Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
These things at this time, we visit with Mark Vandermer,
the voice of the Houston Texans. Mark, I know it's
early in the season, but how worried is everybody with
the oh and three start and the disappointment with Jacksonville
this weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, major concern Andy. I mean, it's early, but oh
and three is very often a death sentence to your
postseason chances. The Texans are the only team in the
last twenty five years to make the playoffs at oh
and three. They did it in twenty eighteen, and you
don't want to have to do that again, but here
you are. It's your only way in. And I think
that year was very different. The schedule wasn't as tough
(00:37):
as this year. I liken their chances. I mean, if
we look for inspiration in team history, I would look
at twenty fifteen when they were two and five, so
also three games below five hundred and they were dead.
They were blown out by Miami, blown out by Atlanta,
going no place fast, and they resurrected their season and
won the division that year. So you have to find
(00:58):
inspiration in your own history that way. But the most
important thing is beating Tennessee on Sunday because you lost
to a Jacksonville team that was dying to give you
the victory on being facetious, of course, but they handed
it to the Texans several times, and the Texans just
wouldn't take it. Three turnovers in the Jags end of
the field when you had a chance to tire or
take the lead on multiple occasions. It's not acceptable, and
(01:20):
they know it, and they know they have to do
a whole lot better starting Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, and I look at it from this perspective, I
think Jacksonville and Tennessee and I'm not sold that the
Colts are three I really, I mean they're three and
zero record wise, but the division is still up for
grabs because of all the games that are still to
be played, and at least what the experts said at
the beginning of the year, the Texans were really the
only playoff team in that division. So if they can
(01:45):
find some answers, I think the opportunity to get back
in this race is there.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, I agree with you. And you have the Colts twice,
and you have the Jags one more time, the Titans twice,
so you have those opportunities ahead of you and the
Colt schedule is going to get a lot tougher. I mean,
they've played some very beatable teams. They opened with the
Dolphins kind of a dead team at the time, and
they played the Titans last week not exactly a thriving team,
and they did beat the Broncos. But who are the Broncos.
(02:09):
We don't really know yet as far as the twenty
twenty five version goes. But in Indy, it looks like
they might have found the formula that we talked about
in the off season, where you have Jonathan Taylor running
the ball well, Daniel Jones can rely on that, similar
to what he did with Sakwan Barkley in twenty twenty
two in New York. So that's working well for them
so far, but a long way to go. You're right,
(02:30):
you still have plenty of opportunities in front of you.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So what do they need to get better at? Where's
the issue the most right now? Do you see with
the Texans.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It's just way too herky jerky on offense? You know,
they have one or two good moments and if you
isolated certain plays and put together a highlight reel, you'd say, oh,
that looks pretty good. But you have too many plays
that don't look good. You have too many times where
you either commit a penalty or take a loss on
a play, and all of a sudden, you're way behind
the sticks. And this team simply can't overcome those long
down and distant situations right now. And you know, I
(03:02):
think it's a multitude of things. The offensive line not
past protecting well enough, although it's slightly getting better as
we move on through the season here run blocking has
gotten a little better, but then again, on third down
not good enough. They're the worst team in the league
on third down statistically right now. And C. J. Stroud
does make some good throws, but he's been a little
(03:23):
inaccurate and maybe very inaccurate at times, so it's just
tough to take. I still think he's got it. I
think it's in them, but they better start showing it
soon because if you don't beat let's say you do
beat Tennessee on Sunday, then you got Baltimore on the road.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I know the Bills beat them. I mean the Lions
beat them last night, but that's the Lions. You're not
the Lions right now. I'm not saying it's impossible to
do I think the defense does travel well. I think
the defense can keep you in a lot of games.
So if the offense can get it together, you could
beat the Ravens, you could beat the Seahawks. You have
those situations coming up, but you're going to have to
perform a whole lot better. So we haven't seen it yet.
