Seth gives us his takeaways from the First Practice

Summary

Payne & Pendergast – Seth’s Takeaways from Texans’ First Practice

Podcast: Payne & Pendergast (Audacy)
Date: July 30, 2026
Hosts: Seth Payne & Sean Pendergast

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Episode Overview

This episode digs into Seth Payne’s observations from the Houston Texans’ first practice of 2026 training camp. The hosts focus on on-field takeaways—particularly in the trenches, offensive cohesion, running backs, and tight end competition—plus team culture and contract talk. There’s also a segment touching on league-wide player drama and some humorous banter to keep things lively.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Joking About NFL Pensions (01:30–02:27)

• The show opens with lighthearted banter about NFL pensions, aging, and the expectation that many former players don’t collect due to early mortality. Seth jokes about maximizing his kolache and whiskey intake while he waits until age 65 to collect, poking fun at the league’s actuarial assumptions.
  • Quote: “They're banking on some of these guys to be dead. And that's why, when I wait until 65, I’m cleaning up. Stick it to 'em.” — Seth (01:33)

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2. First Practice Takeaways: Physicality & The Trenches (03:15–07:15)

Offensive/Defensive Line Impressions

• Seth notes a marked increase in physicality and “NFL body types,” particularly among new arrivals and draftees. Linemen like Keelan Rutledge and Braden Smith physically stand out (“look like a WWE tag team”).
  • Quote: “They look like they're going to fight for House McNair. Like they're about to mount their heavy horses.” — Seth (04:02)
• Kaden McDonald and Naquan Jones highlighted as massive, athletic bodies; Naquan surprised last year after joining late due to injuries.

Right Tackle Competition

• Braden Smith vs. Trent Brown: Seth believes this is a real competition, with Smith having a slight early edge but both likely to rotate heavily (“real competition…not the way it felt at the start of free agency”). He praises Brown's improved conditioning after last year’s tendon injury.
  • Quote: “Trent Brown did…they didn’t lose a game when Trent Brown was starting last year…He did some good things for them.” — Seth (06:03)

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3. Offensive Organization & “Precision Period” (07:15–10:44)

Cohesive, Precise Offense

• The most encouraging aspect: the offense looked well-drilled and precise even on Day 1, with no basic procedural mistakes or stoppages.
• The “precision period” is a new, explicit practice segment this year. This reflects leadership’s insistence on detail, as emphasized by GM Nick Caserio and Coach DeMeco Ryans—often invoking the word “precision,” including in a speech connecting the team’s mentality to NASA’s Artemis II mission.

Pre-Snap Motion

• Seth—without spilling trade secrets—observes that pre-snap movement was handled crisply, at odds with usual Day 1 “shenanigans” at NFL camps.

Caserio on Offense Development

• Nick Caserio praises OC Nick Haley’s energy and plans for tweaks. Says the foundation will be set in the first two weeks, focusing on what players do best (09:08–10:13).
  • Quote: “The core foundation of what we're going to do offensively will probably be installed within the first two weeks…it's about what the players do well…we're going to build the offense accordingly.” — Nick Caserio (09:39)

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4. Run Game Emphasis & RB Room (10:44–15:58)

Upgrading the Run Game

• Both hosts stress Houston’s offseason efforts to get tougher and more consistent in the running game: signing and drafting blocking tight ends, trading for power runner David Montgomery, and adding physical O-linemen.
  • Quote: “They are…big mauler, brawler, physical dudes.” — Sean (11:26)
• Seth cautions that running backs can look great in shorts, but likes the upside of Jawar Jordan as a third RB and returner. Draws an analogy to Arian Foster’s vision and cutback ability.
• DeMeco Ryans is “excited” about Montgomery, Woody, and Jordan, emphasizing detail: “Can we improve in our reads? Can we improve in our pass protection? Can we improve in the screen game?” (13:29)
• Seth offers a veteran’s take: coaching matters for RBs, especially in pass pro; veteran short-yardage backs (like Montgomery or, years ago, Marcus Allen) can be difference-makers even when no longer explosive.

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5. Tight End Room & New Faces (15:58–20:21)

Depth and Attitude Shift

• DeMeco Ryans and Seth both highlight a new coach (James Ference) bringing energy, and a deep, versatile group (“six, seven guys there who can go play for us”). More creative use in 12/13 personnel expected.
  • Quote: “We got a plethora of guys who should allow us to do some cool things when it comes to 12, 13 personnel.” — DeMeco Ryans (16:11)
• Foster Moreau’s toughness (tackling a defender post-interception—ill-advised, but sets a tone) is praised; joke references to his “nasty” approach fit the new identity.
• Marlyn Klein shows promise in blocking and almost makes a spectacular catch, but suffers a textbook “almost” moment (19:32).

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6. Defensive Overview & LB Competition (20:21–22:37)

Not Much to Worry About

• Seth says nothing seen should shake confidence in Houston’s defense (“I saw nothing…that has me less confident about the Texans defense being elite this year.” – 21:26)
• Linebacker depth/competition: Jamal Hill, Wade Woodaz, Marte Mapu, and Aiden Fisher among those vying for the “third linebacker” spot. Wade Woodaz is particularly intriguing due to his safety-to-linebacker background and athletic upside.
• Reed Blankenship fits in seamlessly according to Payne—“like five fingers in a glove.”

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7. Will Anderson Jr.: Leadership, Team Ambitions & Culture (22:37–30:36)

Anderson’s Mindset

• Will Anderson speaks to the team’s Super Bowl ambitions and strong internal expectations. He credits Coach Ryans for a clear “foundation” (the “swarm” identity) and says everyone is striving to bring “something special back to the city.”
  • Quote: “Nobody outside of this building is going to have a higher expectation than we have in this building… SWARM is our foundation.” — Will Anderson Jr. (25:28)
• Seth and Sean discuss how Houston’s culture, built by Ryans and Caserio, gives players the freedom to talk openly about championships without bravado or hubris.
• Anderson also emphasizes his own leadership growth: helping rookie Kaden McDonald and wanting to “wreck havoc in all phases” while being a more vocal, hands-on veteran.
  • Quote: “It’s my due diligence to help [Kaden], help him reach every goal he wants and show him the way.” — Will Anderson Jr. (28:09)

Seth’s Veteran Insight

• Seth praises Anderson’s process-oriented goals versus McDonald’s focus on external awards (“all rookie, first-team All Pro”)—encourages goals you can control.

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8. League-Wide Storylines: Brandon Aiyuk Drama (30:36–37:14)

Social Media & Player Acquisition

• Discussion of Brandon Aiyuk’s public friction with teams and the Commanders’ subtle vetting of personalities via social media presence (32:54).
• Seth is skeptical any team can count on Aiyuk for buy-in, even if signed and paid, referencing past head cases (e.g., Albert Haynesworth with the Patriots).

