The A-Team: Texans Rave Reviews, Chandler Rome and WednesdayBS

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on March 13th, 2024.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdhamTalking Your Teams series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A team Ateam. Let's get going. Welcome to
the new NFL league year just underway. We're barely sixty seconds in. Like

(00:27):
Kirk Cousins told everybody in his heartfeltvideo, he will be signing his deal
officially with his new team. Likemany others here in Houston can do sign
their new deal with their new team. The tampering period, Well, the
word is now not needed. Youwant to talk to a free agent,
have at it. You want tosign him on site, feel free you

(00:49):
can do so. And the Texansand the other thirty one NFL teams will
be doing just that. Fairly significantnews, at least if you asked me
from Nick Cassario, via reports thatthey they only wanted people to love their
brand new front four for a veryvery short period of time, so they
had to get rid of somebody.I mean, Will Anderson was just drafted.
They just signed or agreed to termswith Deniko Audrey. Even after that,

(01:12):
they agreed to terms with Danil Hunter, as you heard right here on
our program late yesterday. So MalieCollins, Sorry, you gotta go.
After signing as one of the earlyNick Cassario contracts and two extensions later,
well, his two year extension signedlast year off season turns into a one
year with the Texans deal, asreports have him on his way to San

(01:34):
Francisco. But don't worry. Inreturn, they got a pick that Nick
will use in a deal for aplayer that doesn't matter. Interesting and worthy
of discussion figuring out exactly what itmeans reading between the lines, I hope
beyond all belief this has literally nothingto do with cap management, but it
usually does if you're I mean,managing the cap is always something to be

(01:57):
concerned with, But an offseason likethis one wouldn't have expected them to need
to kind of a to me,at least right now. It smells a
little bit like Sam Presty, andthat's not a very good smell. So
I'll pause judgment on that as wejust get started here on this program today
the A team wex here Ac alongwith Dan, and we will get you
into all of the things that wedidn't get a chance to talk to you

(02:19):
about yesterday because we had to turnour attention elsewhere. As our program came
to its conclusion not nearly far enoughafter the news came in that forty nine
million dollars or fifty one million dollarsover the next two years, we'll be
in the pockets of Morton Ranch's own. Daniel Hunter look at that. To
crush backfields, to be near thetop of the league for another year in

(02:43):
TfL's in sacks, just an allaround great disruptor. I thought a lot
of people looked at him and sawthe news said, man, Will Anderson
is really going to be stoked aboutthat. It's really going to help him.
I actually think it's the other wayaround, looking where Hunter came from
and how little help he had inMinnesota, which is a credit to all
that he did do in Minnesota withoutmuch help along that defensive line playing aside.

(03:07):
However, they align Autry and Andersonand I don't know with him along
their front for because Malie Collins isnot among them. Should be very fun
to watch. And I do thinkDaniel Hunter is going to be exactly as
impactful as he's been over his NFLcareer, So we certainly start there.
We will lead you into Astros baseball. Today, I got an evening game

(03:27):
the next couple of nights. TheMets are their foes today New York they
named their Opening Day starter today,but we don't care because it was the
Mets. We do have news onthe other New York team that is coming
to town two weeks from tomorrow forOpening Day, Garrett Cole news to deliver
your way. And obviously last night, both of our attentions and our eyeballs

(03:50):
were focused in on yet another victoryover the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wemba
Yama another off night for the bigman while he played against no big man
for the Houston Rockets, the firstof what probably are the remainder of the
season's worth of games that Opera andShangoon will miss. Possibly the same story
for Cam Whitmore. As we learnedyesterday and you have, the Rockets went

(04:11):
out there and fell behind by tenalmost immediately, yeah before taking a nine
point lead with two minutes to go, and said who wants a heart attack?
And then they won anyway, Well, and Wimby had nothing to do
with that. It was who wasin the first half tradegeh trade jeffre Yeah
again, a guy who average isnine point five had eighteen in the first

(04:31):
half. But yeah, enough aboutthat. The Rockets beat the Spurs,
big deal, they always do that, big deal and loss of them,
So that's October. Dude, he'sa bomb. I don't care what you
or anybody else say that guy's abomb. Well, he doesn't play here
and he won't be playing against thisteam until next season, so we won't
have to discuss much about him.But as I mentioned earlier, we didn't

(04:51):
have a whole lot of opportunity totake it all in from day one free
agency opening up to seeing how theTexans were opera into, seeing some of
the deals they were willing to handout, seeing some of the deals that
their own players became former deal forplayers because they signed elsewhere. With those
four singletary, the two defensive playersin the front seven, and obviously Cam

(05:12):
Johnson fairly quickly agreeing to leave theTexans slowly but surely, and it is
ongoing, the Texans have more thanmade up for the changes, and certainly
the pluses at least today outweigh theminuses. And obviously Malik Collins is now
added to the minuses list. Sookay, a couple of things. One

(05:35):
we didn't get to the question thatI teased for the last segment, mainly
because I got distracted by you havingto step aside. We both had rockets
duties last night. I distracted youby leaving. Yeah, well, I
just I teased it, and thenI was like, ah, I went
in a different direction after the breakbecause I'm add and that's what I do.
You're like Louisville basketball. Here's thedeal. This is a very important

(05:58):
question. It's maybe the most importantquestion of the off season. What number
is he gonna wear? Because hewore ninety nine with Minnesota and he didn't
have that here. I don't thinkit's that important for question. I say
that it was interesting and I feellike that this is telling us something.
John Grenard sent out his thank youto Houston Instagram post earlier today and then
a string of photos and some otherposts. One of them was him in

(06:21):
his Florida Gators jersey backwards, soyou could clearly see his digits, and
he was pointing to it as in, going back to my old college number,
the Neil Hunter wears ninety nine.There's a member in the Ring of
Honor who wore ninety nine. That'sthe Ring of Honor that wore eighty.
I mean, I guess it's outand I'm sure they said it during their

(06:43):
speeches and maybe it was even inthe release Listen, jerseys are unusable,
but did they actually ever say thisjersey number has been retired. They're not
the Celtics. Okay, that's allyou need to know. They're not going
to run out anytime, So likethis is not There are two jerseys in
that ring of honor right now,two numbers. They're not giving those two
away. I mean, who wearseighty for the Texans right now? Yeah,

(07:05):
it's never been handed out and won'tbe. And so I think that
until the foreseeable future, you know, until they start racking up championships like
the Celtics did in the sixties whenit was super easy. Right they're playing
plumbers and whatnot. I don't thinkit's going to be an issue to say,
ah, you can't have that one. But it does make me wonder
what he will wear. But moreimportantly, you know, this is what's

(07:28):
the move of trading to Malik Collinsas it pertains to the draft. Hopefully
nothing because again I don't ever wantto say that their GM doesn't know what
he's doing. But if you're tradinga player away and saying, oh,
we'll fill in the draft, thenyou don't know what you're doing. And
I don't believe he's doing that.You could, you know, what what
do you do as fans, whatyou do on X what you do on
sports talk radio. Well, maybethey are looking at Byron Murphy. Maybe

(07:50):
they're looking at and I know,Chops in Edge, Maybe they're looking at
Chop Robinson. You know, thisis what their plan is. They'll fill
it through the draft. Well that'sgreat, but that's like the worst idea
ever pigeonholing yourself into saying the onlyway our really awesome team can succeed is
because I chose to create an openingon our defensive line that I have to
fill with somebody very competent and capableas soon as he walks through our buildings

(08:13):
doors in the draft. And youonly have pick number twenty three, and
you do not have additional assets anymorefrom any previous trade like they did in
order to get Will Anderson because ofthe Sean Watson trade and others. Yeah,
there's no way that's their plan.Their plan is among the current group
of better than average defensive tackles,whether they are currently on the forty nine

(08:33):
ers, soon to be released ortraded for, or they are previous members
of the team who wore ninety eightin the last game that they played.
Sheldon Rankins, somebody's going to beon this team via free agency, I'm
sure in short order to fill thathole. You think it's before the end
of the show today, which isa shortened show. Probably not Rankins,

(08:54):
just in that, I don't thinkthere's I don't know how much traction has
been made there, and he's beenas quiet around the league as anybody,
so I don't necessarily suspect that,but I don't I think it could be
him, But in terms of timing, probably not. In like Mixon who
ended up not being released but ultimatelygot traded. I think there might be
an avenue for Armstead to be apart of that. But if that were
the case, I don't know whythey would have already pulled off this deal

(09:16):
with the team he plays for,Knowing he was likely to be released.
You might have just put him inthere. But even if you're doing that,
you're getting older. You're getting aplayer who, while super productive still,
he's also coming off of surgery,and he's also going to command somewhat
comparable money to what you sent out, which today is still cap savings.

(09:37):
But the position and player and contracthas to be replaced. So to me,
I am having a little bit oftrouble understanding the need to move on
from Collins and just the football sideof it. I think he's one of
the most underrated interier alignments in theentire NFL. And I can't believe the
team that had him is telling methey kind of don't see that. Well
are they saying they don't see that, or are they saying we can get

(09:58):
somebody better, not for less moneyI know, I know, or not
for significantly less money because they don'tget to eliminate the money they were spending
on Collins because of how the capworks. Yeah, which, well that's
still going to be there, correct, But it's at least it's not eighty
five million of dead money, right, Yeah, well, you're right,
it's not eighty five million of deadmoney. But I do again, and

(10:22):
I knew this would be the casea few days into free agency, if
you will, all right, moreplenty more on the Texans free agency situation.
How it pertains to the draft upcomingnext month. We're getting to that
window of a month away from whenthe actual picks will be made. In
the meantime, conjecture and prognostication andpredicting and all that kind of stuff continues.

