← Payne & Pendergast
Payne & Pendergast
HOUR 2 - How Much More Should We Expect from Texans O-Line? + Aiyuk Keeps Talking + Things Are the Best Ever
00:47:15
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- [00:01]
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- [01:16]
Luke Morrow
How much better should we expect the Texans offensive line to be this year? It's Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. You can always text the show 713-572-46108. Get to us in the YouTube and Twitch chats as well. Yeah, so you know, as I keep saying, this is the season of lists this year, this time of year as we wait for training camp to begin in about two weeks. So Warren Sharp, who has Sharp analytics, he.
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Ben
Sharp football dot com, I think.
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Luke Morrow
Oh, is it?
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Ben
No, I can't remember. Yeah, it's Sharp football analysis. That's what it is.
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Luke Morrow
Okay, well, he's a big analytical guy. That's how. That's how I'll rephrase it. Yeah, but Sharp football, Warren Sharp, he ranked the best offensive lines for 20, 26. And he actually, he did an article on his website that you could go see where he gives a blurb for each team. But on Twitter, he just listed the teams ranking the best offensive lines. And you look at, oh, number one, Denver Broncos, two Eagles. Okay, you scroll down. 10. Oh, Falcons.
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Podcast Advertiser
Nice.
- [02:21]
Luke Morrow
Okay, the Lions, 14th. You know, so on, so forth. Oh, the Jaguars, 17th. Okay, keep scrolling. Oh, the Chiefs, 23rd Ravens right behind them. Keep scrolling. Oh, where, where are the Texans Titans 30th. Okay. At the Houston Texans, 31st on his list, only ahead of the Cleveland Browns. Despite bringing in, you know, three new starters and whatever else Warren Sharp right now has, the Texans still is having the second worst offensive line for 2020.
- [02:50]
Ben
Okay. So this, this is, this falls into a weird category for me of I disagree with them being that low. And yet at the same time, what am I going to do? Get angry about anybody disparaging the Texans offensive line? I think that until they show and prove that, yeah, this, this yet again revamped offensive line can show up and do something, can actually push human beings more than a half yard or so off the line of scrimmage, I refuse to get rankled by any kind of perceived disrespect or anything that, that on paper it just looks like, it just looks like a bunch, a few new names and then some guys that have to play better than they did last year. Ariante ERS3, I thought had a very promising rookie year. He's got to take the proverbial step forward. I think that some of the rankings of the offensive line right now for people like Warren Sharp, who he's, he's always struck me as one of these analytics types who thinks that NFL coaches are idiots because they don't pass 90% of the time. Like you should be passing the ball every single down that I'm guessing pass protection ranks more highly with him than the run pass balance. And like Wyatt Teller last year just had some rough spots in pass protection. He wasn't, he wasn't the classic version of himself. Ed Ingram was awesome as a run blocker, less consistent as a pass protector. You've got either Jake Andrews or a rookie at center and then he might not, he probably doesn't, doesn't. He doesn't weight Braden Smith's run blocking ability as highly as he might factor in his pass blocking ability. So I get where he might be coming from. I think it's, I still think it's far too low. But I, but I refuse, I fight with every fiber of my being against being offended by it because it's, because this is what, this is the, this is the bed the Texans offense is made for themselves. They got to prove that they're actually a viable offensive line.
- [04:50]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, I was surprised with how reasonable Texans fans were about this online having a. Pretty much a similar reaction to you of, of. I don't know if I'd put them at 31st, but I get it right. I figured a lot of, I figured a lot of outrage, of like, how dare you. We made all these moves. How dare you? But yeah, I think Texans fans are so beaten down here in recent years that it's like, yeah, you know, our offensive line has been bad. We have to wait until they actually can prove that they can have a good offensive line.
- [05:15]
Ben
Here's a guy, I don't know if he's a Texans fan or not, but I think it probably characterizes it. I'll try to say this in a furious voice. Minor nitpick. Texans improve their O line more than 31st. Should be four to seven spots higher. It is, It's. It's a depressing. It's a depressing thing to get in an argument about. Like, no, no, no, listen. They are not the 31st offensive line. They, they are at least 27th, sir. Yeah, anytime you start off an objection with minor nitpick, a pretty good indication that people aren't overly po'd about this.
- [05:50]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it's true. So I was a little surprised. Cause usually everyone's. Anytime you say something negative about their team, they're ticked off. But, but Texans fans get it.
- [05:57]
Ben
Exons fan says this Texans improve significantly, expecting them to be closer to 15. Like, yeah, right, You're. You bastard. You're calling them bad when in fact they're mid.
- [06:11]
Luke Morrow
Yeah.
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Ben
How dare you. How dare you disrespect our very mid offensive line. Now they really, what it comes to with the offensive line is it's, it's, it's got to be faith in Popovich and Cole Popovich, the offensive line coach, because there's just, you know, you can find a bunch of people that'll tell you, look, man, you can have five average offensive linemen and have a really solid offensive line as long as they're all coached up real well and playing together. And I think they did. They made progress in that last year and it still wasn't what you wanted, but they were playing more uniformly with good technique, not making as many mental errors in the second half of the season. And I think that just by virtue of adding a bunch of veterans as well, and I almost. I'll include Trent Brown in that because you didn't know that Trent, last year at the beginning of the season, you don't know. I didn't know if Trent Brown was even ever going to play football.
- [07:06]
Luke Morrow
Right.
