00:00Nick Shook of NFL.com had a list, has a list, of 17 players in the NFL who are entering crossroads, make-or-break years.
00:08Got to get it done this year.
00:10And there's some on here that are really good players.
00:12Like, he's got James Cook on here, really good running back for the Bills.
00:16But it's kind of a make-or-break year for him because he wants to get paid, that sort of thing.
00:19He wants to get paid, and he curiously, they stopped going to him in the second half of that game.
00:24Yeah, and it's Tyler Johnson out there.
00:26I was just like, what's going on with it?
00:27They must hate James Cook.
00:29I wonder, I can see why James Cook might be.
00:30James Cook, if I'm James Cook, and I'm being as irrational as possible about it, in the second half of that game, I'm thinking like, oh, they don't want to pay me.
00:37Right.
00:38Which, obviously, that wouldn't be the motivation.
00:40In the AMC title game.
00:41Right, right.
00:42Obviously, but you can see how a guy might feel that way.
00:45For sure.
00:45They're like, oh.
00:48I'm a factor.
00:49Dude, these running backs, I don't attach any boundaries to what they are allowed or think they can think about stuff.
00:55These running backs are insane when it comes to this stuff.
00:58I think they're calling Zoom calls to just bitch at each other about how little they're getting paid.
01:03And then there's guys on this list like, say, Trelon Burks, who was a first-round pick for the Titans back when they traded away A.J. Brown.
01:11It's a make-or-break year for him because he sucks at football.
01:14And his career dissipation light is blanking.
01:17They got rid of A.J. Brown because they knew they could draft somebody like Trelon Burks.
01:20They got rid of A.J. Brown and, I think, used that very pick on Trelon Burks.
01:25That was the Jack Easterby method of thinking.
01:27Right.
01:28It was like, hey, all you got to do is go get a DeAndre Hopkins in the second round.
01:33It's going to be cheaper.
01:34Yeah.
01:35So they got 17 names on here.
01:37We're not going to go through those 17 names.
01:39We'll localize it instead.
01:40I had a couple names that immediately popped up for me, Seth, that if I were making this list and making it Texan-specific, where it's guys who are make-or-break, the very first name that pops into my head is John Mechie.
01:53Like, make-or-break year, a make-or-break training camp for John Mechie.
01:57I mean, hell, they drafted two guys at your position in the first three rounds of the draft.
02:01And I think, too, you know, Xavier Hutchinson and John Mechie have both had some drop issues at times.
02:06It's just Mechie, it seems like it shows up in practice a lot more when we're observing.
02:11So that skews it a little bit.
02:13But they both don't have as solid and secure hands as you want out of a guy who's a third, fourth, or fifth option on your team.
02:21But Hutchinson generally looks like he does a better job of integrating issues and everything else like that.
02:30And I think a lot of that might go back to why the team likes guys from Iowa State so much.
02:36I think they get coached up real well, and they kind of function well within an offense.
02:41So John Mechie now, like two years removed from really recovering from cancer, that, yeah, this is the year where you've got to just evaluate him as a football player.
02:52He's not a guy who's coming off of chemotherapy or anything else like that.
02:56It's just he's got to – and it is a packed wide receiver's room with a lot of competition up right now.
03:01Yeah, and I think to be clear, when I say make or break, like John Mechie will probably be in the league in some shape, form, or fashion for a few more years.
03:08I'm just – in terms of his Texans career, he was drafted 44th overall.
03:12There are a lot of wide receivers that have been drafted in the second round who have become elite wide receivers.
03:17Mechie, I'm comfortable in saying this.
03:19He's never going to be that.
03:20However, he can be a solid – I think his ceiling is probably like a solid 50-catch guy.
03:25A guy – you know what I want his ceiling to be, Seth?
03:27That if one of the main guys gets injured, you don't feel like there's this massive drop-off to John Mechie.