(10:46):
But yes, the Texans are active, way more active than they were
this time two days ago. Let'sput it that way. You know where
else you can be active. CushataCasino Resort out in kinder Louisiana, especially
here in the month of March,especially on Tuesdays. Now you missed another
one, but you still got acouple more to go. Tuesdays in March,
the eighty thousand Pot of Gold giveawaysare in effect and coming up this

(11:09):
Saturday, March sixteenth, the hugetwo hundred thousand dollars Saint Patrick's Lucky Cash
Giveaway is going down. It's alltaking place at Kushatta Casino Resort. And
don't forget while you're in there tocheck out the res sports book. Gotta
check out the res Sports book withwhat's on the horizon. It all kind
of got underway in the last coupleof days. Tons of tournament action on

(11:30):
the hoop side, and the BigCollege Basketball Tournament, which is again later
this month and throughout the month.So the Red Sports Book is where it's
at to wager on all those games. Plenty of places to enjoy from your
seat. Forty Giant TVs eighteen,easy to use betting kiosk, and of
course you're going to be enjoying everythingyou got there at the bar right there
inside the res Sportsbook. It's thelargest casino resort in Louisiana. Everything you'd

(11:54):
want out of your resort they haveat your disposal. Check it out at
Kushata Casino Resort dot com. Makeyour plans, get a weekend set,
and head on over to Coushut out. Take Barrel's his way to the basket.
I'm the window in hey is Jayback to the eighteen Adam Wesler and
Adam Clayton two Adams one bring ohmy on Sports Talk seven ninety Black Ship

(12:18):
Station of your Rockets eighteen rolling alonghere on Sports Talk seven ninety so three
nineteen pm. Come on NFL,Get with the program. They just sent
out the release, hey Man,free agent sign signing period is open.
Did you see Drake by the wayduring the break won the contest? Uh?

(12:39):
Not that Drake? What would it. So we we get winners a
lot, and we get callers allthe time. Hey, let's go to
the phones. Let's get Tony fromDowntown in here with us. Let's get
Judy from Parland in here with us. Winners, same thing, Drake from
Spring Branch. If Drake who performedlast night with Bun was our winner,
what would the what would that say? Drake from where? Drake from the

(13:03):
from the front row at Raptors Games, Brake from the six, Drake from
you saw him earlier today at Trilberger'sDrake from the six. What would Drake
say? Six? Where he's rollingwith his woes? Okay, congrats to
Drake. You will be going tosee a wall nation Andy on Trees and
three eleven right, because they're allunited on the unity. The Unity Tour
is coming to a show near youAugust twentieth, here in Houston, Drake,

(13:24):
Scott and Chad. Now, severalmoves were made over the time we
were away from you during that stopset. Because the league finally acknowledged it
was three o'clock. The San Franciscoforty nine ers made it official there was
no trade. So they have releasedEric Armstead, their defensive Lineman, who
has drawn interest from multiple teams,most notably here on Sports Talk seven ninety
in Houston, the Houston Texans amongthem. A bunch of other players have

(13:48):
now either reached out in thanks orteams have made official with their own social
media, as in King Henry inBaltimore. Joe Mixon sent out his thank
you to Cincinnati social media post it'sthe only NFL team he knows a twenty
year old player when he was draftedin the last several all of the seasons

(14:09):
of his career have been there withCincinnati until he puts ink to paper and
becomes a Houston Texan sometime today,tomorrow, or whenever he makes his way
into the office for them to takea picture of him signing it and then
shoot a social media post of himsaying, Hey, Primetime Maine mixing here.

(14:30):
Can't wait to get to work hTown. What up something like that?
Yeah, how do you feel aboutthe defense now? Yeah? When
we left here, I felt evenbetter than I do today, which is
unfortunate that it has changed. ButI'm still confident in the fact of what
I said last segment. There's noway they're hitting the field next year with
Autrey, Hunter Anderson and an unknowncommodity would there's no reason to trade Elie

(14:54):
Collins for any cap savings. Theycertainly didn't get anything in return of any
value with a seventh round pick comingback, which is makes up for the
seventh round pick you used to goget Joe Mixon. Now you still have
three of them for Nick to tradeon Day three of the draft. They
have to have a real proven NFLplayer in that spot. I just don't
know who it is yet. IfI were to rank them, saying rank,

(15:16):
I mean I keep going back tothe same two names, and until
those players have deals elsewhere, Ithink it will be one of them,
and I'll be back to where Iwas yesterday when I thought it was Collins
with the other three. Now itwill be either Rankins with the other three
or Armstead with the other three.Curious to see what kind of deal that
will be on both fronts. Soagain, though, like, how does

(15:37):
this I know? I know,like in the first segment I asked you
this, you know, I hopeit doesn't have any bearing on it,
But don't you start to kind ofmaybe not predict, but even maybe lean
in a direction in which they're gonnago with that number twenty three pick in
the draft. I don't, andthat's as boring as it can be.
But I've explained why. And fora good team, that's now a good

(16:00):
thing. And I know they're notdone in free agency necessarily, of course
not. And even if they were, I mean, they're not going to
draft a quarterback. I'm honest toGod telling you that's it. That's the
only thing I'm selling guarantee in liferight now. I mean, I don't
believe there's a tight end worth draftingat twenty three. I don't believe there's
a running back worth drafting it attwenty three. So I would also add
them, but not because they couldn'tuse one or use a draft pick on
one. But I'd be shocked ifit were either those. Species side of

(16:22):
the football, it doesn't matter.Can you can you add an offensive lineman
to make this team better? Well, they still need a swing tackle despite
the swing tackle they signed today.He's been a Texan previously and I'm not
sure what role he'll end up playing, if any, if he makes the
team, but they've addressed it.Titus Howard is obviously coming back from injury,
Laramie, Tunsels and Howard are bothunder fairly long term deals to man

(16:45):
those ends. They have question marksall across the interior. Even if you
like Scruggs, Patterson, Mason,Kenyon Green for whatever reason, Kendrick Green
for what you have to address it. I think anytime you don't have a
sure thing one on one are goingto be lit. Among the many things
tweeted or posted yesterday by the Texansoffensive line because they'll be going up against

(17:07):
that new defensive line, larrymy Tonsel, Shack Mason, and Titus Howard all
were on social media saying as suchas they will line up opposite during the
offseason and during training camp against Hunterand Autry for the first time in their
respective career at practice. Far fromthe first time they've done it against Autrey.
Autrey spent the last six years inthe division. I'm sure Jacksonville's already

(17:29):
got their twenty twenty seven roster readyto go, because he'll obviously be on
it. Three years with Indianapolis,three years with Tennessee. Texans will resign
him once to a one year extension, so he'll get three years here and
then he'll make his way to theAFC final team in the AFC sow three
years from now and make the fulltour. They're in a very very good
spot. They're not in an unbelievablybetter spot than they were when it all

(17:51):
began, but the players that they'veadded defensively are giving themselves of a we
think we've got a player who atthe very least is as good as Steven
else and even that might be alittle bit of a guest, but there's
definitely room and reason to believe hecould as sent past that. And you're
talking about Jeff Akuda. They've gottena player at linebacker that was about as
productive as anybody was in the NFLat his position, and it is somebody

(18:12):
that Jamiko Ryans knows very well andclearly intended to go get. You talk
about planning your free agency, hewas part of their plan, their initial
plan. You know, maybe therewas a he is the guy we're absolutely
positively going to make sure we getif Patrick Queen is in a Texan or
maybe Patrick Queen they already felt likewas gonna price them out, and they
knew we can afford to Lake BlakeCashman go only if we're committed to being

(18:36):
the team that al Shaher signs with, and that's how obviously outplayed out and
it certainly could. I think itmakes them better against the run. I
think makes them a better defense overall. But I do respect Cashman's unique ability
to be a playmaker and be goodin coverage or better than most linebackers in
coverage, so I do think theylose that. I think Daniel Hunter is
more disruptive than John Grenard in thepast game. Maybe he becomes a little

(19:00):
bit better all around because he's playingon a better front, But I think
again John Grenard against the run lastyear from the edge position, both as
a contained and as a disruptor,he was awesome. He was as good
an all around edge player in theNFL and definitely among the top five in
the AFC and probably among the topten to fifteen in the NFL. So
it's not an automatic huge upgrade bygetting Hunter. It's a comparable player who

(19:25):
may have an explosive two seasons fora team that might be much more talented
upfront than the one he just left. So again, they are better on
paper, but they didn't go frompoor players to elite players. The players
that are playing elsewhere of the fourthat they lost were all very good last
year, and Mixon's probably just likethose others I described. He's not an

(19:47):
elite running back, but he's probablya slight upgrade from Devin Singletary. So
do you think the moves across theboard as that the qualifying moniker? Are
we attached to them slight upgrades?Well, if you make five changes in
all five of the most slight upgrades, you got a lot better. So
okay, each individual slight upgrade makesyou collectively a lot Better's twenty two starters,

(20:12):
and you got better at five positions. Plus you probably got better at
quarterback. Plus you probably got betterat corner back with Stingley in another years.
Well, I should hope plus regress. Plus you got better in will
Anderson's second year. I mean you'restarting. Is Christian Harris gonna regress?
No, He's probably gonna continue theimprovements he made, and I mean his
first year. In Domico's defense,I know yesterday you said you don't look

(20:34):
at it this way, but Ican't not look at it this way.
Is that enough to offset the severeclimb in competition you're gonna be facing just
at the quarterback position. It's aneight and a half and eight and a
half league in an upgrade and justplaying another NFL team every week. No,
I disagree. And here's why.There was a guy I did a

(20:56):
radio show with all this season.I just can't think of his name rhymes
with Schmadam Mexler. I don't likethat. And Bengals have made it official
the Bengals today, I have agreedto trade halfback Joe Mixon. He's a
full back. We all know it, HB. Thanks guys, but like
all you got done saying, it'sseeming like every week last year was how

(21:19):
they're playing nobody this week at quarterback. I mean, obviously, my tongue
is placed firmly in check. It'snot even the quality of the quarterback is
not the only thing. It's amassive thing. But these the teams,
Yes, they're playing a first placeschedule, but you got to swap out
an NFC division for a new one. You swap out an AFC division for
a new one. I don't thinkthe Colts are getting worse by moving to

