August 14, 2025 • 9 mins
KPRC 2 Sports and SportsTalk790's Aaron Wilson joins Wex and AC to talk about the Texans' joint practice, thoughts on the C.J. Gardner-Johnson injury and more!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
It is the eighteen It's Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network. WEX and AC with you on a
Thursday afternoon time to catch up with our good friend
Aaron Wilson. Since the last time we talked to you erin,
there's been a bit of a kerfuffle on the social
media streets. How are you hanging in there after the
whole injury that wasn't situation.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh I'm doing great, absolutely doing awesome. Yeah, all good.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
No, that kind of stuff happened, and I kept telling
people like what that's like, what the first time that
that's ever happened to Aaron Wilson, Like, come on, relax,
this is not that type.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Of situation and won't happen again. But I would just
say that I didn't make that up. It came from
a person in position to know, and I'll open I'll
be a little bit transparent about it. So if you
notice on ESPN, Adam Schefter was saying that he had
a torn achilles potential and that was up for nine hours,
(01:03):
and so I asked about it with someone directly in
a position to know, and they said that is incorrect,
and I said, yeah, I know. He I saw him
grab his knee and then the person answered affirmatively when
I said did he carry at a cl and they
said yes, And there was gonna be more conversations with
Texans management, and then from there they was going to
(01:23):
the news was about to pop, and so the person
was somewhat reluctant, but they were definitely in direct position
to know, and when I answered the question, they answered yes.
And I waited about forty five minutes, talked to you know,
some other people didn't have anything. They didn't have a
yes or no, and then ultimately, you know, I went
(01:45):
with it and then turned out to the guy. I
guess he was distracted or something or we didn't have
a good communication. But it was interesting because then so
I lifted up because I you know, I was gonna
I'm going to own it and be like, oh, I
didn't report that. I left it up someone else named
Jordan Schultz. He repeated what I said, then deleted. I
(02:10):
was contacted by another person in position to know and said, no,
we think that you know, it'll be okay. So then
I updated my story. I updated for the news, and
I moved on. But yeah, it's I mean for the foot,
don't dunk on you. That's fine, they can do that.
That's you know, I really understand, like what goes into
reporting an injury, and of course you know they're not
(02:33):
really wanting you to know, that's just the reality of it.
But yeah, that's just about as transfer as I can
be about how that goes. So I was fine. I
just moved on to the next thing. And I think
late in that evening I had an exclusive about Jimmy
Ward's arrest and why that happened. And then at the
Vikings game, you know who's that CJ's not playing, And
there wasn't just a handful of starters, it was most
(02:55):
of the starters. But yeah, I mean that's okay. Now
these things happened. I you know, I promiself being accurate
and first, but I had many people, of course say
something or another, and I have sick skins. It's okay.
I like my track record. I feel good about the
journalist I'm doing. And you know, if you make a
mistake this CD is be accountable and update which you're
(03:17):
you know reporting.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Now, one thing I didn't have a chance to mention
over the first hour and a half of the show today,
and you obviously were there as well.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
CJ.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Gardner Johnson was there at practice today. Obviously he was
not participating anybody's walking around without any noticeable assistants and
making his way through there. And obviously the team has
already said that they plan on having him back this
season and haven't given any definitive word on that you
mentioned Jimmy Ward. We know about Jalen Reid also to
a certain extent, and they've brought in Jalen Mills. From
(03:46):
a health standpoint, this team's in fairly decent shape. Do
you think there are still more additions they need to
make though, in light of whether it's offensive line with
Robinson being down and not having any certainty at tackle
per se, or at the safety position beyond Mills where
they might still be looking to make additions.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I think that they will explore it. I don't know
if there's anything out there that's going to be that
great that we'll play for a price, Like you know,
what's the budget, say for someone like Simmons, would he
play for a very low number or is it not
worth it to him because he made so much money
that he's not going to play for the minimum or
a couple of million bucks And that's the question. So
(04:25):
like someone like John Mills, you know they're going to
be on a very small contract and right now, yeah,
I mean, can you line up with either Jalen Petrie,
which Matt Burke brought up unprompted by the way yesterday
having Peatree possibly line up there, or you go with
m J. Stewart in a combination of sort of. It
seems like Jalen Mills is hard to beat Proul Grush
(04:45):
east in or the reps we're seeing it practice. So
can you get by with one range eastenterfielder. It's got
five interceptions last year, Kaylen Bullock and the other guy
become more of a stay home, make tackles, cover guys
to make a few plays. Yeah, I think so. I
mean it's a really good defense. And then you have
to be very patient on TJ. Gardner Johnson and they
(05:08):
haven't ruled him out for the first game. The way
he was moving today, it looked like in a couple
of weeks he'll be doing anything. I'm told no surgery.
