Texans All AccessPost-Draft chatter from the crew | Texans All Access
What's up? Everybody?
Welcome to Wednesday Initiative Texans All Access from Monday Texans Radio Studio. John and Mark with you on a wonderful Wednesday evening. No matter where you are, Mark, good evening. I know you are just a few minutes away. You got a nice little uh you nice little dinner tonight, do you not?
All right?
So the insider reception, which is going to begin soon, it's gonna be great because Nick Cassario, I know you had Nick at a luxe event last night after talking about the draft.
Can't get enough of it.
We had Nick on the air last night talking about the draft, and if you missed that one, check out the podcast, because we asked him a lot of all.
Right, you're on the board, this is happening. What do you do then? Kind of questions because he moves up and down the board.
Every pit was acquired via a trade of some sort, and you know, there you are. Even when they got Mertz. He moved up a bit to get Mertz. And when do you pull the trigger and say now now we gotta move up? How do you work all that out?
Well?
He talks about that and explains his decisions and some things you'll never know because you don't know what he was thinking at that very particular time. And I don't think he's gonna tell everybody that, but it is fascinating how much he moves up and down the board. And we always point out this that in twenty nineteen they had a draft with Brian Gaine, and I like Brian game, but he did not trade any picks, no trades, no the entire draft. And he had a first round selection that year, which was kind of a rarity at the time for the Texans, but took Titus Howard. Great but no trades at all. And I found that interesting at the time. And I also find it interesting that Nick. I think if he doesn't make a trade, he feels like, I didn't make a trade. What am I supposed to do? I gotta make a trade. Got to make a trade. I'm joking here, but it feels like.
That's the way it feels, Yeah, the way it feels sometimes, you know, but gotta do it.
Nine trades.
We had read a stat on Saturday before we started the show. On Saturday, Seawn and I were talking about there were thirteen trades Thursday Friday total in the NFL thirteen. Nick made five of them. There were thirteen teams that didn't engage in a trade. Yeah, and you know who made five deals? Yeah, no problem trading.
Yeah.
And I mean that's just it's interesting because I think that's the way that he's grown up, understanding the board and understanding value.
So I'm fine with it.
I was fine with the trade down out of twenty five because it turned into a couple of players, Jaydon Higgins chiefly among them. I thought that was a great move to turn twenty five not one player but two, which was which was great. There were questions and there will be questions about well did you get a guard? You need a guard? Is there a guard? And I think it's kind of interesting because we're gonna take a look at our buddy Jonathan.
Alexander and we'll have him on next weight. Do we have to day? We had him on last night. We had him on last night.
Yeah, because Yeah, So we didn't get a chance to talk to him about his fifty three man roster. He talked about the articles to go check it out the Houston Chronicle subscribe. Jonathan does a great job, but he put together an early fifty three man roster Now our guy, Sean Pendergast has one coming for the Houston Press, so we'll tear into that too. But what about what Jonathan has to say about the fifty three man roster. Now he gets very specific position specific. Yeah, instead of the old line, it is left tackle, left guard, Santa right guar right tackle. So he really breaks it down, gets a little bit more granular. But we can talk to him about this next week. And look, Jonathan's our guy. I mean he did he it's a hard thing to put together, and he even acknowledges such how tough it is to get together. But there were a couple of things that stood out that I want. I want to hit one of them that Actually I was kind of ruminating as I was driving in this morning, thinking about we'll get to that. A second quarnerback, he's got to Stroud Davis running back. He's got he's got four, which I think this is it's probably right four.
He's got Joe Mixon, Damian Pierce.
Darig and wwally what he marks fullbacks, Yaka Johnson. There's also British Brooks to keep in mind, but he's got Yaka making it British behind him. Tight ends, he has three making it Schultz, Stover, Jordan, and the other's obviously being Urf Smith.
Luke Lache was a seth round pick.
I think Lucas she's got a decent shot of making this team.
Because there's a lot of game left in him.
For sure. And he only has three tight ends listed. He's only got three listed. Now, I know you need fifty three spots. You gotta get under that cap, right. But if Lesha develops as quickly as they hope, and look, I'm not talking about playing every week, he might not be dressed right, but he'll be the kind of player you want to protect. You're not gonna want to leave him expose on the practice squad. And I know they love Brevin Jordan. They signed him to an extra year. Here, Cade's Dover, Dalton Schultz. We get it sometimes injuries. You know this is going to factor into a lot of these conversations. But I don't see a problem with four tight ends. Now, you have to shave a spot somewhere else. If you do that, can we get back to the running backs? Are we going to talk about these right now? You want to do the whole thing and then talk about them, Well.
I was going to go to a position of need, but let's go right BA.
I want to go running backs here because four Jonathan Alexander has Joe Mixing, Damian Pierce, Dari Gounbowale, and Woody Marx. He's got British Brooks listed as a fullback. That's fair because they kind of brought him on the fifty three as a fullback last year and that was a big surprise undrafted free agent in twenty twenty four. But I got a feeling this is going to be a hot and heavy competition between Woody Marks and Darya Gounbowale for a spot.
Now.