(21:42):
Anthony Richardson. I don't think theTitans are getting worse moving away from King
Henry and moving full time into WillLevis, But Anthony Richardson might play all
season and that's a huge difference.And I don't think the Jaguars are getting
worse either. You tell me thatAnthony Richardson plays all of last year,
guarantee everything else is going to fallthe same way. The Texans are going

(22:03):
to leapfrog everybody to win the divisionon the last week of the season.
I would be shocked if the Coltsseason last year would have been better Txdy
Richardson would have started the Texans evenwin that last game of the year if
he used I'm saying it the oppositeway. Like again, what Anthony Richardson
might have done last year could havebeen really really good m H. And
it would have been very unexpected ifit was because he's a young quarterback with

(22:25):
limited playing time in college expected toplay an elite let like sounds familiar,
Gardner, No, not at all. C J. Stroud played a ton
of college football, was totally readyfor the NFL because of all we had
seen on tape. We were wonderingwhat was on tape for Richardson because there
just wasn't very much of it,to be honest with you, with how
much time he wasn't on the field, how little they threw the ball,

(22:45):
how inconsistent he was throwing the ball. We know he was an athlete,
Mark That's it. Yeah, butI'm not so much talking about his college
resume. From the standpoint of allthe games he played. There's tons of
guys that either played a ton ofcollege football or played very very little,
but they played it in a bigprogram and they're just expected for it.
Look at Bryce Young, Well,that's again, it's not what the result
is. It's we had answers onCJ. We didn't know what it would

(23:07):
be to this level. Now,how he played last year, to me
is exactly what I would have expectedfrom CJ. Or basically what I've expected
from CJ, just not in yearone. And that's what I also mean
about richards fair. But there's noway Richardson was going to come into this
league last year, if healthy,and be awesome. But in three years
he could be the best quarterback inthe division. And I really do mean

(23:30):
that. I think CJ. Stroudis going to be unbelievable, but I
think Anthony richards has a chance tobe a twelve win a season quarterback that
he already he could really be thatgood. You just have to hope for
health. That's what I'm saying,and he's already showing it's not even fair
to say this. But it's notso much about oh, he got hurt
in this early game of his rookieyear, as much as it is the

(23:51):
style of play, because if he'sgoing to keep running. This is the
same We've said this about how manyquarterbacks over the years that they don't even
necessarily have to be considered a runningquarterback. They just have to run more
often than not, or run morethan the average guy, and that risk
is going to be there because thisjust in bigger, strong, or faster.
These guys are trying to take yourhead off and they will and or

(24:12):
other parts of your body in thiscase or MJ. Stewart, Yes,
that's true. All right. Wewill continue to discuss also. I do
think it's I mean it's fairly largenews coming out of New York. I
mean big, big, potential newswhen you consider the amount of money invested

(24:33):
in this guy. So we willcertainly get to that as well. Baseball
variety, but we'll continue with thefootball discussion when we come back. Listen
to Sports Talk seven ninety on thefree iHeartRadio app. It's all your music,
sports podcasts, and talk free.Never sounded so good. A team
rolling along here on a Wednesday editionof the program, Astros Baseball coming up

(24:53):
in the next hour to kind ofpreempt us. Also speaking of baseball,
Chandler Rome joining us at the topof the hour here on the eight team
Sports Talk seven ninety is. We'llcatch up with him from West Palm Beach.
I texted him to confirm earlier,and he was texting from the plane
because he's fancy like that. I'mlike, why aren't these coming through?

(25:15):
Oh no, they turned the green. Oh no, it's happening. And
then he says, no, I'mtexting you from a plane. He's flying
to Clover Park for the game.I guess wow. I don't know why
he was on a plane at thetime. I don't know what he's doing
down there. They are at theMets tonight at well, they're not at
their home ballpark. They're playing atthe Mets home ballpark. Yeah, so
they're listed first in the matchup.Yeah, yiner in the two hole tonight.

(25:37):
We'll see if that is for keepsJohnny Singleton back at first base five
hole hitter Jake Myers loving it.It'd be awesome if there was a controversy
involving Yiner for an entire season yetagain, only this time it's hey,
should hear Jordan be in the twohole? Uh? Yeah, say that
with a straight fas awesome. Therewon't be anything like that this year,

(25:57):
at least based on what I've seen. And it's such a little thing,
but it definitely seems like it willplay out during the season. Yesterday is
a good example to face a lefthanded pitcher, so he popped Chas McCormick
up in the lineup. Granted,jose A Brea wasn't in it at all,
so he's camp bat fifth. Butyou know, you put your best
bat other than your top four againstthe left handed pitcher, you pop them

(26:18):
up into the five hole. Hehits behind Kyle Tucker, and it paid
off. Even with Kyle Tucker doingnothing, the three guys at the top
of the order were getting on.Chas McCormick had another good day. This
is the kind of stuff I thinkyou're one, two, three, four.
If he likes it, we'll probablybe there a lot and you won't
see those guys sitting a ton,so you see that not change. But
I do think five through nine willchange quite a bit on a daily basis,

(26:41):
based on matchups, based on dayoffs, how they manipulate the DH
and I think players are going tobe completely and totally on board with it
because they're going to be totally preparedfor it. And I hope that means
if a bra who comes out andhits well, then he's batting fifth,
he stays there. I hope itmeans if he comes out of the year
and isn't hitting well and he's battingfifth, then he's not any longer going
to be hitting there, and they'llfind a better spot for him if he's
even in the lineup as often asthat a little bit of faith that someone

(27:03):
who was around the team as muchas Joe Spot has been that again based
on how he's done things for awhole two weeks of spring training plus,
I think we will see that thisyear, and to me, that's a
very good thing. Going back tothe Texans and going back to this defense
specifically, and Eric Armstead's name hascome about, and you were saying something
during the break when we were talkingabout this, and you've said it actually

(27:26):
before this week on and off airabout the way Nick Cassario is going about
building this roster. The phrase backingthemselves into a corner? Are you?
Is a situation where if you don'tget an armstead, now there's other options
out there. Well, before thetrade of Malie Collins to San Francisco,

(27:48):
you did not have a hole onyour defensive line and you have a perfectly
manageable cap. Collins is in thelast year of his deal. Why'd you
do it? Exactly? But haven'twe asked that question? The answer is,
I'm trying to make the team better. We just don't know the literal
answer to Okay, you did thatby doing what well? Again, And
this isn't gonna be the first timethis week that we were asking that question
of Nick Cassario. Hey Man,what are you doing? Remember two days

(28:11):
ago? Do something that meme like? It's it is hilarious when you look
back at literally two days ago andhow people were freaking out versus how he's
perceived before the Collins trade, andnow I don't think people are freaking out
that they've traded him, but it'sthere's definitely a void that you've got to
fill. And why fill it inthis way with the cap ramifications is what

(28:34):
we're talking about. Yeah, Idon't see how this is gonna end up
costing them less money than just keepingCollins. And I could absolutely be wrong.
They could have a different idea inmind that I'm not thinking of.
There could be some numbers that they'veseen and some things specific to a player's
technique that they think plays well forwhat they like to do, or his
base or his ability to command attentionwith double teams on the interior, whomever

(28:57):
that player might be. And wedo keep eye keep focusing on Sheldon Rankins
and Eric Armstead specifically. They're basicallyat the top of the list. You
could argue DJ Reeder is in thatgroup also if they feel like he's a
fit. He's been taking visits elsewhere, He's coming off a second very significant
injury this past year with the Bengals, who are still interested in bringing him

(29:17):
back. Most of the other defensiveinterior defensive lineman, I would say,
all of them that were free agentsor ended up being moved, they're all
no longer available. And once youget past those three names that I mentioned,
then you've made the team worse.I mean, you'd have to sell
me some I don't know who's I'mnot gonna buy it. If you're gonna
sell me that Tay or Tart isgonna come back and he's gonna be better

(29:38):
than Rankins or someone like Hurst isgoing to be better than that, or
kin Law or anything like. Ijust don't nothing suggests the other players out
there were a better fit or abetter player than Collins, other than maybe
just those three names, Reader Armsteadboth coming off injury, and Sheldon Rankins,
who played very well for you yearat just under ten million a year,

(30:02):
so I'm not sure why that numberwould go down for this year.
The Armstead injury was a torn meniscuscorrect which he missed a bunch of time
with at the end of the year, but then played through and in a
very productive postseason and then had theprocedure and should be good to go,
as as he has said himself andothers have said in time for camp and
all that kind of stuff. Andbecause we brought that up and his age,

(30:26):
he's on the wrong side of thirty, I guess, but this is
a classic. If you do gethim, this is probably another sizeable chunk
of money on a very short termdeal, I would imagine, I mean,
like Hunters, probably longer term wouldI would guess it's probably a three
year deal. Aren't they the sameage? Though they're both thirty. Armsteads

(30:48):
a little older and Hunter's a littleyounger. Hunter's twenty nine. Correct.
Okay, Well that's interesting then,just because I think whatever they're going I
hope they're not going to get himfor one year. I hope they're getting
him to play the last years ofhis career. He'll play at age thirty
and thirty one. Next year he'sa thirty year old player, but he's
also been in the league since hewas a twenty two year old player,

(31:08):
So next year on the defensive line, he'll be in season ten as an
nfler. Like to me, doesn'tit smell like Nick Casserio is not wanting
to He's making a lot of thesedeals like Hunters, for example. And
I know it won't be CJ's extensionyear when he's done, it'll be the
year before. Correct. The newmoney would kick in sometime around that option

(31:30):
year, the fifth year, sothree more years of what his rookie deal
says, which is not a tremendousamount. It's not quite as tiny as
everyone likes to think because oh itwas a draft pick. It's nothing,
it's nothing relative to every other quarterback, but it obviously is this significant figure
on your cap. Instead of himbeing the number one player who counts for
eighteen percent of your cap, he'sthe third or fourth or fifth most sizeable

(31:53):
deal percentage wise on your cap fornext several years. But meaning you're not
he's not getting himself into a badsituation with long term deals that will preclude
him from ponying up when the time'sright. For CJ, who presumably is
going to just keep getting more andmore electric, which is why Christian Wilkins
is a Raider and not a Texanfour year deal one hundred plus million.

