The A-Team: His Name Is Dalton, JV Update and Say What?!

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on March 5th, 2024.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamTalking Your Team series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A team Alittle misdirection looking everyone's covered. Can don't
do that? And that one isnext no believable. Dalton Schultz, good

(00:29):
protection, loads it up, firesdown field, takes it in touch,
perfectly delivered touch down, dun SchultzStroud strikes again for thirty seven yards.
I hope you like those because presumablyyou'll be hearing a lot more of that
this upcoming season over at NRG Stadiumand at stadiums around the country as well

(00:55):
when the Texans head out on theroad. Because Dalton Schultz signed, sealed
and delivered one of CJ. Stroud'sI mean, it's one of his weapons.
I don't want to say it's oneof his favorite targets because I don't
feel like, you know, he'sthat heighth in the pecking order, but
a solid addition I thought this pastoffseason, and and I think wex would

(01:19):
agree with me. As the seasonprogressed, it actually became more so that
Dalton Schultz was a part of theoffense as they continued to evolve in c
J. Stroud's rookie year, soDalton Schultz inks a deal, meaning you're
not going to be necessarily going aftera tight end and free agency and you're

(01:41):
definitely probably not going to be draftingone at this point, as you probably
weren't going to in the first roundanyways, but definitely not later in the
draft. Now, I mean it'sonly two minutes, but here I am.
Yeah, I wouldn't exactly say that. Well, there are currently three
tight ends on the roster now ifyou count Dalton Schultz, Rerevin Jordan taking
Toriano are the others. I thinkbecause of Brevin's name is why I'm more

(02:06):
saying this, Well, if theygo into every game this year like they
did late in the year, withonly two tight ends on the active roster
each week, I think they're makinga huge mistake. They got away with
it sometimes, but can't count onToriano two years into being injured both years
and there is nobody else, Soto me, with Jordan going into now
his final year, I wouldn't beI'm not saying they need to, but
they certainly could draft a tight end. They'll definitely bring a tight end from

(02:30):
the draft class. It just mightend up being an undrafted free agent,
but don't listen to the numbers justyet. Same as yesterday, Hey,
Mike Evan signed a fifty two milliondollar deal with bla de de blah guaranteed
money. This is unbelieve not exactlyaccurate. That will likely be the same
on the thirty six million dollar dealthat Dalton Schultz just signed for three years

(02:52):
with twenty plus million guaranteed. Ifyou remember last offseason, the Texans signed
Dalton Schultz, and I think somepeople's eyes out when it looked like it
was gonna be about a nine milliondollar deal. Well some of that nine
million, almost two thirds of it, or excuse me, one third of
it was incentive based, likely tobe earned, incentives which then were not

(03:13):
earned. He came close on ahost of them, but came up just
shy on all of them. Soit turned into a one year deal worth
six plus million, not a ninemillion dollar deal. And that to me,
if I were to guess, andthat's what I'm doing, I would
guess that is part of what oneside wants to announce and make it sound
as awesome as possible, but itmight not turn into quite as much money
as it sounds like as I mentionedit earlier today in rapaport the first to

(03:37):
note this deal in place, andpeople kind of going back and forth.
Is this what you expected? Isthis the amount of money are they overpaying?
Is this a mistake? This isgreat? Well, my opinion is
this is basically inevitable based on themarketplace. If you don't have Dalton Schultz
as you're tight end he e wonas a pass catcher for CJ. Stroud,

(03:58):
well then what you don't want toget worse? When CJ. Stroud
is in his second year coming offthe year. You don't want to set
yourself up for potentially taking a stepback if you don't have to. And
the Texans have the room to nothave to do that. They have more
than enough for room to spend moneyin multiple places to keep the team at
least where they are hope that others, you know, move themselves into a

(04:20):
better position. Maybe they find someguys that weren't on the field as much.
Maybe the third wide out is aplayer that gives them more than their
third wide out options did a yearago. And there's also money to be
saved there that we don't yet knowabout because of cuts that haven't been made.
So I thought this was inevitable.Dalton Schultz was was to hit the
free agent market, he would havegotten this money and maybe more. He's

(04:44):
to me, by far, thebest option for as a pass catching tight
end among which could have been freeagents. He's now not a free agent.
I think the Texans were smart toavoid it. Maybe they saved the
little money, maybe they didn't.I don't think it matters the amount that
they could have versus they couldn't,because what they did is they took away
the risk of losing him. Theytook away the guessing game of who will
be the guy that again you mentionedhe's not. I don't know. I'll

(05:05):
to call him a favorite target,but he was on the field for all
but two games he ended up onthis last year's roster. He was number
two in targets. He was numbertwo in catches. He was number three
in touchdowns because Tank Dell kept findingthe end zone so often. But obviously
Tank missed six of their seventeen games. But your top three targets, the

(05:27):
three pass catchers that meant the mostto the Texans offense success last year,
are now all going to be backwith him for at least an additional year,
Collins goes into the final year ofhis deal, Schultz begins the first
of the three years now, andTank is obviously working in year two of
a four year rookie contract. They'refar from done, but this is a

(05:47):
very good start to the pass catchinggroup. They've had a start to the
offseason already, because we don't wantto forget about John Weeks already signing earlier
this offseason. Priorities here when itcomes to long time Texans, So they
have spent some of that money wherethey had the fourth largest amount of cap
space in the NFL, on someof their own this one being the most

(06:10):
significant. Still plenty to go around. The fact that the Giants made it
official not really a surprise. They'renot going to franchise tag at Sakuon Barkley.
I wonder if he's the next dominoto fall in the Texans offseason.
Yeah. By the way, thisfranchise tag deadline came and went seven minutes
and twelve seconds ago, but somefinal decisions being made. Josh Allen probably

(06:33):
the last of those to get thefranchise tag, and unless I hear otherwise,
not the Josh Allen that throws thefootball, the Josh Allen that plays
in the Texans Division that tries toprevent quarterbacks from throwing at the football.
The Jaguars edge rusher who's coming offthe best season of his career. Like
many of the players that got thetag, the franchise tag, the organizations

(06:55):
likely want them there long term,could not as of yet come to an
agreement on a long term and sosometimes it's a timing mechanism, and sometimes
it is truly an indicator of yourwant to keep them in the long term.
Then there's the other option. Youcan't quite commit to multiple years.
So he's too good of a playerto let him walk, You're too good
of a team to let him walk, and so you keep him via the

(07:17):
franchise tag. Again, unless Ihear otherwise, and they sneak it in.
Like a trade made on deadline dayin Major League Baseball, does not
appear in the Houston Texans have usedtheir franchise tag on anyone yet. Well,
the deadline has passed, and againI believe if it hasn't happened,

(07:38):
it will not happen. Eight playersgetting the franchise tag and it coming becomes
official today for Michael Pittman Junior,the wide receiver for the Colts, Justin
Mattabuke, the de tackle for theRavens. I just mentioned Josh Allen of
the Jaguars, Brian Burns for thePanthers. His tag is gonna hit at
twenty four million. Lugerious Snead.We talk about the scenarios with him that

(08:01):
they could still be listening to tradebased on that tag that they put on
him. Antoine Winfield Junior, thesuperstar safety for the Bucks and the Bears
corner Jalen Johnson gets the non exclusivefranchise tag from the Chicago Bears. So
this begs the question along with tHiggins earlier in the process. Yeah,
yeah, but we talked about that. This begs the question though, and

(08:24):
you don't have to use it.But why didn't the Texans do that with
Jonathan Grenard? And maybe they feellike they can't get him long term for
less than that, and it makesmore sense. Maybe they didn't want to
risk that amount of money for him, Maybe they are feigning interest in him
and felt like there's a better wayto spend it on other defensive ends.
And this is the point that comesto fruition today. Even though they probably

(08:48):
expected it. I mean, there'sonly a handful of players in twenty twenty
three that were more productive on theedge, both against the run and the
pass than John Grenard. You mightargue too, two of them were Josh
Allen and Brian Burns, who arenot available now because they were franchise tag.
And again, I think the Texansand the marketplace and the teams would

(09:09):
have likely expected that. But asJohn Grenard hits free agency now, how
many other better options are there forthe teams looking to spend money on edge
rushers And it's an extremely small number. So to me it's a dangerous play.
Unless they have gone a lot furtheralong in the process, then I

(09:30):
give him credit for But again Idon't I don't know the logic by not
doing it. If you're looking tokeep him here long term, or keep
him here at all, that's whatthe franchise tag is for. It does
make me wonder though, if they'regoing to let him walk as crazy as
that it should well, but Ijust like, we don't really know one

(09:50):
way or the other. Though Icould totally see both. It's not like
you have a feel for this.I could see them getting after this,
don't you have a feel for it. No, he is not a Texan
as of March thirteenth, right,but as of March eleventh, he could
come to an agreement with another team, right. But I could see them
giving him a long term agreement,and I could see them walk letting him

(10:13):
walk because the money's too rich.Where you could have avoided both of those
scenarios with one more year of thefranchise tag exactly. So what happened today,
to me, it's not a given, but it's making me think,
Yeah, they're looking elsewhere, whichmeans they're going to have to spend money
on somebody else to play the sameposition as well as he did, which

(10:33):
to me is quite a risk,probably one as I've said for two weeks,
I would not be willing to take. Does this make you think they're
going to spend big money on that? But on who? Well, Hassan
Reddick, Yeah, I guess whenyou start looking at the see now,
I think they're gonna they're gonna signa long term But then why would you

(10:54):
not put the franchise tag on him? That's the whole point. I don't
know. Maybe they thought, butwhat if we talked about every time this
subject is come up with him,that it might be insulting to him or
it might cause a rift between theplayer and the franchise because he feels like
he has proved himself. I thinkevery player, and you can tell me
if you disagree, I think everyplayer that got hit with a franchise tag
today. Maybe other than Kyle Duggerwho got there. I didn't mention him

(11:15):
because it was the transition tag thatgot placed on him. The others,
the actual franchise tags. Aren't theyall better than John Garnard. They's a
very varying positions right or comparable player. That's that's where those teams aren't too
upset about whatever message it sends.Most of them want those players long term,
which they literally said. Trump Balki'sstatement about the Josh Allen franchise tag

(11:37):
is we want him here. Wewant to continue working with him here.
We were unable to reach a longterm deal, which is our goal.
Sometimes it's just an effort. Usuallywith running backs, Well, we can't
let him. We're too good.We can't let him go. But he's
a running back. We don't wantto commit forty million to him. We'll
commit twelve million to him, andthat ticks the running back off because he
knows how hard it is to getJohn Grenard's gonna get paid. But this

(12:01):
opens the door for some other teamto do the pay I do you know.
Obviously, players do think of itthat way no matter what their position,
but in the NFL, at therunning back position, you should at
least maybe go into the process thinking, Okay, this is just the way
the business is in twenty twenty four. That doesn't ever happen, unfortunately,
But from the outside looking in,it's easy for people like me to say

(12:22):
that I just I don't know.I really thought I would see that be
the news. And again, likeyou said, if you're not spending it
on him, who are you spendingit on? And who are you spending
your money on in general? Sothat'll definitely be something that we discuss not
only today but in the preceding daysand weeks, and also the biggest news

(12:45):
of the day and the least surprisingnews of the day straight ahead. I
give you a hint. It involvesthe Houston Astros and their ace. We'll
tell you about that when we comeback. Adam Clinton, I'm wetler our
a team returned Sports Talk seven ninetyheads gets your Rockets play here, one

(13:07):
NFC executive thinking it'll cost you aroundtwenty two to twenty four million per year
to get Jonathan Grenard re signed withthe Texans. Maybe that's why Nick Cassario
is potentially moving on. I'm fascinatedby this one player. They can spend
more money, That's what I'm saying. Well, that's the whole point comes
to this. If you look atany off season rankings and you can use

(13:30):
your own judgment on how much youbelieve in them, like I said last
segment, and I happen to belooking at one now that mirrors up with
what I said. You know,the best two edge rushers could have been
free agents of Josh Allen and BrianBurns. Now neither of them are so
now the list gets smaller than HeillHunter from the Vikings is someone you could
go spend money on. Bryce Huffis a someone you could spend money on.
The exceptionally underwhelming and off injured ChaseYoung is somebody you could spend money

(13:56):
on. And then there's John Grenard, Jadavian Clowney, Zidarius Smith. There's
not much more than that. Outthere. If you want someone who has
already proven they can do it,there might be another player you could find
that can do it. There's obviouslythe opportunity to make a move in a
trade. It's not often that theseplayers are available, which is why you

(14:16):
saw two of them get the franchisetag today. So that's my point off
the jump. It's not like JonathanGarnard they can't win without him, and
it's not like he's all world andit's not like he has three or four
seasons of excellence and it's a nobrainer he has one good season. But
it's as they've done under different regimesin the past, it's okay to not
spend money to keep some of yourkey players if you have a plan on

(14:37):
how to replace them. And Idon't know what the Texans plan is.
And one of the players I saidcertainly could be paid comparable to what Gernard
likely was going to get, andthat player might be just as good,
if not better, and you mightend up with a great player for three
or four years under this new contract. It's not like they've made the mistake.
I just would not have been Iwould not have felt comfortable taking the
risk that that's the way to goabout it, because you're in competition with

(15:00):
nobody to sign John Grenard until now, and you're in competition with everybody that
wants to presumably for any other playeryou want. And the Texans, no
matter how much money you want toyell to the Skies, look how much
room they have. Every single teambasically could sign almost any player out there
because the amount of money they haveis relative to one day. They just

(15:24):
have to anybody that's over the cap. They got to get to the number
by the eleventh, by the thirteenth, and anybody that's over the cap,
or anybody that has twenty million,well they can get to forty million by
saying, hey, Jerry, JimLewis, Tommy buy you're all gone.
We're gonna take a tiny dead moneyhit, but we're gonna get a huge
cap saving from you. And wejust made quote unquote eighteen million dollars on
the cap. If you want aplayer, you can go get a player

(15:46):
almost every single time. So nowit appears the Texans have just basically said,
whoever wants him, probably the mostmoney will get him. You're not
making me feel better about this situationbecause here's the thing you just got done
saying that they have the fourth mostcap space, and you know, but
it's it's relative to everybody else outthere, who also has a lot of

(16:08):
cap space. But they also havemore free agents than anyone else out there.
And I think that's going to bethe most difficult part of Nick Cassario's
job this season or this offseason.I should say, you have to balance
between obviously, what's going to makethe Texans better than last year, that's
all that's the end game here,building around CJ. Stroud. How much

(16:30):
of that's in free agency, howmuch of that's in the draft, and
how much of that is your ownfree agents versus someone who played last year
somewhere else that can help your teamnext year. Well, they started to
answer that question today. Dalton Schultzis one of your own. He's staying.
John Grenard is one of your own, and the door will be open
for him to leave. The tamperingperiod starts on the eleventh midday, and