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9. Final Texans Notes: Deep Ball, Screens, Roster Building (40:47–47:20)

Offensive “Big Play” Potential

• Seth is eager to see Houston’s offense hit a deep strike in camp; this is essential for measuring progress.

Screens & Execution

• Notable improvement in screen execution, an area the Texans have neglected—now showing much better OL timing and setup: “an armada of offensive linemen set up one yard past the line of scrimmage.”

Contract Extension Philosophy

• Browns’ corner Denzel Ward ($31M/yr) and safety Grant Delpit ($16M/yr) extensions seen as templates for Houston. Seth and Sean debate prioritizing high-end corner (Kamari Lassiter) versus safety (Kalen Bullock), landing on the positional value of corner but pointing out flexibility due to cap structure and win-now spending (43:31–44:42).
  • Quote: “There’s room for movement if and when Daniel Hunter either decides to retire or…it’s not worth it.”—Seth (44:42)

Cap Wisdom

• Both hosts dismiss the “cap is a myth” notion, citing New Orleans’ struggles as proof there are consequences for “credit card” salary strategies, but note the Texans are well-positioned to retain key young talent.
  • Quote: “You can do almost anything you want in the short term…the Piper does come to come for you.” — Sean (45:07)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “They look like they're going to fight for House McNair.”—Seth (04:02)
• “That’s the emphasis...I thought they looked precise.”—Seth, referencing both practice and team philosophy (07:31)
• "The biggest thing that they need to improve that would make the biggest impact is just can they run the ball in short yardage and red zone situations?"—Seth (10:48)
• "SWARM is our foundation."—Will Anderson Jr. (25:28)
• “If you win a Super Bowl out of it, nobody ever gives a damn that you had a couple years where you had to clean house.” — Seth, on cap management (45:22)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• NFL Pension Banter: 01:30–02:27
• OL/DL Physicality & Competition: 03:15–07:15
• Offensive Precision & Caserio Soundbite: 07:15–10:44
• Running Game & RB Focus: 10:44–15:58
• Tight End Room Analysis: 15:58–20:21
• Defensive Takeaways & LB Competition: 20:21–22:37
• Will Anderson Jr. on Culture & Leadership: 22:37–30:36
• Brandon Aiyuk/League Drama: 30:36–37:14
• Big Plays, Screens & Cap Philosophy: 40:47–47:20

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Tone & Style

Casual, witty, informed—Seth and Sean balance seasoned analysis with frequent inside jokes and relatable asides, creating an approachable yet insightful listen for both die-hard and casual Houston sports fans.

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For Further Listening

• Next episode: Day Two of Texans Camp, with ongoing breakdowns of positional battles and special guests.
• Regular guests for expert deep-dives: Ross Tucker, Nick Caserio, and more.

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This episode provides a boots-on-the-ground look at Texans camp, with detailed, veteran-informed perspective on how the team’s offseason vision is already manifesting on the field. For any fan wanting to track the progress and personality of this Texans roster, it's a must-listen (or read!).

Transcript

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[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

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[Sean Pendergast]

Main and Want all your business out there?

[Seth Payne]

We're just talking about, oh yeah, I'll put it out there. I said they're banking on a lot of us to die. We're talking about your pension. My pension. The gap between when you start collecting, talking about the government when you start, when you start collecting at 55 versus when you collected 65. There's a huge. That's normal in pension plans and everything, but it is always. I do like thinking about, you know, my, my fellow former NFL players. It's a small group of us and I kind of look around the room, we're like, yeah, they're banking on some of these guys to be dead. And that's why, that's why when I, when I wait until 65, I'm cleaning up. Stick it to him.

[Sean Pendergast]

Stick it to the.

[Seth Payne]

Thanks, fellas. Thanks in advance for your contributions to my pension.

[Sean Pendergast]

Thanks for eating all that fried food.

[Seth Payne]

As I finish my third kolache in the morning. All these suckers.

[Sean Pendergast]

Seth's got a half empty Shipley's box

[Seth Payne]

in front of him. I'll be eating 12 kolaches a day when I turn 65.

[Sean Pendergast]

The irony of Seth having pink frosting in his beard as he says, I waited till 65 to get my pension.

[Seth Payne]

Can't believe the NFL's so dumb. They're gon to pay all this money. All I got to do is make it to 65.

[Sean Pendergast]

Stupid idiots. You can tell by the financial.

[Seth Payne]

Drink all the whiskey I want.

[Sean Pendergast]

You can tell by the financial model they don't know what they're doing.

[Seth Payne]

Hold on. I'm going to finish this bottle of whiskey and drive to the liquor store and give me another one. I got my pension money coming.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's my favorite part of training camp when we get Texans employees like coach, like James Lifford just walked by. They're walking by here and they're like these idiots over. They just looking over like people are paying them to do this. What the hell? All right, Pain and Pender gas with you. So first practice at training camp yesterday, you had the notebook out. That's how you know it's a big deal. If Seth's got the notebook out, it's a big deal.

[Seth Payne]

College ruled.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's right.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, no, this is scholastic. I'm still working on my cursive Z. Shut up.

[Sean Pendergast]

Sounds about right. So, biggest takeaways for you from training camp. Let's do these here. Let's plug the people in as to what Seth C. Pain, former NFL player, saw you.

[Seth Payne]

This was something that we already noted during OTAs and minicamp. But, man, when it comes to the offensive line and the defensive line, like, there is, as they've talked about, you know, really focusing on the physicality on the offensive side of the ball. And you drafted Kaden McDonald defensively, the first guys I saw walking out were Keelan Rutledge and Braden. Braden Smith walking side by side. And, man, they're. Those dudes are put together, man, they

[Sean Pendergast]

look like a WWE tag team because they both have.

[Seth Payne]

They got these red beards. They look like they're going to fight for House McNair. Like they're just about to mount their heavy horses. It was good. It was like off of something HBO series or something. And then you look over and I saw that Kaden McDonald and Naquan Jones were working out before practice out in the corner. And those are two massive dudes. Naquan, remember, he was brought in late in the year, last year, after all of those injuries, and I thought he did some good stuff, but I think there's just definitely more of a focus on physicality. But they've made moves and the guys they've brought in. They're built like guys that you know what they are. When you watch a movie about football and you're like, oh, they actually did a good job with casting the O line.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's what this looks like.

[Seth Payne]

Instead of just these big, fat, sloppy. Some of these football movies, it's like, oh, they just. They took the first few 400 pounders.