(32:15):
It's going to be very difficult foryou to continue on that on that same
with threshold. Well, no,to me, not because it's so much
less. And to me, Ithink it's Grenada has injury history, which
kind of equalizes things. I'd beconcerned that Wilkins playing, I don't want
to say it in a bad way, playing the way he does like so

(32:36):
awesome. He's had virtually no injuryissues. He's due well he's had five
years of unbelievable play. He wasone of the best linemen in football by
at least by year three, andnow he's done that for three consecutive years
and he's coming off his best year. But the Texans didn't want to be
the team paying him at age thirtyone or two at the end of that
deal, I suppose. And thenthe ramifications of being on a deal that

(32:59):
large, it's going to at yourcap where however, you deal with it
pretty significantly, especially if he's noton your team to play well. Then
it's just a straight up cap hitand you got nothing from the guy that
particular season of your of your hit. To me, the Granard money is
very easy. I mean, youronly concern is that you're paying somebody that's
not healthy nineteen million dollars for JohnGarnard to give you fifty disruptive plays,

(33:21):
you know, twelve sacks, twentyTFLs and other twenty pressures plus and again
hopefully be out there. That's totallymanageable as he's not at the top of
the list this year, the firstyear of his deal, and he won't
be anywhere near the top of thelist two years from now, three years
from now or in the final year. You think if Tamiko wanted him on
the defense this upcoming season, hewould be here. It's very simple.
Hey, Dimiko, who's a betterplayer? We have our answer. That's

(33:44):
what he thinks, and I thinkhe's right. It's just crazy that they
wound up basically trading. You know, it was free agency, but they
ended up trading players, the Vikingsand the Texans. They spent less money
for two players in a way thatthey fell comfortable with and the Texans didn't.
And the two teams are in verydifferent positions. They just spent seventy
six million on Gerard and another twentyfive million over four years and three years,

(34:06):
respectively on cash Well to play fora team that has no quarterback.
That's true. No, not true. They have Sam Darnold Wex, they
have a backup quarterback. They're nothave a starting quarterback. What do you
think do you think they? Uhno, they aren't a draft one.
Where are they drafting? They werethey were playing to get in the playoffs
late into the year with Josh Dobbs, et cetera. Well, you know

(34:28):
who's available, Jimmy Garoppolo. It'sofficial Hava Garoppolo is available. Minnesota has
the eleventh selection in the draft,so they're in a place they get at
least trade up if they really wantedsomebody. Again, like last year,
a seven to ten team traded upto number one from nine to one,
and the pick they traded away isthe number one pick in this year's draft.

(34:51):
Good job. It's kind of kindof a tough sell unless you're getting
the guy, and the guy thisyear is Kleb. The guy last year
was Brice. Yeah. JV updatewhen we come back. But first,
speaking of a tough sell, thisis the opposite Kushata Casino resort. There
is nothing tough to sell about thelargest casino resort in the state of Louisiana,

(35:14):
which is just a short drive awayto Kinder, and it's got the
largest gaming floor in the Lake Charlesarea. They've got live bingo, They've
got obviously the new res sports bookwhere you can place your wagers with eighteen
convenient betting kiosks. They've got threebeautiful hotels, one of which we have
stayed in before, delicious Cajun cuisine, and of course, if you're into

(35:37):
the golf, Cassatti Pines that's thenumber one golf course in the state of
Louisiana. You are absolutely winning ifyou are on site over the Cushata Casino
Resorts. You mentioned all the amenitiesthat the resort has, the massive gaming
floor. They have an awesome pokerroom as well. But that's your game
of choice. I'm sure all ofthem are your games of choice. And
don't forget concerts on the way afterthis weekend March twenty third, that's the

(36:00):
Sugar Ray concerts. Babyface is comingon April sixth, and you can check
out tickets for all of that atticketmaster dot com or visit the Coushata Cussinoversort
dot com website to make all yourplans. Set them up, get yourself
and your friends and your family outto Coushata. This is Bill Warrem and
you're not the cold blooded Adam plantthe mouth of the Southwest Adam Wexler probably

(36:28):
collected. The A team continues onSports Talk seven ninety Home of Your Rockets,
Rolling Along on a Wednesday program aboutan hour out from Astros Baseball evening
tonight and tomorrow and on Friday.So we'll rattle through all the goods that
we have for you. Throw somecurveballs along the way, as we will
do here, looking forward to ourvisit with Chandler Roome in just a few

(36:52):
minutes. Want to pass along theup breaking news that the Texans hopes for
dominating the division next year based onthe moves day made. Well they've been
dashed. Oh no, The Titanshave agreed to terms yes with former Steelers
quarterback Mason Rudolph. He'll be playingfor the Titans next year alongside Will Levis.

(37:17):
Funny as it may sound, thelast player to start a game for
the Steelers at quarterback was, infact Mason Rudolph. Did he win?
They were in the playoffs with MasonRudolph And now he will try to unseat
Will Levis. He will be unsuccessfulat doing that, And this is for
very little money, so I won'teven say the Titans will be upset.
But he's not very good. AndWill Levis is someone you would actually want

(37:38):
to give snaps to to see ifhe can improve his clock. Now,
if he will continue to say,I don't care how long I'm in the
pocket, I'm sure there's not anNFL caliber defensive player about to crush me
happened a lot last year. Thoseare the things that young quarterbacks that aren't
named CJ. Stroud usually struggle with. It gets folded backwards again by Danielle

(37:59):
Hunter one snap away from him beingback in there. We shall see.
I'm gonna guess the Titans are notthe AFC South team that the Texans will
quote unquote finish out the season withwith two games. They saw the Titans
in weeks fifteen and seventeen last year, and we knew at the beginning of
the year, no way they're gonnabe facing Ryan Tannehill, even though he's

(38:19):
the starter here at the beginning ofthe year, he won't be there at
the end. I know it'll bethey will, almost assuredly. I think
their last two games of the seasonthis year will be the Colts and the
Jaguars. That London game's gonna belit. It certainly won't be at the
end of the year. I guessit could happen earlier in the year.
But you teased it even with acurve ball coming your way. We'll get
you our We'll get you our ourlittle musical interlude to seeing what's up with

(38:43):
the right handed flamethrower if you will. Let's let's get you an update.
Garrett Cole update because he is hurt. He's the guy with no beard anymore.
Yeah, that's the curve ball today. Save the JV update for our
guest. Chandler will be with usat four o'clock. That will be a

(39:05):
question for him, so he's morethan welcome to sing his answer in about
ten minutes. I doubt that hewill. The news on Garrett Cole is
still a little bit cloudy because theydon't even have a definitive answer to why
he feels not like himself. Butat least unofficially, he is not expected
to pitch for the Yankees in March, April, or possibly all of May.

(39:30):
Either one to two months of notpitching for the Yankees, they will
have him on the il to openthe season. He will not be pitching
against the Astros on opening Day,so Verlander and Cole will both be in
the same spot unable to pitch atthe beginning of the year. But they
do not believe there is a damagethat suggests Tommy John is on the horizon.

(39:51):
That was the good side of it. Most of Yankees fandom thought Today's
he's going to be out for fromone to two months. Was great eight
news because they were expecting season endingnews. Yeah, I don't care about
them or their expectations. Well,I really only turned this into a Garrett
Cole update because I wanted to playa game with you. It's called what

(40:12):
is The New York Post writing about? When you read stories from your best
page? Well, it's not pagesix. When when you go to read
something in their sports section, itadds four to five other headline worthy items
from the rest of their paper,And I want you to there's five on
the screen right now. I willread the story based on which number you
select, one, two, three, four or five. I'm going to
go with number four. The headline. I have not yet clicked through any

(40:36):
of these stories, but the headlinereads Bear's Jalen Johnson opens up about sex
addiction after seventy six million dollar deal. I'm so glad it shows four.
I mean, I actually thought therewere some other good ones. He reflected
on personal battles and revealed that hesought therapy for a sex edition. Okay,
David Decoveny. He held a pressconference to address the contract on Monday.

(40:57):
By the way, it almost seemslike I'm reading New York Porch Sports,
but I'm not. Can I justsay something that it's not it's bigger
than me, Ac Yeah, wow, I'm not the only one going through
it, right, that's number one. Right, that's the that's okay,
not to be perfect the truth.You know why? We're all addicted to
sex. Sex addiction is not athing. It's real. It's not real.

(41:21):
It's not real. No, Ithought it was called being a man
or a woman and liking sex.It's not. Stop telling me that sex
addiction is a thing because I'm addictedto it. We all are. It's
not a thing. It's not acoping thing. It's not a crutch if
it impacts your ability to do therest of your life activities. I was

(41:42):
late to work today, why becauseI was having some sex. Are you
addicted? Well? Have? Likeis three twenty four and I was continuing
on with the show. Ac here, Uh no, just kidding. He's
not here yet because he had todo something during our show because he has
an addiction. Look, he can'tdo his job because he's addicted. What
is it? Couldn't perform his job? It's how's that different than having a

(42:05):
drug addiction? Couldn't perform addiction becausehe was performing something else. Listen,
if I told you I was goingto be late to the show and that
was the reason why you probably wouldn'ttell me. Well, no, no,
let's just say I did though,for the sake of argument or this
segment. Good choice. By theway, Number four I really did well
here. I can't make it untilprobably the third segment of the show.
Why are you stuck in traffic?No, I'm stuck somewhere else. All

(42:30):
right, all right, I getit. One more headline read no story.
Just pick a number again. Don'tpick number four. Let's go with
two. Olivia Dunn soaks up thesun on a spring break in a brown
bikini. Well, I'm two fortwo. Doesn't do as well for radio,
but that's Those are the headlines inthe subject from John Hayman's Red Hey
do you like Olivia Dunn? Yeah? Why because you're addicted to sex?

