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Episode 5: NFL Legal Tampering BEGINS + WBC Week 1 Recap
19 Plays2 months ago
We do our best to sift through day one of the NFL legal tampering period to bring you the most important moves on the national level...but can two people really sift through such a beautifully chaotic day on their own? Beyond that, we deep dive into what the Texans both have and haven't done after day one. Will the Texans have a complete O-Line by the end of free agency? Where will they spend big? Where have they already struck gold?
Also, WBC pool play storms on after an electric opening weekend and we discuss if Team USA is lacking heart. Justin recaps the NHL Trade Deadline, and we discuss the most important conference tourney of the week...lights, camera, MACtion!
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Transcript
Introduction and NFL Legal Tampering Day
00:00:00
Cody Atkinson
Hello and welcome to the Coastal Launch Sports Talk. I'm Cody, coming to you from the bayous of Houston, Texas.
00:00:08
justin_daulton
And I'm Justin coming to you from the magic of Orlando, Florida.
00:00:12
Cody Atkinson
We are your premier destination for the sports stories that move the needle. From the national stage to the grid of the southeast, We're bridging the gap between our two space cities and bringing you the sports stories that matter most to you. And today we're recording on one of the fastest moving days on the sports calendar as NFL legal tampering has officially opened up ahead of true free agency on Wednesday. What's the difference, you ask?
00:00:40
Cody Atkinson
Branding. That's about it. But we'll get into that more when when we get to the breakdown. So with our trajectory set, it's time to sit back, lock in and get started with the rundown.
00:00:52
Cody Atkinson
This is the Coastal Launch and we are ready for liftoff here on episode five.
00:00:59
justin_daulton
and right, man. Appreciate
Improving Podcast Quality and NFL Trades
00:01:00
justin_daulton
the intro. Welcome back, by the way, man. Missed you last week.
00:01:03
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, yeah, I missed it last week, but you held it down, man.
00:01:05
justin_daulton
Hey.
00:01:06
Cody Atkinson
You held it down real well.
00:01:08
justin_daulton
For those of those those of you out there listening, apologize for the audio. Cody made me aware that like shortly after he got back into the Houston last week that my audio just went into the tank.
00:01:19
justin_daulton
Hopefully it's a little better this week. I spent some money this past week for some new equipment. So definitely looking forward what everyone has to say. did a little trial. You said it sounded good.
00:01:30
justin_daulton
So hopefully it sticks doing the the long form here.
00:01:31
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:01:33
justin_daulton
um But yeah, man, glad to have you back. Missed you last week. um you know I don't know if you how much of the episode you listened to, but was there any thoughts just from what I talked on last week? Obviously, deep toe wrestling, we don't expect you to have anything on that.
00:01:47
justin_daulton
But obviously, we're going to get to free agency, but I talked little bit last week of the combine and all that stuff.
00:01:47
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:01:54
justin_daulton
Was there anything that you wanted to touch on last week?
00:01:57
Cody Atkinson
but mean ah There was a couple things, but i think they i think they go with topics. So there's there's just some stuff that you got to touch on. I think like the David Montgomery and the Titus Howard trades, I think, had already gone down at time of recording, if I'm correct.
00:02:10
justin_daulton
Yes.
00:02:11
Cody Atkinson
And and you you spoke a little bit on some WBC, but but I can just weave those into the discussions as we go.
00:02:12
justin_daulton
Yep.
00:02:19
Cody Atkinson
um I know you talked to combine, but i listened to the entirety of the episode. um But that was a week ago. so I forgot the entirety of the episode. um So I've got some stuff that we can weave in as we go. But um yeah, off the top, I think I think I'm ready to just get back and dive in.
00:02:39
justin_daulton
All right, man. Well, let's dive into the rundown. um Overall, the week was pretty good in terms
WBC Pool C and Pool D Analysis
00:02:45
justin_daulton
of sports. I think we're picking up steam now with WBC picking up. And let's dive deep into this, like right right into with WBC.
00:02:52
justin_daulton
You wrote down some notes for me, which I appreciate. Pool C out in Tokyo is done. ah Japan and Korea punching their tickets. A lot of emotion over there. Chinese Taipei really trying to make a run for it there towards the end.
00:03:04
justin_daulton
and then australia looking like going into i know we're gonna do a lot with the recap next week where you for those of you remember our deep dive into the wbc i thought australia was really just going to be happy to be here type team as we talk as we discuss but end up almost becoming the media darling like right off rip out there out there in tokyo so shout out to australia but obviously shout out to japan and korea i think that was kind of where
00:03:10
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:03:22
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:03:30
justin_daulton
We anticipated kind of everything falling in that. Maybe you could have seen ah Chinese Taipei sneak in type of type of team over Korea, but it it was always Japan and Korea, number one, number two.