I have a hard time seeing them let go of Woody Marx considering what they invested. I know it's fourth round pick, so it's not the end of the world, but they moved into that slot after having nothing for two rounds to get Woody Marx. And I think Woody Marx is going to get a long look in the preseason to see if he can take those Dara reps. And they love Darry, but can wood he be the younger day Darry's Now, look, he's not old, but football wise, you're always as an organization looking for the new blood and the great organizations have to be brave and bold and make those tough decisions if it should come to that. So I think those two guys kind of play the same spot. Am I right about that? Whereas British brooks, you could slide him in as a running back and he can also play fall back and do some different things. I know Darry is very reliable, but what he's gonna get a chance to prove that he might be as reliable Now there's no way he's got the experience, institutional experience and knowledge of Dara.
But that's gonna be one to watch.
And then Damien, look, damiens a kick returner, running back. They definitely want his services this year, There's no question about that. I'm looking forward to seeing what Damien can do in this Nick Cayley offense.
Taking what you just said and knowing how much this organization loves Dara and in a sense has needed Daray and still needs Dara because of how much he brings. I do think that what he marks is coming in. But maybe it's not Darry. It might it might be Damien. It might be Damian, it might be Damien. So they might try them as a kick returner.
Absolutely.
I think you're gonna see a lot of different things from what he marks. We'll see and maybe he ends up being the number two and it's Damien.
That's odd man out.
How maybe Dary makes it, so does Woody. But what he's the third down back, it could be maybe Darry. The pass protection is such a huge part of third down back. We'll see what he can pick up there.
Absolutely, rookie, and no question.
I five, if you carry three running backs, that gives you the opportunity to carry for tight ends if you want. Yeah, and if you see Arv Smith Leche, they impress you. And look last year, you know, we lost Brev in Week two.
You know we we.
Uh kay got banged up a little bit, like I gotta you know, we went into the season. I remember being relatively healthy last year, Like we kind of thought, you know, injuries will kind of solve some things. But I felt like we went into the season pretty healthy. Well, by two weeks in, we've already lost Brev. He's gone for the year. Then a few weeks later it's losing Digs and then you know, Nico, I mean, you know, so it's.
And that's why I always kind of think of the numbers of and it.
Always gets in that like, Okay, if I take one from here, you gotta take one from here, and it's and it's the one Hart. It's the hardest thing too, because what he marks Dariagumbwally Damian Pierce may not be in competition with one another. They may be in competition with the linebacker crew because you might need to keep a six linebacker because you need it on special teams. You're getting more out of that position. So man, now you've got to keep three running backs because you have to keep a six linebacker. Who knows what happens in Neville Hewitt. If Neville We're able to come back, and how much he brings to the special teams part, he's still out there. So numbers end up being kind of interesting to me, and that leads me to wide receivers. Okay, Jonathan has six making the roster, Nico Collins, Christian Kirk, jayde Higgins, Jalen Nole, the two rookies, Xavier Hutchinson, Justin Watson, and he puts in the others category. Now, Tank Dell, we got a feeling is probably gonna go on ir and probably gonna be for most, if not all, the seasons.
Let's just put him out of the conversation for the moment.
Right, Metchi, Barrios, Wayne Johnny Johnson, and Xavier Johnson.
He's also got Daniel Jackson who was picked up as an undrafted.
Free agent that we've heard sources say, we don't know, haven't gotten the official word from the Texans. I think wide receiver, just like last year, is gonna be the most difficult cut again, maybe for a different reason, just trying to figure out. We got these two rookies, you're gonna keep both them. One's the second one's a third round pick. You're gonna keep both of them as long as they can stay healthy. But then you've got some veterans. You've got Metch, you, you've got Barrios. How do they play a role? The special teams become involved as Barrios take a pump back in week one of the preseason, all a sudden, you're like, well, damn, we can't.
We got to keep Braxton. There was a time.
Where they kept six wide receivers and Steven Simms in either twenty three or twenty four, I can't remember.
They kept six and Sims.
Yeah, so you could say said wide receivers, but really, Sims was a return this twenty four, So it is six plus one, so you keep six plus barrios. So if you do that, you pull a linebacker out, you pull a running back. Do you only go with three running backs? This is as good a problem as you could talk about. Yeah, and we weren't. We weren't there in twenty one and twenty two like this, but we now are here in twenty twenty five when we look up and go, dang man, how do you get into six?
Well?
I look at the two new Cyclones, and when you think about projected fifty three man roster, you assume they both make it because of where they were drafted. Right now, that does put pressure on your roster, because let's look at the names that are virtual locks. Okay, obviously Nico Kirk, yes, I'll stop there, goes are the two locks locks? Because I can't say Justin Watson is a lock. I can't even say X is a lock, even though he went to Iowa State and that seems to be pretty good pedigree for this team.
So the rookies, he going Christian are the two locks. They're the two locks.
Yep, I gotta think Higgins and Knowl make it because yeah, where they were drafted, and they show enough promise and they're gonna show it in training camp.
And you know how I feel about Noel in particular. I just think he's gonna be really electric for me. I'd like to think those two are locks. I really do.
Let's assume everybody's healthy. Injuries will not solve this problem today. For the sake of this conversation.
I think they make it. I think those four, that's four that I think those four are in.
Anybody after that compete for spot five to six and potentially Burios for a return.
