a very

(59:14):
smart play. Of course it is yesterday. Prediction already came true.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
It didn't take you long.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
I predicted that Kirk, Lockett or Elijah Moore would be
a Texan five. Those are the three names, and Christian
Kirk is a Texan. So no applause, No, it's I'm
I'm fine with it. For me, For Nick, I'm sorry.
Did I miss the part where he fixed the offensive

(59:42):
line in there?

Speaker 2 (59:43):
It's a process. Brother got Stevan Diggs last offseason and
it was so.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Glad, I'll read you the latest from Tom Pellisero trade.
The Jaguars are sending lightweight, undersized offensive lineman Christian Kirk
to the Texans, per source. Now do you feel better?

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
He really wrote that, No, okay, it's okay, it's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
To help your team, you don't have to only fix
the biggest problem first.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
But why not? Why not tackle it first?

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
Because there the Jaguars weren't looking to release a productive
offensive lineman only to have a team call. They did
have one of their linemens say goodbye today, Mitch Morsh
announced his retirement. Started every game for them last year.
That's a new hole they may or may not have
already known. Again, Christian Kirk's deal this year just under

(01:00:32):
seventeen million. Mentioned that yesterday that's what he would be do.
So that's up to the Texans to figure out how
they want to do that. I said, I'd be real surprised,
even though the what they gave up is next to nothing.
It's not the end of the world. If you don't
sign him to a longer deal and you let him
play out under that deal. I think that's more of
a financial issue than a what we gave up. We can't.

(01:00:55):
You can't possibly it can't be a rental. You can't
give up a seventh round pick for our one year
rent of Christian Kirk. But Christian Kirk, again, not knowing
all the specifics of Nick Cayley's new offense, he should
be phenomenal, should be. He was very good in Arizona.
I thought it was very smart from a player perspective
for Jacksonville to target him when they wanted to get

(01:01:16):
more weapons for Trevor Lawrence. I thought they paid him
a lot of money. I was surprised by the figure
they gave him, And now the Texans are on the
hook for the most lucrative year of that deal. But
they'll probably put a different deal in front of him.
But he was very productive there before. He missed little
more than half the season last year, went up to
catch a pass down the middle of the field, wasn't
able to haul it in because when he landed on

(01:01:38):
his left shoulder he broke his collarbone. So he'll be
returning this year off of a broken collarbone.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
Wonder if they still bring back digs. I know this
looks like on the surface, well, that's basically a trade
off but I wonder because of the Tank Dell situation,
if that's even a possibility.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
It's a possibility, but I think this is exactly why
they will not bring.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Yeah, that's that's the It's not.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
How many veteran wide receivers you bring in at this
level of talent. They're gonna bring in probably two other
veteran wide receivers, but Kirk's probably the best among them,
I would think. Doesn't mean already he's only twenty eight
years old.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Oh, he's gonna kill it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
He'll turn twenty nine late next season. He will be
his eighth NFL season. And I think everybody knows he
played his college football in College Station. Everybody knows that, right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Well, bendu Bo said, upgrade for an aggie, it's just
that was a shot at Jacksonville.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Well, it's an upgrade for this is probably the best
team he's ever played on. Several years in Arizona and
several years in Jacksonville. Now he's here with a back
to that division winner.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
How many how many questions get asked of him when
he's introduced before he's asked about al Shay here, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
Just kidding, Well, I am gonna I haven't yet, but
you know where that happened in the season, he wasn't there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
I mean, divisions are and all that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Like, say what you will about I'll ask him about it,
and he'll give you the answer you're putting out there
for everybody to think about. The players don't have the
stupid narrative that the media put out there and that
the league pushed themselves. He's not gonna come here with
he doesn't. I don't know this for a fact. I can't.
I shouldn't be speaking for him, but I'd be really

(01:03:23):
really surprised if Christian Kirk or other Jaguars, many other Jaguars,
or anybody else in the NFL thought dirty player, well,
bad person.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
More importantly, and this is a question that should be
asked if I were there, what's it going to be
like getting such an upgrade at quarterback?

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
I mean he used to play for the number one
overall pick in the draft. This guy we have only
was only number two.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Yeah, that's one way to look at it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
If you're a jack bear that he was catching passes
from the number one overall pick there too. This is
a first for him.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
I'm I am low key excited about this. But again
I temper my enthusiasm because I was excited about Stefan Digg,
but I was also more excited about them addressing the
offensive line, and it just didn't. It didn't happen the
way it needed to, I guess last offseason.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
No, the way they upgraded the offensive line in the
off season of twenty twenty four following the twenty twenty
three season was drafting Blake Fisher. That essentially was all
they did. You know, he was drafted to not play.
I said that I didn't mind the pick because you
always have to consider, well, how many more years are
we going to continue paying Laramie? How many more years

(01:04:30):
as Titus Howard going to be a good enough left
tackle and you're paying him a lot of money? So
I didn't really have issue with it. But I stated
that even on draft night we were doing our show
after the eight team, they drafted a player that, if
all goes well for the Texans in twenty twenty four,
Blake Fisher's not playing. In twenty twenty four, all things
did not go well for the Texans, and Blake Fisher

(01:04:51):
ended up finishing the year as a starter and they
needed him out there, and he got a start early
in the season when they had a player down, and
they got more starts later in the season when the
rest of the offensive line just couldn't play well. And
now he provides you options, though he didn't clearly get
on the field and say this is my position. I'm
really good, lock it up five years of me moving forward.

(01:05:14):
I wish that were the case. It wasn't. Most of
the other players we've gone through this list, four of
them drafted during the Nick Cassario era, a first round
pick on Kenyon Green, second round picks on Juice Scruggs
and the aforementioned Blake or Blake Fisher, and then obviously
a sixth round pick on Jared Patterson. None of them
look have told you with their play I am a starter.

(01:05:37):
They've been starters, but they're not playing at a level
that doesn't make you think should we be better at
their spot? A little early on Fisher, granted he's only
played parts of one rookie season, but the others have
been with this team multiple seasons. And Patterson's a sixth
round pick. So I don't know what your expectations were,
And I'll tell you right now. Of the four players
I mentioned, I'm least disp pleased with his play. I

(01:06:01):
think he's been the best of among them and probably
should open camp barring other additions, as their starting center.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
How long until he gets his extension? Who Christian Kirk?

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
Probably what you would like to do is you have
it in place for the league year beginning, so you
take advantage of instead of him having hit your cap
this year at sixteen and a half million or so,
you extend him. You bring his twenty five cap number
way down, and it allows you to hit free agency
with those accommodations. Instead of having eighteen million to spend

(01:06:35):
or fake spend on March tenth, you have twenty five
million because you've restructured his extension to help you out there.
And then the new league year begins, and then.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
They all put pen to paper in an offseason where
you are probably going to be extending your best defensive
player not named Will Anderson.

Speaker 3 (01:06:51):
Yeah, Pro Bowl Sting, Pro Bowl Sting, that's his name.
That's an in house name. I really shouldn't be allowed
to use it. I'm not a teammate of his. That's
what they call him in there. Enough, it's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
You got grandfather dinn or whatever they call it, you
get a pass.

Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
We'll continue to digest this move and more Texans conversation
when we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety five.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Hey, it's Craig Vigia.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
Listen to the Home of the Astros in your home.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Just tell your smart speaker play Sports Talk seven ninety
on iHeartRadio. I said this to WEX during the break,
and I sincerely mean it. And again I am not
a Texans hater. I want them to do well. That

(01:07:42):
that phase of my life.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
Is over since battle Red Ross has already taken. Do
you want Liberty White Adam No.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
I don't need a moniker to want a Houston team
to do well, provided they don't have a youth minister
running them, and provided that they're not acting like an
unserious organization. I want them to do well.

