The Texans' Best Position Group

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00:00I mean, listen, the Texans are a team that I think are expected

00:04to win their division, expected to make the playoffs.

00:06They've got some high-end talent.

00:08They've got some dudes.

00:12What would you say is the best, I guess, position group,

00:17the best part of this team?

00:19If you had to pick one group that you'd look at and say,

00:22this is the best group on the team.

00:25Top to bottom, I think it's the secondary.

00:28I mean, when you look at the Houston Texans' secondary,

00:31whether you're talking about a top-end, lockdown corner,

00:34you've got it in Derek Stingley.

00:35If you're talking about young guys that played well above their ceiling

00:38and have extremely high floors in Kamari Lasseter and Kalen Bullock,

00:43you've got that as well.

00:44You want a veteran that has the savvy, the clutch, the always around the ball,

00:48the dog in the middle, you've got C.J. Gardner-Johnson now.

00:52You want to talk about a nickel defender that plays with great instincts

00:56and is special in terms of stopping the run and rushing the passer.

01:00You've got that in Jalen Petrie.

01:02Now you want to have the flexibility of having a nickel defender in there

01:05and going more man-to-man coverage, more coverage-type style of defense.

01:12You've got Jalen Smith, the rookie, the third-round rookie out of USC.

01:17You've got Ronald Darby, the vet in the league.

01:19You've got Tremont Smith, another vet in the league.

01:22You've got options, you've got pieces.

01:24By the way, Jimmy Ward, I didn't even mention Jimmy Ward,

01:27who can play safety or nickel, what the health of each position is at the time.

01:35Whether you're talking about depth or you're talking about position flexibility,

01:40coverage flexibility, you're talking about just top-of-the-line lock you down

01:44and play man, they've got all options.

01:46All of the above is available to D'Amico Rhines in this secondary,

01:51which I believe will determine or dictate or allow the defensive coordinator

01:58to play whatever fronts he wants to play, to dollop whatever kind of pressures

02:02he wants to play, and also disguise your mans and zones and pressures.

02:08It's just going to make the Texans' defense very versatile.

02:12Now, can they handle it?

02:13Can they execute it?

02:14We'll see, but boy, D'Amico Rhines, because of the secondary,

02:18I think D'Amico Rhines has a – his playbook is wide open, baby.

02:22Yeah, I think it's got to be the deepest secondary in football, right?

02:27Like where you've got a guy like Jimmy Ward who I think can absolutely start

02:32on not just contending – first off, not just teams, other teams in the league

02:38and not just contending teams, but I think teams that fancy themselves

02:43having a really good defense, I think he could start at and start on.

02:47So, and he is somebody that is, you know, a depth play right now.

02:52And this group is – it's going to, and I think as you kind of talked about,

02:58it is going to allow Clint for D'Amico and Matt Burke to just have a lot of –

03:04a lot of fun and a lot of – to help their front seven with their D-line

03:14and whip that secondary back there because you can – I mean, it –

03:19like right now, you – unless there's going to be a rash of injuries, Clint,

03:23like you should never have Jalen – have Jalen Petrie in positions

03:28that he's vulnerable in.

03:29Like you should never have a Jalen Petrie in the, you know,

03:34Devontae Adams 101 in the slot situation.

03:37You should never have because you just have so many pieces.

03:41I mean, you don't have like the Jeff Okudas walking around out there,

03:46you know, and some of these guys who played all right.

03:48This is a – this is a deep group that not – not as just ready for any kind

03:54of an injury if it hits, but a deep group that allows you to be able

03:58to do a lot of different things because you have multiple guys.

04:03How many guys do you have can play the slot?

04:05They can play it, right?

04:07Maybe not great, but they can play it.

04:09Well, you got two that I feel like could play it great,

04:11and that's Jalen Petrie and Kamari Lasseter.

04:13You got another in Jalen Smith, the rookie third-round pick,

04:15that's played it in college.

04:16They can play inside or outside.

04:18Jimmy Ward's played it.

04:20Look, I don't know exactly how this is going to unfold,

04:22but the Reed kid they just drafted in this year's draft,

04:26I don't know what – you know, I don't know what kind of skill the guy has.

04:29I didn't watch him in college.

04:30The kid out of Penn State.

04:31The kid out of Penn State, but I know a lot of people were high on him.

04:33A lot of people felt like he slid in the draft,

04:35and when I saw him in that rookie minicamp – now, he looks more like a linebacker,

04:38like a box safety, if you will, but you play some of these teams

04:41that want to go a heavy – these heavy sets with two tight ends,

04:45that kind of thing, that guy could factor into it.