And I've heard people, I've heard all the shows and people shoveling dirt on Metschi. I understand why. I understand it. However, I'm gonna point something out here. Maybe this is the last house on the left here for John Metschi. So it's a chance, though he's gonna come to camp, he's got a chance to prove it to once and for all, because look, maybe it's taken that long, the recovery from the cancer treatment, everything else to show what he's really got. What name did you bring up to me before the show, Bryce mcain, it is the Bryce McCain's syndrome, okay, And it's a good syndrome for that player, because Bryce McCain was brought in here and you thought, looks like.
It's not happening. Year was he drafted? All right, it's either eight or nine. It was nine in ten? Yeah, I think it's nine in ten.
He had issues and he was inactive largely for the last part of that year, although healthy. And so they draft I mean, they acquired Jonathan Joseph, They draft Brandon Harris and Rock Carmichael, and you know, these guys never made it with this team ultimately, but they brought in young players to take his spot. And McCain said, not so fast, my friend, as Lee Corso would say. And McCain proved himself as a player and played in this league for a long time, not necessarily here, but he reproved himself here, or proved himself for the first time here and then eventually ended up other places. But he played, man. He ended up as a Steeler, I believe, and he played We'll tell you one step further, okay.
In another similarity, m hmm Waite Phillips came in in twenty eleven, Right brought a new defense with Yeah, so they were running a new defense. Similar here, ni Keayley comes in bringing in a different offense and maybe that offense will fit mechi better than the one before or or maybe not, maybe not, but it is. It's one of those things I know people will watch and camp for sure that there is. I think it's going to be the two cycling rookies, Nico and Christian. Those four, okay, but after that there's a hell of a competition for the next two. I like Justin Watson, not only just because he went to Ivy League school, but every time I saw that guy with the Chiefs, he worried me because he's big, he can go down the field and get it, did all the little things.
I don't you know. But again you can't. You can't say he's a lot.
You know, he's not in this long contract where you've got a bunch of guaranteed money and all that kind of stuff either, And that sometimes can can play play a role when you're talking about a fifty three man roster, But I don't I don't see that with with anybody here.
If Barrios is not on the team, who returns punts, jail and nol Maybe no, Okay, if Barrios is not on the team, who's dating a mega social media influencer, I mean, will we have one? Because I think that's a big concern for the social media It is a concern, although Nick would not really buy into that.
Yeah, it strikes me that Nick probably doesn't even know. He probably doesn't even know who.
Alex Earl is.
But I'll tell you this, Braxton, Braxton Barrios can absolutely play. So if you get to a point where you're like, well, damn, we gotta keep Braxton Barrios, I'll be happy with that.
I'll be very happy with that.
But maybe that hurts X, but X play special team. Yeah, exactly hurts Watson, but Watson plays special teams.
Yeah.
And so in the end, the receiver position may not come down to Ben McDaniels and Nick Keley figuring out who plays it.
It might come down to what Frank Ross thinks.
And Frank's gonna have a hand in a lot of this because of what they think about special teams. So, you know, as we go further, the offensive line, Okay, he's got Cam Robinson and Ursery at left tackle, left guard Titus and Lake, and those are the two he's got making at center, he's just got Jarrett because he's got Juice and Ed Ingram on the right side. There's five yep juson Ingram, all right, that's seven youson Ingram make seven. And then the two right tackles are Blake Fisher and Trent Brown. And we saw Trent today and you had kind of the Senior Bowl moment I did, Johnny.
He walks out the door, big down the hall.
Johnny and I are talking to Nick Keley actually, and Trent starts walking toward us. And I don't know if I've ever seen a line in that big in this building, I can't remember. And if I forgot, I'm sorry, but I can't remember seeing an offensive line in that big.
He is massive.
He makes Dwayne Brown and Laramie Tunsel and everybody looks small. You know, all the guys who have been here, George Fant and Eric Winston on the right side, and I know Trent plays right and left right, and he he just looks like if he leans into you, you're falling over. You know, you should be able to get two yards behind him anytime. You want it, and when he's dialed in, he's good. Now, there have been some injuries that have you know, they speed up the the end of a football player's career at times.
Hopefully that's not the case here, so you know, but those are the linemens. So you got twenty two one, two two, so that's four or five.
He's got nine.
You know what has me on alert about this about this Jonathan Alexander roster projection on the offensive line. If you say ten, it's actually pretty easy to come up with the ten. I don't want it to be so easy. We just had a little debate about wide receiver at the end of that group, right, But the old line, it's like, yep, this is it.
This is what you got.
Now.
You never know, maybe as Zach Thomas a tackle rises up Austin Deculus, is there more there than we've seen.
He's still in this league. Yep, you when he's point out.
He started against the Steelers in twenty twenty three, played well, ended up with the Jets back here.
Now tell you when he played that game at the end of the year against the Titans, he went in, play everyone out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they didn't have this the Titans start in the full time. But there was a time where he's going against Harold Landry and he was going against the dudes they have, and.
I thought deculous looked really good. It's good.
So you know, if hey, maybe that's maybe that's a tenth. You never know what about the center.
Maybe Eli Cox, the rookie from Kentucky rises up. Maybe Jake Andrews, who they just got off waivers to the Patriots.
Yeah, he did this before Jake Andrews was acquired.