Speaker 3 (01:08:03):
There's just a short period of time, a little hiccup
in their franchise's existence.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
There are still things going on.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
Look at what it got them.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
There's still things they do that just irk me. But
for the most part, I have nothing to complain about
from three years ago. Even there's except for the thing
I keep complaining about. And I said this to WEX.
During the break, I turned the mic off and I said,
I should be more excited about this trade than I am.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
Yeah, he's good. I was just looking around the X
platform and there's a post from at Adam Klint and
it says, great Christian Kirk Texan. Can he play offensive line?
I should actually tweet that's right, basically what you've done
here on the program. If you did not hear I
did last summer, I'm consistent. Multiple report, Well, there was
no Christian Kirk trade.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
There was a Stefan Dick's trade.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
Multiple reports that the Texans have acquired Christian Kirk wide
receiver from the Jaguars in exchange for a seventh round
pick in the twenty twenty six draft. We all knew
they had a clear need. Their wide receiver room was
taking a pretty big hit with the injury to Diggs
and then the injury to Dell, And now with Digs
not under contract and Dell just undergoing surgery again yesterday

(01:09:14):
scheduled to help bring him back to playing ready. You know,
it's an ACL surgery he had yesterday. Yesterday was part
of the first week of March, March fifth, they'll be
playing football games the first week or thereabouts in September.
The timeline is what it is, and this is such
a significant injury. Counting on him in twenty six is

(01:09:35):
not really or twenty five is not what the Texans
are doing. No timeline has been given when asked of
the Texans multiple times, and I kind of understand that
this isn't probably the last thing or even close to
what they're going to do with their wide receiver room,
but it put it to them in a little bit
better position. It was. It's the kind of move a
team in their position should be willing to make. It's

(01:09:56):
I guess a reason why you have your seventh round
picks you don't. I mean, we've had a lot of
seventh round pick talk today since I brought up Juwan
jenk Jennings, who is a former seventh round pick. And
now the Texans have used a seventh round pick to
put Kirk Christian Kirk on their roster. And last year
they did something very very similar with Joe Mixon trading

(01:10:19):
a seventh round pick to acquire him. You're starting running
back who played at roughly Pro Bowl games levels. This
last away was acquired because of his contract with a
seventh round pick. He's an older player into the last
year of his doings, that he's Tom Brady, they were
ready to walk away Kirk. He's played seven years in

(01:10:39):
the NFL. He was in the last year of his contract.
They were ready to walk away. Go get him.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Unless he's Tom Brady, the seventh rounders are probably not
going to contribute to your championship roster someday.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
No seventh round quarterback has ever played at that level.
I don't even know who the best seventh round quarterback
in NFL history.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
They fourth rounder that's played at that level, or the
third or no best Brady's level.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
I'm just being specific to the fourth round.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
Oh well, I know that that wasn't Wasn't Russell Wilson
a fourth round or was he a second round? I?

Speaker 3 (01:11:13):
No, he was. It was. It would be debate. I
guess I'll take it back. It wouldn't be a debate.
I think Tech has had better years. But this guy
went to the Super Bowl and wanted and went to
the Super Bowl again.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
Of course he's had a better career. And if he
had just handed off the ball to marsh On Lynch,
did you call the place that's I do get the
Raiders head coach does well.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
I got a kick out of somebody saying, and I
think it was when they were smashing helmets on the
Mike Greenberg program in the morning, that the Raiders are
someone to keep an eye on for what with Russell Wilson?
Why like Pete Carroll came back to coach so he
could coach Russell Wilson. Guy, he got rid of her
into his career.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
You do remember that it was actually there was a
reverse of what usually happens. The coach stayed and the
quarterback was sent away.

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
Yeah, third round pick for Russell so he can have
the third round honors and Dak can take the one.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
I don't know why I never can't remember that he's
the one guy. I never I always like, oh, he's
a fourth rounder. Was No, he was in the thirdy idiot,
every single time. It's the same thing. He was drafted
in the third.

Speaker 3 (01:12:16):
You remember his girlfriend at the time, who is fairly
fairly memorable. It's not her name, it's her action. When
you get drafted, often you have cameras in the room.
He did. She was there just she was overly excited
at an enormous, gaping, wide hole in the middle of

(01:12:40):
her face, her mouth.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Oh okay, I uh is it bad that lately? Meaning
the last few drafts, meaning the last like decades worth.
I'm far more fascinated with the moms than I am
the girl friends. You know, Luca just got traded to
the lake where and shows she's aware?

Speaker 3 (01:13:01):
Yeap? Does this close the door for the Texans? We
briefly mentioned it on pursuing a return for Stefan Diggs.
I personally think the answer is yes. And I think
the reason you traded for Kirk is you're going to
is this is what they think of the market financially.

(01:13:22):
What was it going to cost to bring Stefan Diggs back,
and how does he compare to a player of the
caliber of Christian Kirk And what else is on the
market to get a player at least as good, as helpful,
as productive as Kirk. I think that's why they're willing
to make this deal and turn around and probably rework
his deal, his contract, and make it better for them

(01:13:44):
currently and make it better for Kirk personally that he
doesn't he isn't hitting the market right now off of injury.
He didn't really have any control over it because he
was already under contract, but if you are guessing what
his number would be, what kind of contract would he
have gotten had he hit free agency. That's what the
Texans are doing, and that I think they believe with
the money we were willing to spend versus the talent

(01:14:04):
that that was going to be getting us. This is
why we're pulling the trigger on landing this player. We
get to kind of structure the deal a little bit
for our liking because it's not not up against the
other free agents. He's not talking to five other teams
about what they're gonna pay him. We don't have to
beat somebody else's off, or we just have to work
with the agent on doing what's right, which they ended
up doing with Joe Mixon a year ago.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
It's fascinating. I do like the move from the standpoint
of what you gave up to acquire him, like, oh,
they're just gonna let him walk. But the Texans were like, oh, well,
part way it was with the seventh It's fine, is
what Nick Casio does.

Speaker 3 (01:14:38):
He was more productive every year for the first four
years of his career after Arizona drafted him, and then
he had his best year the first year he was
there in Jacksonville tailed off a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
Injuries were part of team last year. By the way,
Yeah he was spelling guys that were hurt because that
happened a lot for me. But he was one of
those guys that was He was like flex. He is player, been.

Speaker 3 (01:15:02):
In that role for a while and here in Houston,
probably gets drafted if they don't do anything else, if
they draft. If the Texans draft a wide receiver in
the first or second round, I'm not sure that Kirk
is a fantasy football He's probably a late round draft.

Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
He will put up his best numbers here in Houston,
provided they get a line.

Speaker 3 (01:15:21):
Maybe.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
Why wouldn't he.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Eighty four catches, eleven hundred yards, eight touchdowns.

Speaker 2 (01:15:25):
He's the number two option for CJ. Stroud.

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
Which receiver did that last year?

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
Stefan Diggs?

Speaker 3 (01:15:30):
None of them? Oh, eighty four catches eleven hundred yards,
eight touchdowns for your number two? What's Nico doing?

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
He's better? Though?

Speaker 3 (01:15:40):
Well, I just I can't imagine that coming this year
in year eight for Kirk be great. Be the best
trade or one of the best trades that texts I've
ever made. If that happens. Will Anderson trade is probably
a little bit better currently.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
Yeah, yeah, I would, I would. You know, it's the
opposite of the will Anderson trade, as in, the worst
trade the Texans ever made.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
Go a head that list is this. There's no I
don't even want to guess what trade Bill O'Brien made
with DeAndre Hopkins and David Johnson. You're talking about, so
I won't even guess.

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
Okay, that's actually the worst one.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
You had something else?

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
Well, the second worst one was I'll tell you when
we come back the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.
The opposite of the worst is the best, and the
best place you can go to in Kinder Louisiana is
easily Cushata Casino Resort. Now they are celebrating their thirty
aeth the anniversary, but that doesn't mean that every other

(01:16:35):
year they've been around it has been awesome for all
the same reasons, like the largest gaming floor in the
Lake Charles area, three beautiful hotels with an awesome new
fourth one on the way, the number one rated golf
course in the entire state, and you know my personal
favorite wex inside the Red Sports book. The Caging Cuisine.

