Suggestions, Ejections And Cowgirls Crying! Welcome Back NFL!

Wex and AC react to the win on Wednesday over the Yankees and the return to the NFL! Nick Suss joins in Hour 3 to break down the Tennessee Titans while the boys give their picks for the NFL season in Hour 2!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam, raised by Earl Nolan,
Volted by the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
That is Houston.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Sports chill lge down for the only homegrown afternoon team
is Talking Your Teams.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight Team.

Speaker 5 (00:38):
A E A.

Speaker 6 (00:45):
Welcome into a Thursday edition of the show. It's the
eighteen Sports Sox seven to ninety. We will be simulcasting
on Space City Home Network in about an hour from now.
By the way, before you get into things, and they're
a lot to get into, I give you guys credit.
I took a random picture of wex and Matt Thomas

(01:05):
yesterday and told people to caption it, and they're still
doing it up until like five minutes before the show. Basically,
so good on you, guys.

Speaker 7 (01:13):
I liked that.

Speaker 6 (01:13):
I think I'll do that more often. Let's get into
what happened last night. I know that the NFL season
begins tonight. I know that it is another day closer
to us being able to see the Texans and what
they're gonna look like this year against a very good
defensive front. But I never thought after an Astros Yankees contest,

(01:35):
that was admittedly contentious at times, nowhere near what happened the.

Speaker 7 (01:40):
Night before between the two teams right right, this series
has had all of the drama.

Speaker 6 (01:46):
I never thought that a I would randomly go complete
and full on wex and listen to so much of
any kind of press conference, let alone an opposing teams
press conference or smattering of media. But I never thought
I would agree so much with an opposing baseball team

(02:09):
whining about the strike zone and just the officiating in general.
But after what happened last night, in which the Astros
trailed by three runs not once but twice in that game,
wound up taking an eight to four lead and then
held on for an eight to seven victory, I totally

(02:31):
feel the pain of the Yankees' participants in that contest
that were complaining about the officials last night. That zone
was trash. It was trash the night before, And frankly,
I saw somebody say this today on social media, and
it's I hadn't really thought of it this way, but
I do agree. Even if it's not really what's going on,
it seems like it. You could see where people would
think this. I feel like umpires in Major League Baseball

(02:56):
here in September of twenty twenty five. In the back
of their mind, whether it's intentional or subconsciously, they already
know that, at least by percentages, if not completely, they're
being replaced behind the plate next year, even if it's
not full on robo umps, even if it's not what
we all would like it to be, where you could
get one hundred percent of the calls correct just by

(03:18):
implementing this technology that does exist and will be used
in a likely challenge scenario next year. But I think
they know that that's coming. Instead of just like screw
it's what are they gonna do?

Speaker 7 (03:30):
Fire us?

Speaker 6 (03:31):
They're already basically telling us that we're not good enough
by implementing this, So why should we even try? I
honestly feel sometimes with some of these really bad ones,
that that's the mentality going into these games. And certainly,
you know, the last call of the game last night
with Jazz Chisholm, like it was a borderline call. You
can't I think if you're him, you need to swing
at that just to try and keep yourself alive.

Speaker 7 (03:52):
I mean Jiner would have but like yeah, like he
would have reached a full count.

Speaker 6 (03:57):
It's so mean, I put it on a team and
you still you didn't have to be mean to him
like that.

Speaker 7 (04:01):
But I just, I really do.

Speaker 6 (04:03):
I don't feel bad for the Yankees, but I understand
where they're coming from because the Astros have been victims
of it, and every team in Major League Baseball has
this year.

Speaker 8 (04:11):
He's making he we know his name, Ryan Walsh, he's
making a run for Hey. If you think insert bad
umpire's name here is bad.

Speaker 7 (04:20):
Way, do you get a beer? Absolutely? Hold my beer.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
Guy.

Speaker 8 (04:22):
He's he's been the worst home played umpire in baseball
in twenty twenty five. And I think it's not really
that close because when a game like happens last night,
everybody goes into the archives on social media and says,
remember this call, remember this call, Remember this call to
in particular, and we both we brought both of them
up at different times this year. The Astros last night

(04:44):
closed out the game one run game. Obviously, the time
run is at the plate in a one run game,
and the last pitch of the game probably wasn't a
strike called a strike in game ends. It was close,
but it probably was not a strike. The Astros have
been in that situation before with the exact same umpire
and the exact same sce.

Speaker 7 (05:00):
They had a one run lead. Josh Hater was on
the mound.

Speaker 8 (05:03):
They were in Arizona, could tell Marte was at the plate,
and he threw ball four and it was called strike
three and the game ended.

Speaker 7 (05:10):
And Walsh is also the umpire.

Speaker 8 (05:13):
When the Jays or the Orioles were on the hill
and Adlie Rutchman sent up on the right side of
the plate, the umpire stood directly over the plate and
the ball was middle middle, absolutely middle middle. Didn't go
where Rutchman was, but the ball could not have been.
It was further far from the left side, far from
the right side, far from top of the zone, far
from the bottom of the zone.

Speaker 7 (05:34):
There's no black involved.

Speaker 8 (05:35):
It was just completely inside the zone as far as
the eye can see. It's probably the worst ball call
of the entire season.

Speaker 7 (05:43):
And it's the same umpire.

Speaker 8 (05:45):
And I'm I keep applauding these baseball players for keeping
their cool. I don't know how they do it. And
I don't think Jazz chis I wouldn't even call it.
He lost his cool. He was just he told them
you're a moron. He said, I mean, you can read
his lips very very clearly, both from the beginning where
he says that's not a strike and you're not very
good at your job. Later on in the conversation, Aaron

(06:05):
Boone got ejected. Devin Williams got ejected. Williams has never
been ejected from a game in his career, if I'll
take him in his word, and I did not do
the research nor ask the wectual research team to get
to it, and he was already out of the game.
So those ejections are hilarious in and of themselves. Bottom
line is the Astros figured out a way to stop
doing what they were doing. They were too patient. Remarkably,

(06:27):
they were too patient with will Warren, and then they
started swinging at first pitches because they were strikes. They
weren't leaving the zone, they weren't looking bad. They were
getting strikes throughout the first four innings and not doing
anything with it, falling behind accounts and making it rather
easy on Warren. So they took that three nothing deficit
to the bottom of the fifth inning, got the sackfly
from Ureus to get.

Speaker 7 (06:47):
The starting the run scoring going.

Speaker 8 (06:49):
They got two more than another one, then four more
each of the last four at bats they put runs
on the board, and most of it was because the
first of those three scoring innings was because of their
aggressive hitting approach at that point in the game. Jeremy
Payne's home run the second pitch him and at bat
or excuse me, the run scoring single the second pitch
of the bat. The home run was the first pitch

(07:10):
of the at bat. You got four hits from jord
Don Alvarez. He was at the plate with the bases
loaded in the eighth inning for five seconds before they
bunked in the go ahead or an additional run, the
seventh run, and then they wild pitched the eighth run in.
He got to the plate and the bases were loaded,
he was still at the plate and there was only
one runner left on base by the time he actually

(07:31):
swung for his fifth hit and hit his fifth consecutive
hard hit ball of the game, all of them at
better than one oh three point five heads at velocity. Well,
I put out the definitive to me definitive numbers about
why he absolutely is back. Posted that a little while
ago on social media, so we'll reference it. But all
those things to put the Astros where they belong, they're

(07:53):
at top of this division. Now they're atop this division
by four games. The Mariners longer their road trip last,
the more games they're gonna lose. Nobody put a hex
on the Mariners, even though CJ. Stroud's hat wearing tendencies
are something a lot of people are pointing to, and
I'll applaud him for that, but it's as simple as
are they playing at home? Like these twitters credit Well,
I said seen it elsewhere first, but I know he

(08:14):
posted that as well. You know, it's kind of that.
There have been a handful of handles out there that
are simplistic in nature. I think when the Sixers were
on their way to a seventy last season, I think
there was a Twitter handle at the times they did
the Sixers lose tonight? And they would post no or
yes eighty two times a year. I mean, did the

(08:36):
Mariners win today? You would just add it to the handle.
Are they at home? Well, yeah, they probably did well.
Are they on the road, No, they probably didn't. They're
they're in a tailspin currently because the good Mariners don't
exist when they're not in their ballpark. They're pitching is unbelievable. Again,
this year at home, and it is not good at
all when they're on the road. And granted, I'll even

(08:58):
give them a little bit of a pack. I mean,
George Kirby giving up ten hits in two innings. I
don't know how many times he's going to do that
in his career, but he did it in an exhibition
game ballpark, in a minor league ballpark yesterday, And even
though they scored four runs in a span of four
batters in the middle of the game, it didn't matter
because they were already down eight nothing. Mariners lose, we
told you yesterday because it happened in the daytime while

(09:19):
we were on The Rangers didn't score, so they obviously lost,
and so you pushed more distance between yourselves and those
two teams in the division race. You're trying to keep
pace with the Tigers and with the Blue Jays for
any hopes of not landing in the exact same spot
you did a year ago, which is not a great
place to be. It's nice to host a wild card series.
It's way nicer not to be in the wild card series.

(09:42):
But they still need a little bit of help. They
can do that themselves when they get the Jay's, but
they probably need a sweep to have any chance of
passing them in the standings. Obviously that after the tiebreaker
in hand to go with it. That'll be part of
their next road trip. They're not quite done with this
home stand yet. A little bit earlier start tonight, so
we'll have the Astros on deck show for you in

(10:02):
advance of Yankees astros. Christian Javier back on the mound
after what was clearly his best performance of his short
season thus far. He did not give up any hits,
gave him six innings worth of outs, which is what
most of the starters now are back to doing. One
thing though we didn't have a chance to talk about yesterday,

(10:22):
probably still giddy from Tuesday's interview with him. Spencer Arraghetti
reports a little bit of as doesn't feel right yesterday
at the ballpark when he threw on the side and
they put him on the fifteen day IL with right
elbow inflammation. There's twenty two games left, he's on the
fifteen day IL. He's a pitcher. Odds of him throwing

(10:45):
another pitch this season, no matter what the pitching injury is,
seemed remote. Hopefully elbow inflammation like Brandon Walter had and
many others have John Rooney who's transferred to the sixty
day IL. Hopefully it's not much more than that, but
certainly not ideal. As the team continues to Okay, we

(11:05):
don't have to really set a rotation because why should
we who's even going to be available. Luis Garcia is
locked in to the rotation now after one start in
two years. Javier is making a fifth start, locked into
their rotation. Jason Alexander just made his ninth start of
the season. They've won almost every one of his games.

(11:26):
By the way, they're now eight and one. When they
hand the ball as a starter to Jason Alexander, then
you got your two horses, one who throws strikes and
the other one who also throws strikes, although this catcher
may not be ready for it.

Speaker 6 (11:39):
Yeah, it has been a weird, wild and wacky season
for your Houston Astros. Now, I think that all things considered,
and even with that news that we found out that
you just mentioned that we didn't get to talk about
yesterday because it kind of came out. What time do
we find out about that, like less than an hour
after the show?

Speaker 7 (11:56):
Yeah, it happened before first pitch, but after our.

Speaker 6 (11:58):
Show, Yeah, just the latest disheartening, Like you just gotta
laugh at your phone when you see it, just like, okay, sure, whatever,
sports Gods, you can't make me cry anymore. I'm out
of tears. I think that's how a lot of Astros
fans feel.

Speaker 7 (12:13):
So yeah, we will.

Speaker 6 (12:15):
We'll get into further discussion about what happened last night
and if the Astros can not only polish off winning
this series, but the season series with the New York Yankees.
While they did gain ground, as wex mentioned last night,
because the other two teams did cooperate, both Seattle and
the Rangers since they're suddenly a part of things again,
seemingly they had lost already before we left the studios, so.

Speaker 7 (12:39):
Everybody did what they had to do.

Speaker 6 (12:40):
Astros got the job done despite trailing by three runs twice.
And yeah, the rubber game tonight right here on Sports
Talk seven to ninety. All of that, The Cowboys begin
their season zero to one tonight. Looking forward to that,
we'll get you ready for the Texans. It's a jam
pack show in anticipation of a little bit of an
earlier Astros on deck coming up at five thirty It's

(13:03):
the eighteen Thursday edition Sports Talk seven ninety, the a.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (13:15):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety Thursday edition
of the program. Astros eight to seven winners last night
in a game in which they trailed three nothing and
four to one on different occasions, and they should have
won that game eight to four, but Cody Bellinger had
to uh, he had attack on some runs.

Speaker 7 (13:36):
What why should they have won it?

Speaker 8 (13:38):
Because I said, Sox who hits an homer, so they
should have won eight meaningless.

Speaker 6 (13:44):
Cody Bellinger sucks. I don't care what his numbers say
this year. I don't care if he's wearing a Yankees uniform.
Now he's you know what, Devin Williams for a guy
that has been I think one of the latest whipping
boys for that fan base. There's always somebody for the
Yankees fans because they're rotten, even though most of them

(14:06):
at this point probably don't even remember the last time
the Yankees won anything of consequence.

Speaker 7 (14:11):
He did kind of earn it.

Speaker 6 (14:13):
Well, yeah before the last this last stretch where he's
actually been decent.

Speaker 8 (14:17):
Yeah, after the like third emotion and you can't close
for us. I don't know if you've ben pitch in
the eighth inning anymore. And he's back to the eighth
inning now. I mean, seriously, they went out and trained
for a guy with an RA under two each of
the last three seasons, and how's it worked out.

Speaker 7 (14:33):
He's got a five to sixty yar. That's his Yankees RA.
That's his Yankees RA.

Speaker 6 (14:37):
I don't you know what? It's fine? They they won
for so long and most of that. You don't always hear.

Speaker 7 (14:43):
About the twenty seven championships.

Speaker 8 (14:46):
I'm sorry, but like I do hear about them. I mean,
people have to remind me of them. It's been so long.

Speaker 7 (14:51):
How many of those do you, like, really count?

Speaker 8 (14:54):
You mean they have to be from my very long lifetime,
more than half a century.

Speaker 7 (14:59):
Where nineties base.

Speaker 6 (15:01):
I'm saying, how many of those in which you know
they weren't playing against accountants and like actual I was.

Speaker 8 (15:08):
Using my years as a reference point. Don't you think
that's about accurate? No, it's not that for the sixties,
like something in the forties, fifties, sixties is good.

Speaker 7 (15:17):
I mean you had Babe Ruth I was born in
the sixties, by the way.

Speaker 8 (15:21):
Close almost well year were you born seventy three after
nineteen sixty nine, so it was nineteen seventy or nineteen
seventy nine. Just one of those years in between was
in nineteen eighty one. I wasn't born in the eighties,
all right.

Speaker 6 (15:36):
I feel like, you know, it is a spoiled fan
base so to speak, because of that aspect.

Speaker 7 (15:44):
But really, I.

Speaker 6 (15:45):
Mean, they manage every single year to in some senses
at least try to do the right thing, and in
this case, I think they did do the right thing.

Speaker 7 (15:57):
What do you guys need right now? Well, you need
you know, relief.

Speaker 6 (15:59):
PI okay, And it's a season you don't have Garrett Cole,
and it's a season in which you know Jan Soto
is playing across town.

Speaker 7 (16:07):
He's not gonna save your bacon.

Speaker 8 (16:08):
They tried to sign Juan Soto, somebody else paid him
the money, and so they spent the money wisely elsewhere.
They have the second best left hander in the American
League and Max Freed yep, maybe the third best left
hander in the American League. And the pitcher who goes
today were down and at the time I think people
applaud it. Well, let's see what Goldschmidt has. The beginning
of the year, he was great. Now he looks like

(16:30):
Paul Goldschmid again. He's basically at an offensive season comparable
to Carlos Koreas, which we're describing as disappointing before he
got here, and I think I would apply to him
as well. They've they've let go of some players that
were just kind of dead weight for them, and they're
counting on a little bit different group. But there's they're
very much the Yankees. Here comes the pitch. See another

(16:51):
Michael kay signature call, because that is what they do.
Have you been paying attention to the last two days,
how about the last month? How about the last ten years?
If they don't hit homers, they can't really score.

Speaker 6 (17:04):
And that right there, that last statement you made in
and of itself, is that that encapsulates why they haven't
beaten the Astros because the Astros pitching during that time
has been elite.

Speaker 7 (17:15):
Yep, it is.

Speaker 8 (17:16):
It's hard to take a team like that that does
that so well, but it gets neutralized by great pitching.
And most of these years, at least one of their
foes it's been the Astros.

Speaker 7 (17:25):
A bunch. Somebody just hits them with great pitching.

Speaker 8 (17:27):
And a best out of five or a best out
of seven or a best out of one, and that's
their year.

Speaker 6 (17:32):
Adds it's not a coincidence that they finally made the
World Series last year and didn't have to go through
Houston to get there.

Speaker 7 (17:38):
I mean, it's that j Hinch signed the Yankees.

Speaker 6 (17:43):
Well how about we thank Aaron Boone here in Houston
because he is you know, for all the grief that
we give Brian Cashman. Everything you just laid out is
why they have indeed tried to do the right thing.
And it's not to say that he hasn't in the past.

Speaker 7 (17:56):
Of course.

Speaker 6 (17:56):
The problem comes when he tries to make excuses for
why some of his moves haven't panned out because the
other team was chooting, Like he can only do that
for so much, Like you can talk about twenty seventeen
all you want, but they still kicked your ass all
these other years, including twenty nineteen where there were no
buzzers being used and confetti was not a buzzer, and
any anything else you want to make up as do
an excuse as to why you fell short to the Astros.

(18:18):
Yet again, having said all of that, I never would
have thought the guy who's probably overstayed his welcome in
this version of the Yankees manager, because.

Speaker 7 (18:28):
Remember they've already fired others.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
I didn't know that the guy that would be making
the most sense last night about everything that was being
talked about would be Aaron Boone, but he was. Do
we want to start about what he said about the
the Astros or the umpires?