(16:52):
it ends with people officially announcing we'vereached an agreement a couple days later on
the thirteenth around noon, so they'reagain they've opened the door for that and
the fourthmost caps based neighborhood of sixtyfive million or so for the Texans maybe
sixty six million and change. SoGrenard's a twenty plus million dollar player,
and based on how you structure thedeal, hard to say how much of

(17:15):
that would even be hitting this year'scap for any given team. Clearly,
when you have sixty plus you haveroom for it, but so do the
fifteen other teams that have twenty today, And like I said in a minute
ago, there's another five that couldget to that point. And how many
players are there really going after?I mean there are years where some of
the dumb teams who aren't good say, oh, well, we're just going

(17:37):
we got all this money, let'sspend it all. And they get the
highest paid defensive end and they goout and get a safety, and they
go out and get a linebacker,and they think overnight they can remake their
football team. Well, they haveto, because if they've screwed up,
then they're really hosed for the nextcouple of years because all their money is
tied up immediately on those players.You might have a team that says,
look, one way we can getbetter is to focus on one area,

(18:00):
and this one player is what wecan really do this offseason. We've got
to resign some of our own wegot to figure out our cap a little
bit by letting some guys go eatsome dead money, get some cap savings,
and maybe we fill in some ofthe other gaps. But this is
a player we want and we're gonnago get him, and he certainly could
fit that mole. There's plenty ofgood teams Bengals, Colts, Lions have
plenty of money and could certainly bein the mix, just depending on what

(18:23):
they're some of them new defenses andcoaches and front office. Texans still have
Sheldon Rankins to consider, They stillhave Steven Nelson to consider, They had
all three of their specialists to consider. John Weeks, as we mentioned,
has been re signed, and theydon't have a contract yet or anything in
place with either their kicker fair Baronor their punter Johnston. Not a ton

(18:44):
of money, but you know,one of them's gonna make four plus million,
the other's gonna make three plus millionor thereabouts. Maybe you're talking about
eight and a half million or sofor this coming year for those two players.
That definitely matters in the big picture, where all this money is getting
spent, and I would hate tothink that team that has been arguably and
by some measures, the best specialteams unit all things considered, coverage return

(19:07):
kicking game for two straight years,would say, yeah, let's do something
different, let's change for I don'teven know what to say for the sake
of change to save five dollars.If you don't resign Kymie Fairbear, if
you don't spend any money on somefree agent kicker who's definitely worse, then
you're even worse off because you're probablygetting some rookie catcher kicker that you have

(19:30):
to maybe use a draft pick on, or whatever the case may be.
I don't see the savings there.Maybe there's a couple punters out there that
you think could do the job comparably. For the most part, the Texans
have always managed to find somebody.You know, Anger was a very good
punter, he's been in the leaguefor years. Elsewhere, Johnston was a
good fine But you can't neglect it. You can't just think this is a
place to save money. At leastI hope you don't. I wouldn't.

(19:52):
So sometimes I wonder what the NFLwould be like if the draft were first,
and then free agency came after,because the NBA is basically like that,
you have the draft right after thefinals are over in June, and
then free agency and all that kindof stuff happens throughout the course of the
summer. Sometimes I wonder, likein a situation like the Texans are in,
if that would be better. Imean, it's hard to say because

(20:15):
of the NBA if you made theplayoffs, So if you're one of the
sixteen teams out of a thirty teamleague, then you're not counting on your
draft pick to do anything. Literally, if you have the twenty first pick,
what are you expecting from him?You're the ninth best team. He's
not going to be better than anyof the guys in your rotation right out
of the gate. You try tomake the right pick, but he's not.

(20:36):
Really Oh, this is a greatoffseason. We found this guy will
make a huge difference. Maybe youdid. Yeah, you just don't know
that. And then maybe there's somefree agency that you can spend money on.
An NFL team thinks they can absolutelychange their fortunes with what happens on
draft nights, and we saw whywith this very team. They absolutely changed
the fortunes of your team. TheTexans got. I mean, you could
argue this, and I don't eventhink it'd be take long to debate it.

(20:57):
The two best players on the Texanswere acquired in the first thirty minutes
of last year's draft. Right now, the two best players not the best
future and not have the best season, they're the two best players on the
entire roster, and you pick themboth within the first thirty minutes of the
draft. It's pretty crazy to thinkabout because it's not it's not even a

(21:17):
contest. It's not close. Yeah, one plays the position that puts them
out in the other stratosphere because he'sa quarterback. But yeah, I think
Will Anderson very easily is the bestplayer on the Texans. I love the
fact that somebody should say, well, who what about Sting. That's awesome
that you have somebody else to evenbring into the discussion. They come in
back to back draft. That wouldbe phenomenal. That's how you build a
winning team, That's how you keepa winning team. You've got to have

(21:40):
these guys play well for them certainlyto their draft position. But it's still
all about all the other stuff.Another segment we will get to this,
but you know the regime preceding thisone. What happened today with franchise tags
should make you sick to your stomachabout what the Texans did in the twenty
twenty draft, if you're not sickalready. But as you know, this

(22:02):
is the time of the day wherewe give you our baseball observations from the
most important number, thirty five theyhave. They only have one. His
name is Justin Verlander. And asyou've been hearing about four now, let's
see fourteen plus fifteen plus five fornineteen days, now, twenty days right
here on the A team since Valentine'sDay February fourteenth, the Hiccup day,

(22:25):
if you will, in twenty twentyfour. The news that was obviously coming,
we got it today. Let's getto our JV update, just like
you heard on this very show openingday. Ain't kanna be there for j
V. The Astros had of themselvesa little television game today. Yeah,

(22:52):
they decided to put out their Ateam lineup. We love the A Team,
we do. They decided to notgenerate any runs needed to play the
full nine, and even though theyneeded to play the full nine, they
lost and didn't score, but whatthey did do is open the mic up
for the manager, Joe Spotta ableto visit with our two favorite vests,
Jeff Blum and Todd Kallis during thebroadcast today to deliver the news that many

(23:17):
had already heard Brian mctagger and otherscovering the Astros this morning when Joe Spotta
said, here's what we're doing withJV because, like WEX said, we
have a calendar. You know,he hasn't faced any live hitters, so
we know we're just doing what's bestfor JV and what's best for the club.
So there's no reason to rush whenwe know that, you know,
we need him from the long haul. And uh so we had a conversation

(23:40):
today and we just do what youknow, we just doing what's best for
him and quarantine. Once he startsfacing live hitters, it'll probably be another
three or four livee bps before youcould get them like into a game action,
right, So I think like threefour weeks is kind of like the
time out. Yes, that's whathe means something like that. I would
look like, you know, JP'sa guy that he's done it and he's

(24:03):
strong, so he could be shorterthan that. It just we wanted to
make sure that we we you know, with pause, and make sure that
we've been smart about what will be, you know, what will be.
The next move could be shorter thanthat, but it won't be until after
he's eligible to play because he's startingthe season on the injured list. That
was the announcement that he made today. Frustrating from Verlander. Yes, he

(24:26):
said just in the you know,he'd love to be there, but totally
understanding of the situation. And itgoes back to what he said when he
arrived on February fourteenth. He's behindschedule. Well, the actual schedule doesn't
take a pause for JV. Itcontinues when he gets to the Live VP.
As Joe said, they anticipate thattaking the normal three to four weeks,
and they don't have three to fourweeks by the time that takes place,

(24:48):
so he's going to begin the yearon the injured list. He also
the manager at it, as weusually do here on the show. The
JV update is accompanied by the JPUpdate. JP's he's throwing on Live VP
tomorrow, which puts him on thatthree to four week schedule to be ready
to pitch at that point in time, which lines up with him as of
today. Anticipation is he will beready for being in the opening rotation to

(25:12):
start the season. He's not gonnaget the ball in the twenty eighth or
the twenty ninth, probably not thethirtieth either, maybe not even the thirty
first, but right after that,if he's the fifth man in the rotation
as the year begins, the anticipationis he will be prepared and healthy and
ramped up, eat it Blue Jays, and ready to start the season on
time. That's very very good news. And again all this stuff is said

(25:33):
barring a setback, but everything upuntil this point from both pitchers has been
as hoped and as expected. Ifyou're to believe JV when he said it
wasn't an injury, it was morelike just didn't feel right. And ever
since then, everything's felt fine.Every session he's had to throw, he's
woken up afterwards the next day andeverything's felt great. He feels great.
All the news is good news.This is just a logistical matter. The

(25:56):
calendar says it's the timing will notmatch up, which again is the only
reason I was super duper smart onFebruary fourteenth and said he's not gonna be
ready by opening day. That's sosmart. It's not a bad thing.
It's just the way it is.It's so impressive. Yeah, so impressive.
I'm so smart. I'm so smart. All right, fifty first year
on the planet. I know howmany days between February fourteenth and March twenty

(26:18):
eighth. Evan in a leap year. That's true, that's true. He
got an extra day as promised.We are going to look back at some
of the crappiest decisions in Texans personnelhistory, well recent decisions, especially when
we return here on the eighteen.This is Jabari Smith Jabari for three,
Just Smith watch three? Got it? They clutch with the iHeartRadio app here

(26:41):
every Rockets game on Sports Talk sevennineties eighteen rolls along here on Sports Talk
seven ninety wex ac Dan Matthews,the show killer back in the saddle as
we take you until six o'clock tonight, Rockets and Spurs action later on Victor
Wanbinna in town. The Rockets's intown. I think he'll play. He's

(27:06):
currently listed as questionable. It doesn'tmatter, it doesn't matter. Why not,
because the Rockets gonna win either way. Okay, Hey, well you
mentioned a couple segments ago, andit's I knew where the direction you were
going when you said it's gonna makeyou sick when you take a look at
some of the tags that have beenapplied and you think back to the twenty

(27:26):
twenty specifically NFL draft, as itpertains to what the Houston Texans did.
Care to explain, Nick Cassario hasbeen around for three drafts. Twenty twenty
one when they had a limited amountof draft assets. Davis Mills the headliner
that day of their draft class.Clearly, Nico Collins is the headliner of
the class, as he has playedhimself into an exceptionally good position as he

(27:49):
had been a final year of hisdeal. Twenty twenty two. The surprising
pick at number three of Derek StingleyJunior, and the rest of the draft
obviously at the top looks excellent.Last year's draft clacks pretty good. So
do you think he's done a betterjob than the general manager that he was
following up from twenty twenty They werebeing their football side and they were being

(28:14):
run by Bill O'Brien, the coachwho has since been on staff at Bama.
Ohio State, Boston College, andthe New England Patriots. And he
was running things along with a personwho has not and will not ever get
a job inside an NFL organization doinganything ever again. So they were in
charge of the draft. Texans hadtheir second round pick that year that was

(28:40):
number forty. So run through whogot tagged today, Well, all the
tag players. Josh Allen with theJags, Okay, he was obviously a
super high pick and he was ina previous draft because he was a fifth
year option guy. Michael Pittman junior, just got it today from the Colts,
thirty fourth pick in that draft,so a couple spots before the Texans
went at four, the aforementioned safetyKyle Duggar. Kyle Duger went thirty seventh.

(29:03):
A couple spots before the Texans drafted, the Bears gave their franchise tag
to their cornerback Jalen Johnson. Hewent fiftieth. So on the board when
the Texans took their selection at forty, you're going to help me with justin
his last name with the Ravens,their defensive Matta Bouquet, the Antoine Winfield

(29:26):
junior Okay ant Bucks Antoine Winfield Juniorwas on the board when the Texans took
their pick at forty. He wentforty fifth. That's all I've gotten front
of me right now. Wait,hang on, hang on, Brian Burns,
Brian again, another different draft player, fifth year guy out a fifth

(29:47):
year option. We already did THiggins, So T Higgins went thirty third,
another second round pick, several picksbefore the Texans selected. Does Lugarius
need count since it's non exclusive,No, not for my purposes here today.
So a point being, there's acouple of players drafted after the number
forty pick that today, after theirfour years of NFL football, were hit

(30:07):
with the tag because they are freakingawesome, because they can't imagine moving forward
without these players helping them. Acouple other players of note, you know,
several picks before Houston, DeAndre Swift, who might become a Textan this
year. Xavier McKinney, who wasnot tagged and has had a fantastic start
to his career with the Jets.He's a safety. And then a couple

(30:29):
on the other side as well,And you mentioned a few. But point
being, the Texans had the fortiethpick on the board at the time,
Antoine Winfield junior who we mentioned,Jalen Johnson who we mentioned again, they
were just about to get drafted.I could go through the whole draft,
but that's not the point. JonathanTaylor obviously has been at a contract in
pass for onto different occasions with theColts, as they tried to extend him

(30:52):
before this point in time and thushave he was the pick immediately after the
Texans. So the amount of talentavailable, franchise changing offense, changing defense,
changing talent. It's not just aboutthose top thirty two. It's not
just about your first pick that year. It matters. You have to get
something out of these other early picks. This is supposed to be the fortieth

(31:17):
best player in the draft, andthere's so many star players that I've just
run through that all got drafted inthis area. A couple before, a
couple after the Texans drafted Ross BlacklockHouston. Kidd went to TCU and has
already made his way through a coupleof teams. Not an NFL player,
I mean, he's made his moneyfor four years. I don't know that
he'll get a contract and be onan active roster now that he's beyond that

(31:41):
He's had a couple of teams pickhim up, but it's such a massive
miss. I didn't even mention JalenHurts went thirteen picks after that. But
there's value there. There's so muchtalent still on the board in every single
draft. After you, Roger Goodellgoes home and Linked turns it over to
somebody else, takes his sweater off, and you just gotta do better.

(32:04):
That was the draft Kans basement rightthe twenty one, the twenty draft,
I should say, maybe, uh, just you got it? And Nick,
for the most part so far,has you know how good is John
Metchi gonna be? How good isChristian Harris gonna be? How good is
Tank Dell gonna be? These areall second and third round picks last year
as well on the line who endedup starting a boatload of games. Juice

(32:25):
scruggs, how good are these playersgonna be? Well, they all appear
to be better and more useful thanRoss Blacklock, which is very good.
But to give a little bit ofcredit to that other regime at forty a
humongous miss. Fifty picks later,a huge hit, the player with the
second most sacks, and the entiredraft class. Jonathan Garrard, Hmmm,

(32:49):
what are they tell me what they'regonna do with him? Like I said,
I think the door is definitely notclosed. I think the opportunity to
have him come back, they musthave been have so many other things they
want to do. They were unwillingto have him hit the cap at that
figure of twenty one million in change. If they did not reach a long
term agreement with him. They canstill do that. His cap figure for

(33:10):
this year can be significantly different ifthey need it to be, and they
might be. They would obviously structureit that way for that very reason.
So I guess they were so afraidof not being able to reach it it
would prevent them from doing other things. Or we just face the obvious fact
that nobody wants to He's not gonnabe a Texan, and then that's fine
with them. That's the other obviouspossibility. Because my thing is, there

(33:34):
are certain guys that you look aton the list of the Texans free agents,
and if they walk, you couldprobably fill or you could spell that
or whatever. And by the way, Dalton Schultz, I think was one
of those guys, believe it ornot. Yeah, And I happened to
disagree. I think that's why theysigned him. You don't think they could
have gotten a comparable definitely not.Someone might have ended up with some decent

(33:57):
numbers because they were forced to throwthem the ball, or they would have
had extreme confidence that Brevin Jordan inhis fifth or his fourth year would have
been able to step in that role. But this is why they signed him
before he hit the market. Therearen't any other tight ends. There are
no good pass catching tight ends thataren't available every year. You're describing the
same situation with Grenard's position, areyou not? No, there are other

(34:19):
defensive it he just happens to beawesome, OK, in a class where
there's several other guys you could pick, but they're gonna be just as costly.
Like if Daniel Hunter is a Texan, how great. He's an awesome
player, and he's has proven alittle bit more for a little bit longer,
with a little bit less injury thanGrenard. That would be phenomenal.
But you're spending the same money,right and Dalton Scholls didn't break your bank.