(04:00):
We've seen some sparks, but you got to light the fire.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Any update or potential hope in the next few weeks
that Joe Mixon comes back.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I don't think so. I mean, I've not seen him
in the building, and I don't know. I mean, I'm
not I would not rely on that. Put it that way,
I would love to see Joe Mixon walk through that door,
because not only do you miss his running ability, you
miss the fire that he brings as a person in
the locker room right now. So I'd love to see
him come back, maybe later this year, maybe maybe for
(04:31):
all I know, he's in the building tomorrow and you
know he's at practice, but well he's not going to
be a practice because he's on IR anyway, So it's
a possibility, but I wouldn't rely on it. And they
did release CJ. Gardner Johnson today, Andy. That's a big
deal because they acquired him for in a trade in
the off season. It wasn't a ridiculously huge trade or anything,
and it's not big money. But apparently, and I don't
(04:53):
know the whole story, Tomiko Rymes is going to address
it tomorrow. But usually when you release the player instead
of trading him, you just want him out out of
the building. He just want them gone, and he wants
to be gone. And maybe it was just a party
of the ways where it wasn't going to work out
between them. There was a report that he didn't like
his role. I wonder, well, what's not to like? You're
playing safety in the NFL and you know that it's
(05:14):
a rocky start. But there's still a lot of football left,
so we'll see what happens with him. More importantly, for
the Texans, they got to figure out what to do
with that safety spot because they definitely needed him with
the absence of Jimmy Ward. Now, Jimmy Ward is off
the exet list, but he's still on IR so he's
not going to come back very soon. But this does
mean he could possibly come back, and that would be
(05:35):
a big help for that secondary.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You know, I think as fans we look at players
and go, man, that guy would really look good in
our uniform. And I imagine general managers think the same thing,
and then do you get them and you go, why
do we want that guy in the first place. So
that happens a little bit more often than sometimes we think.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, he's got a fiery personality, and they knew it
coming in, and I think they felt like we have
the culture here to absorb that kind of thing. You know.
I don't want to speculate on what it could be,
but when you have these guys with fiery personalities and
they're outspoken and everything, you know, sometimes it works great.
Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's a good mix, and this
time it clearly wasn't. So you got to move on
(06:14):
from that. And I'm not really worried about the defense.
I think the defense, like I said, can enable you
to hang in these games. They just got to get
the other side of the ball cracked up.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
What does Tennessee have? Obviously cam Ward's there. What do
you see that's different in the Titans this year going
into the game on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, the obvious answer is cam Ward and they're going
to change play callers on Sunday, go right to the
quarterbacks coach and skip the offensive coordinator. Brian Callahan the
head coach. Interestingly enough, Andy, when he got the job
last year, he was at Cincinnati previously as the offensive coordinator,
but he did not call the plays in Cincinnati. So
you hire a guy to be head coach and he's
(06:52):
going to be a play caller for the first time
in his career. And I just thought that was kind
of weird because you're taking on two huge jobs. Being
a head coach is hard enough. I'll give you an example.
Leave it in Tennessee. Mike Vrabel when he took that
job as head coach, he had been the defensive coordinator
for a year in Houston, but he said, I'm not
going to be the defensive coordinator. I'm gonna let Dean
Pas do it. I'm going to hire an offensive coordinator,
(07:14):
Matt Lafleur, and we're gonna go. And you know, they
had a good year in twenty eighteen when he started off,
and eventually twenty nineteen they knocked off the number one
seed in Baltimore. So I think that a head coach
has to be able to delegate. Now, Demiko Ryans is
a bit of a different story because he's an accomplished
play caller already on the defensive side of the ball,
so he's able to handle those things and be the
(07:34):
head coach. But even he has his hands full right now,
especially with the offense, because you know he wants to
stick his fingers in that a little bit, not coach it.
But they solve whatever problems are helped solve whatever problems
they have, and they have plenty right now because they
can't move the ball well enough.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, I would say Andy Reid and maybe a couple
like him are the only ones that can do both
that head coach and call plays, whether it's offense or defense.
That's taken on a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
It is and Sean Payton do it. A lot of
guys have done it and can do it. But I
think that especially if you're a first time play caller,
you got to keep your head up and be aware
of situations. Callahan had the situation at the end of
the first half last week where fifty eight yard field
goal calls time out, still can't figure out what to do.
