Caserio, Jakob Johnson, and traits talk | Texans All-Access

EVP/GM Nick Caserio joins the guys for his weekly look back and game preview, Marc and Johnny look at Texans with some of the best traits in the NFL, and FB Jakob Johnson stops by the studio. Bonus: Josh Klingler, Chiefs sideline reporter, talks with Marc.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up and everybody, Welcome into a Wednesday edition of
Texans All Access from the Honday.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Texans Radio Studio.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
I'm your host, John Harris, football analyst, sideline reporter for
your Houston Texans and it is on Sunday night football.
Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead. Cannot wait for the entire
nation to see this team play.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Gotta get through some injury stuff.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
We'll get to that a little bit later in the show,
but you know how we kick off every Wednesday. Executive
vice president and general manager Nick Casario jumps into studio
with us.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
We always appreciate his time. It's some great stuff.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Take a listen in studio with us now, Executive vice
president and general manager Nick Cassario. Nick, great to see.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
You, Good to see you guys. Come here.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Big game this weekend with Kansas City and let's review Indianapolis.
It went well at Indye. How did you see what
transpired Sunday?

Speaker 4 (00:50):
Yeah, good team win.

Speaker 5 (00:51):
Really got contributions from all three phases. Certainly some things
that we can learn from not only that are going
to apply to this game coming up against in the City.
But you know, in a few weeks when we play
Indianapolis again when you played a division opponent again, but
overall made enough plays In the end, I probably left
some plays on the field. But anytime you go on
the road in the division and come out with a win,

(01:12):
it's a good it's a good feeling. So hopefully we
can learn from some of the things that we did well,
make some of the corrections, and get ready for a
really good Kansas City team.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Nick gives Buffalo it's eight sacks. Everybody can see the sacks.
Everybody thinks sacks are sexy. You had one sacked the
other day against the Colts. Yet I would contend that
the pressure was as important against the guy, especially it
doesn't move extremely well as it was against Daniel Jones.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
How would you go.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
About saying eight sacks one sack? They don't quite but
yet I felt that the pressure was there.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Yeah, each week is gonna be a little bit different.
I'd say the front lot most of the time we
were rushing forward. There's a few instances where we brought
a fifth rusher or had some zero pressures, but rush
was pretty coordinated, and that's a big thing. You want
to make sure the rush is coordinated and don't let
the quarterback. Even though Daniel is a little bit hampered,
he could still get out of the hawking to make
some plays. So you're really just trying to make sure

(02:03):
that all four rushers are kind of working together in unison,
limiting the space and then force a quarterback to make
a throw front the pocket. So rushing covers usually tie together.
We've talked about that. Tomiko's talked about that quite a bit.
So each game is going to be a little bit different.
So sometimes what's on a statue you can be a
little misleading.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
I know you want to score as many points as possible. Yeah,
but third down defense really good and time of possession
really good. You're not getting the drives finished as much
as you want, but you're holding the ball.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah. For the most part, we controlled the game.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
Had a number of thirteen to fourteen play drives, had
multiple multi number of plays. Defensively, we were limit them
and think the first part of the game or number
of three and out, so we're able to get off
the field, We're able to stay on the field. We're
able to convert a few opportunities there in the red area,
a few that we left on a field, which usually
equates the points, which you know, we talk about that,

(02:53):
you know before the game, John and I did so,
but overall felt like we had decent control of the
game and we were able to maintained possession of the ball
against an explosive offense.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
One of the things you talked about, Nick, and we
talked about this a lot, but one of the things
I remember you mentioned was first down on both sides
of the ball, being effective on first down limiting them
and then obviously getting not chunk plays, but getting a
decent amount of first down so you're not stuck in
second to nine, second and tent. When you went back
and looked at it, felt like we had a number
of those big plays on first down.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
And how did that manifest itself in the offensive performance?

Speaker 5 (03:26):
Yeah, we were able to stay on schedule for the
most part. We had a few plays or there zero minus.
But to Mark's point, like third down, we had the
advantage on third down, so third down is your opportunity
to stay on the field, so we were able to
stay on the field. Most of the third downs were
manageable situations. So overall like we did a pretty good
job in that respect.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
So what about the running game, Nick, we talk about
this almost every week, so important. You ran for over
one hundred yards. I know you want to probably see more,
but that was effective against the Colts.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
I mean at any time you can run out the
clock at the end of the game, when they know
you're gonna run the ball, know we have to run
the ball and to be able to kind of basically
take all the time off the clock. Probably that second
and nine or a second and eight run that would
he had there at the end to get the first
down gave us another possession, And that was just a
matter of just managing the clock there at the end.
But the running game is a huge part of I

(04:16):
would say the league when you look around, look at
a number of the teams. Look what Kansas City did
against Indianapolis. I mean it ran the ball forty one
times or whatever it was. So if you can have
some success in the running game, keep your offense on
a field, control possession of the ball like that is
going to at least give you an opportunity to hopefully
win the game.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
And also creativity. Right because Stover shows up, we'll get
to that. I'm sure Nico Collins with a rushing touchdown.

Speaker 5 (04:40):
Nice to see, yeah, this time of the year, you
probably have to have some wrinkles or some change ups.
I mean we're in week fourteen or whatever we are,
so everybody has seen, however, many games at this point.
So if you can just make a subtle adjustment or
give the defense a little bit something to look at,
maybe as long as you can execute it. In the end,
it comes down to your execution. You could put everything
down to a piece of paper, but if it doesn't

(05:02):
work you don't execute it, then it's probably not gonna
be that good of a play.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
And building off of that, Nick, it felt like early
on maybe not finding the luck and luck finally the
success in the run game that you wanted, and some
of that was inside, but then all of a sudden
you made a subtle adjustment, like, hey, let's maybe some
outside zone works a.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Little bit better.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Maybe the crack toss worked with Nick getting the ball
to the outside. Making adjustments ends up being key to
and you always said, hey, you stick to the run.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
You stick to run.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Eventually you hit the rocket of time it breaks and
it felt like maybe you did that, but you needed
maybe some subtle adjustments to do it.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
You articulated it very well, I mean that's the ebb
and flow of the game is gonna go back and forth.
All Right, you try this and it's not really working
too well, or the defense is doing something take it away,
all right, how do we counterbalance that or counterac that.
So it's gonna be the same challenge here this week.
I mean, we'll talk about the Chiefs, but this is
one of the best defenses in the league and a
really strong upfront. So, but being able to run the
ball like sometimes it's just it's about volume more it

(05:56):
is than anything else.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yep. Nick Nicocollins thoughts, I mean, here he is and
you drafted him third round in twenty twenty one, and
here he is really making a difference in these games,
especially against Indianapolis for some reason.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
Yeah, Nico's a good players. Worked really hard to establish
kind of his level of performance, and I think what
he's been able to do is just be consistent over
the course of really the last kind of two to
three years. And that's what you want to see in
a football player. So Nico works really hard, he's in condition,
he's got a good attitude regardless, he's a great teammate
and he usually goes out there and makes plays and

(06:29):
when you target him, he usually catches it. And he's
usually he's tough to tackle. I mean a couple of
plays there three or four guys to get himTo the ground.
So he's big, he's strong, he's fast, he has a
very unique combination of skills.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
He's worked very hard.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
Credit to him, credit to really coach McDaniels has been
with him from the beginning.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
So we're glad. We're glad Nico's here.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
So let's talk about pushing tushes because Kate Stover had
a couple of them. So here's what's fascinating to me, Nick,
It's not really a play you're going to get an
opportunity to work on a lot on practice because you
only have, if that a day to put pads on
and kind of work on it. Yet when you got

(07:10):
into it and ran it the first couple of times,
it was highly successful. So I want to ask you
from that angle, like how do you get there? Knowing
kid can handle a snap, knowing that blocking wise, you
can kind of take maybe what you've already learned and
used that to be successful on that particular play.

Speaker 5 (07:28):
It's like anything else, you just have to find repetitions.
There's kind of steal reps. So whether it's in between periods,
whether it's in the building, whether it's a meeting space,
whether it's in a walkthrough, before you try something, just
make sure you have enough reps in whatever capacity. To
your point, Johnny, like short yardage is hard to practice
during a year. I mean we practice in pads on
Thursdays and try to go at a good pace, but

(07:49):
everybody's off the ground because we're trying to make sure
to we take care of everybody. So there's timing involved,
and really you're just trying to make sure the players
have enough confidence and the coaches have enough confidence in
the players where they can actually call something and expect
it to work the way that you hope.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
So they tried it earlier with Warren.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
Now Warren's taking a lot of snaps that Penn state,
he took a lot of snaps under center shotgun, et cetera.
When he botched it, was there any concern like, hey man,
we've got this one and in the whole stort, do
we worry about that?

Speaker 6 (08:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (08:15):
You got to trust really the players and hopefully they
can execute it in critical situations. And K's a pretty smart,
extinctive football player, and he worked with the center to
work with Jake on that. So the ball handling is
really a key to your point. Even on the Warren play,
I mean, he was kind of rushed. I mean he
really wasn't set. I mean he could borderline almost a
penalty on the play, but it wasn't really set and
it wasn't a clean exchange. So there's always risk when

(08:38):
you run plays like that, So you just have to
take the calculated risk and decide whether or not it
makes sense for your team given the situation.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
What'd you think of CJ's return? As he said, he
was rusty but made some really nice throws through for
two seventy six.

Speaker 5 (08:52):
Yeah, he's always hard on himself, so he only feels
like he can do things better. But for the most part,
it was able to kind of get into a rhythm
there a little bit after the first quarter, made some
really good play. He's made some critical throws on third down,
the conversion of Shultz where he kind of hung in
the pocket there, it kind of slid, kind of kept
that drive alive. We had a couple of conversions to hig,
a couple throws to Hutch so overall, CZ did a
good job of handling the game plan. You know, the

(09:14):
big one he probably would want back is, you know,
the one turnover to which we're you know, ball security
is paramount, but seeing a direct correlation between us and
winning and take care of the football. I think we're
second in the league in turnover margin now, which means
we're taking care of it and we're taking it away
and there's a high correlation to winning football games and
you can do that.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
So it's good to have him back.

Speaker 5 (09:32):
And you know, I think the big thing is just
having another good week and preparing for a really good
Kansas City defense.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Jalen Reid goes out of this game.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
So the other guy that was coming back off the
concussion that we probably didn't talk as much about we
probably should have, is that Shalen Petrie.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
What do you think about Jalen come back? Had two
big pass breakups.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Just having him back, and I think he played one
hundred percent of the snaps if I'm not.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, I mean JP is one of our best football players.

Speaker 5 (09:54):
So anytime you get him back in the equation and
just his playing style, it's a good blitzer, good and coverage.
Had a couple of pass breakup, including one on third
down tackles. Well, he's tough, he's fast, he's smart, he's
very instinctive. So he makes a difference because when he's
on the field, glad that he was glad that he
was back.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
We asked Amo about this, but I want to get
your perspective on practice this time of year versus say,
earlier training camp obviously is very different, but earlier in
the season. And now everyone admits that the first four
weeks of the regular season is sort of training camp extended,
if you will. But what is it like right now
we've hit December.

Speaker 5 (10:28):
Yeah, at this point it's almost survival of the fittest,
So who's available. Maybe you have to adjust practice based
on your injury situation. We've got a number of players
that are banged up coming off the game, so you
just have to make sure you give the players enough
of what they need to get prepared for the game.
The contact component, maybe there's a little bit less. You

(10:48):
can only have you know, six or three practices over
six weeks in pads anyways, so you're gonna be a
little bit lighter from the pat So it becomes more mental,
becomes more execution, and it really becomes about the timing
and getting the players recovered so they can go out
there on Sunday and play to the best of their ability.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Okay, were those pass interference calls? No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Let's put this one in the rear view because I
don't want you talking about that at all.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Anyways.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah, the Chiefs, we know well, even though we're not
in the division, faced them twice last year, faced them
over the years. It feels like they've been on our
schedule regularly, even though they haven't been one World Championships.
It's a different kind of team maybe, nick, but still
led by the same guys and Andy Reid's deist Bagnolo's
what's Scott.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
To report on this? On this version of the Chiefs.