(34:40):
It was it was some It wasa chunk of change. He is
not among the highest paid tight endsin the NFL. He's he's in the
top half. He's right where heneeds to be. Okay, I I
don't know. I'm still fascinated bythis, of all the guys, because
of all of their own guys,I should say, there's stuff out there.
Yeah, he's the best player.The best Texan that was becoming a

(35:01):
free agent is Grenard correct, AndI'm still I still don't know if they're
going to pull the trigger on aSakwan Barkley. That's the other those two
players right there, one of theirown and one from the outside who's going
to be playing elsewhere next year.He's not going to be a giant.
They didn't indicate that they really,ever truly were interested in tagging him a

(35:22):
second time. And even though they'reGM at the combine said it's not off
the table. I don't think theyever reached a point where they were like,
well, if this, this,and this, then we're going to
do it. And they didn't useit on McKinney either, So they didn't
use it at all. Very alittle bit interesting on their end, doesn't
close the door on it, butit just means you're going to put yourself
in competition with every other team whenyou didn't have to. But again it

(35:44):
takes a commitment which they were unwillingto give. All right, Well,
one team gave a big commitment toa player and he's not there anymore.
We talked a little bit about thisyesterday. I'm going to tell you why
I can guarantee you Russell Wilson doesn'tland in at least one NFL market this
upcoming year. We'll explain that whenwe come back here on the eighteen.
I'm cleansing Adam Wexler. Our eighteenreturns. These Astros fans here you hear

(36:07):
the woods, Oh, it's justthose crazy Houstonians find sports talk seven ninetys.
Of all the talking heads that youcan't stand, the Stephen A.
Smith's the Colin Cowards of the world, who's your top of the list,
meaning the one that just annoys youthe most. It's not about annoying me.

(36:28):
It's about whether you say stuff that'sstupid, if you say stuff that's
wrong, if you clearly don't knowwhat you're talking about, if you're talking
at your backside, because that's thething to do and you're just clearly factually
incorrect. So the answer to thatquestion is oftentimes Colin good I'm glad you
said that, because that's who thesubject of this subject or of this segment's

(36:49):
going to be, namely because heearlier today uh talked about all of the
reasons why the Steelers should go outand sign Russell Wilson. And if I
know one thing, it's that wheneverColin Coward goes on, it's kind of
like Charles Barkley picking your team inthe playoffs and gab row On teeing them
to win. A lot of timesit goes the other way. And Mike

(37:12):
Florio, by the way, anotherone of our favorites, wrote earlier that
a sense has emerged that Russell Wilson'sgoing to take the league minimum one point
two to one million and stick theBroncos with the balance of his thirty nine
million fully guaranteed at compensation package forthis upcoming year. However, Wilson won't

(37:35):
be doing that as a backup.He'll want in exchange for his willingness to
take so little a commitment that he'llbe the starter. First of all,
before I go any further, isRussell Wilson in any position whatsoever to make
that kind of a demand if he'staking no money, it seems like something
to ask for, Okay, butyou're lucky to have a job in the
NFL at this point, you're thirtyfive. Taking it probably a little further,

(37:58):
I mean, there's not thirty five, okay, but he's definitely gonna
be the starter and you haven't evenset foot in camp yet. Well,
whichever team he signs with, hewill be the best player on their roster,
both today and after the draft.If that's not the case, then
the team is making a mistake bysigning you. Pittsburgh's not gonna have a
better quarterback on their roster. Ifhe's on it, he'll be the best

(38:19):
one. Which is won't have abetter quarterback on their roster. If he's
on it, he'll be the bestone. Now, Atlanta and New England,
that's different because both of them arein position to take a draft pick
as their new franchise quarterback. Inthe million years, I wouldn't want Russell
Wilson on my roster if I've donethat. And one of the things that

(38:39):
Colin Coward said that does go withwhat you said. The reason he thinks
Pittsburgh's perfect is because you can't bein a division with Joe Burrow twice a
year, Kevin Stefanski and Deshaun Watsontwice a year. I don't know why
he decided to include Kevin Stefanski andDeshaun Watson as a tandem because he didn't
talk about Mike time, and thenhe did name John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson

(39:01):
twice a year. You can't doall of that, in other words,
with Kenny Pickett as your quarterback.But I think we all kind of figured
that was not what they were goingto be doing. Regardless, well,
I did see since so Watson forwhatever reason. I don't know if it
was even DeShawn, but Watson wastrending today, so I clicked on it
to see what it was all about, as I usually do. Bregman,

(39:22):
we are Texans, Harris County.They're all trending today. I might click
on any one of them at anygiven time over the course of the day.
But one of the posts that cameacross was from the Dogs You Know
how to spell the Dogs in ClevelandDawgs, a Cleveland Brown's podcast, and
the cut Line, which also beneathit, featured highlights of Watson at quarterback

(39:43):
says caption Who's ready for Deshaun Watsonand the Browns in twenty twenty four hashtag
dog pound. I think I endedup not sending it, so my mistake,
but I did quote sweet it andanticipated answering them because he was asking
a question. I don't know ifit was rhetorical or not. Who's ready
for Sean Watson and the Browns intwenty four? My quote seat was tweet

(40:04):
was all the teams that are ontheir schedule. Yeah, that's who's ready
for a team that's no reason tothink they're going to be better next year.
And to Collins point, they justwent through a season where Kenny Pickett
and worse because he got hurt weretheir quarterbacks, and they they made the
playoffs and had a better record.Then Cincinnati finished one game behind Cleveland,

(40:24):
although Cleveland wasn't playing their hardest atthe end of the year. Can't say,
well, Cincinnati didn't have their startingquarterback because neither did they. Yes,
neither did they exactly. I meanthe healthy quarterbacks seriously played fifteen games.
Trevor Lawrence played sixteen games, andTexans won the division with a quarterback

(40:44):
who played fifteen times. Bill's wona division with a quarterback who played every
single game. The Chiefs played wona division with a quarterback they played every
game. The Ravens won the divisionwith a quarterback. It's not that hard
to figure out. They have toboth be good. But as long as
they say healthy, you're good togo. Yep. The Steelers need a
better quarterback and they made only atiny effort at fixing that after Roethlisberger by

(41:06):
taking Picket with the twentieth pick,and that draft they have the twentieth pick
again. They're in no position toimprove the position in the draft because I
do not believe they can get towhere they need to to have an impact
this year. They could be theteam that drafts maybe Nix or maybe Pennix,
but I don't think that necessarily isthe way to go for a team
that's clearly ready to win right nowwith the rest of their roster. They

(41:29):
could save a whole lot of moneyby spending it on Russell Wilson, which
is basically nothing if what's being reportedturns out to be true, or they
could spend a lot of money ifthey can find their way to it,
and for them it would be alittle difficult and get the quarterback that's available
that's way better. Now, theyhave very little cap space, so I
don't think this is reality. Somaybe there is no way for them to

(41:51):
be the team that signs Kirk Cousins. So maybe they do have to fall
back to the next second or thirdquarterback available, which is Wilson. Like
I said, yes, there's notmany teams that could do that. It's
teams that are stuck at quarterback.The Steelers are stuck. They're not bad
enough to go get one in thestory or the well only because the quarterback
they got wasn't as good as theyhope you would be. But again,

(42:12):
they only draft them at twenty.How good are those quarterbacks? Ever,
they're better next year. I thinktotally stable organization, other star players in
place, and TJ. Watt's notthe only one to maybe have Russell Wilson
a worthwhile investment, especially when itcosts you presumably almost nothing. What Colin
Coward was saying is exactly what you'resaying. He said, I think you

(42:35):
roll the dice with Russell Wilson.His maturity and devotion and commitment is what
the Steelers need. Offensively, they'vegot some receivers who I really like,
but they're a little young, alittle immature. Their offensive line is okay,
not special, and Wilson is stillmobile enough to avoid some of that
stuff. I think it works.The culture and personnel in Pittsburgh is good,
but they don't have a trigger guy. In the AFC, you're not

(42:57):
going anywhere unless you have a star, even if it's a declining s star.
You've got to have a start towin games. So everything he's saying
sounds logical, But because it's himsaying it, that's why I immediately go
the opposite direction. Well, there'sa ceiling to Russell Wilson, and in
the AFC, that ceiling, wellhe's dressing it up for sure, so
low, like you can't even walkin the room. The ceiling, even
Russell can't even walk in the room. The ceiling is so low. It

(43:19):
was a short joke. You justmade it, Yes, I did.
I couldn't walk in the room either. Where what he played in the AFC
last year, and I know whathis passer rating was, but I know
what his team played like when hewas on the field for them, not
very good. That's one of thesix worst starting quarterbacks in the AFC,
one of these six guys you'd leastlike to have of the sixteen teams.

(43:40):
Nothing's different next year. It's actuallyworse because one of those teams is the
Patriots. This behind him, theyprobably have Jayden Daniels or Drake May potentially
a second team if they've slid up. Because the other two teams right now
one and two are NFC teams.But still Wilson all Wilson is. And
it's funny that we keep talking aboutthis. For people like Matt Thomas,

(44:00):
they would love us to talk aboutWilson Pickett the way we are. You're
improving the position from like the thirteenthbest quarterback to the eleventh best quarterback.
But at one point nothing million.That is a reasonably smart roll of the
dice. Russell Wilson could win agame. You end up winning ten out

(44:21):
of your seventeen games, you goto the playoffs on the road, Could
you out play the other team withRussell Wilson at quarterback at this extended age,
Yeah, you probably could more likelyto do that than if Mason Rudolph
is taking steps for you as theyadd this year. I'm just fascinated to
see where he lands, and itmight be in Pittsburgh. I mean,
look, everything that he said andeverything that we've talked about even before today,

(44:44):
makes a lot of sense, especiallyif he's doing it for the minimum
and it does satisfy that need thatRussell Wilson would have. Okay, I'm
gonna take this. He's getting paidby the Broncos. That's the best part
of all this. Yeah, theamount of dead cap space that he's bitten
two teams with the Seahawks and nowthis team, it's unbelievable. But yeah,
they'll be on the hook for theactual payments and the actual money that

(45:07):
he's due the offset should he signelsewhere. It is amazing. I do
always take a little bit of astep back when people say he's got the
wheels or he's got the mobility.He's a veteran quarterback with mobility who cannot
stop getting sacked. He runs intosacks more than any quarterback I've ever seen
this far into their career. Noquarterback's been sacked more in the last two

(45:28):
years, no one. There's onlytwo quarterbacks that have been sacked more than
eighty times. He's one of them. A hundred times since he left Seattle
in two seasons. Mobile. Great, well, you're still getting sacked all
the time, some of it,believe me, it's on him. All
right, We're gonna start our numbertwo next when we come back. Among
other things, let's check in onthe Oakland A's. It's probably not where

(45:52):
you were thinking I was going togo, but there is a I mean,
anytime a team moves and a newstadium has involved and there's news on
that, I'm at least interested init because I'm a stadium junkie. But
there's something very very interesting about theirnew stadium that I want to get to.
Also, there's some more NFL newsand notes we need to get to,

(46:13):
and we'll check back in on theAstros as well as we continue here
on a Tuesday edition of the EightTeam Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston
sports guys named Adham Talking Your Teamseries. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are
the A Team A Cower number twoof the eight Team. Here on Sports

(46:39):
Talk seven ninety wex in ac withyou until six o'clock. Dan Matthews,
the show Killer, back at itagain producing the program as we get you
ready for Rockets Spurs basketball later ontonight talked a little bit about the fact
that Justin Verlander is going to startthe season on the injured list, but

(47:00):
could be back in time for assoon as the second series of the season.
So again, setbacks are the keyhere or lack thereof, But the
Astros making that official earlier today afterthey well, I guess it was technically
during or before they lost their springtraining outing. Not that it matters,

(47:21):
but that's the big news Astros wiseof the day. Dalton Schultz is a
Texan some more. He got athree year extension? Was it twenty three?
Was it guaranteed of the thirty someodd million that the Texans tight end
we'll get to stay in that offensewith CJ. Stroud and company. The
Texans did not, as far aswe know, franchise tag Jonathan Gernard.

(47:45):
As we know, remember the time, we were like, well, Astros
didn't make a deal, and thenZach Grinky, like almost two segments into
the show became an Astro. I'mjust kidding. There were no physicals needed
to agree on compensation. It's here'sthe tag. Eat it. By the
way, just the that they didn'tuse it at all is also somewhat of
a surprise. I guess you don'thave forward. I will now accept from

(48:07):
people when they say, well,Nick Cassia has never used the franchise tag
before, so let's see if he'sinclined to use it this year, because
this year was the first time heactually had a potential opportunity. Could have
used it on Schultz and they wouldhave then only committed to him for roughly
the same amount of yearly money elevenmillion in change, or they did what
they did, so again, itgives you options. They just decided not

(48:29):
to take it with any of theirother players, most notably John Grenard.
Yeah, so that's the latest onthe Texans. Whether or not they go
out and spend some big money onan outsider, how much of their money
they spend on their own remains tobe seen. But we talked a little
bit about that in the first hour, and we still have some other things
to get to. One thing Isaw earlier today was and this has to

(48:52):
do with the Astros. So it'sstill going to be a while until we
can say, hey, want togo to Vegas and see an Astros game.
We'll be able to say that someday, but when the A's move there,
which, by the way, arewe convinced they're not changing their name
now? At this point it's beingwritten about that way. I'm still not
convinced they're not going to change theirname. Why would you keep athletics when

(49:15):
that's so tied to what fifty plusyears of being in Oakland? Yeah,
but it's not. I mean,I don't know I would change names just
because you think it's gonna make youmore money. Like you, in my
opinion, you should not change yourcolor scheme because it just looks so good.
But I don't know. We'll see. They'll be moving to Vegas within
the next like five ish years.They could in other words, they could

(49:36):
play there as soon as twenty twentyeight. They should receive approval from the
MLB ownership in November, so that'sthe timeline. They released the renderings of
their new stadium, and this isgoing to go where the Tropicana has not
been demolished yet, has it,But it's gonna be is that the I
don't think anybody's gambling there, no, but that's where the site of the

(49:59):
new stadium is going to be.They first of all released the renderings.
Secondly turned off the replies immediately,which was my favorite part of the story,
so that the fans couldn't pile onin Oakland in other places. And
construction is slated to begin in Aprilof next year, April twenty twenty five,
on the site of the Trump CaanalHotel, which, okay, here's

(50:20):
my answer to my question, isgoing to close next month. Twenty five
hundred parking spots included on the site, and they're going to have thirty three
thousand seats, which is probably thesmallest, if not one of the smallest,
in Major League Baseball. An eighteenthousand square foot led scoreboard is going
to display on the ceiling, whichis going to be the largest in the

(50:42):
league. So fewest amount of seats, biggest scoreboard. And when they released
the renderings of this thing, ifyou've even remotely seen some of the iconic
buildings around the globe, you immediatelyrecognize what it looks like. It looks
like the Sydney Opera else something outsideand I dig it like it's Vegas.