Speaker 7 (18:41):
First? About the umpire? Okay, go how about now sports yourself?
Actually it's more funny. I think the Yankees baseball you
had to get this in.

Speaker 8 (18:52):
Yeah, I mean I could have played it twenty five
minutes and thirty one seconds.

Speaker 7 (18:56):
Ago, but they're playing them.

Speaker 8 (18:58):
My gosh, like football season has arrived where the Astros won.

Speaker 7 (19:02):
Let's talk more Yankees baseball. Let's talk about the umpires.

Speaker 5 (19:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (19:05):
I thought it was maybe a little inconsistent, but again,
you know, this is more. We had to lead a
couple of chances to add on, and I thought the
Astros put some really good at bats together, you know,
as far as they were really squaring some pitches up
against us the second half of the game, especially to
get back in the game and ultimately have some big
at bats that you know, outlasted us.

Speaker 8 (19:27):
I wish and I do think because we both happened
to randomly separately listen to a lot of what Devin Williams,
Austin Wells, Aaron Boone had to say after the game.
And you know the people that were you know, their
field side reporter and a few others were the ones
peppering and with all the right questions last night. Except
following that, I would have loved to hear somebody say, yeah,
you did you like the way Taylor Tremmell approached his

(19:48):
a bat there in the eighth inning, So he could
have said, you mean he stood there for five pitches
and then walked to first Yeah, I thought that was
pretty smart.

Speaker 6 (19:54):
Well that's so funny because yeah, I mean, you're not
You're giving the Astros credit like you should. But that's
therein like, Devin Williams needs to do the same thing,
because it wasn't just about his missed pitches that the
umpire missed.

Speaker 7 (20:09):
It was about him missing the strike zone.

Speaker 8 (20:11):
He put himself in a position where he had no
room for error. But I mean, he threw two strikes
to Hayesu Sanchez that were both missed by the umpire.
He threw another one to Tremmel in addition to the
one that was called a strike. And that's a lot
to overcome in the span of a short time where
you're dealing with the first mistake because he's now on
bass because you've walked him, I mean three batters. The

(20:33):
Astros scored four times that inning. They got a double
to lead off the inning and a single with the
bases loaded. The only scored one run. They scored four
times thanks to three walks, the wild pitch and a balk.
By the way, the bock call and Brad Oustmas was
the manager by then because Boonie had been thrown out
and he was curious about what exactly they saw, and

(20:54):
Duvall was like, why are you in say right, well,
his name is, I mean.

Speaker 7 (21:00):
Don't matter. Do it.

Speaker 8 (21:00):
It's wrong, do it, Camille Duvall. K All didn't realize
what he had done. He actually did it on the
pitch before the pitch before he was called for a bock.

Speaker 7 (21:11):
He did the same thing.

Speaker 8 (21:12):
He's one of the pitchers they let get away with
a back every single time they throw a pitch, because
the pitchers that rock into a set position, they're balking
every single time they do that. Because that is the
start of their their motion. And I know you could well,
this is what he always does, and this is he gets.
That's a back and he got called for it. And
even though he threw his arms up in the air,
your dunt even saw it. And then he threw a
wild pitch. Was second run scored. I'll get through all

(21:34):
this and we'll get the best of X because I'm
sure it's more Yankee stuff. Anyway, Aaron Boone on the
umpire Zone, it was okay, the Astros batters.

Speaker 7 (21:43):
Gosh, it sounded like we heard all that already.

Speaker 9 (21:44):
I thought the Astros from from about third or fourth
inning on just started putting some really good at bats
together and kind of pressured you know, first, will you know?
Then then when had varying degrees of success down there,
but you know, you know, credits to them. They had
a lot of really good at against us. We didn't
get a couple of calls and you know, got away.

Speaker 7 (22:04):
It got away another l I mean, yeah, if you
want to look at it that way, I just.

Speaker 8 (22:12):
The umpire and the results if you care via Umpire
Auditor umpire scorecard. They're exactly what we all watched. It
was one of the worst umpired games of the season.
The miss is like these misses we just talked about.
All through this eighth inning, they barely even registered among
the impactful calls that were missed because there were so
many of them over the course of the game. The
ABS system shouldn't be the fix for this. Getting these

(22:37):
umpires out from behind the plate should be the fix
for this. Hey, relegation, you should be a part of
Major League Baseball umpires. You can work all the same
number of games. We're gonna pay you the exact same
amount of money, you're gonna travel exactly the same, but
you part of this four man group. Brian Walsh, you
do not have the right to umpire behind the home

(22:57):
plate anymore until you get better at it, until you
prove it you could be better at it. So part
of your season you're relegated. You have to go to
the minor leagues and score better. You and the four
other umpires out of the eighty plus that we have,
we're going to relegate you because you stink at calling
balls and strikes, and we're not just going to abs
your way into keeping your job as is. That is

(23:19):
something that could result in accountability and it's of course
going to hit a brick wall, because they'll pick up
the phone and on the other end it'll say major
League Baseball Umpires Union, this is you can't have your
way speaking.

Speaker 7 (23:30):
Well, that's what I was going to say.

Speaker 6 (23:31):
It's not going to fix it because you're already putting
a cap on how many challenges.

Speaker 8 (23:35):
That's what I'm saying. That's what I just like. The
ABS is not the fix. The fix is accountability, right.
The accountability is you're bad at this. We grade you here,
here's your grade.

Speaker 7 (23:44):
You got an F.

Speaker 8 (23:45):
You're fired. I mean, you can't do this anymore. You
can umpire first, you can umpire it. Second, you can
upire at thirty. You can't call balls and strikes anymore.
You're bad at it. You're not good enough to do
the job. It's not that hard for them to come
up with a plan like this, but the union will fight.
It would never happen. It would fix part of the
problem because now the least of the most poorly graded
umpires wouldn't be as bad as the ac actual poorly

(24:08):
graded umpires because they're not there anymore. They aren't allowed
to call balls and strikes anymore.

Speaker 7 (24:13):
Sports unions are the worst unions you do not are
good for the people in it.

Speaker 6 (24:16):
Well, exactly, all right, As WEX mentioned best of X
straight ahead.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Did you all see this putting out between five and
fifteen posts day.

Speaker 8 (24:33):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
History repeats itself.

Speaker 7 (24:39):
Type beguiles, succeed. Never doubt that you're the one who
put for no one building. You're the best OFX.

Speaker 8 (24:49):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best of
the posting ever single day.

Speaker 7 (24:56):
You know you're the best of it. I'm wrecking the
entire engine.

Speaker 6 (25:06):
All right, it's about that time we go to the
main streets of X or Instagram or Facebook. Wex's favorite,
never go to Facebook. This morning I was looking at
some of those Yankees. Here's what happened. I check my
notifications on all the apps, and I see the Yes
Network Facebook account, and that's.

Speaker 7 (25:27):
Where I went down a rabbit hole.

Speaker 6 (25:28):
I could have seen it on Instagram, I could have
seen it on X, but that's just where I happen
to be seeing them. So I was sending you guys links,
and boy did WEX love that because he loves he
loves Facebook.

Speaker 8 (25:39):
I don't even have Facebook available on my phone currently,
so it was useless. I've already seen them all because,
as you said, I watched them on the x.

Speaker 6 (25:46):
Plafor But be honest, part of the reason you don't
is because you had to offload that app because you
don't have any more space on your phone.

Speaker 7 (25:52):
That's not part of the reason. I think it is.

Speaker 8 (25:54):
That's one of the reason. It's not part of the reason.
That's the total reason. That's the exactly reason.

Speaker 6 (25:59):
I've never seen body And look, I've got a buddy
of mine that makes fun of me for this.

Speaker 7 (26:02):
Dude put all that in the cloud.

Speaker 8 (26:05):
So Instagram currently has paused because I went to Texans
practice today, I knew i'd have to shoot a bunch
of videos. Facebook is dark. TikTok is also offloaded. I
went to the Astros game on Sunday, Ballpark app is offloaded.

Speaker 7 (26:18):
Well, you don't need it now. I'll have to reload
it here shortly if I go back to a game soon.
Pretty much, I would say.

Speaker 8 (26:27):
Ninety four point two percent of the apps on my
ten pages worth of apps on my phone that I
don't have folded up, are offloaded.

Speaker 6 (26:38):
I am due for a trade in all this is
best of XS obviously soon. And when I go to
the phone company that charges me an enortinate amount of
money that I hate because they're communist, I will absolutely
make the person who is taking inevitably hours of my
life I'll never get back to fix all that. So
the next time I go to a Metallica concert, for example,

(27:00):
and I get gifted snake pit passes like five minutes
before the show starts, and then I run out of
room on my phone while I'm trying to film James
Hetfield from like two feet.

Speaker 7 (27:12):
Away, I won't have that happen again anyway.

Speaker 6 (27:15):
All of that is to say, while we're still on
the subject, I owe ESPN and Company an apology because,
according to Front Office Sports, you know those commercials I
was so hot and bothered about yesterday.

Speaker 7 (27:27):
I remember, I know you do.

Speaker 6 (27:30):
NFL red Zone will include four fifteen second ads over
the course of seven hours for week one. According to
a source the told Front Off of Sports, there will
not be full screen commercials. Ads will be split screen
with red Zone first and foremost, so we watch well,

(27:54):
that is better than like minimizing the game that, as
you put it, nothing's gonna be going on anyways, but
it like it is better.

Speaker 7 (28:04):
Right and fifty.

Speaker 6 (28:05):
The best part is that four to fifteen second ads
over seven hours doesn't sound like much. I mean, you
can't taste the onions, Steve Zaban. But of course the
people who weigh in on this news, you know, no
big deal now, But then they'll add eight ads next season,
and then more the following season, and so on and

(28:27):
so on, and honestly, I gotta agree with that. Probably true.
It's like the playoff, We're gonna add more games. It's
just how it's the nature of this. This guy says,
this is the best case scenario for this worst case
scenario of having commercials.

Speaker 8 (28:43):
Well sometime twelve oh five ish on Sunday afternoon, if
they've even aired their first commercial by then, sometime early
in the first hour of the noon Central time kickoffs,
people will have weighed in on, oh, this is no
big deal, I barely noticed, or yeah, even though it's
not very many, this stinks.

Speaker 7 (29:03):
Give me my red zone back.

Speaker 8 (29:05):
Also, the control of red zone and when it really
actually takes place was a little bit missed on the
information side, and that Yeah, they've purchased the They basically
just purchased the name. They're not even doing anything with it.
It doesn't they don't really take over until twenty twenty six.

Speaker 7 (29:20):
The group of people you were so mad at.

Speaker 6 (29:22):
Yesterday, well this person was like, well wait till next year.
More like, wait till next week. They all this said,
if you read the fine print on this, yeah, so
you're not even falling for it.

Speaker 7 (29:31):
I'm not.

Speaker 6 (29:32):
I'm still mad. I don't want commercials on red zone.
It defeats the purpose of what red zone is.

Speaker 8 (29:36):
That's the purpose of red zone is all of the
most important plays as they happen.

Speaker 7 (29:42):
That's it. That's what it's the purpose. Legit.

Speaker 6 (29:44):
Scott Hansen says, seven plus hours of commercial free football.

Speaker 8 (29:48):
He can't even say it anymore. A stupid tagline. It
doesn't change the product.

Speaker 7 (29:52):
It's not stupid. It's not even there anymore.

Speaker 6 (29:54):
Like everything, just because you think it's stupid doesn't mean
it is.

Speaker 7 (29:58):
I'm the only one that can do that. That zone
wasn't created.

Speaker 8 (30:01):
They didn't sit down and have a focus group and say, hey.

Speaker 7 (30:04):
What can we do to ruin AC's life?

Speaker 8 (30:06):
What can we do that doesn't we need a Sunday product.
But whatever the product is, that's not really important. We
want eight hours worth of coverage of our games, maybe
seven or so, And all we want this product to
accomplish is something people can watch that won't generate a
lot of money for us, because absolutely positively we cannot
have commercials on it. All right, what kind of product

(30:28):
can we have? It was actually the opposite. Hey, we've
got all these games on and people might want to
see all of them at the same time.

Speaker 7 (30:34):
What can we do to make that happen?

Speaker 8 (30:35):
And they successfully, wildly successfully did.

Speaker 7 (30:39):
That, this guy says. Note they only say week one.

Speaker 6 (30:42):
They know if they divulge their plan for the whole season,
it will be the same reaction they've gotten the last
twenty four hours. Either be commercial free or stop charging
people a premium to watch ads. Which is second only
to my favorite quote. This income tax will only affect
one percent of Americans and only one into six percent
of income signed politicians in nineteen thirteen.

Speaker 8 (31:05):
Well, you know, people in the comments, you guys were smart.
You knew that uh Clanton's birthday wasn't yesterday. You knew
he wasn't born yesterday. He was not going to fall
for this and neither today.

Speaker 7 (31:14):
They're born at night, but not last name. They get it.

Speaker 8 (31:17):
You could say, you can spin it because as soon
as the rage hit town yesterday, they had an answer
for it today, which nobody's really buying.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
What was I yelling at you for yesterday on this
topic inside the inside the NBA? Yeah, so I'm calling
it what it's not?

Speaker 8 (31:30):
You were trying to hate on Candace, the defence, the
pretend Kenny and the pretend Ernie. Who's the pretend Ernie's
guy's name leco Adam Lefkoe.

Speaker 7 (31:39):
Yeah, he's not Ernie.

Speaker 8 (31:40):
Yeah, I mean, pretend Kenny's probably Jamal Crawford, the pretend
Charles maybe is Draymond, and maybe the pretend Shaq is Candace.
That's awful. I mean, that's awful and awful. Are They're
all good? They're just calling them. There's there's well they
also don't. There's no it's not there's no comparison, but

(32:01):
they keep.

Speaker 7 (32:02):
Calling it the same thing. Hey, inside the NBA on
a Tuesday.

Speaker 8 (32:05):
What I mean, it hadn't happened often, but I believe
Chandler has been in with you, Blum has been in
with you. Others have cost to the show had Chancellor Johnson,
not the real wex But we didn't change the name
of the show.

Speaker 7 (32:17):
Yeah, but I didn't call them Adam Wexler either.

Speaker 8 (32:19):
Well, they're not gonna change the name of the show,
and the people in the seats change.

Speaker 6 (32:23):
One time when you go on vacation. It's not every
week like they're gonna do. I guess, Oh my gosh,
you're the worst. What do you mean every week like
they're gonna do. Maybe I'm missing something. What do you mean. Well,
when they started having fake participants that weren't the originals,
they started doing that every week, did they not?

Speaker 7 (32:40):
I don't mean, probably because they had more games.

Speaker 6 (32:42):
Then they just got rid of the fake Earnie altogether
and just said all players all the time?

Speaker 7 (32:46):
Or was that the broadcast I can't write the Players show. Yeah,
that's what they call it.

Speaker 6 (32:50):
But see, they changed the name of it, so we
knew because it was different, we knew it sucked, and
we had a heads up it wasn't. Hey, here's inside
the NBA. Can't wait to see Charles all these conversations.
We've had too many streaming services. Gotta change the name
of the show. You're basically saying, hey, you guys, viewers, fans,
you are too dumb to figure it out. We have
to tell you, yeah, we have to help you. And
then I people like me that get mad about her,

(33:12):
Oh well, you're averse to change. That's what's wrong with
this country. Some things should have been left alone. A
lot of things not these things.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
Though.

Speaker 6 (33:20):
We can argue about that next segment or do something else,
but it is a Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 7 (33:25):
We got NFL football tonight. Wex we'll discuss when we return.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
The eight on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 6 (33:39):
Ninety winding down the two o'clock hour here on a
Thursday edition of the program. We will be simulcast on
Space City Home Network coming up next at three o'clock,

(33:59):
and you will have our NFL season predictions that you
guys have all been waiting for all off season long.

Speaker 7 (34:07):
I know you have been.

Speaker 6 (34:08):
I know you've been waiting for this day much like
we have. But what it really comes down to is
that that means there's games tonight. There is a game tonight,
I should say there's a game tomorrow night. There's gonna
be games this weekend that count in the NFL season.
And let's just like put this out there. When I
heard this, it didn't surprise me that it didn't happen,

(34:29):
because duh. But I don't understand how you even get
to a part where you're having a conversation unless you
just think that Jerry is even dumber than you thought
he was. But apparently, when Micah Parsons got traded to
the Green Bay Packers and everybody was killing the Cowboys
for that deal, it could have actually been worse. I mean,

(34:51):
it's bad enough that they traded him within the NFC.
I think a good rule of thumb if you're gonna
do something like this is to trade him out of
the conference has less of a chance to come back
and bite you in the backside, especially during multiple seasons
in a row. But you know, the good rule of thumb,
if for nothing else, is don't trade them in the division.

(35:12):
But apparently the Eagles made a strong push to trade
for Micah Parsons earlier this summer. According to Adam Schefter,
I can't even imagine a scenario.

Speaker 7 (35:23):
In which Jerry would have said yes, like would.

Speaker 8 (35:26):
Happy for draft picks because they don't have anybody else's
picks and the Eagles picks are far even worse Wiet
than Green Bays. So you're talking about players on their
team and picks of some sort, But the key to
the deal might not be the picks. It would rather
be the players. I don't imagine how a Roseman offered
anybody that is on their first contract and has several

(35:47):
years under contract and has already likely proven to be
a key to your team moving forward. They have two
very good young defensive backs. They have some excellent players
in the front seven that are relatively young. But I
don't know that he would put those players out there
for Mikah Parsons.

Speaker 7 (36:04):
I'd be more.

Speaker 8 (36:05):
I can't figure out what kind of offer they might
have made if it's called a strong push, but I don't.

Speaker 7 (36:10):
This is what a good GM does. He just asks,
That's all how he rose.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
He did.

