All Hail Cam Smith! DeMeco Speaks In Indy and Jags GM Continues To Give Us Gifts

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team A.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Team And just like that, the show is underway. It
is a abbreviated Tuesday edition of the program and yep,
at the top of next hour we will be simulcast
on Space City Home Network. They're gonna get their particulars
together after a Astros victory over the Mets in spring training.

(00:37):
Can we just start cam watch right now? Is that
what we're gonna call it. I'm sure at some point
Matt Thomas will have imaging and it'll be a cam
Smith update and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
I think the cam Watch should be focused on when
will an opposing team's misshmash of not very good pitchers
be able to get him out? So far, he's been
to the plate four times and then nobody's gotten him
out a couple of AB's over the weekend, and he
walked a couple of AB's today, and he also walked
around the bases a homering both times he was trotting

(01:08):
after his opposite field shot the first time, then hit
won to right center the last time. And that is
can't think of a better way to say hello to
the franchise. Spent a little bit of time in professional
baseball last year after he was the fourteenth overall pick
of the Chicago Cubs. Obviously, he was the focus of
the trade between the Astros and the Cubs, sending Kyle

(01:29):
Tucker to Chicago and bringing cam Smith and a pair
of players. That's right, camp Smith, once again, for the
billionth time, that's the key to the deal. I think
everybody knows that, but I'll reiterate it. And he comes
over with Hayden was Nesky, who pitched today, and E'zac Perettis,
who played third today his debut with the Astros.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
In both of their cases, so.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
A little bit to talk about from the individuals and
their performances. Obviously, camp Smith hitting out of the park
is notable for now Blanco and Hayden was Neskey to
likely members the Astros starting rotation, almost guaranteed if healthy,
starting members of the Astros rotation. They were two of
the first three pitchers to go today. I'll tell you
about what we think we saw and what they thought

(02:12):
of their performances. Certainly in Hayden's case, you got Forrest
Whitley on the bump today. He was very very good
and he will be on the team provided he is
healthy coming out of camp for the first time and
have a chance to stick because they are out of
options with him. So certainly, as that as our lead
in to today's program, we will get a little bit

(02:32):
of thought on that. They'll do the same thing again
tomorrow with the early game. We'll have that for you here.
We'll come on after and that will take us into
Rockets basketball Tomorrow night. It's at eight point thirty with
the Spurs in town. Tonight it is at seven o'clock
with the Milwaukee Bucks in town. Time to re establish
what they were for most of the season, but not

(02:52):
over the last eleven games. Rockets have won just three
times in their last eleven games, their most recent game
the loss to Utah. Like to forget about that, and
hopefully they already have before they hit the court tonight.
Find out a little clarity on Fred van Vliet, who
practiced yesterday, and we'll see if it is time for
him to return. All but two of those games are
games that he missed. They clearly have not played particularly

(03:14):
well without him. Some other injuries were also a part
of that. Stretch of eleven games, but with his return,
whatever injuries they would have beyond that are minor or
strictly related to back to backs. Obviously just described they
have a back to back. And of course the NFL
Combine is still not on the field yet, but interviews
will be taking place. Players will continue to talk about

(03:36):
who is opting out of whatever performance they came there for,
and we'll just to have interviews and meetings and maybe
they'll throw the weights around a little bit. But also
between yesterday, today and tomorrow, head coaches and general managers
that made the trip to the Combine, we'll meet with
the local media and meet with the national media. Demiko
Ryans had the honors to do that today. Share a

(03:58):
little bit of what he had to say, some pretty
clear thoughts on what will make the Texans better in
twenty twenty five. They aren't news, it's not breaking, it's
not a news flash. I'm not gonna have you fall
out of your seats when you hear it because you
won't believe it. So I'll leave it at that as
we get started here on the show.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Okay, talk me down because it is a spring training
you down, Yeah, because it is a spring training game.
Because the guy it looks like an absolute tank and
because of how the off season went. Talk me down,
why shouldn't be very excited about him coming up sooner
rather than later? Because you know, you and I were
talking about this off the year before the show and

(04:39):
how the concept, much like the secondary trade deadline, the
concept of September call ups, while it's not completely dead,
it's not like it used to be, like, you know,
even a few seasons ago.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well, you already have an extra player on the roster,
you get to put it out to twenty eight, and
you get to the postseason. I mean, there's different reasons
why it's not quite what it was. So yeah, I
don't even consider that a phrase to use with Cam Smith.
You know, September callups or how do we fill out
the roster. Here's a guy that's not close yet, but
let's get him, you know, a chance to be Jeremy
Pania was brought up to sit the bench to watch.

(05:14):
He did, and then the next year he was on
the team and everything was great, but he wasn't there
to participate to help them in any way. Cam Smith,
if he were to be a part of the Astros
in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
It's to help them play baseball.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
It's to help them win games, it's to provide something
they're missing, or it's to just show, as quick as
it might seem, that he's ready for major League baseball. Again,
he's only been a professional ballplayer since the Cubs signed
him after drafting him in the middle of the summer
last year. So that doesn't normally send guys to the
majors that quickly, even pitchers, even Paul Skins, even guys

(05:47):
like that. It's very out of the ordinary to make
such a quick well, I just threw my last collegiate pitch. Oh,
you're a major leaguer. It just doesn't usually happen very often.
And he's still only even with this last week's worth
of games. He's got another five, six, seven, eight, ten
at bats over, you know, a couple of days of
spring training as the days move forward, to go along
with the thirty two games he had last year.

Speaker 4 (06:09):
I think it's a little quick to have.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Him here, to have him even in their thoughts for
breaking camp with him, But I think soon after anything
goes they've got some roster concerns because he's a third baseman.
If you wiped everything away that happened this offseason, and
Alex Bregman and Esak Perettes and all those things. They
wouldn't be playing camp Smith at any other position in
the minor leagues.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
Ever.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
He'd be playing third base, and as soon as he
was ready, he'd be there every day at third basement.
And that would be that, and that would be phenomenal.
But they traded for a third basement in the very
same deal they pursued Alex Bregman. Long after the deal,
they re engaged in negotiations apparently with Nolan Aaronatto, which
hopefully won't go anywhere. So I think they smartly look

(06:52):
at him and say, well, for the time being, can
we can we play him in right field in sugar Land?
Can we can we see if he can get here sooner,
because there's a spot for him there immediately, because he
can play the outfield, and I'm sure he can.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
I don't I don't have much doubt about that.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
He honestly looks like your typical, everyday, average, dominant killer
right fielder that we know for the past.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
Thirty forty years. He looks like Aaron Judge. I mean,
he's he looks huge.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
He is huge, So I think there's some things to
consider beyond the obvious. And then again, if you if
he's up here and you just say he played third
base today, which is great. I want to see him
play as much third base as possible. Well if he
plays third base, well, now you have to change what
you're doing.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
He'sak.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Peretis has to be in the lineup every day. They're
not so deep that you know they traded for him
and he could just kind of hang out and fill
in where they need him. He's got to move to
second base, or he's got to show that he can
play left field. If they think it's that easy to
move any old infielder out there, and I think people
would regard al Tuve as a probably a better athlete
than Perettis, so they would have to make that move.
You can't do anything but impress if you get the

(07:52):
opportunity and you're doing what Cam Smith is doing. He
is absolutely impressing, and he is I hope he makes
it hard for them to not have him play a
role on the twenty twenty five Astros, not just a peer,
not just make his debut, not just show up, but
have a role in a winning outfit this very season.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
It look it is, it's almost it's a couple things.
It reminds you of how spoiled we have been from
the standpoint of young talent coming up through this organization.
And if he's the next one, he is. But I'm
just saying he's in a long list of guys who
it's one thing to have, Oh, we have prospects, this

(08:32):
guy's gonna be great. He looks like he's gonna on paper,
he looks like he's gonna be something someday. But Astros
fans are used to hearing that and then it happening
almost every single time. And if he's the latest one,
then it goes back to our conversation we were having yesterday
where I don't know if well, I do know you
have pivoted because you don't have you know, the number one,
number two, number three pick in the draft every year

(08:52):
because you're not losing one hundred games every year. You're
doing the opposite of late. But you have, you know,
exchanged that system of getting young talent up to the
majors and trying to win with it for this type
where you've just traded one of the guys that did
come up in your system, and you're hoping that the
payoff is all right. Well, at least we got cam

(09:12):
Smith out of it and he can play this, that
and the other. But it's it reminds me that it's
been a while, Probably Paina was the last time you
had a situation like this where a guy has expected
so much of him because of how he was acquired
or how he came up to this level. Hunter Brown, Yeah,
I guess pictures are like a different It's just I'm

(09:33):
so used to position players being what we're talking about
with the.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Major not counting guys like Christian Xavier, and you absolutely
should this guy was maybe except maybe Pitcher's case. Christian
Xavier wasn't drafted and developed like Springer, Correa, Bregman, Tucker,
not at all, not even close to that. Neither was
Hunter Brown, Neither was Araghedtty. You're talking about a fifth
round pick on Hunter, You're talking about sixth round pick

(09:57):
on Araghedtty. You're talking about maybe we should quit listening
to these outside people who talk about how crappy their
system is. You don't have to have forty good prospects
to have a good system. You have to have major
league talent plus major league talent. That's how you have
a good system. You bring up one plus major leaguer
every year or every eighteen months, you find one. You

(10:19):
got one of the best systems in baseball. There's only
nine spots on the field every day. There's only twenty
plus spots on your major league roster every year. If
you're developing all the players that are helping you win.
And this team was doing that year after year after
year after year, and then they were developing the players
that were letting you go trade for Ferlander and Cole
and Granky.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Then wake up evaluators. It's ridiculous. Yeah, I know that.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Like Chas McCormick and Jake Myers, they don't even belong
in this conversation. I bring them up to point out
they just play here. They just came up through the system.
They're not prospects, they're not guys they expect to be great.
They're not all those other players. But yet, in Chaz's case,
for three years, an absolute find hitting over eight hundred ops,

(11:01):
a guy who's starting for you and making plays in
the World Series and in your postseason runs. Because you
know how to develop players. It's just It's crazy how
they'll just well, he didn't do this in high school,
and he didn't do this at you know, Florida State,
and that's it.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
That's this is who they ended up in their system.
So I don't have much.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
I mean, there's I guarantee you there are five more
Astros prospects that aren't in their top five. Luis Bias
has probably won. Uloa, who's now in camp this year,
is probably another. It's it's it's incredible. The Astros get
way less credit than they should for how they've been
able to keep this going. They've spent a ton of money,
they've traded for talent, sure, but they've also watched that

(11:41):
talent walk right out the door, and they just keep
going back to it. You're gonna sit here and say
for the next month, I think the Astros are gonna
win again this year because I love their pitching.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
You like their pitching staff.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
You mean Fromer who's only played for the Astros, Hunter
who's only played for the Astro, Spencer who's only played
for the Astros, Renelle who's only played for the Astros.

Speaker 4 (11:59):
You like those guys? Yeah, no kidding?

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Which one of those was a stud prospect absolutely, none
of them until they got here, and because Hunter Brown
became an elite prospect in their system.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
You bring up such a good point because it's been
this way for now several seasons, and people i think
just accepted it because the Astros were winning and going
on deep playoff runs.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
Well, yeah, of course their systems.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Down because they're winning right now, so all their system
their cupboards bear and they've traded it to reobtain guys
like Justin Verlander or what have you. So yeah, of course,
and yet stuff keeps happening where and if you don't
make those people look stupid.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, we mentioned Verlander Cole Granky every time. Don't mention
them again. I'll mention the second Verlander trade and the
trade they just made. Why are they They're in the
race every year, which means they're never selling, which means
they're always shooting for more. They're making deadline deals, which
they did for both of those two pitchers. Verlander, top
two prospects, offensive prospects in the organization.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
They're Mets.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Now.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Kakuchi gets an an offer to come here and become great,
and the Astros make that happen. They traded away three players.
I don't know how you rate them, but if you
don't have them, you can't make a deal. Toronto's not
going to trade you, you say, Kakuchi, if they don't
like the players that you offered them, and they weren't
the astros top prospects. Bloss probably pitches in the majors

(13:19):
this year. Low Brafito and Wagner are almost guaranteed to
make their team out of spring training, and both of
them played virtually the entire year last year after the
trade with Toronto. These are major league players of some variety.
If you don't have them, you can't even make these
deals happen. For a guy like Kakuchi, prior to his
Astro's career was just a run of the mill, back
end of the rotation starter. So they're always trying to

(13:41):
do that, and the only way to do that is
to have players that are going, to quote unquote make
it to a certain story.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
I guess the moral of the story is it's a
good thing that these major league teams also don't agree
with some of these people who say their system sucks.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, and it's all it's very much perception. Because don't
get me wrong, there's some systems out there. Seattle's probably
a good example. They probably have five guys that in
the next sixteen months, eighteen months, sometime before mid twenty
twenty six, they're all gonna be on the team, and
they're all gonna be should.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Be since they have nobody to hit the ball on
the major league club now they don't.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
They don't trade people away. They're not trying to get
people in trade, which is why their GM shouldn't be
there anymore. And while they've had a consistent winning team,
they're not doing any significant winning.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
They're just winning more than they're losing.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
They aren't doing anything with the playoffs, so their draft
position is still almost twelve teams that did make the playoffs.
They might be fourteen or fifteen teams that had a
better record than they did, so they're drafting in the middle.
It's a little bit different, and obviously with the lottery,
those things will change. And I will say about the Astros,
there's some segmentation to how they've done this, and obviously
I think it's fair to say Jeff Luno deserves a

(14:49):
tremendous amount of credit for most of what we talked about.
I think James Klick deserves a tremendous amount of credit
for a couple of the things that he was able
to do, both in the draft and also with the
major league team and a tough position, a couple of
the trades that he made all they've made very good
sense at the time, and they've worked out even better.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
I think the Yaner.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Diaz is the DLS deal is the one that stands
out the most. And then Dana Brown is still although
it doesn't seem like he's in his infancy as their GM,
he truly is. You know, the payoff and any player
he might have picked is still a couple of years off.
But now we're going to see the payoff on the
biggest trade of talent away from the organization in fifteen years,

(15:31):
the Kyle Tucker trade. We're probably gonna find out pretty
soon how much it's going to pay off or work.
And you stopped yourself when you said it. You know,
if cam Smith camp Smith's Kyle Tucker, cam Smith is
the replacement for a superstar player, that's what it has
to be.