03:33And I think them drafting Higgins and Noel, there's – it's a subtle way of saying there's been a massive drop-off to John Mechie.
03:40I think athletically, if you look at Jalen Noel versus John Mechie, there's just – it's night and day.
03:45You know, Mechie does not – he was always a guy that you're like, even coming out of college, like,
03:49I don't know if he's quite as twitchy as I want out of a slot receiver type of dude.
03:53Right.
03:54So, I think he definitely would belong on a list if this were a Texans make-or-break list.
03:59I've got a few other names here.
04:01Damian Pierce.
04:02Is this a make-or-break – I mean, it's a contract year for him.
04:05So, you know, in terms of being a Texan year, it might increase the chances that he's not a Texan anymore.
04:11I just feel like with Damian Pierce, he had such a great rookie year.
04:14And not only has he been less productive, he's completely fallen out of favor with the team.
04:20Like, he doesn't get on the field, and yet he's their number two running back.
04:23So, it's a very strange relationship with Damian Pierce.
04:26Now, like Mechie, they went and drafted somebody at Damian Pierce's position that they gave up draft capital
04:33to trade into this draft to go get.
04:36I mean, they essentially used the third-round pick to get Woody Marks.
04:39It's just it's a third-rounder for next year that they traded to get him.
04:42Like, Damian Pierce, this may be more make-or-break for him just in terms of how the league views Damian Pierce.
04:50Yeah, I think that if Damian Pierce were not to make this team, there's going to be at least one other team out there
04:56that wants to take a look at Damian Pierce.
04:58That's right.
04:58So, there is still, there's people that like him, and that especially, I think, think that maybe these last couple years
05:06were just a mismatch.
05:07Schemes.
05:07So, how does Kaylee see Damian Pierce being used, and how much of it do we see in training camp?
05:14And like last year, last year, when everybody loves to tell you not to worry about anything negative you see
05:19during training camp because it doesn't matter, like, all right, fine.
05:23It wasn't great for him in the preseason games.
05:26Yeah.
05:26And a lot of that, though, it was hard to figure because the offensive line wasn't playing as a complete unit
05:32hardly at all during the preseason games.
05:35I just, I would settle for going hand-in-hand with, man, I hope the offensive line looks better
05:41in the preseason this year, and I hope that also includes Damian Pierce having some nice carries in preseason games.
05:48And Juice Scruggs, is this, I mean, this is his third year already, Juice Scruggs.
05:52Right. Yeah, this is a big make or break here for Juice Scruggs, I think.
05:55If you just look at what the competition looks like at center right now, between Jarrett Patterson,
06:01Jake Andrews, who's taken a lot of reps with the ones, they picked them up off of waivers from the Patriots.
06:06Eli Cox is intriguing, the center out of Kentucky.
06:10Kentucky, yeah.
06:11He's very athletic, but he's got very short arms, small hands, all this stuff, but he's very athletic.
06:15Like, there's competition and upside there, and then at guard as well.
06:20I mean, yeah, Juice Scruggs has struggled a lot when he's tried to play guard, but he's been playing there during the spring, in the spring here.
06:29Yeah, he's a big one.
06:30Big one, too.
06:31And this is the thing, like, teams will say, well, it only matters where you were picked the day you get drafted.
06:37After that, that's just a way of getting you in the building.
06:39But let's face it, the fact of the matter is, he was a second-round pick.
06:43If you're a second-round interior offensive lineman, you should have taken ownership by your third year of one of those three spots on the interior.
06:49And he doesn't.
06:50He doesn't have ownership of any of them.
06:52And it is true.
06:52Like, anybody can earn their way into playing time.
06:55What you do get as a higher pick is more opportunities and more chances.
06:59Yeah, yeah.
06:59Because the—and which is fine.
07:01I'm like, it's not always just ego.
07:03It's that your scouts and your personnel department sees upside in a guy for a reason.
07:09And a lot of times, if they're not taking him in the first round, they're thinking, okay, this is a guy that might need two or three years to develop.