[Sean Pendergast]

They watched the Replacements when we were on vacation. That's the worst cast football movie of all time. So that was good casting by Nick Casario and d' Amico Ryan, the other

[Seth Payne]

one, and Cody Stutz agreed with me on this. So I feel. I feel like it's an accurate assessment. I thought Trent Brown looked pretty good. Like, I thought he looked. I wanted to say he looked leaner, but he was also kind of all monochromatic. He was wearing, like, long sleeves, and I think he might add the socks pulled up. But I thought that for a guy that last year. Look, he's a big dude and it's not like he's ever going to win any physique competitions or anything, but he was coming off that torn patellar tendon last year, and I think for some of the good things he did last year, he's getting up there in years. He's a massive human being. And he does look. He looked like his body composition was a little bit big. I know. He's so big to begin with.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

But he looked good. So in terms of just, okay, these guys, you know, how do they look on the lot? I thought they looked pretty damn good.

[Sean Pendergast]

If you had to handicap the right tackle. Because you just mentioned both these guys, which is why I'm asking Braden Smith and Trent Brown, same way I handicapped earlier, will CJ Stroud get a contract or not? If you were making odds on this thing, Right. Or just percentage chance of which guy's going to be the week one starter, how would you do it? One practice in. We're watching right tackle. What's your assessment?

[Seth Payne]

Well, all right. I like. I'm not going to use anything from practice as the indication of what. But if I had to handicap it right now, it's that it's going to be a really tough decision and it might just go down to that. They really like having Trent Brown as a swing tackle and a guy that has had a lot of injuries in his career. You know, it's. He's only had a few seasons where he stayed healthy the entire year. Braden Smith's got a bunch of injuries in the last few years, though, too, that I would still give a slight edge to Braden Smith. And really we just got to watch when the pads come on exactly how these guys. The great thing about those guys is that they're going to be getting a lot of reps versus Will Anderson and Daniel Hunter. Yes. And I think. But I think it is more of a genuine competition than it felt like at the beginning of free agency. Sometimes just because a guy is one of the first guys signed to a respectable contract, you kind of elevate a guy up in importance in your mind. And then you remember, like, okay, this is, you know, the Browns are playing paying Titus Howard a lot more money than the Texans are playing paying Braden Smith. And there's. And Trent Brown did. They didn't lose a game when Trent Brown was starting last year. Like, he did some good things for them. So I think it's going to be a real competition.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, so how about the offense as a whole? See, we saw a lot bigger bodies out there. Seth is emptying his notebook.

[Seth Payne]

I thought, I thought they looked more organized. They looked cohesive and buzzword precise.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. We gotta ask about this. What did they call it? The precision period.

[Seth Payne]

There's a precision period?

[Ana Garcia]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

That they didn't.

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If I read.

[Seth Payne]

I don't recall seeing a precision period during training camp last year. Landry. Landry says that they were doing it during the season, so somewhere along the way. But we've heard Casarios use the word precision or precise.

[Sean Pendergast]

He was using it almost like they used to use smart, tough, dependable.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And then d' Amico in the video that they showed a video on the Texan social media of him giving a speech to the team. And he's talking about the Artemis 2 mission. Yeah. And talking about the precision of how everybody has to be dialed in 100% before you. Before you can go. And that was the theme of his speech. And I think on the offensive side of the ball especially, that's. That's the emphasis. And I thought they looked precise. The biggest thing that I was encouraged by was. All right. And I don't, you know, they. They prefer that we not describe a whole lot of stuff that's like going on strategically. But like any, like every team in the NFL, they're working on their pre snap motion right now. And I thought for the things that they were doing on day one of practice and how they were handling the motion, I thought it looked really good.

[Sean Pendergast]

Pretty crisp.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah, it looks really crisp. And when they're going against the defense where there's going to have to be checks and adjustments. There weren't any stoppages in practice or anything. So it's one day. But a lot of times on day one, that's when all of a sudden you got to start a period over because the offense is screwing stuff up or you just. You can't get the ball snapped during a period because you've just got guys lined up improperly. That part of it. For what they were looking to do yesterday, the. They looked precise.

[Sean Pendergast]

Here was Nick Casario, Texans general manager, on he's asked about Nick Haley and where the offense. Nick Haley, the OC and where the offense needs to improve.

[Nick Casario]

Yeah, did a lot of good things offensively. Kind of got off to a slow start as a team. You know, I think kind of midway, probably from about midpoint of the season to the end, you know, we were one of the better offenses in the league. You know, we played more consistent. So, you know, we'll see. I mean, just go out there and, you know, get. Put a foundation in place here. You know, systems in place, kind of make a couple tweaks and adjustments here. But Nick's a really good coach. He's got a good attitude, got good energy, has a lot of respect to the players. So, I mean, go out there and training camp, it's about the players, but

[Seth Payne]

it's about the coaches as well.

[Nick Casario]

So getting back into your routine, calling plays, reacting to the situation, we have a lot of unscripted periods where d' Ameco will have the coordinators just call plays. So you. You just try to prepare, then you go back, hey, you know what? This worked. All right, Maybe go back, make a tweak here. I'd say the core foundation of what we're going to do offensively will probably be installed within the first two weeks. And it really. It's about what the players do well. So what do the players do well? And then we're going to build the game plan and the offense accordingly. So, you know, excited about the opportunity Nick has in front of him, excited about the opportunity, you know, for the whole coaching staff.

[Seth Payne]

I didn't. That's the first time I've heard anybody say that the Texans had the best, one of the better offenses in the league in the second half of the season last year.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, maybe there's some stats that back that up.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, maybe in terms of just like, maybe maintaining control and possession of the. I mean, in terms of just actual scoring production, they didn't get much above 20 other than against the Cardinals. And then the last game of the season against the Colts. So I was. That caught me by surprise. And that'd be, you know what, we can ask him about that next year when we have them on.

[LinkedIn Advertiser (Colleague)]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

But yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. Tuesday next week, Nick Casseria will join us.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Like, realistically, the, the biggest thing that they need to improve that would make the biggest impact is just can they run the ball in short yardage in red zone situations? And then can they run the ball more consistently? You know, just getting positive yards, even in chunks of four yards, not huge. Now you don't have to have home run hits all the time in the run game, but they've just got to run it more consistently. That that's the one thing that if you really isolated and honed in on from last year, the things would have been a whole lot different. And that's what the Texans have focused on in the offseason. That's exactly what they've addressed.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's so obviously the moves they've made, they're not, they're not trying to be at all secretive about what they're doing. They, they signed a big blocking tight end. They drafted it, a big tight end in the second round. They traded for David Montgomery, who's one of the best short yardage guys and whose running style is bull in a china shop like they are. And then all the things on the offensive line that they're doing, which are big mauler, brawler, physical dudes.