Speaker 4 (11:33):
Yeah, like they haven't changed.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
There's still one of the best teams in the league.
You know, Patrick has played in the AFC Championship ever
since he's been a starting quarterback. So they literally have
i'd say Hall of Fame coaches players kind of all over.
Coach Reid, coach Bagnolo is a defensive coordinator. Chris Jones, Travis,
I mean Patrick, you're talking about some of the best
players in the league at their respective positions. Overall, this

(11:56):
particular team, they've been in a number they're kind of
like us a little bit, been a number one score games.
They won one and then they've lost some of the others,
kind of like we were early in the year. I'd
say offensively, obviously everything goes through Patrick. They've kind of
had to roll through the backs there a little bit.
Hunt's giving him some good snatch, but Chuck A returned
last week opportunity. They probably could use Pierce a little bit,

(12:18):
kind of mix him in there. The offensive line, they
kind of it's really inside out with Humphrey and Smith,
they're kind of the core of what they're doing. Drafted
Simmons there in the first round. He's playing well, I know,
he got hurt the other day. Same thing with Taylor,
so we'll see kind of who's available, who's not. And
then Gray's a good compliment to Travis, a tight end
and a receiver. It's really like an influx of different types,

(12:40):
whether it's Hollywood to Worthy to Rashid Rice, who's probably
one of the best catch and run receivers in the league.
He makes a big difference for their offense. When he's
on the field, Thornton made some big plays for them
down the field, so they kind of use all of
their skill. The very versatile and everything starts with fifteen
and he's as good as really there is in the
league currently and really is been over the course of

(13:01):
the history of our game. Defensively, Spakes does a great job.
They're really the top five in the defense, top five
to six in multiple categories. Big, strong, physical front, really
strong up the middle between Chris and then Tranquil and Bolton,
they are two really instinctive physical linebackers. Carl Loftis is
probably one of the more underrated edge players. Got a

(13:21):
contract extension in the offseason, deservedly so he gave us
a bunch of problems last year. In a secondary, I mean,
its kind of McDuffie and Watson have kind of been
solidified on the perimeter, kind of rolled the third corner
in there a little bit. Connor's kind of the mostly
nickel position, and then Cook has kind of been a
mainstay there at safety, and then they've kind of rolled

(13:42):
the number of players there at different spots. But overall
it's good football. Team's been a number of close games
they know how to win. Playing Sunday night on the
road in that environment, he's going to pose a significant challenge.
And you go back and look at our two games
last year. I mean we had opportunities and you know,
in the end, didn't make any plays, but be a
great environment, big challenge for our team, and we're expecting

(14:05):
their best, and you know, I think we're gonna We're
gonna give him our best on Sunday Night.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Nick. It feels like when you face an opposing team,
let's say it's Josh Allen and the Bills. We were
talking about Cook a lot. You have to stop Cook.
Even if you're playing Lamar and Derek Henry, you have
to stop Derek Henry and you have to stop their backs.
But it feels different with Mahomes. He's on pace to
run for more yards than he's ever run for. So
what about facing that attack with led by Mahomes.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
Yeah, probably an underrated part of his game is to
make plays with his legs and with his feet, and
he does it in a very timely fashion. He's not
haphazard about it's very calculated and if there's an opening,
he's going to get into the space and he's looking
to make a play and he made it to play against.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
Dallas where he got outside of the pocket.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
They uncovered and then he threw it down there for
forty yard and there's your explosive play.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
So they have explosive playability.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
And it's as much with his legs or ability to
keep plays alive as it is just playing from the pocket.
So he poses so many challenges because he's so smart,
he's so aware, he's so instinctive. He knows where the
issues are. He's got to really do a good job
being disciplined on a rush, and it's staying on the
receivers for extended periods of time.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Nick whatever the narratives can be away from the building,
away you know, national perspectives, Oh, Travis Kelsey's lost a step,
he's not doing this, And then you look up and
it's like, hey catches five or six for sixty five
and he's still Mahomes go to guy in third down situations.
He still finds himself to get open. What have you
guys seen on tape from Travis? And he's is he

(15:29):
really kind of Patrick Mahomes will be in some sense
like that's where he wants to go in a big
time situation.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
Yeah, they've had a lot of time on task. There's
no question about it. Two very instinctive football players, and
a lot of it is just understanding or seeing body language.
So and Travis. Honestly, he's probably having one of the
best years that he's had, you know, in recent memory.
He's healthy. Think about Travis, He's very instinctive. He's got
really strong hands and good hands. He doesn't never really
have a lot of drops, and he does a good

(15:57):
job kind of in the inside part of the field.
I mean him and Rice post challenges on the inside
part of the field.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
But in critical.

Speaker 5 (16:03):
Situation, you better find eighty seven. He was on the
playoff game there. I mean Patrick kind of gets out
of the pocket, falling down and he makes a play
down the field and you know we're close, but you know,
finish the play. But in critical situations, I mean, i'd
say eighty seven is going to be a big part
of what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Nick football in general. Question here because fans of media
talk about players getting touches. This guy's getting touches. This
guy's not getting touches. How do you see it, because
it seems like a chicken and egg thing with third downs.
You have to convert third downs in order to get
more opportunities for touches. How do you see that?

Speaker 4 (16:33):
Yeah, you have to balance. You can't necessarily force the play.

Speaker 5 (16:36):
You have to understand the concept of the play, understand
what it's designed to do, and then essentially go through
your progression and read it out. And if you like
a massive per situation more so than another, then maybe
you lean that way. But you got to use all
your skill. I think that's the one thing.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
You know.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
We've had a number of players. We talked about this
on a show last week, just the receiving corps made
Higg made a number of the catches there on third down.
Nico makes his plays, I mean, Hurtz made his play.
So we got to utilize all of our players. And
then when you get the third down, whether it's if
it's man coverage, somebody's got to win, all right, and
is it you're gonna win one on one with the
individual or you win with the play design. So there's

(17:12):
always a lot of factors that go into it.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
What do you see from Spags this year? Is he
any different than what he's been? I mean a lot
of people talk about him dial up blitzes when I
watch him, like, let's not always dial up blitzes. I mean,
he could scheme some other things, open play zone behind it.
What do you see from Spags in that defense?

Speaker 5 (17:26):
Yeah, it's Spags is very calculated in how he approaches
the game. So he kind of lets a game kind
of settle in a little bit and kind of figure out,
all right, they're trying to attack us this way, we're
gonna try this. And you go back and watch a
playoff game, you know, there's some patterns that started to
shew to themselves as a game more on.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
So he's very versatile.

Speaker 5 (17:47):
They do a really good job with the disguise, So
you really have to play with good awareness and just
kind of go back to the Miko talks about this
all the time. Just go back to your basic rules
and understanding the integrity of the play. What's the assignment,
what you're asked to do. You don't try to do
too much, otherwise they're going to be chasing stuff that's
really not happening.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
How would you define the coaching style maybe offensively or
in general of Andy Reid one of the greatest ever
because in Philly with Donovan McNabb. They actually had a
mini playoff run with Jeff Garcia. Once you look at
Alex Smith for a while, and then of course what
he's gotten now with Mahomes.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
Yeah, very similar aspects.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
I mean, they're very calculated in what they're trying to do,
and Andy has a really good feel in a sense
of maybe the rhythm of the game and how it's going,
and they've made adjustments and modifications through the years to
kind of cater to their personnel. What he was doing
with Donovan is different than what he's doing with Patrick.
There's some similarities, but there's also a lot of things

(18:42):
that are different. But I mean Andy's going to go
down as one of the best not only coaches but
probably play callers in the history of our game. So
he puts a lot of stress on the defense, so
you got to kind of prepare for everything, and then
as the game goes just kind of get a sense
in a feel for how the game is being called.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
It feels almost unfair a Jim Johnson and Philly back
in the day. Andy Kaluh always talks about how great
he was and now he's got Spagnola doing really well.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
So Andy always has good coaches on his staff, no question.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
No question.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
I always feel like when we play the Chiefs, we
talk about homes Kelsey and we talk about Chris Jones
and Spags, and I feel like, when you talk about
the chief who don't give enough credit to Dave Tobb
and the special teams.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
How big a matchup does that become?

Speaker 3 (19:22):
Because last year in the playoff game, and Frank told
us he felt like that was not the Texans standard
special teams wise, and a lot of that has to
do with what Tabb does with special teams.

Speaker 5 (19:31):
Nick, they're excellent, really good place kicker and Harrison Bucker.
I mean, he's been there a number of years now.
They kind of made the swap out for Reza, and
Matt's done a good job for them. The two really
good returners for Meiho and then Brashard Smith. Ay you
sim Smu kid and kick off returns, but Dave's a
very aggressive coach. They do a really good job in
a return game. So covering kicks is going to be

(19:54):
of the utmost importance. And they present some matchup problems.
They got a bunch of I would say, stronger, bigger, longer,
mid skill bodies, but they're special teams unit. I mean,
it's a good football team offensively, defensively. Any kicking game. Dave,
to your point, probably doesn't get as much respect as
he deserves, but he's been doing this a long time
and he's been one of the best special teams coaches
in his league for a number of years.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Nick, I know you and your staff. You're hard at
work about the offseason already, and we talk about scouting
college football. So fix college football for us, just kidding,
but here we are playoffs, about conference championship games going on,
but playoffs about to start. How does that affect your
scouting preparation as you get ready for April.

Speaker 5 (20:32):
Yeah, we're actually gonna start our first round of draft
meetings here next week, and it's really more informational.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
What do we really need? What are the main.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
Questions we have on certain prospects. So we'll kind of
go through that process here a little bit. We've kind
of started some other discussions as well as trying to
kind of stack the board here a little bit. Kind
of have to wait and see what happens with the underclassmen.
It'll be interesting to just kind of watch and we
probably have seen most of these teams, whether in person,
live on campus or at a game. But it looks
like there's a number good matchups here Conference Championship weekend,

(21:02):
So we'll be cognizant on what's going on, whether or
not we're there or not. It's probably not gonna have
a huge bearing on what the evaluation is of the player.
But it's always the exciting time a year in college
football for sure.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
Underclassmen we talk about this a lot, Nick, just the decision.
I know you guys will track the underclassmen, and I
think all the teams have started track them, maybe heavier
heavily than maybe heavier than that he did earlier. How
do you kind of at this point kind of track
You just kind of keep your ear to the ground, like, hey,
we think this guy's coming out, Just kind of like
we anticipate it and if he goes back, great, we
got all this for next year.

Speaker 5 (21:35):
If he does come out, we're ready to go. Yeah,
you take the information as it comes. I think you
have a sense like this cohort more than likely they've
essentially not declared, but they're going to be in the draft.
There's another group they're fifty to fifty and then the
school might actually say, like, this player's playing on coming
back for a myriad or reason, so whatever that is, injuries,
maybe they go into portal. So we'll track it and

(21:56):
then whoever is available, whoever is draft eligible, like, we'll
make sure we're prepared. But between now and April we'll
probably get a lot of clarity as it comes to
a player evaluation front.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
All right, one more big question for you here, Nick,
Because Sunday night football, this is the game of the week,
this is prime time and it's the number one show
on television. So this is a question about television. What
was the last TV show that you watched regularly? Oh God,
I don't quite see you as a guy who binge
watches Game of Thrones and WWE does not count. It's

(22:27):
got to be a drama of sorts or a comedy.
Can you name something?

