The Laremy Tunsil And Kenyon Green Trades Were Cathartic. Now It's Time To Worry About The Texans' Offensive Line.

KILT-AM / SportsRadio 610

Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast shift their focus to what the Texans are doing moving forward with this offensive line.

Transcript

00:00Hey, what's up man? I had a fun afternoon just kind of taking in the rest of the league,

00:05thinking and reflecting on the Texans offseason so far, which is, it's weird to say that a team

00:11is aggressive when they're trading players away and that's the sign of their aggression.

00:17And yet, I feel like this is a pretty damn bold and aggressive move to say,

00:22look the offensive line was a problem last year. How are we going to handle it? We're going to

00:29tear it all down. That's what we're going to do. And we're left in this moment where,

00:34man, it was cathartic in a lot of ways for a lot of people to trade away

00:38guys that had been huge blemishes this season and over the past seasons.

00:43And Laramie Tunsell, the best player amongst them, obviously.

00:49And for a lot of Texans fans to get rid of a lot of things that were headaches along the way.

00:55But now you are in that moment where, okay, this is where the real work begins.

01:00They were a bad offensive line last year. Getting rid of Laramie Tunsell didn't immediately or

01:05obviously make them a better offensive line. It made them a worse offensive line.

01:11So now you've got some work to do and it's building it back up from the foundation.

01:15As you said, as you appeared on Washington Radio yesterday and we're met with, frankly,

01:20disrespect over your opinions about exactly what the Texans are doing right now,

01:26particularly the Laramie Tunsell trade. Yeah, there's work to be done, but it feels like,

01:30all right, they're going to try to mold this offense in the image of the defense,

01:35which is molded in the image of D'Amico Ryan's. And you got rid of some guys that were not playing

01:39swarm caliber football. Yeah. Yeah. There's just, there's more moves coming.

01:43That's where I'm at with it. People were like, I can't believe you traded Laramie Tunsell. Oh my

01:47God. Look at the offensive line. If you had to play today, this is what it would be. I'm like,

01:51no, there's, there's more moves coming. Now. I don't know, Seth, that the moves that are

01:55available to them right now in free agency. And then if you draft a guy, especially a tackle,

02:02that it's a guy who's going to be ready made to play. Although D'Amico Ryan's has said,

02:06if we draft a guy in the first round, the hope and the expectation is that he can be

02:11a day one starter for us. We'll see how that goes, but that's kind of where I'm at. Like,

02:16yeah, if they had to go play a game today, I'd be really worried about the offensive line,

02:19but there's still time to get this thing fixed. And we haven't seen what it looks like yet with,

02:25as you pointed out several times with Cole Popovich coaching the offensive line, right?

02:33You're not plunking it down into the same to use a magnificent Gladstone word ecosystem.

02:39As you were last year, it's very different now, new offensive coordinator. We don't know what

02:42the system's going to be. Maybe the guys are bringing in our tailored better to do what Nick

02:47Caley wants to do than the guys that they're shipping out of here. But yeah, I I'm, I'm in

02:52total weight and seem, I'm completely in favor of how they're going about this right now.

02:56Completely. I think if you just look at it on the dollars and cents side of it, you, and it's

03:01probably something that we neglected a little too much yesterday, but it was just so much fun to

03:06talk about the emotional stuff. You clear some cap space with, with enemy tonsil. And this is my,

03:12this is my answer to people outside of Houston who say, Oh my gosh, the, the old line was bad.

03:17And you get rid of your one, actually good pass protector. They were the offensive line was so bad

03:24that getting three guys around 10 million per year, if they average that, that are just

03:32solid veterans, not awesome, not awful that that's better for an offensive line than having

03:38one Laramie tonsil in four guys that you can't depend on. So if they, so Lake and Tomlinson

03:44Tomlinson who they signed yesterday, he's nothing to get super excited about, but he's very, very

03:49affordable. And I think he's an upgrade over anybody that was playing at guard last year.