Speaker 7 (36:14):
He asked.

Speaker 8 (36:14):
He tried to figure out, was there is there a
way for us to get here? Even though he knows
what same thing Jerry knows, he feels the same way.

Speaker 7 (36:21):
I don't.

Speaker 8 (36:21):
I don't think it's likely they'll make a move with us,
and they didn't. They made I had forgotten about this
in this article. They made a huge trade during the
draft in twenty twenty one. I mean the Philly moved
up two spots to take Devonte Smith with a tenth
pick in the draft, and Dallas used the number twelve
pick on Parsons. So it would have been very ironic

(36:44):
if that deal somehow did come to pass. Yeah, it's
just very It's different when you're when the key to
your trade is two players who've never played its snap
before versus a four time pro bowler in all four
of his seasons.

Speaker 6 (36:55):
Right, and that's why this was never going to happen.
But you're right, like, how, But that's the thing we're
talking about. Is he in your opinion? I think it's
fair to say, because they are the defending champs and
it's been a lot about his roster building.

Speaker 7 (37:08):
Is he the best GM in the NFL right now?
He has done the best job? I don't.

Speaker 8 (37:11):
I'm pretty hard to argue against it because of the
talent they have and every year when they go through
the draft and even free agency and even some of
the contracts that they're able to get guys to sign
to stay there, sure looks like it. Their roster's awesome,
their style of plays not like everybody else's because clearly
nobody wants to say Jalen Hurts is good at playing
quarterback in the NFL, and that group of nobody is

(37:33):
dumb because he clearly is, because all they do is win.
And if quarterbacks important for every other team, well it's
important for Philadelphia, no matter what style of play they have. Yeah,
I think it's the any list starts with him. I
think there's a bunch of good gms. I think Brad
Holmes has done a phenomenal job in Detroit. I think
they've done a phenomenal job in the Los Angeles area

(37:54):
with the Rams, who the Texans are playing. I think
they've done a great job over the years, and they've
done it very differently because I mean, Jared Verse clearly
was a huge part of what they're now going to be,
but for years and years and years it really wasn't
about that, And they lost prime Aaron Donald last season
and obviously every year in the future because he decided
that was enough of NFL football for him, while at

(38:15):
the top of his game, the best player at his position,
with many of those excellent years ahead of him, said
I'm out.

Speaker 6 (38:21):
He took a swinging helmet and went home. He did
do that, and I hope people don't forget that.

Speaker 8 (38:26):
It is still part of his resume, and much like
Miles Garrett has that as part of his but one
time incidents on the field or on the practice field,
probably people can look past a little bit. But you know,
right there, those are the three names that probably come
to mind most quickly. If you consider what the Texans
haven't been able to do, then you have to look
at the three teams that are in front of them,

(38:47):
the GM and Tacosta and Baltimore being in Buffalo obviously,
the work that Veach and his crew have done in
Kansas City.

Speaker 7 (38:55):
Those are three more. Those are probably your top six.

Speaker 6 (38:58):
I guess it just seemed out of the ordinary area
for Roseman to do something like this, considering what the
cost would have had to have been, although it won't
that much for the packers.

Speaker 8 (39:07):
Again, him, it almost sounds like you're trying to tell
me that they were on hard knocks and how he
knew it, and so he said, bring the camera, said
let's watch this, make this phone call.

Speaker 7 (39:15):
Yeah, this is.

Speaker 6 (39:16):
Good content right here. We will take a quick time
out and we come back as promised. The simulcast will
begin over on Space City Home Network and we will
have our NFL predictions for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A Team.

Speaker 6 (39:46):
Hey, welcome in to our number two of the A
Team on a Thursday edition of the program Sports Talk
seven to ninety Welcome into our number one on Space
City Home Network. We will have you here until we
make way for the Astros on Deck show Astros and
Yankees getting together for the rubber game of this three

(40:08):
game set. The Yankees drew first blood numby on Game
one of this series, and then last night a wild one.
Actually both these games have been wild in their own way.
The cross up that wasn't but really was in Game
one between fromber Valdez and Sesar Salazar behind the plate
in a seven to one loss, and then last night

(40:29):
Astros trailed at three to nothing, then four to one,
then came back to take an eight to four lead,
and then held on for an eight seven victory because
of some of the worst umpiring in some time that
we've seen a lot of which benefited the Astros. But
they've been the victims of it as much as anybody
this season and even in this series, this crew has

(40:51):
not been good and it wasn't good again last night,
and we went over that, the fact that the Yankees had, honestly,
I think, very well within their rear and to complain
about some of those calls last night, but the Astros
don't want to hear it, especially in the middle of
a heated division race and Pennant race and everything else.
And the Yankees and Astros are both trying to win

(41:13):
as many games as they can right now for different reasons.
Al supremacy is not necessarily on the front burner. They're
trying to win their division and then they'll worry about
that later. Mariners and Rangers doing their part yesterday and
last night Mariners losing yet again getting swept, and then
the Arrangers losing to the Diamondbacks earlier in the day.

(41:34):
So the Astros picking up games and now lead the
division by four, and they'll try to capitalize once again
tonight in a matchup of and I'm going to talk
about this in the Astros on Deck show. These two
starters tonight for these two teams are very emblematic of
the fortunes of their.

Speaker 7 (41:52):
Two teams in recent seasons.

Speaker 6 (41:54):
And I'll go into a little bit more detail, but
when you have Radon and Javier, it reminds you of
just how much the Astros have dominated the Yankees in
the postseason. But when it comes to Redon, I think
in the regular season he has not been at least
when it comes to the Astros, he's not had his way,
I think the way he would have liked, because he's
talked a lot of trash going back to his White

(42:16):
Sox days about the Astros cheating scandal. But guys that
do that, you've got to back it up. That's why
Bellinger hitting that three run home run last night. I mean,
at least you can point to that with all the
trash he talked as a member of the Dodgers, but
it's been few and far between for him as well
against the Astros. Just you know, classic Astros Yankees drama,
and there's been a little bit more added to it.

Speaker 7 (42:37):
Obviously.

Speaker 6 (42:38):
We talked about the fact that the NFL season officially
opens tonight with the Cowboys falling to Owen one tonight
against the Eagles.

Speaker 7 (42:45):
Maybe if I say it enough, they'll.

Speaker 6 (42:47):
Actually win that game, But I don't really think so
wex they have trading Micah Parsons. I think they were
going to be Owen one before that. I definitely think
it's not going to help tonight.

Speaker 8 (42:56):
This is a real good chance he wasn't going to
play in Week one, regardless of the contract, because there's
a real good chance he's not going to play in
Week one three days later for the Packers because of
his back injury. Talk of him potentially needing a shot
in order just to do that, which is not ideal
when there are still, probably in Green Bay's case, twenty
more weeks of football after Week one, somewhere in that neighborhood.

(43:18):
Not ideal way to start the season, very much like
the Rams are starting the season hoping that and not
really totally fully healthy.

Speaker 7 (43:26):
And raring to go.

Speaker 8 (43:26):
Matt Stafford will make his way through the season. But
the Eagles are the best team in football. The Cowboys
or any of the other thirty teams, if they were
in this game, they would be dogs. So it's not
really on the Cowboys so much. It's that they're playing
the best team in the NFL arguably. And I know
it's a new season, and that's not necessarily what we'll
have in store for twenty twenty five, but the personnel

(43:46):
that sits there in Philadelphia suggests we will see something comparable.
One way it could go awry is clearly if Saquon
Barkley is unable to replicate what was clearly a magical
type of season. The talent didn't go anywhere. It was
just as towed when he was a New York Giant
and had a season similar to this when he first
burst into the league, but playing for the team he

(44:07):
was with last year, he obviously got to the two
thousand yard plateau for the first time ever, and maybe
even calling his rookie season comparable to this past season
is a bit of a stretch. He'd never averaged more
than eighty two yards rushing per game, and eighty two
yards rushing per game. We'll get you thirteen hundred yards
in a season or fourteen hundred yards, depending on if
it's a sixteen or seventeen game season. That's really really good.

(44:27):
That's among your definitely top five in the NFL. Well,
he ran for one hundred and twenty five yards per
game a year ago, and he topped two thousand yards,
and he was out there when they needed him. He
didn't play in all seventeen games, which shows even more
because of where they were in the standings at the
point in time, and nothing was going to change. They
were locked in it two awaiting the finish of the
Lions and Vikings a year ago. Who would end up

(44:49):
with a number one seed. But he will probably not
average one hundred and twenty five yards rushing per game
this year. It's just a number that seems very, very
very far out there for the exact same player to replicate.

Speaker 7 (44:59):
It could run to.

Speaker 8 (45:00):
It sure is going to be the same broken down
I got beat up all last year. I had three
hundred and eighty eight or seventy eight touches last year.
I would have my doubts. And even if it doesn't happen,
the Eagles are still the best team in the NFC,
and I think they're definitely one of the best teams
in the NFL. That's just one part of their game. Obviously,

(45:22):
Jalen Hurts is still vastly underrated. They have an outstanding
wide receiver duo that nobody pays attention to outside of
Philly because they don't have a prolific passing game. If
they wanted aj Brown to have twelve targets in a game,
he would. If they wanted Devonte Smith to have ten
targets in a game, he would too. They don't have
to do that to win, And it's much safer to

(45:44):
not pass the ball that often.

Speaker 7 (45:46):
Just run the ball.

Speaker 8 (45:46):
If they can't stop, you just keep doing it. As
long as you don't fumble, they're never gonna get the ball.
You're gonna score on all these possessions. And clearly at
some point you talk about their defense, which is just
overrun with talent, both young and experienced. And that's really
where I think the most exciting point of the game
comes tonight, because that's the strength of the Cowboys. Their
offense should be the strength of the Cowboys. They've got
a new head coach. They're going to be running a

(46:07):
slightly different offensive system. Even though he was the OC
last year, a healthy Dak Prescott, no matter how much
you unfairly criticize him, you generically he's a good quarterback.
They're going to move the ball up and down the field.
They're going to score points. He's been the quarterback of
the best offense in the NFL before he didn't just

(46:27):
forget how to do that. And he's played with some
of the players who will be out there with him again,
I think their decision making with some of their roster,
especially in the backfield, is embarrassingly bad. I like Javonte
Williams for the fact that he's usually on the waiver
wire every week as a Bronco and you can pick
him up and he'll get you eleven carries and forty
three yards. And they're terrible quarterbacks in Denver over the years,

(46:49):
will have target him eight times and he'll have nine
receiving yards. But I don't want that as my number
one running back, and I don't know what other options
the Cowboys really have with who they don't have in
the backfield anymore. More So, protection for Dak will be
paramount as he I think he will hit the over
in Week one in pass attempts.

Speaker 7 (47:09):
And yards, probably all forty six and a half.

Speaker 8 (47:12):
Probably also yards because I also think if they don't
score the first time they get the football, they're probably
playing from behind.

Speaker 7 (47:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (47:20):
By the way, I was arguing with the Cowboys fan
about Jalen Hurts.

Speaker 7 (47:24):
Not that he's.

Speaker 6 (47:27):
I don't want to say he's not elite he's not Lamar,
he's not Kermit. He's not going to put up those
kinds of numbers. But he's not a game manager either,
and he I think he is very underrated. Doesn't get
the credit he deserves for what the Eagles have put together.

Speaker 8 (47:42):
There's thirty two NFL starting quarterbacks, thirty one if you
don't count the Saints.

Speaker 7 (47:45):
So which of them would you rather have? Like that?
Because they don't have a quarterback?

Speaker 8 (47:51):
Okay, sir, I mean they're going to start somebody when
the game begins.

Speaker 7 (47:55):
Spencer Ratler will take the first. Only team with a
crappy quarterback situation. They went into camp with nobody.

Speaker 8 (48:01):
I mean, at least the Brown said Joe Flacco can
do it for us, so we'll bring him back.

Speaker 7 (48:05):
We've got four bad ones.

Speaker 8 (48:07):
That's a better they're in a better situation than they are.
But you got the four sc quarterbacks we constantly talk about.
Now I'll give you those, Burrow Jackson, Allen Mahomes. Okay,
start your football team. Now it's up to you to
build a team that's gonna work best with this particular quarterback.
But we have evidence, we have data, we have games,
we have football. I'm not taking Justin Herbert or Jared

(48:30):
Goff or Matt Stafford or Jayden Daniels or c. J.
Stroud or any of these other really really talented quarterbacks
or Baker Mayfield not taking any of them over. Jalen Hurts.
I like winning. He wins. He makes winning plays with
his arm. He makes winning plays with his legs physically speaking.
For as much as you said he's not Lamar, and

(48:50):
he clearly isn't, he can do things with his legs.
Lamar won't because he's not built the same way. He's
built in a much bigger, stronger type of way. I mean,
I probably wouldn't have lost it earlier this week when
talking about the ridiculous fourth and goal call that the
Longhorns put in front of the Ohio State defense, because
I wouldn't have been able to say they asked the

(49:11):
weakest player on the field to squeeze his way through
a ton of people. And I'm being literal. A ton
of weight was in front of him with his O
line and the defensive front of Ohio State, and the
weakest player on the field was arch Manning from a
strength standpoint, and you asked him to find a way
to get in the end zone. I wouldn't be saying
that if Jalen Hurts was taking the snap, he would

(49:32):
find a way even without a tush push, which is
of course sponsored this year by the way, if you miss.

Speaker 6 (49:36):
That and not outlawed more importantly for their purposes. So
what you're saying is that, basically, if after those four
you mentioned, he's your first choice. If you can't have
those four to start a franchise.

Speaker 8 (49:49):
He is, and he would be the answer to this question,
which will be asked probably all season long, who's the
most underrated player in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (49:55):
I think it's him.

Speaker 6 (49:57):
It's hard to argue with that, at least as far
as I didn't even want to say quarterbacks.

Speaker 8 (50:02):
Yeah, like the defensive players, the whole league worth of
players defense too. What is it that you want your
quarterback to do? What do you want your team to accomplish?
I want them to do what Jalen Hurts does, win
win super bowls and not only a really smart What
has he done in the Super Bowl He's been unreal.

Speaker 6 (50:19):
Well somebody said, oh, he's got he's got Saque hand
off too. I'm like, he didn't have him to hand
off to when he made the Super Bowl two years ago?
What about the first one? Yeah, I mean, like, you
gotta give some credit. You gotta give some credit, even
if you're a Cowboys fan, you know who you are.

Speaker 8 (50:33):
No, they'll they better give credit tonight when he's helping
the Eagles start one to zero, the Cowboys start no.

Speaker 7 (50:39):
One one. That's what I was waiting for that last
part right there.

Speaker 6 (50:42):
All right, I promise we are going to give you
our NFL twenty twenty five season predictions when we come
back here on a Thursday edition of the show.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
The aed on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (51:01):
For our NFL for nctions here wtem for much of
the next couple of segments as we get ready for
NFL football, would also mention that the Houston Astros have
set their lineup for tonight. We'll always like giving that
to you and the opportunity presents here during our show,
which is nearly every day. Astros and Yankees finale of

(51:21):
their season series, finale of this three game series finale
of the ten game homestand for the Houston Astros, Jeremy Payne,
Jordon Alvarez, josel two, Ve Carlos Korea batting one, two, three, four,
as they have been almost exclusively since Jordon's return.

Speaker 7 (51:35):
Jordons had left.

Speaker 8 (51:36):
Altuve has his butt plastered to the dugout bench when
the Astros are in the field. Christian Walker's back at
first base. He returned there late last night after Victor
Carratini had a single and was immediately lifted for the
name you heard about on this show. Hey, maybe Jacob
Melton's kept around because it can pinch run. He did,

(51:56):
and he scored on a single from second base. So
Christian Walker back at first batting fifth.

Speaker 7 (52:01):
JANR.

Speaker 8 (52:01):
Diaz doing the catching for Christian. Javier cam Smith is
in right field. Ramon Urius is at second centerfield tonight
Mauricio Dubon. Obviously, Radon is a left handed pitcher, largely
the reason why Jesus Sanchez and other assorted non Jordon
Alvarez left handed hitters are not in tonight's lineup for
your Houston Astros. It's a very simple process. If you're

(52:24):
not yord On and you bat left handed and there's
a left handed pitcher, Joe spot Up probably has the
roster now of keeping you on the bench, and I
think that that will happen pretty much the rest of
the year on almost any given night. Obviously, Victor Krattini
in the lineup yesterday with Will Warren starting and an
opportunity to get a day off kind of for Christian Walker.

(52:48):
We certainly seemed alarmed and upset. How can you sit
Jordon Alvarez put him in the lineup every single day?
Come on, man, I don't know that there was quite
as much unrest about Christian Walker getting the bulk of
yesterday's game off. And since I brought it up before,
right before we get to the NFL predictions, I will
give it to our listeners here and our viewers. I

(53:10):
mentioned something about the return of yord On Alvarez. Yord
On in his return, he's played in eight Games's got
a four to thirty five batting average. He's getting on
base fifty six percent of the time zero point three
fifty six point three percent, to be exact, walked a lot,
and he's gotten a lot of hits, slugging better than
six hundred. His ops is nearly twelve hundred. Now, what
tells you that he's healthy and what lends credence to

(53:33):
what many people thought, including my co host here, he
played twenty nine games worth of Major League Baseball this year,
and he certainly didn't do a whole lot. Obviously, we
know what the actual numbers are and ops barely over
six hundred, just three long balls he hit to ten
while he played in those twenty nine games through March second,
or excuse may second. Well, here's the kicker to it.

