Mike Blewitt and Joe Gallina are joined by Sportsmap.com's Jayson Braddock to preview the Texans for the 2019 NFL season. They talk about their expectations, things to watch this season for the Texans and more. #FNTSY #FNTSYRadio #NFL #FantasyFootball #Texans #Preview #2019
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Welcome back to Fantasy Sports Radio Network, Mike Blue to Joe Galina and for this segment, bring it just radic along in a minute. Before I do, I just want to tell everybody to get in the game with Draft King sports Book, where listeners of this show can get a risk free bet up to five hundred dollars. Here's how it works. One just create a Draft Kings sports book account to make a deposit, three place her first bet and Draft Kings will match it up to five hundred dollars. So just go to sports grid dot com backslash d k to play that sports grid dot Com backslash d k and at quickly. This offer won't be around forever. If you have a gambling problem, please please call one eight hundred gambler twenty one and over, New Jersey only and the eligibility restrictions applies to see website for details. Are gonna bring him in right now. Our friend Jason Braddock. Jason and you and I were messaging yesterday and it's Houston in the summertime, and it's a training camp, so it's hot as Hadi's down there, right h yeah, one other percent. Humidity is always bad. Thank you. Guys for having me on. But I always fun to get back to football, getting out there see uh, seeing what's going on up close and perp. Yeah, of course. So you can find Jason on Twitter at Jason Braddock. That's j A Y s O N braddocks b R A D d O c K. I'll tweet it out after this because uh, he's just does a kick butt interviews. So a couple of a bunch of pieces of news out of the n FC South this morning. I feel like it's the strongest division top to bottom. Uh news for you that you can update us on. A uh, Deonta Freeman gets released and two to Dave and Clowney talk as to whether or not he's coming back. Bill O'Brien just doesn't really want to talk about it anymore. So those two items give us an update. Yeah, um, Deonte Wman. Uh, this is the guy Bill O'Brien made some news about a week ago when he was asked about you know what's the death chart? Look behind at Uh look looked like mind the top two running backs, and he quickly quipped back like, well, who's your top two? The reporter replied, Lamar Miller and Deonta Foreman and O'Brien quickly once against that, where I would say there's Lamar Miller. So obviously Adam Paul's to the general consensus that Deonta Foreman is that solidified number two. And then obviously with the news coming down today that Foreman has been waived that uh, there was proof and to put in there. And now with Bill O'Brien being that the facto g m um, he's going to go off of his raw emotions. And in the past that's been an issue to Obviously reports came out years ago and multiple times that one has been a guy that's rubbed them the wrong way. That O'Brien was ready to move on, and Rick Smith in the past had to step in when he was the GM and say, no, we can't wave this guy. One time, probably the most to h foretold time, was one he wanted to move on from Ryan Mallett after he missed uh you know, he was late, and he was ready to cut him in Rix and was like, listen, we only got two quarterbacks, two of the quarterbacks on the roster, you know, we need to have Mallett, And he had to convince O'Brien from cutting Ryan Mallett at that point. But there's also some other issues probably behind the scene that uh, I'm sure may come to the forefront over the next couple of weeks and months. So it's just not as clear cut as that. One of the big issues is special teams. Bill O'Brien is huge old special teams and that's not something that uh and he had been pleased with with the play of Deante Foreman. Was special teams in practice happened as if he wouldn't? All right, Jason, thanks for coming on. Good talking to you again. Uh, So talk a little bit about Bill O'Brien and you know, he's basically it seems like he's gotten two GMS fired within the past a couple of seasons. Brian Gaine, Uh, he was fired in June. How much of a role did Bill O'Brien have in this season's draft? And is this a Bill O'Brien team or like, in a perfect world, what would a Bill O'Brien team look like? I mean, you know, is there anything missing? Do you think that uh, that he that he's happy with the construction of this roster? I mean, you know, what's his issue with dealing with with gms. Is it a controlling issue. Yeah, Bill O'Brien's always wanted to be UH had a similar structure similar to what Bill Belichick and where he came from in New England, where there's other guys that factory and they can put their input. But at the end of the day, U go Bell text is going to have his stamp up approval on everything. That's what Bill Bell, That's what Bill O'Brien excuse me, has wanted to have in place since he came in. UH. There was obviously a power struggle between him and Rick Smith. Evidently he finally one out and Rick Smith was replaced with what we were told at the time was Uh, Bill O'Brien's guy, Brian Game, bringing Brian Game back. He had such a great relationship with him. This is Bill O'Brien's guy. Blah blah blah. They're on you know, they're in the same, on the same page with everything or football operations, the backside of everything else. Then going behold, uh, not even the two years into him in as the gym, the draft, passed, his free agency and then moving on from UH, moving on from Brian Game to evidently go after Nick Cassiro, who is Bill O'Brien's guy. They they perfectly aligned alignment. Alignment alignment was the message that was continuously pass