(42:51):
Nope, she's just hot. She'sreally good at tumbling. That's what you
want to call it gymnasticking, andthat's not what I would call it.
She's a performer, she's elite.Number three's she's tops in class. Elite
or regular Elite. She's pretty regular. Okay, number three, I told
you you only got one more choice. No, I want all of the
five choices. Not at this timeof day, you can't have it.

(43:13):
All right, We'll talk to Chandlerinstead when we come back here on the
eight Team Sports Talk seven ninety ClassicElite Chevy Sugarland. Speaking of Elite,
if you want to do gymnastics thereor whatever else you want to call it,
whatever, I just get yourself intothe brand new ZR two Chevy Silverado
like I did. It's the MidnightEdition. I like to say that if
this if the Metallica's Black album werea truck, then that's what I drive.

(43:37):
And it's just outstanding. You canget into one today thanks to Lloyd
and the great staff over there atClassic Elite Chevy Sugarland, own and operated
by Jeff and Tiffany Sebastian, andthey've got two locations to serve you.
As a matter of fact, becauseif you want to get it on a
Sunday, you can go into ClassicElite Chevy Highway six and they'll be open
for you. They're open throughout theweek as well. But when it comes

(43:59):
to the weekend, think sugar Landfor Saturday, and think Highway six for
Sunday. Either way, you're gettingthe elite treatment. Fifteen thousand dollars off
selects, Silverado's, four k offof twenty twenty four Tahoes, seventy five
hundred off twenty twenty four Blazers,and on and on and on. Employee
pricing for everyone. And you're talkingabout the GM Dealer of the Year thirteen

(44:21):
consecutive years at Classic Elite Chevy sugarLand and as I mentioned, the convenience
factor of being open on Sunday atthe Classic Elite Chevy Highway six location.
Tell them Madam Clinton from Sports Talkseven ninety sent you into either location.
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamTalking Your Teams series Adam Clinton and Adam

(44:45):
Wexler are d a team at fouro'clock hour is underway. It is a
Wednesday edition of the program and weare preempted in less than an hour,
which means Handler Roam comes on rightnow of the Athletic to discuss all things
astros and well technically it's going tobe our Justin Verlander updates since that was

(45:09):
filled last segment with the news onGarrett Cole. By the way, how
are their respective fan bases handling thenews that the opening day matchup that was
such a marquee event is now notgoing to be taking place. What you
don't consider Marcus Stroman and fromer Belldoes a marquee event not for the Yankees,

(45:30):
I don't know. I mean,Marcus Stroman was like the one of
the pitchers in baseball in the firsthalf last year before he had its hip
thing. But yeah, I meanit's it's bad, It's it's terrible.
I mean, you're Cole. Iknow, Astros fans for some reason have
this antipathy toward him. I don'treally know why. But he's a really
good dude. He's got a lotof friends still in the Astros clubhouse,

(45:52):
a lot of guys that really reallylike him, and he's I mean,
he's best picture in baseball. He'suh and it's not even close. And
it's tough to see him have todeal with that and kind of what's going
on. But you know, theactress can can lay claim the same thing.
And the base is gonna miss thebeginning of the season as well.
Obviously, they think Justin Berlander willcome back far far, far before Garrett

(46:15):
Colevill. But uh yeah, itjust sucksuch for baseball. It sucks for
you know, opening Day, whichI still think it's gonna I don't think
they'll have any problems selling tickets,but it's yeah. I mean, I
think a lot of people were expectingLander and that tough. Is there an
update on the latest trip to abullpen session for Justin Verlander? I'll be

(46:37):
completely honest. I literally landed oncean hour ago, so I have not
been in camp, so I don'tknow. But reading the people that have
been in camp, it sounds likethere's still no set datas to when he's
gonna face hitters, which is kindof a little bit intriguing to me that

(46:57):
he just keeps throwing bullpens and hehasn't progress to facing hitters, because it
sounded like when I left, itsounded like, you know, facing hitters
was right on the horizon, andyou know, I left camp I think
ten or eleven days ago, andhe still hasn't faced hitters. So I
don't think we'll know much more untilhe does that. But I think the
fact that he just that that benchmarkkeeps getting delayed a little bit. I

(47:20):
think that would give me a littlebit of pause. But everything else seems
like, you know, it seemslike he hasn't had any setbacks. It
seems like he's progressing well, andit seems like they're just waiting on that
next step of when he's gonna throwa live VP or when he's gonna get
into a Great League game. Soaside from that, all things considered,
Javier gets the ball today, HunterBrown, Jose or Keaty, and now
Framber are all seemingly throwing the ballthat they would like to be. Framber

(47:45):
had a much more clean and typicalFramber outing. And then the other one
is JP Frantz of what would bepresumed first five in the rotation, and
our indications are he should be readyto actually put the uniform on any spring
training game, maybe as early asthis weekend. Talking about France, Yeah,
and I mean I wouldn't count outRenel Blanco either, especially if JP

(48:06):
France isn't built up to where he'dlike to be. I think they really
like how Renel Blanco is throwing theball. Now. You know he's done
this before. He threw really wellin spring training last year. If you
look up his winter ball stats.He's like a winter ball like legend,
Like he's like the Sandy Kofax ofthe Winter Ball League, plays in like
he barely like I don't think he'sallowed to run in like three years.

(48:29):
But he's had trouble, you know, translating that to the big league,
to the big league, so wehave seen this before from him. But
you know, look, I thinkif JP France isn't built up, then
I don't think they'd have any problemslotting Renel Blanco into that rotation. I
think Renel Blanco makes the team nomatter what, because they're going to need
a long reliever, and you know, they're still discussing whether to go to
a six man rotation. In thatfirst month of the season where they played

(48:52):
twenty games in twenty one days,I think they only have like two or
three off days in the entire firsttwo months of the year, so there
are which is where they can havea six man rotation, and Renel Blanco
is the pretty obvious logical six starters. So I think he's on the team
regardless. But yeah, JP Frantzobviously, if he's not built up to
where he wants to be by thatfirst trip through the rotation. I wouldn't

(49:14):
be surprised if you see Renel Blancosslide in there channel of Roma the Athletic
joining us here on Sports Talk sevenninety. You know that brings up a
couple questions. I believe it wastwo years ago that the Astros did that
six man rotation a large chunk ofthe season and had just insane health when
it came to their pitching staff throughoutthat championship run. As it pertains to

(49:36):
that. And since you brought himup, is from Bervaldez like the toughest
read to come out of spring training, simply because you never want to put
too much stake in anything that's happeningin March or in this case, September.
How do you feel going into what'llapparently be him pitching on opening Day,
a guy that so many question marksare there, but yet he was

(50:00):
the guy that was also on themound to start that clinching game against the
Phillies two years ago in the WorldSeries. Yeah, I mean, every
time you think fromber is like takingthe next step, like erase all the
questions around him, then he kindof does. We did in the second
half last year. But I thinkthe thing that the Astros probably can take
solace in is that he has shownsustained, susame stretches of dominance, Like

(50:23):
he has pitched like an a whatkeep going he is. He has pitched
like an ace at you know,at times, and he's pitched like an
ace for stretches. It just hasn'tbeen consistent. It hasn't been you know,
there there still are times where younever know what Traumavel is going to

(50:45):
give you when he gets to theballpark. And that's the next step for
him is to remove all of thatdoubt, is to you know, even
on days where he quote unquote doesn'thave his best stuff, he can still
get you through six and keep itrespectable because we've seen, you know,
when a pitch isn't working for him, or when something's not going his way,

(51:05):
you know, he tends to,he tends to, you know,
quite frankly, lose it sometimes.He's still working with the mental side of
the game. He's got to getbetter at, you know, pacing himself.
He's got to get better at youknow, doing his breathing things like
that. So I just think,you know, the next step for him
is consistency. I mean, wethought and you thought he had it from
like twenty twenty one, the endof twenty twenty one through twenty twenty two,

(51:31):
and then he starts off last yearso well, and then the second
half happens and you kind of thesequestions keep reignited. So that's the next
step for him is just to isjust to remove any doubt, remove any
you know, intrigue when you getto the ballpark, because that's what Justin
Verlander and guys like that do sowell. You know, even when Verlander

(51:51):
doesn't have his best stuff, andeven when aces guys at the top of
their craft don't have their best stuff, they find ways to get you innings
and keep you in the ballgame.And Farmerveldez can sometimes struggle with that.
And I think that's the next stephe needs to take. Curious about some
arms, especially the non obvious armsin the bullpen, and some guys that
are new to the organization, evenwhat you think their chances are and what's

(52:13):
left for them to do in springto maybe change the minds of the Astros.
Taylor Scott's a free agent, theyadded, He's looked very good and
they've used him a ton, sofar in spring training. Dylan Coleman,
someone they hoped would find his twentytwenty two form, but instead he can't
throw strikes. Schedule to pitch againtoday. Seth Martinez has obviously been a
part of this team in their bullpenhas looked like Seth Martinez, which to

(52:37):
me is very good so far throughspring training. And Brandon Black, who
is Brandon Black but is out ofoptions. What do you think the next
two weeks holds for the Astros' decisionmakers on them? Yeah, I think
Brandon Black unless something, Unless hedoes something and just completely take himself out
of it. I think he's almosta sure thing for the opening day roster

(52:58):
for the sole reason that they don'twant to lose him. They don't want
to put him on waivers because theyknow if they put him on waivers,
he would get claimed, you know, within a second, because you look
at I know Astros fans kind ofhear that and wonder what I'm talking about.
But I mean, this guy couldbe a number five starter on just
about half more than half of anyof the teams in baseball, and they're

(53:21):
already precarious and they're starting pitching depth. You know, Sean Dubin. I
don't know what his status is asfar as what he's doing. You know,
you already got Verlander on the shelf. You don't know when you're gonna
get Garcia and mccullors back after theAll Star breaks. So they need as
much depth as they can get,and they don't want to lose Brandon Blax.
So the only way to keep himfrom waivers is to put him on

(53:42):
the opening they roster. So theyare I mean, and if you've looked
at his outings in spring, heis now basically a traditional reliever. He's
throwing one one, plus he's notbeing stretched out as a starter. I
think they they're keeping him to whereif they need to stretch him out as
a starter, they can do that. But he's swing a lot more one
one, maybe giving four or fiveouts as opposed to getting eight or nine.