[Seth Payne]

The, the running backs themselves, you know, you know, my cautionary tale about running backs is always, man, they all, they always look incredible in non padded practices because they're just little powerhouses. They're muscular, they're lean, they're fast, they're all those things. And that's exactly what it looked like yesterday. I thought that Jawar Jordan remains after day one, one of my most intriguing players in camp. He had one nice run on his own run where he cut it back and looks like in no pads. It looked like it would have been a nice game, but he made the decision really well. He saw the picture in front of him and he hit the cutback. You know, think in your mind's eye of Arian Foster back in the day, went on his own run. He just had a feel for when to cut it back. His big run he had last year was he cut it back against the grain. It was a little further downfield. It wasn't the classic, you know, zone run. But like, I think his size is always going to be an issue. But in using him in spells. And as a guy that can be your third running back, I'm still very intrigued by him.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, I am, too.

[Seth Payne]

He looked like he was working his butt off in special teams drills, too.

[Sean Pendergast]

George.

[Carl's Jr. Advertiser]

Or.

[Sean Pendergast]

Well, I mean, look, with Jalen Noel out right now, there's. There. There are snaps to be had as a kick returner.

[Dan Quinn]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. You got to look on your face like he's a wide receiver, Sean.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. No, no, no. But, you know, in my mind, I was thinking, like, I screwed up. Is he actually a wide receiver?

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no, not at all.

[Seth Payne]

But it's your Jordan.

[Sean Pendergast]

But you are Jordan returned kicks before.

[Will Anderson Jr.]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Well, the drills that I was talking about was. It looked like, like a punt team type stuff.

[Will Anderson Jr.]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. So, I mean, he was working in whatever they asked him to do.

[Sean Pendergast]

Here was d' Amico Ryan's yesterday on that running back room from the running back group.

[d'Amico Ryan]

I'm excited to see the guys, how fast they're playing. I see Woody. He looks faster. He's making more decisive decisions like cuts. Jawar is looking good. Of course. Montgomery has done a really good job, so really good room of running backs. And I'm just excited to see them continue to improve on those fine details, like, can we improve in our reads? Can we improve in our pass protection? Can we improve in the screen game as well? So I'm just excited to see the growth of that group throughout camp.

[Seth Payne]

That's, you know, when he's talking about their need to be more precise. Did he use the word precise again? He may have in there in their reads and all that. It always annoys me when I see people say sometimes that, like, well, you know, the running backs coach, you know, on an NFL team, they don't do a whole lot because you just give the ball to guy and run. I'm like, okay, maybe some coaches feel that way. But there's. There's a lot of coaching that goes into coaching a running back if you want them operating. Probably not to mention just in pass protection.

[Will Anderson Jr.]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You don't want to hear your quarterback.

[Seth Payne]

I do. Like, I get offended on behalf of Danny Barrett and every other running backs coach when people act like, oh, like running backs coach, what do you do? Can't teach that. Like, I know there's a lot that goes into it, and he's a good one. And I think that that's where David Montgomery specifically can make a big difference. Just like, no matter where he is in terms of, you know, his peak production or athleticism or anything. He's 29 years old. That's. Or he's going to be 29. That's. That's really old for a running back. Like, I, I went back and thought about, man, Marcus Allen in the final year of his career was in 1997. So I was a rookie and we're playing the Chiefs and Marcus Allen is their short yardage back. That's it. He's not. He's not Marcus Allen from the highlight reels or anything.

[Sean Pendergast]

I had him in fantasy that year. Yeah, he had like 200 yards rushing, but he had like 14 touchdowns.

[Seth Payne]

I tell you this, he was so. He wasn't at his peak anymore, but he hit the hole so freaking hard. And he made his decision so quickly that it felt like. Because I was a rookie, too, and I wasn't ready for it. Like, there were a couple of plays down in short yardage where I felt like I had a good rep going and I went to throw my offensive lineman and Marcus Allen was already past me. Like, the whole rhythm of it was disrupted. But like. So the, the vision, the strength, all of those things are still there. And as I was saying earlier, the short yardage running game alone and the short. The running game down in the red zone could really have an outsized impact on how effective this offense is. And I think David Montgomery will still be good, really, really good at that stuff, no matter what the rest of his production.

[Sean Pendergast]

We're spending a lot of time on the offensive side of the ball because that's where I think a lot of the question marks are with this team. I want to hear what you have to say about the tight end room, but before we do that, here's d'. Amico. Ryan's on the. The newly added depth in the tight end room.

[d'Amico Ryan]

I expect our tight ends to play much better this year, starting with our coach, James Ference. Passionate coach, guy who's played the game for 10 years. He brings that energy, brings that passion, knowing what it's like as a player, right? And he's done a great job pouring into those guys. Kaylee's working with the tight ends as well. And the group, we have a really deep group. I mean, we have, you know, six, seven guys there who can go play for us. So that's the exciting part about it. All different guys, when you talk about passing game, blocking game, we got a plethora of guys who should allow us to do some cool things when it comes to 12, 13 personnel. So I'm excited to see our usage and how guys, you know, just thrive in camp, see what they do well and see how we can use them to our advantage in our offense.

[Sean Pendergast]

That was my favorite part. The cool things they're going to get to do.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

In 12 and 13 personnel, it's like getting tricky with a hammer.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So 12 cool things you can do with this hammer.

[Seth Payne]

So 12 personnel is two tight ends. 13 personnel is three tight ends. And even in saying that and, you know, and using 13 personnel, that's kind of like people. People know the teams that are planning on using a lot of 13 personnel because just about half the league drafted a tight end this year. You just need more bodies and more numbers. I thought the. With Foster Moreau, the most encouraging thing I saw from him yesterday was also the dumbest thing he did, which was he tackled Kamari Lasseter after Kamari Lasseter got an intercept. Yeah, I do that.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's one of our best players last.

[Seth Payne]

I love seeing it. I like seeing that kind of. You know, it's kind of like when a kid. Like when a kid who's been bullied actually fights back. You're like, that's how I feel about the offense.

[Sean Pendergast]

Those are my favorite videos.

[Seth Payne]

They've been bullied a lot, but now they've got the. Now they have Foster Moreau who comes in. It's like that Lucas movie from back in the day. Oh, yeah. You know, the offense has got this. This big dude that's going to stick up for him now in the form of Foster Moreau. Foster Moreau plays like a guy that's like kind of. That could be kind of a fancy laugh, you know, like, I'm Foster Moreau. Oh, totally, totally. Send back. Send back this trust.

[Sean Pendergast]

Picture him, like, picturing Blake Fisher in a letterman's jacket. It's eight sizes too big for him.

[Seth Payne]

It's a little bit like the Boy Named Sue. He's like, foster Moreau has to be nasty because he's got the name Foster Moreau. So you think he's just some punk? Like, no, no.

[Sean Pendergast]

You got to be. You got to be double tough if you have Foster Moreau.