well, new owner Cal McNair after is that Bob McNair passed and Bill O'Brien evidently after Jack easter Bea who was formally with the Patriots organization, had met at the ring ceremony with Nick Cassio, didn't do enough lead work, if you will, to find out that there was writing in the contract that Nick Cassario uh couldn't leave for you know, for another position with another team unless it was just dedicated right and getting into all the elements of it. And as an owner and a head coach, you cannot make that move to fire your g M this latent to the off season without not you know, without knowing the terminology and the writing in the contract. And then if you are going to make that move, you can't just cal tail to the New England Patriots when they slapped your hand and tell you like, no, uh, we're gonna get you for tempering on this. Well, there's in some questions that I think valid questions brought up to where whether uh it was valid for the Patriots to have that writing in Nick Casara's contract. But instead of fighting him Ona like we've seen in the past so often, Houston wants to keep that relationship to their big brother New England and not pushing back on this. And it was just a bad site. You look like the little brother, you look like a minor league organization. Uh, just cowering away from the New England Patriots. So they've plan on going throughout the rest of this season with Bill O'Brien. Jack used to be Chris Olsen, the cap guy and the director of Pro Scout and College Scallton, all of those guys basically as the genius of the round Table, if you will. But make no mistake about it, it's Bill O'Brien show to run. And I think that was proved today with the waiver of deante Foremant after O'Brien was so open about his disgust with some of the practice elements in Deonta women's game. Again, we're with Jason Braddock. Uh. He joins this uh from Texans training camp. We find him on Twitter at Jason Braddock. So it's especially considering that there's already stories out there that Cassario is just going to join them next year. I don't know why they would just wouldn't work through it now when they need a GM. But let me focus on the team here for a sec. Obviously, the offensive line was a massive issue. It has been for a couple of years, and it really came to a head last year. Despite the fact that they were winning games, it was putting to Shaun Watson in a tough spot. They addressed it very specifically with the first two UH picks of this year's draft, and Titus Howard and Max Sharping. People were surprised at Howard being taken where he was taken, but nonetheless they're trying to plug a couple of holes here. So what is your take on those two rookies, the overall improvement, possibly the offensive line, and is it going to be enough to keep Watson relatively healthy? Yeah? I would say the first off, Um, mattcalil is probably been in the most pleasant surprise. Uh. It looks to be in the best shape I've seen him in his entire career. It's moving along well. Uh. He hasn't looked like a guy that's washed. He hasn't looked like the guy. Uh. Towards the end of the scorer in Minnesota and UH bad years there with the Carolina Panthers. So I would say they've got found found money with Matt Khalil and UH and where they're where they sit with the roster currently, I would say week one of the expectation as Matt Kalil actually goes out there and UH starts at left tackle. UH for pursuitable future. Now, Titus Howard, I know a lot of people were down on that pick, but myself a week before the draft had tweeted out that if I was selecting an offensive lineman in the first round there with the Texans where it would be tight as Howard, I think he probably got to knock um because he just was in a household name, played at a smaller school. But you watch his stature, his movement ability, his side and everything else. He's a perfect fit. Now the early part UH training camp down here, he has been playing left tackle, left guard. But they don't have to force the issue there at left tackle right now because you have Matt Khalil. You're not gonna ask the guy if he's playing it well a beat guy to kick into a guard position. So they've been playing Titus Howard for the most part at left guard. Two practices ago, though Titus Howard kind of had his ankle rolled back on DJ Reader got into his chest pushed them back, and then the offensive lineman next to Titus Howard bleep was Greg Man's at that time, was basically over the top over the right ankle on Titus Howard. So he's been banged up the last two practices and has not played the last two practices. So I would say that would probably be the biggest concern for Titus Howard right now, because outside of that, he has played well and it looks like one of the best offensive alignment for the Texas mac sharping. They've kicked around a little bit between uh guard for the most part, specifically the right guard spot, and uh they gave him some rep back yesterday's practice at right tackle. Uh the tackle spot does not look like that will be his home. If he finds a home year one, it would probably be that right guard spot. And I think that's something that uh, he's having a little bit more of adjustment period to the NFL level. Then you're you're seeing what Titus Howard, but um, you know, Trent Williams is out there, and with almost forty millions of salary cap room this year, over eighty millions of salary cap room next year, if the Texas don't at least make multiple phone calls to Washington to see if Trent Williams can be had, I think that's a I think that's antipable mistake. Yeah, and with all that cap room left over. We were talking earlier in the show, and you bring up a great point, you