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Ben
But like a guy in his 30s at that size coming off of patellar tendon tear, that's a big deal for an offensive lineman. So going into this season compared to last year, the thing that I'm most optimistic about is that they've just got a better complement of veteran players who play a certain style of football. There's more of an actual theme to what they want on the offensive line. Right now I feel like they've got. They've got a purpose, and it's that we're going to be a team that can run the ball and, and we'll take care of. We'll use that to make it easier in pass protection by virtue of the play action and everything else. So I feel, I do feel like. Because I think Warren Sharp labeled this ranking as predictive. Right. Like what he's predicting they'll be. And I would predict that, yeah, at the very least, they're going to be a mediocre offensive line. Then above and beyond that, that's where maybe Cole Popovich can start to make a name for himself as an offensive line coach. If he takes this group and turns them into a genuinely good offensive line, I will heap praise upon praise for Cole Popovich because there it's. It. It'll be evidence that he really knows what he's doing.
- [08:12]
Luke Morrow
Warren Sharp did say that the Texans could be the team that exceed these rankings to the largest degree. So in, In a sense, they might have like the highest ceiling or the highest potential. Um, he said they shifted from 27th in man blocking percentage in 2022 last year, only behind the Rams, where Nick Kaylee came from. But he said with an offensive line not suited for it and without a real number one running back, year two of Kaylee running this system might be better.
- [08:45]
Ben
Yeah, and. And that's kind of how I've been with the offensive line in their strategy over the last few years. Well, and especially running on into d' Ameco's first year, I had a hard time figuring out what kind of guys they even liked, you know, because you'd have some guys that look like more athletic zone blocking type guys, and you have other guys that are just huge maulers. And going back to OTAs this year in that first OTA, I think my first impression of just seeing the offensive line as they were walking out as a group is like, is, was that okay, this is a. This is a more physically impressive offensive line. Like, this looks like a classic. They get off the bus and you're thinking, oh, this is a. It's going to be a physical battle today. And it feels like they have more of a theme for the type of guys that they're going after. So that alone, you know, just the old what's the old saying? A good plan well executed will beat a brilliant plan poorly executed. You know, every single time. That's where it feels like they've got a good and solid plan at least. And you don't have to stock it up with a bunch of all pros to make it work. If you just execute the plan and you at first, A, have a plan and B, execute it properly, have a theme, have a philosophy, know what you want out of your offensive lineman. It feels like they're more on the same page with that now ice cold
- [10:05]
Luke Morrow
funk train on YouTube. So they haven't proved anything. So I agree. 31st seems fair. You know what else I found interesting was espn. Again, speaking of lists or rankings, ESPN did a ranking this week of the most talented rosters in the NFL based off of starters, and they have. The Texans have the ninth most talented roster, but that's even with them saying biggest weakness offensive line. This group is perhaps the NFL's shakiest starting five and remains a major concern. That's a real credit, I guess, to the defense where you can have the 9th most talented roster even with what they list as maybe the worst offensive line in the league.
- [10:43]
Ben
Right, the worst offensive line. I'm guessing they don't have C.J. stroud ranked all that high. People generally aren't all that enthusiastic about David Montgomery outside of Houston. Yeah, that. It's a, it's a testament to how good I almost say. All right, well, if, yeah, if the Texans are number one or number two, then they've got, they've definitely got the Texans offense ranked down around 18 or 19 or so to end up with that average of ninth best roster. The. I think with the offensive line, one thing that I've heard from a couple different people that I like is that you might take their top eight or nine offensive linemen and say this is one of the deeper groups in the league in terms of guys who can legitimately play NFL offensive line. You know, okay, this guy's. You don't, you don't, you don't question whether he's a viable starter or not. And that's in. If you include the first round draft pick in there. But in terms of their actual top five, you don't feel nearly as good about it. Where I like that is that man, what we've seen in the past few years is just that they've, they've had to play a whole bunch of offensive linemen. If you go back to 20, 23, which is the last time people were really excited about CJ Stroud's performance. They were. They finished the 15th ranked offensive line in 2023, which I was kind of surprised when I went back on pff. I went back to PFF just to look for it, just to try to be objective about things. And the thing about that year was that they had a long stretch of like capable offensive line play, but then they had a whole bunch of injuries. They ended up playing 14 different offensive linemen during the season that year. But the big things that year, remember, okay, Laramie Tunsil was still Laramie Tunsil and still a good offensive lineman. Shaq Mason, I think that was, that was just as he was getting. He was starting to get old, but he was still a viable offensive lineman. But then George Fant was the swing tackle that you didn't really expect much out of, that came in and actually played way better than you expected. And there was a little bit of a. There's more of a veteran stability on that offensive line in a lot of ways than I think CJ's had in the last couple of years. And it was, lo and behold, with a mediocre offensive line, that was when C.J. stroud had his most promising performance as an NFL player. That's why, like, to me, getting back to media, to mediocre is a, is a big step forward and you get a better feel for exactly what C.J. stroud is as a quarterback.
- [13:13]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, because look, I was going to say, how could you be the ninth best team in the league if you have the worst offensive line? But then I was thinking they kind of did that last year where their offensive line was towards the bottom of the league and yet they finished in the top, you know, really should have been scoring. Okay. But just, you know, overall, I'm saying as an overall team, they still finish. You know, I mean, they should have been, for all intents and purposes, the AFC representative in the Super Bowl. So usually you wouldn't think of a team being that good without a decent offensive line, but the Texans have been doing that. So imagine if they do get decent on the offensive line. That's, that's been the whole conversation.
