Should C.J. Stroud Play Against Steelers If His Starting Tackles Can't?

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

The Texans could be down their two starting tackles when they play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Friday in the preseason. So should the Texans still risk it and allow C.J. Stroud to play?

Transcript

00:00If if there's no Laramie Tunsil, which there's no way he's going to play Friday

00:05Without practicing in pads at all to this point. So there's no there's no Laramie Tunsil

00:10and if this injury to Titus Howard ends up being something that forces him to miss camp time and

00:17Forces him to miss Friday's game

00:19you're down your two starting tackles, you've got a

00:23Rookie and Blake Fisher's got a lot of run and then you've got a handful of journeyman tackles below him

00:29that

00:30That may or may not

00:32Make the cut only one who just arrived. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Cam Irving. Is that right?

00:37Just arrived

00:38Which he's bounced around the league

00:40I'm not sure exactly how much he started and how much quality play he has but he's bounced around the league for nine years

00:45so he clearly has a little something to him, but

00:49Ron I don't I don't think that this in any way shape or form is gonna is gonna

00:54You know impact the decision of whether CJ Stroud plays

00:59Friday or not

01:00but I do think it's something that's gonna need to be schemed around planned around and and and

01:04In CJ Stroud's head damn sure taking into account as they do go out there and get a little bit of run. Yeah

01:12To me I think it's a fair thing

01:14If there is a thought in your mind and you're a Texans fan and it is this important

01:20Which this season is this important you feel like you got a chance to go to a place

01:25You've never been the AFC championship game. Maybe the Super Bowl

01:29And your thought is hey Titus ain't playing Laramie ain't playing

01:35CJ ain't playing in preseason games. I think that's very fair and not crazy at all

01:41And then there may be people say all their wusses whatever now

01:45I can understand that if you are saying I'd I don't want a rookie in Blake Fisher who has been getting taking advantage of

01:53And struggling a bit at times facing some of the guys they're facing to potentially face

01:58You know TJ what for a couple of go-arounds or Highsmith for a couple go-arounds and even more

02:04Either a cam Irving who just arrived in practice for the first time on Monday or sharp

02:09Who is a journeyman young guy that may not make the team?

02:13I can understand if your thoughts or I don't want those guys

02:17Yeah to be the starting tackles of CJ's there. My thinking is where I would go with you Clint is

02:23Well, I think I think they're gonna probably have to be prepared for CJ to have to run into games

02:29Where he is having Blake Fisher as a tackle where they may not have Laramie where they may not have Titus Howard

02:36Especially if it's anything close to what last year they had so many injuries up front and I do think it is important

02:43For those two guys and in juice grugs and Kenyan green to get reps real reps in game reps

02:51With CJ Stroud as well

02:53so to me

02:54I if you had if your thought process was it off the top off the top like I think the Jets are

03:00That you know Aaron ain't playing

03:02That CJ wasn't playing if you thought he was gonna play. I still think you get him you get him those red

03:07Yeah, look, I don't think it's off the table. Like you said, it's not crazy

03:10I wouldn't be mad at him if they said look we're not gonna put CJ out there right now

03:13Maybe if they didn't give us a reason you got to believe that it has a lot to do with no Joe Mixon

03:18No, no Titus Howard. No Laramie Tunsell now if Titus Howard could very well be back tomorrow on this and you got Blake Fisher

03:26Opposite he's filling in for Laramie touches which has been in the case all camp, right?

03:31And so it from a standpoint of forget the fact that he's he's he's taking all the reps for Laramie Tunsell

03:36Forget the fact that he's a rookie this year

03:39Just look at the line that could potentially be in front of CJ Stroud this Friday

03:43I think everybody's going to be fairly confident in

03:48Where that where the offensive line is with the exception of Blake Fisher folks hadn't seen him

03:53Not a whole lot of reports out there

03:55There's some that he's holding his own kind of deal

03:57But but nonetheless Blake Fisher would be at your blindside

04:00Tackle would be your your one guy that may that may concern you a bit with CJ Stroud out there

04:05Here is the most recent report from Bobby Slowick the offensive coordinator on where?

04:11that swing tackle

04:14former Notre Dame

04:15Fighting Irish tackle Blake Fisher where he's at right now. He's out there competing, you know, just like the rest of the crew

04:22That's I mean, I think we say it endlessly, but I mean we really preach that to the whole group just tirelessly

04:28That's what this is about. It's about going out

04:30And every day growing and getting better than you were the day before and by the time week one rolls around

04:37We know we're gonna be we're gonna be ready

04:39But in the meantime, all we can do is get better every day and Blake has done that

04:43In pass pro. He particularly has made some some technique adjustments that have helped him for sure

04:49The rushers he's going against have helped him

04:51I know he's had a lot of conversations with them on what they're thinking what they're doing and

04:56You know talking to other alignment has obviously helped him and then the run game for us is just very different than where he came

05:02From from college, but he's been doing a good job. He's but he's bought in and really right now

05:07I'd say he's probably a little further ahead in the run game than the pass game

05:10But he's just got to put his head down keep growing

05:12Well, there's you and that's a great transition there because I do want to talk about the run game

05:16There's your report on Blake Fisher. It seems like they're happy with his growth