Speaker 4 (22:31):
No, not on cable television.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
What I will say, I did watch a few Netflix
series when they profiled the tennis Tour.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
I forget the name of whatever it was called.

Speaker 5 (22:44):
I watched all three two or three series or seasons
of Full Swing. It was fascinated by. I can also
watch the tennis version of it. It's an interesting kind
of getting behind the scenes. Look, but as far as
television goes, honest to God, that counts.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Though. That's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (22:59):
Well, it's sort of television, it's streaming.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
But I would say I told Mark the full swing
second season when they did the Ryder Cup behind the
scenes outstanding.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
That was fascinating to me. I loved golf.

Speaker 5 (23:09):
I'm a massive fan of I was watching the DP
World Tour Australia open over the weekend, so I know
it out of a life. But that's the kind of
extent of my Tellion.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Brought the Skins game back for Amazon.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
I didn't watch the Skins game. I missed that one,
So such a good timing. Okay, Nick, thanks a lot
for joining us, Good luck, Thanks fellas.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Excellent stuff there from Nick Caserio, and of course Mark
and I were pretty good as well. All right, buddy
Mindatt Bowen writes for ESPN dot com. He came up
with one hundred and nine traits that he follows kind
of throughout the year, and the best of each of
those traits. Your Texans were mentioned a number of times.
We'll have that for you next right here in Texas

(23:47):
All Access.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Welcome back to this.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
Wednesday at issue of Texans all as, I'm your host,
John Harris, football analyst, sideline reporter, as we hone in
on Sunday night football against the Kansas. He chiefs Mark
vandermirir with me. Mark Matt Bowen, who I've gotten to
know over the years rights for ESPN, played in the league,

(24:09):
played to Iowa, does some coaching now in the Chicago area.
He he's a ball noer. He knows ball. He's really good.
He does this thing every year. It's his annual one
nine different skills and the best players at those particular skills.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
One hundred and nine different, hundred and nine different traits. Okay,
so I don't know that I totally agree with all
of them. Like here are the first few most accurate
passer Stafford No Mahomes, Dakota Wayne Prescott. Really yeah, dak
Prescott most accurate of.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Quarterbacks who have played at least ten games this season.
Prescott's nine point six percent off target rate is the lowest,
and he completed sixty nine point three percent of his passes.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
He's playing some of the best football in his career.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
What I like is he's he's using he updates it
and he uses analytics.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, yeah, he's using numbers.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
Now, strongest arm, strongest arm.

Speaker 7 (25:12):
Right.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Now, we face this guy recently, that would be Josh
all Josh Allen. When does he lead physical tools frame
arm like the hand size Alec bought every level of the field.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Best deep ball thrower. C. J.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Stroud hasn't done it in one hasn't really tested that
arm in a while.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
I would like to see it against Kanpas.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Gosh.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Please, we faced this quarterback too. We faced him.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Now, we did not give up deep balls to him,
but he did slice us up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
With one of the best receivers in the league on
a Monday night.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
On a Monday that would be Baker Mayfield. Best deep ball. Wait, oh,
you're talking about Sam Darnold ball thrower.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
His twelve completions on passes of thirty or more air
yards leads the league. And he has completed seventy I
mean six percent of those throws.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Who's he throwing to? Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, Now,
here's what's important. Last sentence.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
In coordinator Clint Kubiak's offense, Darnald is set up on
scheme shot plays to target the third level and that
that that's a that's a massive part of that.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
They go to the NFC Championship game. Is Clint Kubiak
getting a head coaching job even if they don't, What
do you think?

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yes, yes, I'm curious. And that's a conversation we'll have later.
Which NFL jobs will be open. We already know Tennessee's open.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
We can make a list of people. And this is
for another show that we do not want to see
in Nashville. And I think Clint Kubiak is one of them.
I don't want to root against Clint Kubiak. Yeah, I
don't want that. Of Browns and Steelers, uh huh zero
one or two?

Speaker 2 (26:47):
None?

Speaker 1 (26:47):
One of them are both open. Oh Brown's open. Browns,
I think they got to start over. I think Stefanski's good.
But don't you think that marriage needs to break up?
Probably just from a far probably go that way. Tomlin
have a hard time with because I like the Steelers
the fact that they've only had three coaches since the
Super Bowl era began. I love that about them as

(27:08):
a matter of fact. But I think they've kind of
reached the ceiling too. Maybe I just think I think
the Titans try to take I am not gonna blame
this on Aaron Rodgers. I'm not but and I look defensively,
they give up over two hundred rushing yards last week.
So you can't blame that on Aaron Rodgers. But maybe
you can.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
There's something about Rodgers in the building. New York Jets.
You know all about it.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
You know it.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Seven games with Zach Wilson. Couldn't do it with Aaron Rodgers.
What best scrambler Mayfield?

Speaker 2 (27:42):
We will see him Sunday night.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Oh, he's so good. Yes, how about this?

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Mahomes average twenty eight point eight rushing guards per game
on scramble attempts while converting twenty three first downs. That
is a massive number. Twenty three first downs on scrambles.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yep. And it's always you know, you have everything covered up.
And well, look, we'll have Girard on the show. I
guess what Friday, Friday. Yeah, but Friday he talks about, Hey,
that's part of coverage.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
You read coverage. You go be your own, be your
own checkdown. Yeah, I mean that's that's kind of the
time I came up with. Yes, I like that to
your checkdown. And he's so good at it. It's so frustrating.
You got to be able to stop him.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Mayfield is obviously an outstanding scrambler, as well as is
Josh Allen. There are several in the league.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
The offensive ones.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Uh, they're no Texans, No Texans involved, a lot of Colts,
a lot of Jonathan Taylor stuff.

Speaker 6 (28:42):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
Best downfield receiver at this point, best deep ball JSN.
He's got the best deep ball thrower, yes, but who's
the best deep ball catcher? We saw him Sunday.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
So they think Pierce is the best deep ball catcher.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Pierce is averaging league high twenty point nine yards per catch,
and he has a reception of twenty five or more
yards and eight of.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Ten games played.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
All Right, that is a true vertical target who can
stretch the field in the Colts offense, says Matt Bowen
of ESPN.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
I think Pierce is really good with that. Okay, I'll
go along with that. However, I go I will point
this out that some of the other really great receivers
are utilized more around the line of scrimmage, medium range
and long range, and it hurts. I'll put out of
their quotes their average. So you're not gonna have the
average that Pierce has because it always seems like he's
catching a pass of at least twenty yards plus. But

(29:35):
other guys, I'm gonna use JSID this way, that way,
the other way, and it's gonna hurt the average against
guys like Pierce or t Y when he was Pierce.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
Comes in and he becomes Klay Thompson. Yeah, he knocks
home eight of ten threes.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Whereas you know, Steph Curry's gonna score from everywhere. What
happened to a Pman the other day? Why aren't your
Pittman is the guy they're paying. What happened to him?

Speaker 2 (29:59):
I have theory?

Speaker 1 (30:00):
What's your theory? Give me?

Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's not that good.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
He's not able to get separation and Pierce can get
it down the field. Yeah, And Daniel Jones just can't
stick in there long enough to be able to throw
the ball where Pittman runs his routes? Is this part?
How rate the hot take? Okay, Pittman is the third
best receiver on his team and he makes the most money.
That's one and a half the downs and Pierce Pierce,

(30:23):
we're scarier. We're drafting. We're drafting a team. We got
the choice of those three receivers in order. We're taking
Pierce Downs, Pittman.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Yeah, I love listen, I love Pittman coming out.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
I think Pittman has been very good for the Colts,
but it is clear that Pierce and Downs have gotten
to a point where they're more dangerous.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, I agree. I don't fear Pittman at all. No,
that's exactly. It seems like, let's get Pittman the ball
on a screen because it's the only way we're gonna
get him the ball. Yeah, he never it feels like
he never really hurts you.

Speaker 7 (30:51):
Now.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Pierce is like, no, no, he's got a little way.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
So before the game, I did I did my pregame
hit with Sean and Seth and they asked, Okay, we
know Jonathan Taylor, you gotta stop twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Okay, everybody knows that. We talked about all week. They
didn't get the words out of their mouth. And I said, Pierce, yeah,
that's it. The words were knew that who scares you?

Speaker 3 (31:14):
And I was like, Pierce, Pierce scares me because I'm
sitting there and I'm pointing at the spot where he
went up and went over Kaylin for a touchdown in
week one, and then he had another deep ball on
Jimmy Ward in week one, and I'm like, that dude
is scary. He's flat out scary, and you can start
to see.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
A little bit more of the full all round game
start to evolve.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Like to me, I think he should be paid. That
dude should be paid. Not Pittman, that guy.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
But either way, they got problems. They do have problems
from them. They have to figure that out and then
we'll see what Chris ballad. If Chris ballad.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Okay, so before we get to the next one, if
if this thing flames flames out for the Colts, right,
you wipe the whole thing you start.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
I mean, I was no, Listen, I would love to
see them get rid of Shane Steiking because I think
he's pretty good. Yeah too, so I would love to
see them make that mistake, just the way the Titans
made the mistake firing Mike Vrabel. Yeah, I was so
glad to see him leave the division. Shane Steiking is good.
He goes nine and eight, eight and nine, never has
a quarterback with many richardson. He gets whatever he can

(32:24):
get out of Daniel Jones, who anybody could have had,
and look at the start they had. Now Jones is hurt,
so they're coming back down to earth, and a lot
of people predicted that anyway, because the schedule got tougher.
I think there would be nuts to get rid of
Shane steike In. I don't know about Ballard because Johnny,
I think they've made moves. I know we didn't mean
for this to be a cult segment, but I think
they've made a lot of moves that Ballard had nothing

(32:46):
to do with. Because once you go ahead and hire
Jeff's Saturday to be your head coach, now I doubt
everything else that's kind of very out of the ordinary,
like Sauce Gardner for two ones.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Might I feel about this because you I've known Chris
for a long time and that is just not his
mo right, and that might be what ends up losing
his job. But then there's nothing you could do about it.
He went out and got a good player and the
player got hurt. Best speed to power in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
You know him, you love him. Will Anderson Junior.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
Anderson can ben and flatt and using counter moves to
disengage for blockers, but he can also win with speed
to power, collapsing the edge of the pocket. He's ten
and a half sacks, the fifth most NFL, and his
twenty three point five pass rush win rate ranks third.
So now that we're in a pass rush category, most
explosive pass rush for Miles Garrett, most physical defensive line

(33:41):
defensive lineman.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Jared versus the Rams.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
Wow, I pray that I could see that best pass
rush moves Miles Garrett. I don't know about that. I
think that Danielle Hunter has a cadre of.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Moves he does. But what Garrett did last week saw
is what he did to Trent the You know what
it is. It's the lateral quickness. It's insane, and that's
that speed to speed to power right, it's it's so,
how are you supposed to stop that when you're a
three hundred pound guy who doesn't have that kind of
athletic work.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
He does it in two steps.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, and you get the feeling he's playing that. Yet
he knows that if you anticipate, I'm gonna go inside
because he's ultimately going there. Yeah, he's got the gear shift.
I'll just stay outside and I'll just burn you. Mark.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
A lot of people have talked about, well, you know
Texans seven number one defense or whatever. Oh the Broncos
are next, or the Rams or this no, no, no, The
next best defense in the league is Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
Those dudes are.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Nasty and they obviously have him, but they're good across
the boarder all three levels.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
That is it. Really, they got some sneaky hot wins
and had they had some sort of offense, they could
have won a lot more games. And who knows what happens,
but they're playing Dylan Gabriel and you know, the exhumed
body of Joe Flack goes.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Somebody was to return today.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
Well, and he posted it.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
On his own Instagram.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
His workout video very well produced, by the way, so
clearly this wasn't done with just your phone. But good
for him, and uh, who knows? Who knows? No longer
a problem. Best spin move in the NFL, as judged
by Matt Bowen Daniel Daniel, I didn't think people would
recognize that outside the building. I never feel like he

(35:25):
gets the credit he deserves.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Here's what Matt Bowen says.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Hunter has a slippery spin move off the edge that
leaves offensive tackles grabbing at air. He can also use
the thread of his spin move to set up an
outside rush path. His eleven sacks ranked fourth in the NFL.
Daniil Hunter, very nice. Yeah, his spin move. What I
like is he can spin outside and he can spin inside,
and I think that's uh that that's pretty impressive. Okay,

(35:50):
let's get the linebackers, Packers, Eagles. You know he recognizes
Eddrian Cooper, which who I was high on his A and.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
M most of the chance. Well we got him right here.
Does he have an award like that?

