June 7, 2023 • 18 mins
How much differently will the Texans run game look in 2023? Texans TV's Drew Dougherty and Team Analyst/Radio Sideline Reporter John Harris discussed this idea and why it's so intriguing for 2023 and the future.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
In the Lab, a Texans podcast that takes a different
look at things. Due Doherty and John Harris have their
lab coats and goggles on and the Bunsen burners burning.
Here's Drew, all right, this is in the Lab.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I am Drew. That is John, and there's a lot
going on. John.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
We had a open practice yesterday of OTA's Heart from
some interesting folks Yep, Adult Schultz, Damian Pierce, amongst others.
I got a chance to go one on one with
Dulton Schultz, which you can hear on Houston Texans dot com.
You played it last night on the radio show. It
was a lot of fun, was covered a lot of
(00:43):
areas so football wise. He got pretty into the details
about why he's jack about this offense. And you got
me even more excited than I already was. And that
was a pretty high level of excitement. But this is
a guy who's proven to be a very productive NFL
football player, chose to come here, and I said, hey,
money aside, why did you come here? And that's what
(01:04):
he told me about his excitement over the team. I
think that's a very important question you should ask any
guy who signs with any team in any sport. Hey,
money aside, Why do you like this? Because listen, money
is usually going to be the reason that if someone
signs here. I don't begrudge anyone that. So that's why
I ask it that way. But man, the way he answered,
Bobby Slowick and company, they're cooking up something pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It sounds like John I think.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
What's interesting about free agents signing, especially a player like
Dalton Schultz, where there's a lot of talk last offseason
about the contract that Dalton Schultz could potentially sign as
a long term in a long term situation, be it
the Cowboys or somebody else. But the Cowboys went franchised
him being get a long term deal done, and because
(01:49):
of that, he became an unrestricted free agent this summer,
and so the textas sign him to a one year deal.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
And I've always said this about a one year deal.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I don't have a problem with one year deal because
both parties essentially get to try it on for size.
You get a one year deal, you get that money,
that money is typically guaranteed. You get an opportunity to
put your put your wares out there for all thirty
one other teams to watch. Maybe not the Cowboys. Maybe
they maybe they get back in.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
So all thirty thirty one teams get to see it,
but you're in house for that team, so they get
to see you up close.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
But there's always ancillary benefits that you don't you don't
think about.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I would imagine as a free agent, you're thinking about location, place,
my family, how about all that? And then okay, well
what about the offense? What what can the offense do?
Or or defense depending on what side of the ball,
and Dulton's cases on the offense. And then you think too, okay,
well where were these guys last Well, they were in
San Francisco. You're in San Francisco. Oh, George Kittle? Could
(02:48):
I fit that? Could I do that? They had other
tight ends? Okay, maybe could I fit that? Oh Babe,
I like this. And then you get here and you realize,
all right, this is why George Kittle was successful. This
is how they were able to get George Kittle open
in that particular role in those particular areas of the field.
Now I don't think I don't look at George Kittle
and think he's Dalton Schultz. I don't look a Dalt
(03:09):
Schultzen think he's George Kittle. But just from that particular
tight end position, you think, Okay, your mind starts running
wild with Okay, well, if they.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Did this with Kittle, what can they do with me.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
That's where you start thinking about whether it's Dalton Schultz,
whether it's Devin Singletary, whether it's any free agent that
that gets into your building. That's what they're that's what
they're thinking about, and hopefully that's what adult's thinking about,
and it's opened his eyes to hey, wait a second.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Yeah, it's a one year deal, but I could show
it off.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
I'm gonna get some offers hopefully, but man, I might
like it here that maybe don't give a hometown discount.
But you're thinking about I would like to be here
for the long term. You said you think was going
to year six, I think is what he said. So look,
if you're thinking about being a ten year player in
the NFL, which I don't know what guy's goals are,
I mean some might you know, I'll play till the
(04:00):
wheels fall off. You know, some guys want to play
five years. Some guys want to want to be in
for a decade. You know, that's always kind of a
nice number. Half spen ten years in the NFL. Well,
maybe you signed that deal with the Texans and this
is where you end up finishing that career and finishing
hopefully with a flourish uh, being that guy that Texans
have wanted a tight end for a long time. But
(04:20):
I think the presence of Dalton Schultz raises the game
of everybody else too. Brevin Jordan taking his game up
to a different level, taking with Toriano the rookie last year.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Now, they're all different, all three of those guys.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
They may play tight end, as I say in their quotes,
but they play it differently because the body type, size abilities,
all that kind of stuff. But I think Schultz ends
up being a really intriguing piece in this offense.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
And I love the fact that he gave you a J.
Cole lyric and you blanked on it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, I listen, I've heard but that's okay, okay Cole's
name thrown around. And when he said that, I just
I figured, Okay, I don't know the name of the song,
but I bet when I play it on Spotify, it'll
be like, oh, that's okay, that's what it's called. Played
it the first time i'd heard it, never heard it.
I was like, okay, well that that must be just
(05:10):
one song I've never heard. I played a few other J.
Cole songs, never heard of him, never heard any of it,
and hey, to each his own yep, not judging, never
heard it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Okay, so yeah, and he was like, he's like.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Oh, you're not a fan, and I say, it's like, well,
it's not that I'm not a fan, it's just that
I've never listened. He's like, yeah, so you're not a fan.
Let's take the gray out of this. I was like, touche,
that's that's you could become a fan. True, yeah, that's
the current moment. You're you're not I said, hey, just
total ignorance of it, and then yes, totally ignorant because
I have never heard a single one of those songs.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Hey. At the back end of that interview.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
He brought actually, let's get to the back end later
because in the middle when we were talking football, and
I couldn't follow this up because he was crunched for time.
He had to get out of here. But I had
a lot more for him than I wanted to ask.
He was talking about how excited he is for this
run game. He had spent a lot of time talking
about catching passes and the route tree and everything. And
he finished that answer and I said, yeah, and it's
(06:06):
interesting you bring up all this stuff about catching passes
and you're a tight end, but oh hey, that also
means you're essentially an offensive lineman as well, because you're
a tight end. Yeah, and he said, yeah, man, I
am so stoked about blocking in this run game. He's like,
that's what I'm most excited about. And he talked about
why this run game for a blocker, for an offensive
(06:28):
lineman is so beautiful, and he kind of joked about
how it is black and white because in a lot
of offenses, the offensive linemen have so many different variables.
They're like, well, if the linebacker moves this way, then
you do this. But if he moves that way, you've
got a combo down on this guy, and then do this.
And he says, in this offense, it's this or that,
(06:48):
no gray area. You have simple declarative assignments. That's intriguing
to me because if you make it easy on your
offensive line and your offensive line is effective, how much
better is Damian Pierce gonna look.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That he did already last year? I mean, he was
a revelation last year.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
And I don't know that the offense that we've had
around here for the last decade has been all that
conducive to getting guys big.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Big yardage. I agree.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I mean, obviously Damien last year, there was there was
one last year.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
There was one.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Scheme that really worked for them as counter scheme last
year that sprung Damien against Eagles. It's sprung him against
the Giants. I want to say this was back to
back weeks. If I remember correctly, That could be wrong,
but they those were that run scheme worked really well
in those situations.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
And but that was one scheme.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And you know, to be effective in the NFL, you've
got to have more than just one scheme. Now, you
don't have to be, hey, we run power really well
and then we run outside zone. That's usually not don't
go together all that well. But you know a lot
of teams that run zone have some uh some counter
back the other way. Some teams that run power, you know,
(08:02):
there's some there's a counter as well. So I think
if you can have a couple of three run games,
and I remember Carolina in twenty nineteen and Carolina and
twentynine team wasn't a great team, but I remember they
had about seven or eight different run schemes they used
with Christian McCaffrey, and I'm like, wow, they got they
have counter, they have you know power, They've got zoned,
(08:24):
and they've got you know, inside zone, they've got split zone.
I mean, they have all kinds of things, and the
more of those that you can run effectively, the.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Better off you're going to be.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
But the definitive black and white of a scenario, you
do this or this as opposed to well.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
It depends. There's a lot of depends.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
In the in the game of football, and a lot
of things really, but well, wait do I block this guy? Well,
it depends the fact that you can give a run blocker.
You do this or you do that. That is, it's
more valuable than you would even think. Anybody tactic you're
not on your heels right, And I think that's been
a big reason why San Francisco has been so good
(09:06):
running the football. But beyond that, I think their multiplicity
of scheme plus the way they build off of concepts
where Okay, we're gonna tweak this one thing and it's
gonna look completely different, and I used to say it
all the time. To me, that's that's kind of the
biggest thing in the game of football. How can you
(09:27):
take something that you do and you do well, get
somebody to stop it, and then you can make one
little tweak and everything looks different to a defense.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
But all you've done is made that.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
One little tweak and all of a sudden, you're now
doing something that everybody knows. But you've made one little
tweak and the defense is like, well, what are we
looking at?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Totally different? Like he discussed that. He said, that's the
beauty of that offense.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You see so many different things, but it's out of
a basic right, you know, formation, but there's so many variables.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Anyways, Yeah, he's he was good. He was really good.
It was fun talking with him.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
And then at the very end, I had intended to
have some of the just the wacky questions that I
sometimes ask guys, Like his birthdays on July eleventh, so
that's seven or eight birthday, Oh July eleventh, okay, so
free slurpees? So what was his favorite slurpee flavor? He
got that one in there before he sat down, before
we even recorded. He looked at the microphone that you're
talking into that I'm talking into.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And he's like, Hey, which which model is this? Uh?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Sure, he's like, no, I know, but which shore models? Like, oh,
it's the Podcaster one. I think it's an MV seven.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
He's like okay.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I was like why, And you gotta understand, gentle listener,
I've never done an interview with a football player and
never have they ever ever ever asked what's this microp
You know, they just sit down and they prosually they
don't talk into the microphone and you got to like
boost their levels. But he actually had an appreciation for it.
And I said, well, where did that come from? Well,
(10:52):
I'm a big He's like, I'm a big gamer. I'm
a streamer. And so he has a whole setup at
his home where he was living in when he was
playing with the Cowboys. I think he said up one,
now down here. But he he's an interesting cat. And
I've I ended with one of those ranked the Daltons.
I'll do that with people's names like ranked the John's right,
John the Baptist, John Harris, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, Tommy
(11:14):
John and you know stuff like that. So I had
ranked the Daltons, and the Daltons were John Dalton, the
English chemist who came up basically with atomic theory. He
also dabbled in finding out how color blindness happens. So
I had him Dalton Schultz, Andy Dalton, the quarterback, B
Dalton booksellers.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, RP.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And Dalton from Roadhouse And he immediately said, oh, Dalton
from Roadhouse absolutely is number one. That's who I was
named after. My dad would would say would rank him first. Also,
that's that's why I was named Dalton. Like what He's like, Yeah,
I've never seen the movie and I was like, what, so, yeah,
anytime you get a Roadhouse reference in, yeah, I'm excited.
(11:56):
And Mark VanderMeer was pumped when he heard that.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So he's like the greatest movie ever. Yep.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
He very much was that's cool, very cool. Yeah, I'm
excited to see what that guy does. And they're kind
of ramping him up in practice. You know, he's doing
certain things but not everything. But that's that's fine. A
six year vet, I don't worry about that sort of thing,
especially when I hear him discuss this offense, his role
(12:23):
in it, what he looks for and then just watching him.
There was one point during practice I was watching him.
I think he was talking with Bobby Slowick if I remember. No, No,
he was talking to his Titands coach. Then they were
just having a very animated discussion. And you can always
tell when you see a coach or a player and
they're doing kind of this with their hands where you know,
and it looks like they're doing some sort of dance
and basically describing routes and where they're supposed to go.
(12:45):
And this guy was over here and describing a coverage
and they were doing that and it just was a
really couldn't hear work, but it was a really compelling
discussion to watch. So you can tell that Dalton Dalton
Schultz has this insatiable like does hired to learn?
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Why why do it that way? Why do this? Why
do that?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
And I think that's pretty cool and hopefully that pays
off for him in a big way for the Texans,
and and if it does, then you know, keeping him
here for the long term.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
WHI would be cool because I'd like to hear more.
I'd like to hear more.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Drew Doherty, Dalton Schultz, True and Dalton Interviews that'd be cool.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Hey, another cool thing about yesterday, speaking of Dalton Schultz,
the greatest tight end in Texans history is at practice yesterday.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Owen Daniels. Good to see him.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Part of many former Houston Texans that were on the
practice field checking things out. Andre Johnson, who belongs on
the Pro Football Hall of Fame does Andre was out there.
Great to see him. I'm gonna leave names off, and
I apologize if I don't call your name. But we
also saw guys from way back when, like Corey Sears
and Fred Weary and Chester Pitts. Great to see Chester.
(13:53):
Got to chit chat with Chester for a little bit.
That's a lot of alliteration for an anxious anchor. Yep, JJ,
Moses Man, Oh oh my goodness is.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Due.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Welcome back, JJ. We missed you a lot. JJ's doing great.
Kylie Wong I saw for a little bit. I didn't
get a chance to talk to him as much. Mike Quinn,
he was a backup quarterback here. Good seeing Mike. Who else?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It was really really fun just seeing them. These guys
are amped about Demiko. Not all of them played with Tomiko,
many played before, many played after, many played with but
all all of them. Robart Smith was there, Travis Johnson,
all of them are jacked about what he brings.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I mean, these guys that.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Are there on the sidelines, they've got a connection to
the Texans eighty. They associate with this team, they love
this team. It's their team, and they're they're excited about
the future, and it's it was so cool seeing them
interact with Dimko. I tweeted a little video about it.
I know you talked about it deeply, wrote an article
about it. It's just been cool seeing them on the
sidelines and seeing this. I don't want to say renewed,
(14:56):
because I've never seen an energy like this, an excitement
like this around this team. It's it's peculiar in its
own sort of way, but it's it's really it's invigorating.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
John Yeah, there's no question. And I talked to I
talked to Chester, I talked to Kylie.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
For a little bit, and that was really the story
way of saying it. That was kind of the key
thing and talking to both of them. It was the
consistent aspect, positive vibes to Eco.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
You know what Nick did in the draft.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
I mean, it just feels like there's a lot of
positive momentum. Now Mark says this all the time, Mark
Vana here. You gotta play the games, yep. And once
you start playing the games, that's the black and white
that is, as we talked about earlier, it becomes very
very clear.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
For fans. It's great for players.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
If something's black white, you block this guy or that guy,
You do this, you do that, you run this route,
you run that route. Depending on what you see, it's
this or that. It's black and white. Well, guess what's
the most black and white football? You look up the scoreboard.
Do you have more points than the other team? And
that will right now, there's and And I don't want
to squelch anybody's positivibes. That's not what I'm saying. I
(16:03):
just I know this is even this is even beyond that.
This is even beyond how being positive about what this
team can do, but being positive about this team matches
what we see on the field and what we're seeing
from these guys playing faster Chris were more precise quarterbacks,
(16:23):
making better and more consistent throws in each and every drill,
speedier guys. That all of that really I think plays
towards being even more positive and having a having an
impact on the record this year, which I mean, that's
that's what fans want. And look fan to me, the
Houston fans are pretty reasonable. You don't see anybody out
(16:44):
there going We're going super Bowl super Bowl this year. No, Like,
I don't see that. I just see a lot of
fancy and look, make progress and move in that direction.
Make sure that the draft picks you made are a
significant piece of the foundation. You get the draft picks
from two twenty two, Kenny ingreenent Derek Sting to be
back healthy, and then what can they do? And you
build this thing and you make Houston a spot where
(17:07):
a lot of people want to come.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
You make the one year contract, guys want to stay here.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You make a high profile free agents go hey, I
need to take a look at Houston. They got something
going on. Oh and there's no state income text and
Demico's there and Knicks running things. That's that's what you
want to be able to build. And that's where all
of this, that's where all of this gets to. That
is Week one against Baltimore, Week two against Indye. You
(17:32):
start winning games, You start making a name for your
team in this league again, and I think everybody kind
of feels those positive, positive vibes. And I said, I
can't remember which one I said to. We were kind
of talking about that aspect, and I said, I kind
of pointed back at all the legends, and I said, well,
this should tell you what everybody thinks, because in the
(17:54):
last few years we wouldn't see as many legends, you know,
they may come out there on a required visit or whatever.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
And I feel like the legends that have a connection
to this team want to be around this team.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
And to have you know what about two dozen or so,
you know, on an Ota and Dream, I mean, that's
just fantastic.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
It was so cool. Soon those very.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Cool, a lot of fun, fun times around the Texans.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I can't wait. I hope you can't either. And this
has been in the lab
In the Lab, a Texans podcast that takes a different
look at things. Due Doherty and John Harris have their
lab coats and goggles on and the Bunsen burners burning.
Here's Drew, all right, this is in the Lab.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I am Drew. That is John, and there's a lot
going on. John.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
We had a open practice yesterday of OTA's Heart from
some interesting folks Yep, Adult Schultz, Damian Pierce, amongst others.
I got a chance to go one on one with
Dulton Schultz, which you can hear on Houston Texans dot com.
You played it last night on the radio show. It
was a lot of fun, was covered a lot of
(00:43):
areas so football wise. He got pretty into the details
about why he's jack about this offense. And you got
me even more excited than I already was. And that
was a pretty high level of excitement. But this is
a guy who's proven to be a very productive NFL
football player, chose to come here, and I said, hey,
money aside, why did you come here? And that's what
(01:04):
he told me about his excitement over the team. I
think that's a very important question you should ask any
guy who signs with any team in any sport. Hey,
money aside, Why do you like this? Because listen, money
is usually going to be the reason that if someone
signs here. I don't begrudge anyone that. So that's why
I ask it that way. But man, the way he answered,
Bobby Slowick and company, they're cooking up something pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It sounds like John I think.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
What's interesting about free agents signing, especially a player like
Dalton Schultz, where there's a lot of talk last offseason
about the contract that Dalton Schultz could potentially sign as
a long term in a long term situation, be it
the Cowboys or somebody else. But the Cowboys went franchised
him being get a long term deal done, and because
(01:49):
of that, he became an unrestricted free agent this summer,
and so the textas sign him to a one year deal.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
And I've always said this about a one year deal.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I don't have a problem with one year deal because
both parties essentially get to try it on for size.
You get a one year deal, you get that money,
that money is typically guaranteed. You get an opportunity to
put your put your wares out there for all thirty
one other teams to watch. Maybe not the Cowboys. Maybe
they maybe they get back in.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
So all thirty thirty one teams get to see it,
but you're in house for that team, so they get
to see you up close.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
But there's always ancillary benefits that you don't you don't
think about.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I would imagine as a free agent, you're thinking about location, place,
my family, how about all that? And then okay, well
what about the offense? What what can the offense do?
Or or defense depending on what side of the ball,
and Dulton's cases on the offense. And then you think too, okay,
well where were these guys last Well, they were in
San Francisco. You're in San Francisco. Oh, George Kittle? Could
(02:48):
I fit that? Could I do that? They had other
tight ends? Okay, maybe could I fit that? Oh Babe,
I like this. And then you get here and you realize,
all right, this is why George Kittle was successful. This
is how they were able to get George Kittle open
in that particular role in those particular areas of the field.
Now I don't think I don't look at George Kittle
and think he's Dalton Schultz. I don't look a Dalt
(03:09):
Schultzen think he's George Kittle. But just from that particular
tight end position, you think, Okay, your mind starts running
wild with Okay, well, if they.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Did this with Kittle, what can they do with me.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
That's where you start thinking about whether it's Dalton Schultz,
whether it's Devin Singletary, whether it's any free agent that
that gets into your building. That's what they're that's what
they're thinking about, and hopefully that's what adult's thinking about,
and it's opened his eyes to hey, wait a second.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Yeah, it's a one year deal, but I could show
it off.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
I'm gonna get some offers hopefully, but man, I might
like it here that maybe don't give a hometown discount.
But you're thinking about I would like to be here
for the long term. You said you think was going
to year six, I think is what he said. So look,
if you're thinking about being a ten year player in
the NFL, which I don't know what guy's goals are,
I mean some might you know, I'll play till the
(04:00):
wheels fall off. You know, some guys want to play
five years. Some guys want to want to be in
for a decade. You know, that's always kind of a
nice number. Half spen ten years in the NFL. Well,
maybe you signed that deal with the Texans and this
is where you end up finishing that career and finishing
hopefully with a flourish uh, being that guy that Texans
have wanted a tight end for a long time. But
(04:20):
I think the presence of Dalton Schultz raises the game
of everybody else too. Brevin Jordan taking his game up
to a different level, taking with Toriano the rookie last year.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Now, they're all different, all three of those guys.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
They may play tight end, as I say in their quotes,
but they play it differently because the body type, size abilities,
all that kind of stuff. But I think Schultz ends
up being a really intriguing piece in this offense.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
And I love the fact that he gave you a J.
Cole lyric and you blanked on it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, I listen, I've heard but that's okay, okay Cole's
name thrown around. And when he said that, I just
I figured, Okay, I don't know the name of the song,
but I bet when I play it on Spotify, it'll
be like, oh, that's okay, that's what it's called. Played
it the first time i'd heard it, never heard it.
I was like, okay, well that that must be just
(05:10):
one song I've never heard. I played a few other J.
Cole songs, never heard of him, never heard any of it,
and hey, to each his own yep, not judging, never
heard it.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Okay, so yeah, and he was like, he's like.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Oh, you're not a fan, and I say, it's like, well,
it's not that I'm not a fan, it's just that
I've never listened. He's like, yeah, so you're not a fan.
Let's take the gray out of this. I was like, touche,
that's that's you could become a fan. True, yeah, that's
the current moment. You're you're not I said, hey, just
total ignorance of it, and then yes, totally ignorant because
I have never heard a single one of those songs.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Hey. At the back end of that interview.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
He brought actually, let's get to the back end later
because in the middle when we were talking football, and
I couldn't follow this up because he was crunched for time.
He had to get out of here. But I had
a lot more for him than I wanted to ask.
He was talking about how excited he is for this
run game. He had spent a lot of time talking
about catching passes and the route tree and everything. And
he finished that answer and I said, yeah, and it's
(06:06):
interesting you bring up all this stuff about catching passes
and you're a tight end, but oh hey, that also
means you're essentially an offensive lineman as well, because you're
a tight end. Yeah, and he said, yeah, man, I
am so stoked about blocking in this run game. He's like,
that's what I'm most excited about. And he talked about
why this run game for a blocker, for an offensive
(06:28):
lineman is so beautiful, and he kind of joked about
how it is black and white because in a lot
of offenses, the offensive linemen have so many different variables.
They're like, well, if the linebacker moves this way, then
you do this. But if he moves that way, you've
got a combo down on this guy, and then do this.
And he says, in this offense, it's this or that,
(06:48):
no gray area. You have simple declarative assignments. That's intriguing
to me because if you make it easy on your
offensive line and your offensive line is effective, how much
better is Damian Pierce gonna look.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That he did already last year? I mean, he was
a revelation last year.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
And I don't know that the offense that we've had
around here for the last decade has been all that
conducive to getting guys big.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Big yardage. I agree.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I mean, obviously Damien last year, there was there was
one last year.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
There was one.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Scheme that really worked for them as counter scheme last
year that sprung Damien against Eagles. It's sprung him against
the Giants. I want to say this was back to
back weeks. If I remember correctly, That could be wrong,
but they those were that run scheme worked really well
in those situations.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
And but that was one scheme.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And you know, to be effective in the NFL, you've
got to have more than just one scheme. Now, you
don't have to be, hey, we run power really well
and then we run outside zone. That's usually not don't
go together all that well. But you know a lot
of teams that run zone have some uh some counter
back the other way. Some teams that run power, you know,
(08:02):
there's some there's a counter as well. So I think
if you can have a couple of three run games,
and I remember Carolina in twenty nineteen and Carolina and
twentynine team wasn't a great team, but I remember they
had about seven or eight different run schemes they used
with Christian McCaffrey, and I'm like, wow, they got they
have counter, they have you know power, They've got zoned,
(08:24):
and they've got you know, inside zone, they've got split zone.
I mean, they have all kinds of things, and the
more of those that you can run effectively, the.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Better off you're going to be.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
But the definitive black and white of a scenario, you
do this or this as opposed to well.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
It depends. There's a lot of depends.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
In the in the game of football, and a lot
of things really, but well, wait do I block this guy? Well,
it depends the fact that you can give a run blocker.
You do this or you do that. That is, it's
more valuable than you would even think. Anybody tactic you're
not on your heels right, And I think that's been
a big reason why San Francisco has been so good
(09:06):
running the football. But beyond that, I think their multiplicity
of scheme plus the way they build off of concepts
where Okay, we're gonna tweak this one thing and it's
gonna look completely different, and I used to say it
all the time. To me, that's that's kind of the
biggest thing in the game of football. How can you
(09:27):
take something that you do and you do well, get
somebody to stop it, and then you can make one
little tweak and everything looks different to a defense.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
But all you've done is made that.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
One little tweak and all of a sudden, you're now
doing something that everybody knows. But you've made one little
tweak and the defense is like, well, what are we
looking at?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Totally different? Like he discussed that. He said, that's the
beauty of that offense.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You see so many different things, but it's out of
a basic right, you know, formation, but there's so many variables.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Anyways, Yeah, he's he was good. He was really good.
It was fun talking with him.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
And then at the very end, I had intended to
have some of the just the wacky questions that I
sometimes ask guys, Like his birthdays on July eleventh, so
that's seven or eight birthday, Oh July eleventh, okay, so
free slurpees? So what was his favorite slurpee flavor? He
got that one in there before he sat down, before
we even recorded. He looked at the microphone that you're
talking into that I'm talking into.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And he's like, Hey, which which model is this? Uh?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Sure, he's like, no, I know, but which shore models? Like, oh,
it's the Podcaster one. I think it's an MV seven.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
He's like okay.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I was like why, And you gotta understand, gentle listener,
I've never done an interview with a football player and
never have they ever ever ever asked what's this microp
You know, they just sit down and they prosually they
don't talk into the microphone and you got to like
boost their levels. But he actually had an appreciation for it.
And I said, well, where did that come from? Well,
(10:52):
I'm a big He's like, I'm a big gamer. I'm
a streamer. And so he has a whole setup at
his home where he was living in when he was
playing with the Cowboys. I think he said up one,
now down here. But he he's an interesting cat. And
I've I ended with one of those ranked the Daltons.
I'll do that with people's names like ranked the John's right,
John the Baptist, John Harris, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, Tommy
(11:14):
John and you know stuff like that. So I had
ranked the Daltons, and the Daltons were John Dalton, the
English chemist who came up basically with atomic theory. He
also dabbled in finding out how color blindness happens. So
I had him Dalton Schultz, Andy Dalton, the quarterback, B
Dalton booksellers.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, RP.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
And Dalton from Roadhouse And he immediately said, oh, Dalton
from Roadhouse absolutely is number one. That's who I was
named after. My dad would would say would rank him first. Also,
that's that's why I was named Dalton. Like what He's like, Yeah,
I've never seen the movie and I was like, what, so, yeah,
anytime you get a Roadhouse reference in, yeah, I'm excited.
(11:56):
And Mark VanderMeer was pumped when he heard that.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So he's like the greatest movie ever. Yep.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
He very much was that's cool, very cool. Yeah, I'm
excited to see what that guy does. And they're kind
of ramping him up in practice. You know, he's doing
certain things but not everything. But that's that's fine. A
six year vet, I don't worry about that sort of thing,
especially when I hear him discuss this offense, his role
(12:23):
in it, what he looks for and then just watching him.
There was one point during practice I was watching him.
I think he was talking with Bobby Slowick if I remember. No, No,
he was talking to his Titands coach. Then they were
just having a very animated discussion. And you can always
tell when you see a coach or a player and
they're doing kind of this with their hands where you know,
and it looks like they're doing some sort of dance
and basically describing routes and where they're supposed to go.
(12:45):
And this guy was over here and describing a coverage
and they were doing that and it just was a
really couldn't hear work, but it was a really compelling
discussion to watch. So you can tell that Dalton Dalton
Schultz has this insatiable like does hired to learn?
Speaker 5 (13:01):
Why why do it that way? Why do this? Why
do that?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
And I think that's pretty cool and hopefully that pays
off for him in a big way for the Texans,
and and if it does, then you know, keeping him
here for the long term.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
WHI would be cool because I'd like to hear more.
I'd like to hear more.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Drew Doherty, Dalton Schultz, True and Dalton Interviews that'd be cool.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Hey, another cool thing about yesterday, speaking of Dalton Schultz,
the greatest tight end in Texans history is at practice yesterday.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Owen Daniels. Good to see him.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Part of many former Houston Texans that were on the
practice field checking things out. Andre Johnson, who belongs on
the Pro Football Hall of Fame does Andre was out there.
Great to see him. I'm gonna leave names off, and
I apologize if I don't call your name. But we
also saw guys from way back when, like Corey Sears
and Fred Weary and Chester Pitts. Great to see Chester.
(13:53):
Got to chit chat with Chester for a little bit.
That's a lot of alliteration for an anxious anchor. Yep, JJ,
Moses Man, Oh oh my goodness is.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Due.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Welcome back, JJ. We missed you a lot. JJ's doing great.
Kylie Wong I saw for a little bit. I didn't
get a chance to talk to him as much. Mike Quinn,
he was a backup quarterback here. Good seeing Mike. Who else?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It was really really fun just seeing them. These guys
are amped about Demiko. Not all of them played with Tomiko,
many played before, many played after, many played with but
all all of them. Robart Smith was there, Travis Johnson,
all of them are jacked about what he brings.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I mean, these guys that.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Are there on the sidelines, they've got a connection to
the Texans eighty. They associate with this team, they love
this team. It's their team, and they're they're excited about
the future, and it's it was so cool seeing them
interact with Dimko. I tweeted a little video about it.
I know you talked about it deeply, wrote an article
about it. It's just been cool seeing them on the
sidelines and seeing this. I don't want to say renewed,
(14:56):
because I've never seen an energy like this, an excitement
like this around this team. It's it's peculiar in its
own sort of way, but it's it's really it's invigorating.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
John Yeah, there's no question. And I talked to I
talked to Chester, I talked to Kylie.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
For a little bit, and that was really the story
way of saying it. That was kind of the key
thing and talking to both of them. It was the
consistent aspect, positive vibes to Eco.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
You know what Nick did in the draft.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
I mean, it just feels like there's a lot of
positive momentum. Now Mark says this all the time, Mark
Vana here. You gotta play the games, yep. And once
you start playing the games, that's the black and white
that is, as we talked about earlier, it becomes very
very clear.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
For fans. It's great for players.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
If something's black white, you block this guy or that guy,
You do this, you do that, you run this route,
you run that route. Depending on what you see, it's
this or that. It's black and white. Well, guess what's
the most black and white football? You look up the scoreboard.
Do you have more points than the other team? And
that will right now, there's and And I don't want
to squelch anybody's positivibes. That's not what I'm saying. I
(16:03):
just I know this is even this is even beyond that.
This is even beyond how being positive about what this
team can do, but being positive about this team matches
what we see on the field and what we're seeing
from these guys playing faster Chris were more precise quarterbacks,
(16:23):
making better and more consistent throws in each and every drill,
speedier guys. That all of that really I think plays
towards being even more positive and having a having an
impact on the record this year, which I mean, that's
that's what fans want. And look fan to me, the
Houston fans are pretty reasonable. You don't see anybody out
(16:44):
there going We're going super Bowl super Bowl this year. No, Like,
I don't see that. I just see a lot of
fancy and look, make progress and move in that direction.
Make sure that the draft picks you made are a
significant piece of the foundation. You get the draft picks
from two twenty two, Kenny ingreenent Derek Sting to be
back healthy, and then what can they do? And you
build this thing and you make Houston a spot where
(17:07):
a lot of people want to come.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
You make the one year contract, guys want to stay here.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You make a high profile free agents go hey, I
need to take a look at Houston. They got something
going on. Oh and there's no state income text and
Demico's there and Knicks running things. That's that's what you
want to be able to build. And that's where all
of this, that's where all of this gets to. That
is Week one against Baltimore, Week two against Indye. You
(17:32):
start winning games, You start making a name for your
team in this league again, and I think everybody kind
of feels those positive, positive vibes. And I said, I
can't remember which one I said to. We were kind
of talking about that aspect, and I said, I kind
of pointed back at all the legends, and I said, well,
this should tell you what everybody thinks, because in the
(17:54):
last few years we wouldn't see as many legends, you know,
they may come out there on a required visit or whatever.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
And I feel like the legends that have a connection
to this team want to be around this team.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
And to have you know what about two dozen or so,
you know, on an Ota and Dream, I mean, that's
just fantastic.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
It was so cool. Soon those very.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Cool, a lot of fun, fun times around the Texans.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I can't wait. I hope you can't either. And this
has been in the lab
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