know, the Texans colin Washington, what about uh possibly contacting the Chargers, you know, and seeing the kicking the tires regarding Melvin Gordon. Yeah, there's some thought on Melvin Gordon. But I just, uh, with what Lamar Miller has shown this offseason and now with Deante Foreman Go, Lamar Miller has come in, He's played out that entire free agency contract. He looks to be in great shape this offseason, looks to even be quicker. And he spoke about that, uh last week when he was talking about he's done a lot of work this off season with Frank Gore and was keyed about that. As you're looking at the guy with over fifteen thousand career rushing yards that continues to do a year after year, even at his current age. And he said some tips Frank Gore gave him was, as a vet running back in this league, continue to bring down your body mass every year so you can stay fast, you can stay quicker. And that's what you're seeing from Lamar Miller. I wouldn't specifically say a smaller Lamar Miller. I would say probably more streamline, still cut up, and he's playing quicker as well. And he's the only guy that you can trust out of all these running backs. Uh, He's the only guy you can trust past protection, which still questions on the offensive line everything else. I mean, I think long Miller is still of a fantasy value. People want to continue to push him out every year, but he's going to be a state producer. I like it. Uh. So that's a good tip. Obviously we know Deshan and DeAndre are gonna be incredible producers on uh for fantasy owners. How about everybody else? Give me a sense of Fuller and Coute and then the tight end position where you have a bunch of guys that drafted Collie Warren, who I like long term, but can you make an impact as a rookie. That's a lot to ask for a guy that just started playing football a few years ago. So give me some thoughts Fuller and then the tight end. Yeah, absolutely, all great points there. Uh, Will Fuller eleven touchdowns in the eleven regular season games he plays with the Shaun Wasson. That tells you all you need to know about Will for if he's healthy, if he's playing, he's going to be a mass producer for you. Uh, he's healthy out there, coming off of another severe injury. He's out there, he's playing. He's saying he's not at a hundred percent. You can't tell because he's flying around the field, looks good, leaving guys in his dust. Uh. So the only question with Will Fuller is if he can stay healthy through throughout the entire sixteen game season. Even Bill O'Brien spoke on that and say it, basically paraphrase, the same exact, same thing is, fol we just want to see him for sixteen games. So, Uh, there's nothing special I can give you on that. I can't. I mean the law of averages, how I would saying stacked against him because every year seems to excuse me, every year seems to be a magging injury for him. But if he's healthy and he stays on the field, he's going to be a producer for you. Whether you uh look the target him in DFS early on while you know he has that health, or if you try to roll the dice on the season long and hope for a sixteen game full se He's a Kiki qt Uh. He is the perfect slot guy for Bill O'Brien offense. Bill o'burn's first year in Houston, we asked him about the offense and he said, the key position is that slot position. He's never had that guy. He's finally got Kiki Qti. They found last year he had hamstring injuries coming early on into camp. Uh. They tried to rush him back a little bit too much, so he struggled with it all year. Well, look, he was the top receiving producer in the playoff game against the coach. Kiki qt is a guy that, especially in PPR formats, is going to be gold because I don't think you look throughout his career, even as former coaches in college, they all say he's not a guy that struggled with this long injury history. I just think he had a hamstring hit him at the wrong time, who wanted to come back earlier than he should have. Kiq Qti is the guy that I definitely think, specially again in all pp PPR formats, that you really want to target because I think with the Shawn Watson, especially if there's still some concerns with the old Lion, that Sean's getting the ball out quick and here you go and the guy and can keep you two that can run those underneath routes and get you yak after the catch. Uh So at the tight end position, Jordan Thomas going to be the main guy there are he's well, I would definitely say Jordan Thomas would be the plan to be the main guy. The issue is after those first two practices he hasn't practiced. UM. What I'm hearing they you know, Bill O'Brien and the Sexans aren't really open with um injuries. But what I'm hearing is that it's a hamstring and injury with Jordan Thomas. O'Brien is starting to get frustrated without Jordan Thomas being out on the field, keep keeps him that he needs to get back out there before the before the injury that's costing him. As every practice that is the first two. He was looking like a breakout monster for this season. Jordan Aikins is a guy that can go around catch the ball very well. And Darren Fells is going to get a lot of rap. At six seven to eighty, he looks like another tackle and with their issue issues specific they'll be on the field a lot. Just as that blockers secure Deshaun Watson's time in the pocket. You mentioned Cahill wearing. I would say he's just got on the field this year, and I completely agree with you. This tight is that there's a lot learned from I think he's going to struggle and I wouldn't expect anything from him until year three because stuff out of Jason Braddock. Thanks for Johnny is Jason uh You find him on Twitter at Jason Braddock for all Texans news. Thanks