So if you put Jake Andrews in there as the other center, that's that's ten right there. But you know, who's to say in the makeup of it. You have no we have no idea. You know, does Juice fill in the right guard?
Now?
I think Juice did a nice job at right guard. And if there was anything that I had an issue with the offense the last part of the year, I mean, other than the normal was I would have stayed with Juice to the playoff game. I would have stayed with Juice in the playoff game. I just would have felt more comfortable with ju just being there at right guard. You play pretty well for a few games. I would have I would have wanted Juice to stay there at right guard instead of going back to Shack.
I didn't think that did anything for you at all. Okay, I thought it probably hurt the lines. So well, Shack's not here, so maybe they agree with you. Maybe we'll see.
Defensively, the the boy the secondary. Usually I would go in order, but the secondary seems it's tough.
He kept four safeties. C J. Gardner, Johnson, Kaylyn Bullock, Jimmy Ward, Jalen Reid, m J. Stewart not a part of that four. Now.
That is gonna be a tough discussion with Frank Cross because MJ is one of the Special Team's captains. So there's that corner. He's got Nickel, he's got two of them. He's got Jalen Petree, Jalen Smith, which I think is right. And he's got the four corners I think you would have, which is staying Lassiter, Darby and treymont Smith.
Here's something to watch out for. He's got four safeties, like you said.
C J.
Gardner, Johnson, Calen Jimmy, Jalen Reid, six round draft choice Penn State.
Ah, that's a competition.
Reid is gonna have to fight his butt off, huge competition.
Jimmy's healthy along with Calyn, that's a big question. It's Jimmy healthy, right.
But if Jimmy's healthy, that is going to be a tough task for Jail and Reed to crash in and make that because I don't think, yeah, you know, they could keep four, but you still have Petrie hanging around who can play safety for you, and that should help your numbers, because what do they have?
Ten?
He has ten? Ten totals? Yeah, and that's probably about what it is.
But you could go nine offensive lineman and ten DB's and I guess you make it fine.
But that that is one worth watching.
Okay, So here's one. Okay, so I'm kind of going to reverse order. Yeah, listen to this linebacker crew. Okay, tell me when the Texans have had a linebacker crew like this. He's got five making the roster.
Ten hold the linebackers?
Yeah, Azise, Henry krishnais e J Speed, Nick Neeman. So he's got a draft pick from last year and Jake Hansen not making it. And I'll tell you this right now, Jake Hanson has been anything and everything that they have wanted in a backup blindbacker special teamer. If Jake Hansen doesn't make the roster, that means that five is as good as I've ever seen a linebacker crew.
Well, here's the key, Christian Harris healthy. Look, we'll assume everybody's healthy for the sake of this conversation. And if that's the case, then you gotta be willing to say goodbye to Jake Hanson because Nick Neman.
Although can Jake be Nick Neman on special teams? I don't know.
Nick Nema is filling that that Neville Hewitt role.
And if you get what if you're able to bring back Newell? What if you bring him back? I think you're at ninety now.
I could cost Nick Neman a job in this lineup right here. But I mean there's no way EJ. Speed doesn't make it.
Right.
You know what Frank said to us, He said, you know, he was like that Chiefs game has that's been a burning chip on his shoulder ever since he is not he those special teams are going to be good.
Yeah, So if that means.
That somebody else has got to lose a job, he keeps Neman, keeps Hewitt, and keeps Hanson.
Somehow, those special teams will be nominant.
You know, Frank probably when he can't sleep, he's thinking about that game. Yes, that was the reason, but he didn't get his performance out of those guys that night, that day night.
He knows it, and he has made it very clear to them that they need to know it. So I mean, if you say, say it's his ease in Henry Att start, you got special.
Teams with speed ej Speed Nieman. Yeah, you keep Jake.
I mean that linebacker, that linebacker battle is going to be a monster.
Yep. And it's going to be a monster.
He's got for defensive tackles making it Mario Rank Settle Togii.
Okay, so he doesn't have count to handle to make it.
But again seventh rounder, No, I mean it's it's good. A lot of cases not likely, especially for a playoff team. He's got six defensive ends making it now. Nico can bump down inside. We know that, But argue with any of these guys, Will Anderson Junior, Daniel Hunter, Derek Barnett, Denico Autry, Darryl Taylor, Dylan Horton.
So casey edge group we've ever had, Yeah, it's gotta be got him and Byrd not making it. You know, you can still stash Solomon Byrd on the practice squad.
And here here's a casey two hill.
That dude can rush the quarter Really, he can rush the quarterback like he's I mean, that's the level of like what this defense has, which is crazy to think about. This defense is just freaking nuts. Absolutely, he was officially retired.
I don't think so. I don't think he's officially retired. I don't think he's hanging out waiting to see if anybody gets hurt. Look, I mean if somebody gets hurt in that group. And look, Will was hurt last year with the ankle.
You know, we've seen Denko obviously got suspended last year, you know, but Dylan obviously has gone through what he I can't wait to see what Dylan does now he's had a full off season to get red.
Instead of, oh, what you do your first offseason?