00:03:41
justin_daulton
So they've already punched their ticket. They're heading to Miami. Any thoughts on the Tokyo regional?
00:03:47
Cody Atkinson
No, I think you said it good, man. Just shout out to Australia. Really, that was ah definitely a team that we had flagged as I was kind of happy to be there, just Travis Bazzana and a bunch of names we didn't know.
00:03:59
Cody Atkinson
um It turns out I watched some of the games. um There's ah the ABL, the Australian Baseball League, is where they were pulling a lot of these guys from. um And it just, as it turns out, it's got some talent. um I don't know if you saw the game that I think was technically at 5 o'clock this morning. I didn't watch it on time, obviously. But it was ah if Australia won,
00:04:20
Cody Atkinson
or lost by four or less, they were going to advance over Korea, um came down to the wire, ah shortstop, ah panicked, threw a ball into the outfield, and Australia ends up losing by five um so that Korea advances. But I just hope people appreciate how close Australia was to pulling through. That was a really talented team.
00:04:42
justin_daulton
Yeah, no, it was great to see them kind of picking up, obviously, Pazana being, or Pazana obviously picking up for, going to be a major league talent sooner rather than later. So good to see him on display.
00:04:53
justin_daulton
Moving Pool Game still to be played, but it has clinched both DR r and Venezuela advancing. We kind of talked about this in the and and my and my breakdown of it.
00:05:04
justin_daulton
This was a very top-heavy regional there wasn't really going to be a whole lot of competition on the bottom end of things so this was kind of chalky to begin with but dr r is looked dominant i mean ah they're playing with with swagger they're playing with energy i think i sent you a clip ah of junior camoreno uh just having having so much fun um playing out there and so i mean man it's that's the face of the franchise going forward for the for the raise and i know we talked a couple weeks of like
00:05:17
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:05:24
Cody Atkinson
Oh, yeah.
00:05:33
Cody Atkinson
It's got to feel good to watch.
00:05:34
justin_daulton
yeah correct uh but it's man it's good to see that but dr man they're they're it's going to be tough and i you know i picked uh you know yeah i know you picked dr to come in at second right was the pick for for overall uh me coming me picking them in third i they're a team that can go all the way um in full honesty so it's it's going to be tough to stop that lineup i think we we talked about in our breakdown but
00:05:53
Cody Atkinson
Oh, absolutely.
00:06:00
justin_daulton
what's the lineup that rivals the us's lineup it's dr so i mean it and they're they're showing it tatis uh today hitting that grand slam that he hit that was just nuked into in and it was an oppo taco on top of that too like it's insane the power that they have top to bottom but it's gonna be fun watching them as we get into the these quarterfinals here in the next couple days and then obviously what i anticipate them going into the to the semis and potentially even the finals
00:06:05
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:06:13
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:06:22
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:06:27
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, he hit he hit that oppo taco off our boy Ryan Prager. um So that was ah that was a bummer. Prager was pitching pretty well. Clean first inning. Too many walks in the second inning. Gives up the oppo taco. um DR, ah the only thing I'll say about pool D, DR is the is the Vibes team this year, and that scares me um because they they want it.
00:06:46
justin_daulton
Yes. Yeah.
00:06:48
Cody Atkinson
Soto, i think I think the story is Soto was someone tried to pull Soto from the game today or yesterday and he refused to come out and he hits the the home run that walks off that that walks it off and run roll fashion they they I think they might want it more than anyone and that scares me
00:07:08
justin_daulton
Well, you got to almost feel disrespected, right, of your DR, right? Everyone's been talking U.S., s Japan constantly, and now you quietly assembled what could end up being the best lineup in the entire competition.
00:07:13
Cody Atkinson
mm-hmm
00:07:20
justin_daulton
You have to feel somewhat disrespected if you're DR. So, I mean, I'm right there with you. um I do want to give one shout-out. Nicaragua's still looking for for that for that first win and that in that group play.
00:07:32
justin_daulton
Played their butts off, man, against DR earlier in the in the group stage. Looking like they may pull the upset, obviously. I think you you refer to it. was I think that was the one that Soto did the walk-off. No, it wasn't Soto. Who was it that hit the walk-off in that one?
00:07:45
justin_daulton
ah
00:07:47
Cody Atkinson
I, e
00:07:47
justin_daulton
That might have been Camarino, wasn't it?
00:07:50
Cody Atkinson
he hit a walk off. I don't know if his was against Nicaragua or not. they hit I think they started the tournament by walking it off twice, if I'm not mistaken.
00:07:57
justin_daulton
Yes, they did them but in their in their first two games.
00:07:58
Cody Atkinson
So I don't know which one was which.