(51:05):
Vegas is Vegas. The sphere justcame about, which is just an amazing
thing that I have yet to experience, but can't wait to it had to
be bold, it had to beI guess eye popping. It had to
fit in, I guess with whatVegas is, which is over the top
and all about showmanship and all thatkind of stuff. But I just guess
I didn't like when you think ofwhere the where the Raiders play, it's

(51:30):
called the Death Star because it's thisjust I mean, you see it too
when you're flying into Vegas. Youcan't miss it. It's this just big,
gigantic black building and when you walkup to it, that's what it
looks like. It looks like theblack version of the Death Star in Star
Wars. But for them to makethis thing look so much like an iconic
venue like the Sydney Opera House inAustralia, I like it. I think

(51:52):
it's cool and I cannot again Ialways wonder what this place was going to
look like that will inevitably go tolike we've got to do a road trip
to see it. Astros game.But I like it. I like the
way. I like the way itlooks. The only thing about the story
I don't like is the fact thatthey turned off the replies on the post
because they knew it was common.Yeah, I mean, it is,
it is different, it is tiny. It is again the Tropic can If

(52:16):
you can recall for those that knowthe area, you're not far like everything
you'll see when I guess the roofis either see through or retracted, you'll
feel like you're right in the middleof the strip. You'll feel like you're
right in the middle of all theatmosphere that that is Vegas. And this
screen, I'll admit, if itoperates as it's displayed, that is pretty

(52:39):
cool. I wonder you know everyonce in a while, you know the
Toyta Center, for instance, thispast season, they added additional much higher
brightness on the led screens surrounding theriver, each of the levels of seating,
the ribbon boards, and it's verynoticeable on the court, very noticeable.

(53:01):
There's arenas that I'm sure you recognizeevery time their games on national TV
or you're watching League Pass. TheMAVs Arena AAC is one of them.
You can see well, I knowthat they just switched that ribbon board from
a white background to a blue background, because you can see it on the
court on TV, you can seeit on the court in arena. Even
more so, the size of thisscreen the amount of light it would be

(53:25):
producing. I know the stadium isclearly much bigger than an arena. I
wonder if that has any impact,and how they have to get around that.
Potentially it looks like it would beoverhanging the outfield. And again,
however that impacts the game, probablynot a whole lot, especially if the
A's continue to be awful. Idon't know that it'll matter, but I'm

(53:45):
sure by then, again the timingof it. They're terrible now and all
of their talent is not there yet. You've got a few guys that have
made their MLB debuts that they havehigh hopes, where most of the rest
of their talent is in the minorleagues. If they've done a good job
of intentional losing in hopes of landingplayers that are young via the draft that
they can are, players that they'vetraded for in other teams, prospects that

(54:07):
they now have by the time theymove, they might actually not be awful.
Do you think that, because Iknow we keep talking about how it's
gonna be this weird Like what's theword I'm looking for. It's just a
it's not gonna be a organization that'sgoing to have like this loyal grassroots fan

(54:27):
base, Like I'm sure that thereare residents of Vegas because people do actually
live there. You know. It'snot like, oh, everybody just lives
on the strip that is in Vegas. It's not like that. But I'm
sure that like the what's the hockeyteam that just nights they won the Stanley
Cup, like their first year intown. That helps, but it's not
I mean after that fades away.I mean, the Raiders are the Raiders.

(54:52):
It's like that established brand. SoI guess from that standpoint, Oakland's
old baseball team when it gets therewill have that going for it. Yeah,
not all. You know, acouple of weeks into the NHL season,
looking at an athletic article on attendance, they have an average attendance at
the Golden Knights games of eighteen thousandand one to seventy four. Their capacity

(55:14):
is seventeen thousand, five hundred,so their perspect capacity is best in the
league. They're killing it. Wow, They're still competitive, right Hm.
See NHL. I don't know.NHL is such a I feel like,
such a novelty still, even thoughit's not for like diehard fans like how
many times you, oh, let'sgo in to NHL game tonight. I

(55:36):
know we're sitting here in Houston wherethere isn't a team, but it's like
it's fourth on the list, right, maybe fifth if you like soccer.
No, I wouldn't say. Imean it's it's like to some people,
it's actually like the NBA now withits appeal, certainly with its cost,
it's very comparable to the NBA insimilar surroundings. You're in an arena,
so I mean, it just dependson where you are. That's just shocking.

(55:59):
Again with Vegas, the Knights specifically, Like if you went to Vegas
and asked real citizens, locals,thirty year residents, fifty year residents,
but are sports fans, I wouldthink that their favorite team is the Knights
first, the Raiders over the Raiderssecond, and then I don't know how
much is left for the A's there. It's both smart ABA It's gonna be

(56:23):
there. It's dumb to have aMajor League Baseball approve a stadium this tiny,
and it's smart to approve a stadiumthat they might have a chance to
sell out every once in a while, because if they built a forty thousand
seats stadium as soon as they stink, which might be the first day,
there's not gonna be anybody there.By the way, my theory still holds

(56:44):
up to the like they need todo almost exclusive day games like the Cubs
did back in the day in orderfor that to not be a problem.
You think they would be able toagain. TV is now a big deal
with all the company money not beingthere for so many of the teams whose
outlets have disappeared. Do you makeless money by having all your games on

(57:06):
TV? Or you're able to sellit at a lower rate to higher rate?
Probably a lower rate. But again, you're competing with Vegas at night
every option on the planet. Peopleare flying in from all over the globe
to go to Vegas and a baseballgame is somewhere around fiftieth on their list.
That's the biggest difference of all thatwe did not even mention yet.

(57:27):
You want to be a Raiders fan, no problem. Here are the ten
days, correct you have to committo buying tickets for and you want to
be a Golden Knights fan, noproblem. You can get forty nights there.
You can buy mini package, youget twenty Still in the NBA's you
want to be there eighty plus nightsof A's baseball. That's why I say
do it during the day because youcan go to a game. You want
people going to both games. Youcan gamble while you're there because you never

(57:51):
will be able to. And thenwhen the game's over or the seventh inning
or whatever, you head out tothe casinos for the night or the shows
or whatever you're doing that's actually takingplace at night. Considering the A's,
like you mentioned, have been inOakland for as long as they have,
and before that they were in KansasCity with the same name, and before

(58:12):
that they were in Philadelphia with thesame name. So they're not gonna change
it. Just a guess. VegasAthletics does roll off the tongue. I
mean it eventually they all work out. The Timberwolves, what that's fine.
Now, that's because they're in Minnesotaand the Rockies. Okay, I guess
I could see that. Rocky soundsall right. Panthers, Jaguars good,
Texans. No, that's fine.No, the Texas is not fine.

(58:37):
That's the one I have the problemwith. So Vegas A's also rolls off
the tongue. Vegas A's sounds likeyou're saying aces. The Vegas aces exist.
And the other thing I want tobring up as we get out here,
it is going to be a freeagent destination. Who wouldn't want to
live in Vegas if they're you know, baseball player. Here's the contract will

(58:58):
offer you. Yeah, you'll goout there. Yeah, but like you're
gonna want to if your choices arebetween that or But in Minnesota, Twins.
We've spent this whole segment and we'vemissed the most important part. They're
not changing ownership. Oh yeah,he's definitely one of the five worst owners
probably one of the three, maybeone of the worst, the worse.
But you're gonna live in Vegas.Yeah, you get to live in Vegas.
But he's not gonna he's gonna payyou. Is he gonna offer you

(59:20):
a contract? Is this the GMthey'll tell you while you're there, I
mean, but not big money,Like you're a free agent, they're by
not offering you the most money.Yeah. Yeah. Astros fans think they
have it bad with Jim Crane,which is hilarious. They've basically been a
farm team for the rest of theleague for twenty years. Literally, Yes,
you're you're really really good. Youhelped us win a few games.
Not buy do an update to Moneyballonly now it's set in Vegas, all

(59:43):
right? When we come back oursignature segment, say what straight ahead here
on the eighteen you've got more addI'm clanting that Adam like slur on Sports
Talk seven ninety Home for your Hometeams said what what? What bro?

(01:00:06):
What are you talking about? Man? What double? You say? What?
One moment? What segnature segment ona Tuesday edition of the program,
It's Cody Bellinger time, By theway, I love them when that lines

(01:00:27):
up, it is the A teamhere on Sports Talk seven ninety and as
you heard right there, it's saywhat WEX and I need to explain this
one. So we just got throughthe combine. We've not yet gotten to
NFL free agency, and soon enoughwe'll get in and out of that rather
quickly. Next week the eleventh,you can start doing the illegal stuff.
Because it's not illegal. You cantalk to players and basically come to an

(01:00:50):
agreement without announcing it to any ofthe terms or anything, and then two
days later, on the thirteenth,you can say this player is ours.
He's agreed to terms and he's signingwith us, and here's the pen and
here's the pay. Here's the tweetof him sitting at the table in our
facility signing up to play ball forUS. And then a few days we'll
go by, a bunch of signingswill happen, things will die down,
and we will get back to Okay, these teams have done these things with

(01:01:14):
their roster. Now what are theyafter in the draft. And we get
into pro days and we get intothe evaluations, we get into the visits,
we start to really nail down whatdoes a draft really actually look like,
not just the mock drafts that wesee today, both before and after
this round of combine work. Remember, the top three quarterbacks did not throw,

(01:01:36):
and in Caleb Williams case, barelyparticipated at all, though we did
an interview with teams and with themedia. Jadon Daniels, Heisman Trophy winner
electric season with LSU last year,started his career at Arizona State, has
vaulted himself into a very high draftposition. Some people have him high as
two. Almost nobody has him anylower than six. That seems reasonable,

(01:02:00):
and yet the other quarterbacks behind them, Bo Nix Michael Pennix, and JJ
McCarthy were throwers at the combine,so they gave themselves an opportunity. Yes,
they took a chance. They couldlook so bad that their draft stock
would go in the other direction,and they would also know that, well,
I do have a pro day,so I can fix that. So
they went out and threw, orthey could improve their stock, which is

(01:02:22):
what I believe all three of themdid, and maybe none more so than
JJ McCarthy. There are many peopleexecutives inside the NFL, and those that
mock the NFL properly via mock draftthink that McCarthy is a top ten draftable
quarterback, a quarterback that a teammight even trade up inside the top ten
to go get it, a quarterbackthat teams concerned about not giving up too

(01:02:45):
much to go up to get oneof the other three can just hang back
a little bit and maybe McCarthy's ourguy moving forward. And quite honestly,
the team that just said goodbye toRussell Wilson has been linked to him quite
a bit, so that could bea possibility. Mike Tannenbaum makes regular appearances
on the ESPN Family of morning showprogramming and any other NFL programming. He

(01:03:07):
was a very strong performer when theJets were on hard knocks and they were
trying to sign Durell Reeves to along term deal and he and Rex Ryan
We're talking to them on the phone. It really was entertaining stuff. It
really was. It really showed youwhat life can be like with your head
coach and your GM when you're dealingwith a player who everybody wants on the
field, everybody knows is awesome andknows your team is way better with him,

(01:03:29):
and yet you can't quite figure outthe common ground to get there.
So I think most people know whohe is. He was on one of
the talkie talks to Get Up talkingabout JJ mccarthur who played for Michigan and
Jim Harbaugh and making comparisons to JadenDaniels played for LSU and Brian Kelly and
how just pick one guy up anddrop him into the other situation and everything

(01:03:50):
would be just fine. Just listen, he had played for LSU, what
would his stats look like? Theylook a lot closer to Jadon Daniels.
If Jayden Daniels was at Michigan,his staff would look a lot closer to
JJ McCarthy, and that's where thisdebate is so much fun and so interesting.
That's where what debate who's better JJMcCarthy or Jayden Daniels as an NFL
prospect. I don't think anybody's debatingit. And this was met with a

(01:04:14):
lot of backlash because of how outlandish it sounds. I'll give him the
positive side. I won't kill himfirst. There's some truth to this theory.
We've talked about it here. JJMcCarthy needs these workouts, needs this
stuff because John Jim Harbaugh wasn't coachingMichigan to get JJ McCarthy a great draft
position. He was coaching Michigan towin every game they played, and his

(01:04:38):
team was set up to not getout of a dodge so we could avoid
the scandal. I don't need himto throw thirty five balls a game.
We could probably well, they definitelycould have won that way too, I
think, but the smarter way wasto do it the way they did it.
Fewer throws, fewer dangerous throws,fewer long developing plays, fewer plays
where he was having to do thingswith his feet. We saw some of
them just by happenstance in the gameagainst WA Washington right here in Houston.