[Seth Payne]

So he tackled Kamari Lasseter. It was a nice form tackle when everything. It wasn't like he. It wasn't like he just. It wasn't like he blindsided him or anything.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no. He just dragged him to the ground.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Still not supposed to do it, but it wasn't bad. What about the other guys? What about the guys who are, like, the two guys who I think are under the most pressure in that group are Kate Stover and Brevin Jordan.

[Seth Payne]

All right. Kate Stover and Brevin Jordan. Nothing notable to tell you other than I was annoyed that Cade Stover changed his number because the first couple times I saw Foster. The first time. A couple times I keep doing this. It's been. It's been multiple times so far this spring. I've seen. I've seen Foster Moreau wearing 87 and thought it was Kate Stover. And I've been. I've been impressed by Kate Stover. Like, ah, crap, that's. Well, I think. Nothing notable. I didn't see anything notable out of those two guys that we don't already know. Marlon Klein, it's been. He was working in some blocking drills next to Foster Moreau, and you can see the potential for physicality in the running game and in the blocking game with Marlon Klein. He almost had a beautiful catch at the end of practice.

[Sean Pendergast]

It's the last play, I think.

[LinkedIn Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Reeled it in, had to dive for it, but hit the ground hard and coughed it up.

[Nick Casario]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

Look at this. Ain't no German soccer pitch. Okay. This round is hardened for football. Okay, son. All right. You gotta hold onto that ball. But it was almost. Almost a really nice. If he made, you know, what we love in offensive football, a lot of almost.

[Sean Pendergast]

If he made that catch, it would have been the second biggest thing we're Talking about behind CJ's contract.

[Seth Payne]

Well, you know what? It would have been on the social media, like, highlight from the team.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah. And we would have. You and I would have been getting texts and tweets from people like, yo, yeah, Marlon Klein.

[Seth Payne]

But we video.

[Sean Pendergast]

I saw.

[Seth Payne]

We see the. But you can definitely see the upside there in terms of just, yes, he has receiving ability, but they also really, really, really want guys that are. Can be physical both in the run game and pass protection.

[Sean Pendergast]

Your notes are all on the offensive side of the ball, which I think makes sense because that's where people have the most questions.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Was there anything defensive?

[Seth Payne]

No, I. Oh, you don't have my full notes. I didn't put my defensive notes in.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay.

[Seth Payne]

You know, the one thing was that the linebacker. The linebacker. It's hard to talk about on radio because I saw Jamal Hill walking out and, you know, I was like, oh, yeah, Jamal Hill. We haven't talked about him in a while, but, like, he's a big guy. He's in his third year. They drafted two linebackers this year. Like, this is a big year for Jamal Hill to. To take another. The Proverbial next step. But there's just a lot of guys in competition for that third linebacker spot.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

And at this point, I couldn't tell you exactly who the leader in the clubhouse is. We talk a lot about Marte Mapu and Wade Wood as, but there's Jamal Hill, there's Aiden Fisher, there's Casey Osai was out there. He's a big guy.

[Sean Pendergast]

So that'll be Jake Hanson still hanging around.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of guys to, you know, just kind of monitor that as the preseason rolls along. But the only, like, my biggest takeaway about the defense was okay. I saw nothing out here that has me less confident about the Texans defense

[Sean Pendergast]

being elite this year.

[Seth Payne]

Right, right. There were, you know, knock on wood. There were no injuries or anything, but it was all good.

[Sean Pendergast]

I'm rooting for Wood as in that battle for the third linebacker spot. Just because one, he's intriguing. Just the physical traits are intriguing to me that he was a safety in college who, you know, put some beef on, became a linebacker. He's got good athleticism. He's going to be on special teams for this team for sure. But the fact if you get a fourth round rookie that all of a sudden is in the mix in your rotation as a linebacker. I mean, Henry Toa, Toa, he hasn't been a great player for the Texans, but he's been a useful piece and they got him in the fifth round a few years ago. You get guys on day three that are in the rotation for you and you're laughing.

[Seth Payne]

The only notable thing when I spent time watching the defense yesterday was just, I appreciated. Well, there was the team, the offense was working on the center field. I was watching the defensive walkthrough and just, you know, watching Reed Blankenship fit in and communicate and those guys working through all of their stuff, it's fun to watch like they're, they're true professionals. And as far as like Reed Blankenship. Yeah. I haven't seen any hints at all or anything that there's going to be confusion or he's not going to be a fit. It just, it felt like there were five fingers in a glove.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep. All right, so Will Anderson met with the. Met with the media yesterday. And as is the rule on this show, if Will Anderson speaks, there will be at least two clips played on this show because we Love Will Anderson Jr. So, David, if you're listening, we're going to skip down to the Will Anderson audio here.

[Seth Payne]

Motivational speaker he is.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's Excellent. And he's. That's what he's working on too. Kind of is his leadership.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know, getting up in front of

[Seth Payne]

the team and I thought you meant his actual like motivational speaker presentation.

[Sean Pendergast]

He may very well be working on that too. I have no idea.

[Seth Payne]

He could totally do it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, absolutely. Hundred percent.

[Seth Payne]

He's the one guy that I can't listen to at 2x speed when I'm trying to hurry through listening through cuts because he talks so fast.

[Sean Pendergast]

He talks so fast.

[Seth Payne]

Energy.

[Sean Pendergast]

But he's also, he's also not a guy you feel like you got to get through the audio with either. You know, I want to savor this and listen to this guy at one time speed. This is Will Anderson talking yesterday on this team going places that they've never been before.

[Will Anderson Jr.]

Yeah, most definitely, Coach.

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[Will Anderson Jr.]

About putting a bull on the ring, that's something that we're striving for, something that's never been done in the city, that brings something special back to the city. And I think everybody's aware of that. I was just talking about telling the guys yesterday the seriousness of what we're trying to accomplish here, man, like be a part of it, like you're here for a reason. And I think the expectation is like nobody outside of this building is going to have a higher expectation than what we have in this building. But I think we did a really great job of laying the foundation of who we want to be as a team, what we want to accomplish as a team. And swarm is our foundation. So like I say all the time, it's like when everything goes wrong or we're not doing this, that we have a foundation to lean back on. And I think that's why we've been able to be so successful. You know, my four years of being here, because d' Ameco has did a really good job of laying the foundation down.

[Sean Pendergast]

God, you're right. There's no chance listening to him at two times speed.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, it's funny, you know, I always, I played for coaches that were kind of old school, you know, Dom Capers and Tom Coffin and not talking about, you know, the super bowl in the media and all of that. We keep all this stuff in house and you don't have to make bold proclamations. Coughlin, especially Capers, we were never really in a position where, you know, people were asking a whole lot about the Super Bowl.