Speaker 3 (01:16:55):
Great Cage and Cuisine. While you're enjoying lounge style seating.
We've enjoyed lounge style seating at the Red Sports Book
of many a time. No many of you have as well.
Some bunch of you have heard us talking about them
over the last couple of years in a major way
out there and said, yes, a great time, great setup,
and a great place to enjoy everything that the resort
has to offer. It is, in fact the Kushata Casino

(01:17:17):
Resort resort style pool. You mentioned, Cossotti pines that are wonderful,
golf course, massive gaming floor, and again it's right there
in Kinder, Louisiana. Great place to enjoy the weekend. Make
that happen. Visit them online at Coushata Casino Resort dot
com and book your weekend for th rest assured.

Speaker 1 (01:17:36):
No other sports station in Age Town has two Adams
in the afternoon.

Speaker 3 (01:17:41):
I'm so lucky to have you looking out for me.

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
Adam Planton and Adam Wesler are the eighteen Sweet Pickle.

Speaker 2 (01:17:57):
Of course, Sparky response to that was electric the other
day on the broadcast, response to what sweet Pickle? What
was he responding to that nickname? What was his response? Well,
I'm not going to try and recreate it. Okay, I
mean if the person that played that can find it,

(01:18:18):
I'll be happy.

Speaker 3 (01:18:19):
Not necessary, just keeping people to get on board. It's
kind of a random reference that maybe every all of
our listeners are not aware of. It's time to give.

Speaker 4 (01:18:29):
It's not sweet pickle.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
Okay, all right, So we have some reaction to the
Christian Kirk trade. It's not in Houston though, it's in Jacksonville.
Are you familiar with the Joshua Hines Allen resume.

Speaker 3 (01:18:44):
Yeah, game wrecker, edge rusher, big money maker, multiple contract getter,
very good player, lifer as a Jaguar.

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
Well, you know who's not a lifer as a Jaguar
His ex teammate, Christian Kirk, who just got traded to
the Texans, to which Joshua Hines Allen respect on Twitter
about ten minutes ago. Kirk to Houston can't be real. Now,
Oh it's real. I happen to find a response to that.
It's at Adam Clanton to quote tweet and says it's

(01:19:14):
real and it's spectacular.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
So when we were discussing this again, if you hadn't heard,
the Texans have acquired Christian Kirk for a seventh round
pick from their division rival Jacksonville Jaguars last year of
his contract likely to be worked very very, very very
similar to how they acquired Joe Mixon and the likely
contract extension gear as there was there with Joe. I

(01:19:35):
don't know that the production will be quite the same,
but it certainly is very put together in a very
similar way. The team was wondering what to do with
a player in the last year of his contract, a
lot of money to be spent, Maybe it made more
sense to let him go, which is ultimately what the
Jaguars reportedly were set to do, and so the Texans
come in and make it happen. It's the same exact
scenario with the Bengals last year as Mixon was headed

(01:19:58):
into the final year of his contract. The main difference
is who was working with Nick on this deal, because
he's was already one of the favorite people. He's like
the only person that can be called a friend of
the show that's never been on the show. Who did Nick.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Cassario have to talk to to make this deal happen?
Friend of the show who's never been on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:20:24):
On the show, he's only been at the job for
a few days, but He's definitely a friend of the
show because he provided such greatness when he met with
the media for the first time.

Speaker 2 (01:20:34):
When he went to them.

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
Not the head coach a head coach. He's not calling
Liam Cohen.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
What's the other weird first named guy who's their GM?

Speaker 3 (01:20:43):
His first name is normal as his regular too regular word.
Last name is I don't remember. His name is James Gladstone.
Very normal name, not so normal for a person with
this kind of background to land a GM job, but
very highly thought of in St. Lewis when he was
working with the or Saint Louis. He was very highly

(01:21:03):
thought of with the Chicago Ballers of the nineteen oh
five NFL. He worked with the Rams they play in
La very highly thought of and will spoken about by
both McVeigh and Les Snead, and just a little bit
different path to being a general manager. We got to
play some of his great sound because it was so unorthodox,
and so when Nick picked up the phone, this is

(01:21:23):
the person he talked to to help make this deal
happen with that game on Game on?

Speaker 2 (01:21:31):
Is he the one that had the ecosystem?

Speaker 3 (01:21:32):
You want, Christian Kirk, you want you think you can
beat us? With Christian Kirk. Well, game on, Nick, Let's
go see the ecosystem, guys, the ecosystem. That ecosystem.

Speaker 2 (01:21:44):
Our ecosystem was not conducive to keeping Christian Kirk around,
so he traded him to a division rival where he
can play with the real quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:21:52):
I do one other thing. I think this cements the
Texans schedule for next year. See he's an opener in
Houston Jaguars and Texans noon Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
Yeah, yeah, this division? I hate the AFC South.

Speaker 3 (01:22:06):
Just what's to hate? Do all of this hate the
playoffs that much? Do you hate home games in the
playoffs that much?

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
I just don't.

Speaker 3 (01:22:13):
I want?

Speaker 2 (01:22:14):
Really, Division Nashville are going to any of these games?
I would if they were in the cities I wanted
to go to. That's my point.

Speaker 3 (01:22:21):
In two thousand and two, next Strobibly twenty twenty five,
how many Texans road games have you been to in
Division two three?

Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
When when's the span again the whole existence of the franch.
Have been to Nashville for a game twice? And wait,
maybe three times now, I can't remember. I think it's
twice though.

Speaker 3 (01:22:41):
So you've been to Indianapolis late Taxans game zero times
to Jacksonville for Texans game zero times? Yeah, but I
would have.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
But if they were like any other place in America
that has an NFL city, pick.

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
Any three reasonable regional other teams, they could possibly be
in a division with not in the can't right except for.

Speaker 2 (01:23:05):
I mean, what if the Chiefs were in your division.
They're not West, they're Midwest.

Speaker 3 (01:23:09):
But you would keep going to Chiefs games all these
years as the Texans were getting their heads handed to them.
Well I have an excuse, yes, but do you want
to go see the Texans lose to the Chiefs? Is
that why you're going to Kansas City?

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
The Texans should have won their last two games they played.
It can't Barrowhead.

Speaker 3 (01:23:25):
Didn't guess what they do when they go to Jacksonville
and in Indianapolis they win.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
Not for a long time. They didn't win in Indianapolis.
It took them like ten years of existence to even
win there.

Speaker 3 (01:23:35):
I know it's not Wednesday. Well I wouldn't have even
considered it if it was. We do not need an instapole,
But come on, do you all really hate this division?
There's just you.

Speaker 2 (01:23:43):
Honestly, what do they call themselves? The Traveling Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:23:47):
That's they'll go literally where they want to see their team,
their team win.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
Okay, so only three road trips, by the way, the
other five or six are elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
Right? And when's the last time any of you listening
who have traveled on your own dime to a Texans
road game because you wanted to go see them in
X market went to an AFC South destination? That wasn't Nashville?

Speaker 3 (01:24:10):
Been there, done that. They've been in the same division
since the existence of the Gio Lambo's on the schedule.
This year, I'm making that trip us awesome. Oh they
got the Chargers this year. Oh sweet, I get to
go to Sofar. I'll do that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
Wasn't the Oilers old division, just as the.

Speaker 3 (01:24:24):
Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati, right? I think so. But there
was some at least some history with Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh's
nice for some of that time, and they were good
for some of that time, So it was a legit
like the Texans still to this day do not have
an in division rival even close to rivaling what the
Oilers and the Steelers had not even remotely.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
And that goes back to the seventies.

Speaker 3 (01:24:49):
But they were both awesome. Arguably the two best teams
in the AFC at the same time. They never had
that here.

Speaker 2 (01:24:56):
I guess it could be worse. You could have Buffalo
in your division. Nobody wan to go there after like
October for anything. Do some table smashing the guy sitting
there a baunch your table right now? What go to Buffalo?

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
If the Texans make a trip to Buffalo and we go,
I'll see about maybe breaking a table.

Speaker 2 (01:25:16):
Can okay? Can I make it a step further.