(01:05:00):
But I don't know that I'd goas far as what Mike said, just
dropping him into LSU's program. Ohwe got Malik Neighbors, we got Brian
Thomas, we throw the ball around. He would have the same, similar
numbers. It doesn't even get intothe fact that Daniels was one of the
most electric runners of the football asa passing quarterback that we've seen in college

(01:05:24):
football. Very Lamar Jackson esque certainly. And you know, some might argue,
from a statistical standpoint, an evenbetter performer than that. I wouldn't.
I think Lamar Jackson at Louisville wasinsane, But I don't, under
any circumstances believe Yeah, go ahead, put Jayden Daniels at Michigan and put
JJ McCarthy at LSU. They theywould have had the same numbers that were

(01:05:45):
produced by the actual quarterback. Thatis an outlandish thing to say. Are
you surprised, as a say what, Yeah, for sure? Are you
surprised in this vein with McCarthy thathe's getting as much run as he has?
I was on the I can't believethis guy's even considered an NFL prospect.
Bandwaggon because I kept watching their gamesand saying, well, incorrectly,
my own mistake. Well, he'sthey don't ask him to do anything,

(01:06:05):
so I doesn't look very good tome. Yeah, he's not making these
pinpoint throws. He doesn't have tohave ball placement accuracy. How incorrectly do
you think that? Though? Well, to me, what I've seen since
and later in the season, andI don't even want to include the Iowa
game because he literally could have rolledout of bed, gotten sick, not
played and they would have won thatgame. But I do think how he
played in their postseason games there wereplays that required him to do things that

(01:06:29):
he didn't have to do all year. They weren't in games like that most
of the year, but they werewhen it came down to it in their
two postseason games, and he did. He did make plays. There was
a pass play specific to our seatsat the National title game where he had
end zone seats, so basically skyviewright behind the quarterback XFL style, but
way higher up, and you couldsee where he wanted the ball to go

(01:06:50):
and where the receiver was breaking open, and when he should get rid of
it, and when the ball shouldget there. There were two or three
throws just just incredible. They werethey were awesome, But he just barely
did it all year, and soI was very down on him and have
since changed my tune, not tothe point that under any circumstances, I
would draft him over any of theseother three, and I wouldn't draft him

(01:07:10):
over some other super talents at otherpositions in the draft, most specifically wide
out with Harrison and Neighbors and afew others, and Joe Alt, our
good buddy Joe Alt. But yeah, he's he's probably the next quarterback off
the board. And shoot, KennyPickett stinks compared to him. He went
twentieth. I mean, Desmond Ridersthe starter in Atlanta, he's the second
round pick. JJ McCarthy's significantly betterprospect than that. Somewhere between six and

(01:07:39):
eighteen, I was probably about asfar as I think some team's not going
to say, we don't have manychances to try to go get a guy,
we might as well try with him. It's all that talent that's available
at other positions. I know thequarterback is you're always in search of it.
You're always in search of it.It's just Okay, if that's the

(01:08:00):
best option, maybe just wait anotheryear. That's how I look at him.
Well, just think about it fromthe way we like to kill the
Panthers. They couldn't even wait onemore year for Caleb Williams. They had
to go get Bryce Young. Theytraded up to say, we can't wait
any longer. We got a newcoach. We have a reasonably talented saying
the same thing about the Texans.You can't even wait one more year.
Teams don't. Goodness, they didn't, because you don't know what's gonna happen

(01:08:21):
with either your team or the player. Yeah, they wouldn't even had their
hands on his medicals by this pointif they had waited on Caleb Williams.
Yeah, nobody's gonna confuse Jayden Danielsand JJ McCarthy. Maybe down the road
they'll both be successful quarterbacks, orone will be and the other won't be.
But I wouldn't look at the waythey play, or the schemes they
were in, or the talent thatwas around them, or how they were

(01:08:43):
used in any way. It's yougotta compare them, I guess if you're
Mike. But that was that wasan interesting way to do it. I'd
be shocked if McCarthy winds up beinganything, but I've been wrong before and
it was as recent as last offseason, bigly wrong, as some would say.
All right, speaking of Big Lee, we got a big ticket giveaway
rodeo style, nickelback style when wecome back. But you're gonna need to

(01:09:06):
know your nickel back trivia here onthe A team. First, I want
to tell you guys about Berkeleyey Centerand their Leap Year savings. As you
know, last month was the technicallythe leap month of this leap year because
of that extra day coming in February, but the Leap Year savings has bled
right into the beginning of March hereand going on all month long. Because

(01:09:28):
Berkeley loves leap year so much.They're offering Lasik savings so special they only
come around once every four years.But unless you want to wait that long
for twenty twenty vision, then leapinto Lasik this month, all month long
at Berkeley Center with their Leap YearLasik celebration going on right now. Get
the details at their website BC Lasikdot com. That's b eclask dot com,

(01:09:50):
or you can call them the traditionalway at seven one three five two
six eyes at seven one three fivetwo six e y E s And when
you do tell them? Adam Clantonfrom s S FORRCE Talk seven ninety sent
you over Houston. It's you're ahome team man, lifelong as fan here
anytime anywhere. I love your holeteam. Go to Rocker Go. But

(01:10:10):
just tell your smart device Pice SportsTalk seven ninety on iHeart Radio playing Sports
Talk seven ninety on iHeartRadio. Whenthey came out, Did you like them?
Then? Sure? No, Ineed to know. I know you
were aware of them, because here'sthe deal. I'm looking like I've read
stuff that was shocking to me,like just how successful and how many records

(01:10:31):
they've sold. A ton of topfive singles, handful of number ones.
I love how you said that theyreally do top five. Let's not tipsy
laugh that I'd be sneezed at.It's just it sounds lesser. Well,
because they had a lot of memorablesongs that got very very close to number
one but didn't reach number one.So I dropped a top five on them.
They just seemed to be Oh mygosh, I can't believe you liked

(01:10:54):
them. Versus man I'd love togo see them, and there aren't that
many bands like that, and theyhave had a lot of albums and a
lot of hits and a ton ofmemorable songs like that one. But I
do not and didn't. I don'thave any compact discs of Nickelback, and
I've not purchased any of their singlesvia Apple Music or Spotify or iTunes or

(01:11:16):
Napster or anything like that. LimeWire, LimeWire? What was the other one
there was, Like most of theother ones were pretty much guaranteed to worm
your system up? Yeah, Ohwhy do I have all these viruses on
my twenty gigabyte hard drive PC?Well, I went and downloaded music illegally
in my college dorm room and nowhere we are. Yeah. I went

(01:11:39):
to a Nickelback show once. Imean, there's a reason they keep producing
music and keep touring and keep thepavilion. And it was it was them
and Three Doors Down, and yourband of choice was which one? I
went in actually going to see Nickelback, And I came out a bigger fan
of Three Doors Down, still afan of one of them to this day,

(01:12:01):
and it's not Nickelback. But enjoythe show whoever wins, right,
sure, all right, so yeah, good luck to all you guys out
there. We had Adrian win yesterday. We do keep a running tally of
our winners, so if you wantto join Adrian in the ranks, hopefully
you know the name of that ninetyminute documentary released on Nickelback. We've discussed

(01:12:23):
all things Texans today because, namelyDalton Schultz has been inked to a deal,
the fact that Jonathan Grenard did notget the franchise tag, and the
fact that you've got so you've gotGrenard, you've got Blake Cashman, you've
got Dalton Schultz back in the fold. I think we both have agreed that

(01:12:45):
Stephen Nelson's probably out the door again, similar to maybe rankins potentially Gernard.
It's okay if you want to moveon from Steven Nelson, if you presume
that there's a way to get better, it's going to be costlier to do
so. And I doubt they believethey can draft a cornerback where they select
or move up to get one wherethey could then select that's going to step

(01:13:06):
right in and keep them at leaston even footing, maybe two or three
years in, maybe that's the playerthey got. Or again they're second round
corners that turn out to be phenomenalthird round corners. Occasionally, it's not
outrageous to think it. But youwon ten games, you won a playoff
game. There's only eight teams left. You're one of them. Every player

(01:13:26):
that was helping you do that thatyou move on from, presumably you're doing
it for one of two reasons,And hopefully the first reason is you're trying
to get better, and the secondreason is there's some money aspect to it.
There are more corners available in freeagency that are better than Nelson,
than defensive ends available in free agencybetter than Grenard, more than defensive tackles

(01:13:48):
available in free agency that are betterthan Sheldon Rankins, unless in each of
those cases you're just flat out saying, here's why we have cap space.
Christian Wilkins, you're a Texan,here's a ninety plus one hundred plus million
dollar deal. I can't tell youthat they're not going after that. It
wouldn't bother me at all if theydid. That is a way to make

(01:14:09):
your team better right away. Upfrontin the trenches, stopping the run,
forcing teams to throw, finding aguy on the interior that's as good as
any player, even Chris Jones,at getting into the backfield, and that's
the way to do it. They'renot going to bring back all of those
guys. And we haven't talked aboutplay Cash nearly enough. I hope they've

(01:14:30):
talked to him quite a bit tohave an idea of what it might take
to get him. I don't knowthat he's like super highly sought after because
pretty much anybody could have had himover the last couple of years when the
Texans traded for him from the Jets, and what he had done until then,
and up until last year, he'dreally never been a high snap count
linebacker period. He just hadn't beenon the field. He was a special
teamer and very little else. Hewas exceptionally important to what they did last

(01:14:55):
year defensively, and they would beI'm again, you can replace these guys.
You can pretend Henry Toatoa is goingto fill a gap somewhere. You're
probably playing without Denzel Perriman next year. There's only so many places you could
just let these guys walk. AndI don't think Nick Cassari intends on seeing
sixty six million in cap space whenthe free agency opens, and then zero

(01:15:15):
when it ends. I don't thinkhe has any intention of using even eighty
percent of it right out of thegate. Ashman more likely to be back,
though far less money than probably everyother guy I mentioned. So yes,
I didn't even finish the which wetalked about earlier. Kanyee Fairbairn.
I think he comes back, althoughI mean we always kind of mad a

(01:15:42):
joke about how much money he wasmaking. Yeah, some people joked about
it, and then I tried totell him how it's not a joke.
It was smart. It was actuallyone of the best deals that I thought
Bill O'Brien ever signed. Well,you did miss him this year when he
didn't have him, You miss himevery year when you don't have him,
and you're going to miss him againnext year when you don't have him.
Tell me they're going to be betterat kicker if he's not their kicker.
Well, I thought you were.You were guaranteeing he was gonna be injured
again. I'm just saying you're gonnamiss him if he's not kicking field goals

(01:16:04):
for you unless you specifically set outto improve the position by spending money on
some free agent that doesn't exist thisparticular offseason where there's two or three kickers
in the draft you absolutely have togo get doesn't make any sense. It's
not worth the headache. It's thebiggest headache of all. I mean,
Mike Rabel probably is if you usedto ask him, how mad are you

(01:16:27):
that get you got fired? Heprobably ran through all this stuff and then
you remind him, maybe what doyou think about your kicking situation while you
were here? Thank God I'm notinvolved in that anymore, is what he
would have said. When you don'thave a kicker you can rely on,
it is the worst. I mean, you don't have a quarterback you can
rely on. You know, we'regonna figure other things out. The expectations
are only so high. This guycan't play, so our whole team is
screwed. It's way worse. Whenyour whole team is good, you can

(01:16:50):
win, You are going to win, and then this person player can't make
his kicks. You can't have it. You certainly like I don't don't even
know how locker rooms accepted. Ohwell, they had his back and they
said, hey, it's not onyou. There are a lot of other
plays we could obey during the game. Yeah, you made them. That's
why he's in position to win thegame for you. He has to Again,

(01:17:11):
they don't have to be one hundredpercent, they better be close.
It is fascinating to look back athow much the Texans did last year in
free agency, and obviously they weren'tall big deal Well, I mean,
name the biggest deal that they madehim free agency. I mean Rankins was
the costliest. I guess on anannual basis, Dalton Schultz, Devin Singletary,
Denzel Parriman, Corey Lyttleton, SheldonRankins, Robert Woods, Noah Brown,

(01:17:41):
Jimmy Ward, Tavier Thomas, Case, Keenum, Derrek Rivers, Michael
Dieter, you're son Ridgeway. You'regetting into the Nick loves lighting, Col's
money on fire off season. Yourfavorite running back, Mike Boone. He
made the team. Andrew Beck scoreda touchdown. Yep. Three players returned

(01:18:04):
to kick for a touchdown in theNFL last year. He was one of
them that made it a successful No, he's actually seventy five million dollars spent
for a couple of years, notfor one year. That's true, and
he was good enough in the backfieldto do some of the things they wanted.
You've already broughtly not hand off tohim, but they did. Anyway,
you've already brought Dalton Schultz back.How many of those guys that I

(01:18:28):
just listed off do you have tohave back any Well, again, there's
five guys on that list. Youcan say, no, we don't have
to have him back, but ifyou don't replace him, you're screwed.
If you don't replace him, yougot worse. If you don't replace him,
you're bad at managing your roster.You don't have to have Sheldon Rankins
back, but you have to havea player that is as good as Sheldon
Rankins come in and replace him.I mean, you signed Rankins and Ridgeway

(01:18:51):
last year hoping at least one ofthem could play alongside Malie Collins, and
it turned out it was Rankins,luckily, because Ridgeway was hurt all year
and so you totally ruck out onthat. You didn't know that at the
time. It wasn't a bad signing, it just didn't work out that way.
You just have to have you haveto bring other players in. If
you're letting all these guys go,and that is a good way to get
better. That's likely what they willdo. I'm just excited to see who

(01:19:13):
those players are. It's just amatter of I know what free agents are
available, and I don't anticipate theTexans making any significant trade to find a
player. But you know, theDevin Singletary addition was not met with much
fanfare, nor should it have been. But it's players like that that you
have to have every year. You'vegot to have capable players that he knew
he was gonna be on the field. You just know how much he produced

(01:19:34):
exactly how he had the last twoyears in Buffalo. You did not know
at the time he was going tobe significantly more helpful than Damian Pierce,
and you would have been sunk completelyif he had signed elsewhere. And you're
not gonna find anybody once the seasonbegins that's capable of playing that way.
Nick did a very good job ofthat last year. Most of those guys
you mentioned, a large chunk ofthose guys you mentioned, especially the front

(01:19:57):
side, they made a difference forthis team. I mean, Thomas was
re signing Winovich was a kind ofa drop. Let's see if there's anything
in the tank. And his injurieslimited him from being at all on the
field at all for any team thisyear. Didn't even make the Texans,
but most of those other guys madesense at the time and made an impact,
positive impact for this team even inseason Derek Barnett, because they had
the ability to do it and wherethey sat in a position to do it.