Oh I had to go beat cancer before my second year in the NFL. Now he ends up having a full year, or at least a full offseason workout schedule, because I think that guy's got something and maybe what he gives you this year ends up giving you the opportunity to be a little more flexible with this troop point forward. But Darryl Taylor completely underrated. I think he's gonna be really fun to watch. These guys will get to the quarterback. Whoever ends up playing tackle for the Texans, left tackle, right tackle, they will have been tested in training camp, no doubt about it.
And when we do see training camp, I'm curious about OTAs too in mini camp. But how will they line up on the line. Is it automatically? Hey, Cam Roberts to go out to left tackle. Just let's go.
Let's say that.
First group is going to be really everybody's gonna be scrambling writing it all down, knowing full well they can't say it.
If they exactly well, they're gonna be saying it. That means will be saying it. I will say it, they said.
But imagine because last year, with Laramie not practicing during camp a loot, they put Blake Fisher at left tackle just to get them wet out there. But they put Ursery out there at left tackle just so he faces Will Anderson Denil whoever lines up over him eventually to get him that experience. Well, look, it's no slouch.
You know.
If you're facing barnead over there or whatever they put on that side against exactly. But you know they want to have a long look at Ursery.
You want you want to face the vets absolutely here, and they're all vets that I mean, all those guys.
I listened.
He needs to face every single one of these guys because they're all different, all unique with speed, to power and size and you know, a plethora of moves. I mean, how awkward is it to block Derek Barneatum. He just whips guys. So yeah, he's gonna he's gonna get come up and sp You know, Cam Robinson needs to get the get those reps too.
He needs to face these guys.
Who Ever plays tackle is gonna get it in Trenny camp.
Who they're gonna get it.
Who's been signed as a veteran, who's not gonna be challenged by some rookies.
Maybe Christian Kirk.
You could say, like, yeah, he gets a spot, but these young bucks Man.
I'm not saying Kirk's in trouble at all. I'm not saying that. No, No, I'm not saying.
In fact, I think he's the he's the safest lock maybe of the veterans they signed. Yeah, that's another conversation for another day. But competition, you know, we talked about Daray and Woody Marx and how that might shape up. And I'm not saying it's an automatic challenge, but again we'll be watching cam and and Tate ersery in a competition.
We'll be watching.
There's gonna be plenty of competition, which I think is exactly the way that the Miko and Nick have wanted this whole thing, no.
Question, All right, we come back, We're going in the Lab.
Drew Dorny did a hell of a job interviewing every draft pick after they were drafted. We'll get Drew's thoughts on that. I'll follow up with some of my thoughts on each one of the guys as well. Next on Texans All Access, What's happened Everybody? Welcome back to Wednesday edition of Texans All Access from the Honday Texans the Radio Studio.
I am your host, John.
Harris, football analyst, sideline reporter, and one half of the in Lab podcast from a man Drew Doherty. Now, after every pick was made, obviously you had to listen to Meo Pine about each pick. But Drew Doherty actually had a chance to sit down one on one with each of the draft picks. So Drew and I just went in order and talked about our experience, Drew's experience with interviewing each guy, and then one little interesting nugget from each not only the conversation but just the pick.
And here's what we had to say on in the lap.
Players have been picked nine total, and medicine balls are flying here inside in RG Stadium. This is in the Lab presented by Infinity Me, Drew Doherty, John Harrison, you our third friend listening watching whichever one you're choosing to do. We appreciate that. But yeah, the medicine balls. John twenty yards. That way is the weight room, and sometimes outside the weight room they'll throw medicine balls against the wall. So I didn't see which players are out there right now, but I mean a lot of them too much. Everybody that's that matters. They're all here and they're all working out.
Yep. It's been really cool to see how many guys are here.
Yeah, it is, as we've said many times, voluntary, and there had been a lot of Texans stars in the past that were like, it's voluntary be there when I need to.
These guys have been more along the lines of, hey.
This is a this is as the way we can get together and we can you know, compete as a team.
Darren Hambrick saying, what do voluntary mean?
Yeah, exactly, that's.
You've got to be old if you remember that one.
Yeah, yeah, two thousand and two thousand and one, ish Darren Hambrick, a linebacker for the Cowboys, didn't show up for voluntary workouts or something.
He was a piece of work.
Now, voluntary mean he had his little brother, Troy Hambrick, pretty good running back years.
But that's right, Yeah, yeah, it's so it's voluntary. But guys are here, and look, it's it's not everybody. You know, people have some family situations or whatever. But there's been a really considered effort to get together and be with the guys. And man, you walked on like I walked probably about an hour and a half ago, down.
The hallway and just boom, there's a guy. There's a guy. There, there's a vet. There's just to give.
An example, somebody asked me on h fans want to know kind of it's the what you used to be, Dear Drew, Hey, who's not here at involuntary workouts or voluntary workouts.
I was like, I don't know. I mean, I've seen CJ.
Stroud, I've seen Nico Collins, Derek Stingley, Will Anderson Junior, all the veterans, you know, the new guys that have signed. Garter Johnson you heard from him last. I mean, everybody's here that I know of. I'm sure it's like you said, there might be some guys that that have missed it there too, but I still know who they are. Anyways, let's get into the draft and we're gonna do nine things that stand out to me, and it's peculiar little things, and then you're gonna you're gonna add on to it.
But it's each pick.
And I got one thing about him, and it's wild that the Texans took nine guys, by the way.
Yeah, exactly, Ace. We went in with eight.