Speaker 3 (01:25:19):
It's just like when you're on the air all the
time and you make these claims that, hey, man, I
promise I'll do it, I'll do it, and then you
end up in Indianapolis and there is there is a
New Orleans excuse me, there is a mechanical bull for
you to ride, and then you do it. We all
find out about it. Yeah, thanks Craig, Thanks Vanessa.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
Matt was there too.

Speaker 3 (01:25:37):
It wasn't on his post. I saw it on hers
and his well, he was in the video. Was in
the video.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
Would you wear a number thirty two bills jersey with
Simpson on the back if we did.

Speaker 3 (01:25:46):
That, I'm telling you for sure, I would be If
it was a or B jump on a table and
break it and my hip or b wear thirty two
Simpson jersey. You would break your hip. I'll take a wow.

Speaker 2 (01:25:59):
You're gonna break your hip instead of wearing a juice
jersey Go bills.

Speaker 3 (01:26:03):
Pretty awful. Oh we got you for another nearly full
hour coming up.

Speaker 4 (01:26:07):
Next the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:26:13):
You know, maybe you've been in a motor vehicle accident
and that broke your hip. That's not even a joke.
That happens. And when that happens, you've got an injury
courtesy of another lunatic driver in this town. That's when
you want to call mocaram injury Lawyers two eight one
two two two twenty two twenty two. Very important. I
might add that they are a proud partner of the

(01:26:34):
Houston Rockets. They are proud of that. They want me
to let you guys know that. And there's a good
reason for it. Because partners of the Houston Rockets that
have been helping Houstonians for over thirty years. That says something.
They've got staying power and they do things the right way.
Not only that, when you call two eight one two
two two twenty two twenty two it's available twenty four seven,

(01:26:54):
three sixty five, because that's when motor vehicle collisions can happen.
Anytime it day or night. Things can go south for you,
and you want to have a team on your side
where the consultation is always free and you pay nothing
unless you win. It's Mocarum Injury Lawyers helping Houstonians for
over thirty years. When you call them at two eight one,
two two two, twenty two, twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
Two two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your
Teams series Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A
Team a.

Speaker 3 (01:27:34):
Biggest news of the day here on Sports Talk seven
ninety on the A Team, wex and Ac here with you.
Certainly bears repeating the Texans off season of making their
team better in twenty twenty five has begun with the
addition of Christian Kirk, receiver for the Jaguars the last
three years. Into the fourth year of his deal, they
had intended to release him, so Nick Cassero said, I'll

(01:27:57):
change that. Here's a seventh round pick we got from
the Rams in twenty twenty six. How's that sound? And
James Gladstone said game on and so Christian Kirk is
a Texan. Under his current contract, he'd hit the Texans
books as I mentioned a couple of segments ago in
the neighborhood of sixteen million, and change likely as they
did with Joe Mixon. I suspect they will put a

(01:28:18):
new deal together to change the cap figure both for
this year and to keep him in a Texans uniform
for a lot longer than just the upcoming seventeen games
plus playoffs. Last year, he missed a big chunk of
the season with a broken collarbone, and he had that
injury and did not return. A year before that, he
was able to return after a little over a month

(01:28:40):
off of having a core muscle injury is basically a
group of core muscle injuries for him. He had an
aductor injury, the right tear of an ab and the
left ab off the bone. He actually said at the time,
and this is back in twenty twenty three, that he
was playing with one of those slight injuries and then

(01:29:02):
kind of they all went at once. He caught a
pass and went down without being hit because it was
time for the injured groin too, as he said, go.
And that's what has kept him off the field for
a decent number of games over the last two years.
He's played in twenty of the thirty four games the
last two years for Jacksonville. So so as he headed

(01:29:23):
into his fourth year, I mean, the production clearly went
right along with that first year he was with Trevor
Lawrence and the Jaguars, he was unbelievable, the best season
of his career carer highs across the board, targets, catches, yards,
touchdowns tailed off each of the last two years, both
from a little bit of a production standpoint, clearly from
totals because he just wasn't on the field quite as

(01:29:44):
much and last year their team wasn't as good. He
missed half the year and it showed. Now he's a Texan.

Speaker 2 (01:29:51):
I again, I do love the move. I think it's
especially relative to his age and everything else. While I
do think it signals the brief end of U or
the end of I guess I should say Stefan Diggs's
brief Texans tenure doesn't completely rule that out, but uh,

(01:30:11):
it's Look, if they get this line short up however
that is, and I'm going to keep going back to
it until you feel comfortable with it. There's no reason
to think that it's because again you just went over
his injuries. They're not He's not injury prone. Both of
those things are relatively fluky, although they can happen anybody.
But that's the whole point, Mark.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
I mean, unless it's a hamstring injury. I mean, I mean,
is Nico Collins injury prone?

Speaker 2 (01:30:36):
You know, it's a good point.

Speaker 3 (01:30:37):
I know we throw that turn around so much and
I would be saying, if Christian Kirk gets hurt next year,
how could you not call him injury pron Yeah, pre
consecutive years of missing substantial time, but it's not that
to me. It's not the end of the world. If
you're missing it's a seventeen game season now it's an
eighteen week season. Like with Nico the past two years.

Speaker 2 (01:30:57):
Is Tank Dail injury prone?

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
Yes, because he's been injured. I know the reasons why,
and it's so it makes it sound very fluky. But
in the case of Nico, he's had an injury that
I just feel like is a part of a lot
of players seasons in the NFL, and he's able to
come back from it in both instances and able to
produce immediately after. In both seasons they played nineteen games

(01:31:21):
each of the last two years. He basically missed a
month both times. I mean, it's probably unfair to say
he's not injury or prone because he was hurt in
the years prior also, but I'm not broken up about it.
I'm not worried about it, and it's not something that
I think they should be concerned with. It'd be nice
if it didn't happen, and that's probably how I would
feel about Kirk five years of pretty good health, last

(01:31:41):
two years less So, if I put together a list
of the top ten available wide receivers this offseason veteran
wide receivers, whether you knew they were going to be
moved or they were already on the free agent market,
he's probably among the top seven or eight, especially for
Houston when some team some lists might probably every list
would include Metcalf, Adams, Stefan Diggs, Amari Cooper, Chris Godwin.

(01:32:06):
Probably every list would include them. But a lot of
teams and GMS and fans would probably rate Brandon Cooks
ahead of Christian Kirk. We obviously wouldn't because there's zero
chance Brandon Cooks is going to be a Texan some
people strictly based on here's what he's done as in
his NFL career and here's what he might be able
to do in the future. Some people continue to write

(01:32:28):
the name Deontay Johnson down, but he clearly is not
an option for at least five teams. I'm not sure
how many others don't consider him an option. So now
you're getting to where Christian Kirk starts to fit in.
Amari Cooper, Christian Kirk, Tyler Lockett, Marquise Brown, Darius Layton,
Brandon Cooks as a Hopkins. If Brandon Cooks.

Speaker 2 (01:32:47):
As a Texan isn't as good as Christian Kirk will
be next year, I don't think.

Speaker 3 (01:32:52):
I don't think that's accurate. Why do you Brandon Cooks
was extremely good as a Texan because he was.

Speaker 2 (01:32:58):
The only weapon they had receiver by default, he was
gonna put up numbers.

Speaker 3 (01:33:03):
Why would you say that? Because Christian Kirk is twenty
one hundred yards over two seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
And I just got done saying that Christian Kirk is
going to be better than him with Nico Collins on
the roster as they clear.

Speaker 3 (01:33:13):
I'll take that.

Speaker 2 (01:33:14):
I mean, listen, he's not going to outproduce that again.
I feel like, uh, they fixed this line. Then you
will end up seeing what you thought you were going
to see with Stefan Diggs last season. Over the majority
of the year, you decided Stefan Diggs put up bad
numbers before he got hurt. But I just you know,

(01:33:34):
I had somebody text me say, oh, great trade, he'll
have no time to be thrown to. I'm like, yeah,
I can't dispute that until otherwise.

Speaker 3 (01:33:40):
Notice Stefan Diggs was putting up clear non wide receiver
one numbers, clear number two or three wide receiver numbers.
It's not bad. But if you're able to get a
guy ninety catches nine hundred and fifty nine to seventy
five one thousand yard season.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
If that's your number two guy, you're doing fan.

