Texans Sideline Reporter John Harris Joins The Drive Live From Practice In Ohio

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

Texans sideline reporter John Harris joined The Drive with Stoerner and Hughley to discuss the latest from Texans training camp practices in Ohio.

Transcript

00:00And nobody better than to talk to than our guy, John Harris, Texans sideline reporter, also

00:06John Harris of football takeover.com. You hear him behind us on Texans all access every single

00:13night. John, a lot happened in the last two days. I know there's some injury stuff as well, but

00:20it sounds like Derek Stingley jr. Really, really showed out not just today, but yesterday,

00:28but in particular, picking off CJ Stroud. And what I heard, I wish I could have seen

00:34some, they said he went and got a pick where he gets a jump ball between him and Nico,

00:38and he went up and got it over Nico. So I hear, and he's been very, very impressive as usual.

00:45Yeah. Sting, the first interception he had was that one, he was matched up with Nico

00:51and he had himself in great position. So when the ball went up in the air, it was Nico that

00:56was having to try to reach over Sting, but Sting basically just blocked him out and went up and

01:00made the catch down the field. And it's pretty awesome when you see like five feet in front of

01:04you, see these two incredible athletes, like going after the football, but Sting made a heck

01:09of a catch there. And then to lead off the last period, he broke on an out route. I think it was

01:14tank and he broke in front of it, snatched it, took it to the house. I've said it for a while

01:20now. I think Derek Stingley is going to be, if not the best corner in the league, he's going to

01:26be in the top three team picture. He has been that good since he came back from injury in the middle

01:32of the season last year. It's just a matter of Sting staying healthy, but yeah, he had two picks

01:36in practice today. He's so slick. I've said this since Sting has been here. I think Sting has the

01:43best hands on the team. And it shows when he is fighting for the football, he very rarely loses out.

01:51So whenever the ball's in his vicinity, I feel like he's got a pretty good chance to go get it.

01:55And, you know, with guys being banged up, it's just great that he's not, that he's out there

02:00every single day. You're obviously giving those big three wide receivers a look, but, you know,

02:04seeing he and Nico go at it, you know, seeing him make that break on the ball and CJ's throw

02:09start the last period of practice, it just shows how far he's come. And when he's healthy,

02:15forget it. You do not want to throw the football at him if you're an opposing offense.

02:18Johnny, it seems like, you know, look, he arrived last year to me. I mean, the real like

02:25bright moment was when he clearly mirrored Amari Cooper for the Cleveland Browns and took him

02:31completely out of the game after he had a hell of a game a couple of weeks earlier versus the

02:35Texans. To me, that was the, okay, now, now he's arrived and you come, you fast forward to camp

02:42this year. It seemed like early on, Nico Collins gets behind him. Tank Dale gets behind him. You

02:48got, you know, digs gets behind him. It seems like if I didn't know no better, it was almost

02:52like they were just going to take some shots and they didn't mind if they took shots at 24.

02:55And then all of a sudden a little scuffle happened. And it seems like since that scuffle

03:00that day, really not, not just scuffle itself, but the day that he walked out there, made a

03:04couple of plays early. The little scuffle happened. It seems like from that point till

03:09the day Derek Stingley has been on a mission and been a, had a little different mindset

03:14at training camp. Yeah. You know, it's Franklin. I think you're dead on. I think maybe it woke

03:20him up a little bit. Maybe not. I think he just probably kind of got into the groove of practice

03:24too. I think it takes some players, maybe some time to get in kind of the groove. You know,

03:29you start seeing some of the same things you start anticipating. I think one of the things

03:33that we don't give sting enough credit for, and I try to do this when we talk about him,

03:36it's how smart he is. His football IQ is off the charts. And so when you start seeing the same

03:42stuff for a few days at a time, you know, this haven't been in training camp, you're like, man,

03:46there's over there sitting on his out route, man, but coach still wants me to throw it.

03:50So, all right, I guess I got to throw it, but I think, and that happens. And so I think sting

03:55is pretty smart. He's seen a lot of these things that this offense has been trying to do to him,

04:00but I really feel like he's woken up. But I think here's the other thing too. I also make

04:05sure I say this properly. There are times when I don't mind if you're like, I look up and okay,

04:12tank's got half a step on it because sting is playing the ball. And that's one of the things,

04:17because his ball skills are so good. Sometimes it may look like he's out of phase, but because

04:22he's playing the ball and looking for the ball, he really doesn't, it doesn't matter to him that

04:28he's really like a half step beaten seemingly because he can go make a play or he can close

04:34on a football probably better than anybody I've seen with a Texans, not named Jonathan Joseph.

04:38So I think he just has some natural cover instincts. I think he's found a really nice groove.

04:45You know, if that is definitely the case, like you said, Clint, and I think that probably is,

04:48it may woke him up. We'd all send belt and Schultz, you know, like a flower bouquet.

04:54And thank you for waking up 24. But that's who I think is special. I think he is just top notch.

04:59And as long as he stays healthy, you're the fact that the Miko has that, that card to play. He's

05:06got that ACE in the hole to play. Okay. Well, we're playing a Cowboys and CD land. That's a

05:11great matchup. You know what? Wherever CD goes 24, you're going to go. That's such a great asset

05:17to have. And the fact that they sprung it on the Browns the way they did. Oh no, we don't do that.