04:47So, yeah, I mean, the way across the board,

04:51whether you want to talk a smaller corner that can play that nickel position

04:56that's more of a coverage guy, to Jalen Petrie,

04:59who's a little bit more of a hybrid and can do it all with great instincts,

05:02to somebody like Jimmy Ward and maybe even this Reed kid

05:05that can bring a little bit more pop, a little more physicality.

05:08I mean, you've got some real options.

05:10Didn't even mention the super athletic linebackers that are in the bunch now

05:14that could factor in it, that Sam and Will linebacker,

05:17also known as nickel and dime defenders.

05:20So, yeah, they've got – D'Amico's got options in a big way, man.

05:24So, with that, and as somebody that has played the quarterback position

05:29and look out and see second players, what does he have the ability to do

05:35with these players and the depth that he has and the type of players he has?

05:41Like, what can he do to confuse and give offenses problems like they're going to have this year?

05:47I think before we ever get to the confusion part of it, let's just talk about game planning, right?

05:52I mean, again, if you've got a team, like the first half of this lineup,

05:56if you've got a team, like let's say Mike Evans, Godwin, and Ibuka can run out there,

06:01you've got three wide receivers that, look, I don't know if I want Jalen Petrie

06:05covering one of those, being stuck in one of those guys in the slot, right?

06:08Then you slide Lasseter down, you bring Smith in, or you bring Darby in,

06:14or you bring one of these other corners in, and now you've got three true corners,

06:17really got four corners that you can – that I believe you're going to have faith in, right?

06:23So, from just a game plan perspective, you're going to be able to immediately jump down

06:26into more of a man package, which you can play to your head, you can bring pressure.

06:32You can play two man in third and long situations.

06:34I mean, our obvious passing situations.

06:37So, from a game planning perspective, if you play – again, like I said a while ago,

06:40if you play a two-tight-in team that's a heavier kind of a run-oriented team,

06:44like Baltimore, again, Jalen Petrie can be in there.

06:48Even the Reed kid can be in there.

06:50Christian Harris may be a little bit of a hybrid guy that can cover some of those

06:53bigger tight ends in those situations.

06:56So, you have flexibility in the way that you can game plan.

06:59Then let's talk about adjustments at halftime.

07:01If you're out there and somebody's out there just torching Jalen Petrie's ass,

07:04now you have the ability to go more coverage, a guy that is more athletic

07:07and could cover better in that nickel defender position.

07:11So, the adjustments are big.

07:13I mean, if you've tried everything under the sun and you've played zone and now,

07:17okay, I've got to dial some pressure up from a nickel personnel.

07:21I've got to dial some pressure up because their quarterback's sitting back there

07:23and he's just Cadillac and they're protecting the hell and he's way too comfortable.

07:27I want to get in and around his feet.

07:29Again, Jalen Petrie in that situation is special.

07:31So, I think any way you slice the defensive, whether it's game plan, adjustments,

07:36or just being able to on the fly, boom, throw a wrinkle at them, disguise coverages

07:43and show other things.

07:44You have veteran guys.

07:45You have guys that are long in the tooth in the league as well as in this system

07:48to where you ought to be able to disguise and roll coverages

07:50and really make even veteran quarterbacks work a lot harder

07:54than just get a pre-snap read and just shred you.

07:57Right?

07:57It's like we talked about last year, you mentioned the Devontae Adams throw.

08:01Like Aaron Rodgers knew where he was going with the ball five seconds

08:03before he ever snapped the ball.

08:04Right?

08:05I mean, you have the ability to give different looks, roll to confirm

08:11before they throw it.

08:12You just, I mean, D'Amico with his secondary's got to be smiling, man.

08:16And the other part about it is, and quickly before we go to break,

08:19is like the other scary part to the league and the thing that,

08:24and especially combined with D'Amico and the way he wants to run defense is,

08:29it's not that they're just, you know, oh, we got heavy hitters back there

08:33or they can cover tight, make it.

08:36These are, there are multiple dudes back there that are like hunting

08:40to turn the football over.

08:42Yeah.

08:42Right, and that's what takes it to the next level.

08:46Like, Halen Bullock is a guy that I talked about it earlier.

08:50If you missed it, we did stock up, stock down.

08:53He was my stock up at 320 earlier, 325 earlier.

08:56You can check it out on the podcast page.

08:58That is a dude that is going after the ball.

09:01Derek Stingley goes at, I mean, he's just got as good as ball skills

09:04as some receivers in the league.

09:06Right?

09:06Like, Jalen Petrie is a guy that has a knack of causing turnovers.

09:10They've got a, Lasseter did that a lot last year,

09:14and I think maybe he gets more comfortable.

09:15You can see that some more too.

09:17So they got a chance to turn the ball over,

09:19and then you combine that with maybe the best edge room in football,

09:24then you combine those things.

09:25So you could see a lot of turnovers coming from that secondary

09:30with what they got back there and with what they have up front

09:33coming off the edge.

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