Speaker 4 (15:45):
That's what you want him to be. That's why you
specifically targeted the Cubs to go get that player to
be and hopefully it plays out that way.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
And by the way, if he is that guy, I know,
I just said it again, and you don't re sign
Kyle Tucker and Cago, what are we even doing here, Cubs?

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Right, It's hard to say it, but it's still you
figure some teams are okay when they know they have
somebody else or somebody's else, and they're also on the
path that there's probably two or three guys in their
system about ready to pop. And I don't know what
everybody thinks about Pete crow Armstrong if he's at that level,
a different type of player, but this is a year where.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
He could really explode. And there's a few.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Like I said, I think the Cubs have a few
other guys where if you have five like the Mariners. Again,
I'll go back to you have five guys ready to play, Well,
you might pick the wrong one to move, Well, you
might pick the right one to move. You're you're going
to get Kyle Tucker the best chance the Cubs have
of winning this year, and signing Kyle Tucker in the future.

(16:42):
Isn't watching some other team trade for him. It isn't
watching the Astros hold on to him. It's saying, look,
Cam Smith's camp. Smith is the Astros top prospect upon arrival.
He was not the Cubs top prospect while he was
there for the very very brief time he was there.
And I feel pretty confident saying when the twenty twenty

(17:03):
five rankings would have come out, had cam Smith not
been traded, he would have been much higher on the
Cubs prospect list because they'd just been there such a
short period of time. But their best chance to have
Kyle Tucker be a Cub in twenty twenty six was
pulling the trigger. And you can't get Kyle Tucker unless
you give up something of value. It doesn't mean they're
gonna sign him. It doesn't mean he's gonna sign with

(17:24):
whatever team he could have gone to in trade. But
he's gonna get to know Chicago like he only knows
one other franchise for the next year.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's a heck of a rental if he doesn't, though,
it's a heck of a rental, but a rental cost.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
I mean, they're gonna win. Yeah, they're gonna go to
the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
That's but that is much about their division being crappy
as it is. I mean, I know they're good. They're
better than they were because the Astros. Yeah, I hate to.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
Say that, but they're trying to take advantage of the
Brewers probably not having a great off season. They still
have a pretty good team, but not a great off season.
So I think they figure time to go take it
is now. I think they think they can win when
Kyle Tucker leaves. I'm not sure what they plan on doing.
If they're willing to offer him, say three to twenty,
and somebody else offers him three to ninety and you
lose him, well, then I hope their plans are to

(18:14):
spend that money on somebody else who's available in free
agency that can help them.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
I really will be curious to see what he ends
up getting and who gives it to him, because he's
not a Boris guy. But I feel like, not currently
a Boris guy, wouldn't you hire him right now? Like,
as much as we gave Boris crap, he found a
way to get Alex Bregman forty million.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
Per year over the next three years. That's doing your job. Well.
It's impressive, though.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, I think I'm under selling it, yeah when I
say it that way, but that's that's what you're hired
to do. I don't think the people that Excel will
appreciate our conversation right now.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
Well, I love Alex, but not for forty million a year,
not now.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah, I'm sure his current management group can handle things
quite nicely, all I mean, he That's the other thing.
I don't don't mind, you know, keeping praise on an
agent when he does a good job Lynn Boris's case today.
But it's not like other agents don't don't. Also, there
are plenty of good agencies and good agents in Major
League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
And while Alex Bregman did hit a home run in
a Red Sox uniform, he didn't hit two one game
like Cam Smith just did.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah, the other one went off the wall. Yeah, one
didn't go over the wall, did not go So it's
different of them one opposite field either.

Speaker 5 (19:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
So how about that Appo Taco Tuesday? Here, We've got
a lot more to get to. Rockets are in action tonight.
We will get into uh what I don't even know
what to expect after what I've seen, So we'll discuss
that and a whole lot more here on a Tuesday
edition of the program Sports Talk seven ninety. The Age
on Sports Talk seven ninety speaking of the Rockets. Proud

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Speaker 1 (21:03):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexworth on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
A team rolling along here on Sports Talks seven ninety
Tuesday edition of the program. Wex and ac with you
up until six o'clock. That's a lie. You're gonna take
off a little bit earlier because the Rockets play tonight.
I can call in if you want. What would your
conversation be like as you flew down Memorial headed to
Toyota Center.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
I probably have I probably want to make sure I
had the mute function available for my phone, so every
time I was politely speaking to another driver, you wouldn't
hear it.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
See that's funny because you politely speak to other drivers
and I just gesture profanely.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
General statement when I'm driving.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
And then we can move on I will usually say
this at some point during my travel from point A
to point B, no matter what, whether I'm in a
hurry or not, whether I'm not in a hurry, whether
it's a road trip, doesn't matter. I wonder out loud
to myself or anybody else in the car with me,
to all the other.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Drivers, what are you doing? Why don't you want to
get there?

Speaker 3 (22:15):
You're in your car, You're headed somewhere, somewhere you want
to be.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
Why don't you want to get there? I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Well, it's not to me. I take it a step further.
It's not why don't you want to get there? It's
why do you want to get there in the slowest
manner possible whilst driving in front of my vehicle.

Speaker 4 (22:33):
It's not always about the slowness of it.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
It's about the just the inability to do some of
the things I would expect fellow licensed.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
Drivers to do.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
I just got done talking about it, that simple stuff
for you know. On the on the live read for
Mocarum Injury Lawyers, it's the fourth largest city in the country.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
Before you know it, the largest.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
We are in the competition of largest cities in America
and before you know it, we will pass Chicago, and
I think all of those extra people are on the
West Loop every single day, all of them.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
So yeah, I'll be making my way to Toyota Center
for Rockets Bucks tonight. Rockets like to not get swept
by another Eastern Conference team. Lost to Milwaukee back in November,
a game they should have won. They at some point
before the postseason hits and they have to accept their
postseason seeding fate.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
They need to get it together.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
They need full forty eight minute games to be played
more often than not. They've had very very few of
those over the last month and change, not just during
these last eleven games where they've lost eight times, but
just too many instances where what they know they can
do well every single night they just aren't doing enough
of every single night. Then go out there and play
top flight defense every night. That's on them if they
want to go do that, And for about thirty five

(23:43):
games they did, and I think you saw that in Wow.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
This team's in the top four.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
This team is legitimately one of the better Western Conference teams,
and for the better part of the last twenty games
or so, they just simply have it. Sometimes the offense
has come to the rescue. You know, half of the
game against Utah, the offense was perfectly fine. They still
had the lead at the half despite not really doing
a whole lot defensive lead. The Jazz missed a bunch
of shots, but that's because the Jazz aren't very good.

(24:08):
And then in the second half, the same ok Rockets
defense was torched and they got outscored by fifteen. They
give sixty eight second half points to the Utah Jazz
in their building where the Jazz had only won six times.
That probably shouldn't happen for a team that had as
much as they usually have going for them. And I
know this was a night where you're no Tate, no Eason,

(24:29):
no Adams, no Van Vliet. We know better than to
use those as excuses for how hard you are playing.
You asked me yesterday how much was I gonna watch
of the Cougars game last night? Well, the Red Raiders
played six guys, and they're the team that put together
a comeback late in the game and nearly nearly pulled
it off. They never took the lead, it was only

(24:50):
a one possession game briefly, and the Cougars kept having answers,
and they hit their free throws late.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Jaywan hit his free throws late.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
But they had a couple of guys, very important players unavailable,
very thin, very unlike the Cougars, and Kelvin Sampson even
noted it after the game. I wouldn't have gone this far,
but and they're you know, the Tech coach didn't agree.
Kelvin said, you could put an asterisk on this, and
the winning coach can do that out of respect for
the other team, especially respect for the other team that
beat them earlier this year in Houston, because he said

(25:19):
they're not at full strength. That's not the Texas Tech
team that he has a chance to do great things
in the postseason. That's done a great job in league
play this year. And when mcasly met with the media,
was brought to his attention that Kelvin had said that
he goes. I don't agree, because he's a no nonsense
coach for his team, it was right to push back
on that. For coach Samson's team, it was right to
say it. But it was very entertaining, typically awesome defense

(25:42):
from the Cougars, and they got to do a little
bit of celebrating because they are the number one seed
in the Big Twelve tournament coming up. They did claim
a share of the conference championship. They will not be
sharing because they'll get the necessary distance from Arizona by
the end of the year, which they already have and
they've already beaten them. But that's pretty big accomplishment to
go into a league like this, when some of their

(26:04):
coaches upon their arrival were talking about these teams that
are coming in Cincinnati and BYU and you they're not
ready for this. You know, they might have done what
they've done there, but they're just they're just not ready
for the high level of coaching, the tremendous amount of
talent here, and U of H is like, whatever, Well,
just they're not just winning, they're dominating. Who is dominating

(26:25):
the Big Twelve? And back to back years the only
years they've been there.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Who was it that said that there? They got Final
Four written all over them last night?

Speaker 3 (26:32):
I can't remember the h anybody who analyzed this college
basketball would fit.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Who is it again?

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Dan Seth Greenberg was in the studio, Franfur Schilla was
on the game.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, maybe that's who it was, But I feel like
I read a different name. I just you know you're
talking about Texas text.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
You found it on social media.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
It was probably John Rothstein because I can't stop loving
on the Cougar since that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
You said, you know, Tech played six players last night.
You know who doesn't feel sorry for them?

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Nobody should, but especially Oh we're at the tournament again.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Well, our best player is gonna go down like clockwork,
because that's what's happened like the last ten years in
a row.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Practically not really that many. I mean, Jamal Shield's injury
was pretty significant.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
But somebody got hurt for them the year before. I
feel like, like a big rotation players, well I don't
believe it was at one hundred.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
Percent was able to give it a run, which Shed
did as well. Yeah, college basketball seasons are along. Their
conference season is ridiculously long now, and then you've got
in the conference tournament. How many days in a row
should we play before we get to the real tournament.
And then you've got two games in three days no
matter what if you win, Yeah, four days off in between,

(27:42):
but then you're traveling back home, then you're traveling out
to your new site. Then you're playing two games in
three days. I mean, it's not the end of the world,
but it's hard to keep all your players healthy and
you of h even last year had tremendous depth, they didn't.
You can't replace Jamal sht is the issue. I think
this year they have tremendous depth and because Crier and
Uzon are both players they can count on late, because Robertson,

(28:04):
Tugler and Francis are playing on the interior, because Arsenal
and sharp and the way that Wilson's been playing, I
think Ramona Walker will be healthy to contribute when they
get to know two three weeks from now. They do
have BODYDNT even mention Mercy Miller. They have plenty of
talent there and more coming.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, I hope Calvin Samson wins a big one too,
because I root for that guy hardcore. All Right, We're
gonna have one other note from that game last night,
Plus we're gonna catch up with Astro's GM Dana Brown
all of that as we continue here on a Tuesday
edition of the program.

Speaker 5 (28:36):
The Aight On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Hopefully you were able to watch that game last night
at Big City Wings. I can't think of a better
place that you would have wanted to watch something like
a U of H win, especially when you consider they've
got thirteen locations all across the Greater Houston area. That
includes Copperfield, that includes Edo, that includes Jones Road, my
old stomping Grounds, the Marquee, which is very close by

(29:01):
where we're sitting right now. Doesn't matter where you're at
in the city, you hear the sounds of our voices,
you're going to be able to find a convenient Big
City Wings location. And that means you're gonna be able
to take part not only the screens, but the menu.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
The menu, the specials, the daily specials, Today's Tuesday two
for Tuesday over there, wings, bone in or boneless, daily
specials every single day on food and drink, Houston's Wing Joint.

Speaker 4 (29:25):
We'll do that for you. Nobody else will.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Big Citywings dot Com to find those locations that ac
mentioned to run through the menu before you get out
there to tremendous cocktails waiting for you as well. Big
City Wings, The Place, Family Atmosphere, Expansive Menu, Great Wings,
Big City Wings, Houston's Wing Joint.