Speaker 3 (36:02):
He has one called best Hitter Disease Disease out Shire.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Here's what he says, and I love I love this.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Ausese looks to take the ballcarrier's soul every time he
makes contact.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
He has thunder in his pads. That is so good.
I want to text Matt that and say this, like bravo.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
This is like that. Yeah, I want to kick off, right,
I mean, yeah, let's go. I'm really trying to keep
myself in control as we anticipate Sunday night.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm with you. So that's it.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
At linebackers, let's get to DB's a couple of interesting ones.
Best backfield Vision. Now that was a former defensive back.
So he hits on a number of things here that
you know a little bit different. Best backfield vision.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
So when you're thinking about dB looking in the backfield,
you're like, that's not always a good thing.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
But I get what he's saying.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
The ability to anticipate, like Kyle Hamilton or somebody like that.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Or number twenty four Derek Stingley Junior.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Oh, so he's just going DB's in general. I was
thinking safeties.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Best backfield vision. Derek Stingley Junior. Stingley uses his backfield
vision to overlap seamballs. Plus he will get in the
plus he will get in the weeds.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Looking for work. He has three interceptions to eight pass
breakups this season.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Right after that, and I've been preaching this since the
Pittsburgh preseason game last year, my first game that I
called in preseason. Something stood out to me. And it's
not only coming to fruition, it is becoming a true
asset for this defense.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Best third level range.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
So we're talking Kaylin, It's exactly.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
What we're talking about Kaylen Bullock.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
Bullock glides through the air through the third level of
defense with post range and ball skills, and he can
cover ground from depth. Four interceptions are tied for fourth
most in the NFL. That says dead on. I mean,
I'm glad that Matt sees that, because when you see
it in person and you know how fast the game

(38:15):
is going and you see how much ground he covers,
it is mind blowing.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
It is mind blowing.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
You Know. One of the ways I know this defense
is great is when I'm watching other games, I'm thinking,
why did they get to the how did they not
do this? Why did they do that? Yeah, And I'm realizing, oh,
because they don't have the Texans defense. I'm used to
our guys being around the ball like what yulk row Like,
they're gonna get there. Now, they'll give up a player
or two, but they're gonna get there and hold opponents low.

(38:43):
And it's to the point where when somebody does hit
a big play, you're so utterly shocked. Like the screen
to Jonathan Taylor the other day, I thought, oh no,
but it turns out to be okay. We overcame it.
In the course of the game of Christ. You're not
gonna be able to hold everybody scoreless. It's like a
basketball game. They're gonna get theirs. They're gonna get some.

(39:05):
They're gonna get some, but you gotta be able to
keep them down, that's all, and they do.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
It's when you talk about his his third level range.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
I'm glad Matt pointed out, because you see it live,
it's amazing. Then you watch on TV, you watch it
from all twenty two angle, and you realize he's moving.
My basketball coach when I was a younger, When I
was younger, I remember, he's got an older coach, and
he would always talk to us.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
You would always talk to us about moving at a
high rate of speed.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
I wish Lance were here because Lance could do it
better than I could.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
Kaylan moves at a faster rate of speed than anybody
else in the field. And it stood out to me
the other day when the Colts, I think it was
when I was twenty to thirteen and the Colts were
driving and he threw the deep ball to Pierce down
the down the left sideline, like directly in front of
you guys, opposite of us, and Kaylan made sure that

(39:59):
Pierce wasn't going to catch that ball, Like he came
out of nowhere, nowhere to make sure that Pierce wasn't
going to catch that one, and Kamari was in good
shape too, so there's really no way that Jones was
going to complete that pass. But the fact that Kaylen
was moving that fast from the middle of the field,
that's what blows me away. And that's what stood out

(40:19):
to me as when we were in Pittsburgh in twenty
twenty four in the preseason, he was in the middle
of the field and who was playing quarterback for Pittsburgh
at that point, was trying to hit a fadeball go
ball down the sideline and Kaylen picked it off. Now
he couldn't get his feeding bounds and he picked it off.
And I just remember we had a shot.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
From the all twenty two basically, and I was able
to point out, look how far he goes.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
And then my comment afterwards was, y'all, that ain't normal.
That isn't normal. Don't you don't find that?

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Man?

Speaker 3 (40:51):
This kid's gonna be super once he kind of gets
the game. And now you start to see him learning
the game, learning quarterbacks and learn those kind of things.
I'm glad Matt recognize him, But that dude's ready to
take off and be a superstar.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
I think he's taken off right now. It's in progress.
People are noticing, like Matt Bowen, like many others, because
when all the hay is in the barn at the
end of the season, and I don't know where it's going,
but I like where it's headed. Yep, put it that
way where it appears to be headed. They're going to
get all their accolades right, and they're getting a lot

(41:26):
of love right now. You still have five games to go.
This is a big chunk of the season you have left.
I love the way the schedule looks after this week,
but we can't get ahead of ourselves. And you know
you and I know what it's all about. It's week
to week and everything. It was week to week when
you weren't doing that well or as well as you wanted.
It's week to week now. But this is so big
on day I mean, it is just so mass I mean,

(41:49):
it's so much fun.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
Think about those things that we just talked about. And
there was one more best Fueld goal.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Blocker didn't he go out? So several Texans showing up.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Yes, and on Sunday, on a Sunday night, there are
a lot of people in Phoenix. There are people in
Baltimore that or maybe Baltimore is a bad one to use.
Maybe Charlotte that haven't Washington, that haven't seen this team play.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Yeah, but they've.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Heard, Oh I've heard about this defense. I've heard about
this defense. And then they go and watch the game
and they're like, Okay, the hype is real. This is
that opportunity on Sunday. And I only win a football game,
but to really make a statement. And you go on
social media and there are videos of guys with blocks
like ed Ingram had the other day, of interceptions, of tackles,

(42:41):
of sacks of things, you know, look at them, get
after Mahomes. I mean, those are all the kind of
things that can go along with a great performance on Sunday,
and that gets people's attention in the media that are
voting for some of these NFL All Pro for Pro Bowls,
those kind of things, for different kind of awards throughout
the year.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
This is an opportunity.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
And look, ask any one of those guys we mentioned, Hey,
would you would you rather be a Pro bowler or
go win a Super Bowl? Oh my gosh, every single
one I'm saying win.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
A Super Bowl. There's no doubt about that.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
But they also want to have those honors as well
and be respected by their peers and by the people
that cover this game. So this is that opportunity to
do both make a statement winning the game and then
get some love nationally, which I think it's starting to
ramp up because of the way, especially the defense is played.

(43:35):
But imagine if you go and do your defensive thing
against that team.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
We're playing Sunday night. Oh my, you imagine the.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Biggest stage in regular season football is Sunday night foot
pro That's it. It's it. Even though fifty seven million
watched the Cowboys and the Chiefs, but that was Thanksgiving.
That's a different kind of day.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
It is fifty seven point seven million on Chiefs Cowboys,
forty seven point seven on Lions Packers.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
You knew that was a good lineup. That it turns
out to be even better than your thought.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
That's incredible.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
It's incredible. But this is the league, it's the you
know what, the America's Campfire. It's bigger than ever because
it's the one thing that really unites the most people. Literally, Yeah,
and people follow it for fantasy football reasons, for this reason,
for that reason, for their team, reasons for I hate
the Cowboys, I hate the Chiefs reasons. There's so many

(44:28):
different reasons and it brings people together.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Well, you know what they're doing on Peacock on Sunday Night?
Did I tell you this?

Speaker 1 (44:33):
What are they doing?

Speaker 3 (44:35):
They're taking four reality show stars. So there's a woman
from Housewise of Salt Lake City, a guy from Survivor,
and then two others I can't remember, but they're taking
reality show stars and they're basically going to put them
in you know, love seats with the game going on,
and they're gonna be just jaw jacking during the game,

(44:57):
talking about the game.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
And they have to pair up and get married.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
No, they don't do that. I don't think. I don't think,
but it might be. I mean, it might be an interesting.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
But when when do you see this Monday night game
is going to be the animated game.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Remember how they did the Simpsons animated game.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
They're doing an their animated game for the Monday night
game the Eagles and Chargers.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
They're having reality stars.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Talking about it's unbelievable what this league is doing. But
to be able to do it on Sunday night, and
my god, if seven has the game that we think
he can have on a Sunday Night.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
This is this is gonna be a theme tomorrow. But
remember the Circus used to be the greatest show on Earth.
This is the greatest show on Earth that on earth.
Your stage, Sunday Night.

Speaker 3 (45:40):
It's the best reality show going. It is the best
reality show going. It's unscripted, seemingly, or some would tell
you that, and it's tremendous and Sunday Night is going
to be unbelievable. All right, injury report is out. There
were some guys not at practice. Demko did talk about
a few of them and use the words they will

(46:00):
be fine, But we still got to let you know
what's there, and on both sides, because the Chiefs are
struggling with.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
The injury telling. Everybody.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Welcome back to this Wednesday thistion of Texans All Access.
I'm your host, John Harris Football and a sideline reporter
for your Houston Texans.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
It's time to hit the injury report. And I know
this one's not gonna be good. I just know it.
And I've been feeling this way for a little bit.
And I remember, and I can't remember whether it's Demiko
or Nick one of them when they were in here
for their interview said, you know, we've got some guys
banged up, and I just thought, eh, boy, I don't

(46:37):
want to see this. Well that's the case.

Speaker 6 (46:41):
Now.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
The bad news is Will Anderson Junior, de Nico Autrey,
Trent Brown, Jamal Hill, Kamari Lassiter, Woody Marks, Tim Settle Junior.
All very important pieces, even Scooby on special teams. He's
missed a couple of games now with that hamstring, but
all of those guys play a key role for this team.

(47:06):
They were all dnps on Wednesday. Now Coach Ryan's asked
about that and the presser said, they'll all be fine,
but you just still to see them on the DMP
list as you're getting ready to play a some important
game against the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
It does sting.