(01:20:20):
He was huge with all the injuriesthey had at edge rusher at the
end of the year. What aweird career arc for Ridgeway. Sixteen games,
thirteen games, then he plays fiveto seven and seven comes back in
twenty twenty one, play seventeen,played twelve with the forty nine ers,
which is obviously the familiarity with DemikoRyans, and then, like you said,

(01:20:45):
just three games last year for theTexans. Probably parting ways with him,
oh for sure. I mean he'snot going to be able to get
a very good contract this year unfortunately, because injuries have been a humongous part
of his last six seasons, leadingthe most recent one. All right,
we'll wrap up the four o'clock hournext year on the A Team Sports Talk
seven ninety. I'll always remember myfriend Adam and my other friend Adham and

(01:21:13):
maybe another Adam if they get anotherguy on the show. That's why they
call this splitting the Adam Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler, and I don't give
us about either. Hey, youremember that day wex when we were on
the air and we found out aboutNick Saban live while we were interviewing a
fellow SEC head coach. I rememberit. So a lot's been made about

(01:21:40):
why Nick Saban did what he did, and a lot's been made or I
guess covered about other coaches. They'renot retiring necessarily, but maybe they're going
to the NFL, or they're goingto different situations. Chip Kelly went from
head coach to what often coordinator yepat Ohio State and he was asked about

(01:22:03):
it. Brian, he was askedabout it, and he said, sometimes
I do a lot of things otherpeople don't do. I don't know if
that's right or wrong, but Ithink it started when we were preparing for
a bowl game. Ryan Gunderson isa great quarterbacks coach, so left to
go to Oregon State as a coordinator, so he wasn't there. So I
actually coached quarterbacks during the bowl game, and I just started to think,

(01:22:25):
like I hadn't actually coached a positionsince two thousand and eight, and I
think my wife, she's like,I haven't seen you this happy in a
long time. And to me,the best part of football is football,
and so you got to do footballand not some of the things that involve
being the head coach. And whathe's talking about is obviously what a head

(01:22:45):
coach in the college football game intwenty twenty four is. It's not x's
and o's as so much as it'sfundraising and then retention of your recruits that
you've gotten to say yes and thenyou can start coaching. And a lot
of people are kind of I guessreevaluating that as head coaches and leaving,

(01:23:08):
especially ones who've already made NFL moneylike Chip has. Yeah, it's easier,
I guess, but definitely. Imean, he was making really good
money at UCLA, so he ismaking less at Ohio State. Although he's
going to be one of the higherpaid OC's in college football, he was
not among the highest paid coaches headcoaches, but six million plus is still
very very good money, a littlebit less than what he made per year

(01:23:30):
as the head coach of the Eaglesfor the short time there. He actually
got to mention yesterday in Jason Kelsey'sretirement speech talking about how things were different
there, and you know, hesaid, yeah, we had Chip Kelly
and at the end of the firsthalf, we were dog tired. We
ran eighty billion plays, but itwas great because nobody could stop us.
It was interesting that he brought himup in some of the memories that he
had, But there's no question aboutwhat you're saying being true, and it's

(01:23:54):
different. Kind of coaches are goingto succeed in this era, and they're
going to have to have OC's,DC's QB coaches position coaches that are awesome
at coaching because they're the ones whoare actually doing the job. Like a
coach like Sark who's not only thehead coach, he's also the play caller.
There are a lot of coaches outthere like that. That's just one
more thing they have to do ongame day throughout the week, in addition

(01:24:17):
to having five personnel people monitoring theportal, monitoring players they did not get
in their recruiting class that they willget a year from now when those players
enter the portal and they're the firstones and they're the relationships that they shouldn't
be keeping that somehow they do andthree years later, two years later,
that's how they do it. Iwas obviously in Austin this past weekend.

(01:24:38):
I was talking with some very astutefans. Oh, you didn't go to
breakfast with Sark? Did not goto breakfast with Sark? Did not.
Most of the football focus was inIndianapolis. But if you consider what they
lost and just kind of look atthe combine, you know, Sark is

(01:24:59):
coaching this year looking at these juniorsor seniors at this skill position, knowing
there's a reasonable chance these guys aregoing to be NFL bound after this year.
As in all three of his topreceivers Whittington, Worthy and Mitchell.
His top tight end who's probably theprobably the second best tight end in the
draft after Bowers, Jatavian Sanders.He's in the draft. Two of his

(01:25:20):
running backs, obviously Jonathan Brooks,so they missed for some of the year
due to injury. He's one ofthe best backs in the draft. They're
all gone, and they're totally loadedat those spots. Next year. They
had two running backs that they'll returnin Baxter in Blue and almost every other
player. All four of those spots, top three wideouts and tight end will

(01:25:43):
be players that played major college footballvery well somewhere else last year. Matthew
Golden, you of H is oneof you of H's excellent receivers, awesome
return end. He's one of thosefour transfers. That's how you can win
and succeed long term. It's impossiblenot to do it every single year.
If you want to succeed, youhave to re recruit your own players every

(01:26:05):
year. Now you have to goout and find players in the portal every
year. It's so much more difficultthan before, and nobody has any sympathy
for them as their money. Weactually saw his contract within the last two
weeks ten million a year to handleall this. When you lose and you

(01:26:25):
don't do all these things and Texasisn't back, then you can go sleep
in your mansion on your forty fiftysixty seventy million you've made. Yeah,
And going back to Chip, hetalked, he said something that is like
almost identical to what you've always talkedabout in recent shows about college head coaches.
He said, I think as ahead coach, you sit in position

(01:26:47):
meetings, but then you're always gettingpulled out, and there's other things that
are involved with being a head coach, and I think it's more of a
CEO operation right now, you know, it's the job in the landscape as
we all know of college football haschanged. And then he made a reference
to John Lennon. He goes,so I just said he was in that

(01:27:08):
band. Yeah, that one band. So I just thought at the time
that you know, there's a storyabout John Lennon when he was a little
kid. He had an assignment ofwhat do you want to be when you
grow up? And he said,I want to be happy and his teacher
said, I don't think you understandthe assignment and his mom said, I
don't think you understand life. So, I mean, Chip, Kelly's not

(01:27:29):
making himself out to be John Lennon, but I get where he's coming from.
And it's I mean what We weresitting there and Eli Drinkwitz was like,
what did he say? The firstthing he said, He's like,
they're they're I'm paraphrasing, they're killingwhat college football is. And that's why
Nick Saban walked away. It's veryhard to deal with think about this because
the BC job was open for BillO'Brien to take it. The coach who

(01:27:50):
was there, much like Chip Kelly, went to coach a lesser position,
so to speak. He's no longera head coach. He went to the
NFL. I went to the Packers. Late last month, he met with
the media in Green Bay, andthis is what Jeff Hafley, the former
BC head coach left for Green Bay. This is what he had to say
about it. The other thing forme, guys, is I mean I

(01:28:12):
probably got to watch more football thelast week and a half time I've gotten
to watch in like four months.I mean, he's a head coach in
college. You're pulling so many differentdirections. I mean, I feel like
a kid in a candy store again, just sitting there and be able to
watch tape. It's probably one ofthe most refreshing and clear minds I've had
in such a long time. LikeI'm having a blast doing it. He
gets weight off his shoulders, moneygoes down, but you're getting to do

(01:28:36):
what you got into it for.I mean, there's clearly coaches that once
they get to a certain pay raypay level, they're gonna probably keep being
a head coach and maybe like chip. Now that he's made so much of
that money, he can afford tofeel comfortable just moving into something else.
He wants to coach the game offootball, not be a coach of the
entire university. And now you goback to being an OC. He's gonna

(01:29:00):
have a chance to win a nationalchampionship this year. He's been fascinating SoundBite
for a long long time, andI think this is just the latest.
Well, remember he was one ofthe guys who actually had a plan.
Whether it could be put in enactedis another thing. But a couple of
weeks after, or as the seasonwas ending, he got in front of
the mic at their bowl game andtalked about a plan of how the NCAA
or college football could be restructured witha commissioner and with this and with that.

(01:29:25):
Who would you have as your commissionerright now? Uh? Probably what's
the what's the baseball commission's name?The guy who signed the baseballs, Rob
Manfred, I guess, But thenhe wouldn't be commissioner of Baseball mission of
win win. Yeah, there yougo. I got a lot, all
right? That was my sole focus. Good, well, winning is what
it's all about at the end.Of the day in sports, right all
right, when we come back ourfootball at five conversation, right now,

(01:29:46):
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two eighty five, and become amongthe tens of thousands of satisfied patients who've
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Talking Your Teams series, Adam Clintonand Adam Wexler are the a team Ay

(01:31:21):
see right it pussal Football's five o'clockSome five o'clock football Professional footballs in America
is a special game football five Conversationunder way. Wex say see the show

(01:31:44):
Killer Dan Matthews with you as thethird and final hour of a Tuesday edition
of the show gets underway with thetopic we all know in love. Now,
there's been something that's been on thethe document, the show document for
Actually, I feel like this wasthere last week, but it's definitely been
there since yesterday. Today's only Tuesday, Yeah, I know, but I
feel like it was their Friday forsome reason. I just went up there

(01:32:05):
yesterday. It's about a rule proposalthat might get voted on. A couple
of special teams coaches got together anddecided, well, you've kind of taken
this play out of the game becauseevery kickoff is a touchback. Now you've
taken the injuries out of the gamethat a car on kickoffs, as you
hoped, But you've taken a playout of the game. So we'll get

(01:32:26):
to that and what we think aboutsome parts of this proposal, because it's
extremely complicated and has lots of contingenciesto what actually happens potentially with the future
of kickoffs. But did want toget you updated if you had not heard
about the deadline today of the franchisetag and the fact that the Texans not
only did they not use the franchisetag, they did not wait till free

(01:32:49):
agency to re sign one of theirown players, and that was Dalton Schultz.
Based on the numbers that were reportedtoday, and they may be tied
to some incentives and thus not quitethe at this level, so it won't
be more than the three years,thirty six million with twenty three and a
half million guaranteed, but it essentiallycould turn out to be less Dalton Schultz,

(01:33:10):
three more years with CJ. Stroud, presumably three more years with Tank
Dell if they extended Nico Collins orfranchise them twice, three more years with
Nico Collins. These are all goodthings when you're trying to create as much
personnel continuity with the offense as possible, because I think we would all consider
the fans of the Texans and theteam and the quarterback and the offense lucky

(01:33:33):
that they have continuity at OC andquarterback coach. Both Gerard Johnson and Bobby
Slok were pursued heavily to leave thisteam and move on to bigger and better
things head coach. In Slow's case, OC and Gerard's case both got raises
and both are staying. Don't knowthat text will be quite as lucky next
offseason if things go as well asI think many expect them to this One

(01:33:57):
Franchise tags handed out and franchise tagnot handed out are also of great significance
to the Texans and what they hopethis offseason can bring them just flat out
in terms of talent, talent thatthey don't have and talent that they hope
to get. Eight franchise tags anda transition tag handed out around the NFL.
On the defensive side, Justin Mattabukeof the Ravens Burns of the Panthers,

(01:34:21):
Allen josh of the Jaguars, LugeriusSnead corner for the Chiefs, and
Antoine Winfield safety for the Bucks,along with Jalen Johnson corner for the Bears.
Two offensive players, T Higgins andMichael Pittman, both whiteouts for the
Bengals and Colts, respectively, andKyle Dugger got the transition tagged by the

(01:34:41):
Patriot from the Patriots, another playerfrom the second round of that twenty twenty
draft. Many of those players fromthe second round of that twenty twenty draft.
Remember, you draft a player inthe first round, four year contract
with an option for a fifth year. You draft a player in any of
the other six rounds, they geta four year deal to keep them without
committing to them long term. Theso called option on all those players,

(01:35:04):
well, your option is to usethe franchise tag on them, and many
of those players that's exactly what happenedto them this time around. So any
of those players essentially not going tobe Texans, it is possible that lugerious
need could be snatched from the Chiefsif you put together a deal to their
liking both the player and the team. I do not expect the Texans to

(01:35:25):
be at all involved in that,even though I'd love to see him here.
But then it also points out theTexans did not use the franchise tag
on Jonathan Garnard. We spent alot of time so far today and every
day leading up to this about thepros and cons of what might be worthwhile
venture to use it. They decidedagainst it. He and all of their
free agents now will be subject toother teams contract offers and p anti climactic.

(01:35:48):
It doesn't close the door by anymeans of him remaining a Texan,
but it certainly doesn't commit the teamto having Grenard as a Texan next year
or any of the years in thefuture of his career. Four years with
Hugheston, one exceptional one, twoothers heavily derailed by injury, and a
pretty good season otherwise of the threethat preceded this year. So I understand

(01:36:08):
the hesitancy to sink big long termmoney into it. I don't think another
team is going to be quite ashesitant just because they're probably lacking so much
that that's what happens in free agency. But again, the Texans need two
edge rushers. They now have one. This is an area of need.
John Gernard could still end up beingthat player, but that's where things stand

(01:36:30):
as of today. Taquon Barkley ranthrough the list. Any other player you
thought was hitting free agency and ateam might have considered using the attack.
They didn't. All the running backsthat could be out there, they're out
there, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard, Saquon Barkley, all
available, Devin Singletary, all freeagent running backs, awesome class, DeAndre

(01:36:51):
Swift. If DeAndre Swift is atext and it's him and Singletary, and
if Barkley's a textan, maybe Singletary'snot. Is that the scenario you envision?
Yeah, if you spend that muchmoney on Barkley, you probably don't
have enough money to also spend onSingletary. I don't think too many teams
want to have that high a percentageof their cap spent on the backfield.

(01:37:14):
And then in that scenario, youare likely drafting a player to back him
up. I mean you could obviouslyhave Damian Pierce as his backup just because
this year wasn't a successful and doesn'tmean next year would not be, especially
in the role that he would bein, which clearly is a backup.
His role as a backup this yearwas basically zero. Once he was no
longer the starter, he basically didn'tplay because they were so comfortable with Singletary.

(01:37:34):
He was continuing to perform well,could handle the workload. Yeah,
I just feel like every time hedid get out there, it was like
stuffed. I mean he literally hadwhat thirty five carries the last eight weeks
of the season something like that.He was just a total non factor on
offense. By the way, sincewe hat tipped to the full back Andrew
Beck, might as well do thesame for Damian Pierce. One of the

(01:37:57):
other players who returned a kick fora touchdown this past NFL season, So
sixty six point six seven seven sevenseven percent of those were Texans. Okay,
so the very very unexciting kickoff rule, it's not unexciting. Well,
the new rules trying to not beunexciting. The old rule was kick it
out of the end zoning, sendyour offense on the field, there's incentive,
So I can't believe any part ofthis rule is actually asking for this.

(01:38:20):
I get it, they're asking players. There's eleven players on one side
of the special teams, the onewith the kicker. Ten of those players
are not allowed to move until hisball is touched by the other team,
and the receiving team ten or nineof their players also not allowed to move
until one of their other two players, the return men, touch the ball.