00:08:01
justin_daulton
I want to say it was Kim Marino that did it. We can start correct later, obviously. But um yeah, just shout out to that team. And they're playing their butts off man for their country. So not doing them with a whole lot of MLB talent either.
00:08:12
justin_daulton
And they're they're in these conversations with these Chuggernauts. So yes, I just want to give just one footnote to them.
00:08:16
Cody Atkinson
Well... Oh, sorry. Yeah. You said, you said not a lot of MLB talent. My mind was thinking DR. was like, hold on, calm yourself.
USA's WBC Journey and Passion Debate
00:08:23
Cody Atkinson
But you were talking about Nicaragua. My bad.
00:08:25
justin_daulton
Yeah, Nicaragua, Nicaragua.
00:08:27
Cody Atkinson
Carry on.
00:08:28
justin_daulton
um okay cool uh we're gonna blast through at least play because play i think we pretty pretty much what we expected puerto rico and cuba are undefeated looking like they're gonna move on um you you could see a canada come in there i i think at this point it's puerto rico and cuba that's gonna move on from that that group stage um to play down there in miami
00:08:47
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. actually Canada would have to upset Cuba, have Cuba lose to Puerto Rico, and then you're going to get into the run differential conversation, but they, Canada losing to, actually that might, that still might not be enough.
00:08:58
justin_daulton
yeah
00:09:04
Cody Atkinson
Um, Canada losing to Panama, that kind of killed my, my sleeper there. was very disappointed.
00:09:09
justin_daulton
yeah don't have too much else to say about play kind of what we expected it to be in terms of the competition there um and then i'm gonna kick it over to you for pool b because you my guy got to go and experience the world baseball classic this weekend
00:09:14
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:09:24
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I think, honestly, i think Pool B has been the best pool in the World Baseball Classic in a lot of ways because it's, the only pool remaining that still has three teams undefeated.
00:09:36
Cody Atkinson
So, I mean, U S is playing Mexico as we speak. U S is up five to zero, S A U S is up five to zero.
00:09:43
justin_daulton
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:09:45
Cody Atkinson
um But it Italy's undefeated Mexico's undefeated. So U S will play Mexico playing Mexico right now. U S will play Italy tomorrow. And then it likely all comes down to Italy, Mexico on Wednesday.
00:09:58
Cody Atkinson
And I think it's just a pool that broke the best because I think the one thing that's been a little, if there is one thing that's been a little disappointing about the WBC is it's kind of chalk right now. Japan, Korea, that's who we thought.
00:10:11
Cody Atkinson
um The DR, r of Venezuela, that's who we thought. Puerto Rico, Cuba, that's who we thought. ah US, Mexico is what we thought. And we still have a chance for Italy to do some upsetting.
00:10:21
Cody Atkinson
um So that's what I'm hoping for. Um, that's what I'm looking forward to. Um, so I'm, I'm really happy with pool B that it's still alive. Um, I've heard the crowds at Mexico games have been electric. I was not able to go to any of the Mexico games, a U S Brazil crowd on Friday night was a little disappointing.
00:10:39
Cody Atkinson
ah But the game script was kind of gross too. Just 17 walks. the game The game lulled you to sleep. And it lulled the U.S. team to sleep too. um But ah U.S. s Great Britain was electric. And I can assure you that U.S. Mexico is electric right now. Although I'm watching it on mute so that we can record this. I can assure you it's electric because it's sold out standing room only. So um the vibes are incredible. If you can get to a game, get to a game.
00:11:07
justin_daulton
Yeah, I wish I could. I wish I could get down to Miami for a game. um And, man, I see i saw the Schwarber bomb that happened on Saturday night. i You texted me after, you I'm assuming when you got home from the game.
00:11:21
justin_daulton
But, man, like you said it was the the biggest home run you've ever witnessed in your in your life.
00:11:21
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I think so.
00:11:25
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:11:26
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:11:27
Cody Atkinson
I was trying to figure out the best way to describe it I was like, it's the loudest home run.
00:11:27
justin_daulton
so
00:11:30
Cody Atkinson
It's the biggest home run. It's the wild. Like I was like, which, which word suits this? Cause that thing, it was a moonshot, dude. It didn't start. It didn't start coming down until it was already past the fence.
00:11:43
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:11:43
Cody Atkinson
I think was going to, it it ran the risk of hitting the rafters. Like it was one of the biggest no doubters I've ever seen in person. it was, that was that singular moment might be the coolest thing I've ever seen in person at a stadium. And it was, I love Schwarber. Like it was so cool.