07:16And so we're going to stand by our assessment and see how he does over two or three years.
07:21So now you're getting into year three.
07:23And this is—yeah, it's time to, you know, put up or shut up.
07:26But with all—I'm a little bit of an excuse in that it was a complete mess and disaster on the offensive line.
07:33On a coaching standpoint, on a coordinator standpoint, like for a lot of reasons last year.
07:38But, yes, there's lots of competition this year, and I don't think the second-round status doesn't really bail him out anymore.
07:45I think Christian Harris is a big one on this list, too, especially because he's in a contract year.
07:49He's in a contract year, and unlike Juice Scruggs or, you know, Damian Pierce is in a contract year, too.
07:55But he had a great rookie year, but it's been bad.
07:57Like, Christian Harris has shown a level of play at linebacker that I think if you knew he was going to be healthy,
08:05I think it would entice a lot of teams if he were on the open market.
08:08I think even more so if he had stayed healthy, it would have enticed the Texans to give him, like, a Jalen Petrie contract at this point.
08:14If he could have stayed healthy.
08:15Like, he was—Christian Harris was playing a better linebacker at the—
08:20was playing a better version of linebacker at the end of 2023 than Jalen Petrie was playing safety at the end of 2023.
08:27Right.
08:27You know, like, the arrow was pointed up more on Christian Harris than Jalen Petrie at the end of that season.
08:32And it's weird because I feel like—not that the fan base's emotional state matters at all in how the team evaluates him,
08:41but I feel like people just kind of—because it was frustrating watching the injury because Henry Toa Toa took a big step forward from year one to year two,
08:50I feel like people are out on Christian Harris, and I'm not exactly certain why.
08:55Yeah.
08:55Other than just because they're tired of dealing with the injury issue.
08:58He has tremendous upside.
09:00Huge potential.
09:01It's like he really only started looking like the best—like, like, second half of his first year with D'Amico.
09:12Yep.
09:12So that's why we were so excited about Christian Harris.
09:15I think it's—I mean, because he's going to be a free agent.
09:18It's either—yeah, it's make it or break it with the Texans, but I think he would totally get an opportunity somewhere else.
09:25Oh, 100%.
09:26I'm like, he'll get an offer somewhere else if he doesn't sign here.
09:28Yeah, he'll be in the league.
09:29Unless he doesn't play this year because of this soft tissue issue.
09:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:33Well, I was told he's going to be okay for training camp.
09:36That's what I was told.
09:37That's where I get—like, the report last year at the very beginning of training camp was, well, it's just a soft tissue issue.
09:45It's no big deal.
09:45Coming from, like, whoever was telling Aaron Wilson that.
09:48Yeah.
09:48And now Aaron Wilson is reporting the same thing.
09:50And I'm not faulting Aaron for this.
09:52No.
09:52He's reporting what people are telling him.
09:54But, like, there's nothing about hearing, oh, don't worry, Christian Harris will be fine.
09:59Right.
09:59That I can take with any level of certainty.
10:02No.
10:03It's just that's exactly what we heard last year.
10:05If he was any other player, I would choose to believe it.
10:07But, like, last year—we asked Nick Casario on this show multiple times on his appearances here about Christian Harris.
10:14And he—Nick kind of implied that there were a lot of curveballs that came with Christian.
10:18There was a lot of unexpected that came.
10:20They really did think he was going to come back, and they got tossed a lot of curveballs with this injury.
10:24The calf is really interesting because all we know is that it's a soft tissue of some sort.
10:29But we've talked before about compartment syndrome.
10:32Yeah.
10:32Things can get really messed up because when you get swelling in your calf, it just—it compresses a lot of things in a small area.
10:40Yeah.
10:40And it can get—there can be a lot—for what seems like a minor injury, it can have a lot of—
10:46It's really hard to—in the short term, at least, while you're still dealing with it.