That's good news that they don't think they need to
scope it. The type of nager he has no going
to be definitive here, but Generally it's something that's treated
with rest or rehab or a PRP shot. Generally you
(05:28):
don't have surgery's extreme part type of surgery's extreme type
of injury. Jalen Reid has a mob niche brain that's
awesome not being treated surgically. And Jim Robinson, I think
he'll be back for the first game. I think he's
gonna be ready. But there's some question now, is is
he part of the best spots? You know, Should they
(05:50):
have aryontaiy Stream, Titus Howard and tight House really good
to me at right tackle? Or sure he has his
moments that left. I just don't know if there's anyone
out there on the street. And they got Connor McDermott.
Eventually you have Trent Brown as a swing. No one's
thought that Blake Fisher has played well. It's kind of
obvious that he hasn't played well, and he's it's not
just fall stars. He's beating a lot. I just wonder
(06:12):
what else is out there? Is there someone better? Yeah,
maybe there is the look around.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
We're talking to Aaron Wilson here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and that's that's kind of the next question I
wanted to ask you, you know, if you're if you're
looking at CJ. Stroud in year three, how much of
it is going to be, you know, what percentage of
it is going to be whether or not the best
five are out there and can do the job, and
how much of it's going to be on CJ himself?
Because I thought it was fascinating. I don't want to
(06:39):
call it necessarily a backlash, but he has certainly taken
a back seat to some of the other elite quarterbacks
in the NFL as far as what the national talking
heads are doing with their hierarchy of ranking quarterbacks. We've
talked about lists all season long. So how much of
it is the line, how much of it is CJ himself?
And what do you think year three for CJ is
going to look like? Ultimately?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I think he's on these quarterbacks that like many of them,
even the great ones. I used to cover lots of
Tom Brady games against the Ravens. Tom Brady would look
very ordinary. If he's getting hit in the back or
in the head sometimes by Terrell Suggs and ray Lewis
and company, and some pressure, you know, they say it's
a it can you know, make a diamond or it
(07:22):
can crumble you. Like the last year he kind of
crumbled a little bit. It wasn't really a good representation
of him at times because he's on his back or
he's being hit, or he's expecting to be hit. And
I think, you know, he couldn't work magic with that line.
That line was a mess. It was a disaster. And
I think he if you had to say, did he
passed or fail, he passed considering the circumstances he was
(07:45):
dealing with. You had offensive line coaches that didn't even
get along and don't agree with each other, and you
had an issue that was the culture thing. The players.
They were hanging out, going to steak dinners and eating
wings together, playing Papa Shot. They liked each each other.
They like Laramie. That was the bigger issue was picking someone,
one person to be the leader of the line. Like
(08:06):
they talk about the one voice, and they got it
with Popovitch. And I'm watching them pretty closely. They keep
praising Popovich. These guys. They seem like the buy ins
high with them. You know, I watched him. He's very
hands on with him, He's tough on them. Last year,
they never took guys out if they had a false start.
Now you're on the bench, they take you out and
there is accountability that I didn't see before. Does it
(08:27):
mean they're gonna play grade? Not necessarily, but I do
think like they'll at least be like a cohesive, well
coached group. And some of the guys, like last year,
like Jack Mason was so washed and they were putting
him out there every week and he was getting beat.
He came up over ten sacks of the guard. I
think they have a chance to be solid. If they're solid,
then CJ. Yes, I think the year three for him,
(08:50):
they'll be fine. I think he wouldn't necessarily go back
to rookie year numbers. There's a little bit of a
book on him, but certainly better than last year. I
would be surprised if he does. I have a better
touchdown to interception ratio, higher completion percentage, and lower sacks.
I haven't done any projections. I mean, we could. I
guess guys would gonna be Maybe it's a little bit
of fun. You know how many touchdowns we CJ throw
(09:12):
out of yards? How many games so they win, all
that kind of stuff. But I just I see him
as a better quarterback, and I think last year there
were times where he got down. His body language. He
admitted it, his body ingles wasn't good. It looked like
he was almost like depressed about it. He was sad,
and I don't blame him. You know, eight sacks and
fourteen hits. How's he supposed to play quarterback? He wasn't.