00:12:00
justin_daulton
Yeah, no, I mean, obviously there's a lot a lot to be said about Team USA right now, right? I mean, start off a little cold, you know, before you and I hit record today, we talked a little bit about just the energy not necessarily being there. And then what was that? The fifth inning of the Great Britain game.
00:12:15
justin_daulton
the The team just, yeah I think you had a spark plug that you wanted to to reference there.
00:12:16
Cody Atkinson
Hmm.
00:12:19
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, yeah the the team needed a spark, in my opinion. I was, you know, I'm i'm just at the games. I'm feeling the vibes. um The team needed a spark plug. Like i said, Brazil game script kind of lulled you to sleep. It lulled the U.S. to sleep. They scored 15 runs, but only on 10 hits. um It was just kind of a lifeless effort.
00:12:37
Cody Atkinson
um And then the first four and a half innings of Great Britain was feeling the same until Ernie Clement. He's, he because he's one of those guys that like kind of like,
00:12:49
Cody Atkinson
He it made the made the team by the skin of his teeth in a lot of ways. Like, obviously, super talented deserves to be here. Not trying to disrespect. But, like, he's one of those guys that, like, was probably closer to the edge of the roster. He hits a ah routine grounder to short.
00:13:04
Cody Atkinson
He's sprinting it out like he's got like he's got a team to make. Shortstuff throws high, brings the first baseman off the bag for just a second, and that's enough for for Clement to get there safe. Next thing you know, double down the line.
00:13:18
Cody Atkinson
um Wild pitch, Clement scores, ties the game at one, and then you get the Schworbomb. And and the game the game never looked back. it was well I don't remember the final score exactly, but I think it was 9-1 or 10-1, something like that.
00:13:30
justin_daulton
It was 9 to 1. 9 to 1, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
00:13:32
Cody Atkinson
um So it's like from that from that point forward, the the team just didn't let off the gas. And the vibes were bad. you You just felt it when people came to the plate. If anything, they wanted it too much. Like just the vibes it had shifted. and I flagged it. I was like, ah if the U.S. like does what we think they can do, like I feel like that earnnie that Ernie Clement sprint to first woke them up.
00:13:57
Cody Atkinson
Um, cause I think they heard a state that the stadium got so loud for an error, um, that the guy next to me that I was making friends with was like, he turned to me and kind of laughed and was like, well, everyone with games been so boring.
00:14:03
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:14:12
Cody Atkinson
Everyone's getting this excited for a single, huh? Like, ah but but it was electric. And I think they just like, I don't know, man, I think they just felt it different than like, cause that's the stadium was way too loud for the moment.
00:14:25
Cody Atkinson
And I think they felt the energy. USA chance were bringing out every time there was a full count or the bases were loaded, like mid at bat, they're just batting with USA chance in the background. Like it flipped.
00:14:35
justin_daulton
nice
00:14:36
Cody Atkinson
And I think that was, I think that was the moment. Well, I think that's a, I think that's going to segue us pretty well to this next thing you wanted to talk about.
00:14:44
justin_daulton
yeah one last thing one last thing about uh 15 water burger and bacon man insane absolutely insane no don't do it um yeah the perfect segue man um in that great britain game therese google obviously i talked about it last week right of
00:14:49
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Don't, don't buy it. Bring in, bring in a plastic bag of food. You can, you're allowed to look.
00:15:05
justin_daulton
scuba only going to make one start about those that 40 to 55 range in terms of pitches kind of where the ending count landed um after he made his start had a dugout interview and then had an article get written about that he was now on the fence about whether or not he was going to stick around to do, you know, to be with the team and kind of go through the motions and maybe throw again.
00:15:29
justin_daulton
um Obviously the news broke a little bit earlier today that he is heading back to Lakeland over here in Florida to rejoin the Tigers to get ready for opening day. So now leaving.
00:15:39
Cody Atkinson
Okay, I didn't know that.
00:15:41
justin_daulton
Yeah, the news did break today. So he is on way back this week.
00:15:42
Cody Atkinson
So the news did break. He's not going to pitch again. Does that the dissent mean he's not going to pitch again?
00:15:46
justin_daulton
No.
00:15:47
Cody Atkinson
Or is is that just like, okay.
00:15:48
justin_daulton
Yeah, he's not going to pitch again. Yeah, we're, what, two and a half weeks away from opening day, and he's very much locked in on on opening day and pitching for the Tigers this year.
00:15:52
Cody Atkinson
I'm opening to that.