- [13:49]
Ben
Right? Right. Yeah. No, it's not like it's, it might be the most lopsided of the teams that are in the top third. Are they one of the most lopsided teams in terms of how, like where you would rank their, their rosters right now? The Seahawks. The Seahawks are ranked third. Excuse me for. So the Seahawks are ranked third and obviously their offense was way better than the Texans last year. The Ravens are fifth. The Ravens are the Ravens are interesting to me. I think I told you earlier this week that I feel like people are talking about the Ravens as if John Harbaugh is still the head coach, that they just they because that's what they did with the Saints for a couple of years. They would talk about the Saints as if Sean Payton was still the head coach. Because when a head coach is there for so long, you almost start to just identify a team as being like, well, the Ravens are always consistently competitive and they've got Lamar Jackson and look, their defense. People still errantly believe that the Ravens defense is always good when in fact in the last few years they've had these weird seasons where they're actually a bad defense for the first half of the season, then they play in the second half of the season like one of the best defenses in the league. But there's a lot of things systemically about the Ravens that I just, I don't have as much faith in them as it seems like a lot of the power rankings do.
- [15:07]
Luke Morrow
In case you were curious, on this ranking, The Jaguars were 16th for most talented roster. Colts 20th, Titans 28th. So that's the rest of the division. Here's friend of the show who is 16th. Jaguars, okay, I believe. Right? I think I have that right. 16th. Colts 20th, Titans 28th when looking at the rest of the division and how their rosters stack up, Oregon Parks make
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- [16:59]
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- [17:54]
Luke Morrow
Friend of the show, Ross Tucker. Was this with Houston Stressings? Is that where this.
- [17:57]
Ben
Yeah, this is Garrett on Garrett Williams YouTube channel.
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Luke Morrow
Awesome. Here's Ross talking about the offensive line first talking about how, you know, Casario made a bunch of moves.
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Ross Tucker
So this is the second year in a row where Casario has done this where he's thrown a lot of volume at the position. So. But right now I think they have 10 guys that have played, you know, or a first round pick. Right. So 10 guys that you'd like to think if they were out there would be good enough to not be the reason why the Texans lose and give them depth for injuries, I think.
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Ben
Oh, the bad edit by me. I was waiting for it myself. Why Ross? It's hard with Ross because he's a very slow talker.
- [18:51]
On Deck Advertiser
Right.
- [18:51]
Ben
And he takes pauses. So. So I should have got that, I think out of there.
- [18:55]
Luke Morrow
He had me at the edge of my seat of like, what are you thinking about, Ross?
- [18:58]
Ross Tucker
I think
- [19:01]
Ben
Luke, there's something is a little of pain and Pendergast is that I try to help Ben out by editing audio myself and end up making it way more miserable for Ben. So. Yeah, as far as that though, like the 10 guys who have actually played in the NFL, like, that's. That's a I. What he's saying there, I agree with partly in that a lot of those backups, if you had an offensive line composed of nothing but the sixth through 10th guys, then that's not going to be a very good offensive line. But there are guys that you can plug in. Just like most good offensive lines in the NFL these days have at least one guy on there where he's just along for the ride. But if you can, if you can keep his workload and exactly how much pressure and focus there is on him to a minimum, then, yeah, you can still be a really effective offensive line with that. But. But they at least now have, as opposed to the last few years, I think, where they were just, they were penciling guys in as starters early in training camp who still hadn't even proven that they could play in the NFL. You know, when you just, you go into camp and Kenyon Green's getting all the reps at left guard and wondering where, like, why is this guy not facing any competition? I just don't get it that it doesn't feel like that anymore. And I do it like, I think that, I think the best evidence of that is that right now it's really easy to draw up the depth chart and say, okay, Wyatt Teller's your left guard and Braden Smith is your right tackle. I'm not convinced that that's 100% a certainty, even with health, because remember last year you signed Cam Robinson as a veteran offensive tackle and free agency do a nice chunk of money, not an exorbitant contract, and he's off the team within the first few weeks. So I feel good about those additions with Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller, and I don't think either of them will be off the team within a few weeks. But I think Braden Smith and Trent Brown might be in more of a competition than you realize. I think if perhaps, you know, depending on how healthy and consistent Wyatt Teller is during camp, if Keelan Rutledge is struggling at center but is looking really good taking guard reps, that Wyatt Teller might be facing some competition from Keelan Rutledge. So now you've got, okay, you got a first round draft pick that might be competing with a former all pro guard for who's going to be the starter as opposed to last year when it was, all right, Lake and Tomlinson and Juice Scruggs are going to battle it out to see who the starting left guard is. And by the end and six months later, neither of them are even on the team. And in the second half of the season, those guys Aren't even playing. Like that was a. That was a much worse situation than what they have right now. They've got actual competition now.
- [21:42]
Luke Morrow
You mentioned Kalin Rutledge. More Ross Tucker here with Houston Stressings. Is Ross talking about how Rutledge is the key?
- [21:50]
Ross Tucker
It's debatable how much Wyatt Teller has left. I thought he still did some really positive things last year. I think Keelan Rutledge is going to be. Pardon the pun, but the key, you know, to move a guy that was at guard to center, to kind of give him the keys to the castle. I mean, that is. That's a significant, significant decision. They must really, really believe in the young man. I certainly loved his tape at Georgia Tech. Love him getting after people snapping the ball first. You know, the mental aspect of playing center is a little bit different. You know, Stroud's getting there in terms of experience, but I wouldn't call him a wily veteran yet. So I do think, you know, they are going to test Rutledge early, both physically and mentally, and it'll be sink or swim. We'll see whether or not he can rise to the challenge. There is a chance, you know, there might be some growing pains in a new position early.