(54:07):
So I think he's pretty safely onthe roster unless they're they're thinking just
really changes. I think they reallywant Dylan Coleman to make the roster.
The day I left camp last youknow, Dana Brown came outside and he
was outside specifically to like he hadhis scout eyes and ears and had on
him he wanted to watch Gilan Coleman, Like, they are really invested in

(54:30):
this guy, and they think thathe has and they I mean, it's
demonstrated he has the stuff to dothis, like he's had success. They've
just got to get him in thestrike zone. And you know, he
has option he does have minor leagueoptions left. So there is a way
that they could, you know,maybe send the triple A to start the
year, maybe see if he canwork some stuff out and then get into
the big leagues. But you know, I think just based off solely,

(54:51):
you know, body of work andkind of options and things like that,
and I think Seth Martinez has madea pretty good claim that he deserves a
spot in this bullpen. He's oneof the more underrated right on right relievers
in baseball. Has struggled against lefthanded pitching, against left handed hitters,
excuse me, So I mean teamscan counter him, but he's a really

(55:13):
good right on right reliever. He'sproven for them, for the pitching coaches
and the staff that you know,he's been able to succeed in big moments,
and you know, he hasn't pitchedthe highest of leverage innings. But
I mean He's come in some bigsituations, gotten some big outs, So
you know, I think you cansee kind of a framework of what they
want. I think they want DylanColeman to make the roster. I think,

(55:34):
you know, they're gonna have tocarry Delaxes because of what's kind of
his roster situation. But you know, things can evolve, things can be
fluid. You know, you mentionedthere's some guys that are excelling in Great
Fruit League play that maybe are givingthem some thought. But you know,
I think usually what you've seen withthe Astros is they like guys, and
they like people that have like provenit already, Like they like to stick

(55:55):
with their guys and the guys thathave proven it. And that's why I
think, you know, Seth Martinez, Brandon Black, guys that have been
in the organization probably have a littlebit more of an upper hand. That
is Chandler Rome of the Athletic Hejoins us each and every week throughout the
baseball season. Good to catch upas always from West Palm Beach, and
we'll do it again next week.Chandler all right, thanks guys, thanks

(56:17):
so much. Channel Rome here onSports Talk seven ninety and when we come
back our signature segment on a Wednesday, which is always where we steal from
everybody else on the lineup our bitstealing segment right around the corner, but
not before we tell you guys aboutCushata one more time. It's just so
many things they pack into one placeat Cushata Casino Resort, and it doesn't

(56:39):
matter what month it is on thecalendar, there's going to be something or
some things going on. I'm justgoing to start at the top of the
list with priority in my opinion.In my opinion, only Sugar Ray Live
in concert Saturday, March twenty third, be there always the best in events,
promotions, concerts Babyface will follow nextmonth. That is the twenty third

(57:02):
for the date on Sugar Ray thatyou mentioned. This coming weekend, you
have their little celebration holiday coming up, a huge two hundred thousand dollars Saint
Patrick's Lucky Cash Giveaway. They'll dothat on Saturday, March sixteenth, So
March at Kushata can be your luckymonth. The Cushata Casino Resort has everything

(57:23):
you'd ever want. Delicious Cajun cuisine, fantastic golf, tremendous hotels, and
an awesome gaming floor, in fact, the largest gaming floor in the Lake
Charles area. We've experienced it andenjoyed it. You can do the same
this weekend or any weekend. Visitthem online to make your plans. All
set at Cushata Casino Resort dot com. Two atoms, one rational atom and

(57:46):
one with the mental stability of MikeTyson in the nineties. Well, I've
been talking to you the way Iwant to talk to you. You have
a problem, turn off this station. We promise no children will be eaten
during the course of this program.We're eaven No, we can't promise that.
Back to the eighteen. On SportsTalk seven nine, a little help

(58:08):
over the humped with some Wednesday bsbit stealing with the Bit Steelers better known
as I Gotta Take the Stake home, a whole bunch of the eighteen he
stole my moves Wednesday's signature segments bringsus our Wednesday BS before we spin the

(58:30):
wheel and tip our caps to thehosts of our other programs. Here on
Sports Talk seven ninety for filling asegment for us, I'll note that the
Tennessee Titans shelled out ninety two milliondollars for the services of Calvin Ridley in
the last few minutes. So hegoes from Jacksonville to the Titans. Most
people thought he was either going tothe Patriots or staying in Jacksonville. But

(58:51):
apparently a little bit of extra cheesegot him to go catch passes for Will
Levis was doing nice keep aj Brownhe absolutely could have done. So this
is a twofold. Here's what Ithink, I know when I don't know
anything. I think this means DeAndreHopkins becomes available. I don't think you
want to pay have DeAndre Hopkins asan eighteen million dollar cap hit in your

(59:12):
third now fourth highest cap figure onthe team. That minimum come on down,
but we shall see about ten millionplus in cap savings if they move
on from DeAndre. And in lookingat Ridley, his season was okay,
far lower of a productive season thatI thought he would have had going to
Jacksonville. Remember last offseason after theyacquired him, I thought this is going
to be awesome for him, awesomefor Lawrence, of for Doug Peterson in

(59:35):
their offense. And he was justokay. And there's some areas you could
say he had one of his worstseasons. He obviously was coming off an
entire zero of a season in twentytwenty two when he did not play,
but the real numbers got the Wexleyresearch team back to work today. Calvin
Ridley had only four one hundred yardgames last year, both games against the
Titans, who he now plays for. Among those four, a stop to

(01:00:00):
that. I only cut touchdown passesin six games last year, and in
two of those six games three touchdownstotal against the Tennessee Titans. They are
just taking care of Calvin Ridley?Is that good? What do you guys
think? Did you see him againstus? All right, we'll sign him.
How about ninety two million dollars?That's sadly what it feels like,

(01:00:20):
even though it's not all right.So Jacksonville got worse and it doesn't matter
at all for Tennessee because they justdon't have enough talent. Let's spin that
wheel. Next up on next up. Overreaction under reaction, proper reaction,

(01:00:50):
very clever, Next up on nextup. I see that. I see
what they did there, and nowit's here on the A team. Let
her rip dn alright, So overreaction, proper reaction, under reaction, Garrett
Cole, who you guys, talkedabout a couple of segments ago going to
go see renowned doctor Neil A.Trashier. I guess is how you say
his name Ala Tracia. I don'tknow how to say his name Jah.

(01:01:12):
He is out in Los Angeles.It's hard to say. It's gonna be
further testing for him. So Isay it like this, this is where
it all begins. Right, we'renot seeing him pitch this season. I
think it sucks. I brought itup yesterday because I think that is the
proper reaction if you don't have ananswer, if you've continued to seek additional

(01:01:35):
opinions and you're seeing MRIs and youstill don't have an answer, that means
when you come to the conclusion thatrest and rehab is what he needs,
when he goes back to trying topitch at full strength or ramp up,
he's still not going to be right. Unfortunately, he won't be able to
get all the way back. AndI hope this doesn't sound like the continuing
conversation with Chandler we just had aboutJV. It is a different area of

(01:01:57):
the arm, a shoulder versus anelbow, and difference, totally different circumstances.
But he's also feeling better when he'sdone using it. Yeah, I
did this, did not it.It wasn't the immediate oh my god,
the season's over. But I dothink the proper reaction for a pitcher who's
thrown as many innings as he hadand knows his body very well, knows
it doesn't feel right. I dokind of feel like the inevitable is,

(01:02:20):
you know, an announcement in sixweeks and eight weeks and two months that
he's just not gonna be Not onlyis he not gonna pitch, he ultimately
is gonna have pushed his timetable back, and then further when he ultimately has
some major surgery, and then theoverreaction will be them signing Blake Smell.
Well, if it's two months intothe season and they're signing Blake Smell,
that would be crazy. But ifit's initial would be the first time it
happened with a Bors client. Theycould also just be the team that ultimately

(01:02:44):
trades for Dylan Cees. Yeah,I think it's a proper reaction. That's
my gut feeling. To meld segments. I do think that it's a it's
just a bad situation. I agreeall right, let's get some Rockets.
Even with the plan round a distinctpossible ability for them, I guess we
could say the Rockets should keep AlprinShingoon and Cam Whitmore off the floor for

(01:03:05):
the rest of the season. That'sa proper reaction. First, I'm going
to go to the dictionary for thedefinition of the word distinct Websters. You
said there's a distinct possibility. Yeah, if it means mathematical, then I'll
take it. If distinct means they'venot yet been eliminated, then I'm with
you beyond that. And I knowthey got to win without three rotation players

(01:03:30):
last night, no Tari East andOkam Whitmore, no Alprin Shingoon, and
that's probably their line up the restof the year. For exactly what your
question is, it's still very difficultto overcome that large of a gap in
this short a period of time.You can go four or five six games
over five hundred, that team almosthas to fall apart. And for you
to go four five six games overfive hundred when you're thirty and thirty five

(01:03:52):
healthy, it's very very unlikely.But they do have a soft schedule currently
to more games with Washington. Inthe next eight days, they have another
game with some of the teams atthe bottom of the standings. You're catching
Cleveland maybe at a vulnerable spot.All those things being said, I would
be really surprised. Definitely. Inthe case of Shnghoon, I don't think