Speaker 5 (29:43):
Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler.

Speaker 6 (29:45):
The eighteen continues on Sports Talk to seven ninety goes
up stores, Rockets basketball lives here.

Speaker 5 (29:58):
All right, we have somewhat breaking news WEX. I know
you're gonna be happy to hear this.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Whatever it is, I am ecstatic. It's justin Justin who
Donald Trump has announced.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
He's already the president. What else is there? Right away?

Speaker 2 (30:15):
The Philadelphia Eagles are being invited to the White House.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
They deserve to be down here.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
So KA wonder as you were aware because you listened
to the program yesterday and you probably have made Sports
Talk seven to ninety number one on your presets right
there on your new and improved iHeartRadio app that offers
that awesome function.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
And if you have what are you waiting on?

Speaker 3 (30:36):
Please do so if you haven't, Yes, we talked about
how the erroneous reporting somehow was gaining steam that the
Eagles not only had already been invited, but had already
declined the invitation, which was not the case. Repoort yesterday saying, no,
when they invite us, we're probably going to go ahead
and accept it. On behalf of the team, you know,

(30:57):
leave it to the players individually to decide what they
want to do. But the vast majority of them, as
has almost always been the case, will attend if not
the entire organization that's invited. And now the report yesterday
said so the president is now I'm sure this was
prompted by the reporting for him to say no, no, no, no.

(31:18):
The invites out on their way. They want a title.
They come to the White House, they want a title.
They get to eat fast food. They want a title.
We're gonna celebrate.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
I wonder if I was part of a championship team,
if I could convince Donnie T that I don't want
the big mac, or if it has to be a
big mac, I could get it without the special sauce,
because you know me and special sauces don't mix.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
If I'm not fully versed on exactly all of the
outlets he used to lay out the spread.

Speaker 4 (31:49):
He had many options.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
That's what it looked for many, many of your most
popular brands.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
But sometimes, and this happens, we're there. This happens a
lot with sandwiches. Like if I go to any sort
of like social gathering party, uh, watch party, whatever, and
they've got sandwiches in mass laid out, yeah, sandwich tread
what are they all gonna have on them?

Speaker 4 (32:10):
That I don't want all them out fail wet.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
They're gonna have mayonnaise and I'm gonna get homicidal.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
The slice of bread top or bottom that has the mayonnaise,
just ditch it.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, and then the ing on the other side, a
couple of pieces of lettuce, Well ditch that. Something not
consuming it in any way, not even a little bit.
There's mayonnaise in this house. Oh I'm out of here.
Do you have mayonnaise in this restaurant? No, I'm not
coming in. Funny carry mayonnaise in this grocery store? Well,
I'm not coming in. The funny thing is you think
that that's like weird? And I think that's my life.

(32:47):
That's absolutely how I live. It's jarred its cap, it's
discussed in a packet. You're safe, I promise you you
are safe. Disgusting, it's thick, it's creamy, it's gelatinous.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Out your favorite Super Bowl commerci No, it was my
least favorite, the one with Bill and Meg. It's it's
such it's gross. In the FDA, where is RFK Junior
when we need him. He's supposed to be making us
all healthy again?

Speaker 4 (33:12):
Well let us rap. I mean you might not like it.
What's healthy about it?

Speaker 3 (33:15):
If you're acting like it's not a popular condiment, then
you are just acting because that is inaccurate.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, but there's like good not saying.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
I'm a huge fan of it or it's my favorite.
I just know that it is a favorite of many.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
There's quote unquote good fats and bad fats. Like peanut
butter is a good fat. I can't imagine that that.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
That's not why people eat it or use it. Somebody
would eat it.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
There's plenty of foods that don't fit in the good
for you category and people still eat them.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
Yeah, but they taste better than that and they look
better than that.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
I mean, I happen to be in here with you now,
and I tend to agree. I'm not a We do
not have mayonnaise and R refrigerator currently good.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
We can still be friends. I don't need it for anything.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
I had intended on playing some Dana Brown sound, but
I'll wait since.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
I've got a text in it reads I'm with Clinton
on this one?

Speaker 5 (34:03):
Is it Seth?

Speaker 4 (34:04):
No, it's another member of the family. Did you tell Seth?
I said, what up? That's funny? Which which which member?
Do I get? To know. Do I get to know?

Speaker 7 (34:12):
Huh?

Speaker 4 (34:13):
Are the the R the R? Well the other are
still in school, so he's not sending me text.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
And listen to the show see Robin and if you
if this was the TV right now, I'd be doing
this the eyes I always knew me and her on
the same page.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
Mayonnaise is disgusting.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
I'm not averse to leaving in that. I've had mayonnaise before,
and I don't recoil.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
You sound like a mayonnaise advocate, is what you sound like? Yeah,
not at all, none of this, none of.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
This halfway well, I was just gonna say, as you know,
and as our listeners know in this tremendously enlightening segment,
that's awesome. I will order fast foods from time to time,
and I usually won't special order it. However, you make it,
just give it to me and I'll deal with it
and fix it out. If that's what the that's what
there are, then I don't want you to make a
mistake and make me mad.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
I just want to take it and fix it. Like
in the case the other place that we love.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
That's fast there are a lot of sandwiches that have
mayonnaise on them and I just get rid of it myself.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Or in the case of water Burger, if you don't
say no onions, you're getting the whole onion every single time.
All Right, four o'clock hour coming up next, mentioned that
we will have Astros general manager Dana Brown. Also, we're
going to be hearing from Demico Ryans. There's a lot
to get to as we start the televised portion of
the eighteen.

Speaker 5 (35:24):
Next, the A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your Teams.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
A wellcome into the first full hour of the program
today and the first one televised on Space City Home
Network if you're watching on that fantastic network where the
Rockets will be playing later on night. Astros already played
a game and that's why we've kind of had a
little bit of a truncated show today.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
Wex over there ac right here.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Astros did get the win over the Mets because Cam
Smith can't stop hitting home runs. We're actually gonna hear
from Dana Brown in just a few minutes here. But
good to see that, Good to see that the excitement
is once again back about a young I even hesitate
to call him a prospect. I know that's what he
is by definition, but I'm just no, I'm manifesting this wex.

Speaker 4 (36:29):
You can make all the faces you want. You hesitate
to call him what he is?

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Go on, No, he's a superstar, sorry, a superstar. He's
a superstar in the make.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
I believe he leaves the majors in home runs this spring.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
See he's you know what, He's got more home runs
than Alex Bregman so far in spring training.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's very important, it's very It all counts. I agree
the same, which is to say nothing but.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah, exciting to see that, and always, you know, it's
it's always interesting to kind of balance out that excitement
versus you know, telling yourself it is spring training, calm down,
but also just all right, the watches on.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
When's he going to be a member of this organization?

Speaker 2 (37:06):
And will he be the next guy that Clanton is
deciding whether or not he wants to invest in a Jersey.

Speaker 5 (37:12):
It's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
If he's even remotely good, Like my Hunter Brown purchase
has yet to happen.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
But it's kind of told you if you had just
gone ahead and gotten the Ali LaForce Husband Jersey, you'd
be all set.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
But you didn't. He's not. He's not the same number.
That's correct, Well was he today? We don't know what
number he's gonna.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Ninety nine because he's better than Aaron Judge, right right, nine.
It did start with a nine, though it is it is.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
A spring training gift. Yes, it will not be his.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Permanent Nay, but I like the guys that hang on
to that. There are very few. Mitch Williams is one. Obviously,
Arson Judge is another. There aren't many in the nineties.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
But like there's there's certain ones that are just insanely
high numbers that you know there carries carryovers.

Speaker 4 (37:53):
Yeah, there are few.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
I mean sure, j blue Ball has a number he
probably won't carry into the season.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
He's sixty nine. Why not.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
I don't believe he's a nice number. It is a
nice number. I would bet you when he makes his
major league debut will not be in that number.

Speaker 4 (38:07):
But it's not. He can. It's allowed.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
I need to hear higher like Luis Garcias had a
higher number for his career.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
It's allowed.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
I need to have Bob Ford say that number sixty nine,
like that'd be great.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Well, he might get the chance to do that at
the onset of or the end of spring training when
they host the Space Cowboys at Dyke In Park.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Shout out to the best public address announcer in all
of Major League Baseball and a good friend of mine,
Bob for a good friend of ours.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Sorry, I didn't mean to exclude you from the friendship there,
but yeah, that happened earlier today as spring training continues. Also,
you've got the Rockets taking on the Bucks by the way.
By the way, and WEX did this earlier. If you've
been paying attention, I'm really gonna make you, guys earn
these because I'm going to give away a couple of
tickets to tonight's Rockets Bucks game. They are in a

(38:55):
suite and I'll even throw in parking. But you got
to work for it. It's not just simple retweet we're
gonna do. I'm gonna do the same exact thing that
WEX had you guys do earlier, which is make the
Sports Talk seven to ninety station on the iHeartRadio app
the number one pre set on your phone. And you
can't just say you did it. You're gonna need a screencap, right,

(39:16):
just like WEX did. You're gonna earn these, But come on, man,
it's the Rockets and the Bucks. It's sweet tickets. And yes,
those seats are more comfortable than regular seats. I can
attest to that I've sat in them. Good game tonight
at Toyota Center. Hopefully it is a victory. Hopefully it's
the first of two straight since all the Rockets do
is played back to backs right before the All Star break,
right after the All Star break, and then after a

(39:37):
couple of days off, another set of back to backs,
the first of which is tonight, so that will be
something to look forward to. But mention that Dana Brown
was part of the broadcast today and some of the
things he was asked about, or some of the things
he shared his thoughts on is what we've been talking about.
Camp Smith, you know, players that came over in the

(39:58):
Cubs trade, in other words, with the Astros for Kyle Tucker.
Whether or not he's there long term, that remains to
be seen. But I think that the I know that
the Astros are planning on both camp Smith and Essac
pretis to be here for multiple seasons. And so Dana
Brown was asked about those players that came over from
Chicago in that deal for Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 8 (40:20):
Well, camp Smith looks like an NFL quarterback. I mean,
he's put together pretty good. We can't wait to see
him get into that lineup. Wes Netsky, look, I saw
him throw in the backfield the other day, and will
he was throwing a sweeper that was about eighty five.
That was a twenty two inches of movement on it.

(40:40):
It was it was pretty nasty and he was up
to ninety six. So and then this guy, you know,
you saw the first at bat grinding, you know, make
the pitcher, get the pitch count up.

Speaker 5 (40:50):
You guys didn't do that enough last year. I would
imagine you and Joe Spot of those guys had to
be thinking about getting somebody who can see some pitches.

Speaker 8 (40:57):
Yes, and that's the deal with these two guys. I mean,
you saw that first at batsat thirteen pitches, and you know,
just grind those pitchers down, man, You grind them early
before you know what, their pitch count is up about
one hundred after four innings or five innings, and you
you know, you got them right there on the.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Ropes working counts and Cam Smith looks like an NFL quarterback.
You say linebacker, a quarterback, quarterback, a big quarterback.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
He's not.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
I would say linebacker, but I knew what he meant.
Some of these quarterbacks are slight. He didn't say he
looked like Drew Brees.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
No, he didn't say he was short and wise. That's correct,
all right, all right, Kyler Murray, how about Cam Newton?
I think that's what he had.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
Yeah, he's a quarterback as big as Cam Newton.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
But I see the I can could see a reason
why you would make that statement. And honestly, if you
happen to catch Hayden Wiznski's or excuse to be forced.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
Whitley's interview during the game with Julian Murray right.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Here on Space City Home Network during the game on
the TV side, she asked him about Cam and he's like,
he looks every bit the prospect, just this, you know,
physical makeup, the size of the man that he is
despite being a kid at twenty two.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
But yeah, it was great to see that.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
I do think it was notable what he mentioned, and
you brought it up to that you had in the
two to three spot. You had Esak, Perettis and Walker
making their Astros spring training debuts. Batting two and three,
a Walker with a couple of knocks, Perettis draws that
early walk. They both end up scoring in that first inning.
I talked about this the other day in Perettis. We
know that he does see a lot of pitches and

(42:37):
he will work counts. I was surprised when I was
looking at this the other day, and I'm equally surprised
as I talk about it again here he does things
that make you believe, Yeah, that makes some sense to
bat him after Altuve and before jord On Alvarez. You want,
you know, get that pitch count up somebody. If he's
gonna walk, then that means he's gonna be on base.