(53:56):
He has had eight batted balls this year leave thea
at one hundred and eleven miles per hour or better
eight times all season, all thirty seven of those games.
In the twenty nine games he played before going on
the il and missing one hundred games, he did that
twice two times in twenty nine games, a ball left
his bat at one hundred and eleven miles per hour

(54:17):
or better. In the eight games he's played since his
return after missing one hundred games and presumably after being
healthy with his hands, in eight games, he's done it
six times. He did it two more times in last
night's game. All five of his batted balls last night
left the bat at one hundred and three point five
miles per hour or better. So while he was on

(54:40):
the field and he was playing, and he was essentially
in the everyday lineup for those twenty nine games, he clearly,
your eyeballs told you, the results told you, and clearly
the advanced numbers told you he wasn't this player, and
it has to be clearly, even though we can't say
that with certainty a result of not having healthy hands

(55:01):
to swing the bat with. And he brought it up
over and over and over again and said, well, the
number certainly seemed like it. He certainly wasn't himself. And
I agreed, he's been in slumps before, but just really
didn't seem like that was the same. I hope what
we're seeing now is who he is. We've seen this before.
This is your don It might seem like he's doing
some unbelievable stuff. I don't think what he's doing is

(55:22):
unbelievable at all.

Speaker 7 (55:23):
I think he's usual. This is him, This is who
he is. Reminding you.

Speaker 8 (55:26):
He only has one home run, and that isn't even
one of those six batted balls I was talking about.
That's not one of his six hardest hit balls since
he's come back. The one that went four hundred and
twenty feet over the wall in center field at dyke
In Park, not one of the hardest hit balls he's
had since he's come back. That's how not only well
I believe he feels. And he was asked about that

(55:48):
again last night and said the same that he feels fine,
but it's just the way that he feels at the plate.

Speaker 7 (55:54):
The mental side of it, I would say, he's locked in.
That's why people hate when he's not in the lineup.

Speaker 6 (55:58):
Uh huh, except for the other team. All right, let's
do it. Let's get to the twenty twenty five NFL season.
It hasn't started yet, but it will for us right now,
because we're gonna tell you what's gonna happen.

Speaker 8 (56:08):
Yeah, NFL season starts tonight's game Friday night. The Texans
will play at three twenty five on Sunday afternoon, one
Monday Night football game this week, and then we'll do
it all again next week with the Texans having the
honors as one of the two games on Monday Night
Football when they open their NRG Stadium portion of their
seventeen game ride to a third consecutive division title, and

(56:30):
we'll see about where the predictions say they will go
after that. I would tell you we really have to
dive in and dissect and really analyze our thoughts about
the eight division winners that we think we're gonna see
this year for the divisions in the AFC and the NFC.
We agreed on all of those picks but one. AC

(56:51):
and I agreed on one hundred percent of the picks.
Both of us think Buffalo, Houston, Baltimore, and Kansas City
will win the AFC divisions. The Eagles, the Bucks, the Lions,
and the will win the NFC divisions. Cole agreed on
the NFC divisions as well. The only division winner that
any of us picked that the others did not is
the Kansas City Chiefs to not win the West, but

(57:13):
rather Sean Payton's Denver Broncos to take the honors, so says.

Speaker 5 (57:18):
Cole, Absolutely good defense. I think Boennicks has another good year.
I think there's regression out in Kansas City. You get
an eleven win season, it's enough to get you right
over the hump and into the divisional round, or at
least into hosting a playoff game. Kansas City's got going
a different path to the wildcard. All of us have
Kansas City in the playoffs. Cole puts them in the
wildcard spot. All of us have Denver in the playoffs.

(57:39):
You and IAC both have Denver among the playoff teams.
Non division winning Cincinnati also makes all three of our
wild cards selections among the AFC teams. But this is
where a little discussion now finally comes into play. I
have the Chargers making it is the one of the
three wildcards, AC has the Bengals and Dolphins, or excuse me,
the Dolphins as one of the somewhat wild card wild

(58:03):
card teams, and Cole has Pittsburgh as the wildcard team.

Speaker 7 (58:07):
Alo's Aaron Rodgers. Make your case for Tua's Dolphins. I
will admit I'm not really.

Speaker 6 (58:14):
That's probably the least confident pick I made on the
entire page.

Speaker 8 (58:18):
So you think there are six good teams in the
AFC and you couldn't figure out who the next best
team is.

Speaker 6 (58:23):
I just still think that outside of Buffalo, and I
know that the Patriots, I almost put the Patriots in
the playoffs.

Speaker 8 (58:30):
It's I really did Patriots, the Steelers, the Bengals, the Dolphins.
I don't think there are more choices after that. Again,
but any one of them is a reasonable for reason
I would have.

Speaker 6 (58:41):
The reason I almost did that with the Patriots is
because they're playing a last place crap schedule more than
anything else. I don't think it's because there's some you know,
they're not a bad team, and I don't. I'm not
willing to the jury's out on Drake May, but I
just think that sometimes teams get in because they take
advantage of a week schedule, and I think that's what'll
happen for them. Maybe, but I still think the Dolphins

(59:02):
are a better team.

Speaker 8 (59:03):
All right, Cole, your case for your your wild card
of the wild card teams the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 5 (59:09):
Yeah, I thought that New England would be definitely in
play as well.

Speaker 10 (59:11):
I am in agreeance. I think Drake Man is gonna
be awesome.

Speaker 5 (59:14):
I loved the addition of Kyle Williams for this offense
from Washington State, but death attackses Mike Tomlin getting above
five hundred is just kind of expected. I think the
addition of Johnny Smith is a very under the radar
move that wasn't talked about enough this offseason. And Aaron Rodgers,
he goes out on top to at least gets you
to the playoffs one more time.

Speaker 7 (59:31):
I mean, you said everything. I totally disagree with.

Speaker 8 (59:34):
Mike Tomlin is going to have a winning record, but
they're not going to make the playoffs. Aaron Rodgers is
absolutely positively not going out on top. He's going out
with yet another disappointing season, third consecutive one due to injury,
one due to performance. This one will be better, but
how they only won five games in New York last
year and he was out there for all of them.
They can win six, they can win seven, they can

(59:54):
win eight, they can win nine, and I think they'll
win nine and it'll be much better than last year.

Speaker 7 (59:59):
But it will not be postseason birth for Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 8 (01:00:02):
I went with the Chargers, which surely on this show
won't be very popular. I think Justin Herbert is in
the top half of NFC quarterbacks, as in the seventh
best one, as in the last of the wildcard teams.
I like Bo Nicks with what he does to help
his team win slightly more.

Speaker 7 (01:00:19):
I clearly like CJ.

Speaker 8 (01:00:20):
Moore, clearly like Burrow Moore, and the other three are obvious.
If the Rashawn Slater injury doesn't derail some of the
things they want to do offensively, I think they'll be
able to run the ball a little bit better than
they were a year ago. I think they'll figure out
somebody else to throw the ball to occasionally. And I
think the magical monster opening season plus playoff game for
Lad McConkie is just the start. I think he's going

(01:00:44):
to production wise be unreal this year for the Chargers.

Speaker 6 (01:00:49):
Now, I want to swap out the Dolphins and the
Steelers just to make you mad.

Speaker 7 (01:00:52):
Oh, I'm already gonna be mad at something.

Speaker 8 (01:00:54):
Let's find out if it's the wildcard predictions on the
NFC side, we come back, We'll have those for you.
We'll have the AFC an NFC title game for you,
and of course our Super Bowl winner. We come back
here on.

Speaker 7 (01:01:06):
The A Team.

Speaker 8 (01:01:06):
Your thoughts are also welcome. You're part of the show.
A lot of you will hit us up on the
twitters about that. You can hit us up here on
the phones as well. Seven one three, two one two five,
seven ninety. The NFL season is finally back tonight, Tomorrow,
Sunday and Monday.

Speaker 7 (01:01:20):
And we cannot wait.

Speaker 8 (01:01:21):
We'll obviously lock in on the Texans was over at
practice earlier today. The coordinator spoke today and we'll tell
you where things stand with a couple of players when.

Speaker 7 (01:01:29):
We continue.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:01:44):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety when
we get back into some Astros conversation. Boy, there is
a doozy that Brian McTaggart pointed out on the Socials today.
Where were we in the course of our predicting what's
going to happen with our crystal ball.

Speaker 7 (01:02:00):
He's got through the wildcard teams and the division winners. Okay, good, So.

Speaker 6 (01:02:06):
The the Pittsburgh Steelers instead of the Dolphins making the postseason.
Those are the two teams right there where I think
it's it's not similar in their personnel because one quarterback's
just old and maybe bad. Now, I really don't know
for sure. I can't maybe bad. Well, I know what

(01:02:29):
you're gonna say. But it's like I can't put Aaron Rodgers,
even if it just ends up being the name on
the back of his jersey on a team coach by
Mike Tomlin and just assume it's going to go poorly
just because he's fort going poorly.

Speaker 8 (01:02:39):
It doesn't have to be accurate. I didn't say that
it would go poorly. I mean, I said they're gonna
win nine games that went well, it's just not good enough,
was he?

Speaker 6 (01:02:46):
Bad because he's bad or was he bad because he
was in New York?

Speaker 7 (01:02:50):
He was bad?

Speaker 8 (01:02:51):
Okay, And I think I'm not in the majority saying that,
and I'm surprised by that. In twenty eight touchdowns and
eleven interceptions, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it.

Speaker 7 (01:02:58):
It does, You're right, it does have.

Speaker 6 (01:03:00):
I mean, that is a ton of pressure this season
to get rid of that narrative. That's what it is,
except for that your father time's going against you. So
it's an uphill battle.

Speaker 8 (01:03:08):
Yeah, he's not going to physically be better, and there
was a in my opinion, a clear physical decline in
his capabilities. You know, he talked a lot about not
being on the same page with different guys at different times.
So it look he's throwing the ball here and there's
nobody there. It looks like he's underthrown all sorts of
reasons for these clearly obvious things. At least to me,

(01:03:28):
it was about playing good football, winning football, making plays.
That's what was lacking for Aaron Rodgers. And again, twenty
eight touchdowns in a season sounds perfectly fine. It's more
than he threw in this final year in Green Bay.
It's a very respectable number. Even in this day and
age in the NFL, there's nothing wrong with it. Completing
sixty three per percent of your passes is no longer great.

Speaker 7 (01:03:48):
It's well below par.

Speaker 8 (01:03:50):
There's a reason why his passer rating was under ninety
one in an era where almost everybody else is above that.

Speaker 7 (01:03:54):
Certainly the good quarterbacks are.

Speaker 8 (01:03:56):
It just wasn't a good good enough player, and he's
definitely not with the seven best quarterbacks. So he's going
to have to quarterback a team that outplays quarterback his
team to outplay a team with a significantly better quarterback
than himcause I think the top seven are significantly better
than him. I mean, I think two is a better
player than him, But I don't know that with all
the parts of their games that you'd have to consider,

(01:04:17):
I'd want him more because I'm still afraid that the
next hit is the last hit and it could happen
at any time.

Speaker 7 (01:04:21):
And he also played.

Speaker 8 (01:04:22):
All of last year, and they had a bunch of
other injuries, but they weren't a very good team either.

Speaker 6 (01:04:29):
Well, Dantana Rubb, but with the Dolphins, their problem to
me is, I don't know what you're getting out of.

Speaker 8 (01:04:35):
Their supposed best receiver. I think there's a little bit
of question mark there.

Speaker 7 (01:04:39):
I agree.

Speaker 8 (01:04:39):
I think Tyreek can be and he's probably a little
bit like Aaron Why was he so special? He was
just faster than everybody else, and he's a bulkier, fast player,
and there aren't very many of those out there, so
he could certainly take the I think the physical nature
of the game. But he's a tiny person from a
stature standpoint, but he's built like a truck and he's

(01:05:00):
been phenomenal. He's been less than phenomenal off his most
recent season, the only season he's played in the NFL
at age thirty. This will be the second time he's
played an NFL season at age thirty or more. He
was suited up for all seventeen Dolphins games last year,
and every year of his career except for his rookie season,
he's averaged significantly more yards per game, significantly more touchdowns.

(01:05:25):
He didn't even have a thousand yard season. He played
in all seventeen games.

Speaker 7 (01:05:29):
That's like unheard of for him. He had eighteen hundred
yards of the year before. He led the league. All right,
so let's get to our conference championships.

Speaker 10 (01:05:39):
Well, how up did you guys go through your NFC
NFC wildcards.

Speaker 7 (01:05:43):
Nope, you got to go through the NFC wild cards.

Speaker 8 (01:05:47):
We have agreement in just one of those teams, Green
Bay across the board, Jordan Love, Michaeh Parsons, etc. And
the always winning they do with coach Lafleura. We got
all three of us. Have the Packers making the postseason
via the wild card. Two of us have San Francisco
in there, myself in ac Cole's got Arizona in Minnesota.
I also have Washington. Ac You've got Seattle. Let's start there. Seattle,

(01:06:09):
decide to flip it at quarterback. Out goes Geno, incomes Donald,
Seattle to the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (01:06:15):
Why because I believe that Sam Donald is the guy
you saw in Minnesota for the majority of the year
until proven otherwise.

Speaker 7 (01:06:25):
Because if it was see this is why I had
the question about New York.

Speaker 6 (01:06:29):
Maybe it really is a New York thing, or maybe
he was just on a really good Vikings team last year.
But if Gino can do that with a lot of
the same personnel, and I saw what Sam Donald can do,
admittedly with probably the best, if not one a receiver
in the NFL, I'm going to give him the benefit
of the doubt in that division, I might add until

(01:06:51):
proven otherwise.

Speaker 8 (01:06:52):
Uh, let me ask you a question before I ask
you about Arizona, Cole, who's better at playing quarterback in
the NFL in twenty twenty five on what you've seen
from them prior to twenty twenty five, Sam Donald or
Geno Smith?

Speaker 7 (01:07:05):
Island Geno Smith.

Speaker 8 (01:07:07):
That's what I think is why most people won't love
what Seattle did this offseason. I don't think he's right.
I agree, but we'll see. I mean Seattle, I think
they did something they thought was best. They were going
to spend the money either way, the chows to spend
it on Donald. Remember, the division winner in the NFC
West last year went ten and seven. The Seahawks went

(01:07:29):
ten and seven in the NFC West last year, but
did not make the playoffs because of a tiebreaker, and
the Rams did and they didn't. All right, Cole, an
explanation on your thought with the wildcard of your wild
card picks, which I certainly think is Arizona. But also
you've got JJ McCarthy making the postseason in year one
as a starter.

Speaker 10 (01:07:47):
I just think the Vikings have an elite defense.

Speaker 5 (01:07:49):
Their top to bottom top five in every single area
of that size. They have a good overall arsenal and
a good offensive line. You need him to be competent.
I mean, that's literally all you're asking for. And you
get Kevin O'Connor as your head coach, it's a pretty
good spot for Arizona. There's one team every single year
that we don't talk about that comes out of nowhere
that goes to the playoff. Last season, it was Denver.

(01:08:10):
I like the schedule, I like this defense. I think
you are going to see a breakout year from Marvin
Harrison junior. Michael Wilson is a really good wide receiver.

Speaker 10 (01:08:18):
Number two.

Speaker 5 (01:08:19):
I think James Connor is going to have a career season,
and Kyler Murray's kind of got to show it that
he is the right guy to lead this team for
the long term or else they're gonna hite reset.

Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
Now.

Speaker 8 (01:08:27):
I went back and looked at the information you guys
sent me your predictions like ten times, and then I
typed him up and put him on the graphic that
everyone on Space City Home network can see. And I'll
ask you here to reconfirm what I tried to confirm
ten times. Neither one of you has the Commanders in
the postseason. Is that correct?

Speaker 10 (01:08:46):
Nope?

Speaker 7 (01:08:47):
Nope? Why why can't he have a sophomore slump? No,
I'm I just want I'm curious. Is that what you do?

Speaker 6 (01:08:54):
There is something to be said for having film on
a guy. He's not going to be sneaking up on anybody,
but I wouldn't be surprised if they do, because I
think the team around him is very good and his
line did improve at left tackle.

Speaker 7 (01:09:06):
You would think so.

Speaker 5 (01:09:07):
I will say for me, Cliff Kingsbury is going to
be this year's Bobby Slowick, where a lot of people
oversaturated what he did last season, want to become a
head coach, came back for another year. He's just not
able to duplicate that same magic. That very well could
be the case.

Speaker 8 (01:09:21):
Two of us have the Niners in there, and that
was the one I had the least confidence in. AC
also had the Niners very much a bounce back season. Clearly,
I think easily said that means Christian McCaffrey has to
be healthy for all seventeen of their games. Perty's got
to play to the contract he has earned. And as
I tease ahead to what we have for our AFC
Title game matchups and winners and Super Bowl matchup and winners.

(01:09:46):
I like Washington a lot more than those two guys do.
You'll hear more about that when we come back and
wrap up our NFL playoff predictions.

Speaker 7 (01:09:54):
We'll have it posted on the website as well.

Speaker 8 (01:09:56):
The audio from it you can enjoy and you can
weigh in also right here on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:10:08):
That's right everybody else in the world.

Speaker 6 (01:10:11):
It is the A team sports SOX seven ninety Space
City Home Network. As we wind down our picks and
get to the conference championship games and the big Game.

Speaker 7 (01:10:24):
Oh wait, can I say that here? Can I say
what it?

Speaker 11 (01:10:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:10:26):
You say the super Bowl a super Bowl.

Speaker 8 (01:10:27):
I'll give it a number, you can give it a location.
You can say super on a billion times over a
bunch of Roman.

Speaker 7 (01:10:33):
Numerals, XV's and I two don't It doesn't matter. It
doesn't matter.