Yeah, and I knew the numbers at the time, but yeah, eight, Yeah, So we went in with eight, came out with nine.
All right, do we go in with eight or do we go yeah?
Because we had four of the first three rounds, right, and then we had which is yeah after that, No, you're right, Yeah, you're right, it was eight seven with a bunch of said anyways, Okay, let's start off with the big fella right off the top, and I say, big Jaye Higgins.
His dimensions is what stood out to me.
And it's everyone's saying, oh, he's a carbon copy of Nico Collins. And instantly when I hear someone compare a guy to another guy, I instantly recoil.
And say, he's he's his own mate. He's gonna be different. It doesn't matter, but darn it.
Like looking at it, looking at this guy's size, looking at his speed, looking at what he did on the field, those are a lot of Nico Collins esque stats and numbers. And I'm fine, I'll take seventeen Nico Collins on a team. There's I saw this idea out there that he can't have two of the same guy. Sure he can, Sure you can, you absolutely can. I'll take as many Nico Collins as you'll give me, because I mean, he's the definition of swarm in one dude. I mean it takes six guys to bring him down. He catches the ball and then chooses violence in the most violent way he can and gets all that extra yardage and he can run by guys. Somebody on Twitter, Ian hartzit's had a he had a really good tweet last night. We're shooting this on a Wednesday morning. He said, look at what Nico Collins was doing before the injury against the Bills. Oh yeah, he was pace for two thousand yards. Now was that fled up dominating?
We'll see. But he was lighting it up.
And the last catch he had before he got injured was what seventy five yard touchdown, took it to the house. So is there a can can he do this? Can Jayden Higgins do this? We'll see. I mean that's a big bar to clear. But man, I like all the numbers and the stuff backing it up that made the Texans choose him. Because the numbers was one little, smart, small component of why they chose him. There's all sorts of other stuff that they've seen over the years that they like.
I mean, think about it, is Drew and you know how to do these things. I do a player comp I did. I probably did about one hundred and fifty player compsh football takeover at com and so immediately when I got back from the Senior Bowl, I didn't based it on really other than the only kind of numerical comparison was kind of the size comparison, like one guy six fourteen, But it was just the way that he played, the way that he carried himself, the way that he won as a receiver. I came back from the Senior Bowl and I just, you know, I've got a seven and a half eight hour drive home, and I'm thinking about all that I've seen, and I'm like, oh, man, Okay, Higgins is Higgins is Nico. Man, There's no doubt, just the way they move, how fluid they are. And I remembered, you know, Jaden, I thought I had a good Senior Bowl. And what stood out to me was the fact that when when Nico went to his Senior Bowl, he had not played for a whole year, and so Nico did not have a great Senior Bowl. I remember coming out of there, I was really excited to see him because he hadn't played that year and I was getting to see him up close.
Such a peculiar circumstances.
And I had an agent.
I had an agent tell me at some point he was like, during that Senior Bowl, defensive backs are kind of fighting themselves to go on the field with Nico and because they felt like they could just destroy this big physical receiver from out of Michigan. Those And it's funny because I try and buy some gear from the Senior Bowl hats and you know, winter caps and you know long sleeves and hoodies and all that, and so they were selling a long sleeve on the back was the entire roster.
And I pulled it out of my closet. This is back during the season.
I pulled it out in my closet and I was like, oh yeah, And I went looking at the names and I was like, none of those receivers have done a damn thing. They haven't busted a grape and a fruit flight. They have just done nothing. And then there's Nico. And it's just funny because at the Senior Bowl there were all, oh, this guy, that guy. Now, if I remember correctly, I think Christian Watson was there, but they can't remember exactly.
But I just remember a litany of those guys like nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, Nico.
So do you remember if the dbs that were fighting, you know, do you remember have I'm guessing a few of them have done some nice things.
Oh no, no, No, the DB's weren't.
The DB's weren't very good in that in that if I remember correctly, in that Senior Bowl for some reason, but I gotta go look the back of my shirt again, yeah, to see that. But that was to me, that was just a the way that Higgins plays the way Nico plays, Like, I can see the comparison, so okay, size wise, it fits, and that's where I start with it. For me, I start with size, like, how similar are the sizes because I'm not going to compare Jaden Higgins to Maurice Jones Drew. I'm not gonna, you know, in the way even though the play is simple. No, no, no, I'm gonna compare. Start with size, and then from there I'll go, Okay, how do their play styles? Are their play styles similar? Do they win and kind of the same way? And I came out of that Senior Bowl thinking, yeah, they do. And so that's that's where I came up with the competate and Higgins for Nico like and I know I I wasn't alone with that, but they just and I had that back in January when I got back from the Senior Like, that was immediate, like I wrote up his report Boom Nico Collins, and I was.
Like, that's easy.
As soon as if I can knock out a comp, easy, Boom, moving on the next, because they're they're not easy after a while, like dang and I and I try and mock, I try and come up with a comp that's different for every receiver, every player in a draft. So I won't comp Nico to five different guys that are six, four, two, ten. Nico only goes to one. And sometimes it's hard, and there's some guys I just won't.
I won't comp too.
And as Nico gets maybe a little bit better, I probably won't comp anybody to Nico.
Because he would just be at that level. Like I'll never comp anybody to J. J. Watt.