They take a five yard delay of game and try
(08:19):
a sixty three yarder. It's crazy you know, that's the
kind of thing later on on your couch when you're
thinking about it, you'll think, oh, what was I doing right?
So clearly he's going to try to delegate redelegate and
things might be better for them. But cam Ward the
number one overall pick, unpredictable, great playmaker in college. He's
made already some great plays in the NFL. Not enough,
(08:41):
and you don't want it to start happening on Sunday
at NRG Stadium.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Awesome, Mark, as always, thanks so much. Hopefully next week
we're talking about a win and we'll be lifting on
Sunday to find out if that happens.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I'm hoping. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Andy, all right, that's Mark Vandermier. He's the voice of
the Houston Texans. And that's a noon kickoff on Sunday,
an eleven thirty year time here on the ticket for
that matchup with Tennessee and Houston.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, the CJ Garden like like, you know, even it
caught Mark off guard, is you know, they traded for
him in the offseason coming off of a Super Bowl
winning year with the Philadelphia Eagles where he had I
can't remember how many interceptions he had six interceptions last
year for the Eagles and expecting you know, they they
(09:28):
traded at the time their own twenty twenty two first
round draft pick, left guard Kenyon Green for him, and
he just it's for whatever reason, it's miscommunication.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, we say this a lot in the NBA. You
play a team twice a year, once a year, maybe
twice a year if you're playing an Eastern Conference team,
and three or four times a year, and every time
you played that team, that guy just lights you up,
and you're going, this guy is great, maybe we should
have him on our roster. And then someday he actually
trades for you and you realize why nobody wanted him,
(10:01):
because he only has about ten good games a year
and the other seventy aren't so good. Richard Jefferson, Yeah,
well that was one of the things I was thinking about.
Richard Jefferson killed the Spurs when he played for the Nets,
but when he became a Spur, he only killed the
other team, you know, eight or ten times a year,
and so you're like, what did we get ourselves into
(10:22):
so that that can happen from time to time?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
All right?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Heated exchanges between players and coaches on sidelines let's talk
about Andy Reid and Travis Kelsey. Next, it's the Andy
Everage show.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
On the ticket
These things at this time, we visit with Mark Vandermer,
the voice of the Houston Texans. Mark, I know it's
early in the season, but how worried is everybody with
the oh and three start and the disappointment with Jacksonville
this weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, major concern Andy. I mean, it's early, but oh
and three is very often a death sentence to your
postseason chances. The Texans are the only team in the
last twenty five years to make the playoffs at oh
and three. They did it in twenty eighteen, and you
don't want to have to do that again, but here
you are. It's your only way in. And I think
that year was very different. The schedule wasn't as tough
(00:37):
as this year. I liken their chances. I mean, if
we look for inspiration in team history, I would look
at twenty fifteen when they were two and five, so
also three games below five hundred and they were dead.
They were blown out by Miami, blown out by Atlanta,
going no place fast, and they resurrected their season and
won the division that year. So you have to find
(00:58):
inspiration in your own history that way. But the most
important thing is beating Tennessee on Sunday because you lost
to a Jacksonville team that was dying to give you
the victory on being facetious, of course, but they handed
it to the Texans several times, and the Texans just
wouldn't take it. Three turnovers in the Jags end of
the field when you had a chance to tire or
take the lead on multiple occasions. It's not acceptable, and
(01:20):
they know it, and they know they have to do
a whole lot better starting Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, and I look at it from this perspective, I
think Jacksonville and Tennessee and I'm not sold that the
Colts are three I really, I mean they're three and
zero record wise, but the division is still up for
grabs because of all the games that are still to
be played, and at least what the experts said at
the beginning of the year, the Texans were really the
only playoff team in that division. So if they can
(01:45):
find some answers, I think the opportunity to get back
in this race is there.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, I agree with you. And you have the Colts twice,
and you have the Jags one more time, the Titans twice,
so you have those opportunities ahead of you and the
Colt schedule is going to get a lot tougher. I mean,
they've played some very beatable teams. They opened with the
Dolphins kind of a dead team at the time, and
they played the Titans last week not exactly a thriving team,
and they did beat the Broncos. But who are the Broncos.