(42:59):
He's not a high average hitter, but he will take
his walks. So that's really all you're looking at. You're
looking at, is he going to get on base? And
you know is on base percentage you know, last year,
for instance, about one hundred points higher than his batting average,
which is an indicator that he's getting on base plenty.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
If he hits a little bit better than that.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Now, all of a sudden, you're talking about a three
forty obp or three fifty or even better. If he's
hitting two fifty or two sixty, then and that makes
a big difference to what then happens behind you. But
I sell this to note the other part of any
decision that gets made about where he is as a
two hole hitter. Not real good, not in the best

(43:38):
place he's been by any means, practically one of the
worst places. He's awful as a three hole hitter, but
it's not a huge sample size, and he's never batted
second in front of Jordon Alvarez. Joe Spottom made it
pretty clear he wants Ordon to get as many as
bats as possible. Jordon made it pretty clear he doesn't
care where he hits, but he wants it to be consistent.
And I think there's a little bit of a it's

(44:00):
not a disconnect, but they're gonna have to figure something out.
I think Jordan Alvarez would be more successful if he
batted third behind at least one hitter who doesn't swing
at the first pitch all the time. It's almost like
Jordan bat's leadoff if he bats second, because Jose al

(44:22):
two is swinging at the first pitch so often he's
not necessarily having him to figure out, well, I just
came back from the dugout or from the outfield, and
I've got to go get my bat and my helmet.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
I don't really have time.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
And it's not the kind of I don't think he
appreciates or doesn't really want to do that, because he's
probably gonna be in the dugout the whole time because
he's not gonna need his glove this year, I don't think.
But he's still only gonna see a pitch or two
from the starting pitcher.

Speaker 4 (44:47):
This guy is so good he doesn't need it.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
But I bet you it makes him better if he
sees ten to twelve pitches before he bats, six to
eight pitches before he hits for the first time. I
think it's gonna be a good thing. It might not
be as great because he's batting twenty two or twenty
three fewer times over the course of an entire season,
but it also means you've got two guys in front
of him every single trip through the order. Since you
have some level of comfort that they're gonna be on

(45:11):
base versus whinny bat's second, you have virtually no level
of comfort that the guy batting in front of Altuve,
the nine hole hitter, is going to be there for you.
So as of today, and I reserve the right to
amend this at any point in time. I think if
they gain confidence in Perettis batting two, it's Altuve, Perettis, Alvarez, Walker,

(45:34):
Janards one through five, Opening Day Mets Sea one, and
oh on the way to one sixty two and oh,
I love that.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
It's an exciting time like spring training always is, and
it's a time, as Dana will tell you right here,
to have an eye on both the future and the present.

Speaker 8 (45:49):
You'd have to continue to look toward the future because
the future gets up on you quick and if you're
not prepared, you know, you could see your team fall
off a cliff. And we didn't want to do that.
And so you know, if you don't sign Tucker and
he walks out after a year and now and you
get just a draft pick that you got to wait for,
and so that would have been even more difficult. So
that's why we're you know, we're competing in the present

(46:11):
and we're building front the future at the same time.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
I mean, it sounds like GM's speak, but it is accurate.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
Yeah, they should all think like that. It is GM speak.
You can plan for the now, but you can't neglect
the future. And that's where I mean. They had two
players in the same spot. They happen to both be
at the same time. It's pretty unlikely you're going to
move on from both. It wasn't necessarily given you moved
on from either. What he just described about Tucker and
the path they chose, well, they chose the other path

(46:40):
because they didn't want to move both of them at
the same time. From ber Valdez. In a year, he
could sign somewhere else. They'll get a draft pick, like
you said that they have to wait.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
For and that's that.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
But moving on from both of them right now wouldn't
accomplish the focusing on the now because you'd have traded
your ace and one of your mother productive hitters away
in one off season when you didn't.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Have to live in the now. As Dana Carvey once
said in Wayne's World, All right, from one franchise looking
forward to another. Let's catch up with Demiko Ryans and
the Houston Texans. They are at the combine in Indianapolis
and Dimiko, the head coach of your Texans had some
interesting thoughts.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
We'll let you hear from him when we come back.

Speaker 5 (47:23):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
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Speaker 1 (48:25):
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler, the eighty.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
It is the A Team, It's Sports Talk seven ninety,
it is Space City Home Network. Another reminder to set
your iHeartRadio app preset the number one preset to Sports
Talk seven ninety. And if you don't believe me, this
is lucrative, It's absolutely lucrative.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
Did you not your winner yet? I did?

Speaker 2 (48:52):
All right, so somebody else got your Rocket tickets, but
I still have two that are out there floating around.
And this is what I like to call a flash
ticket giveaway. Because it's four seventeen right now. I just
sent out the tweet, the post, whatever you want to
call it, and I will announce the winner in less
than forty five minutes. But you got to have a
screen cap of you your iHeartRadio app making Sports Talk

(49:13):
seven to ninety the number one preset, and then maybe,
just maybe, if I pick you, you will be on
your way to sitting in a suite tonight to watch
the Rockets, Evisceate Jiannis and the indian or the Bucks.
I'm saying Indianapolis because I've got the combine on the
brain and so does demik O Ryan because he's there.
Demik O'Ryan's and the Texans looking to add the championship

(49:36):
pieces if you will, around CJ.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
Stroudwax. They need to.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
They are stuck in a spot that is not very
enviable if you're looking to win a championship. It's a
great spot if you're just trying to make the playoffs
every year, which they've now done and every year he's
been here. They are the fourth best team in the AFC,
and they will need to make significant improvements to advance
beyond that where they've been for the last two years.
Got to find a way to beat a Baltimore, Beata
Kansas City, beat a Buffalo in the playoffs. They've beaten

(50:02):
Buffalo during this two year run in the regular season,
but they've also lost all four of the games against
or all five of the games against Kansas City and
Baltimore twice twice last year, like twice this year, or
once once this year to Baltimore and twice a case.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Do you know what always happens and we see it.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
It's every franchise that is either a championship contender or
at the very least a perennial playoff team. They start
looking at those records and they start putting them on
graphics during regular season matchups especially, but you know in
the postseason at well, you were zero to two against
this guy, you were.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
These will matter to us.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
Every game we're talking about will be Demiico, will Anderson
Junior and c. J. Stroud against those quarterbacks and their
respective teams, And until the results change in the postseason,
you're gonna be stuck right where you are. He was
one of the head coaches today along with a few
general managers today more coming tomorrow, that met with the
media a handful of questions about some injury so an
update on Tank Dell and Jimmy Ward, thoughts about what

(51:03):
you're looking for in this group of players or that
group of players, and now as he personally heads into
a third season with Nick Cassario, a fifth season for
Casario to put this roster together with his third head coach,
although the first one that they cared to win with.
That was one of the lines of questioning about it.
I think you guys might have already known this, but
it's always nice to hear him say it in the

(51:25):
way that he does. How working with Nick Cassario has
been for him as they head into this upcoming season.

Speaker 9 (51:31):
It's been seamless, Like it's easy because we see football
the same. We know the type of players that we
want on our team. We know that mindset that we're
looking for in players. It's guys who have that relentless mindset,
Guys who love football. Those guys jump out to us,
all right, Guys who are leaders, that jumps out to us.
Those characteristics that they they don't lose those when they

(51:53):
come into the NFL.

Speaker 5 (51:54):
Guys were leaders at college.

Speaker 9 (51:55):
Guys play with a certain play style and a demeanor
in college that's not a carry over to the to
the NFL.

Speaker 5 (52:01):
So those are the type of players we look for.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
And so they work well together, he and Nick Cassario,
according to Demiico, and they they know the type of
players they want. But no offseason will that have been again,
this is only the what second one they've had together
will be the will that be tested more than as
they try to assemble somehow, some way a championship offensive line.

Speaker 4 (52:24):
No question about it.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
And to what he said about leaders and programs, and
you know guys that will continue to do that as
they're here. You know, their their first four picks, five
picks last year if you want to go all the
way to the sixth round, but they're picks in the
first four rounds Georgia, Notre Dame, USC, Ohio State, Jamal
Hill was from Oregon. But their last five picks were
each in the last two rounds, So probably a little

(52:46):
bit more to lean on those top picks. The year
before that, you know, the picks from the top three rounds,
the first four players they drafted, ohiosted Alabama, Penn State,
and you of H. The year before that, before Demiko
was even with the Texans, they're two first round picks
LSU and Texas A and M. Two of their next
three picks Alabama and Alabama, along with Baylor and Florida.

(53:07):
I'm pretty sure you can sense a pattern. And I
am allowed to now include U of H on this
side of things. At the time, they were just getting
to the Big twelve. And I'm not saying small school
players don't produce excellent talent or tremendous.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
Leaders, because they do.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
But it's pretty clear what type of player they're looking
for when they keep going back to the exact same
group of players non stop, over and over and over
and over again. And it's definitely a pattern, and it
is a good one. It's not fool proof, and it
can be successful. It doesn't have to be. But what
he said is in practice. He's not just saying something.
This is clearly what they've been doing.

Speaker 6 (53:45):
Now.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
He continued with that statement, in kind of describing the
players that you want. And this is not something I
think is with every team. I think it has been
with this team in previous under previous different management types
and honestly under the previous owner. And some people kind
of pushed back on it. But as Dimiko describes why

(54:06):
they like certain players, maybe maybe you'll think otherwise.

Speaker 9 (54:09):
We want good people. And that's the thing that me
and Nick agree on the most. You want to you
want to win, but you want to win with great people,
and we both believe that you can do that and
we've shown that by some of the guys we drafted
and CJ. Will Kamari Henry told it's just a lot
of great people, and it's fun when you're working with

(54:29):
great people who are talented and they're like minded and
we're all reaching that same goal.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
Sounded like he wanted to take people back a few
years and take them down the street called Texans worthy.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (54:40):
That's all I was thinking about.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
It was impossible not to think that if you've covered
this team, since we keep such it on it, we have.
He was there, He was there for this and it
was literally a phrase that you know was said, and
that's not really what he's saying, right, look at the
individually speaking, look at the people that are on the team.
They drafted the best cornerback in the draft, and he's

(55:04):
one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. I didn't
say he's a good person, even though Derek Stingley Junior
he seems to be. They drafted one of the ten
best edge rudshers currently in the NFL, Will Anderson Junior,
with a third pick in the draft two years ago.
I didn't say he was a good person, but he is.
He's a great person, good leader too. I mean, that's

(55:26):
all secondary. He's a really really awesome football player and CJ.
Strout's the very same thing. They happen to also be
really good people. I think is a really good base
for the rest of the community. The locker room. The
locker room is set by two things. What type of
leaders your leaders really are and what type of people
your leaders really are And while they lead in very

(55:48):
different ways, I mean, I don't know that there could
be a player that leads by his play more than
Derek Stingley Junior because of just who he is personally.
But this is your future, this is the Texans. Collins
is in that group too. There could probably a few
of these guys are unbelievable. It really like Kamari Laster
is going to be in that group, Kallen Bulls Block

(56:09):
is going to be in that group.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
These are the foundational players are.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
And Deontay Johnson and Deshaun Watson will not be in
that group.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
They're not great guys allegedly. I mean, Deontay Johnson just
doesn't really get it. There's nothing wrong with I mean, he's.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
He's not a good guy locker room and not get
it though that that tells me something about your character.

Speaker 5 (56:29):
You don't want to be a part of this.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Right, He's bad for the locker room. He's not a
He's not going out there and doing things that he
shouldn't be doing. He's just not a good locker room
You mean, like DeShawn, Yes, very different, Okayshawn. In addition
to that thing, what would our conversations be like the
last two plus years when we would get into a
football conversation and we'd have to talk about the eleven

(56:51):
and six Cleveland Browns and the best team in the
AFC North and a quarterback that CJ hopes to outperform
in Deshaun Watson but he hasn't quite gotten there.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
It would not be fun. Everything would be well.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
The whole landscape of Deshaun Watson coverage would be so
ridiculously different if he wasn't awful at football.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Also, if you wishals, would it be any different?

Speaker 3 (57:13):
I'd what would be. I'm just saying you traded a
player that was in he was elite. I'm sorry if
you don't think so. He was as a Texan he was.
He just can't play anymore. And it was over freaking night.
And this is four years worth of it. Whether he
was on the field or not.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
I don't I still won't.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
I'll never understand what happened, but I'm not gonna question it.
If that is the sports gods or whatever you want
to call it.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
Whatever, And now he's to me he's a bad locker
room guy because he's the leading he's the quarterback, he's
the number one quarterback on a team and he can't play.
It creates a very bad locker room situation. It creates
a toxic situation. I think it's like Indianapolis Anthony Richardson
is the number one quarterback, but he can't play. It

(58:00):
creates a bad locker room. That's what Shane Steichen was
dealing with last year. I think he made some horrific
decisions of his own, both on the field and who
he put on the field. But it's not even a
personal thing. It's not their fault, so to speak. But
you're supposed to be the leader of the team. They
can't follow your lead if you can't play well, and
it's a horrible situation to be in as a team

(58:21):
play or if you're hurt.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Sure, yeah, because I mean at first, that was Deshaun
Watson's biggest issue. He couldn't give back on a field.
Then once he got back on the field, he sucked well.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
He was asked to not play for eleven games, he
was suspended, yep, and he came back for the remainder
and then he was hurt again.

Speaker 4 (58:38):
He had some major soulder.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
Issues, and then he just has He's played no good
football as a Cleveland Brown And it's really really like
in addition to getting what Nick Cassario got from the
Browns in return, which helped facilitate the acquisition of a
host of these players we've talked about, he's also bringing
down one of the sixteen AFC teams. They are a
non factor because he played for them. He ruins their cap,

(59:02):
their salary structure, and their football team win win win,
just a win win situation. All Right, we will continue,
We'll still hear more from Dimico.

Speaker 4 (59:10):
But when we get back.