Did you comp Brock Osweller to Dan McGuire.
You know, I don't know. I didn't do a comp back then.
But it's funny because with Brock I didn't like him out of Arizona State.
I remember, yea, that's what I was saying.
Yeah, I didn't like him at all, And when he signed here, it was like I had this push pull of man, my either my either my draft report is wrong, yeah or my positive vibe about bra was gonna be wrong.
And you know, yeah, God bless brock Man.
He's a nice dude. I've gotten I've gotten to talk to him a few times since. He's been great, So I'm not gonna say a bad thing about brock All good, all good.
Uh. I was in my Damn McGuire was just like there booth.
No, that's a great comp that's an absolutely perfect comp.
We'll go old here on in the labt ife of you don't know what we're talking about.
That's fine, it's all good. It's all good.
But a few of you old people like Dave Howard probably got that. Dave okay, tay Ersree okay. And by the way, I got to interview all of these guys except for Keante Hamilton and Luke Lache and everyone is in that honeymoon phase when you talk to him five minutes after being drafted and as pleasant as can be.
It was awesome.
And I'm sure they are pleasant guys, but it was really really cool talking to these guys.
Tay Ersree.
Athletically played hoops, didn't play basketball till or excuse me, didn't play football till sophomore junior year in high school went to a Kansas City area high school.
We took three guys from the Kansas City area.
That's how you be chief.
So very athletic A because he could hoop. He was also a thrower.
And when I say thrower, he didn't just throw the shot put, because he did. He didn't just do the discuss, because he did that too. He also threw the javelin, which have you ever thrown a javelin on It's.
Not easy, No one of my buddies that I was telling you about it. He threw javelin at A and M.
He did all three of those parts. So that's another component to the athleticism. And then he was a dancing bear at left tackle. But the thing that stood out to me the most was the number of starts. It's like high thirties in his career at left tackle alone. And last season in a conference with the likes of Josh Simmons, Donovan Jackson, a whole lot of others, this guy, tay Ersary was the conference offensive Linemen of the year.
That's what stood out to me.
That's the and I'm just going with like first, when I think about these guys, now, this is what I think of. That's pretty cool, man.
It is absolutely And when I when I there are a couple of you know, I build my database, like I literally spent yesterday starting my twenty twenty six database for the draft.
And I go to team rosters, I go to all americal lists that just start.
Yeah.
Well, one of the places that I go and I use because it points out the athleticism is Bruce Feldman's Freaks List.
Yep.
And so last year on Bruce Feldman's Freaks List, Ariante was at twenty five, Tay was at twenty five, and they talked about, you know, against Ohio State, he only he allowed one pressure on twenty three pass blocking snaps against Sawyer and Tui moloout.
Then Bruce said this.
Ursery squaded six hundred and forty pounds, bench pressed four to twelve and did a four hundred and nine pound hand clean this offseason. Like if you've ever done hand cleans, Like when I was at Brown a lot we did hand cleans.
Again.
What's so basically you take the bar instead of it's starting at the ground, you bring it to your knees and then you have to explode up and then catch it.
Oh yeah, okay, okay, that's.
Four hundred and nine pounds. That's inanity.
Yeah, So, having done hand cleans in my entire college life, I'm like, I hate them, I hate I get.
It, I get it, but I hate him.
Four or nine pounds stood out to me, and they said, but his wheels are the most impressive aspect of his game. His one point five to two second ten yards split is a program record for an offensive lineman. He clocked eighteen point three four miles pro on at GPS. He posted a twenty seven and a half its vertical on a nine too broad jump along with the pro shettle time of four to six one. Keep in mind, this is a guy the six six, three hundred and thirty pounds.
That's impressive.
Eighteen months.
I mean that's and now that Sexans aren't going to have him run in fly routes, but no, still, just the athleticism for this guy.
He started a lot an so.
All that athleticism, that's awesome, but he got a lot of experience. And that's what I love too. Like that union of the two things I love, right.
And the athleticism. To me, the strength is the one thing that is that you can absolutely.
You see when you see him run, he's kind of stiff legged and bent his knees as much. And so when I first watched I've said this, you know, during a draft show and everything.
When I first watched Ursery.
Play, no, no, I don't see it, but I didn't really see it as a first rounder. But the more I watched him, and then I watched the game against m du A Carter, and I was like, this is actually he gets Carter blocked. Saw him at the Senior Bowl. Guys are trying to run through him and he just just anch it. And that's why I think he could play guard, but I don't know if that'll be in the Texans plans. But either way, he just anchored like guys would bull rush him and he just stopped him in their tracks. I'm like, this is a strong dude. So like that strength is shown when he moves. You can see the athleticism and his movements. He just he just looks a little kind of peg legged, and that's okay.
Jalen Knowle another Iowa state wide receiver, playmaker, man play maker, and he's a bowler.
He's a that's the best part I love that. I love it.
I love it, love Steaks, but I love Jalen Nole. He's he's gonna be fun man. It's just it's you gotta load up, because what have we seen around here the last couple of years. Start with the Texans wide receivers. They've gotten injured. It's not they're not injury prone, but they've gotten injured. And so you gotta be ready and you got to have layers to your wide receiver.
Cord. I think the Texans have done that now.