(01:04:14):
he's playing again this year. It'sthere's too much to recover from and too
much of a long term issue toconcern yourself about a few games. Cam
Whitmore is is just a little different, only in that I don't think it's
that serious of an injury. Certainlynot something they didn't sound like they were
overly concerned with. There's just atimetable attached to it. There's two weeks
of season left, six games onthe schedule. I could see him playing
a couple So maybe that's a littlebit of an underreaction. I allow me

(01:04:39):
to play the role of conspiracy theoriston the show, since I never really
usually do that. Let's just sayfor the sake of argument, even without
Shingoon, and I'll say that CamWhitmore comes back sooner rather than later,
because it's just not as serious ofan injury. The Rockets are knocking on
the door of the play in game, which currently would feature the Elila Makers

(01:05:00):
and the Golden State Warriors. Toomassive TV ratings grabbing teams enter Scott Foster
the night where there is a potentialfor the Rockets to clinch that play in
I'm just kidding, but not really. Well, one thing to consider about
those two teams. If the Lakersand Warriors can't both, if they both

(01:05:20):
end up nine to ten, thenone of them's guaranteed to not make the
playoffs the rest of the division.No, whoever loses the game, they
have to play each other. Yeah, wever loses that game is a limits,
true, so but for one night, Yes, so it's a one
They're in a one game literal playoffto advance to we hope to win another
game to get in the playoffs.If they finish eight and ten or eight

(01:05:43):
and nine, it's a little bitdifferent scenario because if they both win their
first game, then they wouldn't evenplay each other in the playing tournament and
they would both have a chance toadvance. That's why I thought it was
hilarious that noted Lakers mouthpiece Dave mcminnimonwrote that article today about DiAngelo Russell and
how awesome he's been as the Xfactor in making sure the Lakers aren't out
of the playing game. I'm sorry. I was told that when they traded

(01:06:05):
for Anthony Davis and paired him withLebron James, that they were gonna win
the next five championships in a row. Well, we all know that.
Nobody wrote or a fake bubble onelike they did win. But anyway,
it's okay. It's okay to recognizethat their resurgent play has coincided with Russell's
resurgent play. Totally worth writing about. Yeah, and what has it gotten

(01:06:27):
you? It's got They're not tenthseed, the ninth seed, maybe the
seed. They're six games over fivehundred. They're not off. Well,
that means you're gonna finish, youknow, maybe with a forty six and
thirty six records somewhere in that neighborhood, which you're right, it's far from
being great. Nobody thinks they're reallyeven the Hanks the in their pockets.
Nobody thinks they're the best team inthe West. Who's the more disas But

(01:06:48):
they don't want to say they can'twin the West because outside of Denver,
who's won the West? No oneelse at the top. The Clippers have
never even put their rostered again fora playoff run, so thunder getting.
The Wolves have zero postseason success literallyoutside of the one Latrell Spree well season
decades again, Karl Anthony Towns isa question mark. Right, here's the

(01:07:12):
thing, what's what is the moredisappointing organization right now? Golden State or
LA. I think it's LA bya lot personally. Really, Yeah,
Golden State knew that they were,you know, they're running out of time.
They didn't have any other way toput it together. They're getting older,
they're best players, their oldest players, so they should extend current.
It's just there's only so much theycould. They had to have think about
if Jonathan Kaming it didn't become aplayer this year. Yeah, yeah,

(01:07:35):
so then there was just nothing theycould do with the situation. They keep
reupping with everybody and all they dois get older. Thompson, Draymond Green,
Andrew Wiggins and I to help thatfan base sees a spiraling organization again
for the next twenty years. Verywell could see it. Thanks Mike Dunlevy
Junior, Oh well, not reallyon him, but he is their general

(01:07:56):
manager. I like watching Bob Myersjust recoil whenever the Warriors organization is brought
up in a critical sense television.He rode the wave man, he spent
a lot of money, they werein the tax they won a bunch of
titles. And now somebody else's pout. Let me talk to you about Classic
Elite Buick GMC. A twenty twentyfour vehicle in your future. Now's an
awesome time to make sure that itis. And that's by making your way

(01:08:19):
on over to our good friends overat Classic Elite Buick GMC. Nobody's gonna
get you behind the wheel of atremendous vehicle any better than they will will
And when you know, when youpurchase that new vehicle from Classic Elite Buick
GMC, you're gonna get a lifetimeengine guarantee, You're gonna get a lifetime
of car washes. You're also gonnaget two years of free maintenance. And

(01:08:40):
over at Classic Elite Buick GMC,we are professional grade. You can find
them online Classic Elite BUICKGMC dot com. You know where they are, right
off the Katie Freeway, just westof Highway six. I truly mean it
when I say it, because we'vebeen in the same boat you that are
out there looking for that new vehicle. These are fantastic people to work with
on the purchase of new vehicle,especially the owners Jeff and Tiffany Sebastian.

(01:09:02):
It's classic elite buick GMC. Whenyou head on over there, you tell
amunt of Wesler sent you on by. If you can buy rockets Geronics,
you can hear a Sonics that's amazing. Listen live for free on any smart
device. You have Sex Edition.You got a problem with sex? Sex
addicted to the sex a sex AddictionThe A team here on Sports Talk seven

(01:09:28):
to ninety Wednesday edition of the program. Just still thinking about this Malik Collins
deal and how it affects the capfy Melie Collins was traded to the San
Francisco forty nine ers unofficial for aseventh round pick. No, it's official
now who announced it me? That'sjust you know, if it's happened,

(01:09:48):
it's happened. I'm not gonna it'snot any take back sees is it?
There's probably not a Well, hehasn't passed as physical yet, so we're
gonna need that seventh rounder. Backand we'll just go ahead and play for
us now. Yeah, Daniel Huntergets signed yesterday and even I was sending
out, man, look at thatfront four Anderson Collins, Audrey, Daniel
Hunter, it's going to be great. Well, they didn't even get to

(01:10:11):
be at the facility together for oneday. Hunter has not officially signed yet,
although that will become official, samefor Audrey and Elie. Collins,
who had signed two extensions and threecontracts overall with the Texans last year,
signed a two year extension for twentythree million dollars. He'll play year two
of that extension with the forty nineErs, it appears, unless the nine

(01:10:31):
Ers also move on from him,which they won't. I called him via
Twitter, and I think I saidit in the opening segment of the show.
I think he's vastly underrated as aplayer. I thought he had an
extremely solid season. I think he'shad nothing but solid seasons for the Texans
after coming over from the Raiders andCowboys. Definitely thought he made sense to

(01:10:51):
continue playing in this Demico Ryans defensivefront. They felt otherwise. By the
way, did you see our ownConnor mcgo reacting to the Eric Armstead official
release news. Well, the Ninersburied it in a we have made several
roster moves post. So I requote tweeted that and said, among the

(01:11:15):
moves, d L Eric Armstead hasbeen released. What did a CMG you
have to say? Well, itwas Ian Rappaport's tweet that he quoted DL
Eric Armstead officially released, to whichConnor McGovern quote tweeted and said, Tamiko
Ryans Colin Alexa play the boys areback in town by Finn Lizzie. I

(01:11:36):
like that. I think I isbetter an average chance that that's what ends
up happening here, and I'm notI'm fine with it. I mean again,
it's kind of I go back to, like the Joe Mixon deal yesterday,
Why do you trade for him ifyou know he's going to be released?
Those are the type of moves thatI questioned Nick Caserio. Well,

(01:11:57):
first of all, you definitely haveto be okay with the number of the
contract he's a playing under, becausetrading four means that's the contract you're getting
him for it. Do you thinkthat the Texans thought he was going to
ask for more if he was afree agent. Well, let's say he
was going to ask for the sameamount, but for two years. Mm
hmm, Well, somebody else wasprobably going to give it to him and
they didn't want to. So thennow he's no longer your guy. He's
somebody else's guy. You don't wantto take the chance at this point in

(01:12:21):
the free agent game because you've alreadytaken chances. They've been at the plate
for a while. They were facing, you know, teams on Saquon Barkley
and they're the team that struck out. They were facing teams potentially on a
number of other running backs. Idon't know how heavily invested they were in
the pursuit of even swing the batbecause they didn't want to. It doesn't

(01:12:41):
even matter. But now that you'veseen the results, none of them are
Texans and they all have contracts.So let's say you don't get mixin,
then what yeh, because he's gone. Well, the only two running backs
they were even left at that pointwere him and Derrick Henry, which is
why the Texans trading for Mixon meantHenry now lost a suitor and he was

(01:13:01):
obviously now gonna sign with the Ravens. But I think the Texans already knew
that the only reason they were inthe mix at all, and that the
agents for Henry were taking phone callsfrom Nick and the Texans were so they
could put heat on the Ravens tojust give us a little more already.
We all know we're playing for you, we all know we're coming to an
agreement at some point. But ifwe can threaten you with the possibility that

(01:13:23):
the Texans of the team were goingwith, then maybe we can squeeze a
couple of extra dimes out of you. And they did so. The Texans
couldn't take that chance. That's whyI don't care that they traded for him.
They didn't give up. They gaveup something that Nick would end up
packaging in a deal to try tomove up twenty five spots on Saturday around
her is basically a ham sandwich.It's that they didn't want to commit to
him for any additional years. He'sgoing into the final year of his contract

(01:13:45):
with your team now, and theyhave a perfectly healthy enough cap situation and
methods of making it even healthier thatdid not include Collins Millie Collins, so
they could afford to pay the secondyear of that deal that Mixon was already
under so that's why they did it. The moves that they have had in
their back pocket are still there.They weren't good enough cap situation. They