Speaker 8 (01:10:37):
So I mentioned just before we hit the brake, I'd
like the commander's outfit a little bit more than these
guys did. We once again had very little to disagree
with on the AFC side of things. When you get
to the title game. We have the same matchup all
three of us. Ravens Lamar Jackson, the Bills, Josh Allen. Nobody,

(01:10:58):
Nobody put Cans the City in the AFC title game.
I mean, why would you they never make it to
the AFC Title Game. I guess they don't. Not Here
on the A team, two of us have Baltimore winning.
We sit in this studio. Cole has Buffalo winning, and
all three of us have the AFC champion being the

(01:11:18):
NFL champion. My NFC title game is the aforementioned Commanders
and Eagles, repeat of last year's NFC title game, but
not a repeat of the result of last year's NFC
title game. I have the Eagles losing to the Commanders
in the NFC title game. Ac you have the Eagles

(01:11:39):
beating the Lions for the NFC championship, and Cole the opposite,
the Lions beating the Eagles for the NFC championship.

Speaker 7 (01:11:47):
So I'll start there.

Speaker 8 (01:11:49):
The Lions' losses, most notably their almost entire offensive coaching staff.
Not enough to jump off the Lions bandwagon.

Speaker 10 (01:11:58):
Not enough.

Speaker 5 (01:11:59):
I still like defense. I still think they have one
of the better secondaries in the NFL. They have one
of the better pass rushers in the NFL. Adan Hodgson's
gonna go off this year knowing that he is about
to get paid. I think that you look at the
offensive line, very solid, good wide receiver room. Another player
who's gonna get cashed in this offseason, Jameson Williams, one
of the best one to two combinations in Jamier Gibbs

(01:12:20):
and David Montgomery, and I just think Jared Goff is
gonna find a way to get it done.

Speaker 8 (01:12:24):
I kind of believe Williams, Ross Saint Brown, Laporta, Gibbs, Montgomery,
those five at those skills positions, and maybe a different
teams five is three wideouts are running back in a
tight end while their five is this five. I think
it's hard to match that. I think it's about as
well outfitted as any outfit, as any offense in the

(01:12:46):
NFL is they utilize their personal tremendously well.

Speaker 7 (01:12:49):
Presuming it continues under new leadership.

Speaker 8 (01:12:52):
I think people may be jumping a little bit far
off of them, even though I don't have them in
the title game, and both of you guys do. But
that's the hurdle trying to get over, and they do
want to repeat of last season for Jared Goff, saying
that here in Houston might feel weird because he threw
five picks here in Houston, but he basically didn't make
any mistakes the entire rest of the season, and they
were awesome because of it.

Speaker 7 (01:13:12):
If he repeats that, they'll be right back where they were.

Speaker 8 (01:13:14):
I said the AFC was going to win the Super
Bowl according to us here on the A team, Cole,
you have Detroit making the Super Bowl AC as well,
but neither of you have them winning it. Baltimore beats
Detroit from AC, Buffalo beats Detroit from Cole, and I
have the only one, little, tiny, tiny area of the
country gets to truly enjoy the Super Bowl. With Baltimore

(01:13:36):
and Washington meeting up in the last game of the year,
and two of us think Lamar Jackson is going to
win his first Super Bowl.

Speaker 6 (01:13:43):
Why it just feels a lot like it's not only
it's not just as simple as oh, it's their year.
I mean, they're always right there in the mix. You
could say the same thing about Buffalo. Buffalo's got to
be thinking, which, by the way, that's what makes Cole's
pick completely reasonable. As long as they don't run into
Kansas City. They should have a pretty good shot.

Speaker 8 (01:14:01):
But are we thinking that Baltimore or Buffalo is going
to reach the Super Bowl out of the AFC by
beating Kansas City. They're gonna have to well, I mean
it's not automatic, no, that they have to beat Buffalo. Well,
what they need to happen is what the Texans haven't
been able to do. If Kansas City is the one

(01:14:23):
seed again, which is very much up in doubt I
think this year, and we know they were down last year.
Clearly Kansas City was down except for their record. Yeah,
they they made you come see them. If they do
that again, then the door would once again be open
for a four, five, six, seven seed to meet them
before Baltimore Buffalo would They would have to obviously beat

(01:14:46):
each other, but could get that.

Speaker 7 (01:14:48):
We don't have to beat Kansas City help from somebody else.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
But aside from all of that, more it just my opinion,
more of this just comes down to they are so
stacked Baltimore. I just they've added pieces to who already potent,
didn't lose anything that I think is gonna make them,
you know, take a step back. And the regression factor
for KC that Cole mentioned it might not be Mahomes.

(01:15:13):
You know, Mahomes is not like it's not like he's
getting old or something. That's what's so sick about what
he's already done. He's going nowhere. But Kelsey was not
unless you were the Houston Texans. Kelsey was ineffective last year. Ineffective,
not mediocre, not he was ineffective. A lot of weeks.
You'd look at the the box score and it's like, well,
was he out there? Mahomes? You know, he finds a way,

(01:15:36):
but you can only do that so often. Brady didn't
go to the Super Bowl every year either. Oh he was
the I bring him up because he was the king
of making his weapons look better than they probably are,
and I think Mahomes has a little bit of that
gene in him. But this, to me, this is more
you're always talking about will take care of your business.

(01:15:56):
This to me is more about Baltimore just being that time.
And I hate it because I hate them and I
hate that they're going to be in the way, the
Texans doing what we want them to accomplish.

Speaker 7 (01:16:04):
They're good now.

Speaker 8 (01:16:06):
If the one thing that I do think has held
them back in Lamar Back. He's not been at his
best in the postseason. I'm not saying he's been a disaster.
He hasn't cost them games here more recently. I do
think he did that earlier in his career, but he
does have to play better. Josh Allen has played incredible
football in the postseason and they still haven't reached the pinnacle.

(01:16:27):
It's not the only thing that has to happen, but
it's definitely one of the things that needs to happen.
We do need to mention one other thing over at
practice today again for the Texans, he had three players
yesterday that did not participate.

Speaker 7 (01:16:40):
One of them.

Speaker 8 (01:16:40):
Returned to practice today as expected. That was Cam Robinson.
He was not practicing Wednesday due to illness, but was
back on the field today, likely to be active for
the game on Sunday, serving as the swing tackle behind
tay Ersery and Titus Howard. The two players who are
listed as non participants Wednesday due to hamstring injuries were
also going They will when the injury report comes out

(01:17:01):
be listed. The saying that we're not out there today
practicing and Adam Schefter and others and vow reported they
believe the injury for Christian Kirk definitely has him sidelined
for the opener, potentially as him sidelined for the home
opener against Tampa, and we'll see where things go. With
the level of hamstring injury that he has always a
concern with any player. He does have a bit of
injury history, although his last injury had nothing to do

(01:17:24):
with his legs but the manner in which he was
tackled and broke's collarbone. But that's always a concern. The
Texans are extremely suited to accommodate for that. One way
they wouldn't be is if the same position has multiple
injuries and Braxton Barrios, who's also a slot receiver, their

(01:17:45):
third slot receiver, also misspracticed yesterday and today with a
hamstring injury, though I'm not sure the severity of it.
Jyaln Knowell obviously would step in. I would imagine he
not only would he step in, but if they plan
on doing the same things offensively, and they can, he'll
be on the field for the first snap of the game,
probably alongside fellow rookie Jaden Higgins and alongside Nico Collins.

(01:18:06):
We'll obviously dive a little bit more into that in
this next hour of the program, have those predictions posted
for you get more in on what's taking place with
the Astros now that Joe A. Spotta has given us
a couple of details from the roster and what some
decisions that they've made, why they made them. We'll share
that with you when we come back here on the
A Team.

Speaker 1 (01:18:26):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety teen. Lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your team's Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 6 (01:18:44):
A straight up four o'clock here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and Space City Home Network. It is the A Team,
fresh off making our NFL predictions for the twenty twenty
five NFL season, which is a mere hours away from
kicking off.

Speaker 7 (01:19:03):
Got the Eagles putting up a banner.

Speaker 6 (01:19:05):
We are to talk about that, By the way, it's
such an NBA thing, and I guess there's penance in baseball.

Speaker 7 (01:19:12):
I know they do it.

Speaker 6 (01:19:14):
I remember the Patriots vividly having their banners put up there.

Speaker 8 (01:19:19):
I honestly going to their stadium. It is if you
are weak. I guess it's pretty intimidating how they have
it up there and championship after championship after championship, and
the basically one end zone is in front of their
little area of shops and everything beyond the stadium, so
it's a little more open.

Speaker 7 (01:19:40):
The other end is, we're awesome.

Speaker 8 (01:19:42):
Look at how much we've done the whole end zone
with that scoreboard in it. It's nothing but excellence.

Speaker 6 (01:19:48):
And going to the link where the Eagles play is
also intimidating, but that's because their fans are criminals. Sometimes
they have a freaking judge in the building so they
can put people on the whole for what they did
at the stadium during the game.

Speaker 10 (01:20:02):
Kind of.

Speaker 8 (01:20:02):
I mean, I know the story, and I've heard people
who know say it's still true. It seems like it's
can't still be true.

Speaker 6 (01:20:09):
These active as judges at the link putting people in
prison that shouldn't be there.

Speaker 8 (01:20:15):
I mean, maybe you're saying, well, we don't have the manpower
to get them out of the stadium, yet we don't
want to limit who's here. I mean, are these criminals
so smart? Section four oh five they're gonna have an incident.
Section three twenty one, they're gonna have an incident. And
Section one oh five all at the same time. Can
we spare three to five men or women of our

(01:20:37):
security force to be taking these people off site where
they belongs.

Speaker 7 (01:20:41):
Does somebody have to come in and get them.

Speaker 6 (01:20:42):
The National Guard for the NFL opener, No, I think that.
I mean, these people have been drinking since Monday. There's
no doubt in my mind.

Speaker 7 (01:20:51):
Is I will enjoy their celebration and the Cowboys are coming.
I mean, think about that.

Speaker 6 (01:20:56):
If you were a Cowboys fan, let's put the shoe
on the other foot and you had just I'm just kidding,
that's never gonna happen, but.

Speaker 7 (01:21:02):
Just say you had.

Speaker 8 (01:21:02):
And if you were if the shoe was on the
other foot and the Cowboys were just putting up their
Super Bowl Championship banner, would your foot even be the
same size after thirty years, you'd be thirty years older.

Speaker 6 (01:21:11):
No, you know, people shrink as they get older. That's
the Cowboys right now. It's been since ninety six. But
in all seriousness, I know we talk about how these
these division rivals in the NFC East, where the Dallas
Cowboys resigned in their Arlington location in the middle of
the country. Of all of those rivalries, these two teams
they hate that other team more than any of the

(01:21:33):
other teams. Correct, the Giants fans I would.

Speaker 8 (01:21:36):
Probably have suggested the other one, like the Cowboys. Rivalry
with each of those three teams is about as good
as any rivalry in the NFL.

Speaker 10 (01:21:45):
Listen.

Speaker 5 (01:21:45):
I can attest to this because of my grandfather grew
up major New York Giants fan. He hated the Cowboys,
and the Cowboys hated the Giants.

Speaker 7 (01:21:53):
They all hate.

Speaker 8 (01:21:54):
Answering it from the Cowboys perspective might be more difficult
to answer it from the other team's perspectives. The Giants
biggest rival as the Cowboys, the Commander's biggest.

Speaker 7 (01:22:02):
Rival as the Cowboys, the eiggest the Eagles biggest rival.

Speaker 6 (01:22:05):
Cowboys' biggest rival is the Eagles, isn't it at least now?
Well it was the last time the Commander's slash retikins were.

Speaker 7 (01:22:13):
Even but good.

Speaker 8 (01:22:13):
Look at their history, Like look at the NBC, for example,
with Sunday Night Football. It seemed like once every three years,
we're gonna open the season with the Cowboys and the Giants.
And then during the Joe Gibbs era, like this is
the best team in the NFL, and who was their
biggest rival who was one of the next best teams
in the NFL at the time when they were winning,
and then that sho was on the other foot when
the Cowboys were winning. Like that's why I think it's

(01:22:35):
it could be any one of them, depending on who
you're talking to.

Speaker 7 (01:22:38):
That's who the Cowboys really are.

Speaker 8 (01:22:39):
And as much as they haven't won big a little
bit like the Yankees, they still are the big.

Speaker 7 (01:22:45):
Bad They came to town. We want to beat them back.

Speaker 8 (01:22:47):
Everyone hates them for the right reasons. They still matter
in that regard. They're just they're never gonna I don't
think they're ever gonna be just some team. And I
think it was Troy Aikman earlier this week. It was
kind of pointing that out in that there's a part
of Jerry Jones that wants to win. That's pretty clear,
and it's probably one of the biggest driving force as
to why he's the owner of the Cowboys, but it's
not the only one. If they're not making news in

(01:23:11):
the headlines, the biggest talking point of the league, then
he does something so they become that again. Whatever it
takes for them to be one of the biggest focuses
of the league at any given time. Since he's been
the owner, he's tried to help make that happen if
he felt like he could. And this deal is one

(01:23:31):
of them, you know, the hiring and firing of his coaches,
even after success like they've had with the coach McCarthy.
Coach McCarthy had one bad regular season with the Cowboys.
It happened to be the season Dak Prescott was hurt.

Speaker 7 (01:23:43):
He's out.

Speaker 8 (01:23:44):
Nobody is in Brian Schottenheimer's in like he finds a
way to have us talking about them when their accomplishments
don't match the amount of time spent talking about them.

Speaker 6 (01:23:54):
I would argue that even though that's the case with
this Micah Parsons trade, once again, it's for all the
wrong reasons and the number one wrong reason they're always
getting talked about, even if he thinks that's a good
thing because it's press, you know, no bad press is whatever.
Like the reason we talk about them is because they
are a punchline.

Speaker 7 (01:24:12):
Now.

Speaker 6 (01:24:12):
They won't do anything of consequence, and this season is
no different. You haven't played a game yet, and nobody
thinks the Cowboys are gonna do anything except for the
most diehard, blind to anything logical reason. Cowboys fan out
their rags. I mean, they're not gonna do anything this
year of consequence, and the main reason why is because

(01:24:34):
of their division with two of the three teams you've
been talking about.

Speaker 8 (01:24:36):
Yeah, I still think there's easily an avenue to get
something done. And then it's okay, great, you have two
teams in your division, just win one, win one game
of those four, and now you got thirteen other games,
two of which come against the Giants. The other thirteen
match your opponents that you finished in your division last year,
and everybody else, everybody else on the schedule is the same.
We know Detroit in Green Bay and philadelph and Washington

(01:25:00):
are good, and then the other two division winners. Do
we know who the next best team is? We we
all disagreed on it. Seattle, San Francisco, Arizona, Minnesota.

Speaker 6 (01:25:09):
It's very much wide open, like it has been in
recent years. But that's if that's your best foot forward
to why the Cowboys are going to do something with
your case scenarios.

Speaker 8 (01:25:19):
The Cowboys are a wildcard team. I think that's at
the lowest bar I can give you. That's fair and
thetball they're probably the last wildcard team, and so they're
probably playing the second best team in the NFC, which
is probably in their division.

Speaker 6 (01:25:33):
Yeah, I mean, it's just their division is what it
keeps coming back to for me. Other than being.

Speaker 8 (01:25:41):
Two great teams and then the Cowboys and the Giants,
it's not overwhelming.

Speaker 6 (01:25:45):
Maybe maybe the Commanders do take a step back this
year because every young wonder kid, rookie quarterback that does something,
and we we experienced that right here in Houston last
season with CJ tend to take a step back.

Speaker 8 (01:25:59):
Well, let's be real about who this division really is
and base it on our NFL predictions, not mine, yours
and Coles. They have the best team in the NFC
is in their division Philadelphia. They have no better than
the eighth best team in their division, Washington, because neither
one of you had them in the playoffs. They have
one of the three worst teams in the NFC and
the Giants, if not one of the worst two, and

(01:26:21):
the Cowboys.

Speaker 7 (01:26:22):
Why is this division so hard?

Speaker 5 (01:26:25):
I think it's because of the last two. It's hard
to pinpoint.

Speaker 6 (01:26:29):
Well, not having them make the postseason doesn't mean they're
not gonna have a winning record, and all that kind
of stuff that happens all the time, and what they
do specifically just got harder to defend with who you
traded away.

Speaker 8 (01:26:41):
Yeah, I would definitely agree with that, and again Cole
points it out very well. You know, I said the
Steelers can go nine to eight. I pointed out the
Seahawks went ten and seven and shared the division title,
though they didn't hang a banner. They did not make
the playoffs either, So it can happen, and I'm on
the other side of it. I'm asking for the other side.
I think the Commanders are great. I think the Eagles
are great. I think the Cowboys very well will go

(01:27:03):
oho and four against them, But their first opportunity to
pull off an upset and really change everybody's idea about
who they are this season, it comes in a few hours.
Did want to get a couple of things on the
Astros side of things before we moved on too much further.
Just in Joe spot As comments on a handful of players. Unfortunately,
the news yesterday with Spencer Araghedtty had him going on

(01:27:24):
the injured list fifteen day il with right elbow inflammation
he felt when he had his throwing session, so after
he got to the ballpark yesterday.

Speaker 7 (01:27:30):
That's why it came out so.

Speaker 8 (01:27:32):
Late in the day and obviously did not come out
with us on Tuesday when we had Spencer Araghetty on
with us. Timeline wise, we said it already and now
Joe said the same thing. Doesn't think it's very likely
that he would be able to make a return, just
simply because of where we are in the season. They
haven't gotten the MRI results back yet, but tough for
him to get back. With the words that used by

(01:27:53):
Joe Spotted today, they got good news on Estach Peretis yesterday.

Speaker 7 (01:27:57):
We talked about that a little bit.

Speaker 8 (01:27:58):
He even talked with the media a little bit yesterday afternoon,
and there is a possibility for his return. The follow
up imaging on Josh Hater, Joe Spot has said the
capsule is healing as they'd hoped it would be healing,
but he's still not to the point of resuming a
throwing program. There's only a handful of series left, there's
only a handful.

Speaker 7 (01:28:16):
Of weeks left.