Speaker 7 (47:26):
Now.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
We did see Will Anderson Junior last Thursday, I think,
show up on the injury report as a d m P.
He showed up with both the chest and his shoulder,
So hopefully Will can get taped back up with duck
tape and be ready to go. Trent with that hand,
he has had different various tape jobs and casts and
whatever else on the hand and still able to play,

(47:48):
so hopefully he's gonna be okay. But I worry about
the foot, the feet, the ankle of what he marks,
the feet of Tim Settle, Junior Kamari last So hopefully
those guys are gonna be okay. Is He's out was
limited with a knee, but he was out at practice.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
That was great news.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
Now nobody's gonna be crying in their beer for the
Texans injuries, especially in Kansas City. Now they don't have
the volume, but they have one focused position that is
going to beat an issue. The news out of Kansas
City started with Josh Simmons, their starting left tackle, going

(48:24):
on ir he. I think it was a dislocated elbow.
I believe it was against the Cowboys. He had played
pretty well. Then he was gone for five games. Nobody
knew why he's gone for five games. It kind of
got through, it came back, was playing for a couple
of games, and then got hurt against the Cowboys. Missing

(48:45):
against the Cowboys was Trey Smith with an ankle injury.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
He was also a DNP.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Now reading the tea leaves from information up there, it
doesn't sound like Trey Smith's gonna be ready to go
for this game.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
And Josh Simmons is on IR.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Then Juwan Taylor, their right tackle, did not participate with
a triceps slash neat so he's got triceps issue and
a knee issue. So Trey Smith, starting guard ankle did
not participate, starting right tackle, Juwan Taylor triceps and a
knee issue, did not participate in practice, and Josh Simmons,

(49:24):
starting left tackle, went on IR. And they gotta face
the Texans defensive line.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Now.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
The flip side of that is three key members at
defensive line did not participate on Wednesday, either, Will Anderson Junior,
Tim Sedtle junior, and Deny Gautry.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
So it is worth watching now.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
I say all that, and it is important, there's no doubt,
and Kansas City's gotta find a way. Probably gonna be
Jalen Moore at one spot, probably gonna be jan Ye
Morris at another. Uh Suma Taya will probably step in
a guard spot again, Mike Caliendo will probably be in
his spot. So really the only thing that they have
consistently right now is Creed Humphrey, arguably the best center

(50:07):
in the NFL at this moment.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Mahomes makes do, doesn't matter who's in front of him.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
He makes do now there have been times in his
career like Super Bowls when the offensive line hasn't held
up and the defensive line was so relentless they able
to get to him buck Super Bowl in twenty the
COVID season, and then last year the Eagles getting to him.
Can the Texans do that and do it consistently? Put
him on the run, make him have to make tough
decisions on the run, and maybe that ends up being

(50:35):
a big advantage for the Texans. Okay, Yakub Johnson, who
is not on the injury report, We got a lot
to talk about with him.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
He's up next on Texans All Access.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
Yes, sir, welcome back to this second hour Texans All
Access on this wonderful Wednesday evening wherever you are.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
And it's wonderful because, well, you're a Texans fan like me.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
I'm your host, John Harris Football, aantallest sideline reporter for
your Houston Texans over the last I don't know, nine
ten months or so. Mark and I have got to
be big fans of our next guest and international player
play at Reboult High School in Jacksonville, went to University
of Tennessee. But he's a German national Yakub Johnson. We

(51:18):
had a lot to talk about with Yakub, including right cheek,
left cheek. Yeah, you'll figure it out as you listen
to us discussed with Yakub Johnson.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
Right here, Yakub Johnson with us in studio. How's it
going Yakub?

Speaker 6 (51:31):
Good Man?

Speaker 1 (51:32):
Good great to have you in here. You're a member
of the Tush push crew. Yes, sir, full back, tight end.
You do a lot of different things here. So how's
it going for you overall here being with the team.

Speaker 8 (51:42):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (51:42):
Man, it's been it's been going great, man.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Like.

Speaker 9 (51:44):
Obviously, I had some some up and downs, had to
sit out some time with an injury. But since I've
gotten back, we've been on a role, we've been winning
some games. So it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Man, Yaka, we were kind of chatting just a little
bit and you go week thirteen. I was like, no,
Week fourteen, but it made me think, how's the body
feel week fourteen?

Speaker 7 (52:03):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (52:03):
I know you talked about some injuries and things, but
you go through a full football season and we're close.
We got five games left and hopefully some playoffs after that.
But how's the body feel right now?

Speaker 6 (52:12):
Honestly?

Speaker 9 (52:13):
At this point, you don't really want to feel anything,
you know what I mean. It's it's just it is
what it is. Like. You don't even pay attention anymore
at this point, the part of the season where you're
like sore and everything that was like four weeks ago.
At this point, your body just like gives up and
just accepts its fate and you just do what you do.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
You know, I love it. It just but it just
gives in.

Speaker 8 (52:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (52:30):
Yeah, at some point the body stops like it just like, hey, okay,
we're just gonna be hurt every day.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Fifteen fifteen more car wrecks.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
I'm a how do you handle practice at your spot?
Because you do a lot of different things, like I said,
initially with tight end and fall back, and I see
you warm it up with all sorts of people and
then you have that touch pushtake. So tell us about
practice for you and how you go about that.

Speaker 9 (52:52):
Man, every day is different, every week is different. It
just depends on the game plan. So I'm in different spots,
I'm asked to do a different things as it might
be a little bit of special. Teams might not be
moving me around on offense, so I never know until
I come in and I see the game plan. But
you just you just go out there. You play football.
You know, that's what you been doing since you was

(53:12):
a kid, so it's no different.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Okay, I'm gonna ask a question. Now.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
This is a little sensitive, so you don't really have
to answer. But you go in the game the other day,
see you guys all running the game. I see you
in British and I'm like, okay, this is gonna be interesting.
What are we doing our short yardage?

Speaker 3 (53:26):
And then see k get under center, I'm like, oh man,
it's awesome doing the toush push. So is your responsibility
like one cheek and then British is the other one?
Or is it a collective effort to you not even
handle that?

Speaker 9 (53:40):
Listen, listen, we get coach on this in very a
lot of details, you know what I mean. Coach Coach
Jake Morland will short of instruck me to to really
take charge of my cheek, you know what I mean,
and try to really lift as as I you know. So, yeah,
it's a lot more detailed than people think, but it's
all about really just getting in there and and taking
hold of it.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Well here's the other to kabits I mean, you guys
don't have padded practices, you know, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. You
might get one maybe during the week, depending on where
it where it lands. Have you been able to work
on this like in pads in practice or is it
just something that you guys kind of had to work
on like an individual and then you know, kind of

(54:21):
carry it forward to team.

Speaker 9 (54:23):
Yeah, we met up on our own time and just
really just started grabbing kids cheese. No, no, of course,
I mean we we got a few like walkthroughs of
it during practice. But yeah, and you just I mean
in the game, you just gotta go, you know, Yeah,
you gotta trust Kate holding onto the ball and then
we just push them as hard as we can and see.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
Where we go.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Are you begging for a carry? Come on, give me
a carry?

Speaker 9 (54:47):
Not begging, but like, honestly, I feel like I've been
closer than people think, just like from the game plan perspective,
the opportunities, it just hasn't happened yet. But yeah, you
just gotta stay patient until the moment comes.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
So in your role, and I say roll, I mean
you're you're all over the place.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
I mean, you line up tight end, you can lineup
it full back obviously, and special teams, all those kind
of things. When you come in on you know, Wednesday,
to start getting ready for that next team, and you
start getting prepared, like you see the game playing, You're like, Okay,
I might be I might have this role, I might
have this, this might be a little bit.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Higher than this one this week.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
How do you kind of handle your preparation as you
go into a week when your target could be moving
every single Wednesdays you start getting ready for a Sunday game.

Speaker 9 (55:32):
Well, honestly, I try to front load my prep. I
try to really already start watching some of the film
on like Mondays and Tuesdays really, so by the time
I get in here, I already know the defense and
kind of what they're doing and how they're playing on
the defensive line, how they linebackers are playing, and so
thence once I see the place, I can kind of
put it together in my head. It's like, okay, I'm

(55:53):
blocking the will already know how he plays, and that
makes it a little bit easier for me.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Yeah, you've been around the league for a while now,
since twenty nineteen. Who's been helpful to you here? As
you further get assimilated into the Texans way of doing
things and in your career in general, Yaka oh Man.

Speaker 6 (56:07):
In my career in general is tough. Man.

Speaker 9 (56:10):
There's been a lot of people that helped me along
the way here he had the Texans. I got to
give credit to our our position coach, Jake Morland Man.
He's been doing an excellent job of getting us ready,
especially with all the movement that we had in the
tight end room, Guys getting injured, different guys being asked
through different things. He's been doing a great job getting
us ready and adapted to this system.

Speaker 6 (56:31):
In my career in general, man, I had great coaches.
You know.

Speaker 9 (56:34):
Nick Kaylee was my first ever NFL position coach. I
think he did a tremendous job taking a very raw
international pathway player that didn't really know where to line
up all the time and turned me into a decent
NFL player. There's been the coaches in college that gave
me my opportunity to even get started here in America

(56:57):
with football. So yeah, it's been a lot in that way.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
I think I know the answer to this, So I'm
gonna ask this in a different way because I would
ask you, is it surprising that there has been even
more international influence. So I'll ask you this way, because
I don't think you're gonna be surprised by that, but
I'll ask you why has the international influence grown and grown?

Speaker 2 (57:18):
In your opinion? Yaka?

Speaker 3 (57:19):
But I mean obviously there's you. We saw who's the
kicker for the Saints. I think I might something, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Why has that increased over the years? And not even
just over the years, but even this year in the NFL.

Speaker 6 (57:31):
The visibility has completely changed. When when I started playing.

Speaker 9 (57:35):
Overseas, football was kind of looked at like as in
like skateboarding, like an extreme sport, Like whoa, you're doing
American football?

Speaker 6 (57:42):
Oh?

Speaker 9 (57:44):
And it was really hard to watch the games, like
there was no games on television except the Super Bowl,
and you didn't even know the players' names because there
was no way for us to even like see any
of that, Like there's no ESPN over there. Nowadays, with
the Internet, with social media, with like highlight clips being
shared on TikTok and Instagram reels and all this stuff,

(58:06):
the visibility just increased. And I think then the NFL
also taking charge and bringing the games overseas. You just
had the first game in Madrid. You got games in
Germany every year. Now, yeah, that's that's a game changer.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Yeah, what kind of season are the Stuttgart Scorpions happening
right now?

Speaker 10 (58:21):
Ya?

Speaker 1 (58:22):
We want to know the.

Speaker 9 (58:23):
Stuet Guard scorp Is are actually doing well. They they
just uh uh leveled up from I think the Third
League up to the second League, so they increasing. We
have we got like seven, we got seven. If you're
in the bottom, you get relegated, you gotta move down.
So it's like soccer, you have like soccer. Yeah, wow, yeah,
it's like that. But but then on the I gotta
share some band who's on the European football front. On

(58:45):
the on the professional level over there, it's some issues
right now with the league going on. My franchise the
surge uh probably won't be around next season, but you know,
I mean that doesn't mean that's the end for for football,
but then in general, it just might be some changes
going on.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
So it's funny because the relegation is something that is
no punitendence.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
It is completely foreign to people over the United State.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
It was foreign to me before I started watching Premier
League soccer, and then I was like, this is one
hell of a concept.

Speaker 6 (59:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
I mean it's amazing because you watch Premier League soccer
matches at the end of the year and they're all
no matter what's going on in what you would like
week eighteen of the Premier League season, there are teams
fighting relegation. There are teams trying to get into the
top four this so they can be a champions league.
It's like they've mastered the end of the season because

(59:37):
of relegation and promotion.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
I gotta imagine it's kind of the.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
Same way in those football leagues, Like going up is
a massive deal, but also to fight going down.

Speaker 6 (59:46):
As well, yeah, big time.

Speaker 9 (59:48):
Like there are some clubs that obviously have been in
the in the first league for years and are like
traditionally big clubs, and you have one bad season, you know,
now you're fighting relegation and that's a that comes with
like less money, obviously you're you're just less important. So yeah,
those those end of season games in Germany are still

(01:00:09):
closely fought.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Yeah, yaka tell the listeners because you said your franchise
the surge. Yeah, so you're part owner of that.