(01:14:05):
didn't have to let Robert Woods officiallygo yet, but I'm sure that they
will. MJ. Stewart's another playerthat will save them some cap space if
they feel like they have a reasonablealternative. They could let Jimmy Ward out
of that second year of the dealthat he signed last offseason and there would
be cap savings there, if that'sreally something they're concerned with, and they

(01:14:26):
shouldn't be yet, But for theoverall health, the long term health of
their cap, that is seemingly alwaysfront and center. For Nick Casseira.
It does appear he's always operating lookingat twenty twenty five's cap, twenty twenty
six cap, maybe more so thanother teams. Obviously a GM and the
cap guy, they're always looking atthat. But I mean he's been extremely

(01:14:46):
judicious about having any commitments for verylong. I mean a two year deal
is not even the ordinary for them. A three year deal is almost unheard
of. I mean Dalton Schultz gotone, and I mean they say hand
out. So few of the fouryear deals are non existing. See the
longest deal they've given out this offseason. I mean, it's not a terrible

(01:15:10):
deal. It's it's fine when youconsider the other moves that could have been
made. And then again, what'sthe alternative. Did you want Hunter Henry
here? Did you want Austin Hooperhere? Do you want John hus Smith
here? Those are some of youralternatives. You paid him a lot more
than them, and you're expecting alot more from him, at least in
the past game. And I'm surehe'll deliver. He's better than all of

(01:15:30):
them in the past game. Youget add Mike Gaseki for next to nothing,
you'd probably get next to nothing fromhim on the field. How much
do you think with these moves onthe defensive side of the football the offensive
line gets addressed either and well morelikely than not, the draft. I

(01:15:54):
don't think the Texans are addressed inthe offensive line in any way in the
offseason. Unfortunately, they will addressit on the draft, and that is
it. Well, that's based onwho's out there. They'll make a draft
pick or two that could be anoffensive lineman of the future. And unfortunately,
I just don't think that it's gonnamake their offensive line in twenty twenty
four significantly better than that. Betterabout Joe Mixon or anybody back there.

(01:16:15):
If the offensive line was just alittle better than it was from a run
they don't really have. There's justreally no way for them to do that.
They've got multi year commitments to alltheir interior linement, even though it's
low money, and now they havemajor, significant financial commitments to both their
current starting tackles once you sign.We haven't talked about this entire three day
period. What they're actually working around, And the only thing that's really in

(01:16:39):
their way is the tightest Howard contract. I mean, I was saying it's
bad if he plays well, it'slong term. It's unlike the other he's
not even on the field yet.The problem isn't got hurt last year.
That's what I mean. Yeah,but you're acting like he's never on the
field and that's just not the case. Well, how many games is he
gonna have to play next season foryou to feel better? I don't care

(01:17:00):
how many he plays. If thegames that he plays are good, What
if he only plays three, thensomebody else will have to fill in the
gaps. It seems like he's awhole year removed from a seventeen game season.
All right, well, then youbetter play seventeen next year so that
I don't have to complain about it. Final segment coming up next before we
make way for Astros Baseball. Butwe need to make way right now for
an alternative regenerative medicine treatment plan foryou guys out there who are suffering from

(01:17:28):
joint pain. And it doesn't matterwhere it is, your knees, your
hips, your shoulder, your back. If you have joint pain and you've
been dealing with it for a littlewhile or maybe a long long time,
which is just a horrible thing tothink about, get QC Kinetics on the
case right now by calling seven petthree nine three fifty two eighty five.
Get that regenerative medicine treatment and getrid of the sometimes worse, a lot

(01:17:50):
of times worse alternative of surgery andeverything that comes with it. It's just
like we've been talking about for threedays. What's the alternative? Okay,
go go ahead, go this route. Make your choice is the bad ones,
Well, what's the alternative? Whysettle for an alternative when you can
deal with the best, You goout and you signed to Neil Hunter.
Yeah, the best. What's QCKinetics the best, the nation's leader in

(01:18:11):
regenerative medicine, lasting joint pain relief, all with the help of a phone
call to QC Kinetics seven one threenine one three fifty two eighty five for
Houston area locations as you know,Sugarland, the Heights, the location in
the Woodlands, the newest location inCyprus gets set up with a free consultation.
Tens and thousands of satisfied patients havereclaimed their mobility, including many of

(01:18:32):
you right here in and around theHouston area. Of those of you that
have heard us here, tell youabout QC Kinetics free consultation, Get it
set up seven to one three nineone three fifty two eighty five for QC
Kinetics. So over the course ofthe last few minutes of the show,
we mentioned that Calvin Ridley is goingto go from the Jags to the Titans,
slide around the AFC South at thetune of twenty three million per Better

(01:18:57):
City. I guess four years ninetytwo million. It's a pretty hefty paycheck.
And I think the initial reaction was, ha, they are dumb.
That's the awesome part of the deal. You want to hear the awful part
of the deal. Yes, guesswho wants to get paid? Everybody?
Nico Collins. Oh well yeah,Michael Pittman signed a three year, seventy

(01:19:18):
million dollar deal, which is actuallya slightly higher average annual value than the
four year ninety two million dollar dealthat Calvin Ridley just got. But that's
twenty three million per And if you'retalking to Nico collins representation this off season
about a deal, that's probably theneighborhood you're visiting. If you wait another
year twenty five, then you're payingeven more because he's gonna have another season

(01:19:41):
like this, I would presume again, injury could derail it. Some unforeseen
change in offense not gonna happen.It's injury only. So if they are
really truly manipulating this year's cap alittle bit around what they know, twenty
five, six, and seven arenow going to be because of Collins,
who enters the final year of hiscontract next year without an extension. This
is what you have to look at, localize it, look at the Texans.

(01:20:04):
What does this mean. It's notabout the Titans being dumb and they
are and the Titans maybe get marginallybetter because they'll probably ship You'll swap out
Hopkins for Ridley and their production wasn'tthat dissimilar last year, different quarterback situation.
Keep that in mind when some ofyou say, hey, they should
go sign DeAndre Hopkins, They're notgoing to do that. The other thing
is is the timing of it.So now these are two deals. Are

(01:20:26):
you waiting to see if there's anew deal for jamar Chase first? Are
you waiting to see her the seeif the Lions and Amon Ross ain't Brown
reach a agreement first, because they'reboth probably those two players specifically, and
Justin Jefferson also, but his situationis a little murky because he doesn't have
anybody to throw in the football rightnow, so he might not want an
extension from them. No, SamDarnold doesn't count. Uh, You're not.

(01:20:51):
These guys maybe better than you andmaybe command more money than you.
But these are all ballpark figures foryou and your agent to look at,
and Nick Sarah and the people insidethe Texans to consider. I always to
me, if you believe in theplayer and I do, then do it.
What are you waiting for? Soyou can pay them more sooner.
Why not have a deal that's nowunder market value in year two, three,

(01:21:13):
four instead of above market value inyear one and two. Why do
I feel like we're going to behaving this conversation a year from now after
the Texans have waited and paid morefor Nico Collins. I mean, they'll
be able to do it. They'rein a good enough situation. They've handled
the it, but they didn't haveto. Yeah, but it's it's also
we're I don't know how much differencewe're talking about. Are we talking about?
They could have had him for fouryears ninety million, and instead they're

(01:21:35):
getting him for four years and ninetyseven. Is it the end of the
world? Is it unmanageable? Isif we're not having sure but we're also
banking on another awesome season. TheTexans might actually make him do that instead
of just saying, well, whatgood enough? They don't believe in him
as much as you do at thismoment, because they would be saying their
money it's real to them. It'syou know, I'm talking on the radio

(01:21:58):
about it here, but that iswhat I believe in. I said it
probably about every player of significance thetextas have had going all the way back
to Arian Foster. You remember hisundrafted status and they could have just tendered
him rather than extending him on thishuge deal. He was on the practice
squad, and then Jadavian Clowney whenthey went into the franchise tag year.
I said, on each of thosetwo players, just like I would say

(01:22:18):
on Nico, just extend them.Yeah, them, but do you want
them to play for you? They'vebeen good to speaking with Jadavion. Clowney
is who was in charge then hasa lot to do with that. Well,
that's how they decide. I'm justtelling you my point of view was
give him the contract. I'm okay. I'm willing to take the chance.
He might might be the greatest playeron earth. He might top out at
nine point nine to nine sacks ina season, but I'm okay with the

(01:22:41):
total package of how he plays andthe figure that you'd have to spend on
him, I would have been okaywith it. They did it for Foster,
and obviously we remember that tearful pressconference, and they did not do
it for Clowney, and he's stilltrying to find more money. He's actually
visiting with Bryce Young's team back homein Carolina. Oh, so he wants
to lose a lot. Next year'sprobably at least one more reasonably good contract.

(01:23:01):
You only got two and a halfmil last year and played very well.
They don't give those out though.They ship off those people that well
they've sent out. They've sent outenough money this year Brian Burns at the
top of that list, and Luvu'signing with the Commanders, they have the
ability to give some of it tosomebody else on a shorter term, less
cap troublesome contract. I mean,I get it, you want to get

(01:23:23):
paid if you're Jadeveon Clowney for thelatest time in a row. But just
you know, do you want tolose every game? They're probably not going
to lose more next year. Topwin top win total next year five,
if you made me say six,I would say it. That's probably where
they're coming from. By the way, within the division division winners in the

(01:23:45):
AFC South last year. Yeah,I still don't like that one. That
was half of their wins that inthe Atlanta loss to me, still smarter
more than the Jets loss. Idon't care what you say. So I
imagine between today and tomorrow we willlearn more about the reasoning behind why they
made the deal with the San Franciscoforty nine ers, who send a very
good defensive tackle, Malie Collins outwest. Opened up a little cap space,

(01:24:10):
opened up a hole on their defensiveline. You'll find out first how
the Astros performed today. They gotthe Mets. That's what's next here on
Sports Talk seven ninety. The threeof us, the A team will be
back with you here tomorrow at ourusual time three o'clock here on Sports Talk seven ninety