05:19Not not huge expectations for the rookie, but they're comfortable with him being in there

05:24Obviously look, I mean look last week the quarterback, especially Davis Mills had plenty of room to operate

05:30I think there was one blown assignment obviously where a defensive end or a linebacker came free

05:34But with it with the exception of that Davis Mills had had more than enough room to operate now

05:38Imagine you're gonna see some of the Pittsburgh Steelers starters

05:41So maybe a little different a little different chaos up front for the quarterback to deal with the offensive line to deal with but nonetheless

05:46I do believe Ron if this week

05:49Being the first time that CJ Stroud is out there

05:52Being how important it is that that that interior offensive line get some work being how important it is that we see who Damian Pearce is

06:01D'Amico Rhines was on with that thing was a good morning football guys or some NFL Network guys yesterday and boy

06:07he was he was gushing about

06:10Damian Pearson about how excited he is to see him play and this week and get some run and so

06:16regardless of what happens to tackle position

06:19I believe that there's gonna be a focus on running a football and getting downhill

06:23Running the football this week with with more starters playing. Here's

06:29Here's Bobby Slowick on on that the the running back room and I think the first three guys he talks about here is

06:35He's got the potential to really really turn me on if if things work if the stars align for this group. Here's Bobby Slowick

06:42Yeah, it's a fun group to coach, you know, Joe kind of leads the way

06:46Even though he hasn't been practicing his energy is always there. He's always around. He's he's even when we're on the field

06:52He's running around the huddle getting people hyped up, you know

06:55So he's he's the driving force for sure and then the the rest of the crew kind of feeds off that you know

07:01Damien's feeding off that he's putting his head down working

07:05He's he's made huge strides from where he was at last year and what he's grown in and what he's trying to do

07:11Cam is obviously

07:13The newest to the crew, but he's been running a lot of very similar stuff in LA for a long time

07:18And then in Minnesota they did it was pretty similar as well

07:20So it's not completely new to him and he picked it up quick

07:23You can see you can see the talent and the vision and the and the cutting ability

07:29You know, which is impressive coming off the two injuries he had so he's been fun

07:34No question Ronnie if you're a new is to the crew. Come on, man. If you're a Texans fan

07:40and look this may be a pipe dream because there's a lot of ifs here, but

07:45Clearly useless of that piece of audio right there. Clearly. They ain't done wrong with Joe mixing

07:48I mean he's running around being

07:51If it was a quad or a hip whatever it was they damn sure ain't worried about it at this point

07:55Damien Pierce, that's the second coach talking about the progress that Damien Pierce has made and and how tremendous it is

08:01And I mean they're putting their word on it and then you look at cam acres and and all of a sudden vision

08:06Make you miss ability cut ability, whatever the hell it was that Bobby said there knows the offense, man

08:12That that that running back room right there. Now, there's some other guys there, obviously

08:16I feel bad leaving Daria goomba wale out because he's been around for a while and I saw his sister just flat-out ball in

08:23the in the WNBA all-star game, but but uh

08:26nonetheless those

08:30Are you give me a serious question? I didn't know there was this absolutely. It's a system. I didn't know that. Yeah

08:35I knew I knew his sister. I knew his sister was in the league. I had no idea that I didn't I did not know

08:40There's her chief

08:42She can go but but that that running back room as a Texans fan Ron

08:45Assuming everybody can stay healthy or hell even if even if they don't you need to spell each other a little bit

08:50You got those three guys as your top three choices that they can get you good worked up. I

08:56Know it it should be better like we talked about it

09:00How are they gonna improve from?

09:03What it was with basically at the end of the year Devin Singletary and

09:10Whatever they used

09:12Damian Pierce's whatever whatever he was which was just non-use will they how much will they improve this year?

09:20and

09:21When you think about Joe mixing even though we haven't seen him if you judge by how they're talking about him

09:26He seems to be fine. And now I that's what I can't wait to see

09:30Yeah, y'all a lot of people have talked about that's what I thought was gonna see on Thursday was Damian Pierce

09:36Does he look different in it as a back? Does he seem to have picked up?

09:40Whatever he wasn't picking up more fluently and then I think we saw pretty good play from from the backs in the Hall of Fame

09:48game that did

09:49Last last week, so that should be I'll be honest. It may be one of the more improved

09:56Rooms from last year to this year. Yeah on the team if you think about it. Yeah, that's that's a that's a good point

10:03Like with mixing it and if Damian Pierce is completely well

10:09I mean what what room on this football team would even be close?

10:12I mean you look at now that you say it I hadn't thought much about it like that

10:15But Joe mixing is a clear upgrade from your number one Devin Singletary

10:18I mean, I don't know who that was a couple weeks ago

10:20So they'd rather have Singletary but then then sweat or something like that, but whatever

10:25Clear huge huge jump in the right direction with mixing if Damian Pierce who ended up was the backup last year

10:31But that version of Damian Pierce has to be completely different. Yeah. I mean look you get 2022 Damian Pierce

10:36He's better than Devin Singletary last year. I mean all sudden cam Akers you get a healthy cam Akers you get that sure

10:41That's your number three guy. Ooh, look out now. So yeah, I would say that Dari was kicking more than he was

10:47And the highlight of his year baby

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