You know what, you know, these first five guys all went to Senior Bowl, so I got to see.
I got to see and I was focusing more on an offense.
So I got to see all these guys and had a pretty good idea about them. And again came back from the Senior Bowl and I immediately comped Nol to Jaguars wide receiver Christian Kirk.
Yeah.
And then a few months later, the Texans signed Christian Kirk. They sign Christian Kirks. I was coming out of the cafterioy, yes, yeah, Hey, how's it going Christian?
Yeah?
And I gotta I can change my database now to say Texans wide receiver Christian Kirk. So I thought it was interesting the two receivers again, I comped again to two Texans. But you know, sometimes Drew like for me, you know, people like this will happen at Texas practice. They'll go through a period called individual and you know, media members, you know, kind of jack John about whatever, not really paying attention. I always love to watch individual because I always feel like there's something that you can get. And sometimes when you're you know, day, you know, two hundred and twelve of a season and you're getting ready for the Ravens in the playoffs, you're not really worried.
About watching individual too much.
But I feel like in the Senior Bowl, because it's the first time kind of laying eyes on on guys in person, I feel like watching it is is pretty interesting. And so I'm watching the receivers. I'm down in the receiver section and they're working on They're working on sideline routes, just getting the sidelines, and it's the biggest thing for wide receivers.
Now one foot doesn't count. You got to get both in.
So they would work on us a toe tapping drill and that evolved into running like a sale route. Sale routes kind of a like take a corner route and then kind of bend it and shorter, and so there's timing involved and all that kind of stuff, but you're running basically full speed to the sideline. And I remembered distinctly, as I'm watching the guys go through the drill, I'm watching these guys try to body catch the ball, which is really you can't do that on the sail route, And all of a sudden, Jalen runs that sail route and boom, he just snatches it, just plucks it out of the air.
And I thought, this is interesting. So I kept.
Watching that, and I watched as he caught the ball, and I realized, and I know people are like, well, he caught the ball, Like yeah, but when you catch it the way he's doing it with perfect technique, thumbs down on a ball above him, thumbs up the ball below him, not trying to body catch it.
It's like, that's impressive to me. Those hands are really really good.
And then it was the start stop, the ability to stop on a dime, not not drift on routes. If he's got to get the five yards and pivot, boom, he's at five yards full speed pivot he gets separation. I mean, it's everything that they have talked about that Demi goes, oh, I want a separator.
Well, that guy's a separator. There's no doubt.
He's and yes he does all that. But there's a video up. I did the one on ones, like I mentioned earlier, and there's a video up on YouTube. Go check that out because there's a catch on there where there is no separation whatsoever.
And I don't know the team. It looked like a high school team because it was green and yellow.
But he was bracketed. And when I say bracketed, I mean there was a guy on his left side and a guy on his right side touching his shoulders.
Yeah, and he catches a pass right through him.
He shouldn't have caught it, right, And I'm not saying he was being guarded by Derek Stingley and Deon Sanders, but it just doesn't matter. Like the way he caught this thing was remarkable. So I can't wait to see what he does now.
There's more to that.
If you want to hear the rest of that, go to in the Lab podcast on Houston Texas dot com or Friday night. I'll have the second half of that interview where we talk about everybody else after Jalen Noel as we discussed him right there. All right, let's finish up going around the league. A lot of stuff is happening even as we speak. We'll get to that next the Texans All Access. We go on final segment of this Wednesday edition at Texans All Access from.
The Texans Radio studio. I am John.
Harris, football analyst, sideline reporter for your Houston Texans. And I can't remember when this news was made official. I don't recall, but the Texans made a waiver claim. Jake Andrews, formerly of Troy University, and that matters because that was where Cole Popovich was for a year, was claimed by the Texans A center. And I can't remember if I told the story on the air off the air, but when I was at the Senior Bowl in twenty twenty three, my buddy Lance Airline was talking to him and I went down and talked to Lance.
And as I was talking.
As I went down there, I looked at Jake and I said, you're wrestler, weren't you? And he goes, yeah, man, how'd you know that? And Lance looked at me like yeah, how'd.
You know that. I was like, they just hap there's a certain way. They just look a certain way.
So that wrestler Jake andrews now in Houston added to the ninety man roster, and I believe that's ninety. Now we haven't seen the undrafted free agents. I've seen a lot of teams over the weekend. In the last couple of days, Seahawks released four guys, this team released three, this team released six. So everything's kind of shucking and jiving right now moving around. But if the undrafted free agents are what we thought they were, nobody's lost due to the physical not working out or whatever the case might be, then yeah, we're at ninety.
I think Jake makes it ninety. So away we go.
Doesn't mean that Texas won't do something, but now there's got to be a corresponding move if that does in fact happen. In the NFL has fined the Atlanta Falcons two hundred and fifty K and devinse coordinator jeff Aulbrick one hundred K. This was a horrible situation, and let's just say that kid's got a lot of lonmowing to do to pay back that one hundred grand that his dad is now out, so there you go.
All right, that's the show.
Big thanks to Drew Doherty, my man, Mark Vandermir to Jonathan Alexander. We'll talk to him on Thursday, but for bringing up that fifty three man roster.
Appreciate you, my man. Will see tomorrowbody and as always, go Texans