(02:09):
We don't really know yet as far as the twenty
twenty five version goes. But in Indy, it looks like
they might have found the formula that we talked about
in the off season, where you have Jonathan Taylor running
the ball well, Daniel Jones can rely on that, similar
to what he did with Sakwan Barkley in twenty twenty
two in New York. So that's working well for them
so far, but a long way to go. You're right,
(02:30):
you still have plenty of opportunities in front of you.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So what do they need to get better at? Where's
the issue the most right now? Do you see with
the Texans.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It's just way too herky jerky on offense? You know,
they have one or two good moments and if you
isolated certain plays and put together a highlight reel, you'd say, oh,
that looks pretty good. But you have too many plays
that don't look good. You have too many times where
you either commit a penalty or take a loss on
a play, and all of a sudden, you're way behind
the sticks. And this team simply can't overcome those long
down and distant situations right now. And you know, I
(03:02):
think it's a multitude of things. The offensive line not
past protecting well enough, although it's slightly getting better as
we move on through the season here run blocking has
gotten a little better, but then again, on third down
not good enough. They're the worst team in the league
on third down statistically right now. And C. J. Stroud
does make some good throws, but he's been a little
(03:23):
inaccurate and maybe very inaccurate at times, so it's just
tough to take. I still think he's got it. I
think it's in them, but they better start showing it
soon because if you don't beat let's say you do
beat Tennessee on Sunday, then you got Baltimore on the road.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I know the Bills beat them. I mean the Lions
beat them last night, but that's the Lions. You're not
the Lions right now. I'm not saying it's impossible to
do I think the defense does travel well. I think
the defense can keep you in a lot of games.
So if the offense can get it together, you could
beat the Ravens, you could beat the Seahawks. You have
those situations coming up, but you're going to have to
perform a whole lot better. So we haven't seen it yet.
(04:00):
We've seen some sparks, but you got to light the fire.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Any update or potential hope in the next few weeks
that Joe Mixon comes back.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I don't think so. I mean, I've not seen him
in the building, and I don't know. I mean, I'm
not I would not rely on that. Put it that way,
I would love to see Joe Mixon walk through that door,
because not only do you miss his running ability, you
miss the fire that he brings as a person in
the locker room right now. So I'd love to see
him come back, maybe later this year, maybe maybe for
(04:31):
all I know, he's in the building tomorrow and you
know he's at practice, but well he's not going to
be a practice because he's on IR anyway, So it's
a possibility, but I wouldn't rely on it. And they
did release CJ. Gardner Johnson today, Andy. That's a big
deal because they acquired him for in a trade in
the off season. It wasn't a ridiculously huge trade or anything,
and it's not big money. But apparently, and I don't
(04:53):
know the whole story, Tomiko Rymes is going to address
it tomorrow. But usually when you release the player instead
of trading him, you just want him out out of
the building. He just want them gone, and he wants
to be gone. And maybe it was just a party
of the ways where it wasn't going to work out
between them. There was a report that he didn't like
his role. I wonder, well, what's not to like? You're
playing safety in the NFL and you know that it's
(05:14):
a rocky start. But there's still a lot of football left,
so we'll see what happens with him. More importantly, for
the Texans, they got to figure out what to do
with that safety spot because they definitely needed him with
the absence of Jimmy Ward. Now, Jimmy Ward is off
the exet list, but he's still on IR so he's
not going to come back very soon. But this does
mean he could possibly come back, and that would be
(05:35):
a big help for that secondary.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You know, I think as fans we look at players
and go, man, that guy would really look good in
our uniform. And I imagine general managers think the same thing,
and then do you get them and you go, why
do we want that guy in the first place. So
that happens a little bit more often than sometimes we think.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, he's got a fiery personality, and they knew it
coming in, and I think they felt like we have
the culture here to absorb that kind of thing. You know.
I don't want to speculate on what it could be,
but when you have these guys with fiery personalities and
they're outspoken and everything, you know, sometimes it works great.
Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's a good mix, and this
time it clearly wasn't. So you got to move on
(06:14):
from that. And I'm not really worried about the defense.
