- 6/6/2025
Two of the most important newcomers on the offensive side of the ball are first-year offensive coordinator Nick Caley and veteran wide receiver Christian Kirk.
So when Kirk was made available to the media earlier this week following an OTA practice, it was only fitting to ask him about the new offense, what stands out about it and how it's coming along.
So when Kirk was made available to the media earlier this week following an OTA practice, it was only fitting to ask him about the new offense, what stands out about it and how it's coming along.
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00:00Our guy, B. Scott, has all the latest from the gridiron.
00:04I don't see no bitches nowhere around here.
00:06It's time for your weekly Texans report.
00:09We ain't laying down for nobody.
00:11On The Drive with Sterner and Hugh Gley.
00:18Ryan Hugh Gley is out.
00:20B. Scott is in, so you're getting a good four-hour-long Texans report.
00:24Today and tomorrow, by the way.
00:25That's right.
00:26But this is that time of the week.
00:28That's that segment throughout the week where during Rockets season,
00:32it's a Rockets report.
00:34During Texans OTAs, it's a Texans report.
00:37Damn it, it's a B. Scott report.
00:38And this happens to be a Texans B. Scott report we got going on right here.
00:44B. Scott, man, there's a lot of talk about the C.J. Stroud thing, you know, to death.
00:52And it is a huge topic.
00:54But we're hearing from a lot of players.
00:56And I know you, hell, you've been there asking the questions.
00:59You damn sure heard all the audio.
01:01But you're hearing some pretty interesting things on that side of town.
01:03Yeah, and in the interest of all the pieces mattering, including C.J. Stroud, but beyond that,
01:08you know, one of the big topics as we go into this season, Clint, is the new look offense.
01:14What's it going to look like?
01:15What's it going to be about?
01:17Of course, they got new pieces, both in terms of weaponry and the offensive line being remade.
01:23So all eyes are on that.
01:25I think we're all excited about the defense and believe in what D'Amico Ryans is doing with the defense,
01:31the leadership of Will Anderson, Derek Stingley Jr. being an all pro, Kamari Lasseter and Kalen Bullock being the type
01:38that can emerge as real legitimate standout players.
01:41Like, we're excited overall about the team, but we don't have a good sense for what this offense is going to look like
01:47because how could we?
01:48The offensive coordinator is not only new to the team, but he's in his first year playing in this or operating in this role, right?
01:55So I thought it would be good, since we got Christian Kirk yesterday, to ask him just a simple two-part question, which I did.
02:03I asked Christian Kirk, and his answer made me think of you, Clint, so I'm glad you're back.
02:08I asked him, what do you like about this offense?
02:12Kind of a generic question that I'd allow him to kind of go into his own to give us his own thoughts.
02:17What do you like about this offense, and what is the difficulty in learning it?
02:21And this is what Christian Kirk, your new Texans wide receiver, had to say.
02:25You can tell it very smart.
02:29Does a great job communicating to us, you know, what the expectations are, route detail, you know, motions, formations,
02:36whatever the case may be, he's done a great job kind of laying that out for us.
02:39And it's been, I guess, primarily pretty easy, you know, just being able to learn it the way he's been able to install it.
02:46You know, Ben McDaniels in our room has done a great job teaching us just all the things from a football IQ aspect
02:51that you need to know as a receiver.
02:53And this offense is dynamic.
02:55A lot of motions, a lot of pre-snap adjustments for the defense to have to, you know, deal with.
03:00So I think you'll see a lot of guys in different places to be able to make plays.
03:04A lot of motions, a lot of pre-snap adjustments, and teaching it in a way that is easy to learn.
03:10These are all things that made me think of you, Clint.
03:12So I wanted to get your reaction to that.
03:14What does that make you think of when you, or does that give you some kind of confidence in hearing a veteran who's new to the team,
03:20learning an offense that is also new to the team, speak about it in that way.
03:25Wanted to get your reaction to that.
03:27Well, B. Scott, look, for me, it's easy, man.
03:29I mean, we, you know, a lot of these players and a lot of these coaches, they have the buzzwords around the league.
03:35It's a monkey see, monkey do, or I guess I should say monkey hear, monkey say kind of deal where it's, you know, guys,
03:41you hear somebody say something, all the offensive coordinators right now are talking about,
03:45every offense going into America now is saying, oh, man, I'm going to tailor my offense to each of the kind of the players that I have.
03:50You know, my players' strengths.
03:51Sure.
03:52You know, that's a buzz phrase right now.
03:55I think one of the buzz phrases, I know we've heard it around here a lot,
03:58is we're going to use a lot of motions and formations to confuse defenses kind of deal.
04:02I love it.
04:03I absolutely love it.
04:07I thought it was really, you know what I mean?
04:09Like, I hope it's not a catchphrase.
