Jim Nagy on The A-Team: The Heavy Lifting Is Done For The Texans

Jim Nagy, Executive Director of the Reese's Senior Bowl joins The A-Team to talk the Texans draft. He talks about who the Texans could be looking at to draft at pick number 42 in the second round on Friday. He talks about why he is envious of Texans general manager Nick Caserio. Plus, he talks about some local products who could have their names called early this weekend. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We've got Jim Nagy on, theexecutive director of the Reese's Senior Bowl,
to talk about all things infl draft, and that's kind of been the that's
kind of been the theme of thisweek. You know, the Texans unveiling
their jerseys over the last twenty fourhours. But who's gonna be wearing them?
And how is that going to complimentthe players that Nick Cassario went out

(00:20):
and signed in free agency. Maybeone of the splashiest of splashy off seasons
the Texans have ever had, wouldyou agree, Jim, Yeah, absolutely,
thanks for having me on. Butyeah, it's more important who's wearing
those new uniforms, right than theactual uniforms themselves. So yeah, it's
a big week for Nick and Demko, really big week. And yeah,
anytime you had an all Pro receiverlike they did with Diggs, that's a

(00:44):
big off season. Well, Ican't help but open with this by turning
the clock back a year and havingyou reference this in your opinion at the
Senior Bowl this year, who wasthis year's Tank Dell from last year who
absolutely tore it up and showed ithe's going to be a force at the
next level And then he went outand did it. Yeah, no,
it was, it was. Itwas really fun watching tank Man. He

(01:07):
really got it going for you guys, and and uh, you know a
few years before that, and Ecois one of our guys too. But
if you're just keeping it at receiver, we did. We had a bunch
of guys that had had really goodweeks, you know, Ricky Piersoll from
Florida, Latin McConkey from Georgia,Roman Wilson from Michigan, and then you
know, let's keep it in Houston. Luke maccaffery had a great week.

(01:29):
I've tried to make note of thata couple of times on on social media
since the Senior Bowl. I mean, Luke had a great week here and
and then went to the Combine andcrushed it. And uh, you know,
for a guy that's only played theposition a couple of years, you
know, there was a big differencein his tape from twenty two to twenty
three, and uh, his bestfootball and wide receivers way in front of
him. So I can't wait tosee what Luke's gonna do. Just trying

(01:51):
to keep it there in your backyard, there's no question about it. And
Honestly, what he did is hejust made plays over and over and over
in week after week after week.He andyone knew where they'd like to go
with the football, and he stillfound a way to be super productive.
And I do think with the developmentof his career there is a lot of
good football, clearly some good lineagethere as well, but some very good
football in his future to also keepit here over at u of H.

(02:15):
With what you saw from the playersat the Senior Bowl, we haven't talked
much about Paul or Caesar about abouttheir pro prospects. Where do you think
they probably fall, maybe in theirranks among tackles in Paul's case, and
the ranks among edge rushers and Caesar'scase, and where that puts them ballpark
wise in the draft. Yeah,Patrick Paul must have some good insight intel

(02:36):
because he was I saw him comeup this week and say that he thinks
he's going in the first round andthe media might have him too low,
So that would be cool. Imean, we're certainly looking to where in
the goal is to get double digitSenior bowlers in the first round this year,
so we'll see. But it's goingto depend for Patrick where that run
on tackles goes. I feel likeevery radio show I do around the country

(02:57):
their team meeting the tackle. So, you know, well, but I
don't think Patrick gets out of thesecond round. That would surprise me.
And then Nelson, Caesar, Man, it's it's another position. Everyone's looking
for guys that can get after thequarterback. So you know, I think
you're gonna have the top three guyswith a lat two from UCLA and Jared
Burst from Florida State in Dallas,Turner from Labma, and then after that,

(03:19):
you know, then it's it's gonnabe kind of wide open, you
know. So I would think,Caesar, you know, if we're gonna
do like the round thing on it, I would think probably the very beginning
of day three, somewhere in thefourth round, he's gonna be you know,
teams are gonna be sitting there onFriday nights saying, what haven't we
addressed yet? Oh, there's athere's a guy that can get to the
quarterback. Let's go, let's goget him here early on Saturday. So

(03:39):
yeah, both those guys had goodweeks done there there they were. They
were good Houston Cougars for a longtime. You know, in a in
a this time of year, you'rereminded of the different ways teams build winners.
And you know, the Seahawks famously, you know, obviously having a
stud quarterback in quote a eight round. The Texans obviously got that guy.