Speaker 3 (01:34:00):
That's worse than Brandon Cooks. Though Brandon Cooks was really,
really good. Well he was a Texas before things went bad, Okay,
but Brandon Cooks was what he was. He played with
Nico Collins one year. M Nico Collins rookie year where
he was twenty two and twenty twenty one, okay, two years.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
Okay, he played with him for two years, but Nico
Collins was playing how many games those two years? He
was not much of a factor. Okay, there you go.
That's I mean. I'm not saying Brandon Cooks is a scrub,
but like Brandon.

Speaker 3 (01:34:30):
Cooks, right, Brandon Cooks put up the exact same numbers
and back to back years with Houston as he put
up with the Saints twice, the Patriots once, the Rams once,
and all of them are seasons. If Christian Kirk has
the type of season he's had once in his career,
he'll match that in year eight as a twenty eight
year old.

Speaker 2 (01:34:50):
I just can't look at a guy putting up numbers
on a bad team and say, oh, that's he didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:34:54):
He put it up on every team. That's what I'm
trying to tell you. He did it with every team
he played for until he got out to the Cowboys.
Is that better?

Speaker 2 (01:35:02):
No, because he's old now I know he was old.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
Here just trying to point out I think if you
look at the options and their current state and the
fact that Adam wants them to spend some money on
and assets that they now get to keep on offensive line,
this is why you don't go out and get the
number one wide receiver on the market because it costs
too much. That's why you don't put a deal in
front of DeVante Adams either because it costs too much.

(01:35:27):
You don't go out and trade for DK Metcalf. It
costs you assets and too much because of where the
rest of your team is. If your offensive line was
already fixed and you needed to add as safety, or
you needed some defensive tackle help, and you maybe needed
another tight end, then you could absolutely do this. You
could have traded for Metcalf, and I don't think it
would have been a bad idea. This signal this team

(01:35:49):
isn't what I just described. They have a glaring need
and money needs to be attached to fixing it. Because
that's just It's not a lack of overall spending for
their line. They have spent money, but now they sadly
it's the worst thing to say you got to throw
more money at it, because that's the throw more money
or the assets that they now don't have to trade
to fix it.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
But that's why, in addition to the talent that I
think he brings, it's also a signal that that they're
going to do just that, that they're not just I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
They know Kirk's also the youngest wide receiver of everybody
I've named.

Speaker 2 (01:36:25):
That's another Again, I this is a win win win.
Maybe I'm over selling it.

Speaker 3 (01:36:29):
So now they won three more games with Kirk.

Speaker 2 (01:36:34):
More games than last year. Anyways. Wow, really, I mean,
what are we doing? He did the same thing last
year as they did the year before. If you're not
getting better, you're getting worse. Well, how about one more game?
That's better? Three? Three? Well man greatness not mediocrity.

Speaker 3 (01:36:49):
And we shouldn't be talking about more wins. You should
be talking about don't win the division as the fourth
best division winner when you're playing in the worst division.

Speaker 2 (01:36:58):
Yeah, why don't you have up to two?

Speaker 3 (01:37:01):
Why not go get one?

Speaker 2 (01:37:03):
Have the Chiefs come here next season since they're not
going to be as good as they were this year.
I said it.

Speaker 3 (01:37:08):
I mean some of their not retiring tight ends say
they're going to come back with a vengeance. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
I'm very very intimidated by Taylor Swift's boyfriend's haircut. That's
what he is now, he has the haircut.

Speaker 3 (01:37:20):
I think somebody has to tell him, whether it's Kylie
or their kids, or Taylor or Taylor's parents, or Mahomes
or his family tell Travis he needs a new haircut.

Speaker 2 (01:37:31):
And I do realize that I'm saying that sitting here
in Houston as I root for the team that decided
we're just not going to defend him at all.

Speaker 3 (01:37:38):
Guy eighty seven, is he on anybody's scouting report? Never
seen him before?

Speaker 2 (01:37:42):
Dumas? Oh my gosh, of all the things that I
thought were going to happen in that game, that wasn't
one of them. This guy who's been completely largely irrelevant
most of the season looked like, Oh, let's help him
turn the clock back about five years. All right? More
Christian Kirk Talk next the A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

(01:38:06):
You know it's better than telling you about Cushata Casino
Resort telling you about them again, But even better than
that is telling you about them a third time during
this show. Why wouldn't we They've got just everything you
need to have a fantastic time, and we're talking about
a short drive to kinder Louisiana. So when you want
to go see the number one rated golf course in Louisiana,

(01:38:28):
you're probably thinking, well, it can't be at a resort
casino resort that's exactly where it is. And that's just
one feature they've got in addition to so many more.
And then you go inside and you see the largest
gaming floor in the Lake Charles area. The list goes
on and on as far as reasons to get in
the car and make the short drive to Kinder, Louisiana.

Speaker 3 (01:38:47):
Yeah, enjoy the massive gaming floor, biggest in the Lake
Charles area. Three beautiful hotels, new hotel on the way
as we speak. And their Players Club. Talk to you
about this a few times over at Cushata their Advantage Club.
So it's one of the top ten best players clubs
in the US. Super popular. Every time you play, you're
in cash back points, comp rooms, meals, free gas at

(01:39:09):
their gas station, the works. Get yourself out to Cushata
and enjoy all they have to order to offer right
there at Cushata Casino Resort dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler, The A Team now continues.

Speaker 2 (01:39:35):
Can I read Jackie's tweet about Travis Y?

Speaker 3 (01:39:38):
Can I read.

Speaker 2 (01:39:43):
This? Is so ridiculous? Is it just I'm sorry? I
can read this? Okay, you know why because I can?
Is it just me? Or did Travis Kelcey lose the
boozy fade once he started dating the whitest white girl.
I don't know what oat stands for of all time. Okay,

(01:40:06):
why can't people just write anymore? Why does everything have
to be an acronym? Ummm no, because he was Jackie Jackie.
First of all, I know what you're doing. And secondly,
he was dating her for a long time. With the
other haircut that wasn't the one he played with poorly
this year. He wasn't, by the way. He had fallen
off a little bit last season, season before last, with

(01:40:27):
a different haircut. It's not really about the haircut, by
the way, It's just something I say.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
That's what one of us thinks. I was not tongue
in cheeking it last segment. Go back to your old hair,
get back to where he once were.

Speaker 2 (01:40:39):
It's not going to get him back there.

Speaker 3 (01:40:41):
If he cuts his hair, maybe he'll get in shape too,
and maybe he'll Okay, say the all more, But I
think it's the hair.

Speaker 2 (01:40:47):
The thing is, I didn't think he looked like he
was marketedly heavier this year.

Speaker 3 (01:40:52):
I definitely did. And you're right, and it should be noted.
You know, the five years prior he was just unbelievable
All world regular. See he's an all world postseason. He
had a really good postseason in twenty twenty three, and
a less so won last year quite obviously, especially since
the Texans game becomes so magnified with how little he
did in their other three games other two games, But

(01:41:14):
there was a significant drop off in twenty three, and
there was a bigger or an additional drop off in
twenty four on the next year is year thirteen for
a thirty six year old. He'll be thirty six for
most of next season.

Speaker 2 (01:41:29):
For tight end central. Cause again, two of the greatest
of all time played for the Chiefs long long term.

Speaker 3 (01:41:36):
Yeah, Atlanta Falcon great Tony Gonzalez and Travis Kelsey.

Speaker 2 (01:41:39):
He was good in Kansas City too. Why aren't they
making the decisions that say the Chargers did with Joey
Bosa and like, that's who he is right now. He's
an expensive, washed up guy.

Speaker 3 (01:41:54):
I washed up, is probably washed up unless he plays
the Texans. He was so good that a drop off
makes him look really bad. He's not really bad because
how many other tight ends are going take eight hundred
plus yards and stuff. It's it's still productive. It's just
not him, and it does change what they could do offensively.
But the decision they made just was with somebody else.
We asked the question out loud yesterday. Whatever one in

(01:42:15):
Kansas City is that Smith? No, you're telling In my opinion,
I think Cred Humphreys their best lineman. I think Joe
Thuney was their next best lineman. It shows you how
good their line can be when Tray Smith's only their
third of them away.