04:11I hope it's, you know, I hope that is something that we're looking at where formations and motions are used to our advantage.
04:21I mean, look, it's not easy.
04:26But, you know, the good coordinators, I'm not talking about the great ones,
04:30the good ones are going to give you formationally and with shifts as well as pre-snap movements,
04:38motions are going to give you mismatches throughout a game where the quarterback has throws in the ocean.
04:45And that is one thing that CJ, I think he had a lot of it his first year,
04:48but this last year, everything was so damn difficult.
04:52He had to earn every completion.
04:54And, you know, you go watch Matthew Stafford out there.
04:56I'll use Matthew Stafford because that's where Kaylee came from.
04:59You go watch Matthew Stafford and somehow in crunch time, game on the line, in a drive,
05:03they'll find a way to get, what's my man's up there with the big head, the receiver he's got?
05:08Puka Nakua.
05:09Puka Nakua.
05:09They'll find a way to get Puka Nakua wide-ass open.
05:13I love this how we identified him.
05:14In a critical – he's got a big head, man.
05:16He does.
05:17But, you know, like McVay finds a way to get that guy, like literally a throw in the ocean for the quarterback
05:23in critical moments of the game, like two or three times.
05:25You're just like, that's what good coordinators do.
05:29Yeah.
05:29Well, let me rephrase it.
05:30That's what great coordinators do, right?
05:32And so I know it's not easy, but you start hearing Christian Kirk,
05:36who's been around the league for a while, start talking about,
05:38yeah, man, motions and movements and formations, they're going to be used to our advantage.
05:42I hope he's right.
05:44I hope we see that come to fruition because fall is a lot – it's never easy,
05:49but it's a lot less difficult when you've got a coordinator that's on the ones and twos dialing things up.
05:55Yeah, man, it just stood out to me, everything that you mentioned,
05:57and, of course, all of the motions and the pre-snap stuff.
06:00And, of course, it's hard to separate those comments from understanding C.J. Stroud's
06:06sort of new role in all of that, right?
06:08So I'm kind of tying all that together, and I'm getting excited just thinking about it, right?
06:13And then on top of that, I just had – and this is really more of a buzzword
06:18and not all that specific, kind of more so specific what we were just talking about,
06:23but just a more generic buzzword that he used that I had not heard anybody else use was dynamic.
06:29And, of course, you're going to describe your own offense like that.
06:32You ain't going to never hear a player come out here and just say – and especially being new to the team,
06:35and be like, man, you know what?
06:37This offense ain't bleep.
06:38This offense ain't dynamic.
06:40It ain't cool.
06:40It ain't fun.
06:41It ain't none of that stuff, man.
06:42It's just basic.
06:43It ain't nothing.
06:44But just the fact that he – that was his choice of words.
06:47This offense is dynamic.
06:49And the part about them being teachers of the game that make it easier for them to learn
06:55and understand what it is that they're trying to teach.
06:57I feel like in the past, in the recent past, that there's been some disconnect in the teaching
07:03and the learning or the teachers and the students, so to speak, and how things – not just what they were doing,
07:08but how they were coaching it and sort of some of the discord and the communication that was happening
07:14in that offensive room.
07:15So, it seems like there is some remedy to that.
07:18Now, of course, we're early on.
07:20Time will tell when the rubber hits the road, so to speak, and there's some controversy and –
07:25and this is to test, right?
07:29Adjustments to the adjustments, right?
07:30Like, we'll see you when that time comes.
07:31Yeah, doing it in real time is a lot more difficult, you know, to do than it is to say it, obviously.
07:37It seems like you look at last year, and look, as I said before, I wasn't as critical of Bobby Slowick in year two,
07:47just like I wasn't as impressed with Bobby Slowick in year one as a lot of people.
07:51Like, it's – the water's going to level out at some point, right?
07:55But I think it's very accurate to say, you know, you look back at, like, Bobby Slowick
07:59and the football 101 things were not handled, and that's just the communication, right?
08:06And then you look at even the more advanced stuff, which is exactly what Christian Kirk just said
08:10about Nick Kaley of, like, the inability to do what your players do well.
08:14Like, again, I know people will sit around and talk about – and I don't like to make excuses at all for Dalton Schultz,
08:19but the fact that Dalton Schultz was asked to be – to block a true defensive end in a critical situation
08:25in a playoff game, in a surviving advanced game, like, that's the definition of doing what your players aren't good at.
08:33Like, making your players play to their weaknesses and making them play left-handed
08:35instead of playing to their strengths.
08:37So, it's difficult.
08:38We saw it be a problem last year in Houston, and hopefully Nick Kaley can make – can right that
08:45and get moving in the right direction.