Speaker 8 (01:28:17):
The season will be over before the end of this month,
and it seems less and less possible that the timeline
would afford him the opportunity to return, but they still
have not rolled that out, and the ex platform Astros
Twitter was all worried last night, and understandably so, especially
after you saw the video Jake Myers in a rehab
game last night. He Kyle tuckered himself. He foiled a

(01:28:39):
ball off of his leg and was down for a while.
He ended up leaving the game. Didn't leave the game
at that moment. Struck Out played an inning of defense
before he was pulled from their lineup. But he is
in the lineup tonight for the Space Cowboys at designated hitter,
and if things at least continue to where he doesn't
hurt himself by hitting a ball off of himself, he

(01:29:01):
should be with the Astros in Arlington to hopefully be
on I don't know that that means he's definitely going
to be active for the opener of the series or
at what point in the series, but traveling with the
team at least to give them the option of saying
he's ready to go today and he'll take Jacob Melton's
roster spot.

Speaker 6 (01:29:21):
Yeah, and he's got a better chance to be in
that opener than Spencer Arraghetti. Unfortunately, I hate that news.
I absolutely hate that news. I hate that he came
on our show and probably knew that news.

Speaker 7 (01:29:34):
Well, according to what he said, he didn't.

Speaker 8 (01:29:36):
He went out there yesterday and threw and it's something
didn't feel right, and so he told him about it.

Speaker 6 (01:29:40):
And on that aspect is that that is just an
overly precautious thing on both the player and the team's part.
And you know there he's no worse for the wear
afterwards and can jump right back into what he said
he was finally doing, which was feeling like himself.

Speaker 8 (01:30:00):
Hope is that he is healthy enough to have a
healthy off season. And I have my doubts just because
it's right elbow inflammation. I don't like that. Well, don't
like that. Get on the show is here again and
it's yes or sad at the beginning of the show.
I mean, this could be anything. This could be a
monster size setback who knows it almost assuredly knocks him
out for this the regular season. You do have the

(01:30:22):
option if it's nothing too bad, that he could be
on an active roster for a postseason roster, but I
don't know about that. We'll talk more about the astros
and where AFC South Tour continues to Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
Next the A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (01:30:46):
The continues day Adam Westler and Adam Planton here with
you on the program, and our AFC South tour continues
technically wraps up today. We've already spoken Colts, We've already
spoken Jaguar.

Speaker 7 (01:31:00):
There's an outsime to speak.

Speaker 8 (01:31:01):
Titans football with the Nick sus joining US Titans beat
writer for the Tennessee and Nick if you don't mind,
I'm gonna come in guns blazing Tennessee and had their
predictions posted earlier this week, yours and four other colleagues
over there at your newspaper, and four of the five,
including yourself at the Texans claiming the AFC South Nick Gray,

(01:31:24):
what's up with him?

Speaker 5 (01:31:25):
Man?

Speaker 7 (01:31:25):
How? And the heck? Are the Jaguars going to win
this division?

Speaker 11 (01:31:29):
I think that's a sneaky good Jaguars team. I think
I have them in second, but obviously that's not my pick.
I'm not going to speak for anybody else, but I
will say this, I think that the gap between two
and three right now feels a little bit larger to
me than the gap between one and two. That does
not mean anything. I am one human being with a voice.

(01:31:51):
I'm not going to proclaim that I am a superstar
prognosticator or anything. I'm probably worse than average at betting
games against the spread. But I would say, look, the
Texans are the team to beat in the division, and
the Texans are clearly the team with the best reservoir
of talent in the division. But Jacksonville's got three or
four playmakers who I would trust to make plays in

(01:32:13):
one on one matchups in close games, and that's usually
my tiebreaker for a good team. I don't think the
Colts have that right now. I don't think the Titans
have that right now. Jacksonville having that gives me a
little bit of pause of just saying one hundred percent Texans.

Speaker 8 (01:32:26):
I guess, yeah, how much water is in the reservoir
of talent there in Nashville with the Tennessee Titans as
they move into year one with new management personnel wise
with Barganzi and obviously moving forward with coach Callahan.

Speaker 7 (01:32:39):
Obviously we also know they have a number one pick.

Speaker 11 (01:32:42):
Yeah, it's an interesting situation, right. I think that the
team was probably more up end talented this time last
year than they are heading into this season, and we
all saw how that went three and fourteen record. But
there were guys on this team, Ernest Jones and DeAndre
Hopkins and some players that, look, that's top end talent,
that's star talent that they had that they don't have

(01:33:03):
this year. I think the roster is probably a little
bit healthier. I think the roster is trending younger, which
is something that this team really wants to emphasize. They
are going to lean heavily on the draft picks this year.
They're going to play a lot of young players, and
they're going to trust those guys to get better as
the year goes on. So if you're talking about present
tense talent reservoir among the bottom of the league, and

(01:33:27):
there's no disguising that, and I don't think the team
would hide that. But I do think that the goal
for the Titans, as they've stated and as anyone can
healthily observe, is you've got a rookie quarterback, you've got
two offensive linemen you've picked in the first rounds, and
last year and the year before that, you have three
young pass catchers that you drafted in the fourth round.

(01:33:48):
This year, you got a second round edge rusher and
a second round defensive tackle and a fourth round linebacker
and a fourth round cornerback, and you got all these
things to say, Okay, there's your young core. Let's go
see if these guys can develop into something two years
down the line. Then you're talking about a team that
maybe has a healthy roster, but you're still twenty twenty six,
twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight before we're talking about that.

Speaker 6 (01:34:11):
I'm talking to Titans beat writer Nick Suss of the
Tennessee and about the Tennessee Titans, and let's talk about
that rookie quarterback. What's the first thing I guess that
stood out to you that you saw this offseason, this
training camp and into you know, a few days left
now until he makes his debut in Week one.

Speaker 7 (01:34:28):
Maybe that stood out to you.

Speaker 6 (01:34:29):
And kind of a second part, how much are those
two veteran receivers that are going to be in that
locker room with him.

Speaker 7 (01:34:35):
Going to help him out in this maiden voyage.

Speaker 11 (01:34:38):
Yeah, the first thing that stood out watching Cam back
in April or whenever it was that they had rookie camp.
This dude truly does not change his demeanor. Good past,
bad past. Somebody's yappin in this face, somebody's chirping at him,
somebody's teaching him. He is steady. He is a steadying presence.

(01:34:58):
And against Will Levis. So I am not denigrating in
any way, but Will was a very up and down player.
He's an emotional player. And so the Titans have corrected
or over corrected or course corrected or whatever you want
to call, and found a more traditionally doesn't get too high,
doesn't get too low quarterback who also is deeply unafraid

(01:35:20):
to throw balls into tight windows, kind of like Will was.
So it's an interesting dichotomy there. You talk about Ridley,
you talk about Lockett. I think that the best indicator
of what the Titans feel about those relationships. Up until
this season, the Titans' locker room for the lengthy past
had been divided by position groups. The receivers were all together,

(01:35:40):
the running backs were all together, et cetera, et cetera.
This year it was all shuffled to try and create
more communication among the entire team. Cam's in the middle
of the locker room, directly to his right, his center,
Lloyd Cushenberry directly who has left Alvin Ridley.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
It is a.

Speaker 11 (01:35:57):
Situation where the Titans want those guys to be in communication,
they want them to be near each other, they want
them to have a close relationship, and it's worked. Ridley
and Cam are very close. They talk very highly of
each other. They have a good rhythm, a good rapport,
to a point that this week on the podium, Cam
was kind of incredulous at the idea of reigning NFL

(01:36:17):
Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtan being able to
slow down Ridley in Week one this week, which we'll see.
But there is a confidence there, There is a rapport there,
and I do think that, Man, we spent so much
time in pre season and training camp last year talking
about Ken Cam wore developed that deep ball or sorry,
Ken will Levis developed that deep ball with Ridley? Is

(01:36:38):
it going to work? Is it going to work? That
conversation hasn't been there this year. Those two look like
they're in lockstep, and that at the very least is
something that Cam has going for him to start his career.

Speaker 8 (01:36:48):
We mentioned the Titans record a year ago, grabbing just
three wins. One of them was against these Houston Texans, obviously,
with will Levis out there in that game, though, with
most of the other recent ones. The last couple of years,
the Texans defensive front has absolutely had their way with
the Titans offensive line. They have clearly focused on fixing
that offensive line each of the last two off seasons

(01:37:11):
and could go back one more with Skeronsky. But do
you believe that those five guys slated to be out there,
including the additions of Zeitler and more, that they have
corrected it, that this group has a chance to be
not just serviceable, but even better than that.

Speaker 11 (01:37:26):
I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. My joke
this entire offseason has been this is a quest for mediocrity. Obviously,
the goal is a great.

Speaker 7 (01:37:36):
Practice, it's it's.

Speaker 11 (01:37:38):
Not the end goal. But when you've been thirty second
for so long, getting the sixteenth as a gigantic boost,
the gap between thirteen thirty two and sixteen is much
much bigger than the gap between sixteen and one. If
you can get to league average, which that's the goal
of put down Moore at left tackle and get Latham
back to the right side of his natural position. And
I hope that Skoronsky in year three can be that

(01:37:59):
Pro Bowl haliber player you draft them to be and
hope that Cushion Barry can stay healthy this year, and
hope that Zeitler can be that steadying presence you brought
him in for. That's a pretty steady five. I mean,
Dan Moore is still a bit of a question mark.
He it's hard to read the sack totals. Last year
he led the league in sacks allowed, but his quarterbacks
were justin fields and Russell Wilson two known scramblers that

(01:38:20):
kind of skew that data. And I think Latham was
either second or third in sacks allowed. But will Levis
famously holds onto the ball for so long, and it's
all the stuff that stats lies. Stats tell the truth.
That's tell you what you need to see all that stuff.
I'd say that the tackle position still got to see it,
and this week we're going to see it. Nick Dodonato
and Jonathan Cooper are every bit the superstars that they're

(01:38:44):
paid to be out on the perimeter in Denver. But
the interior, Zeitler, Cushionberry and Scroansky. I think that's a really,
really solid three. I think that Skeronsky has a chance
to be the titans best player regardless of position this year.
He's looked really good throughout training camp. Cushion Barry, for
a guy who tore his achilles in November, is looking great.
He's not even on the injury report heading into Week one.

(01:39:05):
And Leitler has been in this league for a long
time for a reason. So I think that on the interior,
at the very least, I feel pretty confident. On the perimeter,
let's call it TBD, but cautiously optimistic if you're a Titan.

Speaker 6 (01:39:17):
Said so, we've been talking about how you know, the
Texans with the question marks on their offensive line, It's
probably not the best matchup to be going up against
the Rams in Week one, but you have to play
what your schedule says.

Speaker 7 (01:39:28):
And in that vein how much, and I know cam Ward.

Speaker 6 (01:39:33):
Has talked about this is the Broncos defense, you know,
gonna be something that you're concerned about.

Speaker 7 (01:39:38):
In his first game as a rookie quarterback.

Speaker 11 (01:39:41):
You get concerned about it. I mean, that's a really
good defense. Pat Sartain and Nick Bosino and Zach Allen
and all of these players are Pro Bowl talents and
all Pro talents for a reason. There's a lot of
good stuff there. And Vance Joseph is a wily play caller.
I think I was looking at this the other day
between head coach, offensive coordinator, defense coordinator. The Titans have

(01:40:02):
three combined years of experience and the Broncos have thirty.
Between Sean Payton and Joe Lombardi and Vince Joseph, there's
a lot of experience to throw stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:40:11):
At Cam Ord.

Speaker 11 (01:40:12):
So you got to be concerned. Is defense right number
one in the NFL and a lot of stats last year,
But you also have to acknowledge defense is such a
volatile saying secondary play more than anything else, is volatile.
You can best in the league as a cornerback and
passer rating allowed one year and then dip into the
hundreds the next year. It's one good play's going to

(01:40:33):
skew you, one bad play is going to skew you.
So I would say, I am very very skeptical that
the Titans will have a lot of big plays. I'm
very very skeptical that the Titans will put up a
lot of points. But I would not be shocked if
the Titans have two or three sustained drives. Tony Pollard
running the ball, grinding it eight play drive, nine play drive,

(01:40:53):
Cam word takes what the defense gives him, and you
kind of see the structure the bones of what the
Titans want the offense to be. That's not going to
be enough. I'm not picking the Titans to win by
any stretch, but I do think that even against this
top defense, the way the Titans offense is organized, you're
probably going to see some incremental ball control type success

(01:41:15):
to kind of flash what the team wants to be.

Speaker 8 (01:41:18):
Well, wait and see Sunday afternoon, they will get it on,
just like the Texans and the Rams to open up
their season.

Speaker 10 (01:41:24):
Nick.

Speaker 8 (01:41:24):
We certainly appreciate the time covering the Titans for the
Tennessee and hope to catch up with you again over
the course of the season.

Speaker 11 (01:41:30):
Yeah, anytime, boys, you got it.

Speaker 8 (01:41:32):
Nix to us covering the Titans. We have made it
around the AFC South. That is your AFC South tour
here on the A team.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
The AD on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:41:46):
A new signature seven called.

Speaker 2 (01:41:51):
What's Up with That?

Speaker 7 (01:41:53):
What's up with that?

Speaker 2 (01:41:56):
What's up?

Speaker 5 (01:41:58):
I say it was.

Speaker 7 (01:42:02):
Do that all right?

Speaker 6 (01:42:08):
It's time for What's up with That? And thanks again
to our guest. The last segment nixt Us of the
Tennessee and he's the Titans beat Rider and he got
us ready for the AFC South And that's where I want.

Speaker 7 (01:42:20):
To start with. What's up with that?

Speaker 6 (01:42:22):
Because as the Texans get underway this Sunday, they're gonna
be without another UH player that is a you know,
question mark, not just for this game.

Speaker 7 (01:42:34):
Well, he's not a question mark.

Speaker 6 (01:42:35):
He's out Christian Kirk, but for the for the foreseeable future.
I don't like hamstring injuries on receivers, and when you
factor in, you know, Braxton Barrios, although I don't, I
don't look at him as like a huge part of
the receiving situation this upcoming year.

Speaker 7 (01:42:50):
I think he's depth more than anything.

Speaker 6 (01:42:52):
But it's like you said, you don't have that depth
unless you have the actual players. So as we're going
forward into Week one and we have question marks at
receiver at least that one, you're gonna have one less
weapon available to you. By the way, when they say
two weeks, I'm not buying that. I know there's different

(01:43:13):
severity in hamstring injuries, but Nico Collins missed a month
last year, and I know it was bad, but I
just I want to air on the side of caution
when it comes to this particular injury with this particular player.

Speaker 7 (01:43:24):
Now I hear what you're saying.

Speaker 8 (01:43:25):
You have the option of placing him on injured reserve
and four games minimum, So if you feel like it's
going to be less than that, you wouldn't make that move.
The Texans haven't even announced the injury report for today,
but he did not practice yesterday, did not practice today,
and he'll be listed as such on the injury report,
and you could just easily just you list them as

(01:43:46):
out tomorrow Friday before a Sunday game, the actual injury
status is listed, so out is likely what we'll see
for him. But even saying that, you could always change
that on Sunday and place him on the injured reserve
if you feel like that's the safest way to play it.
From a roster standpoint, they did. From a numbers standpoint,

(01:44:07):
they got plenty of wide receivers. They kept seven on
the active roster and two of them are hurt now,
Burios being the other. But they still have five other
active members of the roster and they've been making slight
changes to their practice squad over the time since they
even set the initial fifty three silas Bolden is part
of their practice squad. Jared Wayne is part of their

(01:44:27):
practice squad. Josh Kelly. Have three additional wide receivers on
the practice squad.

Speaker 11 (01:44:32):
Now.

Speaker 8 (01:44:32):
Each of those three players has played almost none during
training camp because Wayne was the only one that was
even with the Texans during camp, and he was hurt
early on and then was waived with an injury settlement,
then obviously was brought back to the practice squad. Kelly
was elsewhere and is a rookie in the NFL. Out
of Texas Tech. Bolden was with the Vikings during training camp,
very familiar with CJ but less familiar with the Texans.

(01:44:55):
They're fine from a number standpoint, but you specifically added
this particular play with this particular offensive coordinator, run this
particular offense when you're talking about Kirk. I do think
you also did the same thing on the second night
of the draft. There's a reason why Jalen Nole was picked,
and for the fact that Christian Kirk's time here could

(01:45:15):
match the same amount of time that Stefan Diggs was
here for and the next guy in line will be
at the front of the line as early as twenty
twenty six and now is already at the front of
the line today, Knowle's gonna be I think I told
you this during camp because this is where he was
getting a lot of his work because Kirk was healthy.
He was getting a lot of work while Davis Mills

(01:45:36):
was running the unit that he was out there with.
And if that were the case, I would have drafted
Noel first round of my fantasy draft.

Speaker 7 (01:45:43):
Made like a billion catches. He always gets open.

Speaker 8 (01:45:46):
If you guys saw any of the one on one
work that he had with the Texans during camp, just
defensive backsley he was working against the little They didn't
do a whole lot of it when they had the
joint practice that I was there for in Houston. But
he does what slot receivers are supposed to do. He
gets he is shifty, he is quick. He also has
downfield speed. I don't think they're better by not having

(01:46:06):
Kirk out there, and I know it's game number one
for Kirk for NOL. My actual concern is that they're
probably gonna ask Jalen Knowle to play a ton of
reps on offense and be their primary punt returner right
out of the gate, and I don't think a lot
of teams like doing that with anybody that's a primary

(01:46:27):
offensive player to also have them as their primary punt returner.
So I don't know if they'll do it this week,
do it permanently, do it forever, many weeks it takes.

Speaker 7 (01:46:34):
But just something to be concerned about, all right.

Speaker 6 (01:46:37):
The other thing I wanted to get to here, it's
completely unrelated to football.

Speaker 7 (01:46:41):
This is a baseball course situation.