Speaker 3 (59:11):
The important part. Oh, Tamiko talked. Oh they hired a
new oc. Oh, nick Cassario's back, they got a bunch
of draft picks. I still haven't heard the only thing
I want to hear from the head coach.

Speaker 4 (59:21):
Well, if you stick around one more segment, you will.

Speaker 5 (59:25):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Ninety nice stream Davis all right talking about frog baseball,
House Strike one. Hey, you dummies, listen to Astros baseball
and Rockets basketball games on any device with the free
i Heeart radio app.

Speaker 10 (59:47):
This is Adam and Adam sweekly chumped through mind buckling
moments that make you go what what.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
TYPEE is here?

Speaker 8 (01:00:01):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
On a Tuesday play what odin?

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
I did you now say? What?

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
Hang on?

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
I'm jumping in. I'm not letting you do it? Signature
segment and all that. It's it's say what. You have
authored some intros to some other signature segments like the
best of X.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
I've written some lyrics, and I've recorded some music.

Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
Your latest effort is so bleeping good.

Speaker 4 (01:00:28):
Unusable, please unairable.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
I played it for noted fan of the parodied band
you were using. Huh my wife, yes, she was like,
oh m G, but I think it was did she
fall out of her chair?

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
She was on the couch.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
She had had a back okay, well, otherwise she would
have Tuesday and couple. Late last week I said we
would have a new parody song for a new bit.
Exceeded expectations we're going to do on the show, and
I think we're going to do it a lot over
the next couple of months. So you'll get to hear
this once it's finally tuned and maybe gets a tweak

(01:01:03):
or two or goes in as in its current state.
But it has been written, it's been recorded, and it
is presumably ready for airplay, and now that we're at
the NFL Combine, we will definitely need it moving forward.
This is say what though signature segment time that'll be
used at random times throughout the show in the upcoming days.
This isn't specific to the topic at hand or the

(01:01:27):
segment at hand, say what, but it's gonna be something
I think we're also going to play over and over
and over again until we no longer need to hear
it again. And I don't know when that's going to be,
and I don't think it's going to be anytime soon,
but I feel like everybody else in Houston, every other
fan of the Texans, certainly many of the talk show
hosts in this room that aren't me, have thought this

(01:01:48):
and said this over and over and over and over again.
So in the midst of Jamiko Ryans meeting with the
media today at the podium at a scheduled time at
the end NFL Combine, a couple of questions were asked
about a specific area of the team and a specific
weakness of the team and a specific type of negative

(01:02:09):
that brought this team down a little bit last year.

Speaker 4 (01:02:11):
I think you know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
So I grabbed a couple of different instances of Jamiko
addressing the subject and mashed them all up together, nice,
neat little package for everybody to listen to now and
unfortunately here many many times again until the solution has
been authored by Nick Cassario, Jamiico, Ryan, CJ. Stroud, and
new OC Nick Cayley. The offensive line, Huh is that
a priority? Is that important to you? Is that something

(01:02:35):
you're thinking about as you look at the talent that
Mike join the club this offseason?

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
Demiko?

Speaker 9 (01:02:40):
Yeah, getting better protection for CJ is It's definitely a
main point of emphasis for us. When CJ is protected,
he has a clean pocket. He's a pretty good quarterback.
That is a point of emphasis for us of making
sure he is protecting better. I look at offensive lineman
first and foremost and looking at past protection, like how
good is a guy pass protection?

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
Drink it in, drink it in the time. We spent
four hours a day talking about the Texans offensive line
talking about the second year regression for CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
Stroud.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
He kept it real simple. You know, when we give
him good protection, he's a pretty good quarterback. It is
as simple as that. And I could have had that
entire mashup complete two or three seconds. When he was
asked about the type of players, skill sets, attributes he
might look for in an offensive line when you look
at the draft, and he said, well, the first thing

(01:03:36):
I look at is how are you in pass protection?

Speaker 4 (01:03:39):
Stop cut? That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
That's all we need to know. He did expand and
he talked about the personality traits, you know, the guys
that really get after it, the grinders, the nastiness, all
traits of an offensive lineman. But in the simplest of terms,
they at least publicly, are seeming to tell us.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
We get it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
I know, we know they get it. It was not
on display that they get it for most of this season.
After the first five weeks and you could tell there
was a major problem.

Speaker 4 (01:04:08):
This is not working. We have to do something else.
They getting to do something else took forever, and even
when they did do something else, they only reacted because
of injury. They never really made changes on their own.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
They never really decided this is the best way to
do it with what we have on our roster. They
let injuries dictate it, and it did help multiple times,
but ultimately they went back on it at the end
of the season with Shack Mason going.

Speaker 4 (01:04:30):
Back into the lineup.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
So as much as he says, we know we have
to do it, now, let's go out and see it
in practice. I hope that makes you feel a little
bit better, But I know what'll make you feel a
lot better. Last segment, we talked very negatively about the
Indianapolis Colts. Titans have the number one pick. I don't
need to talk negatively about the Titans. But if on
a daily basis, the new general manager of the Jacksonville

(01:04:54):
Jaguars finds his way to a microphone, I will definitely
talk about it every day. I don't think he's going
to continue to talk to the media every single day,
but we've been treated this week. If you thought you
were going to run through a wall for Jaguars GM
James Gladstone yesterday when you heard him talk about how
they're you know, going to do things now and how

(01:05:15):
he sees things now, and just the greatness of this
six person panel that sits up here, the new leadership group,
the people you can believe in, the young, youthful, new
way of thinking. Well, he also met with the media
today at the combine, he was asked what he looks for,
particularly obviously at the draft with college players. Get ready, everybody,

(01:05:37):
put that helmet on, put those pads on, and run
through a wall.

Speaker 4 (01:05:40):
For James Gladstone, I think it's pretty simple. From my perspective.

Speaker 11 (01:05:45):
We will prioritize people and players that are intangibly rich,
and by doing Stone, they will elevate our ecosystem, our
team by being nothing more than themselves.

Speaker 4 (01:05:57):
That's as simple as that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
Come on, man, didn't make That's not an AI generated comment.
I didn't make him say intangibly rich.

Speaker 5 (01:06:05):
Did you say eco system?

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
I didn't make him say ecosystem?

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
Why does Why is Will Forte as mcgruber, the general manager.

Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
That no words like ecosystems?

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
He been knows how to hit a home run really
really far into not the lower deck?

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
All right?

Speaker 5 (01:06:21):
Then?

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
Why is just Will Forte in general in any skit
on SNL the GM of the Jags.

Speaker 11 (01:06:26):
Our ecosystem, Oh my gosh, Like who talks like that?

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
Game on? I get it?

Speaker 3 (01:06:34):
Our ecosystem exactly intangibly rich? What do you look for
in college players? The ones that are intangibly rich, they're rich.
Come on, man, is this a joke? Are we being punked?
He's a front office guy, he's not on the field. Now,
he may watch practice, he may go down to practice
there is. He's very highly recommended. He did fantastic work

(01:06:56):
with a playoff team with the Rams. Yeah, very good, Resid.
Maybe I wouldn't say it's a new way of thinking,
but I don't think every GM thinks like this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
There's nothing wrong with having a bunch of analytic dorks
run your franchise.

Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
It can be very lucrative.

Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
You know what's funny about that comment was watching their
presser yesterday, and I already told you that Bladstone made
me think of Twilight Pattinson. Yeah, you know what? Uh
what Tony Khan, Shad Khan's son, who's in the front office.
What he what he looks like or how he acts?

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
Oh yeah, I'm aware he gave me Brandon Tobman vibes.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
Ooh Beard, Yes, bad Beard, Bad Beard.

Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
You're not familiar with any of the Hangover movies? Right? No,
not at all?

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
Especially Okay, so the one third, the one where Alan
accidentally shoots up the adult establishment.

Speaker 4 (01:07:51):
Uh huh? Are you familiar with the person who works
there that they're talking to.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
I would have I need a quick refresher. You can
take a look during the break. That's tough.

Speaker 4 (01:07:59):
Tony Khan finds me of as well.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
The guy. If you want an explanation for what his
job is, the person in the movie owns a strip
and runs a strip club.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
I just can't believe that's the Jags general manager.

Speaker 4 (01:08:11):
But I'm glad.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
Well, like I said, if he's nice enough to provide
us with weekly say What material, he'll be one of
my favorite gms in the NFL because he's been good
so far.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
Well, I hear more from Demko as promised when we
come back.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
The A team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
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Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
That sounds like a horrible combination.

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Wex Yeah, I'll say it in the simplest of terms
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Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
Adam Clinton, Adam Wessler. A continue continues.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
They've ball football, basketball in.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
My Sports Talk seven ninety home for your ome teams.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
There's still time for you to go over to my
X account at Adam Clanton and show me that you
have made the Sports Talk seven to ninety pre set.
You're number one pre set on the free iHeartRadio app
because after all, WEX that's.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
The best way to listen to us.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
It's crystal clear sound, and I think we sound smarter
on the app than we do on.

Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
I do appreciate that they have that option with them
right there. It's with them at all times. Oh my god,
I left my phone. Oh my god, I don't I
have my phone with me. I haven't even bluetoothed my
phone in my car.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:10:23):
I know.

Speaker 4 (01:10:23):
You can listen to us anytime anywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
It's always there with you during the three to six
portion of your afternoon. You also have the option to
catch us on the tube over there at Space City
Home Network or right here on the radio dial, which
I probably thinks more radio screen. I don't know how
many dials are still out there at Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
Well, I don't think that we don't know some of
you who have already won tickets trying to owne in
on the other one of us take advantage of us.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
We know we see you out there. It's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:10:52):
So we were talking obviously about the combine last segments,
some of the things that Tamiko Ryan's had to say,
and there's a few more things that I think we'll
get to in football at five on that front. More specifically,
you heard that matchup on the mashup on the offensive line.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
He got into more of the CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
Stroud kind of things, the idea that you can't win
in the NFL without a quarterback, which is why we're
in a good spot. And he talked about the things
that CJ's brought to the club. So there's a few
things we'll share with you then when we get to
five o'clock, maybe an update. It seemed like the general
manager or the Kansas City Chiefs had a pretty clear
plan in place for what they're going to do at
tight end next year, which is the same thing they

(01:11:27):
were doing last year and almost every year for the
past decade plus. With Travis kelce certainly sounds like he's
going to play football next year and he's probably going
to play under the amount that they have n't slotted for.
There maybe some working with that, but not necessarily a
new contract in or extensure anything along those lines. And
you know the Texans because they've seen them so much.

(01:11:51):
And Travis Kelcey played three playoff games this year, and
for the first time in his career. Two of his
three single season postseason games were awesome. One of them
was that was against them. They probably, after all this time,
Demiko's time, at least, they can probably recognize the need
to get something useful out of the tight end, have

(01:12:12):
it be a plus position, have it be a bigger
part of the offense. And I don't mean they see
the ball more necessarily. I mean they just matter more.
They're doing more with their blocking, they're doing more with
their deception. They're just simply doing more. And I think
that's pretty much a given this year that will be
the case with their new OC Nick Kyley. There was
a report today from Denver that I thought was rather interesting,

(01:12:36):
maybe regarding the Houston Texas you happen to see that.
I don't think I'm talking about tight ends, yes, talking
about actually and the report out of Denver was I
did see this one. Sources indicate Rob Gronkowski is eyeing
a return to the NFL.

Speaker 4 (01:12:55):
I didn't see this one.

Speaker 6 (01:12:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
He played eight years with the Patriots. He played a
couple years with the Bucks. His last game was the
postseason following the twenty twenty one year, so it's been
a while since he was on an NFL football field.
I was just talking about Travis kelce Travis Kelcey is
a whole five months older than Rob Gronkowski's totally within

(01:13:18):
reason to believe Rob Gronkowski could be at least as
impactful as Travis Kelce. He's also got a couple of
years of not playing any football. His last game was
January of twenty twenty two. He'll be a thirty six
year old human in May, so he'll play next year
should he return at thirty six years old. Hey, Wex,

(01:13:39):
what are you talking about? What do the Texans have
to do with this at all? They just drafted Kate Stover,
They're getting Brevin Jordan back, they have Dalton Schultz under
contract for two more years. Oh, I forgot to tell
you that Nick Cayley coached Rob Gronkowski as his position
coach for two years in New England, was with him
for four years in New England.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
The report was out of Denver.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
The report basically is suggesting Sean Payton and the Denver
Broncos could be a very possible and even likely landing
spot for Rob Gronkowski.

Speaker 4 (01:14:12):
Almost the whole reason.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
He's gonna come back, But if he comes back to
play football and he's not playing football there and tom
Brady's not coming back then. Of course he's gonna look
at Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
Right, I mean, how old is he now? He'll be
thirty six.

Speaker 3 (01:14:28):
It is a he played eleven years of football, because
remember when he fake retired after the Patriots then came
back to play for the Bucks already. Remember the fake
retires that Michael Jordan, how about the fake retires that
I'm not You can't send me to Detroit. I'm just retiring, Okay,
we won't send you. Well, then I'm playing. That's what
Gronk did. He was like the opposite of Megatron. Well,

(01:14:49):
I'm retiring because I have to play here. And Barry
Sanders did the same thing before him.