00:15:56
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:15:57
justin_daulton
So i I got a lot of thoughts. I think you do too, man. i the The waffling back and forth, I think, is what really annoyed me the most over the last couple of days. like Like, don't even talk about it in the interview and just and just default or just defer, defer, defer until you get to the point to where
00:16:11
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:16:16
justin_daulton
you know you sat down with the rosa you sat down with your age and you sat down with the tigers whoever it needs to be to have those conversations of like hey if i pitch again maybe it's the semis you know maybe yeah maybe it's a semi-final match and then you're you know you're i think i saw the number it was still nine days if he pitched that day from opening day so he still had time to get back to to florida to get back to to detroit and get ready for opening day and to me it just it really annoyed me over the last couple days of just going back and forth um i think you and i both unanimously agree like how many opportunities do you get a chance to put on the stars and stripes and go out there for your country especially two weeks ago u hockey both men's and women's putting on putting on for for the country right and now you have baseball having a golden opportunity to do it again and you have the americans lee cy young winner for the last two years out there on the mound you know you almost have to have a chip on your shoulder you give off a first pitch
00:17:13
justin_daulton
lead off home run in your in your debut in the world baseball classic and you're gonna go back home like i i just don't it to me it just feels like this is side quest for him in terms of the ultimate of what he wants to do right of chasing his bag and i said that last week i respect anyone who wants to go chase their bag you got money to make and then it'll be go do it but this just felt wrong from from the word go
00:17:25
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:17:37
Cody Atkinson
So I thought you were at first, I thought we had a big disagreement on this. is Have you changed your opinion since the interview or did I just think that you were on the other side and you weren't?
00:17:49
justin_daulton
I think you just said I was on the other side. I think I don't care if you if you stay or go, right? I think playing with the emotions of the fans and ultimately the chances that we have it going all the way in this tournament, like don't even hang that in the balance and try to sit there and and convince me that this was a difficult decision for you.
00:18:09
justin_daulton
It's either you play or you don't.
00:18:09
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Mm hmm.
00:18:10
justin_daulton
Right. And I get it. There's a lot of conversation. i'm sure you and I can we can have a whole other topic talking about, you know, World Baseball Classic and where it should fall on the schedule going forward. You know, Olympics in 28, all these things ah in terms of what international baseball looks like going forward.
00:18:26
justin_daulton
But ultimately, man, You don't get a lot of these opportunities yeah and you, you got to go out there and get and do it. Like my child probably will never get a chance to put on stars and stripes again, unless it is in the Olympics.
00:18:37
justin_daulton
So like, and he's going to go down as someone who's only won it once when we won it, what, six years ago now.
00:18:42
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:18:42
justin_daulton
So I, you know, one of the best baseball players of our, of our generation, and he's only going to say that he won the gold medal once. Like school may not even have that opportunity.
00:18:51
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah, that was that was my big big takeaway from it because i read i didn't see the dugout interview since I was at the at the game. and So I just saw it in an ESPN article the next morning that was full of of just fluff of like, this is the hardest decision. I'm too emotional to make a decision right now. And I was like, dude, just pitch or don't. like you you You told us you were pitching for Team USA and and then Paul Skeens did and everyone got so excited with this dynamic duo that was going to take us all the way. And then
00:19:23
Cody Atkinson
we learned that you're only going to pitch the one, the one game. And because the WBC and the tigers and everybody has their restrictions on pitch count, we're only getting like three innings from you against a team that we didn't need you for.
00:19:38
Cody Atkinson
Like we figure that out.
00:19:39
justin_daulton
Yes.
00:19:40
Cody Atkinson
And then, and then you come out and you're like, well, actually i loved it so much. Maybe I will stay, but in, in everyone's mind, it's like, you're not going to like, we know you're not because we know that the tigers don't want you to, we know,
00:19:52
Cody Atkinson
that your agent doesn't want you to. And we know that Team USA already has a plan without you. And like, you're good enough that they'll redo their plan, but you're not going to make a decision fast enough to make this easy on them. So like, in my mind, i was like, you're, well, you're not going to pitch again. Like, it's too obvious that you're not going to do it. um And now all you've done is, is is reopen a wound that we'd already moved past, man. Like we don't, I get it.
00:20:19
Cody Atkinson
you're you're you're You're going to make $400 million dollars at the end of this year if you don't blow your elbow. What's your but's your primary goal this year? Don't blow the elbow. And how do you do that? You you yeah you don't pitch in a high leverage, high energy, high emotion environment before you're ready to.
00:20:37
Cody Atkinson
um So I get it. But don't, it should stayed in the clubhouse, dude, because like all of his teammates are supporting him and they're like, we get it. Like you're giving us all you can and you've got so much on the line, but like we don't, we don't get it.
00:20:52
Cody Atkinson
The fans don't get it. Like it's pitch or don't pitch because, because we will never have, none of us will ever have the opportunity to make 400 million and we will never know what goes into that decision-making process. So don't ask me to relate to you and how difficult your life is and your decisions are when like if you do blow your elbow you're still probably going to get to two to three hundred million so like like some team will pay you that and wait for you to recover like so like just don't like just it's for me i get it i think he's a really nice guy i think he's a really good guy and that's why he over communicated and he made himself
00:21:16
justin_daulton
Thank you.