(01:38:44):
That's just one aspect of this newkickoff rule. But you're already cannot
hearing that, right If you're justhearing that. You're on the field,
you're lined up, you're in aspecific zone of yards that line up in
or they setup zone. The ballthat you kick off has to go into
a certain zone on the field,which is the twenty yard line, and

(01:39:04):
in the landing zone it has toland there. It has to reach that
point. You know, a squibkick, based on what I read,
wouldn't exist, doesn't exist. Theon side kick portion of the NFL is
now, like what I mean,it's funny that this happened so badly last
year. You know, when asixth offensive lineman comes on the field and

(01:39:26):
you have to declare him as aneligible receiver, or you bump out your
tackle and he's become you have totell the officials, who then tell the
opposing team, or else you getpenalized. Well, that's part of the
new rule regarding on side kicks.The surprise on side kick basically won't exist
anymore, and the potential to onside kick literally won't exist until certain criteria

(01:39:49):
are met based on the scoreboard andthe time you are in the game,
as in late and close or else. There's no such thing. So going
back to the original kick on thethe new rules, there's no fair catches
either, and in order to incentivizecreating returns, if the ball landed in
the end zone or went through theend zone on the fly, a touchback

(01:40:14):
would take the ball out to thethirty five yard line. So you're getting
really good field position by doing nothing. If the other team screws up by
where it kicks, basically like whenthe kick went out of bounds, you
got it at the forty. Now, if the kick goes into the end
zone on the fly, you getit at the thirty five. If the
ball, on the other hand,bounced in the landing zone and was then
downed in the end zone, atouchback would only take the ball to the

(01:40:36):
twenty the typical touch back. Ifyou fulfilled your you've fallen within the rules,
the new guidelines, then it's justa run of the mill touchback.
But if it didn't get past thetwenty yard line on the fly, it's
gonna be treated as an out ofbounced kick and the offense would take possession
all the way up at the forty. Now go back to the first thing
I said. You kick off,it goes where it's supposed to go,
which is at the twenty or closerto the end zone, but not in

(01:41:00):
and the return man catches it atthe eight. After he does that,
you can now move. Your playerswho lined up forty five yards away can
now start moving. He caught itat the eight, you have not gotten
a running start. You're starting whenhe starts. That's the whole point of
this. Every return is going tobe awesome, yep. We're going to

(01:41:20):
see a ton of long returns,yep. We're going to see way more
touchdowns, yep. And we're probablygonna see a comparable low number of injuries.
Right because you are lowering the rateof speed literally with which these humans
are running into each other, andby not moving before the kick is touched,

(01:41:41):
that's how far away from you youalready the guy who has the ball
is that far away from you andyou haven't even started running. He's going
to be twelve yards of progress beforeyou're anywhere near him still, and then
the blockers will make it twenty.So not only is it going to make
this play more exciting instead of yourapp I mean, I go through these
box scores diculously, you know toomuch, and I'm looking at average field

(01:42:02):
position, and they just had tendrives in a row that started at their
twenty five or worse. That's prettymuch never gonna happen anymore. If you're
gonna start drives at the forty toforty five in their territory a touchdown and
you're thirty yards away from scoring yourown two seconds later, it's going too
lowercoring is going to go through theroof. It's going to go through the
roof, and it's going to lower. Ironically, at the same time,

(01:42:25):
the type of stats that both quarterbacksand running backs are piling up less field
to churn up. Oh my god, the Texans had five touchdown drives in
a row of fifty yards or less. You know what it's going to do,
though, it's going to make thegames go by much slower. Now,
I haven't looked into what about theother side. There's got to be
plays where he accidentally doesn't get anywhere? Like are there going to be drives

(01:42:45):
that start inside the twenty ever?Like, what are the circumstances that's going
to produce that? Back to yourown en zone? Why would you be
I mean, did you were younot in position you're going to be non
existent? Did you miss it?Did it land and bounce on the nineteen
and you couldn't get it in time? Like? Is there some strategy to
making your kicker capable of getting itto the turf before somebody can catch it?

(01:43:08):
Inside the twentieses? You go fullCam Newton and you were afraid to
jump on it? Well that wasI keep watching these these basketball bloopers and
I make that that's the PJ Tuckerplay. They were playing the Knicks.
They had a three point lead latein the game. Eric Gordon got the
ball out of the basket. Ohyeah, threw it into PJ and PJ
thought it was a handgridade He waslike dancing around like I can't touch this,

(01:43:30):
and Eric's like, what are youdoing? What are you doing?
He picked up the ball. Heliterally, I think, was saying that
if I screaming it. He alsothrew his hands up he Eric Gordon faced
it well. His eyes were comingout of his head too, because that
happens, all right. So that'sI mean, look, that's extremely interesting
and actually makes sense once you kindof get past all the convoluted just oh
my goodness, what am I readinghere? You start thinking about what it
would look like, and it's actuallyfascinating. And I actually hope that now

(01:43:55):
twenty four teams have to vote yes, but I hope it happens, and
I think they're voting on it atthe end of this month, is what
I read. So we shall see. In the meantime, we shall see
what we haven't gotten into. Becausein case you missed it, is next
here on the eighteen back to AdamClinton had Adam Wexler two A's he the

(01:44:16):
eighteen on four seven You're a homefor your home teams and these two apps.
In case you missed it, startingright now, take it away,
Dan, I was this guy tosay, you know, now the dad's

(01:44:39):
gone. It's kind of like thehouse party, I guess. So now
everybody's gonna be coming over and hopefullynobody spills any beer, so we don't
have to try to explain that alittle bit later on. But Steven Adams,
speaking of later on, that's whenRockets fans are gonna get to see
him in Rockets red and white,because he of course is done for the
season. They acquired him last monthin a trade. Well, for the

(01:45:00):
first time today he met with themedia and even though he's not playing this
year, he was already asked abouta role, and Steven Adams telling the
person who asks that, well,well, slower role there, man,
I'm not sure right now. It'sjust like getting information and all that sort
of stuff, like hanging around,being around the guys a lot of things
too. Bro. You can't justcome in and just like this is what
you have to do out of likeyou have to build some sort of rapport

(01:45:23):
first, so they could actually,I don't know what you say, actually
lands and they know that it's comingfrom like a good place, and it
goes both ways, you know,like he might teach me something which is
good. You know, everyone couldteach you everyone there's a lot of age
thing, like they might see somethingthat's about being open with everyone because we're
the only ones out there battling.Look back on it after the game.

(01:45:44):
Blah blah blah. You know,so like that that's the most important thing
through all this. You know,the exits and Nose will take care of
the excess and knows that's fine.It's just about being like, you know,
teammateer teammate, And he of coursetalking about trying to shepherd a long
young alprin Shingoon and trying to makehim a more force full five in the
game. But every time I hearSteven Adams, I always think of remember
when he was on the Zoom forthe Bubble period there at Disney and he

(01:46:10):
was asked about, you know,being away from your family and everything.
He was like, we're at aresort first of all. Okay, so
it's not that bad. I listen. I don't know. I mean,
I'm assuming starting next year he hitsthe floor and everything's all good from a
playing standpoint, And I mean,I don't know what he's got left in

(01:46:30):
the tank, but it's going tobe solid. I mean, I'm never
going to put it this way,I'm never gonna look at the backup center
position on the rockets the same way. Ever, again, after I saw
what to Kimbi Matumbo was capable ofwhen everyone thought he was done and then
he basically like revived his career.Now, I get it, it was
a different league, it was adifferent style of play. But Steven Adams

(01:46:56):
is exactly what this team needs.What I'm looking forward to, almost more
than on court, is more ofthis. This guy is a SoundBite machine.
Everybody I've ever talked to loves dealingwith him. It's kind of it
reminds me, in a roundabout weirdway of how people talked about Bobon.
Now, nobody's confusing these two personalities. I mean, Bobon genuinely might be

(01:47:20):
one of the nicest people on theplanet. Whereas Steven Adams, He'll hurt
you now if you need to behurt. But I've heard nothing but good
things about him, and this didn'tdo anything to change my mind. Yeah,
I mean it's also too I meanhis type of play. I mean,
me and you we have talked atnumerous times this year about look another

(01:47:41):
offensive rebound, Like he's the typeof guy that if nothing else, just
his presence out there, it's kindof like, oh, we can't just
go into the lane, like that'sjust not gonna happen as much. Yeah,
No, that's the that's the problemwith the Rockets right now. Defensively,
for a team that has a gooddefensive reputation that was built solely on

(01:48:02):
this season, because nothing coming intothis year said anything of that nature,
they yet still give up. Imean, look, if ema Udoka is
going on records saying you shouldn't getbodied by chet Holmgren, you shouldn't get
bodied by chet Holmgren, Okay,I don't have to. I said that
leading up to it, and thenhe said it again because they played back

(01:48:23):
to back games. I love thefact that he said that, because it's
true. The guy's a broom andhe was bodying your big men who outweigh
him by several pounds. So yeah, I don't see chet Holgren pushing around
Steven Adams whenever he's in there.Next year. Well, hopefully the Rockets
can make it two in a row. Tonight, Rockets launch pack coming your
way in just over thirty minutes withROSSI speaking of guys who shouldn't be pushing

(01:48:45):
you around victors in town. That'strue. So the broom they can keep
wimby at Bay tonight. All right, So we like to back on the
cowboys around here. It's just whatwe do. We enjoyed doing it,
and a little bit more ammunition cameour way. Travis Kelce on his new
Heights podcast that he does, ofcourse with the recently retired Jason Kelsey,

(01:49:06):
talked about NFL Draft Combine. Timehe got drafted in twenty thirteen, he
met with the Cowboys and they wantedto talk with him about red flags at
the combine. I had some badinterviews the Cowboys. They we're kind of
pressing me about having this red flagof missing a year, suspended first season,
smoking weed. I don't know abouthaving a bad morning. I basically

(01:49:26):
was just I don't even know ifI want to say this time it ended
really fast. I basically just said, if you guys think I'm going to
be that kind of guy, oryou're questioning if I'm still that person after
everything that I've battled through to getto where I am now from missing a
season, then you guys probably gosomewhere else and pick somebody else. That's
exactly what they did. They tookyour advice. Well. In fairness though

(01:49:49):
to ac they did have Jason Whittenat the time, who was still a
very good tight end. But still, if you're a Cowboys fan and you
hear that, you're just kind oflike, really like, we didn't take
the guy because we thought he hadred flags for smoking weed. Well,
okay, let's I mean, that'sobvious. Let's point out the even more

(01:50:09):
obvious send the first time a allworld receiver got passed on by the Dallas
Cowboys and clowned them after the factfor it, Randy Moss anyone. Now,
to be fair, Randy Moss clownedon every one of the teams.
He's one of those guys. Whois it that I saw recently and they

(01:50:30):
were like, I think it wasan NFL player. I have a feeling
that you could rattle off all theteams that passed on you in the draft
and I can't remember who it was. They were being interviewed, and that
person literally right there on the spot, boom boom, boom, rattled off
and I mean it was like fifteensixteen names. Maybe can't remember who it
was. That's that's Travis Kelcey righthere. And look, I don't blame

(01:50:53):
him. When you have put upthe numbers he's put up, you get
the ultimate last laugh. And it'snot just the numbers he's put up.
Individually. He is one of thebiggest reasons that they have won multiple Super
Bowls, you know, something Dallashasn't done since nineteen ninety six. Just
another reminder, as you said,we like clowning on the Dallas Cowboys,

(01:51:15):
but the fact that Travis keltzy andit's it's almost like unabated, like he
just kind of decided to twist thatknife. He could have said this twenty
thirteen, twenty fourteen, twenty five. I mean, he got drafted in
twenty thirteen, so he could havesaid this this whole time. But now
he waits until he's ten eleven yearsinto his career to twist the knife in
the Dallas Cowboys or you know,so to speak, kick them while they're

(01:51:38):
down again. Yeah, I mean, because he knows it's gonna land.
I mean, oh yeah, thatCowboys fan they're gonna be like another example
of Jerry being a moron building afootball team. Like that's exactly and I
get it too. Look we're intalking season that's when things like this happened.
But again, you're talking about theDallas Cowboys since win have character issues

(01:51:59):
been something I have a problem with. Like, I get if you're trying
to draft guys, but like,this is the team that had the White
House in the nineties. We againgoing back to the time they were relevant,
right, I mean it's all about, like, what are exactly the
character issues that you care about?Because I would say, of the ones
that could possibly be out there,and we don't have to list them,
like this would be probably pretty lowon my list. I think that if

(01:52:20):
I had a season ticket holder ridingto me saying I can't believe you drafted
a guy because he tested positive forweed, I'd just be like, I
think you've got other issues that youknow are working through in your life that
I just I don't know how longam ride with you on that? Yeah?
No, how long would it havetaken him to supplant Jason Witten?
Like where in his career was JasonWitten? I don't know what year he

(01:52:43):
retired Swart's back end. I thinkWitten retired in seventeen, I want to
say, because I think eighteen wasthe disastrous year on Monday Night football.
That was a surprise to everyone,including me. I thought he'd be really
good. But that's besides the point. For some reason, I thought that
was much earlier. It was aroundthat time, I mean, because what
was it. I think the sixteenseason or was it the seventeen season was

(01:53:06):
the one that they lost to thePackers because it was the everybody run left
play. Now, you're right,Mason Crosby kicked the field goal. His
last year was twenty twenty. Actually, oh wow, Well he came back
to Vegas, but his last yearin Dallas was nineteen. He was retired
in twenty eighteen. So yeah,you nailed it. Interesting real quick here,

(01:53:26):
because I know we're up against iteven though Dad's not here, and
you know we've already been texted tocheck your phone, Arch Manning telling ESPN.
You know, there was a reportyesterday from my good buddy on war
Richardson with the Orange Bloods that hedidn't want to be part of the NCAA
football game that EA Sports is puttingout because he went to focus on football.
Well, March Slayball's report I thinkprobably paints him in a little bit

(01:53:46):
of a better light. He wantsto wait until he is the guy at
Texas before being featured in the videogame. Okay, I can ride with
that. I haven't earned it yet. I can appreciate that from March.
Well yeah, but come on,like, what if you're Arch Manning?
If there's anybody that I guess hisneeds to be in this game too strong

(01:54:09):
of a statement, m No,I mean I think there's other players that
people are looking forward to playing with. Well, no, maybe even including
the guy that's starting in front ofhim, and he might know that.
Maybe I'm just I think I'm Ithink I'm latching on. And I wouldn't
have been like this with Chris Simms. But yet it's kind of an eerily
similar situation. Then again, hewas better, he probably would have beaten

(01:54:31):
him out. Well, here's thething though, too, and I was
talking about it with our resident collegefootball guy here, Chris Gordy. It's
not ala rema possibility that Quinn youErs is going to make it through an
entire season. He hasn't done itthe past two years. So what week
does he play week before? Wow, you're not even giving him a month?
I mean, hey, you justhe's seemingly had shoulder issues the past

(01:54:54):
two not seemingly he has. So, I mean I was around it with
one of the previous programs I coveredof the All World guy and then the
guy behind him, and then theguy behind him never gave up the job.
Stranger things have happened, indeed,for sure. All right, when
we come back, what does Patmclafee, WrestleMania and weight loss have to

(01:55:18):
do with each other? You mightbe shocked to find out. We will
describe that when we come back nexthere on the eighteen, Hey, Stalen
Green, catch shoot, that's uptriple here every rock is going on the
GOP with the iheartradiot makes your point. You got the home of the Rockies
Sports Talk seven ninety. Did yousee what wex texted during the break?