- [22:54]
Ben
Ben, I need you to throw the. I think at the end of every time. Yeah, I think this is what Ross Tucker thinks. Yeah, that's. And we saw that in OTAs in minicamp. They're going to get Kaylin Rutledge a lot of snaps at center. Literally saying, man, now I'm doing the inadvertent pun. They're gonna. Because he needs to just get the physical muscle memory of snapping the football while also doing all the mental work and the physical challenges of learning to play in the NFL. It's a lot. And some guys have done it, you know, like, there's. There's a good number of examples of guys who played guard or tackle in college and then went to play center in the NFL. The guy that I always think of first is Matt Burke, the Minnesota. He was a. He was a tackle at Harvard. And when he got drafted, we. Those of us who played in the Ivy League, we're all kind of like, huh, wow. Really? Like, it wasn't like he was an incredibly impressive, overpowering offensive lineman when he was a tackle in the Ivy League. He gets the NFL and they. They try him out at center, and he ends up being a perennial all Pro at center. So it's like there's. There's any number of examples of guys who have done it but it's just not. It's. It's not as simple as, oh yeah, since he's a. Since he's a good enough athlete to play guard or tackle, then certainly he'll be good at center. It's just a different set of challenges. And those first few weeks of camp, the biggest thing that I'm looking for first and foremost is that his shotgun snaps are more consistent because that was the one thing during OTAs that, man, all those other centers, whether it's Evan Brown or Jake Andrews or other guys who have played the position, they're a lot more consistent with the snap. And we, and even then, we know that Jake Andrews had some issues with the snap in the Steelers game, that if he can consistently snap the ball well while also still handling guys like Tommy Togi in practice, that's going to be a really good sign. That's a, that's the rare offensive line battle that I think you could actually read into a lot of what's going on in practice because it's hard, it's hard to evaluate in practice the offensive lineman and interior offensive lineman and defensive lineman because there's so many of the physical things they can't do. But I think that if he's consistently snapping the ball well and he's having good reps and pass protection and looks like he's getting movement in the run game in the first couple of weeks, then I think it's an almost certainty that'll be the starting center. If he's struggling, then there's going to be questions, you know, and we're going to have to see.
- [25:21]
Luke Morrow
I feel like it's the most under talked part of this Texans team and maybe I'm just not hearing the conversations, but yeah, Keelan Rutledge, the fact that you're going to have a rookie already, a struggling offensive line with a young quarterback, you're hoping to improve this offense and you're going to have a rookie center who's moving over. It's a new position, new league. He's only a rookie and he's going to be that center working with Shroud, trying to figure this all out. Look, the ultimate goal is obviously to go in a Super bowl. And to my research, only one time has a rookie center started the entire season and led a team to a Super Bowl. So obviously it's a hard thing. And when you already talk about the questions on this offensive line, it just feels like man at the center position to have a rookie learning the position and the NFL all at the same time. With. Yeah, it's just. It seems like a lot.
- [26:06]
Ben
It's what they love. They love taking CJ and putting inexperience and youth in front of. I mean, Jake Andrews last year was a guy. He played 70 snaps in the NFL up to that.
- [26:15]
Luke Morrow
True. Yeah.
- [26:16]
Ben
And. And I. If I recall correctly, none of them were at center in actual NFL games. And he figured it out and got better as the year went along. But it's just these first. I mean, we saw it last year. I have a hard time. And honestly, with the Rams, it's not just the Texans, it's the Rams, who are really, really good and proven NFL team that sometimes they treat like these first few games of the season, like, we'll figure it out.
- [26:42]
Ross Tucker
Yeah.
- [26:42]
Ben
No, when you start off 03, like with the Texans last year, it's really, really hard, and you don't end up with home field advantage. You know, the Rams don't play any of their starters during the preseason, hardly at all. And then they often go out and struggle in the first few games of the season. Like, man, that's. Those are kinds of. You only get 17 of these. McVeigh, I know you're not an analytics guy, but that's. That's relatively basic math.
- [27:07]
Luke Morrow
It's true. I know. But, yeah, I mean, Belichick's done that at times in September, and you read a little bit like, you fool around in September, figure things out, try to turn it on.
- [27:16]
Ben
Belichick also. You know what? This is the thing about Belichick, though. Belichick was really good at figuring out what his team was. And over the course of the first half of the season, a lot of times you'd see these huge methodological shifts. And, you know, the year they played the Rams in the super bowl, that was the one where all of a sudden, midway through the season, you know what? We're a running football team. This is what we do. Well, we're going to lean into it. This is what we do. And the. With him, I always felt like it wasn't as much of a. It wasn't. It wasn't like he wasn't. It wasn't like he was trying to preserve and rest guys or anything. It was that he was just genuinely trying to figure out his own team and, like, what they needed to lean in.
- [27:57]
Luke Morrow
Right, Right. Yeah, that's fair.
- [27:59]
Ben
I think they were just like. I think sometimes they just weren't actually that good a football team at the beginning of the year, but they just had. They had really good position coaching. That's why. And that's why I like d' Amico transitioning to this role where he realizes his job is to coach the coaches as much as it is the players. Because Belichick was really good at coaching his assistant coaches. So you'd see. I would always watch their defensive line, and at the beginning of the season, I'm like, God, these guys, they're just not that good. And then I would check in midway through the season on the Patriots and I'm like, who are they? Who are these guys? Who they. Oh, it's the same guys. They're just playing much better football. They're just, they've. They've actually improved in the midst of an NFL season at their technique and these details and all of those things.