I think the defense, like I said, can enable you
to hang in these games. They just got to get
the other side of the ball cracked up.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
What does Tennessee have? Obviously cam Ward's there. What do
you see that's different in the Titans this year going
into the game on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, the obvious answer is cam Ward and they're going
to change play callers on Sunday, go right to the
quarterbacks coach and skip the offensive coordinator. Brian Callahan the
head coach. Interestingly enough, Andy, when he got the job
last year, he was at Cincinnati previously as the offensive coordinator,
but he did not call the plays in Cincinnati. So
you hire a guy to be head coach and he's
(06:52):
going to be a play caller for the first time
in his career. And I just thought that was kind
of weird because you're taking on two huge jobs. Being
a head coach is hard enough. I'll give you an example.
Leave it in Tennessee. Mike Vrabel when he took that
job as head coach, he had been the defensive coordinator
for a year in Houston, but he said, I'm not
going to be the defensive coordinator. I'm gonna let Dean
Pas do it. I'm going to hire an offensive coordinator,
(07:14):
Matt Lafleur, and we're gonna go. And you know, they
had a good year in twenty eighteen when he started off,
and eventually twenty nineteen they knocked off the number one
seed in Baltimore. So I think that a head coach
has to be able to delegate. Now, Demiko Ryans is
a bit of a different story because he's an accomplished
play caller already on the defensive side of the ball,
so he's able to handle those things and be the
(07:34):
head coach. But even he has his hands full right now,
especially with the offense, because you know he wants to
stick his fingers in that a little bit, not coach it.
But they solve whatever problems are helped solve whatever problems
they have, and they have plenty right now because they
can't move the ball well enough.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, I would say Andy Reid and maybe a couple
like him are the only ones that can do both
that head coach and call plays, whether it's offense or defense.
That's taken on a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
It is and Sean Payton do it. A lot of
guys have done it and can do it. But I
think that especially if you're a first time play caller,
you got to keep your head up and be aware
of situations. Callahan had the situation at the end of
the first half last week where fifty eight yard field
goal calls time out, still can't figure out what to do.
They take a five yard delay of game and try
(08:19):
a sixty three yarder. It's crazy you know, that's the
kind of thing later on on your couch when you're
thinking about it, you'll think, oh, what was I doing right?
So clearly he's going to try to delegate redelegate and
things might be better for them. But cam Ward the
number one overall pick, unpredictable, great playmaker in college. He's
made already some great plays in the NFL. Not enough,
(08:41):
and you don't want it to start happening on Sunday
at NRG Stadium.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Awesome, Mark, as always, thanks so much. Hopefully next week
we're talking about a win and we'll be lifting on
Sunday to find out if that happens.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I'm hoping. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Andy, all right, that's Mark Vandermier. He's the voice of
the Houston Texans. And that's a noon kickoff on Sunday,
an eleven thirty year time here on the ticket for
that matchup with Tennessee and Houston.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, the CJ Garden like like, you know, even it
caught Mark off guard, is you know, they traded for
him in the offseason coming off of a Super Bowl
winning year with the Philadelphia Eagles where he had I
can't remember how many interceptions he had six interceptions last
year for the Eagles and expecting you know, they they
(09:28):
traded at the time their own twenty twenty two first
round draft pick, left guard Kenyon Green for him, and
he just it's for whatever reason, it's miscommunication.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, we say this a lot in the NBA. You
play a team twice a year, once a year, maybe
twice a year if you're playing an Eastern Conference team,
and three or four times a year, and every time
you played that team, that guy just lights you up,
and you're going, this guy is great, maybe we should
have him on our roster. And then someday he actually
trades for you and you realize why nobody wanted him,
(10:01):
because he only has about ten good games a year
and the other seventy aren't so good. Richard Jefferson, Yeah,
well that was one of the things I was thinking about.
Richard Jefferson killed the Spurs when he played for the Nets,
but when he became a Spur, he only killed the
other team, you know, eight or ten times a year,
and so you're like, what did we get ourselves into
(10:22):
so that that can happen from time to time?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
All right?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Heated exchanges between players and coaches on sidelines let's talk
about Andy Reid and Travis Kelsey. Next, it's the Andy
Everage show.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
On the ticket
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