NHL Trade Deadline and NCAA Basketball Controversy
00:21:26
Cody Atkinson
He put himself in a bad situation by being like, oh, I want to do it for the fans. I want to do it for the team. And and he just needs to keep that in-house because it was a bad – was a bad look for him. i think i think if he didn't care, he wouldn't have done it. And so I want to give him credit for that. Like I don't think he's doing this on purpose, but I think he did himself a disservice by bringing it back up, knowing almost certainly that he wasn't going to pitch again.
00:21:56
justin_daulton
Yeah, I agree.
00:21:58
Cody Atkinson
and And the last thing I'll say on that is is I think I got so fired up about it because it's just a reminder that these guys on the Dominican are refusing to get pulled from games when they're up 10.
00:21:58
justin_daulton
i agree
00:22:11
Cody Atkinson
And they are the biggest vibes team I've ever seen in my life. And we're still struggling to remind our guys that this game matters. Like, you know what I mean? Like, we've got this, we've got the the best roster ever.
00:22:24
Cody Atkinson
assembled and it took a spark plug to give them juice and scoogles only pitching one game and bryce harper is talking about how the wbc is not as big of a stage as the olympics and it's like it is it's it's the stage right now so just just just give it all you've got
00:22:42
justin_daulton
Well, especially like to make that comment, right, that Bryce Harper made, right? To make that comment and the the Olympics aren't even guaranteed at this point, like we haven't even gotten to the fact that they' they're there's 99% sure we're going to have a lockout next year.
00:22:56
justin_daulton
Obviously, the CBA is going to, ah in you know, between the MLB and the players, they're going to talk about, you know, the Olympics all throughout the winter next year and into the lockout, however however long the lockout lasts.
00:23:08
justin_daulton
you're gonna like, you're gonna have this conversation around the Olympics. It's not guaranteed. It may come out that it's only minor leaders that are allowed to play in in the Olympics when it comes around.
00:23:18
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:23:18
justin_daulton
Right. So like, world baseball classic still may be the only international stage that we have for us s baseball so yeah i just i agree with you man like i want to buy into this team but it's the the vibes aren't there as it was for you know hockey a couple weeks ago right where you know they're literally talking about how they're going out there that they they want blood against canada and they're you know they want revenge for four nations they want all this stuff right But like when you get down to like this American team, yes, they were they were constructed for one reason one reason only, and it was to get revenge against Japan.
00:23:51
justin_daulton
But they're not even playing like they want revenge against Japan. Otani out here hitting nukes, you know, in in the Tokyo Dome and the the energy in Tokyo is off the charts.
00:24:02
justin_daulton
Like, where is the swagger? And maybe once they get to Miami, maybe that's where it turns on. You know, maybe that's where, like, all right, cool, we're in this moment. But, like, you get such a small window of opportunity and you're just not taking advantage of it.
00:24:14
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I think it's turning on a little bit on the field because, like I said, the juice in the stadium – after the fifth inning was incredible on field in the stands. It was incredible. They're up five Oh one Mexico right now.
00:24:30
Cody Atkinson
um The vibes look immaculate just on screen, but just this off field stuff is so unnecessary. and it's just such a reminder that these guys don't care as much as some of the guys that are playing against care. Like, like,
00:24:44
Cody Atkinson
Canada almost ripped their stuffed animals to shreds in front of the entire world because they got silver and they were so ticked off about it. And I think if this U S team got silver, they'd just kind of shrug and be like, Oh, well, like I play for the Yankees anyways, or whatever, you know?
00:24:53
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:25:02
Cody Atkinson
And like, that's just kind of disappointing when like, I mean, you've got like 17 people in the stands dressed as the statue of Liberty. Like, yeah you know what mean? Like, People were trying to bring in like bags of tea for when we were playing the British. So you know what I mean? Like it was just, i I don't know, man. I just, you don't, I think it would, it would hit less if the Dominican Republic and Japan didn't show the same vibes that U.S. hockey did.
00:25:31
Cody Atkinson
So like the vibes can be there in the tournament.
00:25:31
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:25:33
Cody Atkinson
We just have a country club culture that these other countries don't have. And that's kind of, it's ah It's just a little bit of a damper on the experience. i We can get more into this when we do that, like ah hopefully a recap in a couple of weeks when the whole thing's over. But um yeah, mean, I just want to see, I just want it to matter a little bit more. Like I know all these guys are playing for so much money, but um i just if I go to the game, like I kind of, I want to feel like it matters to them as much as it mattered to me that like the USA took it.