(09:34):
You're on the ground that much.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And it certainly played out that way. Aaron certainly appreciates
your time. Always enjoy having you on here, seeing your
stuff far at Sports Talk seven ninety. Obviously all your
great workover at KPRC too. Appreciate the time. This afternoon,
the a on Sports Talk seven ninety
It is the eighteen It's Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network. WEX and AC with you on a
Thursday afternoon time to catch up with our good friend
Aaron Wilson. Since the last time we talked to you erin,
there's been a bit of a kerfuffle on the social
media streets. How are you hanging in there after the
whole injury that wasn't situation.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh I'm doing great, absolutely doing awesome. Yeah, all good.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
No, that kind of stuff happened, and I kept telling
people like what that's like, what the first time that
that's ever happened to Aaron Wilson, Like, come on, relax,
this is not that type.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Of situation and won't happen again. But I would just
say that I didn't make that up. It came from
a person in position to know, and I'll open I'll
be a little bit transparent about it. So if you
notice on ESPN, Adam Schefter was saying that he had
a torn achilles potential and that was up for nine hours,
(01:03):
and so I asked about it with someone directly in
a position to know, and they said that is incorrect,
and I said, yeah, I know. He I saw him
grab his knee and then the person answered affirmatively when
I said did he carry at a cl and they
said yes, And there was gonna be more conversations with
Texans management, and then from there they was going to
(01:23):
the news was about to pop, and so the person
was somewhat reluctant, but they were definitely in direct position
to know, and when I answered the question, they answered yes.
And I waited about forty five minutes, talked to you know,
some other people didn't have anything. They didn't have a
yes or no, and then ultimately, you know, I went
(01:45):
with it and then turned out to the guy. I
guess he was distracted or something or we didn't have
a good communication. But it was interesting because then so
I lifted up because I you know, I was gonna
I'm going to own it and be like, oh, I
didn't report that. I left it up someone else named
Jordan Schultz. He repeated what I said, then deleted. I
(02:10):
was contacted by another person in position to know and said, no,
we think that you know, it'll be okay. So then
I updated my story. I updated for the news, and
I moved on. But yeah, it's I mean for the foot,
don't dunk on you. That's fine, they can do that.
That's you know, I really understand, like what goes into
reporting an injury, and of course you know they're not
(02:33):
really wanting you to know, that's just the reality of it.
But yeah, that's just about as transfer as I can
be about how that goes. So I was fine. I
just moved on to the next thing. And I think
late in that evening I had an exclusive about Jimmy
Ward's arrest and why that happened. And then at the
Vikings game, you know who's that CJ's not playing, And
there wasn't just a handful of starters, it was most
(02:55):
of the starters. But yeah, I mean that's okay. Now
these things happened. I you know, I promiself being accurate
and first, but I had many people, of course say
something or another, and I have sick skins. It's okay.
I like my track record. I feel good about the
journalist I'm doing. And you know, if you make a
mistake this CD is be accountable and update which you're
(03:17):
you know reporting.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Now, one thing I didn't have a chance to mention
over the first hour and a half of the show today,
and you obviously were there as well.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
CJ.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Gardner Johnson was there at practice today. Obviously he was
not participating anybody's walking around without any noticeable assistants and
making his way through there. And obviously the team has
already said that they plan on having him back this
season and haven't given any definitive word on that you
mentioned Jimmy Ward. We know about Jalen Reid also to
a certain extent, and they've brought in Jalen Mills. From
(03:46):
a health standpoint, this team's in fairly decent shape. Do
you think there are still more additions they need to
make though, in light of whether it's offensive line with
Robinson being down and not having any certainty at tackle
per se, or at the safety position beyond Mills where
they might still be looking to make additions.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I think that they will explore it. I don't know
if there's anything out there that's going to be that
great that we'll play for a price, Like you know,
what's the budget, say for someone like Simmons, would he
play for a very low number or is it not
worth it to him because he made so much money
that he's not going to play for the minimum or
a couple of million bucks And that's the question. So
(04:25):
like someone like John Mills, you know they're going to
be on a very small contract and right now, yeah,
I mean, can you line up with either Jalen Petrie,
which Matt Burke brought up unprompted by the way yesterday
having Peatree possibly line up there, or you go with
m J. Stewart in a combination of sort of. It
seems like Jalen Mills is hard to beat Proul Grush
(04:45):
east in or the reps we're seeing it practice. So
can you get by with one range eastenterfielder. It's got
five interceptions last year, Kaylen Bullock and the other guy
become more of a stay home, make tackles, cover guys
to make a few plays. Yeah, I think so. I
mean it's a really good defense. And then you have
to be very patient on TJ. Gardner Johnson and they
(05:08):
haven't ruled him out for the first game. The way
he was moving today, it looked like in a couple
of weeks he'll be doing anything. I'm told no surgery.