Speaker 2 (01:42:31):
Yeah, that tells me that Andy Reid either is going
to thinks he can get something in the draft or
has something on the roster that can spell it by.

Speaker 3 (01:42:39):
A first round pick on a I don't know what
he'll play this year, but on what should be a
tackle a year ago, and that player's obviously in the
mix this year and he was on the field last year.
It's strictly a money move. Joe Thurny played at extremely
high level every year he's in Kansas City. He was
heading into the final year of his deal, a very
lucrative That's what instead of giving him another long term deal,

(01:43:00):
because they were the team that gave it to him
five years ago or four years ago, they moved on.
It's what it's DK Metcalf. It's just at a different position.
It's Christian Kirk's just a different level player.

Speaker 2 (01:43:09):
Had sent them a fourth rounder, that's what they they
had to give up to get him, right that the Bears. Yes,
if the Texans had sent a fourth rounder to the
Chiefs to get him, wouldn't you been fine with that?

Speaker 3 (01:43:21):
It would have prevented this move? Okay? And what you're also,
he's not I think Kirk is going to be paid
less than he got paid the last time. I'm not
sure how much less Joe Thuney's gonna get paid this time.
He's an offensive lineman. He's going to play every year
of his new contract at a very high level, in

(01:43:41):
my opinion, and I think he can command that kind
of money. He's so good. Though, it's a move you
shouldn't be that you shouldn't care about. You should make
that move. Their offensive line finances are so bad that
I'm sure they probably didn't even consider doing that. But
he's going to be a very very highly paid lineman
wherever you put him. He can play wherever you need him,

(01:44:04):
and that's what the Bears did it for. But yeah,
it seems like the type of move a team trying
to win would make that's the Bears are team trying
to win. They just have further to go. Yeah, they
just don't look like it. Well, they're a year behind Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
By the way, this is distracting from what is kind
of simmering as a Houston sports story. You know what
I'm talking about. Tell us I don't have a good
feeling about Christian Walker.

Speaker 3 (01:44:30):
Christian Walker did talk to the media today. Yesterday he
was into and then scratched from the Houston Astros mid
day lineup. They had a midday game yesterday. Their game
today has not yet been played, but it will be
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. We'll get into
coverage of that in about half an hour. Christian Walker
is not in the lineup. Cam Smith is in the

(01:44:52):
lineup and playing third base. John Singleton is in today's lineup.
But what did Christian Walker have to say after the
Astros announce that his left oblique soreness had him sidelined
for yesterday's game. The good news was that he said,
it doesn't feel as bad as it did when I
missed a month last year with this an oblique injury,

(01:45:16):
and I didn't wake up as bad yesterday. I didn't
wake up as bad today, so we will see it's
still sore. They will take additional looks at it, and
yeah here in Houston. Additionally, that when.

Speaker 2 (01:45:29):
He said he was out of the lineup, you neglected
to mention he also out of the state and he's
back here now.

Speaker 3 (01:45:34):
Yes, the information that sounded not so bad when he
said it sounds like they're more concerned and that they're
going to send him back here to the h to
get it checked out. Have an MRI, which is the
smart thing to do if you asked me. And you're
more than welcome to three weeks from today when we
begin our Astros season right here on Sports Talk seven

(01:45:55):
to ninety regular season. Three weeks from today, we'll be
on the air from Dyke and Park. They'll play the
Mets three ten first pitch. John Singleton will be your
starting first basement. I think there's a pretty good chance
that is true.

Speaker 2 (01:46:09):
That's not good. Stop paying first basemen who are old.
They get hurt immediately hand.

Speaker 3 (01:46:16):
You can't just turn yourself into that all of a sudden.
I'm not I can't be mad about this until I
have to. And when you weren't mad about it when
they made it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:25):
I'll tell you earlier, I was listening to Matt and
Ross and they were talking about the fact that Jim
Crane basically will go out and get a guy who
already is in his mid thirties and pay him less
years with similar money, versus just paying Alex Bregman to stay.
And I realize it's different positions, but paying Alex Bregman,

(01:46:48):
who is not quite that age, more years, and again
it's a lot more money per year. But I tell
you what, if this is the second conced they're still
paying jose A bray You this year, by the way,
So now you're paying jose A bray You and Christian
Walker for John Singleton to start a second or fifth

(01:47:09):
first base on opening Day.

Speaker 3 (01:47:11):
That's we've taken it a little. We're making a guess.
Three weeks from now, can an oblique injury that may
not be super serious be something you're healed from?

Speaker 2 (01:47:19):
For sure?

Speaker 3 (01:47:19):
It can you want him to play a lot of
the next three years worths of games, and certainly a
lot of this year's worth of games if he's not
quite ready. He's not quite ready. I don't think there'll
be in any rush to get him back out there
because of what's in front of him. One hundred and
sixty two games are still in front of him. If
the first ten fifteen, even of those one hundred and

(01:47:40):
sixty two are missed, if he plays the next one forty,
that's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:47:44):
And he played the last few seasons. I know you
have it right in front of you.

Speaker 3 (01:47:47):
He played one hundred and sixty games two years ago,
one hundred and fifty seven season ago, and then this
most recent season he had the oblique injury that Adam's
sideline for about a month he played one thirty So
he's had over five hundred and fifty played appearances three
straight year, six sixty or more two of those three years.

Speaker 2 (01:48:02):
And this is a very spring training injury. But again
most of the Adolas Garcia didn't come back to Arlington
with the same injury.

Speaker 3 (01:48:12):
Well, in this case, this is the same injury that
the same person had less than twelve months ago. This
is an August out injury. He missed the month of
August with the injury.

Speaker 2 (01:48:24):
I am I am fighting the urge to say what
I want to say about this upcoming season.

Speaker 3 (01:48:28):
Oh a good feeling about it?

Speaker 2 (01:48:30):
Okay, you said it.

Speaker 3 (01:48:31):
I didn't have to, even though we spoke about how
the Mariners they're not competition, the Rangers, they're not competition,
And now you don't have a good feeling about it.
It's one of the many obliques that Christian Walker has.

Speaker 2 (01:48:49):
Well, I have a better feeling about Christian Walker versus
John Singleton against the pitching staff in Seattle. Excuse me
for living.

Speaker 3 (01:48:56):
They're not playing Seattle at the beginning of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:48:58):
Well, it's a good thing since he won't be there.

Speaker 3 (01:49:00):
They got a messed up, broken down, injured Mets staff
coming to town and then JV's crew coming right after that.

Speaker 2 (01:49:07):
What does Wan Soto like to do here at this stadium?

Speaker 3 (01:49:10):
Not pitch?

Speaker 2 (01:49:11):
He does like to rake against other pitchers, though.

Speaker 3 (01:49:14):
Almost as much as his teammates, and.

Speaker 2 (01:49:17):
Will absolutely hit a home run on opening Day against
the Astros. We'll take you under the under being he won't. Okay,
good lord, all right, we'll continue to argue about Minutia
when we come back here on the eighteen. The eighteen
on Sports Talk seven ninety, I want to tell you

(01:49:41):
guys about a fantastic option if you're looking to get
away and you don't want to go far and you
definitely don't want to spend a ton of money. Well,
how about twenty percent off all lodging at Two Creeks
Crossing Resort. You're talking about Livingstone, so you already know
it's not far, but you're getting the spring super savings
that are back from now through the end of May.

(01:50:01):
At Two Creeks Crossing Resort, you're talking about waterfront. You're
looking at the there's something about looking at water just
waking up to that. It's fantastic and you can bring
the whole family because it's the perfect destination for everybody
this spring break and as this warm weather returns, and
it's just a short drive away, like I mentioned, so
whether you're more of a camper or a glamper, they

(01:50:23):
got something for everyone at Two Creekscrossingresort dot com. That's
the website to go to to take advantage of twenty
percent off all lodging right now. Get into the outdoors
this spring with a resort feel, and do it close
to home, right here in Houston at a short drive
to Livingston and Two Creeks Crossing Resort. Go to Two
Creekscrossingresort dot com for twenty percent off Today.