00:26:09
justin_daulton
Yeah, agree, man. But we have move on. We'll do more wbc as we get there.
00:26:12
Cody Atkinson
Mm-mm.
00:26:14
justin_daulton
um Going through, going rapid and fire one ah topic for you. NHL trade deadline, sorry, happened last week. Obviously, you're not super tapped into the and NHL as much as as I am over here.
00:26:28
justin_daulton
I'm just going to run through probably not a lot of names that you know, but definitely want to touch on some some bigger trades that did happen. um The Utah Mammoths and the Calgary Flames. um Utah Mammoths get McKenzie Weir for a huge package going back to Calgary.
00:26:42
justin_daulton
Defenseman Ali Mata, uh jonathan castana and a bunch of picks so you got some 2026 second round pick 20 uh two second round picks sorry one from the rangers one for ottawa and then um the 2026 uh sorry so that was three 2026 picks and the utah pick so three uh second round picks and a defenseman and a forward going back um to calgary obviously calgary not in a conversation for competition right now but utah obviously trying to rebuild that team um and try to make a name for themselves in utah and out there um as they get their feet underneath them um so that that'll be interesting to watch obviously mckenzie weger of the probably top 20 to 30 defensemen in the league right now so definitely someone to keep an eye on to help bolster the back end over there in utah um uh
00:27:34
justin_daulton
Let's see. had another one. Nicholas Roy going to the Avalanche. Avalanche were big buyers at the trade deadline. I'll mention them a couple of times as we go through here.
00:27:43
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:27:43
justin_daulton
They sent a conditional first round pick in 2027 and a conditional 2026 fifth round pick um to the Maple Leafs for Nicholas Roy. Obviously, it looks like the Maple Leafs looking like they're kind of settling with being that fifth or sixth team in the division and looking like they're going to try to try to rebuild and do some stuff in the draft.
00:28:04
justin_daulton
um moving forward want to make sure i touch on the right ones for you guys
00:28:15
justin_daulton
uh anaheim getting john carlson from the capitals uh that's a conditional 2026 first round pick and a 2027 third round pick i'm going back to washington Very much the team out there in in D.C. that's moved on.
00:28:27
justin_daulton
But the Ducks being buyers of the trade deadline trying to make that playoff push. um Shout out to my boy over here talking to me yesterday about how he was excited that ah the Ducks are are buying for the first time and in a very long time.
00:28:40
justin_daulton
So definitely we'll see what that what that entails for the Ducks over the next a year or so. Obviously, so sending it some draft capital. And then... the lightning, the only splash lightning made in trade deadline, Corey Perry coming back to the 10 Bay lightning for 20, 28 second round pick going back to the Kings.
00:28:59
justin_daulton
Um, For something that you may not know, obviously Corey Perry had five year stretch remade every single Stanley Cup final, but lost the Stanley Cup final five years in a row.
00:29:09
Cody Atkinson
Oh, gosh.
00:29:09
justin_daulton
um So my could be the kiss of death for the lightning that they may make it to the finals, but lose.
00:29:10
Cody Atkinson
That's brutal.
00:29:16
justin_daulton
We'll see. But that's the that was the big move for the lightning first game in with the lightning score to goal. So that's that was something big to see that this impact on the trade right off the bat.
00:29:26
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:29:27
justin_daulton
um For the Islanders in so in the St. Louis Blues, Braden Shen going to the Islanders um for a big package going back to St. Louis. Jonathan Drouin, former Tampa Bay Lightning.
00:29:38
justin_daulton
Marcus Guildhoff, a 2026 first-round pick from Colorado, and a 2026 third-round pick from New Jersey going back to St. Louis. So in St. Louis in a fire sale, moving their bigger names out, getting some new smaller names in there.
00:29:52
justin_daulton
In a rebuild, they also made another move, sending Justin Falk to the Red Wings. And ah another package going back to St. Louis there. And then there was another one i wanted to touch on.
00:30:05
justin_daulton
Where was it? Where was it? Where was it? ah And then the last one that I'll i'll mention, a name that you may still find familiar, Nazeen Qadri and the 2027 fourth round pick going to the Avalanche, going back to the Avalanche, where he was when he won the Stanley Cup from Calgary, Calgary getting Victor Olsson.
00:30:20
justin_daulton
uh max curran a conditional 2028 first round pick and a conditional 2027 second round pick um obviously i' just do a ah ton of danes at you a lot of them may or may not make an impact on in terms of where we're at in terms of the season with the final third of the season coming up um where we're at i think ultimately the there wasn't going to be these big splashes obviously nazeen kadri going back to colorado is a big name um corey perry just helps bolster the the the fourth line for the team for the lightning these are all for the most part just picks or trades that needed to happen um
00:30:57
justin_daulton
couple teams in fire sale mode. We can touch on more that when we get into the just NHL recap in a couple months.