Speaker 4 (01:14:54):
Was this he was the same as that. It was
a lion tradition.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
He just wasn't there yet. He's like, you want to
send me there, great, I'm retiring, don't do it me.
Nine years with the Patriots, two more years with Tampa.
Thirty six years old. Is no place to be in
the NFL unless you can still do something other guys
can't do. Unless you can still get open out muscle guys,
do some work at the line, get on the same

(01:15:18):
page as you're oc and quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
But there's no way to determine that he can or
cannot do these things until he's out on the field
and he's already been signed by you, right, pretty much
like if he wants to go to the combine and
just kind of go to the combine workout in front
of everyone since everybody's there anyways.

Speaker 4 (01:15:36):
Private workout. I mean he laughed.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
But Colin Kaepernick did this and didn't convince anybody to
sign him, but he was holding these.

Speaker 4 (01:15:44):
Workouts, right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
Colin Kaepernick also can't go ahead and tell the Pro
Football Hall of Fame what he wants on his bust
and Rob GRONKOWSBI can't correct.

Speaker 4 (01:15:52):
But if he's serious about this, all right, let's put
this together.

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
Let's help him. He's going to hold a private workout.
Who's going to be there with him?

Speaker 4 (01:15:59):
Who to him?

Speaker 3 (01:16:00):
Are there other receivers there? Is it just him and
Julian Edelman and Tom Brady?

Speaker 4 (01:16:04):
How funny would that be? You know it's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (01:16:06):
And I said, Tom Brady's not coming back, but he's
already back.

Speaker 4 (01:16:10):
He never went anywhere. It works for the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
He partially hampering, Hey, can we get minority Raiders owner
Tom Brady out here to throw some passes to Gronk
so we can see if he's still good.

Speaker 4 (01:16:21):
Don't you just want to have CJ throw to him.
That's the guy who would be thrown to him.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
It would be no, it would not you would Your
quarterback on your team is not participating, right, Davis. It's
more like a Brian Hoyer, someone who's familiar with he
has played some football with him before. Brian still in shape.
I mean, or it's a guy that wants to catch
somebody's eye. You know, maybe it's you know, a recently
out of the NFL quarterback that needs one more chance.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
Brian Hoyer would think it was an opportunity for him
to get back on the tax, but I mean stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:16:53):
Uh, just give me a quick one. Rob Gronkowski plays
NFL football again.

Speaker 4 (01:16:58):
No, no, for who not to textans.

Speaker 3 (01:17:02):
It's not about for who. If he wants to come back,
I guarantee you he'll get signed. That's so pathetic.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
What does that say about the state of the tight
ends in today's NFL?

Speaker 4 (01:17:15):
You're right, you're not. Let me let me steal pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
In his last year, he was very kind of like
a little bit neighborhood of what Kelsey was during the
regular season this past year.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
Let me steal a line with that four years from
Adam Wexler from yesterday's show, Steal Away. You're not signing
twenty five year old Rob Gronkowski from New England. You're
signing thirty six year old Rob Gronkowski from Tom Brady's Roast.

Speaker 4 (01:17:37):
I do that right. He looks like it's in pretty
good shape.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Yeah, especially when that shot glass and one shot killed
the guy. Did you use a shot glass?

Speaker 4 (01:17:46):
He did, and that was pretty entertaining. Might as well
have been a triday out there.

Speaker 3 (01:17:49):
We'll see if that comes to pass, but that was
reported earlier Today. We're two days out from the players
seeing the field at the Combine, but interviews will be underway.
Demiko also talked about the tenor of Texans interviews and
went back to his playing days and how he likes
them to be now that he's the coach because of
what he didn't like then when he was a player.
So a bunch of different angles from what was said

(01:18:11):
from Demiico. That's part of football at five coming up.
Still a little bit more from Dana Brown on during
his interview during today's two home run Cam Smith game
from Astros Spring training as they took on the Mets,
and a few other five o'clock worthy items are still
on the way.

Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your Teams, Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the A Team A team.

Speaker 2 (01:18:57):
I'm not starting this segment until it's five o'clock on
the dock, and now we can three seconds in two
the five o'clock hour. It is the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety AC with you until six o'clock tonight.
Wex is already on his way to Toyota Center where
the Rockets will dismantle the Milwaukee Bucks tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:19:17):
Hopeful to you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
Took part in the Rockets tickets giveaway, by the way,
just to announce the winner. But as I mentioned in
the post, there's gonna be plenty more opportunities for you
guys to win those tickets. And you know what, I
might just make it to where you put Sports Talk
seven ninety as the number one pre set on your
iHeartRadio app every single time, and that's how you win
those tickets, because that is a fantastic way to be

(01:19:41):
able to listen to the show with Crystal Clear audio.

Speaker 4 (01:19:44):
It's free.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
I mean, it's a win win win, and you can
explore and discover all sorts of awesome things about the
app because it really is the best in the biz
as far as entertainment of all sorts of varieties, as
is the NFL. We always talk about football when we
do the Football of five conversation because well, it's what

(01:20:05):
fuels the entire sports ecosystem. You see what I did there,
I made mister Gladstone famous yet again.

Speaker 5 (01:20:13):
The Jaguars GM. I still can't believe he.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
Used that in a pre ecosystem to me is like,
you know, an environmental term. Obviously, it's something that maybe
someone who is cleaning your aquarium would refer to, you know,
oh you need.

Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
To get ecosystem for your fish.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
I just don't think about an NFL locker room like
that's the first way to lose guys like that. These
are big meathead machismo guys. You know, I don't think
this ecosystem's gonna work out for you, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:20:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
Man has weird, wild and wacky stuff out there in Jacksonville.
But watched this guy be like an analytic wizard and
build the Jaguars into the next dynasty.

Speaker 4 (01:20:54):
I hope the ecosystem.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
Yeah, and by the way, that's one of those words
where it can technical, I guess be said one way
or the other, but that's one where it's definitely eco.
It's not echo system. You know, certain words like that,
potato potato. Anyway, let's get back to the combine. Let's
get back to more important things like the Miko Ryans.
Now listen the Texans. It's like, it's not hard to

(01:21:17):
figure it out. Probably a receiver, whether that's in the draft,
whether that's free agency, we shall see. And some offensive linemen.
And yeah, there's gonna be some other positions of need
or just best player available type picks that the Texans
will likely make. But as it pertains to what's going

(01:21:38):
to get this team where it needs to go, you know,
passed the Divisional round into an AFC Championship game for
the first time ever, and hopefully well beyond not just
making a Super Bowl appearance, but actually bringing back a
Lombardi Trophy to the city of Houston for the first
time in the history of mankind. You're gonna need a

(01:21:58):
better line in front of CJ. Stroud, but you're also
going to need just an ideal lineman in general. This
is Demiko Ryans on his ideal defensive lineman.

Speaker 9 (01:22:10):
You want guys who can't stop the run, but also
have enough athletic ability to get on the edge and
also win versus their one on one pass rust attempts,
so different guys. We like to roll our guys, so
we're not beholding it's just having four guys out there
at one time. I like to roll guys eight deep,
and all those guys have varying traits that can allow

(01:22:32):
us to, you know, be multiple on how we're deploying guys,
whether it's rush attack, pass attack, like, guys have to be.

Speaker 5 (01:22:40):
Able to do both.

Speaker 2 (01:22:42):
I just I feel like, for as long as Demiko
Ryans is the head coach of the Houston Texans, I'm
never gonna worry about the defense. I'm never gonna wait. Now,
you know, talent has to be employed, Talent has to
be deployed, but the scheme, the approach, the just the

(01:23:03):
the cohesiveness of a Domico Ryan's defense is something I'll
never have to question and honestly, I mean, having covered
him as a player. That's why I was so excited
selfishly about him being the next head coach of the
Houston Texans when his name was floated out there. Honestly
thought it was too good to be true or worse.

(01:23:23):
I thought he was going to look at the dumpster
fire that was the Texans organization that he inherited and
think to himself, I don't want to do that.

Speaker 4 (01:23:31):
I know that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
You know, had like look at Aaron Glynn. He's going
to a disaster right now.

Speaker 4 (01:23:36):
In a lot of respects.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
They don't know who their quarterback is, and the ownership
has been I mean, what's the most polite way to
kind of describe what has been the Jets existence under
Woody for so long. But you know, I just thought
that he would he would want some other situation. But
he came here and it didn't take him long at

(01:23:59):
all to change the culture. And part of that was
a big part of that was obviously CJ. Stroud, and
he kind of took time to look back at learning
about his now franchise quarterback during the draft process, and
that's something else he spoke about earlier today.

Speaker 9 (01:24:16):
If you want to win games and you want to be.
If you want to have a run deep in the playoffs,
you have to have a quarterback to do that right,
And that was the main focus for us. So it
was easy and the evaluation process of getting CJ. Just
seeing his talent, seeing the type of guy that he was, like,
ultimate competitor, true leader. His teammates loved him, like he

(01:24:40):
cared about his teammates. And that's what stuck out for me,
is a type not only getting a quarterback, but getting
a guy who the locker room can get behind.

Speaker 2 (01:24:50):
And you know, you think you're drafting a guy like that,
whether it be at quarterback, because that's the most important
position when it comes to that, at least as far
as the offense goes.

Speaker 5 (01:24:59):
But you never know.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
I could see where if you're interviewing CJ. Stroud, if
you're you know, observing a workout, if you're just interacting
with him in any way, shape or form before the draft,
now knowing what we know, just as far as off
the field, forget on the field, I could see where
any team, let alone the Texans and Tamiko Ryans would

(01:25:21):
have been drawn to him. But I do feel like
these two as a coach, franchise quarterback tandem absolutely fit
like a glove and it has been easy, especially when
you consider what WEX was talking about last hour. You know,
the the character guys, the stuff that we in essence,
the stuff that we made fun of the Texans for

(01:25:42):
over so many years. You know, WEX reminded us of
the Texan worthy moniker. Well, he's not Texan worthy. He
doesn't have a rap sheet, he doesn't have a shady pass,
he doesn't have a little sketchy incident or two in
his in his past. And for so long it felt
like the Texans just weren't going to have a guy
like that in their locker room because Bob McNair wasn't

(01:26:03):
going to allow it, wasn't going to be.

Speaker 4 (01:26:06):
The type of owner that was going to even let
that fly.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
When a lot of us, me included by the way,
I will freely admit to this said to the you know,
anybody who would listen at the time, Hey, bring in
a guy who's got, you know, not so up and
up on the character side of things. You know, maybe
you need to get a little bit more nasty. But
talking about CJ and talking about Demko and the environment,

(01:26:32):
the ecosystem if you will, that the Texans have put
together in their locker room. It is proof, I guess
in this case that nice guys don't always finish last.
Now they need to win more, They need to win bigger.
They need to win it at a higher level and
on a bigger stage. But just went over it. You know,
Will Anderson being a great dude, Nico Collins being a

(01:26:55):
great dude. All these guys seem like they're great dudes,
and I don't think anybody is. I don't think we're
gonna be fooled twice in a row at the character
I guess of the franchise quarterback in town.

Speaker 4 (01:27:07):
Look, maybe CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
Stroud has some dark skeletons we don't know about, but
I'd be shocked if we're going through something like what
they did with Deshaun Watson in recent years, and much
the opposite. As a matter of fact, as it pertains
to the draft itself, April will be here before you
know it, and the Texans are one of those franchises

(01:27:28):
that when you look back on moments like this in
the calendar, the combine and preparing for the draft, and
given whatever season it was, you know, depending on when
it was in the history of the franchise. Rick Smith
specifically is who I want to talk about here, owning
in on who he was inevitably going to take with

(01:27:48):
a first round pick that was going to be a hit,
because more often than not, that guy nailed the first
round every single year without fail. Might not have done
much in the latter stage, but for the most part,
first rounders, and even to maybe a slight lesser extent,
second rounders, you were doing pretty good if you were

(01:28:09):
the Texans. It was everything else that happened, whether it
be in free agency or the later rounds of the draft,
that would end up coming back to biting them sometimes.
And even then they still put good teams together.

Speaker 4 (01:28:21):
This is a new era.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
Obviously Tamiko is definitely in charge, but obviously Nick Cassario
has a large say in things. So how do they
go about evaluating those two rounds of the draft, the
first and second round guys that they want to add
to this group to make it a championship winner.

Speaker 9 (01:28:37):
When you look at a guy you're taking a guy
in that first round, you're looking at guys who you
you're laning on being, you know, Day one starters for you,
and you know, second round on through you looking for
guys who can possibly upgrade the roster to eventually become starters.
But you know, you want to see a guy and
what he's done in college, how many snaps he's played,
how effective as he been with the rest that he's

(01:28:59):
been given.

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
Obviously, obviously you want to see all that. But let's
let's cut to the chase to me go, how are
you guys evaluating offensive linemen.

Speaker 9 (01:29:09):
First and foremost looking at you know, past protection, like
how good is a guy in past protection? And then
no for everyone, for me speaking offensive lineman, I want
to see that grit. I want to see that toughness, right,
that nastiness of how guys are finishing their blocks, right,
what type of leaders these guys are, how passionate they
are about football. That's very important to me when it

(01:29:30):
comes to the offensive lineman.