(04:02):
I think we all agree, evenafter one season, c J. Stroud's
ara, he's the closest thing toa franchise quarterback. If you're not gonna
go ahead and say that he isalready, I think we all could agree
with that. I'm not gonna speakfor you, but it's so important to
strike while the iron is hot,so to speak. When he's in that
rookie contract and not having the firstround pick. We know what the Texans

(04:23):
did last year on draft night,an amazing splash if you will. Speaking
of which, how how do youbuild if you're the Texans and you're Nick
Cassario around a kid like c J. Stroud, especially given some of the
splashy editions they have made this offseasonin free agency. Yeah, well,
Nick certainly showed last year that he'snot afraid to be aggressive and move around.

(04:46):
Yeah, and you're right, heis a franchise quarterback. They've they've
got the heavy lifting done. I'vejoked with those guys in the in their
front office that you know that theheavy part's done. You know, I
was in New England with Nick andJames Glippert was there after I left.
You know, we're spoiled all thoseyears in New England with Tom Brady because
you get the draft weekend. Youjust get to add around him. It's
just it's kind of a fun exerciseright way. If I were the Texans,

(05:10):
I would, I would regardless ofwhere they feel like they're at.
I mean, you always have tobe mindful of protecting that young quarterback.
So again I haven't like studied Houston'sdepth chart or anything. You probably know
them a lot more intimidly than Ido. I know what, once we
once you have that quarterback and plays, you don't want to get him hit.
So you know, you know,build that thing up front and keep

(05:30):
them protective. They've got the weaponswith Dave, the Nico and and Tank,
and now they're bringing in Mixing andDamian Pierce. I mean, if
they've got you know, they've gotplenty of skilled people to get the ball
to. Now it's all about keepingkeeping CJ clean well Jim. Since you
know Nick so well recently, youshould have found out that Nick is actually
his middle name. His first nameis Trader. Trader. Nick will be

(05:50):
hard at work Thursday, Friday andSaturday, as he has been all three
of his years running this team's draft. There will be trades, I can
guarantee it. Uh So in lightof that, uh there will target players
and they'll go up and get them. I'm curious because, in my opinion,
at some point Friday or Saturday,they go on. You be drafting
a tight end after brock Bauers quiteobviously, What do you see in the

(06:14):
next two, three, four tightends that might be available in the second,
third, fourth round that might makesense here in Houston, Maybe even
a former C. J. Stroud, Ohio State Buckeye teammate. I personally
think Benson out from from Kansas State, it's going to be the second guy
that's picked off everything I'm hearing inthe league. He's more of an h
back. You can play some fullback. You know, he's six three and

(06:35):
a half. He's not a bigyou know, six five six sixth guy
you're gonna play on the end ofthe SUO minor scrimmage but again he's a
former walk on, so that's kindof how he's built. Loves football,
loves compete, so you know he'sgot like Texans DNA. That's the one
thing I told Nick when he washere in Mobile for the Senior Ball,
Like, I give him a lotof credits that he's stuck to his guns.

(06:56):
There's a lot of gms that thatyou know, preach that that they
want to highly competitive guys that lovefootball, and then you get the draft
weekend and they go row gun youand they take a bunch of guys with
with sketchy football makeup. But theTexans haven't done that, and that's why
I think they've had a couple ofreally good drafts. So Bens and not
you know, a really good playercrushed the combine, another guy that really
went to Indy and tore it up. And then right there in the state

(07:17):
of Texas you got Jatavian Sanders fromTexas. Jared Wiley is a guy from
TCU that that the league is veryhigh in as well. He is a
guy that's six five, two hundredand seventy pounds that they can run route.
Those are probably the names like thosethree guys it's probably who the Texans
will be looking at if they're lookingat the next guy after brock Powers.