Speaker 9 (01:00:15):
Yeah, I was a part owner. There was a European
football league that started five years ago. We had built
it up. My franchise actually just won the championship this season. Fantastic.
But now you had a realignment where a bunch of
teams wanted the league, leave the league, create their own thing,
and the finances got tricky, and so yeah, the Surge

(01:00:38):
won't be around next season, but I mean European football
probably still will.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
What would it mean to you, ya to be able
to play a game back home? An NFL game back home?
At some point in your career you.

Speaker 9 (01:00:48):
Said a key thing, I would love to play an
NFL game. Yeah, back home obviously, just because my family
could come out, My sisters could see it, my grandma
could come out, all those things. I don't know if
I would go back to the European League and play.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
To play an NFL game like we just had, what
was it, Colts Falcons, Yeah, Berlin, that's huge. What what
would it mean to take the Texans overseas playing Germany?

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Be able to play in front those find I mean,
that's just.

Speaker 6 (01:01:17):
That would be amazing.

Speaker 9 (01:01:17):
I mean it would be a huge opportunity for me
because I think I would be the best tour guide
you guys could ask for, right, I would have all
the recommendations ready, the reservations, the food, the sites, all
that stuff. But then on the on the sports side
of things, Uh, Baron Berner was a draft pick for
the Colts from Berlin. Yeah, he was the one that
they got to introduce the team in Berlin and got

(01:01:38):
everything else.

Speaker 6 (01:01:39):
It was kind of like a full circle moment for him.

Speaker 9 (01:01:41):
So for me to get the opportunity to potentially bring
the Texans to Stuttgart, the city that I'm from, that
would be I mean, that would be drink.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
So, Sebastian Volmer, was he still playing when you were
with the Patriots or was he gone by then?

Speaker 6 (01:01:54):
He was retired by then.

Speaker 9 (01:01:55):
Yeah, but I obviously knew about him, like growing up,
I read his book and everything versus Uston guy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Yeah, yeah, which guy tackle very nice. Just one more
question about that stuff. How big do these crowds get?
What's the biggest crowd you've heard about or played in
front of in Germany or Europe? What do you know
about that? On the end, like the NFL games, no
nor leagues that are based in Europe.

Speaker 9 (01:02:18):
So so the europe Bowld that we just played, it
was in my hometown in Stuttgart, we played in front
of thirty seven thousand people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Oh my gosh, I wonder why the NFL is going
over there.

Speaker 9 (01:02:30):
Yes, and that's and that's four league that essentially was
semi pro until four years ago, you know. So it's
a big deal for just the kids that are playing
up there. Like all of our starters, all of our
big stars, were kids that I remember playing for my
hometown team when I was over there, being in the

(01:02:50):
youth programs and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
When you first experienced Neeland Stadium, fah, my god, what
was that like for you? Because you've probably been to
some you know, Buyer Munich or whatever big team's over there,
and that's awesome, But what about kneeling with over one
hundred thousand people all that orange? What was that like
for you to experience in that?

Speaker 9 (01:03:07):
I mean, that was unreal. I mean that's all it took.
Like I took one visit during my high school recruiting phase.
It was to Niless Stadium when they played Vanderbilt at
the end of the season. Who whole house was rocking
the whole game. They experience when they when the players
come out and all the fans line up to greet
them and everything and then being in the stadium when

(01:03:30):
when they when they played Rocky Top and all the
I mean, that's that's.

Speaker 6 (01:03:33):
All it took. I was like, yeah, where do I sign?

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Yeah, it's not European.

Speaker 6 (01:03:37):
No no, no, no, no, sign me up.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
I'm staying yakub going to Kansas City. Yeah, Sunday night.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
I always wondered this for NFL players playing on Sunday night?
Is it still you know, when Sunday night became the game.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Of the week. I mean, everybody, we want to play
Sunday night. What is it like playing on Sunday night?
Is that? Is it that much more special playing on
Sunday night?

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
Because you know that's the game everybody, all the you know,
teams are back home, all the guys that you know
are back home watching you on that particular night.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
It is the game. What's it like playing on a
Sunday night?

Speaker 9 (01:04:09):
I think anytime you get the opportunity to play a
primetime game in front of America and the world watching,
that's a great opportunity. Yeah, great opportunity to take advantage
off Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead Stadium. I mean, what more
do you want?

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Yeah? Awesome environment. One more for you? So you played
in several different American cities here, and we talked about
Neiland Stadium in college. You played for New England Giants,
Vegas here, American cities. Look, I assume Houston is your
favorite anyway, like America crashed.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
If you could.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
Houston to other places you've lived, what's it like here
for you being a resident?

Speaker 9 (01:04:48):
Now, okay, you gotta be real careful with the food.
The food is amazing. The food is amazing. The Houston
fifteen is real, you know. So the food is great.

Speaker 7 (01:05:00):
I love it.

Speaker 6 (01:05:00):
I love it. Food is amazing.

Speaker 7 (01:05:02):
Man.

Speaker 9 (01:05:02):
The weather is almost good, always good. Uh, summer a
little bit hot.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
Yeah, you know that's almost good.

Speaker 9 (01:05:09):
Yeah, summer is a little bit hot. But you know,
besides that, I think it's a beautiful city. I love
the park, Memorial Park. Yeah, yeah, you know, so it's
a lot of nice things to enjoy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
What's the summer like in shoot Gart.

Speaker 6 (01:05:20):
It's hot too, yeah, but not as humans, not as
human right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Yeah, it's europe hotet.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Yeah, it's a different like they say, it's a little
different here.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Thanks a lot for joining us. Good luck.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
You gotta appreciate it. That dude is fantastic. I'd love
having him in studio every single week. All right, we
get back. It's men behind the Mike's time. Josh Klingler,
the John Harrison that the Kansas City Chiefs sideline reporter
and analysts for them, will join Mark vandermier Nax right
here in Texans. All right, here we go, Texans All
Access coming at you on a Wednesday evening. Before we

(01:05:52):
hand it over to the guys an area, forty fives
will break down everything happen in Houston, sports, your Texans,
your Rockets, anything else going on Major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
I've seen much hot stove news at.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
This point, but I'm sure there'll be some at some point,
and those guys will take you through it. But we're
talking Texans here, and we've got a big one Sunday night,
as we all know, taking on the Kansas City Chiefs
and the John Harrison, the Kansas City Chiefs. Josh Klingler
set down and cut up with Mark Fanning of the
Voice of the Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
We call men behind the Miccident's right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Here with us now in Texans Radio. Josh Klingler, sideline
reporter for the Kansas City Chiefs Chiefs Radio Network Josh,
how's it going. You're ready for this one on Sunday.

Speaker 10 (01:06:31):
Well, it's going a little differently again Penthouse problems for
the Chiefs this year, we're living everybody else's season. I
think Kansas City fans uncomfortably living every other NFL fans
season where you're battling for a playhoff spot down the
stretch versus other years where they're seemingly, you know, looking

(01:06:52):
at the number one seed and how they can attain it.
So it's been a little bit of a different ride,
uneasy ride for most fans in Kansas City. And I
think of this team as well, because I don't think
they planned to be in the position that they're in
right now, where basically this game with Houston's a playoff
game next week, with the Chargers in the playoff game,
so on and so forth, and they're right in the

(01:07:13):
thick of, you know, being in or out.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
Every team has multiple issues, But what would you say
is the biggest issue affecting the Chiefs negatively this year?

Speaker 10 (01:07:22):
I think it's been penalties and discipline. They've They've been
in every game. They've just lost a lot of close
games that they were able to pull out. A season ago,
you know, not being able to find that kind of
big play, that key play. At times, this team's looked
a little non cohesive in spots, but I think most
of it has been kind of engineered by by discipline

(01:07:44):
and penalties and getting you know those little those little
false start penalties or something that derails to drive or defensively.
Maybe last week certainly they were a little bit handsy
and got some pass interference that we're having problems getting
them off the field. So I think for the most part,
you know, the biggest questions that have been asked to
Andy Reid this week have been about the penalties, because

(01:08:07):
it's something that hasn't really been cleaned up throughout much
of the season, and I think that it's probably they
will they would look and say, that's the thing that's
been keeping us from from winning maybe these close games.
So it's been a little bit different. Last year, they
were a team that lived on the close games and
they were really good and figuring the way out. This year,
they haven't really been able to figure much out and

(01:08:28):
have dropped more of those you know, three and you know,
four point type games.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Are they getting the ground game they want? Do they
want to run the ball more, take the heat off
Mahomes and the pass catchers. How do you see it, Josh.

Speaker 10 (01:08:42):
Well, that's always been kind of the big question really
with Andy Reid because he's, you know, a West Coast offense,
pass first type guy, and certainly when you have Patrick Mahomes,
you know, you run the football, you take the ball
out of the best player in football, teinds. So that's
always kind of the the the call that's been a
little bit difficult. Two games ago, really committed to the run.

(01:09:05):
Last week dug themselves some third and long situations kind
of right out of the shoot, which seemingly kind of
took the pressure away from, you know, trying to establish
the run game and made them pass a little bit more.
So it's always been kind of a push pull. Two
weeks ago, the really down a running back. Last week

(01:09:25):
had the full compliment of running backs. It's really a
one to two punch with Kareem Hunt and Isaiah Pacheco,
and they're going their best when both guys are available.
But seemingly that's been an issue as well, trying to
figure out exactly how to work in the run game
to help compliment the pass game. I think it would
be beneficial. I think that they are at times hesitant
to kind of kind of go that direction and prefer

(01:09:48):
they have a really nice compliment of wide receivers, and
so they like to spread the football round and throw
it around, and sometimes I think the run game gets
forgotten in that aspect, but there's always kind of a push.
But can they continue it in the midst of a game.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Josh Klingler joining US sideline reporter for the Chiefs Radio Network. Josh,
what kind of version are we getting of Travis Kelce
in twenty twenty five?

Speaker 10 (01:10:09):
You know, I think that there was probably an expectation
this year that hey, they gotten younger at wide receiver,
They've spent some draft picks at wide receiver, the wide
receiver room was pretty full. So maybe Travis Kelsey can
take a step back and maybe just be be a guy,
or be a tight end, just be just a straight
normal NFL tight end. And you know, he looks he

(01:10:29):
looks great, you know, even to the point where you know,
everybody kind of assumed that this was his last year.
Maybe it's not. He still hasn't definitively answered that, but
also hasn't ruled it out. He's been very, very good.
Still is Patrick mahomes number one target. If Patrick Mahomes
is in trouble, he's looking for eighty seven. They have
a magical connection that has worked over the years and

(01:10:52):
is still right now. Does he have the speed He has? No,
But can he get open in the middle of the field. Absolutely.
He's probably get less double teams than he's ever gotten
because they are, you know, taking the focus to some
of the other wide receiver targets. But no, he's and
they've also i think, done a pretty good job of
balancing his plays out this year, probably been on the

(01:11:13):
field a little bit less by design than another year,
so they've kept him nice and fresh. He's still a
very viable target. Even though I thought heading into the
year this would be the year they maybe start to
phase him out, it's been anything but that. He's still
the emergency blanket for.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Patrick all right, Rashie Rice tell me about him. Obviously
very productive and has made such a difference since coming back.