Speaker 2 (01:29:32):
I'm not one of those read between the lions guys.
I'm not somebody that tried to interpret a dream in
Egypt like in biblical times and would look at the
quote internal conversations that the Astros were having about Alex
Bregman and try to read between the line. I'm not
that guy. And I'm not trying to make anything more

(01:29:52):
of this, but it does.

Speaker 4 (01:29:55):
Come on.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
You guys can't tell me that when you hear Demiko
Ryans say that one of the characteristics he wants an
offensive lineman is the grit and the basically care about
footballness of that offensive lineman, that that doesn't get your
attention when thinking about the current crop of guys that
are tasked with protecting your franchise, not your franchise, quarterback,

(01:30:20):
your franchise, because you are nowhere without c Jay Stroud,
and that pumps me up because I think they're going
to get it right, and I think it's going to
mean big things for this Houston Texans team because you're
only going to go as far as CJ can take you,
and he can only take you far if his jersey
is clean. On Sundays and Mondays and Thursdays and sometimes
on Christmas Wednesdays.

Speaker 1 (01:30:43):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety. The A
Team continues on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:30:58):
A Team rolling along on Sports Talks seven ninety, multitasking
during the break. Oh man, Yeah, you guys ever get
messages from your significant other while you're hosting a sports
talk show and have to just stay on task.

Speaker 4 (01:31:15):
No, there's nothing that doesn't relate.

Speaker 2 (01:31:17):
I'm sorry, it cracks me up some of the stuff
I get sometimes, not just from her, but from a
lot of you guys that have my have my numbers.
Shout out to Stugie too, by the way, he's a
P one. He's a P one listens to the A
team listens to Sports Talk seven ninety. I can guarantee
you that Stugie has Sports Talk seven ninety as the

(01:31:38):
number one pre set on the free and all new
and improved iHeartRadio app. I really, honestly, guys, I know
it sounds like I'm a shill for this, which I am.
I'm an employee of iHeart, but it really is fantastic.
I listen to that thing more than you guys would
probably care to know when I'm not on the air.

Speaker 4 (01:31:58):
And here's a hint, I'm not always listen into sports.

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
So it's got something for everyone, and certainly you guys
can take advantage of it. All right, let's get back
to the astros a little bit, because listen, if you're
Dana Brown and you've had I don't know, like I
was trying to think about this the other day, what
would you describe the Astros off season? Like, I know

(01:32:22):
he spoke earlier we played on the show about and
this was during the broadcast of today's game where Cam
Smith was hitting tanks plural and he mentioned that the
off season was busy.

Speaker 4 (01:32:34):
You know, that was a word he used.

Speaker 2 (01:32:37):
Now, if I were to tell you after the final
out of last season's playoff, if you want to call
it that loss to the Detroit Tigers in the Wildcard round,
that the Astros were going to have a quote busy
off season, what would you have thought back then? In

(01:32:58):
other words, would you think that busy meant good? Would
you think that busy meant bad? Would it be a
mixed bag? Would it be confusing? Would it be I.

Speaker 4 (01:33:08):
Don't know what to do with my hands?

Speaker 2 (01:33:10):
You know, Like, and I'm saying all this right now,
and I feel like every single one of those choices
at some point during this winner could be accurate. You know,
was it bad that you traded away one of your
best players, maybe your second best player? Do you think
Kyle Tucker's better than your On Alvarez? Like we're splitting

(01:33:31):
hairs here at semantics, but like one of your two
best hitters is gone.

Speaker 4 (01:33:36):
That's bad, right, We.

Speaker 2 (01:33:37):
Would all agree that that's bad for the Astros in
the future of this club, especially here in twenty twenty five.
But if you got cam Smith back, and as wex
phrased it earlier, and I think we need to start
looking at it this way until further notice or until
we're proven otherwise. You need to look at Cam Smith
as Kyle Tucker, even if he doesn't wind up playing

(01:33:59):
right field. That's who you traded Kyle Tucker for East
Soak Parades is going to be there, yes, but you
made that deal for Camp for camp Smith, like you
know the oh gosh, who is the Miles Straw he
got traded for for Phil Maton? Well, no he didn't.

(01:34:19):
He got traded for Yanor Diez. You see what I mean?
And far be it from me to say anything disparaging
about Phil Maton unless you're preparing for a playoff run
and he breaks his hand because he slams it into
a locker. But I digress. You know he he had
some immaculate innings for you. He was a part of
a winning run during this franchise as Golden Era. But

(01:34:43):
yinor Diez is your everyday Catcher, now yinor Diaz is
is what ended up being why you made that deal.
So you know, camp Smith will, for better or for worse,
be how you measure that transaction five ten years from now.

(01:35:04):
Maybe I shouldn't say ten because you know the obvious
insert joke here about letting him walk eventually, that's that's
that hurts to say already. So let's not let's just
get to that. Let's cross that bridge when we get
to it. But the reason I get to all this
is is, you know, Dana Brown described this offseason here

(01:35:24):
in twenty twenty five The Winner of twenty twenty five
twenty four to twenty five as being busy, and Alex
Bregman is in Boston, Kyle Tucker is and Ryan Presley
are in Chicago. You're still paying Rafael Montero and Josea
Bray you this year like big money, like nauseating big money.

(01:35:49):
It's it's been an interesting and as Dana put it,
busy off season.

Speaker 4 (01:35:54):
So having said all that, Dana, what was.

Speaker 2 (01:35:58):
The biggest off set season challenge for for you as
the general manager of the Houston Astros.

Speaker 8 (01:36:03):
Yeah, Trade and Tucker was tough, you know, because the
one thing we knew is Tucker's a big time players
in the middle of the order back and you know,
he's athletic with power and all of that stuff. And
so you you had him for one more year, potentially
could sign him, but it was going to be difficult,
you know. You know, those players that are that good
usually go on the market, and so you know, we

(01:36:26):
just decided to you know, compete in the present and
build for the future at the same time. And so
we traded him for fourteen years of control. We gave
up one year of control. So we have Peretis, you know,
have three I think West Netsk he's got like five
or six, and then we get six from camp Smith.

(01:36:47):
So we I mean, look, we feel like, you know,
we we we turned Tucker into something nice that the
organization could be happy about to compete in the present
and future.

Speaker 2 (01:36:59):
You guys, catch what he did. I know, Dan did
like fourteen years of control for one year. See what
you did there, Dana. He took all the players received
in the deal and just added up the club control
and then put that against the one play the one
year of club control they had left with Kyle Tucker.

(01:37:20):
I see you working, Dana, Honestly, that's actually pretty funny.
But you know that could make a fan base that
is somewhat reeling from this offseason. It's if it doesn't
make them feel better, it's at least a crafty way
of attempting to I just it is. You know, talking

(01:37:41):
with Chandler Rome this offseason, and he has voiced this,
I believe he's written this. Basically, you traded away one of,
if not your best players in essence because you either
didn't want to or couldn't pay them what they were
going to get. And to a lesser extent, that's why

(01:38:03):
you let Alex Bregman walk. Now with Bregman, I think
whether people want to admit this or not, and it's
been hard for me to admit it because I like
Bregman personally, But the numbers are the numbers, and boy
does Wex know numbers better than anybody else that's going
to sit in this room with me. And he was
talking about this way in advance of all this. You

(01:38:26):
know the all right, you want Bregman. You don't want
that walk off the field in the regular season home
finale to be the last time you see him in
an Astros uniform. Well, what does that mean? And what's
it going to cost you to have that not be
the case? Wow, it was too rich for the astros blood,

(01:38:48):
But more importantly, it was too much money to give
a guy with those declining numbers, and that's what they were.
Now here's going to be the catch If Alex Bregman,
who it, hit a meaningless home run in spring training
for the Red Sox, already wearing a red jersey, gross,
you know, screw you Red Sox, by the way. But

(01:39:11):
you know, while we're on the subject, but what if
the traditional slow start, What if the traditional April sometimes
into May swoon that became a staple of Alex Bregman's
seasons as a Houston astro doesn't happen. What if he
falls in love with the Green Monster. What if the

(01:39:33):
Red Sox are rocketing out of the gate, and one
of the main reasons is because Alex Bregman's bat, his
April bat, his early May bat, is sizzling. The odds say,
the odds are against it for a variety of reasons,
the declining numbers, the age, and just the way he's
always gone about things. But what if this change of

(01:39:55):
scenery does have that effect? And what if it's like
that every year of his deal with the with the
Red Sox. Well, first of all, he might be opting out.
If that's the case, I don't think he's going to.
But secondly, that's going to be a gut punch for
Astros fans first and foremost. But then Astro's management is
going to have to think, Okay, what might have been

(01:40:17):
Having said that, other than Garrett Cole, who I don't
really put in the same category because he just struck
me as like a mercenary who was always wanting to
go to the Yankees anyways, So you just use him
for what he is while you have him before he
walks out the door. The Springers, the Correas, the you know,
the the Bregman's of the world. When it came time

(01:40:40):
for them to walk away, you laid your head on
your pillow at night. As whoever the Astros general manager was,
there were three of them throughout the course of this,
I believe knowing that you got the best years of
that guy, whoever he may be, fill in the blanks
career in an Astros jersey. And if you won with

(01:41:03):
him and he goes on to perform, maybe well but
not as well as he did in Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:41:08):
You can rest easy.

Speaker 2 (01:41:10):
I truly think that Jeff Luno, James Click, and now
Dana Brown are all able to say that. If they
are all able to say that, because I think Breckman
is going to be the wait and see approach to
this and maybe the most maybe the most potentially painful one.
But I do think the odds say that'll be the

(01:41:30):
case and he'll be able to rest easy. It's gonna
be a very fascinating twenty twenty five. For a variety
of reasons for the Astros spring training can't get over
with fast enough.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety no need for
a roadmap whin all roads lead to as sweet iHeart
Radio app, Astros and Rockets games plus.

Speaker 2 (01:41:53):
Legendary Houston Sports Talks seven ninety on any device with
the free iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (01:42:00):
Now that's the art of living.

Speaker 2 (01:42:06):
All right, It is time for in case you missed
it on a Tuesday edition of the program, Dan take
it away.

Speaker 5 (01:42:13):
Yes, in case you missed it.

Speaker 7 (01:42:15):
In this case, the first two stories we completely missed
from yesterday, well at least one of them is carried over.

Speaker 5 (01:42:20):
We'll get to that in a second, But.

Speaker 7 (01:42:22):
Did you catch one of I mean, I guess we
could say he's one of our favorite people. But from
one of our favorite topics here on the show is
Stephen Jones talking about what their off season philosophy is
going to be.

Speaker 4 (01:42:35):
There will be quote selectively.

Speaker 7 (01:42:38):
Aggressive out at the NFL combine and in the draft process.
I'll paraphrase the rest of his quote, but basically he's
trying to sound like a smart executive where it's just
like the rest of your fan base and the rest
of the NFL is kind of like you're trying to
be a serious football man when you hired Brian Schottenheimer
as your head coach.

Speaker 2 (01:42:57):
Well, selectively aggressive me like how they're gonna draft, Yeah, how.

Speaker 5 (01:43:02):
They're gonna draft.

Speaker 7 (01:43:03):
And he does all the buzzwords top of our board,
you know needs as a terms of best player available,
all the all the buzzwords that you hear from executives.
Like it's like, that's cute that you're trying to deceive
your fan base and the believing that you have any
concept of what reality is.

Speaker 2 (01:43:21):
Here's my thing, whether they believe it or not. Why
would you say anything other than we're going to be
aggressive aggressive, Like, to me, if you're a terrible franchise,
if you're a mediocre franchise, if you're the Eagles and
you are the defending Super Bowl champion, your GM should

(01:43:45):
be aggressive every draft.

Speaker 5 (01:43:48):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:43:48):
I'm not saying, you know, trade away.

Speaker 2 (01:43:51):
Your future draft picks and put yourself in a pickle,
because you do that, But what I mean is like,
why would you be selectively aggressive if you're the Dallas
Cowboys and you're telling that to your fan base, Like,
you can tell your fan base anything you want right now.
You don't have to say everything you're going to do.
You can certainly play poker, But this is the SoundBite

(01:44:11):
that people are gonna run with because you're the Dallas Cowboys.
And it's not you're the Dallas Cowboys because you have
this awesome tradition in this lineage and this winning organizational culture. No,
you're the Dallas Cowboys. You screw things up. That's what
you're known for now, because when you've last won a

(01:44:32):
Super Bowl in nineteen ninety six and you have flamed
out spectacularly pretty much every season since then, what you're
known for is being the Dallas Cowboys. We say dumb
things like we're gonna be selectively aggressive coming off yet
another colossal face palm or face plant in the non
postseason this time around, this time, it was the regular

(01:44:54):
season where you crap the bed. So hey, it's fine
with me if they want to keep being a laughingstock
in the NFL as far as the state of Texas,
go right ahead, because Houston took that mantle or took
that baton a number of years in the past and
we're tired of it.