(07:39):
Yeah, and clearly I'm aware,and I'm sure many of our listeners are
aware. They did re sign DaltonSchultz this offseason and likely is at least
holding that one te one spot downfor the next seventeen to thirty four games.
They're pretty to me, there's hardlyany place they couldn't augment their roster
with. And we focused in thelast couple of days trying to make the
pick for Nick at forty two.I've had the name of one corner already

(08:01):
going to Houston. I think there'sa name of another I might give later
today on the show. Curious whereyou think those corners after kool Aid McKinstry,
maybe after the top twenty five.I think we know who those first
rounders are. How do you kindof rank the sand Rustill, Rakestraw,
TJ Tampa group of corners and maybeeven if you feel like there's a better
fit for one or the other ina Demico Ryans led defense. Yeah,

(08:24):
I think that's the sweet spot forthe corner class. You know, a
lot of people thought the corner classwas going to be sitting this year.
We had some guys really step upin mobile like Andrew Phillips from Kentucky is
a hot name in the league.Max Melton from Rutgers is a hot name
in the league. Guys that canplay inside, they can play outside.
A guy that I profiled on socialmedia this week, Elijah Jones, I

(08:46):
think the biggest sleeper in the classat corner. You know, a big
almost six to two corner that canreally run and jump, really good at
the in my opinion, the bestball skills in the class. So that's
to me, that's the sweet spot. I wouldn't want to be drafting one
in late round one. I wouldwant to wait a little bit and get
better value because I really feel likeyou're getting the tame football player. I
definitely agree. And now I questionthat we've gone years and through the NFL

(09:09):
and nobody seems to answer. SoI'm not expecting you to have the magic
crystal ball here. But with three, four, five, six potential first
round quarterbacks this year, why doyou think it's continued to be proven so
difficult for teams to evaluate the quarterbackscoming out of college and on their way
into the pros, and that wesee a draft like the Trevor Lawrence led

(09:31):
class where five guys go in thetop fifteen, four have already been moved
on from and things like that.How come you think it's been such an
inexact science and it's really nothing new. Well, we kind of dove into
this on outside of the Line,but week on ESPN and I don't know
so much abit misevaluation for poor development, probably both. There's a lot of

(09:56):
factors at play right now, youknow, including the balla utility. You
know, you look at some ofthese quarterbacks at the coaching level and at
the GM level. So let's let'sgo to Chicago justin fields, you know,
is drafted by one regime. They'rebringing another regime. He doesn't get
it going. They want to moveon from him and get their own guy.
You know, New England has alot of coaching turnover. And the

(10:18):
next thing you know, Mac Jonesis coming up a Pro Bowl rookie year
and then a second year. He'sbeing guys that have only coached on the
defensive side of the ball the entiretheir entire lives. So now, I
don't know if it's the evaluation Ifeel like we might be screwing some of
these guys up. So yeah,but at the end of the day,
the quick yeah, the answer isthe same where they're not getting it right.
So whether it's Smith's evaluation or poordevelopment, there's a lot of factors

(10:43):
in play. I think I thinkeveryone listening to your show right now is
to thank God that the text theTexans are one of the few teams that
has gotten it right. Is thereanything you could point to that encompasses all
those parts of the answer you gavethat you think why the Texans did get
it right? I mean, clearlyit all starts a CJ. But you
mentioned all those other parts. Whatabout the Texans do you think made it
right? Yeah? I mean theyhad good pieces in place. I mean

(11:09):
they had they had good skill players, they could run the football. For
one, They've got a good coordinatorthat everyone went out and tried to get
in the off season to be ahead coach. And then the other part
that we didn't talk about why teamsare maybe missing is is And again you
say this about all positions, youknow, and I think you talk to
any personnel guy, they're gonna saythe same thing. They're gonna gree this.
Like I look back on my timein the NFL and the teams I

(11:31):
worked more in the mistakes I madepersonally, like I probably missed more on
the play on the person than theplayer. The more you're in this,
the more you watch tape. That'sthat's the easier part. It's figuring out
what these guys are going to beonce they become pros with you know,
more time on their hands, moremoney in their pockets, all those factors,
and then just the volatility and ahard market. I mean, look

(11:52):
at Zach Wilson, he kind ofgot chewed up and spit out in New
York. I mean, you justit's all kind of case by case,
but uh, you know, figuringout I think they nailed CJ the person.
I think. I know they spenta lot of time vetting him last
year and spend time with a lotof people that have been around CJ and
and that's that's probably why it's working. And they really done. They've pushed
all the right buttons when it comesto supporting CJ and and putting pieces in

(12:15):
place around CJ. Well, theday teams get a crystal ball, you'll
be out of a job, Jim. That's right. We appreciate the time.
We know it's a busy time ofthe calendar for you. Jim Nagy,
executive director of the Reese's Senior BallThanks for catching up with us,
and have fun this weekend. Yeah, guys, it's gonna be fun up

(12:37):
there in Detroit. Thanks for hattingme on. All right, Jim Nagy
here on Sports Talk seven