Speaker 6 (01:46:44):
Did you see And look, McTaggart's not a guy that
normally will lash out much.

Speaker 8 (01:46:51):
Just you call him out like he's got his own
movie line after being an SNL Kirk character, McTaggart.

Speaker 7 (01:46:56):
Well, everybody knows what I'm talking about. That's even better.

Speaker 6 (01:47:00):
Yeah, but that's even more inside. Like if somebody's just
turning on the radiot and know if they know who
tags is, yes they should, but they might not.

Speaker 8 (01:47:06):
If it was an SNL character, he'd probably out of
the cast for season fifty one like everybody else. Apparently
it's September fourth, right, twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (01:47:17):
Brian another name that I could use for him, chose
to quote a Mariners fan.

Speaker 7 (01:47:24):
Oof.

Speaker 6 (01:47:25):
Yeah, but did you see the date on when this
Mariners fan wrote this? Explain it to the people, all right,
way back on August twenty first, that's a that's a
while back.

Speaker 7 (01:47:36):
Now, that's a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 8 (01:47:39):
I believe that would be prior to August twenty sixth right, Yeah,
when yord On Alvarez came back.

Speaker 6 (01:47:45):
Yeah, and the Astros had the four game series in Baltimore.
That's some people. You thought he might fly up and
play in one game in I did, and then come
back here. They actually had his debut and they lost
that game that night because rough times were ahead. But
this Mariners fan said the following, unbelievably hilarious to me
that Astros fans delusionally believe Jordon Alvarez is going to

(01:48:10):
fix that offense. It has been shut out four times
in the last six games, to crying laughing emojis. Last
night at eleven thirty five pm excuse me, eleven thirty
six pm, tags Quote tweeted that with the aforementioned oof, now,
there are two parts to this.

Speaker 7 (01:48:29):
What's up with that?

Speaker 6 (01:48:30):
Why is he going back to August twenty first, just
to admittedly clown this idiot Mariners fan? Why is Mariner's
fans of all people doubting what Jordon Alvarez can do
to any Astros offense.

Speaker 7 (01:48:44):
So gave you Jordon's numbers individually earlier.

Speaker 8 (01:48:47):
It's pretty clear he's been on base ton He's played
in eight of these games. The Astros have won five
of those games. During the time since he has returned,
the Astros have also still produced outings of one run,
two runs, one run, no runs, one run. The Astros
offense is by no means even shades of being fixed.

(01:49:11):
It is not fixed. It is not commonly going out
there and producing offense. Two of the last three games
they have eight runs. The game in between they had one.
The three games preceding they had had three total. Last
night was a nice night. Two nights ago against Kakuchi.

Speaker 7 (01:49:26):
That was a nice night. It did not fix the offense.
But he's been unbelievable.

Speaker 8 (01:49:32):
I actually, I think it's it's interesting if you really
look at it that way. When he plays their winning well,
they also were winning a lot when he was out
for one hundred games. Their offense has largely remained unchanged
with his aim return.

Speaker 6 (01:49:47):
If he is doing what he's doing and the same
people are getting on base ahead of him, well he's
gonna probably drive them in.

Speaker 7 (01:49:55):
I hope so so.

Speaker 6 (01:49:57):
I mean, but again, Mariners fans questioning yord On al
As anything just looks silly in light of what he
did to them last time.

Speaker 7 (01:50:03):
Games really meant something.

Speaker 8 (01:50:04):
Maybe they'll say it again when the two teams meet
again before the end of the season, coming up on
September nineteenth for the first of three. Yeah, we'll probably
have to discuss Yourdan's in the lineup tonight. That seems
like a good IDEA good job, Joe, We like you,
Joe Spatta, Manager of.

Speaker 5 (01:50:19):
The Year.

Speaker 1 (01:50:22):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety eighteen.

Speaker 6 (01:50:33):
Rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety Space City
Home Network. Who got Astros Yankees rubber matchup between those
two coming up in a little less than an hour
from now five thirty Astros on Deck gets underway right
here in your home for Astros Baseball Sports Talks seven
ninety and you'll have I think all eyes in that

(01:50:54):
stadium tonight are gonna be even more so on who
I don't know?

Speaker 7 (01:50:58):
Do you know who the home played umpire is tonight already?
I mean I can know, but I don't care.

Speaker 8 (01:51:04):
Well, what if it was a name that was recognizable,
would you care then? No, because he can't do anything
about it. I mean that I expected to be called poorly.
It doesn't it's not going to change anything.

Speaker 6 (01:51:15):
But I think sometimes when you have like what happened
last night, especially when it's the Yankees through complete.

Speaker 8 (01:51:20):
The three game series. You've played two games. Both games
were extremely poorly called from behind home plate.

Speaker 6 (01:51:26):
But that lends itself to the third game being even
more closely scrutinized as it pertains to who's behind home
plate calling balls and strikes.

Speaker 7 (01:51:34):
Tonight, scrutinized by whom, well, hopefully the freaking commissioner. They
will pay any attention to it. Who thinks he should.
It's team playing.

Speaker 8 (01:51:42):
I'm being dead serious and not dismiss of it at all.
They do not pay attention to games like that. They're
not up in the league office saying, man, I know
you guys are paying attention to Boonie got ejected last night.
There are a bunch of calls late in that game,
in a very close game that just it seemed like
our guy or our umpire was missing them. So you
need a lot of phone call down there, make sure
that you know they're really locked in here. And hopefully

(01:52:05):
nothing happens in this third game. They're not paying any
attention to it whatsoever. They probably haven't even looked at
the reports that they get that are so ridiculous from
internal reports we have. I do think we as fans
and viewers, mainly viewers obviously totally seduced by the box,
the box and occasionally with the newer sources for our

(01:52:30):
games on television or streaming, if you've noticed some of
them aren't giving you games with a box, some of
the outlets, And I think if they took it away,
I actually think Major League Baseball will consider asking making teams,
broadcasts and their national broadcast take it away, because it's

(01:52:50):
you won't have broadcasters saying, well, that's not a strike.
They'll they'll think it, and they'll probably be right, but
it won't be so obvious anymore, and and a border
line call will look like that's fifty to fifty calls.

Speaker 7 (01:53:02):
You called it a ball this time, you'll call it
a strike next time.

Speaker 8 (01:53:05):
But it's the way that Major League Baseball grades their
own umpires to begin with. They don't look at the
say the last call of last night, and say that
won't even be graded as a miss because of the
error zone they give to their umpires in their own
grading system. It's much larger than the black of the plate.
If it's close, it's basically you got it right, and

(01:53:26):
it's embarrassing for anybody to be graded like that at
this higher level. So I don't think that they have
paid any attention of note to this game more than
they would any other. And it probably wasn't even the
only game last night where there were issues with the
home plate umpire because it's an every night thing. There's
fewer games tonight, so maybe they're they're watching a little
more closely.

Speaker 6 (01:53:46):
While I believe that if if they were thinking the
way you're thinking, that's what they would do. Let's take
away any graphics so as to disguise the ineptitude of
these people. That is the most that would be the
most Major League base Ball response to something like this. Again,
ignore the technology we have to fix this where you
don't even need a human.

Speaker 7 (01:54:06):
You could save money. You don't have to pay these guys.
The Union be damned.

Speaker 6 (01:54:10):
You don't have to pay guys to be behind the
plate because you have a full proof universal system.

Speaker 7 (01:54:17):
But now let's not do that.

Speaker 8 (01:54:18):
Do you do you have an idea of how to
actually truly eliminate them, because they thought with the automatic
ball strikes, if it's full on, not just a challenge system,
but full they would still have an umpire back there
communicating the call.

Speaker 7 (01:54:31):
Do you hit to hit reset when it crashes, just
to be there.

Speaker 8 (01:54:35):
There are calls at home plate, there's other parts of
the game that you would still need a home plate
umpire for, but you want to totally eliminate them completely.
We think about, so I want to know what's going
to happen when Fromber throws a pitch to Sasar Salazar
that's over the plate that he catches, Then what happens, like,
how does he know it's a striker a ball? Just
as a sign flash behind home plate? Does he turn
around to the big scoreboard. Are they installing some sort

(01:54:57):
of visual monitor behind home play and everywhere else so
everybody knows what the call is.

Speaker 7 (01:55:02):
Probably that would be the easiest way.

Speaker 8 (01:55:04):
Whether they just leave a person back there and he
just tells you what it is, or they do that.

Speaker 7 (01:55:08):
That's what they're gonna do. That's fine, you pay that guy,
not a nominating They can bring in just some person.

Speaker 6 (01:55:14):
You know what's funny about what you're saying, Like they
have all of these scenarios, not just balls and strikes. Like,
think how many times, okay, is he safe? There was
a big bang bang play at the plate, or there
was a bang bang play at first base, And we
have fifty freaking angles of this that presumably every guy
on the field that's you know, tasked with calling these games,

(01:55:36):
they all saw these. I know it's New York that
makes the decision, but you know, they they're closer than
anybody watching, including on TV. Yet we have a better
look at it because of all these camera angles.

Speaker 8 (01:55:49):
Use that I think in those situations they have, and
I wish they would use it even more, even at
the expense of time. But it's at least to me,
it's still different. Like did his foot hit the bag
before the ball hit the glove? We have video evidence
of did it or not? Did he get the tag
down before he slid into second base? Did he hold
the tag on when he came off? We have visual evidence.
Maybe we don't have the right angle to firmly say

(01:56:11):
whether the calls would be overturned or that I get.
But compared to balls and strikes, you're talking about a
ball in mid air, When did it cross the plate?
Where did it cross the plate? It's not nearly as
cut and dry of what the other calls would be
made with video replay.

Speaker 6 (01:56:24):
You know, with Devin Williams's comments, specifically last night in
the clubhouse talking about what he said to the umpire
to get his first career ejection, I wonder.

Speaker 7 (01:56:35):
And he really put the team in the lurch being
ejected after he was taken out.

Speaker 6 (01:56:38):
Yeah, but you know, it's funny like if any reporter
in there was worth their salt on this issue instead
of trying to puff up the narrative or make the
Yankees look better because of course it was the S Network,
but you know they would have followed up by saying, hey,
so are you one of these sixty percent of the
players that wants the human element to stay in this game?

Speaker 7 (01:56:58):
Because that's what you got tonight.

Speaker 8 (01:57:00):
Today, Maybe is a better day to go about that,
not saying you can't ask that in the heat of
the moment where you might get a real answer, even
if it's emotional.

Speaker 7 (01:57:08):
Me.

Speaker 8 (01:57:08):
I just well, you're you're bringing up a very very
good point and you get so mad at it every
time we.

Speaker 7 (01:57:16):
Talk about it. How come.

Speaker 8 (01:57:18):
You know we can get the calls right player batters,
and you're saying you don't want that.

Speaker 7 (01:57:23):
How can you vote that way? How can you think
that way?

Speaker 8 (01:57:26):
Explain it to us and in the way that they do,
or like that still doesn't make sense. You you're saying
you're okay with standing in the batter's box facing an
O two pitch and the umpire missing the call and
you walking back.

Speaker 7 (01:57:39):
To the dugout.

Speaker 8 (01:57:40):
You're getting paid to hit to succeed, and you're not
getting paid to stand there and make Let the guy
at home plate take that away from arguing you're getting
tossed and find all this stuff. You did your job.
You did see the pitch in the right place. It
was not a pitch to swing at. You weren't going
to do anything with it. It's not a strike.

Speaker 7 (01:57:58):
But you're oak.

Speaker 6 (01:57:59):
I mean, I had yet to hear an explanation for
what you're saying. That's fine if you want to say that.
What's your reasoning you like not having.

Speaker 8 (01:58:08):
Because we're taking it to one enormous extreme because even
in last night's game with Brian Walsh, there are two
hundred plus pitches he probably missed twenty five of them,
which is absurdly high.

Speaker 6 (01:58:20):
But there are any pictures of him wearing Rangers gear,
like wearing Year Yeah, that's my favorite argument. Yeah, but
he got all these other ones right, Okay, So are
we gonna great surgeons on this?

Speaker 7 (01:58:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:58:31):
But these patients didn't die when I operated on them.
Sports and death, Why it is life and death for
some people die hard. Hello, when you come out to
talk to the people waiting to see how the surgery
turned out, it's okay. If you say he's gonna be
all right, pilot, he's going to.

Speaker 7 (01:58:45):
Be all right.

Speaker 6 (01:58:46):
My airplane pilot made eighty percent of his flights where
he landed successfully.

Speaker 8 (01:58:50):
Such a beautiful girl and without a boyfriend. He just
went under surgery with you, I know.

Speaker 7 (01:58:56):
Not very cool.

Speaker 6 (01:58:57):
He's graded on MLB standards. Block our half of it anyway,
is next the A.

Speaker 2 (01:59:04):
Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:59:09):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 10 (01:59:19):
Five o'clock here on the A Team.

Speaker 8 (01:59:21):
Tease, you'd get maybe a half hour with us here
on the A Team. We will also give you a
half hour the Astros on Deck show that begins at
five point thirty. So we'll jump in on Astros discussion
some updates on some of their situations when we get there,
but an update on the Texans current situation is one
more day on the field, albeit a walk through, before
they get on a plane Saturday and fly out to

(01:59:43):
take on the Los Angeles Rams, one of a handful
of late afternoons starts a couple of three twenty five
kickoffs featuring some of the best games of the weekend.
My opinion, Lions and Packers, Texans and Rams made our
AFC South Tour. I want to talk a little bit
about those teams and how their seasons might begin, but

(02:00:06):
also wanted to let you know that the Texans probably
have some questions to answer on the field Sunday at
wide Receiver reports that Christian kirk hamstring injury is significant
enough to keep him off the field this week and
likely in week two as well, even though he'll have
an extra day of rest. They'll play on Monday night
against the Bucks and then we'll see from there. So

(02:00:27):
not severe, but enough to again have him missing games
before he's even played in games. And additionally, Braxton Barrios
is two days into his Texans career and he has
not yet practiced also with a hamstring injury, although believed
to be less serious. Neither one has officially been ruled
out by the team, but the team has not even
issued their Thursday injury report was over at the brief

(02:00:48):
portion of practice we're able to view, not many others
were interesting, and that it's the first week of the season.

Speaker 7 (02:00:54):
I know there's other things going on.

Speaker 8 (02:00:56):
The BYEU Bucket luncheon took place as you have h
and Rice get together this week, but saw Cam Robinson
return to practice second day of practice for Blake Fisher
limited yesterday, but returning from his ankle injury. One of
the two of them is probably active on Sunday and
the other one likely will not be. With each of
the other rostered linemen probably up. Maybe they keep nine.

(02:01:17):
If that were the case, all of them would be.
Otherwise normally eight is a figure I would expect Demiko
Ryans to take into the game if those eight are
all one hundred percent, and I think they all would be.
Cam Robinson was out of practice due to illness, not
because he has some other issue health wise, so clearly
that wouldn't be a huge factor on that front, and CJ.
Gardner Johnson for all I can see and all that

(02:01:39):
they've said and all that he said yesterday, not just
trending to play. He's not listed on the injury report,
he's not limited at practice. He's going to play in
week one. He's going to start in week one. If
there is some sort of limitation or how often they
want him on the field, I guess that remains to
be seen.

Speaker 7 (02:01:55):
MJ.

Speaker 8 (02:01:55):
Stewart would likely take reps in his spot if that
were the case. But tremendously good news on CJ. Gardner
Johnson and that he should be available and should be
out there. So we're talking AFC South today with Nick
sus of the Tennesseean, and didn't get into one thing
I thought was relatively important, even though they're a bad

(02:02:16):
team and it's just one.

Speaker 7 (02:02:17):
Part of it.

Speaker 8 (02:02:18):
I thought they had an extremely undesirable schedule. And I
say that because they open the season on the road
at the Broncos, a playoff team, I think they're gonna
get absolutely destroyed. That matchup for cam Ward is a
little bit like what we're talking about with CJ. Stroud,
going into differences. CJ's already played thirty plus NFL games,

(02:02:41):
cam Ward's played none. Their reward in their home opener
is that Rams team back to back weeks for cam
Ward maybe the most undesirable edge group or front seven's
front four, whatever to face in the entire league, and
that's what they get in the first two weeks. If
they fix their offensive line, maybe it won't be so bad.

(02:03:01):
But I really was mentioning they have three straight road
games after those two home games. For their first six
games are on the road. They're not gonna win many
games out of the gate.

Speaker 7 (02:03:11):
Now.

Speaker 8 (02:03:12):
They don't leave Nashville for five weeks. They play a
road game on the twenty sixth of October. Their next
road game is on the seventh of December. I know
they have an off week in there, but I don't
remember seeing any team home for five consecutive weeks during
any NFL season, no matter what off weeks were a

(02:03:32):
part of that era of NFL scheduling, just not the
way I would think any team would want it. And
for a team like Theirs one in five to start
oeren six to start with the Texans and Colts being
among those teams that beat them, very realistic and sad.
But I don't feel bad for him. No, I don't either.
This opening week for them has the Broncos. The rest

(02:03:54):
of the division opens up, obviously, the Texans and the Rams.
The Jaguars open up their season at home with Bryce
Young's Panthers coming to town. The Daniel Jones led Colts
open with the Miami Dolphins. The Colts are favored, and
they're opener at home against the Dolphins.

Speaker 7 (02:04:15):
Man, they must really think that Tyreek Hill is awful?

Speaker 8 (02:04:18):
Now, well, I mean, clearly that's a reflection also, I
know you're joking, but the reflection of what the quarterback
play is. If two is a great quarterback, they're a
fair favorite in that game.

Speaker 7 (02:04:29):
End of story.

Speaker 6 (02:04:30):
That is that. That's But go back to the Jags.
They're at home.

Speaker 7 (02:04:36):
Home, three and a half point favorites over the Panthers.
That's that's normal.