[LinkedIn Advertiser]

Yeah,

[Seth Payne]

not when he was in Houston, obviously.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

When he was in Carolina. Yeah, good times. But with Coughlin, Coughlin, when we would be asked, you know, we were in position to win Super Bowls and whatnot. You know, he was very strict about that. And you're not doing all this. I feel like d' Ameco doesn't, I don't think he has like a heavy handed policy about how guys speak to the media. And it's interesting to me because when asked questions about the super bowl and stuff like that. You know, some guys will just kind of, you know, keep things to themselves. Other guys will talk about it pretty casually. But I like that d', Amico, d' Amico and Nick have done a good job of getting a certain type of player to where they don't have to have a lot of conversations or policies about what you can and can't say. Because I think for the most part their, their key guys are cut from the same cloth. Yeah, you know, it's not like, it's not like willing talking about the super bowl or going to the Super Bowl. It's not like he's getting up there and saying like, we're going to put the, we're going to put the league on blast.

[Sean Pendergast]

And you know, of all the guys, do you have to worry about Will Anderson like kind of taking a day off?

[Seth Payne]

Right, right, right. Yeah. Well, I got, you know, I told you when d' Amico was the defensive coordinator in San Francisco, I went back through after the Texans had hired him. I went back and watched all of his press conferences and one of my favorite answers he had given was when somebody asked him, how do you get these guys to practice so hard? And he said, we don't really have to talk about it a lot. You know, we've got the kind of guys that, you know, know what the standard is and they respond to it. So if we talk about it, it's like every now and then maybe somebody has to, has to be told this isn't the way we do it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Some of them even like practicing, if you believe it. Here's another one from, from Will Anderson on leadership and specifically talks about Kaden

[Will Anderson Jr.]

McDonald, year four, man, just, I guess just to continue to just wreck having all phases of the game. But I think one thing that I really want to step up on and it's something I wrote down on my goal sheet, is just, just becoming a better leader, you know, better chance of disconnecting with the guys and really, you know, being more vocal and really, you know, being hands on with the guys, you know what I'm saying? Like really like taking the young guys under my wing. And Kaden has been a great addition to our room because it's giving me that, that time to really like have a rookie, like I've had a rookie. But like he's, he's kind of different, you know what I'm saying? He's a high draft round pick. I mean, he's a high draft pick and he, they come, they expect him to come in and play. So it's my due diligence to help him out and help him reach every goal that he wants and show him the way. But he have. He has rodent. I mean, Sheldon, he has D Hunt. So he has a whole bunch of guys to help him. But I think that's just one area that I want to evolve in. And just being a really great leader,

[Sean Pendergast]

this is, this is where I want to say to Will when he's like, it's my job to help him achieve all of his goals. This is where I want to go. You realize that he stated one of his goals is to be first team all pros?

[Seth Payne]

Well, I think.

[Sean Pendergast]

What do you think the chances are you helping get there?

[Seth Payne]

You know what, Honestly, though, because some of the other things that Will talked about yesterday, you know, when he was talking about his goals, his goals are all process oriented and that you don't worry about the outside honors. And that was, you know, we had. When Kaden McDonald got up and just said, you know, all rookie, first team all pro. It was one of those moments where I'm like, all right. I don't. I don't think he quite understands. It's kind of like saying, I like it. No matter how good you are as a rookie to make defensive first team all pro, it's. Especially as an interior run stuff in

[Sean Pendergast]

the league at his position.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. So, like, he just, you know, he just doesn't know what he doesn't know. But the real lesson is that, man, you got to be real careful when your goals are outside acknowledgement, because that's not always the best indicator of how well you've done. Like, if you, like, honestly, if we wanted to sit down and make a plan for how to be first team all pro and that was what you were going to attack, half of your goals are going to be based on the PR side of things. You know, be sure you're reaching out to the nugget hussies and everything. So, like, that's. That's not what your goals should be. Your goals should be about the things you can control. And that probably is the kind of stuff that that Will has talked about with Kaden McDonald, you know, and then that's that one of the other things that Will said was that he's, you know, he wants to be sure that he's not just a leader in the D line room, but that when it's the entire team or what's the entire defense, that he's speaking up in those moments.

[d'Amico Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep.

[Seth Payne]

All Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Payne and Pendergast with you here on a Thursday, day two of Texans training camp. We talked a little bit about the Kyle Shanahan situation yesterday. The car accident that took 11 days to report that it even happened. And then it took a few days later for Kyle Shanahan to meet with the media and say, I guess disclose all the misreporting there was on his car accident. I don't know if you saw this. Hey, Byron and David, we're gonna skip down to Adam Peters, the GM of the Commanders, some of the fallout from the Kyle Shanahan car accident in which Kyle Shanahan admittedly was at fault in that he claims that he dropped his phone in between the seat of his. Of his car and he went down to fish for the phone, took his eyes off the road. Next thing he knows, he's slamming head on into a vehicle with a 21 year old woman in it who initially had been tagged in the system as being at fault. Kyle Shanahan corrected all that. Brandon Aiyuk, man, cannot resist. Did you happen to see.

[Seth Payne]

Oh yeah, Brandon Aiuk. Yeah, I think I sent it to you.

[Sean Pendergast]

Posting on Instagram. You may have. Yeah, you may have. Brandon Aiyuk posting on Instagram, just making fun of Kyle Shanahan getting into this accident, which is like. I mean, IUK is so far out over his skis and lacking in class right now.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I was always gonna be more of a surprise if he didn't do

[Sean Pendergast]

it, he didn't do it.

[Seth Payne]

You know, the other people were. The other thing people are wondering is if Brandon Aiyuk is gonna show up at Commander's training camp just as a fan and be a complete distraction.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's not out of the realm of possibility.

[Amica Insurance Announcer]

No.

[Seth Payne]

God, no, it's not. The only thing he has to. First he has to be sure there's no warrants for his arrest. There's. That's what we know these days. And he had to ask. He asked. He had to ask Instagram if there was a warrant for his arrest in California.

[Sean Pendergast]

And there was.

[Seth Payne]

It turned out there was.

[Sean Pendergast]

There is. Yeah. Still they've got one out for him for vehicular stuff. So Adam Peters, the GM of the Washington commanders, who knows Brandon Aiuk from his time in San Francisco, Peters was in the front office in San Francisco working for John lynch for several years, was asked a question. He and Dan Quinn, the other voice you're going to hear in this audio, the two of them are doing their press conference, I guess to kick off training camp. A couple of days ago. And credit whichever media member this is. Found a way to ask a Brandon Iuk question without saying the name Brandon Iuk. Take a listen.

[Seth Payne]

Adam, one for you.

[Carl's Jr. Advertiser]

Just in a general sense, as you're always looking to improve the team when you're evaluating guys to maybe bring in for workouts, whatever. What role, if any, does kind of a player's social media have in that evaluation process?

[Dan Quinn]

That's a good roundabout question.