Speaker 7 (01:45:10):
Well, I mean, and it goes even before him addressing
the media yesterday in saying this, because you basically gave
your fan base and told them up yours when they
hired Brian Schottenheimer. Like, the guy is like the face
of nepotism in the NFL. His dad was one of
the guys that was like one of the most notable
names of all time. You don't think this guy, if

(01:45:31):
he truly could be a head coach before this, wouldn't
have tripped into a head coaching job. There's a reason
why it took him twenty five years to become a
head coach.

Speaker 5 (01:45:38):
And it's not his last name.

Speaker 2 (01:45:42):
Listen, I can't completely beat down on Stephen Jones because
who just retired from their organization.

Speaker 5 (01:45:51):
Oh Zach Martin, Yeah, d came off the wheel momentarily.

Speaker 4 (01:45:54):
Sorry, no, no, I put you on the spot.

Speaker 2 (01:45:57):
But the point being, Zach Martin's not a Dallas Cowboy
if it's not for Stephen Jones, Johnny Manziel is And
if you think Johnny manziel got into trouble as a
member of the Cleveland Browns, you would love to see
him go back and a time machine with all that fame,
all that money, and put him in a Dallas Cowboys
jersey right around the corner from where he grew up

(01:46:17):
and see what he could do with himself.

Speaker 7 (01:46:18):
Then see kids, That's what we call in the industry
a professional segue that AC just did right there, because
the next one involves Johnny Manziel. So this made the
rounds on the internet, I think over the weekend. But
Kirby Smart was speaking at a Nike Coaches convention and
he had a graphic up on the screen for the

(01:46:39):
coaches that were in attendance. On the top left it
was Bryce Young, bottom left it was Cam Newton at Auburn,
and he also had Joe Burrow and he also had
Johnny Manziel on there, So set that up for that,
but stay for the stray that one of those guys catches.

Speaker 5 (01:46:53):
What are these guys have in common?

Speaker 10 (01:46:56):
Speak up Heisman, good answer, that's actually true.

Speaker 5 (01:47:03):
They're definitely quarterbacks.

Speaker 10 (01:47:04):
That's the most elementary thing.

Speaker 5 (01:47:06):
Hesman quarterbacks. Champions, he champion, champion of what? Champion of fireball?

Speaker 2 (01:47:18):
Was that Johnny's poison of choice back in the day.

Speaker 7 (01:47:20):
I think he just it's just top of mind for him.
But I mean, yeah, Johnny liked the party, and Johnny
now has a bar because of how much he liked
to party.

Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
I mean, it takes a guy that has one like
Kirby smart to be able to even put himself in
a position to say that. I don't think that. I
don't know, pick a pick a head coach that has
been famously underwhelming or just can't it feels like he

(01:47:51):
can't win the big one.

Speaker 5 (01:47:53):
James Franklin, Okay, there he gets immediately.

Speaker 2 (01:47:55):
Wow, that was right there talking about kicking a guy
while his carcass is down.

Speaker 7 (01:47:59):
But hey, I mean he somewhat helped himself this playoff run.
But that's what he's been known for. And until you
win it all, or until you beat Ohio State and
Michigan consistently. Then that's going to continue to be thrown
at or even coach Sark. Since we were talking about
Texas here, yeah, I think I love them.

Speaker 5 (01:48:16):
Yeah, no, trust me, I fend of the show.

Speaker 7 (01:48:18):
He gets a little bit of a pass just because,
I mean, not so great at SC or Washington. But
he's raised the profile of Texas exponentially.

Speaker 5 (01:48:27):
I think we can agree on that.

Speaker 4 (01:48:28):
Is Texas back.

Speaker 7 (01:48:31):
When you go, when you're in the final four, you're back, right, yeah, yeah,
you have to be considered back at that point, yes,
right in a conference championship in there?

Speaker 2 (01:48:38):
Yes, all right, good, I'm glad that Sark is back.
That's all I read. That's what I got out of
that aspect of In case you missed it, Herbie Smart
can say what he wants.

Speaker 7 (01:48:47):
He's Kirby Smart, got too, Natty's all right, finnal one
Here Brown's GM Andrew Berry reiterates that the team does
not have plans to trade defensive end Miles Garrett, even
though he has requested to be moved, well, calling him unmovable.

Speaker 2 (01:49:02):
I don't have plans to pay my income tax this year,
but I got news for you it's gonna happen anyways,
I don't want to do it, which is what it
sounds like he's really trying to say here. Oh yeah,
we have a really good defensive end. I don't want
him off my team, but my team is a dumpster fire.
So therefore, that's how the world of sports works. And

(01:49:26):
Miles Garrett coming to the Cleveland Browns and saying I
want to be traded is like fiftieth on their list
of problems right now.

Speaker 4 (01:49:33):
It's a big one. But who's your quarterback ever? Again?
Not just this season?

Speaker 2 (01:49:40):
And oh, by the way, when you do find that quarterback,
who isn't Deshaun Watson. I know you've like restructured or
looked at, you know, trying to do things from a
financial standpoint to stave off the colossal impact. You still
guarantee them all that money. It's still going to be
a bitter pill to swallow. So yeah, you might not

(01:50:03):
want to trade Miles Garrett, but you might also want
to trade him so you can get something of value
for him sooner rather than later, and sooner being the
operative word here, since he's not getting any younger while
you're trying to rebuild. Just the listen. I don't care
they gave. They gave Deshaun Watson two hundred and thirty
million dollars guaranteed. What happens from there on out, that's

(01:50:27):
on you, and I don't feel bad. And I love
the fact that Nick Cassio absolutely fleeced and the fleecing
gets bigger by the day the Cleveland Browns and eventually
landed a franchise quarterback in CJ Strout. Final segment of
the show is coming up next.

Speaker 5 (01:50:45):
The aight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:50:49):
It's the Adam Planting at Adam.

Speaker 5 (01:50:53):
Wex Swear on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:50:56):
Your Rockets, Your Astros, Your Voice.

Speaker 2 (01:51:06):
The final segment of a Tuesday edition of the eight
team Sports Talk seven to ninety. Top of the hour,
we will hand things off to Ross Viial. I need
to talk to you Ross about Friday. By the way,
just putting it out there on the air if he
happens to be listening. But listen. We started the show

(01:51:26):
today at the end of the Astros spring training win
over the Mets with Camp Smith. Watch That's what I'm
gonna call it from here on out, because he could
have the most nondescript spring training from here on out,
and it's still gonna be camp Smith watch until he's
up at the big leagues. But the guy launching two

(01:51:48):
Opo tacos in his only two at bats, by the way,
is why you wanted him when you sent Kyle Tucker
out the door and credit. If you're not gonna pay
Kyle Tucker, you got to get past that. If you're
still upset that the Astros didn't pay Kyle Tucker and
didn't pay Alex Bregman, and didn't pay Carlos Korea, and

(01:52:10):
didn't pay George Springer, and you weren't given the opportunity
to pay Garrett Cole, you know all of that justin
Verlander the first time I can't do anything with you.
That's just then wallow in your own misery. But if
you're going to at least look at this from an
optimistic standpoint, you're rooting for every one of these home runs.
You're rooting for him to mash the crap out of

(01:52:32):
the ball once he gets to whatever part of the
minor league system he winds up at for however long
or in this case of my opinion, short time he
spends there. But you also got to listen to these
quotes and think, man, I can't wait. Brian McTaggart, friend
of the Show, Friend of the Station, in his recap

(01:52:55):
of today's game, got the following quote, among others, from
Cam Smith. I can't even describe it, but it feels
like the best feeling in the world. It's a blessing
just to get opportunities to get in there, whether you're
starting the game, whether you're getting the back half of
the game. To see that caliber of pitching this year,
it's huge as a ballplayer. Now, that's a typical quote

(01:53:20):
from a kid who hit two home runs in the game,
but it's just from the standpoint of just being excited
about yet another young buck that is going to find
himself wearing orange at dyke In Park, which still sounds
weird to say, sooner rather than later, and I just
cannot wait for it. I don't think it'll be the

(01:53:42):
last time we're talking about him in spring training, and
I certainly don't think that it'll be any less fun
to keep an eye on what he's doing where he's
doing it before he's a member of the everyday lineup
for the Houston Astros, which again I think is just
a matter of time. Still a kid, but it's nice
to have a kid to add to the kids, but
especially this one that you're keeping an eye on, like

(01:54:03):
I said, waiting for him to contribute to the big
league levels. Some of the other things we didn't get today.
There was a weird story. Do you guys see this
tweet from Ian Rappaport about Rashad White. So apparently somebody's
trying to shake him down and extort him for money.
And he released a statement that Ian Rapaport tweeted, and

(01:54:26):
the statement read the following. The FBI and other appropriate authorities.
F B and other appropriate authorities are currently looking into
an extortion attempt against Rashad White. Illegal and defamatory threats
and demands against Rashad and his family will be met
with zero tolerance. We will continue to exercise all legal

(01:54:48):
avenues to protect Rashad's rights as a victim of extortion.

Speaker 4 (01:54:52):
Okay, it's not great.

Speaker 2 (01:54:54):
You never want to hear that that's happening to any
professional athlete or any person for that matter. I Rapaport's
the one that tweeted that, and it was a statement
from you know, I think it's his representatives Rashad White's
you know team if you will. Ian Rappaport tweeted that
it's a graphic black background white text with the following

(01:55:15):
caption on the situation surrounding Rashad White colon, and then
there's the statement in the graphic, Uh, what situation? Like
he tweeted this at four point thirty and no one
knows what the situation is until just now, Like nobody's

(01:55:35):
talking about Rashad White being extorted until Ian Rappaport says, uh,
this is the latest on the situation. We didn't know
there was a situation. This is some of the responses Ian.
This is everyone's introduction to the and he capitalizes Rashad
White situation. I mean, again, nobody wants to hear that's happening.

(01:55:57):
But Ian's like, yeah, everybody knows about this, so I'm
just gonna give you the latest about it.

Speaker 4 (01:56:01):
No, this is our introduction.

Speaker 2 (01:56:02):
So apparently Rashaud White's being extorted and the FBI is involved,
and we all already knew about it unless nobody did.

Speaker 4 (01:56:09):
So that was Ian rapport on that.

Speaker 2 (01:56:10):
It's just interesting from a guy who's like a veteran
NFL reported a phrase it that way some of the
other news and notes from the NFL. Did you guys
catch what Brett Veach said about Travis Kelcey quote how
we left at the end of the season is that
he was fired up. I think we left it as

(01:56:31):
he'd be back and we were excited to get him
back and get him going. He has that fire and
desire to play. He didn't look like he had that
fire and desire to play, especially when he was He
wasn't even engaged in some plays where he could have.
You know, Pat Mahomes might have wanted to use a
block or two of his upfield. So I this to

(01:56:55):
me strikes me as the runner up in this year's
NFL season saying what he's supposed to say. But I
think inevitably this comes to some sort of amicable either
restructuring of his deal or.

Speaker 4 (01:57:15):
Thanks but no thanks. We'll see you off into the sunset.

Speaker 2 (01:57:18):
If that means another team, well good luck with finding
somebody to pay you the type of money we're supposed to.
But we're not going to be the ones to do it,
and you were kind of a non factor this year.
By the way, I don't call him fat. Travis kelce
I didn't think he looked fat this year. I think
that was the haircut, in that he had hair. I
think that had more to do with it. But I

(01:57:39):
would not necessarily look for Travis Kelcey to be.

Speaker 4 (01:57:43):
A big part of the Chiefs. It's just a hunch.

Speaker 2 (01:57:44):
I could be absolutely wrong. He could be out there
wasting a roster space in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (01:57:50):
Actually I would love that because I think that's good.

Speaker 2 (01:57:52):
That's good for the Texans, you know, provided that the
officiating is a suss. But it's interesting that the GM
would say he's got fire and desire to play when
he looked like he had neither of those things in
the biggest game of the year, on the biggest stage
of the year, when the Chiefs were losing in the
Super Bowl. But that's just me, all right. Rockets basketball

(01:58:15):
right around the corner. Ross Viral, as we mentioned, has
got you covered with the launch pad. Wex is already
I guarantee you planted in his spot at Toyota Center
getting ready for the pregame. He and Matt Thomas. We'll
call Rockets and Bucks later on tonight. See if the
Rockets can shake off that loss in Salt Lake City,
and I hope so, because they got a back to back, like,

(01:58:36):
go ahead and just win this game handily and maybe
rest starters. But if it goes down to the wire,
something to keep an eye on for tomorrow night, as
the Spurs will be in town Sands. Of course, Victor
winmbin Yama, but dearon Fox and Company will be trying
to upset the Rockets in the second half of it
back to back. First things first, we'll get you ready
for Rockets and Bucks in a matter of minutes.

Speaker 5 (01:58:57):
We will call it a day.

Speaker 2 (01:58:59):
As far as that goes, back at it again tomorrow afternoon,
right here in studio for Dan for Wex, I may
see it as the A team here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. I hope you enjoy Rockets basketball coming up
right around the corner. And yeah, you'll be able to
talk about it on the Rockets Rap post game show,
don't forget about that at seven one three, two, one
two five at seven ninety. But in the meantime we
will call it a Tuesday and get you ready for

(01:59:20):
Rockets basketball.

Speaker 4 (01:59:22):
Have a great rest of

Speaker 1 (01:59:22):
Your night, everyone, The A ten on Sports Talk seven
ninety

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