That's good news that they don't think they need to
scope it. The type of nager he has no going
to be definitive here, but Generally it's something that's treated
with rest or rehab or a PRP shot. Generally you
(05:28):
don't have surgery's extreme part type of surgery's extreme type
of injury. Jalen Reid has a mob niche brain that's
awesome not being treated surgically. And Jim Robinson, I think
he'll be back for the first game. I think he's
gonna be ready. But there's some question now, is is
he part of the best spots? You know, Should they
(05:50):
have aryontaiy Stream, Titus Howard and tight House really good
to me at right tackle? Or sure he has his
moments that left. I just don't know if there's anyone
out there on the street. And they got Connor McDermott.
Eventually you have Trent Brown as a swing. No one's
thought that Blake Fisher has played well. It's kind of
obvious that he hasn't played well, and he's it's not
just fall stars. He's beating a lot. I just wonder
(06:12):
what else is out there? Is there someone better? Yeah,
maybe there is the look around.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
We're talking to Aaron Wilson here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and that's that's kind of the next question I
wanted to ask you, you know, if you're if you're
looking at CJ. Stroud in year three, how much of
it is going to be, you know, what percentage of
it is going to be whether or not the best
five are out there and can do the job, and
how much of it's going to be on CJ himself?
Because I thought it was fascinating. I don't want to
(06:39):
call it necessarily a backlash, but he has certainly taken
a back seat to some of the other elite quarterbacks
in the NFL as far as what the national talking
heads are doing with their hierarchy of ranking quarterbacks. We've
talked about lists all season long. So how much of
it is the line, how much of it is CJ himself?
And what do you think year three for CJ is
going to look like? Ultimately?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I think he's on these quarterbacks that like many of them,
even the great ones. I used to cover lots of
Tom Brady games against the Ravens. Tom Brady would look
very ordinary. If he's getting hit in the back or
in the head sometimes by Terrell Suggs and ray Lewis
and company, and some pressure, you know, they say it's
a it can you know, make a diamond or it
(07:22):
can crumble you. Like the last year he kind of
crumbled a little bit. It wasn't really a good representation
of him at times because he's on his back or
he's being hit, or he's expecting to be hit. And
I think, you know, he couldn't work magic with that line.
That line was a mess. It was a disaster. And
I think he if you had to say, did he
passed or fail, he passed considering the circumstances he was
(07:45):
dealing with. You had offensive line coaches that didn't even
get along and don't agree with each other, and you
had an issue that was the culture thing. The players.
They were hanging out, going to steak dinners and eating
wings together, playing Papa Shot. They liked each each other.
They like Laramie. That was the bigger issue was picking someone,
one person to be the leader of the line. Like
(08:06):
they talk about the one voice, and they got it
with Popovitch. And I'm watching them pretty closely. They keep
praising Popovich. These guys. They seem like the buy ins
high with them. You know, I watched him. He's very
hands on with him, He's tough on them. Last year,
they never took guys out if they had a false start.
Now you're on the bench, they take you out and
there is accountability that I didn't see before. Does it
(08:27):
mean they're gonna play grade? Not necessarily, but I do
think like they'll at least be like a cohesive, well
coached group. And some of the guys, like last year,
like Jack Mason was so washed and they were putting
him out there every week and he was getting beat.
He came up over ten sacks of the guard. I
think they have a chance to be solid. If they're solid,
then CJ. Yes, I think the year three for him,
(08:50):
they'll be fine. I think he wouldn't necessarily go back
to rookie year numbers. There's a little bit of a
book on him, but certainly better than last year. I
would be surprised if he does. I have a better
touchdown to interception ratio, higher completion percentage, and lower sacks.
I haven't done any projections. I mean, we could. I
guess guys would gonna be Maybe it's a little bit
of fun. You know how many touchdowns we CJ throw
(09:12):
out of yards? How many games so they win, all
that kind of stuff. But I just I see him
as a better quarterback, and I think last year there
were times where he got down. His body language. He
admitted it, his body ingles wasn't good. It looked like
he was almost like depressed about it. He was sad,
and I don't blame him. You know, eight sacks and
fourteen hits. How's he supposed to play quarterback? He wasn't.
(09:34):
You're on the ground that much.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And it certainly played out that way. Aaron certainly appreciates
your time. Always enjoy having you on here, seeing your
stuff far at Sports Talk seven ninety. Obviously all your
great workover at KPRC too. Appreciate the time. This afternoon,
the a on Sports Talk seven ninety
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!