Speaker 5 (01:50:48):
Hey Sparky from the Astros broadcast team.

Speaker 3 (01:50:53):
Catch every Astros game of Sports Talk seven ninety and
iHeartRadio app Home of your Astros. A new signature seven called.

Speaker 4 (01:51:07):
What's Up with?

Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
What's up with that? What's up? If I say it?

Speaker 2 (01:51:18):
Do that? I actually avoided clicking on the Adam Schefter
video during the break talking about the Christian Kirk created
to Houston. I couldn't do it. I don't even know
if he thinks it's a good or a bad deal.
I like it.

Speaker 3 (01:51:38):
Well, first of all, how could you think it's a
bad deal. They don't account they should have shot higher
on the wide receiver chart. Spend this money on Kurr.

Speaker 2 (01:51:48):
Yeah, that's the main I think that would be the
main storyline.

Speaker 3 (01:51:53):
First of all, we don't know how much money they're
spending on Christian Kirk just yet, because I feel pretty
confident they'll be reworking his deal so it's not a
one deal and he's not out after a year, although
I guess they could rework it the way they did
with Digs, but I'd be very very surprised. Very different
situations for both teams. If you're unaware, a seventh round
pick is what it was necessary to pick up the
phone and ask James Gladstone if it was game on

(01:52:15):
and he said yes, So the Texans traded for Christian Kirk.
Christian Kirk was heading into the final year of his
contract and now he currently is heading into this final
year of his contract with the Texans. Probably worth noting,
and congrats are in order to Christian and Ozzie as
they will soon that's his wife welcoming in a new

(01:52:37):
member to the family, baby girl on the way very soon.
So congrats to Christian. Hopefully this is good for their future,
coming back to Texas College station for three years of
football and now a Houston Texan.

Speaker 2 (01:52:51):
People are sleeping on that aspect of this. And I'm
not kidding. This isn't for effect. I just feel like
when people are from Texas where they played their college
ball here or maybe even they started their career here
and then come like I just think there's something about it,
Like I don't know or even if they have ties
to Houston, I just I think it means something and

(01:53:15):
it can mean something for anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:53:16):
Get Nick Casario cared.

Speaker 2 (01:53:18):
No, Nick Cassario has ties to New England. He's just
waiting until he could go back.

Speaker 3 (01:53:24):
There probably meant more to him where he got to
start his career because he's from Arizona, was drafted by
the Arizona Cardinals and then got to play for the
Arizona Cardinals before he was a Jacksonville Jaguar and a
very well paid at Jaguar seventy two million dollar deal
is what he got three seasons to go, and this
is the final year of that deal. But yes, he

(01:53:46):
did play three years in college station with Texas A
and M and was an immediate impact player. His three
years there were super productive. He was a captain there
and now he's Houston Texan. One clear, your obvious need
area has initially been addressed. It doesn't say no to

(01:54:06):
one thing, and I think it does say no to
the other. What's up with the future of Stefan Diggs
as a Texan? I think the answer is he will
not be a Texan. What does this do to the
Texans' thoughts as they enter late April's draft. I don't
think it does much of anything because the player you draft,
if you draft a wide receiver, he's under contract for
four years or five. If you take him at number

(01:54:27):
twenty five, maybe It allows you a little bit more
flexibility with trading away from twenty five because at least
you know you have a second option along with Nico
Collins at this present time. They might have an additional
veteran option signed by the time they get to the draft,
but I don't think it precludes them from saying it
sure would be nice to have this fifth, sixth, seventh

(01:54:49):
best receiver in this draft class under contract, ready to
contribute for four years. There's more than just twenty twenty five.
So I think it does one thing which says probably
no to upper echelon wide receiver veterans being added additionally
to Kirk, but probably doesn't say no to them adding
an additional VET and using an early pick on a

(01:55:13):
white out.

Speaker 2 (01:55:14):
You think there is still a line men out there
that they could trade for.

Speaker 3 (01:55:20):
Uh, yes, there probably is. It's a little it has
to be available. That's where it becomes a little bit
more difficult to you know, I'm not totally guessing, but
there's a little bit of guesswork on what the team's
thinking is about that particular player's contract and thus his
future and why did he become available. It was pretty
easy to see with with Thuni that that had to

(01:55:41):
be considered. I'm still surprised.

Speaker 2 (01:55:43):
They did it.

Speaker 3 (01:55:45):
But once you committed to the short term probably long
term with Tray Smith, you only have so much money
to spend, especially when it's all focused in that area.
What the Eagles have been able to do. Their offensive
line's fairly expensive. They certainly have some extraly well paid
offensive lineman, but with all the drafting they've been able
to do, they've got some lower money players. That's how

(01:56:07):
you do it. Kansas City has done that for years.
Texans need to get in the habit of doing that.
I've mentioned two names. Kevin Zeitdler is one interior offensive lineman.
I believe they should strongly consider. It will be very costly,
but even this move today with Kirk doesn't put them
out of the running for that. There are more things

(01:56:27):
they can do with the cap to allow them to
be in a position to spend that kind of money,
and I certainly hope they will.

Speaker 2 (01:56:36):
How trying to think most of these guys would be
writing Christian Kirk's age range that would be available, I
would guess, like in other words, you've gotten to this
point where a team is willing to part ways with
you because A you've gotten older and B because of
that you've gotten to a point where you would command
X amount of dollars. But I just wonder, like a,

(01:57:00):
you know, fourth round, thir whatever whatever pick it would
take to get an offensive lineman like that. Obviously, availability
is the first step to that domino process falling though.
And it's like we always talk about if they're good chances,
you're not letting them go unless you're the Bengals. Of course,
that's a defensive that's a defensive line.

Speaker 3 (01:57:18):
Totally different story, and we didn't get into that. What's
up with that? It definitely applies when you hear people wondering,
what you know, Dan Orlowski in that case, what are
they doing? In Cincinnati? They franchised tag t Higgins. They've
now given Trey Hendrickson, who led the NFL this year
in Sason has been among the best edg off the
edge for several years, to seek a trade, all while

(01:57:40):
Joe Burrow spent the entire Super Bowl week talking about
how we're all gonna get together and make sure along
with management that Jamar Chase gets paid, t Higginson gets paid,
and Trey Hendrickson gets paid because we don't want to
what happened last year to happen again.

Speaker 2 (01:57:53):
Well, what's funny about that is that Jamar Chase's people
can't even come to an agreement on his deal, and
then you start to talking about t Higgins. You have
to get Jamar Chase signed first. You have to he's
he's the best. He's one of the best, if not
the best receiver in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:58:08):
The exact words that were said last off season. Now
they'd had another off season to do it, but they
absolutely this is an again an NFL GM no brainer.
What are you waiting for? Right, It's only going to
be more expensive. Well, it's not a playoff of there's
no upside. Honestly, there's no upside to waiting. It's all

(01:58:30):
downside because once the side people, you've now opened the
door to restructures. Because he's already under contract. He's not
gonna demand less money in a year. The market's not
going to be less. It's not like some other real
world like markets, like is the is a wide receiver
market down for the best player at his position. No,
it's not like the housing market that sometimes it's up,

(01:58:52):
sometimes it's down. Oh, you're really really good. Yeah, you're
gonna get paid. Like. It doesn't matter if your house
is really really awesome and updated. If the market's down,
it goes down. It doesn't apply. The cap didn't go
down this year. The NFL didn't just get memo from
the league saying, these guys aren't gonna have very much
money to spend this year. We've decided, with all the
money we brought in and all the extra revenue that

(01:59:14):
came in unexpectedly, well, we're gonna lower the cap number.
They can't.

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
It's kind of like the Steven A. Smith New contracts.