Speaker 10 (01:11:40):
Yeah, I can do a number of different things too,
and they've still i think just kind of scratched the
surface of how they want to use him. But very
effective in the red zone, very effective in getting the
ball and running after catch. A guy they line up
in the backfield a little bit as well. Haven't seen
as much of that as we thought maybe they would
when they brought him act. But he's a guy that

(01:12:01):
can can take the burden a little bit off the
run game, or at least uh switched the run game
into kind of a different phase. His ability to to
run out of the backfield or use end a rounds. Uh.
They've even used him in a kind of a wildcat
situation as well. Really versatile guy that has the chance,
has the chance still has played a lot of games.
I mean, he still has a chance to be one

(01:12:22):
of the one of the top wide receivers in the league.
He's got great hands, he's got good speed, he can
run all the routes. At times last week a couple drops,
so he kind of shook your head about. So hopefully
that's just kind of a one off type thing. Andy
Reid seems to think it was a guy that can
use in a lot of versatile, versatile ways, and so

(01:12:44):
he's a key component to the offense. He was the
guy if you were you know, asking you who is
going to be Patrick's go to guy? Once Kelsey is
maybe no longer there. I think it's setting up to
be Rashie Rice. There are games where he is the
definitive number one target, but it's been consistency with pretty
much all the receivers and really this entire offense. That yes,

(01:13:06):
it's a good problem to have to not exactly keep
a defense knowing who you're going to go to, but
also at times you have to answer the question yourself,
who are you going to go to? And I think
at times it probably should be Rashie Rice a little
bit more.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Josh Klinger joining us. He does the sideline reporting for
the Chiefs Radio network. What about the defense? When we
talk about the Chiefs defense in Houston, we always talk
about Chris Jones first and maybe George carloftis second. Are
we right to do that? Who else should the Texans
be aware of?

Speaker 10 (01:13:36):
Well, they're the most important, to be sure, and that's
an area that kind of comes and goes as well.
They haven't been all that great in the sack department,
but creating pressure at times has been good. Defense has
been for the most part pretty solid. Now last week
was the anomaly. Two weeks ago against the Colts, they
were the absolute story, shutting down the Colts in the

(01:13:56):
second half and really kind of waiting for the offense
to get and they were the story of that game.
Last week, they were also the story of the game,
but for the other reason they couldn't get off the field,
especially on third downs, and really especially on third down
and long situations. They got themselves in last week. So
it's a little bit baffling. At times they look like
they are world beaters and then at times they can

(01:14:17):
be exposed. Nick Bolton at linebacker another guy to watch,
real downhill runner, maybe a little bit susceptible in the
past game, and I think that's been kind of the weakness.
Can you occupy the middle of the field against the
Chiefs defense. Do you have wide receivers that can run
a lot of crossing routes. Can you get a tight
end open in the middle of the field, because that's
been where they've been most vulnerable. And then in the secondary.

(01:14:41):
Trent McDuffie's They're all Pro corner probably played his worst
game of his career last week against the Cowboys, So
guessing he's going to try to bounce back from that
one because he had a not so great performance dealing
with Lamb and Pickens a week ago from the Cowboys,
who really chewed up the chief secondary last week.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
Josh. The Chiefs are six and six, as you know,
and Denver's got that ten win total heading into the
weekend leading the AFC West. But who are you concerned
with coming down the stretch here as far as making
the playoffs? Who do you think the main competition is?
What are you looking at here after losing a Buffalo?
They have the seventh spot right now, but what else?

(01:15:19):
How do you see the field right now?

Speaker 10 (01:15:21):
If you will, Yeah, I mean I think they have
to run the table. I know that there's scenarios out
there that are doing kind of the mass and can
say they can give up one more, But it just
feels like a team that has to go and win
them all. And that would include beating teams that have
already gotten you in the Chargers and the Broncos, so
those are massive. The Texans one, obviously is huge. You're

(01:15:43):
talking about kind of similar teams and similar boats. They've
lost a lot of the head to head kind of
tiebreakers that they probably need. Buffalo certainly was there the Jaguars,
which was one of their weird performances of the year.
They do have a tiebreaker over the the Ravens. Bolva
Bat Division is kind of a mess right now, so
it's hard to kind of see where that one shakes out.

(01:16:05):
So they've lost some of the key tiebreakers in this
six and six effort as well, So I think I
think they got to run the table, which is asking
a lot for a team that again is six and
six to win five straight games, But I feel like
it's going to take that to get into the postseason.
I don't think seven. I think seven. You're doing a
lot of squinting in mass and and hoping for a

(01:16:28):
lot of stuff to happen to get you in that position.
But I think they need to beat the Texans, the Chargers,
and the Broncos. Those are huge games. Their road games
are at Tennessee and at the Raiders, two very bad teams,
so can't afford to stub your toe there. But got
to win one to win the rest, and I think
I think if it all shakes out, if they drop
one more, they're going to be on the outside looking in.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
What are people in Kansas City saying about the Texans.

Speaker 10 (01:16:53):
Really really afraid of the pass rush and I think
that's rightfully, So I don't know what kind of shape
the Chiefs offensive line is going to be this week.
Lost their left tackle Josh Simmons to what appears to
be a season ending risk injury, although he's getting a
second opinion. They're right tackle Juwan Taylor has been off
and un injured all season and he had to leave

(01:17:14):
the game last week, so had two backup tackles in
the ballgame last week, also still playing without their their
all Pro guard in Trey Smith, who might not be
available this week either, so they could have three backup
offensive linemen trying to deal with the Houston pass rush,
and so that certainly is a number one. If they
don't protect Patrick Mahomes this week, it is going to

(01:17:36):
be a long day at the office because even with
the starters in their Houston's defensive line is really really good.
And again, there could be three backups playing along the
offensive line this week, which would not bode well.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
Josh, what kind of a sports town is Kansas City?
We all know it's Chiefs Kingdom, we all know the success,
but in general over the years, how would you define
or characterize Kansas City of sports city?

Speaker 10 (01:18:01):
I think a real good one. I think. I think
their ability to host events has been kind of on display.
It's been obviously the neighborhood of the the Big Twelve
basketball tournament for years and years and years in Kansas City,
has a great job hosting various other kind of tournaments
are coming through the The College Cup is here this weekend,
the the the final four of of the women's soccer tournament,

(01:18:22):
although we probably need to get some snow off the
ground for that for that event to be a hit.
But their ability to kind of host events throughout Kansas City.
The World Cup obviously part of the rotation as well,
So I think that's kind of what's been been huge.
It's a it's a real good soccer town as well.
Uh Sporting case has always done well. The women's team,
the Current were number one till being knocked out in

(01:18:44):
the playoffs and then they've been sellouts since really the
last three years. So it's been a really neat sports town.
Obviously driven by the the Chief success and before that, uh,
you know, the run by the Royals, but you know
they they love following their teams. College basketball college football
always been big in this area with kind of the

(01:19:05):
three colleges nearby and Kansas Missouri and Kansas State all
kind of always fighting over Kansas City as their home.
So always been a good sports town right now maybe
a little grouchy sports town again, because I think everybody
expected this is a really talented Chiefs team, maybe more
talented than the last couple that made it, you know,
all the way to the super Bowl and to find

(01:19:26):
themselves at six and six. I think I think the
town's a little more grouchy than it's been. And I
don't know, it's kind of a combination of is the
run over and maybe less appreciative of the run at
this point, and more people saying what the heck happened
this year and what's going on? Why are they in
this position than appreciative of the fact that they've been
living in the football penthouse for quite some time now.

(01:19:48):
And this is how normal I think normal NFLF seasons go. Right,
You're playing the last five games for your playoff lives.
We're not used to this.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
Right now, What is the latest on the stadium situation?

Speaker 10 (01:20:00):
The latest is there isn't the latest. It has been
just a few years now of negotiations and setting up
test balloons, that kind of thing. Because the Royals and
Chiefs share a complex. At the moment, the Royals don't
want to be there. The Royals have been trying to move.
They had a failed attempt to move downtown. They have

(01:20:24):
basically said they will not be at that complex when
their lease expires in twenty thirty one. But the things
are clocks ticking now, and so they don't have a location.
I think the Chiefs ultimately are waiting to see exactly
what the Chief's location is going to be, and then
they're going to figure out whether or not they're going
to stay in their current location and build a new stadium,

(01:20:45):
or they're going to be looking elsewhere as well. We'll
see it's still completely up in the air. Both states
are involved, which makes this unique as well, Kansas and Missouri.
Not to say fighting over it, the kind of fighting
over it. I think everybody's kind of trying to weigh
their best deal, but the best deal has apparently been
very very slow, because it feels like we've been kind
of sitting in neutral for quite some time. In my

(01:21:08):
heart of hearts, I think the Chiefs will stay at
their current location, maybe build a new stadium on that
site rather than any kind of renovations, and then you know,
the state of Kansas may get a part of it
as well, maybe a practice facility or something in the
state of Kansas. I think wouldn't be kind of out
of line, and that the Royals will eventually find a
way to figure out to get at least closer to

(01:21:29):
downtown and we'll have downtown Baseball and then a stadium
still in both in Kansas City, Missouri. But could be
completely wrong because it seems like the wind blows and
something changes, and nothing's been definitive really from either side
that they're are both still waiting to see what the
other is doing, and neither's moving very fast.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
Well, great information there, Josh, Thanks so much for joining us.
We look forward to seeing your Sunday night at Arrowhead.

Speaker 10 (01:21:54):
All right, dial down the pass rush a little bit,
all right, back off to those edge rushers. Okay, they
could have a day.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
They won't listen to me anyway, Thanks Josh.

Speaker 3 (01:22:04):
No, bring the heat, bring all the heat bringing. Speaking
of bringing the heat, Demiko Ryans brought to this press
conference today, let's hear it in its entirety.

Speaker 2 (01:22:15):
To finish up the show next right here, in Texans
All Access.

Speaker 3 (01:22:20):
We got one final segment Wednesday, istion a Texans All Access.
I'm your host, John Harris, foot play on a sideline,
Reporter's time, take a listen, Tomko Ryans and a lot
says presser today.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
Let's take a listen to it in its entirety. Let's rock.

Speaker 11 (01:22:34):
But how dangerous still is the Chiefs with all the
ball players they special offense.

Speaker 7 (01:22:39):
We know the Chiefs are a really good team.

Speaker 12 (01:22:41):
Sorry, next opponent, So we're fired up for the matchup,
excited to go play a really good team.

Speaker 13 (01:22:48):
There's an extra element of having them playing in the cold.

Speaker 7 (01:22:52):
What is the challenge of that?

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
And did you have any.

Speaker 13 (01:22:53):
Strategies when you were a player of keeping warm in
cold games?

Speaker 7 (01:22:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (01:22:57):
This strategy for playing in the cold is not to
focus on it too much, right, It's it's a mindset factor.

Speaker 7 (01:23:03):
You have three hours, like, no.

Speaker 12 (01:23:04):
Matter what the weather is, matter what the temperature like,
you gotta go out and play ball for three hours.
So it shoulda it shoulda be a factor for our guys.

Speaker 11 (01:23:14):
You updated on Kamor and Lasser and also uh uh
Woody Marks.

Speaker 12 (01:23:18):
Yeah, Kamari Woodie will they all They'll be fine. See
how the week, uh week goes.

Speaker 8 (01:23:24):
A pretty bitter lost in Kansas City is pretty fired
up locker room. Do you feel like there's any kind
of funny rivalry there and do you think that your
players thought about that lost specifically the summer of the
season anything like that.

Speaker 7 (01:23:34):
No rivalry, No, no hard feelings.

Speaker 12 (01:23:37):
We lost a football game, right, new season, we have
a new team. Uh s about this team this year? Like,
how do we go out and how do we prepare
this week to put ourselves in position to go out
and play as best as we possibly can?

Speaker 11 (01:23:50):
A problem is their speed or how much a problem
can their speed at specifically at receiver be for defense?

Speaker 7 (01:23:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (01:23:57):
They they have good players, right, they have good players
at the parents. Uh, we have good players too. So
we play fast, play physical that that's not gonna change
for us.

Speaker 14 (01:24:06):
As you look at the tape of the last couple
of games from your offensive line play that there, there's
this perception idea that they're playing in more physical style
or you seeing that and what is that group perhaps
doing well right now?