[Carl's Jr. Advertiser]

You are straight badass right there.

[Dan Quinn]

But no, I mean, we look at everything, J.P. i mean, it's a great question, but we do look at everything and you know, we want to make sure it's the right player to be in our locker room, in our bloodstream and in our culture. And, you know, we often, you know, we look at that stuff. I mean, it's not always the first thing we look at. Obviously you're looking at the tape and you talk to the teams that the players have been on and how they were in the locker room, the players that have played with them and so on and so forth to make those decisions. But, you know, that's not usually a huge part of it. Usually

[Carl's Jr. Advertiser]

well played.

[Seth Payne]

So I think the big thing there is obviously, like Jaden Daniels and Brandon Aiyuki know each other in college. Brandon Aiyuk was presenting it almost like it was a foregone conclusion that he was gonna or Brandon Aiuk was presenting it like it was almost a foregone conclusion that he's gonna reunite with Jaden Daniels. All we know publicly is that Brandon Iuk has now publicly called out Jaden Daniels at least a couple times on social media. Yeah, called it, basically called him a mama's boy and then said that he won't answer his phone. All these other things. So, yeah, like the team's gonna talk to Jaden Daniels and players are careful. You know, you don't want to talk smack about people necessarily, but you might say like, well, he's, you know, if I, if I were Jayden Daniels and they came to me and asked like, so what's up with Brandon Iuk? Yeah, and he'd be like, yeah, you know, yeah, we used to, to be pretty tight. He's, he's an interesting guy. He's an interesting guy.

[Sean Pendergast]

I haven't spent a lot of time around him the last couple years. So I, I, I don't really know how he's, how he is now.

[Seth Payne]

Okay, so you're telling us you're not giving us like a full bore endorsement of like, hey, I'm not saying that. But you're not giving it to us, right? I never said I'm not doing that, but I'm also not doing that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right, right, right.

[Seth Payne]

I think that the problem. This is the problem with Brandon. Ike, even if you're acting crazy on social media, this is the biggest problem for any team that wants to get him is that look, look at what happened in San Francisco where it really seems that he had these. He was disgruntled. He wanted to get traded. He submarine to the trade that they had in place for him. And finally they came to a deal. A really, really good deal. A really good contract extension. But he couldn't let it go. Like, he couldn't let those hard feelings go. And ultimately, just now, if he still wants to play football, he just doesn't want anything to do with San Francisco because he just. So I'm. If I'm a team and I'm thinking, okay, well, maybe I can get this guy at a discount. This is not the guy who's going to be cool with. With that contract. He's going to be immediately. He'll be. The first time he has a big game. He's going to be pissed off that you're only paying him $5 million this year.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know, on this show, the two of us, I tend to be the one. Well, that guy's never playing again. No team's going to sign that guy. You tend to be the guy like Sean. There's 32 teams. Somebody's going to sign Antonio Brown.

[d'Amico Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And sure as hell somebody signed Antonio Brown. Back when you and I had conversations about him like that. What do you think about Brandon? Iu.

[Seth Payne]

I think there will be a team that tries it. If he still wants to play football. I don't know if he wants to play football still because he's acting like the way he's acting, it's like he's not even aware of, like, the process that needs to go on for him to get back into playing football.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's also made his money now, too. They've given him 50 million.

[Seth Payne]

Well, but they can claw back some of it. There's. There's. The 49ers might be able to demand some of that money back if things keep going this way.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, that's.

[Seth Payne]

So I think that somebody will sign him, but it's going to be on a short leash. And that. Because he's just that, you know, there's a lot of other guys that I would say, look, George Pickens. George Pickens has done a great job of basically understanding that he's got a certain reputation and that he's done everything he can now to like I'm going to, he's going to play on the franchise tag. He's not doing a hold in or anything like that. And so far so good in that regard. I don't know if Brandon Aiyuk has that in him to suppress the ego. Somebody will sign him, he'll get disgruntled and it'll be one of these like Albert Haynesworth type things with the Patriots where he's there for three weeks.

[Sean Pendergast]

I would have lost a ton of money betting on George Pickens playing on the franchise tag.

[d'Amico Ryan]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Signing the 10, signing it and going along and being really.

[Sean Pendergast]

He signed it early too. You know, it's not like one of those things like camp rolled around. He's like, all right, well, I guess I'll go to camp. You're right. He's been a good citizen. All right, Pain and Pendergast with you. Final segment. Coming up. We got another contract extension yesterday that might be instructive for the Houston Texans. We'll tell you who that was. All right, Pain and Pendergast with you. Final segment. And we'll hand things over to John Harris and Mark Vandermeer who will take you the next couple hours here on Texans training camp live. Reggie Attitula, John Lopez will be out here from 10 to 2. They had Aziz Al Shayer on yesterday.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, I apologize.

[Sean Pendergast]

I don't know who they have today. The Aziz interview was outstanding. He spent some time in Jordan in the off season, met with the royal family.

[Seth Payne]

It was really on the under three dollar menu at McDonald's. A McChicken is two dollars because when you're craving a McChicken you deserve a McChicken. And now that McChicken is just two dollars limit time only.

[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

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[Sean Pendergast]

Interesting. It's a good conversation.

[Seth Payne]

He's going better with him and Jordan than it is with me and Guam. And Guam's in American territory.

[Sean Pendergast]

It is.

[Seth Payne]

And I'm not allowed there.

[Sean Pendergast]

Nope.

[Seth Payne]

I'm just starting to wonder exactly what the hell's going on. You know.

[Sean Pendergast]

You know what? You did piss off the Guam.

[Seth Payne]

It explains why I never got the ambassadorship to Guam.

[d'Amico Ryan]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

Because there is no ambassador to Guam. Because it's an American territory.

[Sean Pendergast]

You don't deserve it.

[Seth Payne]

I didn't know if there was like a US Guam. Like with a Samoa. There's a Samoa and American Samoa. I don't know if there was a Guam. And then like a. Like a US Guam.

[Sean Pendergast]

Foreign Guam.

[Seth Payne]

There's only one Guam.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. And they don't need an impasse now.

[Seth Payne]

There's not enough Guam to chunk it up into foreign Guam in American Guam.

[Sean Pendergast]

Not enough to divide up till Guam starts invading other countries and expands campaign.

[Seth Payne]

The kind of deals like did some word play with guac and Guam and everything. Yeah, Guacamole. So the yesterday was a good, productive day. Good productive day. I thought that everything looked sharp offensively. I am. I'm waiting. I'm waiting for the first big deep strike like where the. The where C.J. stroud finds Nico wide open because somebody on the defense screwed up. Now some of that that's most likely to come during, you know, when you have the pads on and there's a little bit more of a play action dynamic to it or something.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

Because look, I can have it. Look, I'm. Look, it's like, it's like I'm a heavyweight champion fighter if I'm the defense right now, you know, you can sustain a few blows. It's okay. As a fan, I'm not going to freak out if the defense allows a deep strike at some point during training camp. I would just want to see this Texans offense actually do it. Yeah, that would be because we haven't seen a whole lot of that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yes, that's a great way to put it. Like, would you. Yeah, I'd rather feel I would. This training camp to me is all about coming away feeling better about the offense than it is feeling any kind of way about the defense.