03:53A hundred percent agree. And he's been very, very, very durable in his career. He's gone

03:57eight years or so without missing a game. So that's the kind of stuff that isn't going to make

04:02headlines on ESPN.com or anything, but you got to worry about the sum total place. Some of that

04:10Laramie tonsil salary and cap hit with guys that at the very least can be dependable cogs in a

04:16five-man offensive line. Yeah, I agree with that. And, and, and, and I think it probably, you know,

04:23for Texan fans, if you're looking at the part where they get a little anxious,

04:27it's looking around in free agency at what other teams are doing. Like the bears on paper have done

04:32a massive shift with the interior of their offensive line. You know, they trade for Joe

04:36Tooney. They trade for Jonah Jackson. They signed drew Dowman who was the top center in free agency.

04:42The Vikings have been making big moves for the interior of their offensive line. They've got to,

04:46I'll call him a rookie quarterback. JJ McCarthy has yet to start a game.

04:50So they, you know, he's, he's going to be a first time starter next year. They sign Ryan Kelly.

04:55They sign will fries. Um, I, the Texans had more work to do to just to tear it down in the first

05:02place, then going and getting the guys to replace them, you know? And look, there are guys out there

05:07in free agency right now that you wouldn't panic if they were the starting one of the starting

05:12tackles for your team. I mean, I, I think Jedrick Wills is still out there. The Justin school guys

05:18like that guys, whose names you're not going to recognize or anything. Um, but that are viable

05:23starters and then you draft and see what happens after that. And there, there could also still be

05:27trades along the way. And if they, if the Texans get to, if the Texans get are able to, to put

05:33together an offensive line through replacements and through coaching that is middle of the pack,

05:40it's a major upgrade over last year. There's in a lot of ways, I think you think about last

05:45year's off season and everybody had all the salt. It was going to be, it was going to be the,

05:53you know, um, Oh, damn it. What was the name of the greatest, greatest show on turf? Greatest show

05:58on turf. Yeah. It was going to be the greatest show under tractable dome with all these receivers

06:02and all these weapons you had out there. I think it feels very much like a back to basics. Nick

06:08Caley has used the word fundamentals multiple times when he's done his few in his few interviews that

06:14he's done so far, he talks a lot about the nuts and bolts of operating a good offense. And it's

06:20not really as much about scheme as it is about guys playing good, fundamentally sound football.

06:24So I like it. I'm, I'm ready for blue collar and boring. I want, I want stability. I want something

06:31that can compliment the skills of CJ Stroud, but also compliment the defense because the defense

06:38yesterday in trading away, Kenyon green adds a guy who is a turnover machine and CJ Gardner,

06:44Johnson and the defense, which already was a good enough defense to win a Superbowl.

06:49If you, you know, you don't look at that defense and you can say, yeah, there's certainly areas

06:53for improvement, but you don't look at it and say, yeah, that was, was holding them back. No,

06:57with a competent offense and CJ Stroud playing to the highest of his abilities. Yeah. You can

07:02win a Superbowl with that defense. No question. And we should talk about that too. That trade

07:06came down right before the last segment of our show yesterday. The Texans trading Kenyon green

07:11and a fifth round pick next year to the Eagles for CJ Gardner, Johnson, and a sixth round pick

07:18next year. I, boy, there were some things I learned. We'll dig deeper into these trades

07:23at seven o'clock when we've got some runway to work with. I see. I've seen as 27 years old.

07:31Yeah. I thought he was an older player just based on the fact that he's played for so many

07:36different teams over the last few years. You know, he started out with the saints,

07:40went to the Eagles for a year, goes to the lions for a year, goes back to the Eagles.

07:45So the two Superbowl years, I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but he was on the team,

07:50the two Superbowl years and was on Detroit in between a team that probably should have made

07:55the Superbowl his year. If they hadn't screwed up so many things against the Niners

07:59in the NFC title game, dude, I, the Texas and this guy is hard hitter. He is swarmy.