- [28:43]
Luke Morrow
On the text line. Someone says the reason you're not hearing a lot of talk about Rutledge is because it's July. Yeah. Okay. So I guess we shouldn't talk about the meteor when it's on the way to earth. You just talk about it once it actually hits down and, you know, crushes the world. You're trying to forecast. I think it's a very big concern or question for this entire team.
- [29:01]
Ben
Who said we weren't hearing anything about Rutledge? Would you.
- [29:05]
Luke Morrow
Well, I had referenced that. I feel like it's, it's not as big of a talking point. I don't hear enough conversations about, like the concern trying to have a rookie center who's changing positions on an offense that has been struggling or offensive line that we're still trying to figure out.
- [29:20]
Ben
Right. Yeah. You're specifically talking about, like for when people are talking about the Texans and previewing it, everything this time of year where those are the kinds of things where you talk about Rutledge. I think you're 100% correct in that there's a tendency sometimes to forget that 50% of first rounders don't really work out. You know, that it's. That it's never, it's never a slam dunk. Oh, they drafted them late in the first round, did they? Well, clearly, clearly that's going to be. That'll be an improvement. It's just not especially so 50% on average in the first round, not as high in the, in the, at the back end of the first round. Offensive linemen do tend to. There tend to be fewer busts with offensive linemen, but this is an organization that also drafted Kenyon Green. So the. There's a six of one, half dozen the other, which it's hard to say
- [30:11]
Luke Morrow
Track record's not great. Yeah, yeah. But to your point. Yeah. Offensive lines, the position group that has the highest percentage of guys getting the second contract with the team that drafted them. So it is technically or statistically the safest position to draft, but nothing's guaranteed.
- [30:25]
Ben
Yeah. It's always felt to me like if I were a gm, it feels like that's where you get the most bang for your buck. And I would, I would, I would organize my team around always having an awesome offensive line no matter what, no matter where the pendulum swings and the, the, the coming and going of whether offense or defense is more important or running or passing or whatever. Like you're just, you're. You're more likely to succeed with your pick and you're more likely to have them around for a long time.
- [30:54]
Luke Morrow
That's true. I'm old school. I still like the old school basketball where you played from inside out instead of today, it's the opposite. And football, same idea. Like build from the inside out. Offensive line, defensive line. I think those are still the most important units of a successful team.
- [31:09]
Ben
It's still the thing that makes it. If you want to get the absolute best out of your quarterback, you can make it as easy or as hard for your quarterback as you want. When you have a really good offensive line, you know, you can put as much on his arm as you need to or you can just lean into the run game and, or including you can. And you obviously make him a better passer when he's well protected. But yeah, that part of it. And then just the fact that too those offensive linemen that do work out for you end up to tend. They get really big contracts these days that if you can control those costs without having to go out and sign a free agent or trade for a free agent at some point, you're. You're saving a lot of money in the long term.
- [31:48]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, certainly we, we. We did spend. It was worth it. Great conversation. We did spend more time on that than anticipating. But I do want to get to this because we've been tracking even, even, you know, before I stepped in this week, obviously you and Sean have been tracking this whole Brandon Iuk thing. And we played some audio from One of the McCourties with Jason McCourty yesterday, I think it was who said, hey, I. You just put the phone down. Apparently Brandon Iuk is not taking that advice. Here's the. The. The wide receiver.
- [32:17]
Ben
It'd be like BA and his social media antics. Well, I gotta get paid somehow because the employer holding me Captive without pay. At least social media paying. I'll tell y' all what,
- [32:33]
Brandon Ayuk
I get
- [32:34]
Ben
a job back in the NFL, man, I'm still gonna be on my bull on social media. Yeah, that. That right there. I'm still gonna be on my BS on social media like that. That is the clearest evidence yet that he just flat out doesn't want to play football. I think he is just. I think he's. There's a part of him that's a little bit crazy right now, but I think there's also a part of it that he. He doesn't care because he doesn't really.
- [33:02]
Ross Tucker
He.
- [33:02]
Ben
He's going to let his freak flag fly and he's not worried about it because he really doesn't care if a team signs him or not. Like that part right there. What have I said when I said, yeah, I would take a flyer and iuk, if you could actually get him to sign on a minimum deal with incentive laden, the first part of the conversation you're going to have is, hey, what's. What's been going on with you, man? What's like, is it just that you were confused and angry or whatever, and now are you ready to just kind of focus on football and he's just flat out there broadcasting it to the world now? I'm going to keep all of this up. I will be a distraction in your locker room. Everything that you're worried about. Even if you sign me to a minimum deal, you, yes, I will make life miserable for those around me. I don't think he wants to play football.
- [33:44]
Luke Morrow
Do you think this is all sort of like, then a bit that he's doing on social media for the attention? Because he said, like, I'm not getting paid by my team. I got to make money somehow. Like, is this all, like a shtick he's doing now? Right.
- [33:55]
Brandon Ayuk
Because.
- [33:55]
Ben
Okay, I don't think. I can't imagine he's blown through the. How much has he made?
- [33:59]
Luke Morrow
Good question.