(01:55:43):
Oh yeah, go ahead and enlightenthe listeners about this one. So we
were talking about Arch Manning. Let'ssee here. Multiple people have told me
Texas red shirt quarterback Arch Manning willnot opt into EA Sports College Football twin.
I'm told Arch is focused on playingfootball on the field. Brandon McCarthy,

(01:56:05):
the sporting director for Phoenix Rising FC. This is why I'm glad.
I'm so glad I retired. Inclusionin video games is exhausting. You have
no idea what it's like to beon call anytime someone picks up a controller.
Now that's a dad joke if Iever heard one, but it's still

(01:56:26):
pretty funny. Like, Okay,I get it, you're Arch manning.
You want to focus on football soyou don't need to be distracted by whatever
else. But really, this,this is this, that's the reason you're
giving. I'm focused on playing footballin the field. It can't be bothered
with EA Sports like every and you'regetting paid. I mean, I know
you don't need to think about moneybecause of you know where you're from,

(01:56:49):
but like, come on, man, it's not that serious. I think
EA Sports just got their commercial fornext year when Arch is prominently featured in
the video game where it's Tim walkinga class, you know, with friends,
and all of a sudden, thishuge hand just kind of plucks him
off the ground and you know,puts him on the field and he's like
really, like it's not even Saturdayyet. It'd be great if they like

(01:57:10):
had all these highlights of different playersdifferent schools and they're all, you know,
in games, and then when theyget to Arch, it's him walking
on campus instead of like a footballhighlight. I'm not playing yet, I'm
not the guy. I'm focused onplaying football on the field, all right.
Eighteen continues here on Sports Talk sevenninety Your Boy Matt Pat McAfee,

(01:57:30):
Dan has He's opened up about ongoingdrug use in a new interview ahead of
WrestleMania. Now, I want tosay this before we go any further.
WrestleMania is gonna be awesome this year. I have a feeling. I just
it's good every year because it's WrestleMania. It's the super Bowl of this time
of year for that company. Butwith the Rock involved and everything else,

(01:57:54):
I I just think it's it's gonnabe spectacular. But and it's in Philadelphia.
In case you're wondering, he's notgonna be stepping back into the ring
at WrestleMania Pat McAfee the way hedid at the Royal Rumble in January.
And that's because, according to him, he wouldn't pass the company's drug testing

(01:58:15):
policy. Now, on the surface, that sounds like he's just admitting that
he's, you know, doing illegaldrugs or something like that. But she's
spoken pretty openly about before, right, But he was asked by Matt Barnes
if there was any chance they wouldsee him at WrestleMania, and this was
his answer in Philly, I don'tknow, dude. So I got a

(01:58:35):
lot of science pumping through me rightnow, you know, when you retire,
I said, hey, I wantthat rich guy stuff. What are
these rich guys taking that I seeon Instagram? Are you ear a thought
about that? Like we think allthe time about for example, Sylvester Stallone
when he's getting ready for Rocky orRambo back in the day, or Arnold

(01:58:56):
Schwarzenegger or yeah, Ross is inhere pantomiming the things that we think those
actors have done. In first itwas probably some sort of steroids. And
then later as technology increased and gota little bit more progressive or what have
you, then you had the HGHsituation. Whatever you use to do whatever
you who was it the guy stoppedcoming back into the country or going out

(01:59:19):
of the country at an airport.It was an actor and he had like
HGH or something along those lines,and it was, you know, so
he could look ripped in whatever moviehe was making. So anyways, yeah,
sorry, guys. The three hundredworkout does not make you look like
Gerard Butler in three hundred. No, no it doesn't. I mean you

(01:59:39):
gotta have you have to have somegenetic help, if you will coursing through
your veins before you put anything elsein them. He goes with my particular
build, if I eat pizza fourtimes, fat ass? Okay, fat
ass. And the football season islong, and every year I've gained like
fifty to six since retiring. Sothis year I'm like, I'm gonna go

(02:00:01):
get on the rich guy stuff thatcheats and keeps me thin, not as
full as the ozembic move, butI'm not against it. I will head
to that route in a couple ofyears. And you know, Barnes asked
the question that I've always asked aboutany of this kind of stuff, What
are the long term consequences? Andhe goes, I don't have a bleeping
clue, And he said, evenif the drug takes years off his life,

(02:00:25):
it was possible that would happen anyway. That being said, I don't
think I could pass any drug testfor WrestleMania. I'm on everything I think
they're testing for. I mean,this is a guy who once was found
by the cops swimming drunk in anIndianapolis canal allegedly. Well, he did
go to jail, so I havethe shirt, says allegedly. Yeah,

(02:00:45):
I just I get it though fora guy like him, very public.
You wanna look, people ask meall the time, you miss being in
TV? Whatever is less than no, that's my answer. It's so it
is. It is absolutely as superficialas you would think it would be,
and then some because now we're inthe you know, HD four K,

(02:01:11):
eight K, twenty k realm.Every little imperfection is going to be seen
on camera if you even put onfive pounds, and this is way worse
for women. And it was itwas superficial then when I was in television,
for them more so than the men. It's it's all of these stereotypes
are there. But if you're likean athlete or a former athlete in his

(02:01:33):
case in a different sport, andthen you're being called upon to get into
a wrestling ring at the biggest showof the year and all that's going on,
and I mean, I get itwell, I think I mean especially
too for in people might kind ofscoff at him where it's like, come
on man, you punted footballs,you didn't necessarily like take on the contact

(02:01:55):
every single play. That most ofthese guys too. But there's a reason
why a lot of guys step awaywhen they still have some semblance of health
in their life. I don't haveto do this anymore. I've made so
much money that I don't know whatto do with it, so I don't
have to continually, you know.I mean just thinking about for us the
weekend Warriors, where it's your alarmclock goes off, Ugh, I gotta

(02:02:17):
go work out, you know,just because you just want to have a
certain quality of life. For thoseguys, they have to do it because
it's part of their job that Ithink it reaches a certain point where they're
like, I don't want to dothis anymore, man, Like I've had
enough of the taxing on my bodyin terms of the hits and everything else.
But then the other part of itas well is the advancements that the

(02:02:38):
Players Association has made in terms ofnegotiating, you know, what type of
chemicals they want put in their body. Like a lot of these guys were
outwardly talking about stop giving me opioids, like stop doing it, like let
me take the other stuff. Theother stuff. I know what that's going
to do to me. This stuffaddiction starts coming in all of these other
things that they really kind of startto speak up in moss and say stop,

(02:03:01):
like we're not doing this anymore.Well, and you have the stuff
that gets flagged and it's not Imean, you can say it's performance enhancing,
but it's not along those lines likeit's some sort of like dietary supplement
that's not going to make you runfaster, be stronger, lift more,
what have you. It's or it'slike a rogue ingredient that the guy didn't

(02:03:21):
know about, which again, onthe flip side of that, I have
a hard time believing that because that'swhat these guys do twenty four to seven
is monitor what they're doing with theirbodies or not doing with their bodies.
So it's sometimes I don't believe thatnecessarily. But in this case, yeah,
he might have been just a punter. But then again, what are
we talking about. We're talking aboutgetting into the ring and taking bumps,

(02:03:44):
which for those who you know,like for Ross Vireal for example, he
just thinks it's all fake. Iwould love for him Yeah, you're catching
strays right here in studio. Iwould love for him to go one day
to like the WWE training center inOrlando and just take Did I say it
was fake? Right? Bumps?What do you mean? I didn't say
it's fake? You didn't, No, find the quote? So the references

(02:04:08):
to like, you know, oilingup and Tangy not doing that, it's
fake? What? And taking steroids? What? I don't think it's a
steroids anymore. I think it's different. I think it's poorly acting to scripted
material. Yeah, that's all happening. That's just so you know, not
it didn't used to be scripted.It's way too scripted now. In my
opinion, you don't want necessarily thatmany writers. But I digress. Sorry.

(02:04:30):
Final segment of The A Team ona Tuesday edition here on Sports Talk
seven ninety is straight Ahead back toAdam Clinton and Adam Wexler, The A
Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.Final segment of a Tuesday edition of The
A Team here on Sports Talk sevenninety, Ross vi Real is on the

(02:04:51):
on deck circle getting ready for Rocket'slaunch pad. So I took a baseball
analogy and put into a basketball pregame because very clever. Thank you,
Thank you. I worked really hardfor all of like one second coming up
with that. Hey, you know, Dan, for as much as we've
talked about college football twenty five andEA Sports and everything going into it and

(02:05:16):
the player is getting paid and allthat kind of stuff, you know,
we haven't really talked about what's goingto actually be on the game. Kevin
Connors is one of the voices forthe game, and he, like our
own Matt Thomas for example, whodoes this kind of thing. He's one
of the PA announcers in NBA twoK. He will kind of give you

(02:05:38):
a glimpse into what the recording sessionsare like. And I believe, like
Matt was going out to California,I believe at one point to do this.
But I feel like the last timein ROS could probably confirm this,
didn't they send him a kit torecord. He didn't have to go.
I think that might have happened whenthe pandemic was going down. Maybe that's

(02:05:59):
what I'm thinking. Maybe that's whatit was. But Kevin Connors tweeted a
picture of like his little recording setupand he said, you know that's a
rap and a photo of his setuprevealed some lines from the script for the
game. Because these guys have torecord all this stuff into the game.
It doesn't just appear there magically.Three games were featured on what was an

(02:06:21):
Excel document, and according to thisarticle, one of them is not like
the others. So you had OhioState Illinois, Fellas. It's one thing
to have a rivalry game, butwhen you have two longtime foes battling for
a prize like the Illabuck Trophy,you know, emotions tend to run high,
all right. So that's Ohio StateIllinois. Army Navy guys. There

(02:06:45):
are rivalries, and then there isundeniably the most meaningful rivalry in sports,
and the battle for the chance tosing second in today's Army Navy game has
been a site to behold. Thenyou have Alabama in Auburn. Guys,
from Tuscaloosa to the planes, thereare some ornery folks and some emotional fan

(02:07:06):
bases enjoying a soda pop and alot of trash talk in this battle between
the Tide and more Eagle. Iknew I would get a groan out of
you. I was gonna say thatthe after the ornery the two word line
that you just said right there,What did you say, well, which,
uh, soda pop and a lotof trash talk, and I was
gonna say, oh, no,the trash talk. I mean, that's

(02:07:27):
that's your round. Yeah, thisis the South. We don't call it
that. You know what we callit here in Houston, Texas. I
don't know if if I if Ican even speak for the rest of Texas.
It's coke. Yeah, what kindof coke do you want? I'd
like a doctor pepper, I'd likea sprite. That's that's what I'm used
to. I mean, and that'seven deeper into the South there where that
still applies absolutely, Like I wouldn't. I don't even know if I've ever

(02:07:53):
used soda pop or or like separatelyin a sentence to describe you know that
beverage. Oh, I use itnow for adult beverages where I say give
me this and soda and they knowwhat it means club soda. Yeah,
But like I just I don't evenI mean, it's weird because you go
to and I can't remember what whatis it in the Midwest, Because you

(02:08:15):
know, Teresa, it's pot That'swhat I thought. Teresa grew up in
Kansas City, and that's what hermom and stepfather call it when they come
down, right, And I'm like, I kind of always have to do
a double take the first day they'rethere because it comes up inevitably. I
just I don't know, I can't, but I do think that's funny that
he like he left that, heleft that there, and he had to
have known people were gonna use it. That's the thing. You ever take

(02:08:37):
a picture and you post it onany sort of social account and you're like,
oh, I need to double andtriple check this so I make sure
that something that I don't want anybodyout there to see or know, or
address or that kind of stuff.Is he had to have known that people
were gonna pick up on this.Well, And Kevin's been around college football
too long enough to know that it'sa very regionalized game and traditions of those

(02:09:03):
regions are very much of if youdon't get it right, they'll let you
know it. And I haven't seenas much from Auburn Twitter, but Bama
Twitter is are like are they killinghim? Yes? Absolutely they are.
So what's the biggest uh, what'sthe biggest go to? What are they
so upset? About Oh, Ithink just most of it of the soda
pop and ornery folks like this isn'tCivil War era, Like, we don't

(02:09:24):
talk that way anymore. Yeah,has anybody talked that way? Oh?
But especially like who rights? Okay, so who writes? It's not even
on Kevin as much as it's who'swriting these scripts I was gonna say.
I mean, it's probably somebody whothinks, oh, you know the South,
that's the way they talk there,like out in you know, Silicon
Valley writing this out and it's like, why don't you take a trip there,
and then you know, start toyou know, write some things like

(02:09:46):
the soda pop thing like sweet tea. If you say sweet tea, you're
not gonna be wrong, No you'renot. And that's why speak. I
mean, I'm glad you brought thatup because and now part of this is
just because Teresa isn't like sugar tobegin with. That's too sweet. She's
like opposed to it, and I'mlike, yeah, you didn't grow up
in the South like sweet tea ofany kind, whether it's sun tea or

(02:10:11):
just hey, let's put a fewcups of sugar into this jug is the
best, especially when it's cold.I've cut down on my intake over the
recent years, but yes, Imean Wilford Brimley got ahold of you did.
Hey. It was one of thosethings I wanted to avoid, you
know, the double chin being evenmore double. I get it, man,
you gotta cut down on the sugarand take that'd be just ye.

(02:10:33):
It'll it'll get you. It'll comeafter you, all right. So Wimby
is in town. I actually refusea call on that. Victor wibin Yama
is in town. The presumed rookieof the Year. I still think it
should be chet Holgren. I thinkCheed Holgren's actually going to be squeezed out
of that award because he's actually ona good basketball team, which makes zero
sense to me, because part ofthe reason they're so good is because now

(02:10:54):
Shay Gildess Alexander isn't scoring thirty fiveforty points in losses all the time.
But anyway, he's gonna be intown tonight. It's actually the first of
a couple games they'll play against theSpurs and the foreseeable future. But a
guy that you know pumped his fistwhen he knew he wasn't gonna be drafted
by the Houston Rockets. Whether that'strue or not, it's what it looked
like on television, so I'm goingwith it. He's in town tonight,

(02:11:16):
as I mention Ross Vireal get youready for Rockets v. Spurs over at
Toyota Center, and then he'll makeway for Adam Wexler and Matt Thomas on
the call tonight, first of aback to back. The Clippers are in
town tomorrow night, so I wouldI'd suggest the Rockets win this game because
I think it's gonna be a bitmore difficult tomorrow night. Even without Russell

(02:11:37):
Westbrook shooting you out of a basketballgame. This had hurt surgery on his
hand. He's hoping to be backfor the playoffs tomorrow. But Spurs not
a very good basketball team, andwhether Victor puts up big numbers or not,
I think the Rockets should win thisgame tonight. We're hoping that will
be the case. That is gonnado it for the eight team. Today,
we'll get out of the way forRoss gets you ready for Rockets basketball,

(02:11:58):
and wex now will be back atit tomorrow from Toyota Center. As
we get you ready for that RocketsClippers game from the Arena. But for
now, for Dan, for wex, I may see it is the A
team here on Sports Talk seven ninetywe will talk to you guys again tomorrow
at three o'clock