Speaker 6 (02:04:39):
I keep hearing is improvement from Bryce Young. Improvement from
Bryce Young this offseason.

Speaker 7 (02:04:44):
Yeah, so it's basically a pick them on the road.
What It's fine the Panthers going there and upset the Jags.

Speaker 8 (02:04:50):
It would be an upset because I just told you
that the line I will be picking them if we
make picks on every game, Like I think the Panthers
are going to go in and win that game. I
think it's going to be I think the Jaguars did
a lot of things right this offseason, but until I
see Liam Cohen and Trevor Lawrence succeeding together, I won't
believe it. They have to show it to me. I love, love,

(02:05:11):
love Brian Thomas. I don't know what to make of
their backfield. I think they have two oka running backs,
but they don't have the running back. I don't know
if that will work well for them or be the
opposite for them. Don't like their offensive line again. And
while I love their edge rushers and I actually think
their front seven is really good, hate their back end,
and I think those are some of the things that

(02:05:32):
could derail them. Because right after that they got to
stop Joe Burrow. Then their first game against the Texans,
they got the Chiefs in the.

Speaker 7 (02:05:39):
Next two weeks.

Speaker 8 (02:05:40):
There are a lot of we got off to a
poor start again this season for the Jaguars, which they've
done before.

Speaker 7 (02:05:47):
I don't know that they recover from it.

Speaker 6 (02:05:48):
And if they don't recover from it this time around,
who's the next scapegoat?

Speaker 5 (02:05:53):
Is it?

Speaker 7 (02:05:53):
Trevor Lawrence? Well, how do you get rid of them.

Speaker 8 (02:05:56):
They don't have any more scapegoats because both their GM
and head coach are and year number one, They're going
to be there at least Gladstone's going to be there
at absolute minimum of three years. It's possible your head
coach's asked to leave after one or two, because we've
seen that happen, but I don't think it will. I
have nothing negative to say about their choices. I think
both of those choices were right. I also don't frown

(02:06:17):
on the choice of drafting Travis Hunter, which Gladstone obviously
pulled the trigger on. I just think their overall talent
is okay, and their quarterback play isn't. Like let's say
we put Aaron Rodgers that's the eighth best quarterback of
the eighth best team in the AFC, and we were
talking about Tua's Dolphins being the eighth best or now
ninth best if we're including them both. I mean, we're

(02:06:39):
about to push outside of the top ten of the
AFC three teams out of the playoffs, and we still
haven't mentioned Jacksonville at all.

Speaker 7 (02:06:47):
At what point do you think you should be better
than this?

Speaker 8 (02:06:50):
And I know you realize you're not better than this,
so you fired everybody, but you've already done that while
Trevor Lawrence was the quarterback. You did that after you
hired Urban mind, and now you're doing it again while
Trevor Lawrence is your quarterback.

Speaker 6 (02:07:03):
I brought up the whole Sam Donald situation earlier because
he flourished when he got to Minnesota, and admittedly they
had a good, a great roster around him, and we'll
see if he can he can continue that trend here
in Seattle. But like, if if he was that good,

(02:07:24):
was it just an organizational thing?

Speaker 7 (02:07:26):
In New York?

Speaker 6 (02:07:27):
In other words, is Trevor Lawrence gonna end up going
somewhere else and it's gonna make Jacksonville look even worse
than they already do that they couldn't win with him.

Speaker 8 (02:07:35):
Nothing I've seen from him suggests that is going to happen,
my opinion.

Speaker 6 (02:07:39):
So then why did we have And this kind of
goes back to the Arch conversation all last week? What
was a word that kept getting used about Trevor Lawrence?
He's generational, he's once in a generation talent.

Speaker 8 (02:07:51):
I don't think people know the meaning of that word.
I don't either really don't, or at least they're just
over using it, like I love you? Well, what do
you mean we talk about?

Speaker 7 (02:07:58):
Jen? Whatever? What am I again?

Speaker 1 (02:07:59):
Jen?

Speaker 8 (02:07:59):
What I think your your X?

Speaker 7 (02:08:03):
What do you call?

Speaker 10 (02:08:04):
I'm millennial?

Speaker 7 (02:08:05):
Okay? So generally I've been told you're roughly.

Speaker 8 (02:08:08):
A couple of decades away from us, so a different generations.

Speaker 10 (02:08:12):
There's a generation gap between you and.

Speaker 7 (02:08:13):
I, right, and it's roughly how many years?

Speaker 10 (02:08:16):
Almost two decades?

Speaker 8 (02:08:17):
Okay, So a generational talent is the only one of
its kind over a twenty year period.

Speaker 7 (02:08:22):
Yes, that's a generational talent, right? They does that to
be the only one?

Speaker 6 (02:08:28):
How can you have two? Because you just did for
twenty years with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

Speaker 8 (02:08:33):
Well, then maybe you shouldn't use that term, just like
we call fifty thousand people the goat. It's so ridiculous,
But you give me the greatest of all time. If
there's ten of you. Generational doesn't have to mean only one.

Speaker 5 (02:08:44):
Well, it does mean one. It means one generational talent.

Speaker 7 (02:08:47):
That means this talent was at this level during this generation.

Speaker 10 (02:08:50):
Of course, Ryan Clark has no idea.

Speaker 7 (02:08:51):
What that is an interesting way to put it.

Speaker 8 (02:08:53):
I actually think there's some merit to the numeric discussion
we're currently having, you had to say he's the one.
If you have to say he's the one, then maybe
you can interpret the term as having more than the
generational talents at the same position.

Speaker 6 (02:09:07):
Saying, well, Tom Brady was the real generational talent, because
if he hadn't been there, then Peyton would have won
all sorts more Super Bowls, But Peyton Manning was statistically
more gaudy at times a lot of times, but Tom
had more jewelry.

Speaker 5 (02:09:23):
The way I would view it is from a player standpoint,
Peyton Manning his athletic traits, his skills generational. The accolades
go to Tom Brady, which is also generational in a different.

Speaker 7 (02:09:34):
Light, so they're both generational.

Speaker 8 (02:09:36):
Like I said, I mean, I know we have another
segment to go and you might want us to discuss it,
and I think you're gonna have to find us at
a local watering hole to finish that one up.

Speaker 1 (02:09:48):
The a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (02:10:00):
Get to the Astros on Deck show in about fifteen minutes.
Texans were nice enough in the last few minutes to
send out the Thursday injury situation.

Speaker 7 (02:10:10):
Told you who was and wasn't there, already since I
was there.

Speaker 8 (02:10:14):
Braxton Burials, Christian Kirk and the hamstring injuries that kept
him off the practice field yesterday did the same again today,
and it has been has been reported that Christian Kirk
will not be available this weekend, possibly not the following weekend,
and a little bit less certainty about the length of
time off the field it will be for Braxton burrios
Ed Ingram was actually added to the injury list. He

(02:10:34):
was out there working with the offensive line for the
entire portion of practice I was able to see, but
an abdomen injury had him listed as limited. Blake Fisher
continues to be limited coming back from his ankle injury,
and you know, Cam Robinson full participant after his return
from illness.

Speaker 7 (02:10:53):
You know, the.

Speaker 8 (02:10:53):
Texans have more than their fair share of offensive linemen
available to them. They did keep nine on the active
ross mentioned two of the reserves and Robinson and Fisher
the expected starters, Howard Ingram, Andrews, Tomlinson and Ersery Ingram
with the abdomen issue, Juice Scruggs and Jarrett Patterson, a
pair of interior alignment who likely would not ever play

(02:11:14):
outside at tackle, are the other two on the active roster.
Trent Brown was on the practice field again today. They
added an interior offensive lineman, City So to their practice
squad and Eli Cox, who was in camp with the Texans,
essentially a third option or maybe fourth option at center.
Those twelve players would be among they have to choose,

(02:11:35):
those they have to choose from for Sunday's first game
of the season. Hopefully just the active roster will be needed.
I would expect that that will be the case, and
one of them just simply will be down for this
upcoming game. Got a few more minutes and it does
probably deserve our time. Generational talent. Let's talk at NFL only,

(02:11:56):
so keep it there and try to see if we
can walk down that Passatzky So generational talent. You know,
maybe there's ten or twenty of them in the NFL
at any given time, but they're at different places. Derek
Stingley Junior has ten more seasons like he's had. I mean,
is that what it takes for him to be called
a generational talent? Is it even possible to call a
corner a generational talent? Is some one wide receiver so

(02:12:20):
much more talented than anybody else playing currently? In his
generation that you would call them a generational talent? Or
is the term loose enough that justin Jefferson he's a
generational talent. Jamar Chase is a generational talent. I mean,
how far down the line do you go? And does
it not include players that are just simply super productive? Yeah,

(02:12:41):
but he just does this. I'm saying that thinking of
the guy like Amon ross A Brown. Is anybody looking
at him and calling him a generational talent?

Speaker 7 (02:12:48):
Probably not?

Speaker 8 (02:12:49):
Is he out there producing like anybody else in the
NFL at the very highest level? Absolutely he is. Is
Pukinakua a generational talent? I mean absolutely not? Right, nobody
wanted to draft him anywhere near the top of the draft.
Is DeVante not a quarterbacks?

Speaker 6 (02:13:03):
If you want to do the strictest of the strict
in terms of definition, you need to look at like,
you know what the perfect example would be. And this
guy didn't necessarily win at the highest level a lot,
but he absolutely fits the bill for the for the
definition of generational Nolan Ryan, nobody comes close to the

(02:13:25):
amount of strikeouts that guy, Like the next guy in
line has a three in front of his strikeout total,
and Nolan has five four. Oh that's right, I forgot
about Sorry, big unit, don't come kill me like that.

Speaker 7 (02:13:36):
He's almost a thousand strikeouts behind him. Yeah, but it's
like he's the closest guy.

Speaker 8 (02:13:41):
Okay, there's a little bit of a caveat in my
opinion to even that statement. Awesome, I don't care how
the guy gets them out. Does he get them out
so he could throw a bunch of strikeouts so he
could throw super hargh? Well he did, But what you're
saying is, yeah, his talent for pitching the baseball.

Speaker 6 (02:13:59):
Is on, but he also did it while going twelve
innings and that six he was as a If he
pitched for.

Speaker 8 (02:14:07):
The Mets and the Angels and that was it, he
would have been a generational talent. He had an unmatchable
career because he continued to do it at age thirty
eight and forty three and forty seven, and did it
for longer than any but he was still doing it,
Like I didn't crush Ben Verlander the other day, but
you've opened the door for me to do that now.

Speaker 7 (02:14:28):
Sorry, Ben, So the other day.

Speaker 8 (02:14:30):
Ben's brother, Kate's husband, Viv's dad, Bibb's dad, Bennett's dad, right.

Speaker 7 (02:14:39):
I don't know who the second ones are. I think
Dennis Dad.

Speaker 8 (02:14:45):
He had twelve strikeouts at age forty two in a game,
and Ben couldn't stop gushing about it. Nobody's done Nobody
could no, he's done this since Randy Johnson in nineteen
ninety six and Nolan Ryan, who did it twenty five times. Naturally,
this is a task for the Wexley research team. They
got to work on this and they looked at those outings.

(02:15:05):
He referenced. I went to the last two times that
Nolan Ryan did it, and he was in his mid
forties when he did it. Was the second to last season.
He actually did it twice. He went seven and two
thirds in one of those games, gave up a run.
He went nine innings in the other game and gave
up no runs. And he threw over one hundred and
twenty pitches or more twelve strikeouts or more at that age,

(02:15:25):
and Randy Johnson also did that.

Speaker 7 (02:15:27):
He also pitched into the eighth.

Speaker 8 (02:15:29):
Inning and gave up one run in that game, a
game his team obviously really enjoyed that pitching performance. Now
the Giants won the game. That justin pitch that fits this.
He got fifteen outs. Took him one hundred and twenty
pitches to get fifteen outs. He left after five innings
because his pitch count was at one twenty. Now, it's

(02:15:49):
great that you can still strike guys out every once
in a while, because he is not having a good
season when it comes to strikeouts this year.

Speaker 7 (02:15:55):
But it's just so.

Speaker 8 (02:15:58):
I mean, I can appreciate the appreciation and love he
has for him.

Speaker 7 (02:16:02):
Yeah, but it's out of control. He's not having a
good season.

Speaker 8 (02:16:07):
He has pitched a lot better over the last six weeks,
like deserving of a spot in the rotation, deserving of
another year's worth of contract.

Speaker 7 (02:16:17):
But come on, man, yeah, I mean, he does have
a bias.

Speaker 8 (02:16:21):
It's okay to have it, but you're just spinning yarns
that are comical. Sometimes am standing behind it like you're serious.

Speaker 6 (02:16:29):
I am, even even me, I'm a little alarmed at
how quickly it went for him, Like he was having
issues here in Houston, and then it's like San Francisco.

Speaker 7 (02:16:41):
It looks like he should have retired.

Speaker 8 (02:16:43):
Well, I said that earlier this year, we were talking
about it. I want to acknowledge how much more successful
he's pitched. But even you know, two games before that,
he gave up six runs in four and a third.
Two games before that, he gave five runs. He gave
up eleven hits. I don't believe Ben posted anything on
the X platform about it. Eleven hit performance. You might
have I might have missed it. But generational talent, if

(02:17:05):
you can separate the results, maybe or strictly to that,
Like a generational talent usually comes before you've reached the league,
because whatever you do in the league is is never
gonna match that anyway. There's nothing you can do. You're
trying to win now. Like a quarterback without generational talent
wins the super Bowl all the time, a pitcher without

(02:17:25):
generational talent will win the Cy young will be the
ace of the staff. Now, a pitcher with generational talent
at age fifteen, eighteen, nineteen twenty, they're like, oh my god,
we've never seen anything like this. Like think about Bryce
Harper's arrival to the majors. That was generational talent talk
justin as a pitcher before he got here, Like what

(02:17:46):
is it that you The skills that you possess are
one thing, and as a pitcher, it has to translate
into did I give up no runs, did I give
my did I win the game for my team?

Speaker 5 (02:17:58):
Not?

Speaker 8 (02:17:59):
Did I strike out ten guys in five innings and
asked the bullpen to get the final twelve outs?

Speaker 7 (02:18:02):
I think? But he is a generational talent. The talent
in his arm is exceptional.

Speaker 6 (02:18:08):
And especially when you're talking about long in the tooth
guys like the Nolan, Ryans, like the Okay for example,
Lebron James generational talent, no question, exceeded the insane amount
of hype coming out of high school. But now he's
just like patting stats.

Speaker 8 (02:18:27):
Well, I think that's a little much considering he's putting
up some of them still some of the better numbers
in the league across the board.

Speaker 7 (02:18:32):
But nobody thinks the Lakers are gonna win the title
this year.

Speaker 6 (02:18:34):
That's totally different, except for La Hanks, who think Lucas
like Skinny now, so it's gonna happen.

Speaker 8 (02:18:39):
There's fifteen superstars in the league, and thirteen or fourteen
of them are gonna win the title.

Speaker 7 (02:18:44):
He's one of them.

Speaker 6 (02:18:45):
But like Nolan, and it's because the games are different
and in a weird way, Like you know, we always
talk about this NBA stars affect the game so much
more directly, sure, but like Nolan was still like throwing
no hitters. And I mean, I'm not saying the Rangers
were like title contenders, so I guess that's kind of
going against my own argument. But that doesn't feel like
he was patting his stats. It was like he gave

(02:19:06):
his team a chance to win every day.

Speaker 8 (02:19:07):
He's still pitched at a very very high level, way
deeper in his career than anybody off. Literally, that's absolutely
the case. He's had some seasons that are never gonna
be touched. He had a career that's never gonna be touched.
The whole genesis of this conversation was simply about quarterbacks.
And I know here, as we close up shop for today,
we can absolutely pick it up tomorrow and every day
the rest of his career. It's why this particular player

(02:19:31):
is always highly regarded, regardless of the fact that he
spent five years in the NFL and has not accomplished
anything that anyone would ever want on their resume. It's
justin Herbert he is viewed as a how am I
gonna build a quarterback from scratch?

Speaker 7 (02:19:46):
I'm going to the lab.

Speaker 8 (02:19:47):
I've already built the six million dollar man forty years ago.
Now I'm gonna beat build a quarterback. He's gonna be
this tall, he's gonna have a rocket arm, he's gonna
have mobility, he's gonna have durability.

Speaker 7 (02:19:58):
Here he is, he's justin Herbert and six years in
he's yet to plin a single playoff game.

Speaker 8 (02:20:02):
And you know, honestly, I think the generation that includes Breeze,
Manning Brady, and for the most part, Aaron Rodgers, I
think the most talented thrower of the football is the
least accomplished of the four.

Speaker 7 (02:20:16):
And it's Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (02:20:21):
He's a tough one because and having worked with a
very very close and die hard Green Bay Packers fan,
it was the that was the bane of his existence.
Every year that this head coach or this defense or
this offensive whatever it was, was getting in the way
of Aaron accomplishing more than he did there and it

(02:20:45):
felt like that was the reason, unlike Brett Farv he
didn't throw a bunch of soul crushing picks in the playoffs.

Speaker 7 (02:20:50):
It was like, oh, he doesn't have a team around him.

Speaker 8 (02:20:52):
And to maybe amend or correct the statement like hasn't
accomplished as much. It's a tough call to even say
that clearly one less than the others. Although he won
a Super Bowl, and you only have one super Bowl
for Breeze, but like put Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 7 (02:21:07):
On one, it's four MVPs.

Speaker 8 (02:21:09):
Yeah, the individual ability to throw the football was at
an unbelievably elite level. I said it many times during
the heyday of his career. I think he's the best
to throw the football in the NFL, and it's one
reason why he wins MVPs. But it did not translate
to the amount of success you think it would have
in the postseason and with the team they had. That's
just the way it goes. Generational talent probably is a
fun conversation. Astros on deck even better, that's next

Speaker 2 (02:21:35):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety