April 30, 2025 • 42 mins
Each of the nine 2025 Texans Draft picks had one key trait or attribute that stood out to Texans TV's Drew Dougherty and Team Analyst/Radio Sideline Reporter John Harris. Those two presented some interesting facts about each new Texan.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
In the Lab, a Texans podcast that takes a different
look at things. Drew Doherty and John Harris have their
lab coats and goggles on and the Bunsen burners burning.
Here's Drew.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Players have been picked nine total, and medicine balls are
flying here inside ANRG stadium. This is in the Lab,
presented by Infinity Me. Drew Doherty, You, John Harrison, you
our third friend listening watching whichever one you're choosing to do.
We appreciate that. But yeah, the medicine balls. John twenty yards.
(00:37):
That way is the weight room, and sometimes outside the
weight room will throw medicine balls against the wall. So
I didn't see which players are out there right now,
but I mean a lot of them as much everybody
that matters.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
They're all here and they're all working out.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yep. It's been really cool to see how many guys
are here.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Yeah, it is, as we've said many times, voluntary, and
there had been a lot of Texan stars in the
past that were like, it's voluntary, be there when I
need to. These guys have been more along the lines of, hey,
this is a this is a it's the way we
can get together and we can you know, compete as
(01:14):
a team.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
There's no Darren Hambrick saying what do voluntary mean?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Yeah? Exactly, that's it.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
That's you've got to be old if you remember that one.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, yeah, two thousand, two thousand and one, ish Darren Hambrick,
a linebacker for the Cowboys, didn't show up for voluntary
workouts or something.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Oh he was a piece of work.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Now voluntary.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
He had his little brother, Troy Hambrick, pretty good running
back few years.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
But that's right, Yeah, yeah, it's so it'svoluntary. But guys
are here, and look, it's it's not everybody. You know,
people have some family situations or whatever, but there's been
a really considered effort to get together.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And be with the guys.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
And man, you walked on all Like I walked probably
about an hour and a half ago down the hallway
and just boom, there's a guy. There's a guy, there's
there's a vet, there's a I mean, it's just to give.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Somebody asked me on uh, fans want to know kind
of it's the what you used to be. Dear Drew, Hey,
who's not here at involuntary workouts or voluntary workouts?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I was like, I don't know. I mean, I've seen CJ.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Stroud, I've seen Nico Collins, Derek Stingley, Will Anderson Junior,
all the veterans, you know, the new guys that have signed.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Gardner Johnson you heard from him. Laugh. But I mean,
everybody's here that I know of. I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's like you said, there might be some guys that
have missed a dare too, but I still know who
they are. Anyways, let's get into the draft and we're
gonna do nine things that stand out to me. And
it's peculiar little things and then you're gonna you're gonna
add on to it. But it's each pick and I
got one thing about him, Okay, And it's wild that
(02:44):
the Texans took nine guys, by the way, Yeah, exactly,
it's I would go with ace.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
We went in with eight, yeah, and I knew the
numbers at the time, but yeah, eight, yeah, So we
went in with eight, came out with nine.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
All right, we go in with eight, do we go?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Because we had four of the first three rounds, right,
and then we had which is yeah, you're right, yeah,
you're right. It was eight seven with a bunch of
set Anyways, Okay, let's start off with the big fella
right off the top, and I say, big Jaye Higgins.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
His dimensions is what stood out to me.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
And it's everyone's saying, oh, he's a carbon copy of
Nico Collins. And instantly when I hear someone compare a
guy to another guy, I instantly recoil and say, he's
his own mane, He's gonna be different. It doesn't matter,
but darn it, Like look at it. Looking at this
guy's size, looking at his speed, looking at what he
(03:40):
did on the field, those are a lot of Nico
Collins esque stats and numbers. And I'm fine, I'll take
seventeen Nico Collins on a team. There's I saw this
idea out there that he can't have two of the
same guy. Sure he can, Sure he can, You absolutely can.
I'll take as many Nico Collins as you'll give me,
because because I mean, he's the definition of swarm in
(04:02):
one dude. I mean it takes six guys to bring
him down. He catches the ball and then chooses violence
in the most violent way he can and gets all
that extra yardage and he can run by guys. Somebody
on Twitter, Ian hartzit's had a. He had a really
good tweet last night. We're shooting this on a Wednesday morning.
He said, look at what Nico Collins was doing before
(04:24):
the injury against the Bills.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Oh yeah, he was on case.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
For two thousand yards. Now, was that if held up dominating?
We'll see. But he was lighting it up. And the
last catch he had before he got injured was what
seventy five yard touchdown, took it to the house. So
is there can he do this? Can Jayden Higgins do this?
We'll see. I mean that's a big bar to clear.
But man, I like all the numbers and the stuff
(04:50):
backing it up that made the Texans choose him. Because
the numbers was one little, smart, small component of why
they chose him. There's all sorts of other stuff that
they've seen over the years that they like.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
I mean, think about it, is Drew And you know
how I do these things? I do a player comp
I didn't. I probably did about one hundred and fifty
player comps football takeover at com and so immediately when
I got back from the Senior Bowl, I didn't base
it on really other than the only kind of numerical
comparison was kind of the size comparison, like one guy
(05:22):
six fourteen, But it was just the way that he played,
the way that he carried himself, the way that he
won as a receiver. I came back from the Senior
Bowl and I just, you know, I've got a seven
and a half eight hour drive home, and I'm thinking
about all that I've seen, and I'm like, oh, man, Okay,
Higgins is Higgins's Nico. Man, There's no doubt, just the
way they move, how fluid they are. And I remembered,
you know, Jaden I thought had a good Senior Bowl.
(05:43):
And what stood out to me was the fact that
when when Nico went to his Senior Bowl, he had
not played for a whole year, and so Nico did
not have a great Senior Bowl. I remember coming out
of there, I was really excited to see him because
he hadn't played that year and I was getting to
see him up close.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Such a peculiar set of circumstances.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And I had an agent.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
I had an agent tell me at some point he
was like, during that Senior Bowl, defensive backs are kind
of fighting themselves to go on the field with Nico,
and because they felt like they could just destroy this
big physical receiver from out of Michigan.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
And it's funny because I try.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
And buy some gear from the Senior Bowl hats and
you know, winter caps and you know long sleeves and
hoodies and all that, and so they were selling a
long sleeve on the back was the entire roster. And
I pulled it out of my closet. This is back
during the season. I pulled it out of my closet
and I was like, oh yeah, And I went looking
at the names and I was like, none of those
receivers have done a damn thing. They haven't busted a
(06:41):
grape and a fruit flight. They have just done nothing.
And then there's Nico. And it's just funny because at
the Senior Bowl there were all, oh, this guy, that guy. Now,
if I remember correctly, I think Christian Watson was there,
but they can't remember exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
But I just remember a litany of those guys like nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing nothing, Nico.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So do you remember if the dbs that were fighting,
you know, do you remember have I'm guessing a few
of them have done some nice things.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
Oh no, no, No, the DB's weren't. The DB's weren't
very good in that in that if I remember correctly,
in that Senior Bowl for for some reason, but I
gotta go look the back of my shirt again, yeah,
to see that.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
But that was to me, that was just.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
A the way that Higgins plays the way Nico plays, Like,
I can see the comparison, so okay, size wise, it fits,
and that's where I start with it. For me, I
start with size, like how similar are the sizes because
I'm not going to compare Jaden Higgins to Maurice Jones Drew.
I'm not gonna, you know, the way even though the
(07:44):
play simple, no, no, no, I'm gonna compare. Start with size,
and then from there I'll go, Okay, how did their
play styles? Are their play styles similar? Do they win
kind of the same way? And I came out of
that Senior Bowl thinking, yeah, they do. And so that's
that's where I came up with the competent Jayden Higgins
for Nico like, and I know I wasn't alone with that,
but they just and I had that back in January
(08:06):
when I got back from the scene, where like that
was immediate, like I wrote up his report Boom Nico Collins,
and I was like.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
That's easy.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
At sous if I can knock out a comp easy,
boom moving on to the next one, because they're they're
not easy after a while, like dang and I and
I try and mock, I try and come up with
a comp that's different for every receiver, every player in
a draft. So I won't comp Nico to five different
guys that are six, four, two, ten. Nico only goes
to one and sometimes it's hard, and there's some guys I.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Just won't I won't comp too.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
And as Nico gets maybe a little bit better, I
probably won't comp anybody to Nico because he would just
be at that level.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Like I'll never comp anybody to J. J. Watt.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Did you comp Broughck Osweller to Dan MacGuire, You know,
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
I didn't do a comp back then.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
But it's funny because with Brock, I didn't like him
out of Arizona State.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I remember that's yeah, I didn't like him at all.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
And when he signed here, it was like I had
this push pull of man.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Either either my drafted port is wrong.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yeah, or my positive vibe about Brock was gonna be wrong.
And you know, yeah, coprock Man, he's a nice dude,
I've gotten I've gotten to talk to him a few
times since. He's been great, So I'm not gonna say
a bad thing about Brock All good, all good. I
was in my damn aguire was just like, they're both No,
that's a great comp that's an absolutely perfect comp.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
We'll go old here on in the lab. If you
don't know what we're talking about, that's fine, it's all good.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
It's all good.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
But ife of you old people like Dave Howard probably
got that. He knows, you know, Dave okay t And
by the way, I got to interview all of these
guys except for Keanta Hamilton and Luke Lasche and everyone
is in that honeymoon phase when you talk to him
five minutes after being drafted, and as pleasant as can be.
It was awesome, And I'm sure they are pleasant guys,
but it was really really cool talking to these guys.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Tree athletically played hoops.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Didn't play basketball till or excuse me, didn't play football
till sophom junior year in high school. Went to a
Kansas City area high school. We took three guys from
the Kansas City area. That's how he beat a Chiefs
very athletic a because he could hoop. He was also
a thrower. And when I say thrower, he didn't just
throw the shot put, because he did. He didn't just
do the discuss, because he did that too. He also
(10:17):
threw the javelin. Which have you ever thrown a javelin? John,
It's not easy.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
No, one of my buddies that I was telling you
about it. He threw a javelin at A and M.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
He did all three of those parts. So that's another
component to the athleticism. And then he was a dancing
bear at left tackle. But the thing that stood out
to me the most was the number of starts. It's
like high thirties in his career at left tackle alone.
And last season in a conference with the likes of
(10:46):
Josh Simmons, Donovan Jackson, a whole lot of others, this guy,
tay Ersary was the conference offensive linemen of the year.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
That's what stood out to me.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's the and I'm just going with like, first, when
I think about these guys, now, this is what I
think of. That's pretty cool, man, It.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Is absolutely And when I when I there are a
couple of you know, I build my database, like I
literally spent yesterday starting my twenty twenty six database for
the draft, and I go to team rosters, I go
to all americal lists that just to start.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Well, one of the places that I go and I
use because it points out the athleticism is Bruce Feldman's
Freaks List yep. And so last year on Bruce Feldman's
Freaks List, Ariante was at twenty five, Tay was at
twenty five, and they talked about, you know, against Ohio State,
he only he allowed one pressure on twenty three pass
(11:42):
blocking snaps against Sawyer and Tui Moloou. Then Bruce said
this ursery squatted six hundred and forty pounds, bench pressed
four to twelve, and did a four hundred and nine
pounds hand clean this offseason, Like if you've run on
hand cleans, Like when I was at Brown a.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Lot we did hand cleans.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Again, what's the ex So basically you take the bar
and instead of it's starting at the ground, you bring
it to your knees and then you have to explode
up and.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Then catch it.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh yeah, okay, okay, that's.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Four hundred and nine pounds. That's insanity.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Yeah, So having done hand cleans in my entire college life.
I'm like, I hate them, I hate I get it,
I get it, but I hate them. Four or nine
pounds stood out to me, and they said, but his
wheels are the most impressive aspect of his game. His
one point five to two second ten yard split is
a program record for an offensive lineman. He clocked eighteen
point three four miles per on at GPS. He posted
(12:43):
a twenty seven and a half it's vertical on a
nine too broad jump along with the pro shettle time
of four to six one. Keep in mind, this is
the guy the six six, three hundred and thirty pounds.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Eighteen months, I mean that's and now that sexons are
going to have him run and fly routes, but no,
still just athleticism for this guy. He started a lot
and so all that athleticism, that's awesome, but he got
a lot of experience. And that's what I love too,
Like that union of the two things I.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Love, right and the athleticism. To me, the strength is
the one thing that is that you can absolutely see
when you see him run. He's kind of stiff legged
and bent his knees as much. And so when I
first watched I've said this, you know, during a draft
show and everything. When I first watched Ursery play, no,
(13:34):
I don't see it, but I didn't really see it
as a first rounder. But the more I watched him,
and then I watched the game against him do a Carter,
and I was like, this is actually he gets Carter blocked.
Saw him at the Senior Bowl. Guys are trying to
run through him and he just just anching it. And
that's why I think he could play guard, but I
don't know if that'll be in the Texans plans. But
either way, he just anchored like guys would bull rush
(13:56):
him and he just stopped him in their tracks. I'm like,
this is strong, dude. So like that strength is shown
when he moves. You can see the athleticism.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And his movements.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
He just he just looks a little kind of peg legged,
and that's okay.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Jalen Nole another Iowa state wide receiver, playmaker, man, play maker,
and he's a bowler.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
He's a bowler. That's the best part. I love that.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I love it, love steaks, but I love Jalen Nole.
He's He's gonna be fun man. It's just you gotta
load up because what have we seen around here the
last couple of years. Start with the Texans wide receivers.
They've gotten injured. It's not they're not injury prone, but
they've gotten injured. And so you gotta be ready and
you got to have layers to your wide receiver, cord.
I think the Texans have done.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
That now, you know what, you know, the first five
guys all went to Senior Bowl, so I got to see.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
I got to see and I was focusing more on
an offense.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
So I got to see all these guys and had
a pretty good idea about them. And again came back
from the Senior Bowl and I immediately comped Nol to
Jaguar our wide.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Receiver Christian Kirk.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And then a few months later the Texans signed Christian.
They signed Christian Kirks going. I was coming out of
the cap tie yesterday. Yeah, Hey, how's it going, Christian?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (15:09):
And I got to I can change my database now
to say Texans wide receiver Christian Kirk. So I thought
it was interesting the two receivers they get. I comped
again to to Texans. But you know, sometimes Drew like
for me, you know, people like this will happen. At
Texans practice, they'll go through a period called individual and
you know, media members, you know, kind of jack John
about whatever, not really paying attention. I always love to
(15:31):
watch individual because alway feel like there's something that you
can get. And sometimes when you're you know, day, you know,
two hundred and twelve of a season and you're getting
ready for the Ravens in the playoffs, you're not really
worried about watching individual too much. But I feel like
in the Senior Bowl, because it's the first time kind
of laying eyes on on guys in person, I feel
like watching it is is pretty interesting.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
And so I'm watching the receivers.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I'm down in the receiver section and they're working on
they're working on sideline routes, just getting the sidelines and
it's the biggest for wide receivers.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Now one foot doesn't count. You gotta get both in.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
So they would work on his toe tapping drill and
that evolved into running like a sail route. Sale route
is kind of a like take a corner oute and
then kind of bend it and shorter, and so there's
timing involved and all that kind of stuff, but you're
running basically full speed to the sideline. And I remembered distinctly,
as I'm watching the guys go through the drill, I'm
watching these guys try to body catch the ball, which
(16:25):
is really you can't do that on a sail route,
And all of a sudden, Jalen runs that sail route
and boom, he just snatches it, just plucks it out
of the air.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
And I thought this is interesting.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
So I kept watching that, and I watched as he
caught the ball, and I realized, and I know people
are like, well, he caught the ball, Like yeah, but
when you catch it the way he's doing it with
perfect technique, thumbs down on a ball above him, thumbs
up the ball below him, not trying to body catch it.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
It's like, that's impressive to me. Those hands are really
really good.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
And then it was the start stop, the ability to
stop on a dime, not drift on routes. If he's
got to get the five yards and pivot, boom, he's
at five yards full speed pivot, he gets separation. I mean,
it's everything that they have talked about. That dem goes, oh,
I want a separator, Well, that guy's a separator.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
There's no doubt.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
He's and yes he does all that, But there's a
video up. I did the one on ones like I
mentioned earlier, and there's a video up on YouTube. Go
check that out because there's a catch on there where
there is no separation whatsoever. And I don't know the team.
It looked like a high school team because it was
green and yellow. But he was bracketed. And when I
(17:36):
say bracketed, I mean there was a guy on his
left side and a guy on his right side touching
his shoulders. Yeah, and he catches a pass right through him.
He shouldn't have caught it, right, And I'm not saying
he was being guarded by Derek Stingley and Deon Sanders,
but it just doesn't matter. Like the way he caught
this thing was remarkable, So I can't wait to see
(17:56):
what he does. Okay, Jalen Smith, defensive back from USC Now,
I don't want to speak for you, but I'm going
to speak for you because I know you you echo
this and feel the same way. Special teams coordinator Frank
Ross is one of our favorite all time coaches in
this building.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
We love this dude. He's awesome.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I heard after the fact that Ross was ecstatic, ecstatic
with the Jalen Smith pick.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
I'm pumped if if that's the case, I'm cool with that.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
Yeah, late third round, if you get a guy. I
think it was Saturday. Sean Pendergast was here and to
get to studio, you know, he's got to walk the bowels,
and he ended up seeing Frank and he said Frank
was bouncing off the walls.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
You know, you get Noel who can give you return game.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Talk about that with Noel.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Jayalen Smith was a gunner.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
It's interesting because I remember Jalen had the Senior Bowl,
and as I went back and I tried to find
some of the year old clips just to kind of
get an idea again, like to remind myself. I was like, man,
I can't find him on day two or three, but
I do remember him being there on day one and
being successful. But you know, I'm kind of big on numbers,
and he wore twenty one at the Senior Bowl. So
(19:15):
when I went back and I watched him at USC,
he was wearing number two.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
But then I highlight flashed up at some point I'm like,
wait a sec, who whoa whoa? Why is that not?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I remember nineteen.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
He wore nineteen the year before when he was there
with Kayla Bullock, and so.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
That's how I was like, oh, I remember him, and
then I thought.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
The full low cap two and he when he left,
Jalen took No.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
No.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
No.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Two was totally different. Kaylen were seven.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
He had originally wore twenty seven like as a young buck,
and then he moved to seven. So Jalen wre nineteen
and then he ended up moving to two and it
threw me off. But then I remembered the nineteen because
I remembered him from the year before, and so I'm like,
but man, he it's thought a slot kind of played
the nickel. But then I thought about one play in particular,
(20:05):
Monday Night against the Dallas Cowboys, and look, Kamante Turpin's
gonna beat everybody.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
I mean, he's one of the quickest, fastest guys I've
ever seen live. He's unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
But Jeff Akuda got beat so bad, like he wasn't
even the ballpark. Jalen's gonna be able to be that
third guy, whether it covers inside, whether it covers outside.
And maybe it's not even him, but maybe it's Ronald Darby, however,
but the Texans needed a good third cover guy that
if they want to go dime with a coverage aspect
(20:36):
to it, then Jalen Smith can be a third cover guy.
But look, if what you get from Jalen Smith is
he comes in, he covers some people on third down,
and then on fourth down he goes and dominates on
special teams, Hell, yeah, let's go. It's ninety seven pick
in the draft. You know there's some teams that pick
a kicker there.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And I didn't want to make this seem like, well,
the Texans spent a third round pick on a guy
who's only gonna be a special team round. I'm just
saying these are little things that like stood out to
me as far as YEA, yeah, I think they have
plans for him. Yes, defensively, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, but clarify there.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
But as Frank told us in the interview, he had
a hard time sleeping after that game against the Chiefs.
He felt like the special teams let a lot of
people down. So to see somebody like Jalen Smith come in,
Jalen Nole come in with some.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Return game that was really super important to Frank.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
To have guys of a high caliber athleticism, and you
get the feeling that Jalen Smith appreciates being on special teams.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
For sure Wood, he marks.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
J Equavius marks running back from USC four years before that,
running back from Mississippi State. His head coach in college,
and he brought this up with me. He brought this
up with me on the the post draft interview. My
head coach is Lincoln Riley. I watched lots of tape
of Joe Mixon. Interesting Riley because interesting Lincoln was Joe
(22:01):
Mixon's offensive coordinator about a decade ago, give her take
a few at Oklahoma. Well before that, about twenty years ago.
I knew Lincoln Riley and he was a GAU low
level assistant coach for Texas Tech when I was out
in Lubbock. Lincoln, you know, I'm a fan of Lincolns.
I like him. So Lincoln is familiar with a guy
(22:22):
named Tarian Henderson, and I know you are too, John.
But Tarian played running back for the Red Raiders, the Aughts,
the mid Oughts. I know his senior year there, which
I think was my first year there five he set
the record for most catches by a running back all
time NCAA history, caught lots of catch He was a
really productive running back that raid offense very very.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
So what looks what stands out to me with woody marks.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
He didn't do this under Lincoln Riley, but as a
sophomore at Mississippi State, he caught eighty three passes as
a sophomore as a running back. That's in a college season,
not in a seventeen game NFL season.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Eighty three passes. John, that's bananous.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I mean that that was the the red blinking light
of all red blinking lights in this entire draft class.
Eighty three catches for a running back as a sophomore.
That's wild, dude, wild. So let's just okay.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Critics says, yeah, boy, that was the leach off fens
and they just throw the ball a two and a folf.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Okay, half doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
It's a running back.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
I don't care cut him in half.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Yeah, it's still forty two, forty one, forty two catches
out of the backfield that are of a big time
quality variety. I'll tell you my my mark story. It
was twenty twenty three and I happened to be watching
a game one night in its Mississippi state, and I
want to say Lsu may out of an Lsu I
can't remember.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And what he's got a bang up I think it
was ankle. He's got bang up bankle.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
And you can tell that there's a hitch in his
gidio like he's not he's not full, like he's not
fully healthy.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
The announcers and talked about it. You can see on writer.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
I can't remember which one it was, like you can
tell like something's not right. He's banged up and drew
abby damn if he isn't running through tackles, he's carrying guys.
He's fighting for every single inch and he will not
come out of the game.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
He will not.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
They tried to send somebody in. He waved them off.
He's like, I'm not coming out of this game. And
I just remember what he Mark's badass, like okay, and
then obviously you know what happened with Coach Leach passed
away Rip Coach the Great Pirate in the Sky.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
We lost him.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Then he ends up moving on to USC and he
has I think it was forty seven catches at USC,
and he kind of.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Shared a little bit of time whose name escapes me.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
It was zero his number was zero and they had
a nice little one two combination, but still what he
went over eleven hundred yards rushing, had forty seven receiving,
and I was just like every time I would watch him,
I kept banging the table like I love this guy.
I love this guy. Was one of my favorites. Is
the type of guy that we need to have because
it's toughness. He swore me like man pass catching like
I was.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
So on Saturday, I'm sitting right here and Brooke was
doing our updates and shoes right here, and Sean was
over there, and we have the TV on and I
literally see our logos on the screen and I'm like, hey,
I think we moved up. And Brooke goes, yeah, we
are selecting Woody Marks bananas. And I literally just stood
(25:30):
up out of my seat and I was like, what
Woody Marks.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
We just drafted Woody Marks.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
I started banging the table because I was like so excited, like, man,
it's just the guy that I think when we talked
about this offense last year, we talked about it. A
lot of people probably got sick of hearing it, but
I think it was it's just this way. It's the
way this team thinks he has swarming as hell, I
mean big time and just that toughness, the way that
(25:56):
he was kind of carrying at Misissippi State offense.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
That's stayed with me, man, and I'm so glad he's here.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
And look, he may not be a drop, but I
would bet the complete opposite. I would bet that that
dude is going to come in here and whatever role
you give him, what are you not going off for
a pass, you're pass protecting. It's at blitzing linebacker all day,
got a coach, whatever you ask him to do, that
dude is going to end up being a factor and
impact this organization no matter what.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
All Right, moving on now to Jalen Reed, Penn State safety.
I interviewed him as well. I think that start to me.
He played sixteen games last year because any Lyons went
to the lost Semis. Yeah, a lot of games. One
of them was against my alma mater, SMU and they
handled the pony.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
But whatever, he was there, it's cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
What stayed up to me though it's not a number
with him, it was he's got a he's got a
chip on his shoulder and I think he thinks he
should have gotten drafted a lot higher. Yeah, and I
think he's got a lot to prove. In his mind,
he's saying, I've got a lot to prove. That's the
vibe I got with him in the post in the
post draft interview.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
You know, he was that tracks as they would say.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
He was like focused and he was happy that he
was drafted. He was going to celebrate. But it's like,
I'm I'm here to prove something.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You get that. You get that vibe with him.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
That's the way he plays, Yeah, like he's fearless.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
That and it is his let's do it. He said
it forty eight yeah call you know.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
I mean I think that was just his way of like, yeah,
I've got my spot now, I know where I'm going,
and I'm gonna go.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Wreck shop and look it just had a sweet grilling
with him.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Well, I had him at one o four in the
Harris one hundred, and I wasn't totally sure why he fell.
I think the the one thing that stood out that
I could kind of come up with was, you know,
we don't we really don't talk about strong safety, free
safety much anymore. You know, it's not kind of looked
at like that in the league hasn't been for a while.
(27:54):
But he's got a little bit more strong safety qualities,
like closer to the box, likes.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
To hit, let's be very physical, you know. But he's
got pretty good ball skills.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
I mean he when he's deeper in coverage and he's
got to react to the ball.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
I think he does a pretty good job. But he's fearless,
I mean fearless.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
And so if you're thinking about the one hundred ninety
seventh pick, I think it was.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
I think that's what it was.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Could be wrong, but six round pick, you got to
be a guy that thinks about special teams and that might.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Be the way that you make it.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
That might be the that might be your entree into
getting more defensive time. And I think just when I
listened to his interview with you, and I know the
type of player he is, I could see him understanding that, Like, look,
here's the secondary He even drafted another secondary re member
in front of you the day before, not different positions,
(28:47):
but here's also the history.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
This guy hurt, this guy hurt, this guy hurt. You
gotta be ready to go, but.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You have to make your mark on special teams first.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Then you will get time on defense.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
Huge, you gotta do that, but you have to buy
into being that great teammate. I get the impression that
he's going to be that great teammate for sure.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, you know another great teammate, a quarterback who elevates
those around him. Graham Mertz was the guy that the
Texans took after Reid played at Wisconsin a lot played
at Florida the last two years. In a kind of
interesting situation, he was easily the most polished of all
the interviewer interviewees, and thus of these guys were really
(29:31):
really polished.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
But another Kansas City kid over the park kid.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, his dad played in U in college and everything.
But the thing that stood out to me were these
two numbers, twenty and three, twenty touchdowns, three picks. It's
really really close. And that was in twenty twenty three
for the Florida Gators. Yep, that's really really close to
what CJ. Stroud did in twenty twenty three for the Texans. Yeah,
but incredibly accurate and north of seventy two percent both
(29:58):
seasons each of the last two season. Now last year
got ended early because of injury, but accurate, accurate, accurate
after not being too accurate at Wisconsin. You really flipped
a switch with the with the Gators the accuracy there.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
You know how I feel about adversity for quarterbacks through
I feel like the better quarterbacks I went through it
in the NFL are guys that have gone through it
at some point. You know, Josh Allen had to fight
for a junior college spot, you know, just to get
on a roster in.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Time out, time out, time out.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
My nine year oldt Oliver Doherty, the first thing he
asked me on Saturday after I got home was.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Like, why do you draft a quarterback?
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Right right?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Well, case, Keenum's not here, so you only have C. J.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Stroud and Davis Mills and Keaton Slovis right, so he's
Keen's not as experienced as those two ahead of him,
but you need a third quarterback to compete with Keten Slovas.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
So yeah, And you know the one thing, the thing
that immediately hit me because of course, when I sit quarterback,
all these kind of thoughts, Like I literally kind of chuckled,
like we drafted quarterback and then it hit me like,
wait a second.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
When Nick was with the.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Patriots, they drafted quarterbacks all the time, even though they
had the greatest of all time.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
On the roster. Sure they drafted Jacobe Brissett in the
third round, Jimmy Garoppolo in the second.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Tom Brady can't.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Throw every pass in every training camp, practice, OTA and
mini camps.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Yeah, I mean the drafted Kevin O'Connell, who obviously is
not the Vikings coach. They drafted all kinds of quarterbacks
while Brady was there, and Brady remained the starter. But
when Brady got suspended, both Garoppolo and Brissett had to
step in. And so I'm not saying that, and hopefully
that doesn't happen. I mean I said on the broadcast too,
I hope Graham Merch never plays it down for the
Texans because it means that CJ. Stroud right has stayed
(31:32):
healthy and everything's been all good, and if something happened
to CJ, then Davis was healthy and.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
We're all good there. But I talked about adversity.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
You know, Merch was supposed to be all that in
bag of ships when he got to Wisconsin.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
And I still follow Wisconsin.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
My parents live up there now, and you know I
followed Wisconsin growing up, and that's why I was such
a big J. J. Watt fan before the Texas drafted him,
and so merch to a lot of people at Wisconsin
was a disappointment, and it was during COVID time, it
was coaching changes. There's a lot of stuff going on
at Wisconsin. So he goes to Florida, has a really
(32:10):
good year in twenty three. Everybody's like, well, okay, maybe
there's something there. Florida recruited the number one quarterback in
the country. You got named DJ Lagway, who's from Willis,
and DJ signs to go to Florida. Every single Florida
Gator fan Wantslagway to play. They want Legway to play.
It doesn't matter what merks the year before. They wanted
(32:31):
leg What to play. And so Florida kind of came
up with this rotation and Lagway would come in and
the crowd would go crazy.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Things would't go so well.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Graham would have to come clean it up, and for
the first I don't know, five or six games, Graham
cleaned it up and had a pretty good twenty twenty
four going until he got hurt. Lagway had to kind
of keep it going the rest of the year, but
they got some momentum in.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Vile accounts, he was being a good teammates.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Yeah, absolutely, and that is one massively important, massively important
that he handled that adversity. And again, who did that
happen to in college one? Thomas Edward Brady in nineteen
ninety eight at Michigan no one recruiting the country. Drew
(33:16):
Henson ends up at Michigan and the Michigan coaches felt
like they had to play him or Henson would have transferred,
So they would play Brady.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Hanson would come in, it.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Wouldn't go great, They go back to Brady, Brady would
save the whole situation and finally got to the point
by the end of the year where like, look, we
just got to go Brady, and so they did, and
he going to Brady. He ended up being a stud.
Actually that was the second That was nineteen eighty nine,
That was Brady's last year, and Brady then had a
great rest of the year. Hanson came in the next year,
had a great two thousand and then ended up wanting
(33:45):
to go baseball.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Point being Brady had to go through that situation and
the way.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
He handled it actually meant something to the pro scouts
and in the end, I think that mattered to our scouts,
mattered to organization, that Graham Martz had been through it
and be stayed a great teammate, and c J. Stroud
is going to be the quarterback for this organization for
a long long time. Fingers crossed. Hopefully, you know we
said about Sean Watson things went sideways. Hopefully things aren't
(34:10):
going sideways with a CJ.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
Stroud.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
But Graham Mertz is that guy you want around the
building that will compete with Keaton Slovas, will show you
what he's got when he's healthy, and we don't know
exactly when he'll be ready to go. But I listened
and listened to all those interviews because obviously I was
on the air at that time when we played them all.
Once we had him, and I listened to Mertz and
everything that we've said. He said to you in that
(34:33):
interview that he under he understands the whole thing, He
understands the probably, and that to me is being a
good professional. He's not walking around going I'm beating c J.
Stroud out I should be starting. No, it had nothing
to do with that, and very self aware, very self aware,
and I could appreciate that with a college quarterback becoming
an NFL quarterback, because.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
There were plenty in this draft that were not self.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Aware, you know, uh, speaking of self aware.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
So I apologize if if you've been watching and I've
kind of my eyes have been darting because my cousin
Yim has been texting me and he said, Jim, did
you draft a kid that went to John Carroll High
School in bel Air, Maryland? That's where I went, and
that's where my sister Michelle went. And so I said, no,
but Keyante Hamilton went to Georgetown Prep.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
George Crown.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yeah, and uh, he says, no, no, No. My buddy said,
might be a wide receiver that went to John Carroll.
And I kind of put two and two together. I go,
I think you're thinking of our special teams coordinator Frank Ross. Yeah,
who played at John Carroll University in Cleveland, went into
their Hall of Fame last week. So problems with John
Carroll and Yim, You're you're off just a little bit.
It gets us to Kanta Hamilton. You know what stands
(35:40):
out to me about Kiante Hamilton. We got a wrestler.
We got I just as we were about to start
this podcast, I quote tweeted, there's this video of Contay
Hamilton body slamming in the heavyweights division, which is not easy,
uh and not not like WWE wrestling, but you know
Greco Roman high school wrestling.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Yuh. I love.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I love when the Texans, when any team has an
offensive or defensive lineman who has been a wrestler, because
their handwork is usually impeccable, their footwork is usually impeccable,
their understanding of leverage and just the physics of moving
people around.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Yes, it's typically impeccable.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
This might be a steal in the seventh round getting
a defensive tackle who can who can do some things
as a wrestler as.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
A FI player.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
So loose, there we go. You you hit, you hit
on all of it.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
And the Texas just recently signed Jake andrews Uh from Troy.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Does he have another wrestling Well.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
I'll tell you my quick story is at the Senior
Bowl and my buddy Lance Airline was talking to him
and I walked over and he's got this big old
beard and it's this kind of interesting character. And I
watched him during practice and I knew. I just knew
just by watching him. I was like, and so I
walked over and I said, you wrestled, didn't you. He
looked at me like I had five heads. He goes, yeah,
how'd you know that? And Lance looks at me and
(36:56):
you see it? I was like, you can see it.
You can tell when guys have been wrestlers, how.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
They didn't have flowers? Did he?
Speaker 5 (37:02):
No, he didn't have Kyle flower ears. But you could tell.
And I'll find Jay, can tell him that story and
remind him of that and.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
See whether he'll remember that.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
But but you know, with Hamilton, you can see it.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
You know a lot of times when teams are trying
to zone him off, like just the way he turns
his body, the way he contorts, the way he can
kind of grab hold of one but you know, leverage
another guy's he's being double teamed.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
To whatever the case might be. You can see the wrestler.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
I didn't not I didn't know about the wrestling part
as I watched him, But as I'm watching him, like
there's wrestler there, you could you could see it. You
can see it in Guys and long Hold. He was
really not only was he really good in high school,
but he actually I think wresselled, I believe, for Rutgers
early in his career, but then he realized he was
going to focus on football at that point. So look
(37:49):
at seinth round. There are two seventh rounders with Hamilton Lache. Yeah,
we're I mean, well, here we go. Let's do Luke Lasche.
Let's let's round things off. Iowa tight end ooh, I
would tight end. Usually that gets people pumped up.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
I think at George Kittle and some of the others
that have come through the greats Laporta. This guy played
with Laporta, and when Laporta left, the idea was, Okay,
he's up, he's next.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
But for a variety of reasons, that Iowa offense kind
of sputtered, and this guy did nice things and can block,
but didn't have the numbers that some of these other
Iowa tight ends have had.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
But it's just basically iowad tight end.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Offense that didn't do what a lot of folks wanted
it to do. And there's still a lot of meat
on the bone with this guy. There's lots of promise.
I think with Luke Lache.
Speaker 5 (38:37):
Yeah, twenty twenty three, double checking my numbers here, Yeah,
he played only the first two and a half games.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Then he got hurt.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
He was he was thought by a lot of the
draft knicks and all that coming out of twenty twenty two,
when he had a pretty good year he had twenty
eight catches, almost four hundred yards, four touchdowns. He were like, okay,
I would tight end because the same thing I would
tight end Luke Lache, son of an NFL Pro Bowl
off its tackle Jim leashe is Keevian eyes got Then
(39:05):
he only plays a couple of games in twenty twenty three,
so I think that kind of kept him off the
radar screen. And then at twenty twenty four, he had
a good start, then he got hurt, missed the game,
and then after he missed the game, so he missed
I don't know a game like seven or eight. After that,
he caught four passes for twenty two yards in four games,
and it's like what are we doing?
Speaker 4 (39:25):
Yeah, Like what happened?
Speaker 5 (39:27):
Start the year he caught six or sixty three and
all of a sudden, we're getting to a point. Even
against Ohio State he had five for thirty nine, Like
we're catching one for nine, two for nine, one for four,
like what are we doing? And so I just felt
like when I heard his name, I was like, wait,
hold on, because you know how a seventh round is drew.
It just you don't see every pick you're trying to
follow from. I literally saw him. And this happened with
(39:51):
Xavier Hutchinson two back in twenty three.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
I was like, wait, we.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Strafted hutch in a six round. He wasn't gone already.
I thought the same thing with Lachet. I'd seen some
of the tight ends go and I thought he's still
on the board. Like when I did my my draft
needs a Football take over dot Com, I put up
three the Texans ones, and I had lache as one
of the tight ends. I thought we would look at,
you know, a guy that can play in line. You
know he's not you're not quite the blocker that Jackson
(40:17):
Hawes is, but he still could play in line in
their stands.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
He's a tight end that pretty much every I mean,
they all do it, but he could be a fit
for every team because of what what you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
That's right, that's right. And I think he can play
a couple of the tight end positions too.
Speaker 5 (40:30):
So you get a guy like that in the seventh round,
start working with him and you're like, hey man, we
got a little something here.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
So look, is he gonna be kittle? And they know
probably not. Odds would say no.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
But if the guy's willing to work and he's got
the injury stuff behind him, and he comes in and
and look, that's that's what held TQ back. If TQ
had just stayed healthy, he was going to stack another
day on another day and be a pretty good tight end.
He just couldn't stay healthy at all. And so that's
the that's the biggest key I think with the tight
end room. Actually, I mean, if Luke luche does anything
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
Just stay healthy, because he's a good enough football player.
Speaker 5 (41:06):
We're good at pedigree DNA that if he just stacks
good day after good day after good day, then I
think he finds a way to do something with this
tight end group.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
We've stacked good podcasts after good podcast certainly have. I
don't know if I know you and I agree that.
I don't know if anybody else, but I think that, yes, yes,
this has been a longer one, but we have to
it's nine picks. It's there's only one, twenty twenty five
NFL Draft class for the textan, so we got to
cover it in full.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
But John, this was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Not fun man.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Thank you. He will do this.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Again next week. Thank you, general viewer, listener checking us
out for John.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
I'm Drew.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
This is in the Lab presented by Exfinity with a
big heart symbol by Peace
In the Lab, a Texans podcast that takes a different
look at things. Drew Doherty and John Harris have their
lab coats and goggles on and the Bunsen burners burning.
Here's Drew.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Players have been picked nine total, and medicine balls are
flying here inside ANRG stadium. This is in the Lab,
presented by Infinity Me. Drew Doherty, You, John Harrison, you
our third friend listening watching whichever one you're choosing to do.
We appreciate that. But yeah, the medicine balls. John twenty yards.
(00:37):
That way is the weight room, and sometimes outside the
weight room will throw medicine balls against the wall. So
I didn't see which players are out there right now,
but I mean a lot of them as much everybody
that matters.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
They're all here and they're all working out.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yep. It's been really cool to see how many guys
are here.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Yeah, it is, as we've said many times, voluntary, and
there had been a lot of Texan stars in the
past that were like, it's voluntary, be there when I
need to. These guys have been more along the lines of, hey,
this is a this is a it's the way we
can get together and we can you know, compete as
(01:14):
a team.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
There's no Darren Hambrick saying what do voluntary mean?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Yeah? Exactly, that's it.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
That's you've got to be old if you remember that one.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, yeah, two thousand, two thousand and one, ish Darren Hambrick,
a linebacker for the Cowboys, didn't show up for voluntary
workouts or something.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Oh he was a piece of work.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Now voluntary.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
He had his little brother, Troy Hambrick, pretty good running
back few years.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
But that's right, Yeah, yeah, it's so it'svoluntary. But guys
are here, and look, it's it's not everybody. You know,
people have some family situations or whatever, but there's been
a really considered effort to get together.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And be with the guys.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
And man, you walked on all Like I walked probably
about an hour and a half ago down the hallway
and just boom, there's a guy. There's a guy, there's
there's a vet, there's a I mean, it's just to give.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Somebody asked me on uh, fans want to know kind
of it's the what you used to be. Dear Drew, Hey,
who's not here at involuntary workouts or voluntary workouts?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I was like, I don't know. I mean, I've seen CJ.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Stroud, I've seen Nico Collins, Derek Stingley, Will Anderson Junior,
all the veterans, you know, the new guys that have signed.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Gardner Johnson you heard from him. Laugh. But I mean,
everybody's here that I know of. I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's like you said, there might be some guys that
have missed a dare too, but I still know who
they are. Anyways, let's get into the draft and we're
gonna do nine things that stand out to me. And
it's peculiar little things and then you're gonna you're gonna
add on to it. But it's each pick and I
got one thing about him, Okay, And it's wild that
(02:44):
the Texans took nine guys, by the way, Yeah, exactly,
it's I would go with ace.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
We went in with eight, yeah, and I knew the
numbers at the time, but yeah, eight, yeah, So we
went in with eight, came out with nine.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
All right, we go in with eight, do we go?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Because we had four of the first three rounds, right,
and then we had which is yeah, you're right, yeah,
you're right. It was eight seven with a bunch of
set Anyways, Okay, let's start off with the big fella
right off the top, and I say, big Jaye Higgins.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
His dimensions is what stood out to me.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
And it's everyone's saying, oh, he's a carbon copy of
Nico Collins. And instantly when I hear someone compare a
guy to another guy, I instantly recoil and say, he's
his own mane, He's gonna be different. It doesn't matter,
but darn it, Like look at it. Looking at this
guy's size, looking at his speed, looking at what he
(03:40):
did on the field, those are a lot of Nico
Collins esque stats and numbers. And I'm fine, I'll take
seventeen Nico Collins on a team. There's I saw this
idea out there that he can't have two of the
same guy. Sure he can, Sure he can, You absolutely can.
I'll take as many Nico Collins as you'll give me,
because because I mean, he's the definition of swarm in
(04:02):
one dude. I mean it takes six guys to bring
him down. He catches the ball and then chooses violence
in the most violent way he can and gets all
that extra yardage and he can run by guys. Somebody
on Twitter, Ian hartzit's had a. He had a really
good tweet last night. We're shooting this on a Wednesday morning.
He said, look at what Nico Collins was doing before
(04:24):
the injury against the Bills.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Oh yeah, he was on case.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
For two thousand yards. Now, was that if held up dominating?
We'll see. But he was lighting it up. And the
last catch he had before he got injured was what
seventy five yard touchdown, took it to the house. So
is there can he do this? Can Jayden Higgins do this?
We'll see. I mean that's a big bar to clear.
But man, I like all the numbers and the stuff
(04:50):
backing it up that made the Texans choose him. Because
the numbers was one little, smart, small component of why
they chose him. There's all sorts of other stuff that
they've seen over the years that they like.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
I mean, think about it, is Drew And you know
how I do these things? I do a player comp
I didn't. I probably did about one hundred and fifty
player comps football takeover at com and so immediately when
I got back from the Senior Bowl, I didn't base
it on really other than the only kind of numerical
comparison was kind of the size comparison, like one guy
(05:22):
six fourteen, But it was just the way that he played,
the way that he carried himself, the way that he
won as a receiver. I came back from the Senior
Bowl and I just, you know, I've got a seven
and a half eight hour drive home, and I'm thinking
about all that I've seen, and I'm like, oh, man, Okay,
Higgins is Higgins's Nico. Man, There's no doubt, just the
way they move, how fluid they are. And I remembered,
you know, Jaden I thought had a good Senior Bowl.
(05:43):
And what stood out to me was the fact that
when when Nico went to his Senior Bowl, he had
not played for a whole year, and so Nico did
not have a great Senior Bowl. I remember coming out
of there, I was really excited to see him because
he hadn't played that year and I was getting to
see him up close.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Such a peculiar set of circumstances.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And I had an agent.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
I had an agent tell me at some point he
was like, during that Senior Bowl, defensive backs are kind
of fighting themselves to go on the field with Nico,
and because they felt like they could just destroy this
big physical receiver from out of Michigan.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
And it's funny because I try.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
And buy some gear from the Senior Bowl hats and
you know, winter caps and you know long sleeves and
hoodies and all that, and so they were selling a
long sleeve on the back was the entire roster. And
I pulled it out of my closet. This is back
during the season. I pulled it out of my closet
and I was like, oh yeah, And I went looking
at the names and I was like, none of those
receivers have done a damn thing. They haven't busted a
(06:41):
grape and a fruit flight. They have just done nothing.
And then there's Nico. And it's just funny because at
the Senior Bowl there were all, oh, this guy, that guy. Now,
if I remember correctly, I think Christian Watson was there,
but they can't remember exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
But I just remember a litany of those guys like nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing nothing, Nico.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So do you remember if the dbs that were fighting,
you know, do you remember have I'm guessing a few
of them have done some nice things.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
Oh no, no, No, the DB's weren't. The DB's weren't
very good in that in that if I remember correctly,
in that Senior Bowl for for some reason, but I
gotta go look the back of my shirt again, yeah,
to see that.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
But that was to me, that was just.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
A the way that Higgins plays the way Nico plays, Like,
I can see the comparison, so okay, size wise, it fits,
and that's where I start with it. For me, I
start with size, like how similar are the sizes because
I'm not going to compare Jaden Higgins to Maurice Jones Drew.
I'm not gonna, you know, the way even though the
(07:44):
play simple, no, no, no, I'm gonna compare. Start with size,
and then from there I'll go, Okay, how did their
play styles? Are their play styles similar? Do they win
kind of the same way? And I came out of
that Senior Bowl thinking, yeah, they do. And so that's
that's where I came up with the competent Jayden Higgins
for Nico like, and I know I wasn't alone with that,
but they just and I had that back in January
(08:06):
when I got back from the scene, where like that
was immediate, like I wrote up his report Boom Nico Collins,
and I was like.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
That's easy.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
At sous if I can knock out a comp easy,
boom moving on to the next one, because they're they're
not easy after a while, like dang and I and
I try and mock, I try and come up with
a comp that's different for every receiver, every player in
a draft. So I won't comp Nico to five different
guys that are six, four, two, ten. Nico only goes
to one and sometimes it's hard, and there's some guys I.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Just won't I won't comp too.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
And as Nico gets maybe a little bit better, I
probably won't comp anybody to Nico because he would just
be at that level.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Like I'll never comp anybody to J. J. Watt.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Did you comp Broughck Osweller to Dan MacGuire, You know,
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
I didn't do a comp back then.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
But it's funny because with Brock, I didn't like him
out of Arizona State.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I remember that's yeah, I didn't like him at all.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
And when he signed here, it was like I had
this push pull of man.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Either either my drafted port is wrong.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Yeah, or my positive vibe about Brock was gonna be wrong.
And you know, yeah, coprock Man, he's a nice dude,
I've gotten I've gotten to talk to him a few
times since. He's been great, So I'm not gonna say
a bad thing about Brock All good, all good. I
was in my damn aguire was just like, they're both No,
that's a great comp that's an absolutely perfect comp.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
We'll go old here on in the lab. If you
don't know what we're talking about, that's fine, it's all good.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
It's all good.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
But ife of you old people like Dave Howard probably
got that. He knows, you know, Dave okay t And
by the way, I got to interview all of these
guys except for Keanta Hamilton and Luke Lasche and everyone
is in that honeymoon phase when you talk to him
five minutes after being drafted, and as pleasant as can be.
It was awesome, And I'm sure they are pleasant guys,
but it was really really cool talking to these guys.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Tree athletically played hoops.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Didn't play basketball till or excuse me, didn't play football
till sophom junior year in high school. Went to a
Kansas City area high school. We took three guys from
the Kansas City area. That's how he beat a Chiefs
very athletic a because he could hoop. He was also
a thrower. And when I say thrower, he didn't just
throw the shot put, because he did. He didn't just
do the discuss, because he did that too. He also
(10:17):
threw the javelin. Which have you ever thrown a javelin? John,
It's not easy.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
No, one of my buddies that I was telling you
about it. He threw a javelin at A and M.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
He did all three of those parts. So that's another
component to the athleticism. And then he was a dancing
bear at left tackle. But the thing that stood out
to me the most was the number of starts. It's
like high thirties in his career at left tackle alone.
And last season in a conference with the likes of
(10:46):
Josh Simmons, Donovan Jackson, a whole lot of others, this guy,
tay Ersary was the conference offensive linemen of the year.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
That's what stood out to me.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's the and I'm just going with like, first, when
I think about these guys, now, this is what I
think of. That's pretty cool, man, It.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Is absolutely And when I when I there are a
couple of you know, I build my database, like I
literally spent yesterday starting my twenty twenty six database for
the draft, and I go to team rosters, I go
to all americal lists that just to start.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Well, one of the places that I go and I
use because it points out the athleticism is Bruce Feldman's
Freaks List yep. And so last year on Bruce Feldman's
Freaks List, Ariante was at twenty five, Tay was at
twenty five, and they talked about, you know, against Ohio State,
he only he allowed one pressure on twenty three pass
(11:42):
blocking snaps against Sawyer and Tui Moloou. Then Bruce said
this ursery squatted six hundred and forty pounds, bench pressed
four to twelve, and did a four hundred and nine
pounds hand clean this offseason, Like if you've run on
hand cleans, Like when I was at Brown a.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Lot we did hand cleans.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Again, what's the ex So basically you take the bar
and instead of it's starting at the ground, you bring
it to your knees and then you have to explode
up and.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Then catch it.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh yeah, okay, okay, that's.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Four hundred and nine pounds. That's insanity.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Yeah, So having done hand cleans in my entire college life.
I'm like, I hate them, I hate I get it,
I get it, but I hate them. Four or nine
pounds stood out to me, and they said, but his
wheels are the most impressive aspect of his game. His
one point five to two second ten yard split is
a program record for an offensive lineman. He clocked eighteen
point three four miles per on at GPS. He posted
(12:43):
a twenty seven and a half it's vertical on a
nine too broad jump along with the pro shettle time
of four to six one. Keep in mind, this is
the guy the six six, three hundred and thirty pounds.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Eighteen months, I mean that's and now that sexons are
going to have him run and fly routes, but no,
still just athleticism for this guy. He started a lot
and so all that athleticism, that's awesome, but he got
a lot of experience. And that's what I love too,
Like that union of the two things I.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Love, right and the athleticism. To me, the strength is
the one thing that is that you can absolutely see
when you see him run. He's kind of stiff legged
and bent his knees as much. And so when I
first watched I've said this, you know, during a draft
show and everything. When I first watched Ursery play, no,
(13:34):
I don't see it, but I didn't really see it
as a first rounder. But the more I watched him,
and then I watched the game against him do a Carter,
and I was like, this is actually he gets Carter blocked.
Saw him at the Senior Bowl. Guys are trying to
run through him and he just just anching it. And
that's why I think he could play guard, but I
don't know if that'll be in the Texans plans. But
either way, he just anchored like guys would bull rush
(13:56):
him and he just stopped him in their tracks. I'm like,
this is strong, dude. So like that strength is shown
when he moves. You can see the athleticism.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And his movements.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
He just he just looks a little kind of peg legged,
and that's okay.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Jalen Nole another Iowa state wide receiver, playmaker, man, play maker,
and he's a bowler.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
He's a bowler. That's the best part. I love that.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I love it, love steaks, but I love Jalen Nole.
He's He's gonna be fun man. It's just you gotta
load up because what have we seen around here the
last couple of years. Start with the Texans wide receivers.
They've gotten injured. It's not they're not injury prone, but
they've gotten injured. And so you gotta be ready and
you got to have layers to your wide receiver, cord.
I think the Texans have done.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
That now, you know what, you know, the first five
guys all went to Senior Bowl, so I got to see.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
I got to see and I was focusing more on
an offense.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
So I got to see all these guys and had
a pretty good idea about them. And again came back
from the Senior Bowl and I immediately comped Nol to
Jaguar our wide.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Receiver Christian Kirk.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And then a few months later the Texans signed Christian.
They signed Christian Kirks going. I was coming out of
the cap tie yesterday. Yeah, Hey, how's it going, Christian?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (15:09):
And I got to I can change my database now
to say Texans wide receiver Christian Kirk. So I thought
it was interesting the two receivers they get. I comped
again to to Texans. But you know, sometimes Drew like
for me, you know, people like this will happen. At
Texans practice, they'll go through a period called individual and
you know, media members, you know, kind of jack John
about whatever, not really paying attention. I always love to
(15:31):
watch individual because alway feel like there's something that you
can get. And sometimes when you're you know, day, you know,
two hundred and twelve of a season and you're getting
ready for the Ravens in the playoffs, you're not really
worried about watching individual too much. But I feel like
in the Senior Bowl, because it's the first time kind
of laying eyes on on guys in person, I feel
like watching it is is pretty interesting.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
And so I'm watching the receivers.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I'm down in the receiver section and they're working on
they're working on sideline routes, just getting the sidelines and
it's the biggest for wide receivers.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Now one foot doesn't count. You gotta get both in.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
So they would work on his toe tapping drill and
that evolved into running like a sail route. Sale route
is kind of a like take a corner oute and
then kind of bend it and shorter, and so there's
timing involved and all that kind of stuff, but you're
running basically full speed to the sideline. And I remembered distinctly,
as I'm watching the guys go through the drill, I'm
watching these guys try to body catch the ball, which
(16:25):
is really you can't do that on a sail route,
And all of a sudden, Jalen runs that sail route
and boom, he just snatches it, just plucks it out
of the air.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
And I thought this is interesting.
Speaker 5 (16:36):
So I kept watching that, and I watched as he
caught the ball, and I realized, and I know people
are like, well, he caught the ball, Like yeah, but
when you catch it the way he's doing it with
perfect technique, thumbs down on a ball above him, thumbs
up the ball below him, not trying to body catch it.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
It's like, that's impressive to me. Those hands are really
really good.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
And then it was the start stop, the ability to
stop on a dime, not drift on routes. If he's
got to get the five yards and pivot, boom, he's
at five yards full speed pivot, he gets separation. I mean,
it's everything that they have talked about. That dem goes, oh,
I want a separator, Well, that guy's a separator.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
There's no doubt.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
He's and yes he does all that, But there's a
video up. I did the one on ones like I
mentioned earlier, and there's a video up on YouTube. Go
check that out because there's a catch on there where
there is no separation whatsoever. And I don't know the team.
It looked like a high school team because it was
green and yellow. But he was bracketed. And when I
(17:36):
say bracketed, I mean there was a guy on his
left side and a guy on his right side touching
his shoulders. Yeah, and he catches a pass right through him.
He shouldn't have caught it, right, And I'm not saying
he was being guarded by Derek Stingley and Deon Sanders,
but it just doesn't matter. Like the way he caught
this thing was remarkable, So I can't wait to see
(17:56):
what he does. Okay, Jalen Smith, defensive back from USC Now,
I don't want to speak for you, but I'm going
to speak for you because I know you you echo
this and feel the same way. Special teams coordinator Frank
Ross is one of our favorite all time coaches in
this building.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
We love this dude. He's awesome.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I heard after the fact that Ross was ecstatic, ecstatic
with the Jalen Smith pick.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
I'm pumped if if that's the case, I'm cool with that.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
Yeah, late third round, if you get a guy. I
think it was Saturday. Sean Pendergast was here and to
get to studio, you know, he's got to walk the bowels,
and he ended up seeing Frank and he said Frank
was bouncing off the walls.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
You know, you get Noel who can give you return game.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Talk about that with Noel.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Jayalen Smith was a gunner.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
It's interesting because I remember Jalen had the Senior Bowl,
and as I went back and I tried to find
some of the year old clips just to kind of
get an idea again, like to remind myself. I was like, man,
I can't find him on day two or three, but
I do remember him being there on day one and
being successful. But you know, I'm kind of big on numbers,
and he wore twenty one at the Senior Bowl. So
(19:15):
when I went back and I watched him at USC,
he was wearing number two.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
But then I highlight flashed up at some point I'm like,
wait a sec, who whoa whoa? Why is that not?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
I remember nineteen.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
He wore nineteen the year before when he was there
with Kayla Bullock, and so.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
That's how I was like, oh, I remember him, and
then I thought.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
The full low cap two and he when he left,
Jalen took No.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
No.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
No.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Two was totally different. Kaylen were seven.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
He had originally wore twenty seven like as a young buck,
and then he moved to seven. So Jalen wre nineteen
and then he ended up moving to two and it
threw me off. But then I remembered the nineteen because
I remembered him from the year before, and so I'm like,
but man, he it's thought a slot kind of played
the nickel. But then I thought about one play in particular,
(20:05):
Monday Night against the Dallas Cowboys, and look, Kamante Turpin's
gonna beat everybody.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
I mean, he's one of the quickest, fastest guys I've
ever seen live. He's unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
But Jeff Akuda got beat so bad, like he wasn't
even the ballpark. Jalen's gonna be able to be that
third guy, whether it covers inside, whether it covers outside.
And maybe it's not even him, but maybe it's Ronald Darby, however,
but the Texans needed a good third cover guy that
if they want to go dime with a coverage aspect
(20:36):
to it, then Jalen Smith can be a third cover guy.
But look, if what you get from Jalen Smith is
he comes in, he covers some people on third down,
and then on fourth down he goes and dominates on
special teams, Hell, yeah, let's go. It's ninety seven pick
in the draft. You know there's some teams that pick
a kicker there.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And I didn't want to make this seem like, well,
the Texans spent a third round pick on a guy
who's only gonna be a special team round. I'm just
saying these are little things that like stood out to
me as far as YEA, yeah, I think they have
plans for him. Yes, defensively, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, but clarify there.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
But as Frank told us in the interview, he had
a hard time sleeping after that game against the Chiefs.
He felt like the special teams let a lot of
people down. So to see somebody like Jalen Smith come in,
Jalen Nole come in with some.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Return game that was really super important to Frank.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
To have guys of a high caliber athleticism, and you
get the feeling that Jalen Smith appreciates being on special teams.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
For sure Wood, he marks.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
J Equavius marks running back from USC four years before that,
running back from Mississippi State. His head coach in college,
and he brought this up with me. He brought this
up with me on the the post draft interview. My
head coach is Lincoln Riley. I watched lots of tape
of Joe Mixon. Interesting Riley because interesting Lincoln was Joe
(22:01):
Mixon's offensive coordinator about a decade ago, give her take
a few at Oklahoma. Well before that, about twenty years ago.
I knew Lincoln Riley and he was a GAU low
level assistant coach for Texas Tech when I was out
in Lubbock. Lincoln, you know, I'm a fan of Lincolns.
I like him. So Lincoln is familiar with a guy
(22:22):
named Tarian Henderson, and I know you are too, John.
But Tarian played running back for the Red Raiders, the Aughts,
the mid Oughts. I know his senior year there, which
I think was my first year there five he set
the record for most catches by a running back all
time NCAA history, caught lots of catch He was a
really productive running back that raid offense very very.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
So what looks what stands out to me with woody marks.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
He didn't do this under Lincoln Riley, but as a
sophomore at Mississippi State, he caught eighty three passes as
a sophomore as a running back. That's in a college season,
not in a seventeen game NFL season.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Eighty three passes. John, that's bananous.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I mean that that was the the red blinking light
of all red blinking lights in this entire draft class.
Eighty three catches for a running back as a sophomore.
That's wild, dude, wild. So let's just okay.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Critics says, yeah, boy, that was the leach off fens
and they just throw the ball a two and a folf.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Okay, half doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
It's a running back.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
I don't care cut him in half.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Yeah, it's still forty two, forty one, forty two catches
out of the backfield that are of a big time
quality variety. I'll tell you my my mark story. It
was twenty twenty three and I happened to be watching
a game one night in its Mississippi state, and I
want to say Lsu may out of an Lsu I
can't remember.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And what he's got a bang up I think it
was ankle. He's got bang up bankle.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
And you can tell that there's a hitch in his
gidio like he's not he's not full, like he's not
fully healthy.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
The announcers and talked about it. You can see on writer.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
I can't remember which one it was, like you can
tell like something's not right. He's banged up and drew
abby damn if he isn't running through tackles, he's carrying guys.
He's fighting for every single inch and he will not
come out of the game.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
He will not.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
They tried to send somebody in. He waved them off.
He's like, I'm not coming out of this game. And
I just remember what he Mark's badass, like okay, and
then obviously you know what happened with Coach Leach passed
away Rip Coach the Great Pirate in the Sky.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
We lost him.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Then he ends up moving on to USC and he
has I think it was forty seven catches at USC,
and he kind of.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Shared a little bit of time whose name escapes me.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
It was zero his number was zero and they had
a nice little one two combination, but still what he
went over eleven hundred yards rushing, had forty seven receiving,
and I was just like every time I would watch him,
I kept banging the table like I love this guy.
I love this guy. Was one of my favorites. Is
the type of guy that we need to have because
it's toughness. He swore me like man pass catching like
I was.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
So on Saturday, I'm sitting right here and Brooke was
doing our updates and shoes right here, and Sean was
over there, and we have the TV on and I
literally see our logos on the screen and I'm like, hey,
I think we moved up. And Brooke goes, yeah, we
are selecting Woody Marks bananas. And I literally just stood
(25:30):
up out of my seat and I was like, what
Woody Marks.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
We just drafted Woody Marks.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
I started banging the table because I was like so excited, like, man,
it's just the guy that I think when we talked
about this offense last year, we talked about it. A
lot of people probably got sick of hearing it, but
I think it was it's just this way. It's the
way this team thinks he has swarming as hell, I
mean big time and just that toughness, the way that
(25:56):
he was kind of carrying at Misissippi State offense.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
That's stayed with me, man, and I'm so glad he's here.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
And look, he may not be a drop, but I
would bet the complete opposite. I would bet that that
dude is going to come in here and whatever role
you give him, what are you not going off for
a pass, you're pass protecting. It's at blitzing linebacker all day,
got a coach, whatever you ask him to do, that
dude is going to end up being a factor and
impact this organization no matter what.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
All Right, moving on now to Jalen Reed, Penn State safety.
I interviewed him as well. I think that start to me.
He played sixteen games last year because any Lyons went
to the lost Semis. Yeah, a lot of games. One
of them was against my alma mater, SMU and they
handled the pony.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
But whatever, he was there, it's cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
What stayed up to me though it's not a number
with him, it was he's got a he's got a
chip on his shoulder and I think he thinks he
should have gotten drafted a lot higher. Yeah, and I
think he's got a lot to prove. In his mind,
he's saying, I've got a lot to prove. That's the
vibe I got with him in the post in the
post draft interview.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
You know, he was that tracks as they would say.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
He was like focused and he was happy that he
was drafted. He was going to celebrate. But it's like,
I'm I'm here to prove something.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You get that. You get that vibe with him.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
That's the way he plays, Yeah, like he's fearless.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
That and it is his let's do it. He said
it forty eight yeah call you know.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
I mean I think that was just his way of like, yeah,
I've got my spot now, I know where I'm going,
and I'm gonna go.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Wreck shop and look it just had a sweet grilling
with him.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Well, I had him at one o four in the
Harris one hundred, and I wasn't totally sure why he fell.
I think the the one thing that stood out that
I could kind of come up with was, you know,
we don't we really don't talk about strong safety, free
safety much anymore. You know, it's not kind of looked
at like that in the league hasn't been for a while.
(27:54):
But he's got a little bit more strong safety qualities,
like closer to the box, likes.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
To hit, let's be very physical, you know. But he's
got pretty good ball skills.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
I mean he when he's deeper in coverage and he's
got to react to the ball.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
I think he does a pretty good job. But he's fearless,
I mean fearless.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
And so if you're thinking about the one hundred ninety
seventh pick, I think it was.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
I think that's what it was.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Could be wrong, but six round pick, you got to
be a guy that thinks about special teams and that might.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Be the way that you make it.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
That might be the that might be your entree into
getting more defensive time. And I think just when I
listened to his interview with you, and I know the
type of player he is, I could see him understanding that, Like, look,
here's the secondary He even drafted another secondary re member
in front of you the day before, not different positions,
(28:47):
but here's also the history.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
This guy hurt, this guy hurt, this guy hurt. You
gotta be ready to go, but.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You have to make your mark on special teams first.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Then you will get time on defense.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
Huge, you gotta do that, but you have to buy
into being that great teammate. I get the impression that
he's going to be that great teammate for sure.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, you know another great teammate, a quarterback who elevates
those around him. Graham Mertz was the guy that the
Texans took after Reid played at Wisconsin a lot played
at Florida the last two years. In a kind of
interesting situation, he was easily the most polished of all
the interviewer interviewees, and thus of these guys were really
(29:31):
really polished.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
But another Kansas City kid over the park kid.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, his dad played in U in college and everything.
But the thing that stood out to me were these
two numbers, twenty and three, twenty touchdowns, three picks. It's
really really close. And that was in twenty twenty three
for the Florida Gators. Yep, that's really really close to
what CJ. Stroud did in twenty twenty three for the Texans. Yeah,
but incredibly accurate and north of seventy two percent both
(29:58):
seasons each of the last two season. Now last year
got ended early because of injury, but accurate, accurate, accurate
after not being too accurate at Wisconsin. You really flipped
a switch with the with the Gators the accuracy there.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
You know how I feel about adversity for quarterbacks through
I feel like the better quarterbacks I went through it
in the NFL are guys that have gone through it
at some point. You know, Josh Allen had to fight
for a junior college spot, you know, just to get
on a roster in.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Time out, time out, time out.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
My nine year oldt Oliver Doherty, the first thing he
asked me on Saturday after I got home was.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Like, why do you draft a quarterback?
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Right right?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Well, case, Keenum's not here, so you only have C. J.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Stroud and Davis Mills and Keaton Slovis right, so he's
Keen's not as experienced as those two ahead of him,
but you need a third quarterback to compete with Keten Slovas.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
So yeah, And you know the one thing, the thing
that immediately hit me because of course, when I sit quarterback,
all these kind of thoughts, Like I literally kind of chuckled,
like we drafted quarterback and then it hit me like,
wait a second.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
When Nick was with the.
Speaker 5 (30:57):
Patriots, they drafted quarterbacks all the time, even though they
had the greatest of all time.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
On the roster. Sure they drafted Jacobe Brissett in the
third round, Jimmy Garoppolo in the second.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Tom Brady can't.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Throw every pass in every training camp, practice, OTA and
mini camps.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Yeah, I mean the drafted Kevin O'Connell, who obviously is
not the Vikings coach. They drafted all kinds of quarterbacks
while Brady was there, and Brady remained the starter. But
when Brady got suspended, both Garoppolo and Brissett had to
step in. And so I'm not saying that, and hopefully
that doesn't happen. I mean I said on the broadcast too,
I hope Graham Merch never plays it down for the
Texans because it means that CJ. Stroud right has stayed
(31:32):
healthy and everything's been all good, and if something happened
to CJ, then Davis was healthy and.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
We're all good there. But I talked about adversity.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
You know, Merch was supposed to be all that in
bag of ships when he got to Wisconsin.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
And I still follow Wisconsin.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
My parents live up there now, and you know I
followed Wisconsin growing up, and that's why I was such
a big J. J. Watt fan before the Texas drafted him,
and so merch to a lot of people at Wisconsin
was a disappointment, and it was during COVID time, it
was coaching changes. There's a lot of stuff going on
at Wisconsin. So he goes to Florida, has a really
(32:10):
good year in twenty three. Everybody's like, well, okay, maybe
there's something there. Florida recruited the number one quarterback in
the country. You got named DJ Lagway, who's from Willis,
and DJ signs to go to Florida. Every single Florida
Gator fan Wantslagway to play. They want Legway to play.
It doesn't matter what merks the year before. They wanted
(32:31):
leg What to play. And so Florida kind of came
up with this rotation and Lagway would come in and
the crowd would go crazy.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Things would't go so well.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Graham would have to come clean it up, and for
the first I don't know, five or six games, Graham
cleaned it up and had a pretty good twenty twenty
four going until he got hurt. Lagway had to kind
of keep it going the rest of the year, but
they got some momentum in.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Vile accounts, he was being a good teammates.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Yeah, absolutely, and that is one massively important, massively important
that he handled that adversity. And again, who did that
happen to in college one? Thomas Edward Brady in nineteen
ninety eight at Michigan no one recruiting the country. Drew
(33:16):
Henson ends up at Michigan and the Michigan coaches felt
like they had to play him or Henson would have transferred,
So they would play Brady.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Hanson would come in, it.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
Wouldn't go great, They go back to Brady, Brady would
save the whole situation and finally got to the point
by the end of the year where like, look, we
just got to go Brady, and so they did, and
he going to Brady. He ended up being a stud.
Actually that was the second That was nineteen eighty nine,
That was Brady's last year, and Brady then had a
great rest of the year. Hanson came in the next year,
had a great two thousand and then ended up wanting
(33:45):
to go baseball.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Point being Brady had to go through that situation and
the way.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
He handled it actually meant something to the pro scouts
and in the end, I think that mattered to our scouts,
mattered to organization, that Graham Martz had been through it
and be stayed a great teammate, and c J. Stroud
is going to be the quarterback for this organization for
a long long time. Fingers crossed. Hopefully, you know we
said about Sean Watson things went sideways. Hopefully things aren't
(34:10):
going sideways with a CJ.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
Stroud.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
But Graham Mertz is that guy you want around the
building that will compete with Keaton Slovas, will show you
what he's got when he's healthy, and we don't know
exactly when he'll be ready to go. But I listened
and listened to all those interviews because obviously I was
on the air at that time when we played them all.
Once we had him, and I listened to Mertz and
everything that we've said. He said to you in that
(34:33):
interview that he under he understands the whole thing, He
understands the probably, and that to me is being a
good professional. He's not walking around going I'm beating c J.
Stroud out I should be starting. No, it had nothing
to do with that, and very self aware, very self aware,
and I could appreciate that with a college quarterback becoming
an NFL quarterback, because.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
There were plenty in this draft that were not self.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Aware, you know, uh, speaking of self aware.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
So I apologize if if you've been watching and I've
kind of my eyes have been darting because my cousin
Yim has been texting me and he said, Jim, did
you draft a kid that went to John Carroll High
School in bel Air, Maryland? That's where I went, and
that's where my sister Michelle went. And so I said, no,
but Keyante Hamilton went to Georgetown Prep.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
George Crown.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yeah, and uh, he says, no, no, No. My buddy said,
might be a wide receiver that went to John Carroll.
And I kind of put two and two together. I go,
I think you're thinking of our special teams coordinator Frank Ross. Yeah,
who played at John Carroll University in Cleveland, went into
their Hall of Fame last week. So problems with John
Carroll and Yim, You're you're off just a little bit.
It gets us to Kanta Hamilton. You know what stands
(35:40):
out to me about Kiante Hamilton. We got a wrestler.
We got I just as we were about to start
this podcast, I quote tweeted, there's this video of Contay
Hamilton body slamming in the heavyweights division, which is not easy,
uh and not not like WWE wrestling, but you know
Greco Roman high school wrestling.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Yuh. I love.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I love when the Texans, when any team has an
offensive or defensive lineman who has been a wrestler, because
their handwork is usually impeccable, their footwork is usually impeccable,
their understanding of leverage and just the physics of moving
people around.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Yes, it's typically impeccable.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
This might be a steal in the seventh round getting
a defensive tackle who can who can do some things
as a wrestler as.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
A FI player.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
So loose, there we go. You you hit, you hit
on all of it.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
And the Texas just recently signed Jake andrews Uh from Troy.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Does he have another wrestling Well.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
I'll tell you my quick story is at the Senior
Bowl and my buddy Lance Airline was talking to him
and I walked over and he's got this big old
beard and it's this kind of interesting character. And I
watched him during practice and I knew. I just knew
just by watching him. I was like, and so I
walked over and I said, you wrestled, didn't you. He
looked at me like I had five heads. He goes, yeah,
how'd you know that? And Lance looks at me and
(36:56):
you see it? I was like, you can see it.
You can tell when guys have been wrestlers, how.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
They didn't have flowers? Did he?
Speaker 5 (37:02):
No, he didn't have Kyle flower ears. But you could tell.
And I'll find Jay, can tell him that story and
remind him of that and.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
See whether he'll remember that.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
But but you know, with Hamilton, you can see it.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
You know a lot of times when teams are trying
to zone him off, like just the way he turns
his body, the way he contorts, the way he can
kind of grab hold of one but you know, leverage
another guy's he's being double teamed.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
To whatever the case might be. You can see the wrestler.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
I didn't not I didn't know about the wrestling part
as I watched him, But as I'm watching him, like
there's wrestler there, you could you could see it. You
can see it in Guys and long Hold. He was
really not only was he really good in high school,
but he actually I think wresselled, I believe, for Rutgers
early in his career, but then he realized he was
going to focus on football at that point. So look
(37:49):
at seinth round. There are two seventh rounders with Hamilton Lache. Yeah,
we're I mean, well, here we go. Let's do Luke Lasche.
Let's let's round things off. Iowa tight end ooh, I
would tight end. Usually that gets people pumped up.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
I think at George Kittle and some of the others
that have come through the greats Laporta. This guy played
with Laporta, and when Laporta left, the idea was, Okay,
he's up, he's next.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
But for a variety of reasons, that Iowa offense kind
of sputtered, and this guy did nice things and can block,
but didn't have the numbers that some of these other
Iowa tight ends have had.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
But it's just basically iowad tight end.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Offense that didn't do what a lot of folks wanted
it to do. And there's still a lot of meat
on the bone with this guy. There's lots of promise.
I think with Luke Lache.
Speaker 5 (38:37):
Yeah, twenty twenty three, double checking my numbers here, Yeah,
he played only the first two and a half games.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Then he got hurt.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
He was he was thought by a lot of the
draft knicks and all that coming out of twenty twenty two,
when he had a pretty good year he had twenty
eight catches, almost four hundred yards, four touchdowns. He were like, okay,
I would tight end because the same thing I would
tight end Luke Lache, son of an NFL Pro Bowl
off its tackle Jim leashe is Keevian eyes got Then
(39:05):
he only plays a couple of games in twenty twenty three,
so I think that kind of kept him off the
radar screen. And then at twenty twenty four, he had
a good start, then he got hurt, missed the game,
and then after he missed the game, so he missed
I don't know a game like seven or eight. After that,
he caught four passes for twenty two yards in four games,
and it's like what are we doing?
Speaker 4 (39:25):
Yeah, Like what happened?
Speaker 5 (39:27):
Start the year he caught six or sixty three and
all of a sudden, we're getting to a point. Even
against Ohio State he had five for thirty nine, Like
we're catching one for nine, two for nine, one for four,
like what are we doing? And so I just felt
like when I heard his name, I was like, wait,
hold on, because you know how a seventh round is drew.
It just you don't see every pick you're trying to
follow from. I literally saw him. And this happened with
(39:51):
Xavier Hutchinson two back in twenty three.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
I was like, wait, we.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Strafted hutch in a six round. He wasn't gone already.
I thought the same thing with Lachet. I'd seen some
of the tight ends go and I thought he's still
on the board. Like when I did my my draft
needs a Football take over dot Com, I put up
three the Texans ones, and I had lache as one
of the tight ends. I thought we would look at,
you know, a guy that can play in line. You
know he's not you're not quite the blocker that Jackson
(40:17):
Hawes is, but he still could play in line in
their stands.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
He's a tight end that pretty much every I mean,
they all do it, but he could be a fit
for every team because of what what you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
That's right, that's right. And I think he can play
a couple of the tight end positions too.
Speaker 5 (40:30):
So you get a guy like that in the seventh round,
start working with him and you're like, hey man, we
got a little something here.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
So look, is he gonna be kittle? And they know
probably not. Odds would say no.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
But if the guy's willing to work and he's got
the injury stuff behind him, and he comes in and
and look, that's that's what held TQ back. If TQ
had just stayed healthy, he was going to stack another
day on another day and be a pretty good tight end.
He just couldn't stay healthy at all. And so that's
the that's the biggest key I think with the tight
end room. Actually, I mean, if Luke luche does anything
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
Just stay healthy, because he's a good enough football player.
Speaker 5 (41:06):
We're good at pedigree DNA that if he just stacks
good day after good day after good day, then I
think he finds a way to do something with this
tight end group.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
We've stacked good podcasts after good podcast certainly have. I
don't know if I know you and I agree that.
I don't know if anybody else, but I think that, yes, yes,
this has been a longer one, but we have to
it's nine picks. It's there's only one, twenty twenty five
NFL Draft class for the textan, so we got to
cover it in full.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
But John, this was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Not fun man.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Thank you. He will do this.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
Again next week. Thank you, general viewer, listener checking us
out for John.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
I'm Drew.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
This is in the Lab presented by Exfinity with a
big heart symbol by Peace
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