[Seth Payne]

Right, right.

[Sean Pendergast]

We know what the defense is now.

[Seth Payne]

I did get excited about the exact opposite on a play yesterday. The opposite of a deep strike, which was a well executed screen. And now. Okay, how like would have been it. Would it have been successful? They're not wearing pads. Who knows? I know the execution of the screen looked a lot different than how a lot of screens have looked by the Texans over the last few years. You had a. You had an armada of offensive linemen set up one yard past the line of scrimmage as the running back caught the ball. And it was just, it was a well executed screen. Yep. That was. It's like one element of the offense last year that they were like, they very much underutilized screens and for certain reasons, but they'd like to be able to. D' Ameco brought that up yesterday. They'd like to be able to do more of it this year.

[Sean Pendergast]

So a contract extension handed out again yesterday and another one by the Browns that I think is instructive for the Houston Texans over the next 12 months or so. I think the expectation if they have the same seasons they had last year, Kamari Lasseter and Kalyn Bullock, is that they would be on the list of guys that the Texans would want to keep around for a few more years on a second contract, Lassiter in particular. We know Denzel Ward got a contract extension from the Browns a few days ago that essentially was a new high water market. The position, 31.1 million a year. It was a two year deal. The Browns yesterday gave Grant Delpit safety a new three year extension. Yeah, worth 48 million total, 35 million guaranteed. 16 million a year. Do you think it's. If you had to pick one to keep Kamari Lasseter at 31 million a year or Kalyn Bullock at 16 million a year?

[Seth Payne]

I guess I would say just it's Kamari last year because of the position he plays.

[Sean Pendergast]

Even though it'd be double the money.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And you don't have to, I mean, you don't necessarily, you don't have to make that decision. It's potentially they could end up having to make decisions like that, but I don't think, I don't think like next year is not the year where all of a sudden they have to make those really hard decisions. Correct. It's a couple years down the line after you've given out some of these big deals and maybe by that point somebody will have gotten injured or somebody's underperforming. I think the big X factor, when people start to worry about or wring their hands over the math in the future, you got to remember that Daniel Hunter is on basically a pay as you go plan on his contract. And there's going to be a point at some time where probably there's another team out there that is actually more willing to pay Daniel Hunter a good chunk of money at his age. And though the Texans will be able to part ways with Daniel Hunter with minimal pain and that's a big chunk of cash coming off the books because you're paying all of that in a two year window, that it's like there's, there's, there's room for movement if and when they, Daniel Hunter either decides to retire or is just, just it's not worth it because the Texans have a younger guy coming up in the wings.

[Sean Pendergast]

Look, if you're one of those, if you're one of those people that feels like the cap is kind of phony, you can do anything with the cap. To a degree. To a degree, there is, there is some truth to that. The Eagles are kind of proving that, that if you're, if you have an ownership that's willing to shove enough current day cash into voidable years and dummy years and things like that, you can make in the, in the, in the moment, you can make almost anything happen. The Piper does come to come for you.

[Seth Payne]

It is, there is always. You can do almost anything you want in the short term, in the moment.

[Carl's Jr. Advertiser]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

But it's that there is a price for that and some teams push it more than others do. And if you get a, if you win a Super bowl out of it, nobody ever gives a Damn that. You had a couple years where you had to clean house.

[Dan Quinn]

Right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Which they did two years ago.

[Seth Payne]

I mean to say it's funny, though, because as people say, the cap is a myth. The cap is a myth. It's been over the course of the past eight years when the Saints were in absolute hell because of the way they'd managed the cap. Like. No, there's. There, there's a. There's a limit to what you can do, and you got to be really careful about just how often you use that credit card spending. As of right now, what the Texans have done is they've really. They've spent a boatload of money on defensive players that they feel really good about, but who are still young players. And if it comes time to worry, that becomes a problem, then it becomes a problem. But I don't feel like they've spent so aggressively that it keeps them from. They're not at the point where they can't retain the young guys that they really want.

[d'Amico Ryan]

No.

[Sean Pendergast]

And when Nick gets asked about it, he says no. We feel good about how we got everything struct.

[Seth Payne]

I mean, if you look at the Lions and what they had to do. Look, David Montgomery is. That's not, you know, having to make the choice, okay, well, we got to pay Jameer Gibbs and man, can we afford to keep or give a new contract to David Montgomery? He's a 29 year old running back. No, it doesn't. It doesn't make sense. But it's not like the Lions are in cap hell. They just had to make a tougher cap decision than if. If they had just boatloads of space and that this was the year they were going to go all in.

[Sean Pendergast]

Did you see that Jameer Gibbs and Bijon Robinson did not practice yesterday at their respective training camps?

[Seth Payne]

No, they were both healthy. Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

Did not practice. They're both trying to get new contracts right now.

[d'Amico Ryan]

Oh.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, all right.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Nick Casario]

They're holding.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[d'Amico Ryan]

So that.

[Sean Pendergast]

That'll get interesting. You know, that position is always one that's very controversial as to whether teams want to pay guys big, big bucks or not.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

So that. That'll. That and that's. At least the. The Lions are a team that's paid a lot of guys. Yeah, they paid a lot of guys. I would give Kalen Bullock that contract right there.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think he's a better player than Grant Delpit. If Kalen Bullock's deal that he ends up getting from the Texans a year from now or two years from now. Whatever is three years 48 million. And who he is is who he was last year and with some assumed growth built in because he might be better this year with Reed Blankenship back there with him.

[Seth Payne]

As you pointed. You're right. And when they can have him back and just play in deep center field, they. Which they couldn't do at times last year just because they didn't trust the other safety back there. So they just had to play a little bit more conservatively. Yeah, like he's like he does things that very few other safeties can do. He still needs to grow and mature like all young players, but it's pretty freakish.

[Sean Pendergast]

Antibodies to you, my friend.

[Seth Payne]

Yes, antibodies to you as well.

[Sean Pendergast]

We'll be back 6am tomorrow giving you the rundown of day two of training camp here. So keep it tuned here all day long. John Harris and Mark Vandermeer are up next in the in the loop. Reggie Attatula, John Lopez after that. We'll see y' all tomorrow, everybody.

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[Seth Payne]

He said, is there anything in your

[Sean Pendergast]

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[Seth Payne]

I said, sometimes I eat pizza until I'm unconscious.

[Sean Pendergast]

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