Speaker 3 (01:59:22):
It applies to Houston. Don't wait on sting Don't wait
on Yeah, don't wait on Anderson, don't wait on Strout.
You think if time comes to address it, address it
and do it.

Speaker 2 (01:59:33):
You think Cassario has a dry erase board in his
office and it like crossing these things off the list
because Stingley needs to be he needs to be.

Speaker 3 (01:59:41):
I think he has a list on his BlackBerry of
what he needs to do.

Speaker 2 (01:59:44):
A BlackBerry. Yeah, I didn't know he and Darryl moriy
were boys like that. They are.

Speaker 3 (01:59:49):
They run teams.

Speaker 2 (01:59:51):
All right, We've got one more Miniature segment to go
before we make way for Astro's baseball coverage that is
coming up next The at on Sports Talk seven ninety
Maybe your debt is not miniature. In fact, maybe it's
very very large because you ran up some credit card debt,
or you've had unexpected car repairs, or maybe even medical bills,

(02:00:15):
school tuition can catch up with you. Whatever your debt
is and whatever the stress level is because of that debt,
start your journey to financial freedom today by going to
PRIMEWAYFCU dot com. They are going to let you take
advantage of low introductory rates and consolidate that debt into
one low monthly payment so you'll be able to see
a future where you are debt free. It's primeway FCU

(02:00:38):
dot com. They are here to give you solutions to
your financial problems. It's primeway FCU dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:00:46):
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler, the A Team
on Sports Talk seven ninety two, Hand Flush.

Speaker 2 (02:00:53):
Free Porters, The Suckclock.

Speaker 4 (02:00:54):
Expires, Home of Your Rockets.

Speaker 2 (02:01:03):
It is the A Team Sports Talks seven to ninety.
You got just over six minutes to tell me why
I shouldn't be excited about the fact that Christian Kirk
is a Houston Texan because way back in October, the
Texans traded Cam Akers to the Vikings for a twenty
twenty six conditional sixth round pick and a twenty twenty

(02:01:24):
sixth conditional seventh round pick, which they just used to
get Christian Kirk.

Speaker 3 (02:01:29):
Right, yeah, one of those two picks, the seventh the
seventh rounder. So what why do I have to do?
Can I take like thirty seconds of it because I'm
just gonna be lying to the people all six minutes.
I don't think it's a bad deal. I don't think
you should be upset about it. I don't even think
it makes no sense. It makes perfect sense for this
team to do exactly what they did a year ago.

Speaker 2 (02:01:45):
I wish they turn conditional late round picks into good
offensive linemen.

Speaker 3 (02:01:50):
Well, I mean, that's that's the value to me. That
is a lot of what the value the odds of
you finding a player that's really really good with that
picker pretty low. But every GM thinks that they can.
They also can move them in deals like this. This
is pretty common. Texans have obviously done this back to
back years, getting Joe Mixon, getting Christian Kirk. I talked
about Juan Jennings earlier. He's a seventh round pick. It's

(02:02:10):
not impossible to find talent, and not only that, you
can find players that matter to your team for four years,
and each draft that follows, you're finding the players to
then take over for them or fill a similar role
that they do on the back end of your roster.
It's not likely you're finding a player that's going to
be at the front end of things, even one round earlier, though,
that the odds go up and so on throughout the draft.

(02:02:31):
They re one of the reasons Joe Thuni is not
with the Chiefs anymore. It's because they use a sixth
round pick on Tray Smith. Thirty picks after Nick Cassario
drafted Roy Lopez, the Chiefs drafted Tray Smith. He's the Chiefs.
There have been sixty eight games played Sucks since that draft,
oh my, four years, seventeen games, and the Chiefs have

(02:02:56):
three of the eleven players. Only eleven players from the
twenty twenty one draft that have played sixty seven games
or more, and the Chiefs drafted three of them, Titan
Noah Gray, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith. Two of them
have started almost every single game on their offensive line
from the moment they were drafted. It can happen. But yeah,
moving along, moving those picks along. And I wasn't a

(02:03:17):
big fan of the cam Acres deal, and they made it,
and it turned out that it would have been nice
to have cam Acres here when you didn't have Joe
Mixon healthy. Didn't really make much sense. But I think
there was more to it. I think there was some
I don't know what, and it almost sounds like I'm
making it up, but it seemed to be there, just
something about being a bad fit and not about how
he played football perfectly fine fit everywhere else he's been

(02:03:39):
at scene. Nonetheless, he went out, you used one of
the things you acquired in return to now acquire Christian Kirk.
Declining production is true. Declining availability also true. He's played
only twenty of the thirty four games the last two
years with Jacksonville, and this was following his best year,
the only year he's ever started every game in the season.
He's played every game in the season a couple times,

(02:04:00):
but he started every game for the Jaguars the first
year he was there, and it was awesome, very productive,
you know, just back from what a number one wide
out might do or production wise, maybe what he would do.
He's gonna play in the slot a lot here, but
he will not be exclusively in the slot here, just
like every player on their roster at the wide receiver position.

(02:04:20):
Tank Dell's body tells you on slot receiver, not a
slot receiver exclusively, or Nico Collins's body says not a
slot receiver didn't exclusively play outside of the slot either,
And I don't know how much that changes for sure,
but I'll guess it's not gonna change at all with
Nick Kayley. I don't think Nick Cayley's offense would be
such that here's what you do and where you line up,

(02:04:42):
and that's that. It's no coaches really should be that
rigid with the personnel that they have, especially when there's
talented as these two. This partially addresses the issue they
have at wide receiver because after Nico Collins, they don't
have a single player they know they can count on
not to talk down to On Mechi or Xavier Hutchinson.
But they've been in a position to help this team,

(02:05:05):
in Mechi's case mostly this past year, and in Xavier's case,
either of the two years since he's been drafted. There
just hasn't been enough there to put them on the
field and leave them there because they've been helpful. Could happen,
but they should be pushed back on the depth chart
with the moves they made this offseason. If they draft
a wide receiver, that player should be ahead of them.
If they sign a second or add a second veteran

(02:05:27):
wide receiver, at the worst, they should be competing with them,
or at the best in their case. This doesn't end
anything for the Texans other than if you're a wide
receiver that is available via trade or in free agency
and considered better than Kirk or likely to be paid
more than Kirk, then you're not going to be a
Texan like Stefan Diggs and DeVante Adams and DK Metcalf, etc.

Speaker 2 (02:05:55):
One thing real quickly before we transition into Astros baseball.
Of an Astro related note, chapping to catch what Ari
Alexander just posted a few minutes ago. Nope, it's a
picture of John Singleton from twenty sixteen.

Speaker 3 (02:06:11):
Astros John Singleton m mmmm.

Speaker 2 (02:06:13):
As in the starting first baseman for the foreseeable future.
He starts at first base for that game obviously coming up,
and who's starting at third base again?

Speaker 3 (02:06:24):
Cam Smith starting at third base.

Speaker 2 (02:06:25):
Well, it's a picture of him and Cam Smith when
he was thirteen years old, from twenty sixteen, when he
met him at spring training, and now they're starting together
today in the infield.

Speaker 3 (02:06:34):
Just in case you want to take a look for yourselves,
you'll recognize the question I'm asking, how do you think
the other person the picture feels.

Speaker 2 (02:06:40):
I one is just about to ask what does he
look like now? Because I bet you he's not a
monster third baseman like Cam Smith.

Speaker 3 (02:06:46):
Also somewhat notable that Cam Smith, as a thirteen year
old or so in this picture, as Ari describes, is
already wearing his NOLS gear. Yeah he knew, but again
mention this a few times during spring training. He's living
with his parents currently. He's from the area. He went
to Florida State. See what I'm crazy to think coming
back here to the area of love. It's not just

(02:07:06):
a football thing. We do have Astros baseball. They got
the Mets this evening. Camp Smith is in the lineup,
and we'll get all the action to you right here,
and next we get to talk to you again at
two

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}New Texans WR Christian Kirk, Rockets Need One and Walker Back To Houston

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

All Episodes

New Texans WR Christian Kirk, Rockets Need One and Walker Back To Houston

Dateline NBC