08:46Yeah, and it also made me think about – I know that we've heard from a wide receiver,
08:50and he talked about Ben McDaniels, but since we're talking about some of the new guys,
08:54it made me think about – and we'll see how much of a difference this actually is,
08:59how much it actually comes into fruition on the football field.
09:02But the offensive coordinator and the offensive line coach who was last year,
09:09them being more aligned and being on the same page, kind of working on a string, if you will,
09:14like, that part is significant to me when you think about how – and I don't know what the relationship was exactly,
09:21but there was clearly some disconnect between Bobby Sloick and Chris Strausser, the former offensive line coach,
09:27and, like, to our understanding, Chris Strausser really had no real experience in this type of offense,
09:34you know, in the type of offense that Bobby Sloick was running.
09:36And so there was just a natural disconnect that never really seemed to remedy itself,
09:41even with a year of experience under their belt coming into year two.
09:45That didn't seem to help much.
09:46It does feel like between Nick Caley, Cole Popovich, and if you want to even tie it into Nick Casario,
09:53all these guys basically come from the same stock.
09:56And I think that that part is going to matter for better or worse.
09:58I think all of that is going to matter in terms of how they play as a unit.
10:02Well, I think, look, one of the biggest problems last year, it falls in the lap of the offensive coordinator,
10:08and the firing is justifiable.
10:10But the reality of it is, is I don't think you had a coaching staff that saw this thing through the same lens.
10:16No, clearly not.
10:17Like, we can talk about the communication with C.J. Stroud and the offensive line's inability to communicate
10:21with the line of scrimmage.
10:22And, you know, if you don't have the ability, like you just mentioned,
10:26the difference being Cole Popovich and Caley being so close,
10:29if you don't have the ability for that offensive coordinator and that offensive line coach
10:32to go to the sideline in the middle of a heated game where you're not protecting your quarterback,
10:36you're getting your ass kicked, and go, hey, here's what we're going to do, man.
10:38These are the two adjustments that we can go to.
10:40We're not going to have Dalton Schultz protecting a true defensive end, rush end.
10:44You know, he may have to block a linebacker or a safety, but we're going to stay.
10:48We've got answers.
10:49We've talked about it.
10:49We know each other like the back of our hand.
10:51Here's what we're going to go to, right?
10:53That is a huge advantage.
10:54Clearly, that wasn't a thing last year.
10:56And I don't think it – look, Strausser and Slowick, I think, have caught a lot of the heat,
11:01but it wouldn't shock me at all if it was all involved, right?
11:04There was a lot of different, you know, different thoughts and frustrations with how things were handled.
11:10It seemed like at every turn so many were being pulled in different directions.
11:14Yeah, this is how I would do it.
11:15This is how – and the whole time Bobby Slowick was like, no, we're going to do it this way,
11:18and you, Sun Buck, are going to execute it.
11:19Yeah.
11:20And that bit him in the ass.
11:21So, we shall see.
11:23Hopefully, those guys are aligned and have the answers that we need.
11:31We'll see if they can protect the quarterback.
11:32I also want to add real quick, too, just since we're on the topic of Christian Kirk,
11:35and I mentioned this yesterday with Luke Clint, but for me, I understand he's a slot guy,
11:40but until proven otherwise, this is their number two guy in terms of weaponry.
11:46Like, and maybe some folks don't like to think of the slot guy as that guy.
11:50I would say go see the Detroit Lions and Amon Ross St. Brown being primarily a slot guy,
11:55and he's their number one.
11:56Yeah.
11:56But I think until Jaden Higgins or Jalen Knoll or somebody on this offensive unit
12:02that we just haven't seen yet emerges and takes that spot,
12:06Christian Kirk is easily their second most accomplished guy
12:10and their second best pass catching option for me right now.
12:12There's no doubt about it, but the reality of it is you've got Nico Collins.
12:16You just need the other pieces to fall in place, right?
12:18That's true.
12:18You need Dalton Schultz to produce.
12:20Right?
12:21You need Christian Kirk to be that reliable slot.
12:23You need at some point one of these young ones to come around third
12:28or fourth wide receiver.
12:29You need Joe Mixon to be involved in the pass game, the screen game, to help.
12:34Like, you need those ancillary pieces, if you will, to just contribute.
12:39You don't need Stephon Diggs to be an all-pro player next to Nico Collins.
12:43You don't need Tank Dell to be demanding 90 catches and 1,100 yards.
12:47You know, you don't need all that.
12:48You just need those guys to do – again, we used the Astros earlier.
12:52You need the guys that are paid handsomely to play up to par.
12:56Yeah.
12:57Dalton Schultz, Christian Kirk, Joe Mixon, those guys need to play their role.
13:01Yeah, and health goes without saying, right?
13:02Obviously, if guys are not healthy, then this conversation goes out the window.
13:05But on top of health, you need everything that you just mentioned.
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