05:22That's not what we do in this defense. And then lo and behold, there it is. He's tracking them all

05:26game long. They're going to be games that he's going to be able to do that this year. And it's

05:30really going to help this defense out for sure. And with a better pass rush, it may give sting

05:35more opportunities for plays like you made today. John Harris with this Texan sideline

05:40reporting catches work also on football, takeover.com. I listen. I think the confidence

05:45in Derek Stingley is very, very high. I think internally with the Texans and amongst Texans

05:51fans. I think there's some questions when you start to look at the other portions of the

05:55secondary, you've watched them all camp. What's your feeling on the other spots outside of Derek

06:01Stingley in that secondary? I have no questions about Kamari Lassiter. None, huh? None. Now look,

06:08he's a rookie. He's going to get beat. It happens. Rookies get beat. But I said it the day he was

06:14drafted. I didn't give two dams about his four, six and a 40 because I watched Luther Burden.

06:19I watched all the fast receivers in the SEC try to beat him and it couldn't. In the Missouri game,

06:25Luther Burden is one of the best receivers in college football. Y'all know that. Y'all

06:28follow college football. Luther Burden caught a touchdown on the other DB of Georgia going deep,

06:33being deep throughout the rest of the game. No matter where Luther Burden went, Kamari Lassiter

06:39went. Kamari Lassiter played 30 reps in the slot at Georgia last year. 30. He played 29 of those

06:45reps against Missouri because he was matching up against Luther Burden. It was the only time he

06:50lined up in the slot all year long and shut down Burden the rest of the game. I watched 14 shut

06:56down every Texans receiver. I don't care, you know. Oh, Tank? Yep. Diggs? He stayed in Diggs'

07:03pocket with double moves throughout OTA's minicamp and the first part of training camp.

07:07Now, he hasn't been up here, so I don't know if he got dinged up. He's sick. I don't know.

07:12But as long as Kamari Lassiter is healthy, I have very few questions about the other side of the

07:17field. Very few. Now, what they get out of the safeties, how they mix the safeties up,

07:23where Petrie ends up playing. Okay, we can talk about that being, you know, a question mark and

07:28how that's going to all come together. But the more I watch Kamari Lassiter, the more convinced

07:32I am that they absolutely got a steal at 42 in this draft. Hey, talk to us a little bit about

07:36Jalen Petrie. I know there was a little bit of a scuffle yesterday, again, between him and

07:41Diggs and a questionable P.I. call on a pass breakup kind of deal. Just your thoughts on Jalen

07:47Petrie and how he's going to fare specifically to the covering aspect of that nickel defender and

07:54what they're asking to do so far in camp. Well, I think, and this is where I don't want to say

08:00we give Jalen a break, but there are very few nickels in the league that can just lock dudes up

08:06that light up inside one-on-one. I mean, because if they, if they were that good,

08:12they play on the perimeter. So I think Jalen's cover ability from inside is actually better

08:18than people think, but it's not going to be like stingling cover inside. It's not going to be like

08:24one of those guys, even if you think of the best nickels in the league, you think of Mike Hilton

08:29from the Bengals. And one of the reasons he's so great is because he blitzes, he plays off the edge.

08:35He makes a bunch of tackles in the run game. It's not because he can go inside and cover Tyree Hill

08:40one-on-one. I mean, nobody can really do that, but I think Jalen gives them a little bit of

08:45diversity at that nickel spot inside. He can blitz, he can play the run. Now his tackling's

08:50got to improve, but I think it did after he got benched in that Browns game. I feel like he had

08:55to kind of go back and like, go, just go back to the fundamentals. And I think he started doing

09:00that. And I think he'll make more plays the closer he is to the football. Now, the question

09:07becomes, if Petrie's going to play at the nickel, then what do you do with safety? Now, right now,

09:12you've got Eric Murray with Jimmy Ward. I think Eric Murray has played really, really well,

09:18but 41 is coming. The young boy from USC, as they call him, Kalem Bullock,

09:23he made a pick today in practice that I'm telling you, I, it happened right in front of me. And I

09:28still was not a hundred percent. Sure. I saw what I saw. He broke out an over route. Mets.

09:32He was running the over route, booting out. David saw Mets. He going to zip it to him.

09:38Bullock literally jumped in front, stole the ball away from Mets. He spun and went the other way for

09:45a pick six. Now I watch that play. And I'm like, I've seen every Texans game up close since 2014

09:51down the sidelines. I've been here since 2007 covered a team. I've never seen safety make

09:56plays like that. And it's Texas Jersey. No one. I mean, Tyra Matthew, Justin Reed, no one, nobody

10:02makes those athletic plays. And Kalem Bullock has been making them every other day. So we better

10:09keep our eyes on 41 because when that young buck is in the game, he's going to make something

10:13happen. Now I do worry about his tackling and if Peter's not tackling well and Bullock's not

10:18tackling well, okay, you got issues. So you got to do some things, but I do think Jalen's going to

10:22tackle better. And I think if Bullock does go in the game, he is definitely going to be a guy

10:27that is going to make some place in his defense because of his range and the amount of cover

10:32ability and the amount of ground he can cover. So keep an eye on 41 on Friday night against

10:37Pittsburgh. He is fun to watch. All right, John, we appreciate you, man. And we will keep following

10:42you and listening to you guys after we get off the air as you guys are, as you guys are there

10:48first with your eyes on and be able to watch them in practice as they're getting ready for

10:52Pittsburgh. Ready for that call as well. Coming up on Friday. We appreciate you joining us.

10:58Appreciate you boys. Thanks for having me. All right. There it is, man. Feels good. Hey,

11:01you feel good about that secondary, doesn't he? Energy's always good, baby. Energy's always good.

11:05I mean, look, I mean, look, there's, there's no way that studies it closer and harder than,

11:09than Johnny. So that's, that's good stuff.

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