Speaker 7 (01:24:18):
Yah?

Speaker 12 (01:24:18):
Our offensive line is definitely playing playing physical right. You
see you see the clips another clip with it. It's
a really nice clip, but you see that physicality show up.
You see guys playing together, they're playing connected on the
double teams. They're finishing well. So they're they're doing a
really good job. E since second week that we had
that same old line and so excited to see them

(01:24:39):
go back for another week and continue to grow, continue
to get better.

Speaker 7 (01:24:42):
So, uh, they're doing a great job. Just gotta keep
it going.

Speaker 4 (01:24:47):
This unit has clicked.

Speaker 5 (01:24:48):
And you know, you always wanna find the best five
guys that work well together.

Speaker 4 (01:24:51):
What is it about this unit that's really worked for them?

Speaker 12 (01:24:54):
Yeah, the guys are playing well together. That's that's the
most important thing.

Speaker 9 (01:24:58):
You talk about.

Speaker 7 (01:25:01):
This chief's offense to the the challenges they present.

Speaker 11 (01:25:04):
I mean, you forget about the cope record, But what
is it.

Speaker 8 (01:25:07):
That makes you know Patrick Patrick? And is he still
you can't take this?

Speaker 9 (01:25:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (01:25:13):
Patrick gets still Patrick right, He's it's called him Houdini.
He finds a way to make plays all over the field.
That's why this team it's always been a threat. That's
why they're their games are always close because of Patrick
and his capabilities of extending plays and not just to
run the run plays, not to run the football, but
the way he extends plays, the way he finds his

(01:25:34):
guys down the field. Uh, it's it's unique, right, There's
not many guys in the league that can do how
Patrick does it.

Speaker 7 (01:25:42):
That's why he's a special player.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:25:44):
The guys he play with, they.

Speaker 12 (01:25:45):
Know where where he's looking, they know what to look forward,
so they're they're connected. Although it may seem like they're
scrambled plays, they're connected and coordinated and where they're where
they're finishing and Patrick knows the spots, so you just
have to be away. And now with that threat as well,
he can run the football ex you know, gain third
downs in those critical moments as well. So it's gonna

(01:26:08):
be a challenge as always with the four guys rushing.
Got to do a great job of having awareness, knowing
where he is and the guys in the back end.
You gotta cover him twice like, because he can extend
plays and they can go on and on and on.
You have to be aware of the guys in your
your zone, your area, and you have to stay on them.

Speaker 15 (01:26:30):
What does Nico Collins mean to this team and how
valuable is it to have a superstar like that that
will do whatever you need to help the team win.

Speaker 12 (01:26:38):
Nico is is such a valuable piece to our team.
First off, with that's his mindset. He's he's humble. There's
not an ego with Nico, even though he's one of
the best receivers in the league. You know, he doesn't
walk around that way like somebody owes him something like.
He's a very humble guy, respectful guy. He brings it

(01:26:59):
in every single day that he's working. Like just watch
him work on a Wednesday Thursday, Like he works extremely
hard at his craft. To see a young guy, you know,
like Nico just continue to get better and better as
he's been in this league.

Speaker 7 (01:27:14):
That's what it's about. That growth.

Speaker 12 (01:27:15):
He's exhibited that and he's he's a great teammate. He
he'll do whatever it takes for the team to win,
knowing that it's not just about him, it's about the team.
And you couldn't ask for a better guy. Who should
be this this superstar a lot of people are talking about,
but you don't hear much about it. He's quiet, He
goes about his business the right way, and you know

(01:27:37):
that's his approach.

Speaker 7 (01:27:38):
And that's just fine. I love the way Nico prepares
each and every week.

Speaker 12 (01:27:42):
Love the man that he is and I'm just excited
to have him on our team and see him, you know,
get the praise and accolades that he truly deserves.

Speaker 13 (01:27:51):
What you talked about the office is line earlier than
he just talking about people college and then wide receiver group,
you have players.

Speaker 7 (01:27:59):
In willing to you know, fee themselves up as far
as blocking gets concerned. Last week, especially on the on
the touchdown run.

Speaker 2 (01:28:07):
Uh there was touchdown run.

Speaker 13 (01:28:09):
In and I think it was another play where Exzavier
Hutchison got in there and made a huge block.

Speaker 2 (01:28:13):
You know, Christian Kirk got in there and made a
huge block.

Speaker 1 (01:28:15):
Those type of things show up on the field if
they don't show.

Speaker 7 (01:28:18):
Up on social media and things like that.

Speaker 13 (01:28:20):
How much of an emphasis have you all put on
having your wide receivers get involved in.

Speaker 12 (01:28:24):
The right game like that with our wire receivers is
very critical to our offense that they that they block
and a lot of a lot of receivers want the
football that you can't get the football like unless you're
unless you're blocking, So our guys have that unselfish mindset.
Coach ben Is done a great job with the group
when they are blocking, all the guys are responsible to

(01:28:45):
block at some point of the game. So it's not
just one particular player who has to do it. All
the guys have to do it. All the guys are
getting better and they're excelling at it. And some of
our touchdowns that we're able.

Speaker 7 (01:28:57):
To get it, it will be because.

Speaker 12 (01:28:59):
Of our wire receivers are finishing their blocks down field
like they are the touchdown blocks, and they have to
get it. They have to stay connected, move their feet,
and they have to be physical in there. And our
guys are willing to do that and that's why you know,
we can make the plays we make because of those guys.

Speaker 7 (01:29:15):
In the run game, it's very critical, you know, for.

Speaker 12 (01:29:17):
Our wire receivers to to block, and that's why our
run game will excel because of them.

Speaker 8 (01:29:24):
You couldn't kick the field goal on it gone for it.
Have you reevaluated or watched those decisions and did you
ever go back and the tape to think about that?

Speaker 7 (01:29:31):
In port down, Uh, this is new year. We're here
to play Kansas City with this team this year and
chow him. So we're some of the challenges of those
guys in.

Speaker 12 (01:29:41):
Particular, their front is very good front, you know, starting
with Jones. You talk about a guy who is very
disruptive in the run game, Uh, it's passing game Like.
He finds a way to get into the opposing teams
backfield time and time again.

Speaker 7 (01:29:56):
So he's a guy we have to have awareness for
him at all times.

Speaker 12 (01:30:00):
He can record play and wreck your series. If you
don't have eyes and wearing his form and you have
the intensity you need to go out go after him
and block him consistently. Then you got Karlotis on the edge.
Really good player, good young player in this league. Now
you talk about a workhorse, he's gonna stay after it.
Relentless guy finds a way to get after the quarterback,

(01:30:20):
leading their team in sacks. But just a physical, relentless rusher,
and we're gonna have to outwork him this week. The
Spagnolo does well as a defensive coordinator that presents challenges
for you as a offensive and coach. Fags has done
a great job his entire career of having some of
the best defenses in the league. And what he does,
he really stresses offenses just with his blitz package.

Speaker 7 (01:30:41):
I think that everybody's aware of that.

Speaker 12 (01:30:43):
He does a good job of bringing the pressure to
guys do a great job of executing it, and it
could be anyone right corners, Nickels backers, like, he does
a good job of mixing it up. So it's you
can't just watching and say, oh, I know who's blitzing
all the time, Like you really have to trust your rules.
You really have to be aware and them the receivers

(01:31:03):
tight ends. But everybody have to be on the same page.
Everybody has to see the game through the same set
of eyes when it comes to their blitz package because
it's very lethal, and he does a good job of
calling it, not only on third down, but in some
of those you know, first down, second like anytime, So
we have to be prepared for that, and uh, if
we can execute that the right way, we feel like

(01:31:24):
we can make some plays.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
So you guys are go ahead.

Speaker 13 (01:31:28):
You guys have obviously finished at both home and in
a way in this recent street. But are there differences
in finishing at home versus finishing away or or things
that you have to count for latent games.

Speaker 7 (01:31:42):
It's no difference.

Speaker 12 (01:31:43):
Every game, I would say, every game is you know,
it's the game of itself, like whatever that if it's
on the road or away, it really doesn't matter whatever
that game calls for when it comes to making the
plays necessary to win it. Really it's no difference game
home or away this week that you know his team's uh.

Speaker 13 (01:32:03):
You play calling though tipular tounsons of of of other people.

Speaker 2 (01:32:07):
What is it like match wits.

Speaker 7 (01:32:09):
With Andy Ring? I don't try to s my old coach.
I don't try to uh let Andy have that. So
we're prepare how we need to prepare. Andy's uh man,
he's he's a great coach.

Speaker 12 (01:32:22):
At the pleasure of playing for him for one year,
he's been uh he's an outstanding coach and he's has
to track record to prove that. So you know, it's
always a challenge going on with Andy because you know,
whatever you've seen on tape, he's gonna have some type
of wrinkle right there, gonna be some type of new
play design that we can't prepare for.

Speaker 7 (01:32:42):
Because we haven't seen it.

Speaker 12 (01:32:43):
It's cause he's very still cutting edge, uh, just a
really smart coach. Does a great job of position as players,
making you have to adjust and think on the fly
on defense as well, and that's why he's one of
the best to ever do it.

Speaker 11 (01:32:56):
Said, it's Kamar last year, not just on the outside,
but near the line of scrimmage. Seems like he's getting
more involved blitz seeing and every time he's around the
line of scrimmage seems like there's a lot of violence.

Speaker 12 (01:33:08):
And Kamari is is one of the hands down, one
of the best corners in this league when it comes
to playing physical, right it comes to stepping up in
the run game. You wanna see a corner tackle, go
watch Kamari's tape. For any corners that want to learn
how to tackle young corners, go watch Kamari Lassiter. Go
watch him tackle, Go watch him take on blocks like
There isn't a.

Speaker 7 (01:33:27):
Better corner in the league.

Speaker 12 (01:33:29):
When it comes to the physical h presence that he
provides to a defense, there is not a better guy
than Kamara.

Speaker 15 (01:33:37):
I know you like to take things week by week,
but if you could pick out a common thread that
has led to you you got success during this winning street.

Speaker 12 (01:33:45):
What would it be coming thread for us? Winning is
our players making the place. That's what it's all about. Chris, like,
our our guy has done a great job of finding
a way to make whether that's special teams offense, to
everybody stepping up making a play when we need to
make a play, and that won't change, you know, this
week as well. It's it's always gonna be about the

(01:34:05):
players and that that won't change.

Speaker 11 (01:34:10):
Remain strong this season because what about the way that
they play together in their chemistry makes them so difficult.

Speaker 7 (01:34:15):
As that and both guys if of course, they played
together for.

Speaker 12 (01:34:19):
A long time and they kind of know, you know,
when the routes, Kelsey can shut it round down, probably
sooner than it needs to be shut down.

Speaker 7 (01:34:27):
And my homes is feeling the same thing or seeing
the same thing that he's seeing.

Speaker 12 (01:34:31):
And that's why they're able to have that you know,
good connection Kelsey plays with. You know, he has great hands,
really good job, really great awareness of zone coverage and
when to sit it down like win the break out,
break in. It's just they're tied in together because they've
seen football through the same set of eyes for such
a long time and you see that connection. It's still
there on tape, right all right, Thank you guys, Thank

(01:34:53):
you all the big thanks to Miko and of course
the Houston media.

Speaker 3 (01:34:57):
Nice job at the presser today and and that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:00):
Was a little bit of good news.

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
Knowing that there'll be some guys that are fine and
ready to go for Sunday Night against the Kansas City Chiefs.
What a big thanks to Miko, to Nick, Jakub Johnson,
Josh Klingler to Mark, to all of you for listening
my guys back at sports Radio six ten. You are
the best stay tuned for Area forty five right here
at ports Radio six ten. We'll see Tomorro everybody, and
as always, go Texans.