- [34:00]
Ben
Got the new contract. I can't imagine that he's blown through all that money. And whatever he's making on social media isn't nearly. What he's going to be making is a. If you were paid, what is. If you were paid, what is sane? Like, a sane Brandon IUK is going to make way more money if he just keeps his mouth shut or just. Even. Just. Just delivers statements instead of blabbing on social media or whatever. Like, he's just. He refuses to do any of it. And then he continues to lean into, like, demanding that the 49ers cut him. Well, he still hasn't filed his reinstatement paperwork that would allow the 49ers to cut him. And also, like the 40 he's demonstrated already once before, he wanted off of the 49ers. 49ers tried to help him set up a deal with the Steelers and IU submarine to that. And then, God knows why, the 49ers decided to still give him a contract anyway. And then everything was a mess afterwards ever since then, like the 49ers, if they were just being completely calm, cool, and rational about this, which it seems like they're doing. No, they've got no. They. He theoretically is still a tradable asset. And you just wait and see exactly. If he does file his reinstatement paperwork, see what happens. I think Iuk, yeah. Just was trying to make it such an uncomfortable and ridiculous situation that if and when he does sign his sign file is for reinstatement that the 49ers do just want to wash their hands clean of them.
- [35:30]
Brandon Ayuk
But.
- [35:30]
Ben
But he's doing so much damage in terms of his sign ability right now, including with the. The commanders of the team, where it seems like, man, maybe the commanders really would have given him a respectable contract of some sort. He's probably completely destroyed that.
- [35:43]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, right. By the way, spot track, spot rack, whatever it is, he has made 60 million so far in his career, but he still has another 85 million on that contract. It's crazy to be, like, walking away essentially right now from $85 million with the way he's acting. Here's more Brandon Ayuk saying that shockingly, Jaden Daniels, his at least former friend, maybe still friend, Jaden Daniels, not accepting his calls.
- [36:10]
Ben
He said, I don't do that Internet, bro. Hit my phone if you gotta talk to me, bro. You got my number and I called. He don't answer. Hit my phone, bruh.
- [36:20]
Luke Morrow
It's important.
- [36:22]
Ben
It's the money on the line. Yeah, it's the money on the line. I. Jaden Daniels wants nothing to do with him now. He just wants nothing to do with this mess. I don't know. And even like the reports that those two are close friends and everything, I'm starting to wonder, did all of those reports come from Brandon Iuk himself? Do we know that Jaden Daniels is actually even really like, liked Brandon Iuk? And for any stretch of the time, I'm guessing there's evidence out there that they do. But right now he's just. According to the source, Brandon aiuk Jaden Daniels isn't accepting his calls, but I don't trust anything that I hear from Brandon Iuk at this point.
- [36:58]
Luke Morrow
Well, that's also true. Yeah. And I don't blame Jaden Daniels. His people are probably telling him, like, don't associate with this. Stay as far away from this as you can because it's. It's only going to make you look bad getting wrapped up in it. On the text line, somebody said, first video, IUK said, they're stupid for paying me. Last video, he's saying, I got to make money somehow. Pick a lane, bro. So it's.
- [37:20]
Ben
There's not. The people that have. It's been fun to watch the people who are adamantly defending Brandon Iuk kind of just steadily fall off the bandwagon as they start to realize, all right, man, there's just nothing defensible that he's doing right now, especially when he's the only guy that's complaining about the 49ers is this evil organization. You don't find the other. You don't find other 49ers players talking about what bastards they are or anything or how Kyle Shanahan is so evil. It's a. He's the only guy that's got these complaints, and he's also the only guy who's acting like a lunatic on social media.
- [37:53]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, he's looking around like, right, guys, you're with me, right? The Niners, this organization's crazy.
- [37:58]
Ben
And Samuel had nothing but praise for Kyle Shanahan and John lynch after he left.
- [38:02]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. No, the guy's just Bonkos. Hey, Coming up, there's a conversation going on in the sports world currently that really annoys me. So we have to talk about it next. Payne and Pendergast.
- [38:13]
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Ben
I'll come back up for you.
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Really?
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Ben
You're gonna have another one?
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Anna Garcia
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- [40:36]
Luke Morrow
The conversation going on in the sports world this week, that's really annoying me.
- [40:42]
Ben
I'm intrigued to hear why this is annoying you. I've got my guesses.
- [40:48]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, Payne and Pender guess. By the way, I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. I just think it's stupid. The first part there. There's a few things I'll try to get to in this segment, but the main conversation is, look, Shohei Ohtani hit 300 homers. I should say hit his 300th career homer this week. And people are saying, now, you know, Shohei Otani is the greatest baseball player of all time. And it's the same week that, like, Messi or the same couple weeks here that Messi's doing things in the World cup. And people are saying like, hey, he's the greatest soccer player of all time and LeBron's a free agent. And I won't have that debate. But Some people believe LeBron is the greatest basketball player of all time. And it's this conversation that we've been having the last few years where like, what an amazing time to be alive. Can you believe it? We have the best baseball player right now. We have the best basketball player. Soccer player. Patrick Mahomes is the most talented quarterback of all time. And they're all playing at the same time. How blessed are we as sports fans in this current era to get all the best? Yeah, and my point is, isn't everything the best right now compared to the past? Like 100 years ago you would have to wait a week to find out if everyone's eyes were open or not in a photo. And now you can take 47 stupid selfies and delete 46 of them because you thought your hair looked weird in the photos. Like everything is better now.