08:05He is like dangerously swarmy. They are trying to set a record for concussions

08:10administered this coming season. CJ back there. And there's, he was injured in 2023. He only

08:18played three games in the last 21 regular season games. He has 13 interceptions. Yeah.

08:24So you'd ballhawk compare that to Eric Murray, who has, I think three interceptions over the

08:31last several years. It was, I can't remember the stat. It's very, very meager. It does not stack up

08:36and that, that kind of ability to force turnovers. If you can just get competent play out of the

08:41offense that makes for not just winning the division, but getting home field advantage in

08:46the playoffs where we know this Texans pass rush and their ability to force turnovers makes a big,

08:51big difference in the playoffs. So true, man. Yeah, he's, he's been, he's been near the top

08:57of the league. CJ Gardner Johnson has in what they call ballhawk percentage.

09:04And it's basically just the percentage of times you've been targeted where

09:09you either get a cup, you know, you're getting your hands on the ball in some way.

09:12And he's, I'm looking at a stat here. Second in the league behind Denzel Ward,

09:17Derrick Stingley Jr. For context is fifth in the league. It feels like Derrick Stingley Jr.

09:22gets his hands on the ball. Every time it gets thrown in his direction, he's fifth. CJ Gardner

09:26Johnson is above Derrick Stingley Jr. So you got your secondary now has two guys that, that this

09:33ballhawk percentage matches the eye test. Plus Kalen Bullock, who feels like one of those guys,

09:39plus Kamari Lassiter, who feels, feels like one of those guys. Plus there's a physicality element

09:44to him. And then you got Jalen Petrie, who this team loves, and I think is going to get a second

09:48contract who now all of a sudden is freed up to be whatever Swiss army knife you want him to be.

09:55You know, go back to the dolphins game last year, where after the game tongue of Iowa,

10:01basically he wasn't trying to make excuses for his turnovers for which he had multiple turnovers in

10:06that game. But he basically made the point, man, it's, it's hard to pick an easy guy to target

10:12when you're going against this defense. And that was, as they were playing with

10:16two rookie defensive backs, right. And with Eric Murray out there as a safety in that game,

10:21if I remember correctly. So the, it becomes that much more difficult. You throw Jalen Petrie

10:26and CJ Gardner Johnson into the mix and it gets, it's a whole lot of fun. It's really a whole lot

10:31of fun defensively. The swarm quotient though, still really has to be lifted on the offensive

10:36side of the ball. Yep. And I think the good news there is their behavior as a front office

10:42and a coaching staff on that side of the ball over the last week tells us that they know that

10:50recognize the problem. There was a feeling that I think you and I, and a lot of people had at

10:55the middle of the season when, when either D'Amico or Nick would talk about the offensive line,

11:01where there was this concern that they weren't seeing the same things we were.

11:04And I think in retrospect, it's probably more that they weren't going to throw guys under the

11:08bus in week nine of the season. Like this is, we're going to love the one we're with right now.

11:13And there's no reason for us to go on talk radio or a press conference and say how bad they suck.

11:18Well, it was, you know, at one point Nick said that it was a lazy narrative that the offensive

11:22line was playing poorly. I'm like, all right, well, you just got rid of 60% of that offensive

11:28line. You brought in a guard that's going to compete with some of the guys who are on the

11:31roster already. I very, I, at the very least, I feel exonerated Sean, that we were not being

11:36lazy with our narratives about the offensive line. I just feel like I'm not cuckoo for cocoa

11:40pups. You know what I mean? I'm like, yeah, it was like, yeah, cause that was the only,

11:44the only explanation is the one that you just gave, which is that they were, they were not

11:48going to throw guys under the bus publicly, even though internally they very much knew it was an

11:53issue. You're right. It, it, but it was as close as I've come to feeling like I did in the Jack

11:58Easter beer where I am I cuckoo for cocoa, but if I lost all sense of football and how it works,

12:06because my God, I feel like the offensive line is a huge problem. Yes, yes, yes, yes, absolutely.

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