- [42:08]
Ben
And part of that though too is that when you're. There's such a recency bias in saying that somebody is the best of all time, it's so easy to sit and say, oh yeah, Pat Mahomes is the best of all time without really thinking about it too hard. And like, no, like people will push back against that. You can make plenty of arguments that he's not the best of all time again, and it's ridiculously easy to do it. But the other part of it too is to your point about how, yeah, you have all this content available to you all the time. Look, it's not like there weren't great soccer players playing in the past. It's just they weren't mentioned in the same breath as our American sports that we're watching, you know, or the more the major league sports in America that yeah, at any given time, in any given decade, there's a bunch of great athletes playing in their respective sports. But. Yeah, so, but, but it annoys you that people are sitting down and appreciating it?
- [43:00]
Luke Morrow
Well, yeah, because like, oh, you're telling me that today's athlete is better than the athlete from 80 years ago. You had a full time job and like, you know, oh, once they, once they stop.
- [43:11]
Ben
They having. You mean once athletes stopped smoking cigarettes at halftime and they started actually devoting it, treating it like a full time job, that they're better now? Oh, yeah, sure, yeah.
- [43:22]
Luke Morrow
And we have better like just weight training and nutrition and these guys hire coaches because they have more money than athletes used to have. You know, athletes used to have off season jobs and everything. It's Just, it's the fact that we have these conversations, we marvel, like, how amazing is this?
- [43:38]
Ben
Yeah, yeah.
- [43:39]
Luke Morrow
Well, then you must be amazed too, that we have TV now. We can actually watch things in our home when they couldn't do that 100. Like, everything is better, everything is easier now. The athletes should be better in 2026 than any other era because they have so many more resources and tools and everything else.
- [43:55]
Ben
Yeah, the whole what a time to be alive thing, you know, every. People always like to say, like, I was born in the wrong era. I, I would, I should have lived, I should have lived in the 1700s. I did. And I'm like, yeah, enjoy, enjoy dying because you scratched your leg on a nail at the age of 17 or whatever. Enjoy, enjoy not having sewers and whatnot in your city. That, yeah, things are, things are generally better now in a lot of ways than they were before. The, when it comes to the athletes, the athletic side of things, it just, it's dawned on me as man, people are just having all these debates about youth soccer and how they need to change the developmental academies and all of that stuff. It's, I think honestly, 30 years ago, people just like, there just wasn't as much of a, there wasn't as much of this feeling or this need that my kids got to be a professional athlete. It's the most important thing in the world. And why, why is he not. I think sports in general have just taken more importance in more people's lives and occupy a bigger part of their day that you used to just, you used to be able to. Especially before sports radio, it was, you could see highlights on the nightly news, you could read about it in the paper. And then beyond that, it was really just a whole lot of water cooler conversations and things like that. So there just wasn't as much available to you. So now the superstar guys, they do just get amped up that much more and they're more in your face from all of these different outlets that it feels like, oh, wow, we're living in the golden era of all these superstar athletes. Well, yeah, there wasn't, there wasn't really the, There wasn't really the machine that was spitting out the, all the PR on these superstar athletes back in the day.
- [45:39]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, that too. You know, and a good thing for those guys, guys like Joe DiMaggio back then and what he was up to.
- [45:45]
Ben
Imagine DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, how annoying that would be today. Oh, my God, we would be so disgusted. It would all be like, oh, great. Oh, the NFL'S are the major League baseball. There they go. I got to watch Marilyn Monroe 29 times during this game.
- [45:58]
Luke Morrow
Yeah.
- [45:58]
Ben
And then there would be a backlash against Marilyn Monroe.
- [46:01]
Luke Morrow
Yeah.
- [46:01]
Ben
People would be sending her pharmaceuticals in the mail. Yeah, the, the. It's, it's, it's just. It was always existed. Yeah. There was a.
- [46:11]
Brandon Ayuk
Okay.
- [46:11]
Ben
Joe DiMaggio or any of those old baseball players at their given time, were they considered like, was it. Were people saying, like, well, they're the best for now, but 100 years from now there's going to be this Japanese fella that might supplant him. So don't enjoy this too much.
- [46:30]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. It's just you referenced Louis CK earlier this week. He has a great bit of how people take flying for granted and how, you know, back in the day, you used to have to the Oregon Trail. It would take you months to go across country and not everybody would make it alive. Like, you knew going in like, we're going to lose some people, but we'll eventually get there. And now, as he says, like, you, you know, you use the bathroom, you watch a movie and you're cross country in a couple of hours. And yet.
- [46:54]
Ben
And you whine about it the entire time. Yeah. There's a complaint about your food not being good enough.
- [46:58]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. Rocket across the air or the Internet cuts out on plane, you know, floating through the sky.
- [47:04]
Ben
Legitimate. That's a legitimate beef. Because I pay. This is my old rule is I, if I pay first world dollars, I will complain about first world problems. That's, that's a, that's, that's true in any, that's true in any era of history. I paid a doubloon for this. I expect, I expect satisfaction.
- [47:22]
Luke Morrow
Okay, that's fair. Depending on how much you make, I should say how much you pay. I could get behind that. Here's the other thing I dislike with this whole argument, too. Shohei Ohtani might be the greatest baseball player of all time, but when, when you compare him to Babe Ruth, I always hate. And we do this all the time of like, well, Babe, have you seen the people Babe Ruth played against? Yeah, but Babe Ruth is also from that era. It's not like we took Shohei Ohtani and dropped him in the 1920s and was like, yeah, but did you see the. We do the same thing with March Madness every year where we're like, yeah, but that mid major, you know, they, they only beat Mac teams compared to this team that went 500 in the SEC. Played a lot of better teams. Yes. But they're playing with mid major players, they don't have SEC talent. But you're only, you're playing your peers and you're so much better than your peers. Babe Ruth was so much better than everybody else in the league at that time that that's what makes him impressive. It's not like, well, you know, he was a fat guy with stubby legs. He's not as athletic as the current guys, but he was playing on a level playing field outside of obviously the segregation, but a level playing field amongst athletes in Major League Baseball at the time.
- [48:29]
Ben
Well then no. And that's even too like if you look at football and you look at, you know, footage from the 60s and 70s, you think, oh, these guys could never play in the NFL. Look at them. I go ahead and just like meet Robert Brazile in person and tell me that with the benefit of modern weightlifting and everything, he wouldn't be one of the, one of the most incredibly physically impressive. And this guy, I've only met Robert Brazile in person after he was already, you know, a relatively old man and he still kind of scared me because he's so damn big. Yeah, those guys, if you just transport them forward in time and they do everything the same way guys are doing. Yeah, they're, they're going to be, they would be more impressive physically.
- [49:10]
Luke Morrow
It's more impressive that Babe Ruth would eat a bunch of hot dogs and drink a bathtub of beer in the hotel every night and then go out and club these longhomers. I think that's more impressive than the guys that, you know, take such great care of their bodies today and pull off these athletic feats.
- [49:24]
Ben
Yeah.
- [49:26]
Luke Morrow
And then the last thing I wanted to get to. And I think you made the good point before we came on the air here. That probably answers my question. But there was an article in the Athletic, you can go find it about Jordan that Chandler Rome just wrote. But as he writes in the like the sub headline, he'd rather be out fishing and whatever doing this and that than being in the spotlight. And this always seems to be a problem in Major League Baseball where their stars don't want to be in the spotlight like other sports. But I do think you brought up a good point that if somebody doesn't speak English as their main language, they probably, you know, that probably hurts things. And I do think Major League Baseball is the sport that has the most international athletes.
- [50:01]
Ben
Yeah, they have the most international players, whereas the majority of fans in America watching are English speakers. That I, I was thinking about this While I was watching Jordan the other day in an interview is a really good interview, but he's doing, you know, he's giving his answers through an interpreter, but he also, you know, he listens. He's one of the guys that listens to the questions in English and understands it and then uses an interpreter to give the answer. I do. I totally understand why guys do that. Like, guys. Some guys that speak pretty good English but still know that it's not polished. These days, they're hesitant to give quotes to reporters, partly because they just want to be sure that they get the answer right. And then it's also. It's just too easy for people to make fun of that or to take it out of context or whatever. But it does. It kind of removes. It puts a little bit of a barrier emotionally when you don't actually see and hear and guy see and hear the guy, you know, speaking directly to you as.
- [50:59]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, yeah, certainly. Yeah. So I think that's a good point.
- [51:02]
On Deck Advertiser
Who was it?
- [51:02]
Ben
The one. Oh, it was a. It was the athletic writer from back. I'm blanking on who the player was. I'll look it up. During the break, somebody. Somebody basically put a verbatim quote from a Spanish speaking player who's doing the interview in English with the Astros. And it ended up like, it was kind of shady. Like, it ended up making him look like he was stupid, you know? And like, ever since then, I've been like, yep, I totally get it. I can see why guys that don't speak perfect English are just gonna just. You know what? I'm gonna have my interpreter handle it. And there we go.
- [51:33]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. That happened with another player in baseball this year where Spanish speakers on Twitter were saying, like, that's not what he said. Whatever. The interpreter said, I never.
- [51:41]
Ben
I need to be clear to everybody. I'm not talking about Chandler Rome. It was a previous writer. It was. So. Yeah, yeah.
- [51:47]
Luke Morrow
Well, we'll try to effort that. Someone on the text line said, so we're talking about a dominance margin. Yes. That's a good phrase for it. That Babe Ruth was so much more dominant compared to the rest of his peers at the time in Major League Baseball. That. That's what makes him so special.
- [52:00]
Ben
Yeah. Not everybody was doing his margin. I like that.
- [52:02]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, yeah.
- [52:03]
Ben
Like, it doesn't. Don't try to compare apples to oranges. Compare the apples to the apples.
- [52:07]
Luke Morrow
Exactly. That's why I always say it's very annoying. Somebody said, yeah, I don't know how people could have lived in Texas with No AC back in the day.
- [52:14]
Ben
I don't get it at all. It's incredible. I don't understand how people do it. I don't. I'm so soft now. Yeah, I think about that. I had to. I had. I had to. When I was sleeping in my car on a long drive and I was like, in Alabama or something, and I was like, all right, I'm just going to pull over the rest area, and I don't want to leave my car running. That lasted about five minutes, just sitting and sweating it out in my car. I couldn't do it. So to spend my life that way, I wouldn't have made it. I would have dehydrated and cramped up and died out on the trail.
- [52:48]
Luke Morrow
Oh, me too. And that's what I'm saying. It's so much easier. Everything's better today. Everything's easier. Air conditioning back then for Jay, Gatsby was his handkerchief. And it was so much different. And I do love the autocorrects we get sometimes where your don turned into your dawn on the text line. So appreciate that. Speaking of baseball and the Astros, when we come back, what's the Astros biggest need at the deadline right now? And do you actually want them to be buyers at this point? We'll talk about it next.
- [53:15]
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Brandon Ayuk
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