00:31:01
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:31:03
justin_daulton
um But definitely good to see some moves in ah in a league where you don't usually get a ton of moves. The same thing with the NFL. You don't really get a ton of those trades i like where baseball is a little bit more transferable because systems don't transfer super well in the NFL and the NHL.
00:31:18
justin_daulton
Um, but good to see some moves going around things that'll help bolster these, these lineups going forward. So, um, that was rapid to fire for you.
00:31:24
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:31:25
justin_daulton
I don't know if you have any surface level thoughts for it or not.
00:31:28
Cody Atkinson
no Surface level, I watched ah the Avalanche Wild game on, I think it was Sunday. um yeah i think they i'm ah I'm just going to choose the Avalanche as the big winners of the trade deadline, I think.
00:31:44
Cody Atkinson
um They look really good.
00:31:45
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:31:46
Cody Atkinson
um Obviously, the cadre. um I remember him from when we first started watching hockey. He was on the Leafs, who I'd always play on NHL with against you. um So I know the name.
00:31:57
Cody Atkinson
um That was a big move. Obviously, you said the other defenseman, Roy. I didn't know Brent Burns was on the avalanche too. um So that fired me up.
00:32:04
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:32:05
Cody Atkinson
That dude's still probably my favorite player. ah So that was really cool to see. i The avalanche looked like a look like a wagon. They took Minnesota down and in shootout on Sunday. Really good game. I think Minnesota had a good deadline as well too.
00:32:20
justin_daulton
Yeah, I think ultimately the the Avalanche obviously are the the favorites out there out West. they' they They've been the favorites pretty much the entire season out West. the The East is the one that's more in turmoil out here.
00:32:31
justin_daulton
So we'll we'll see as the playoffs get started.
00:32:31
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:32:33
justin_daulton
Obviously, defending champs are on the outs right now, the two-time defending champs in the Panthers. So they're you know they're on the outs as they as we get forward with everything. but the But we'll move on. We've got a couple more topics just to get through before we get to our big topic of the week.
00:32:49
justin_daulton
NCAA Men's Conference Tourney Week, arguably one of the best weeks in sports. um The craziness has already started.
00:32:57
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:32:57
justin_daulton
Mid-majors are obviously already getting started. They're obviously trying to get out of the way of the bigger schools or the biggest the bigger conferences so they get their TV time. um What was it?
00:33:07
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, you want me to help you rapid fire this one real quick?
00:33:10
justin_daulton
Yeah, go ahead and and take the mid-majors for me.
00:33:13
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, so already clinched spots, tournaments over. um Queens ah University, North Carolina is the ASUN representative. um High Point won the Big South tournament. ah Northern Iowa coming out of the Missouri Valley.
00:33:28
Cody Atkinson
Long Island coming out of the Northeast Conference. ah Tennessee State coming out of the Ohio Valley. North Dakota State, big football school, coming out of the Summit League. Two conference tournaments finished tonight while we were recording this podcast. ah Furman will be representing the SOCON. um And Troy over the Sunbelt. I know that you wanted to briefly speak about the Sunbelt tourney. Georgia Southern went on an incredible run but fell just short.
00:33:55
Cody Atkinson
um so i don't know if you want to say something about that. I think there's one tournament that everyone's got their eyes on that's ah that's going on this week after that.
00:34:04
justin_daulton
Yeah, ah man. Yeah, after to that one for sure. um I caught this screenshot that I sent to you, I want to say a couple days ago before WBC picked up um of this insane bracket setup where every team is seated one through, I think it was like one through 12 or whatever it was.
00:34:12
Cody Atkinson
you sent me a screenshot? Mm-hmm.
00:34:22
Cody Atkinson
or 14.
00:34:24
justin_daulton
Yeah, and the number one and two basically don't play until the semifinals and everyone else just plays this gauntlet style where like the bottom two teams have to run through like eight games or something like that before they get to the the championship game.
00:34:29
Cody Atkinson
Oh, yeah.
00:34:39
justin_daulton
um I love it.
00:34:39
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:34:40
justin_daulton
I love this whole like round robin, gauntlet style.
00:34:41
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:34:43
justin_daulton
um ah It kind of diminishes the regular season. The one thing the regular season is good for is just the seeding at that point. But man, it's it it's fine. man kind of watching it I didn't get to watch any of the games.
00:34:54
justin_daulton
um But it was just fun to kind of see that that tournament layout. And cool to see. I mean, you've got to put some stock now in in Troy going into it. to you know You're going to make that type of run in your conference play. like What does that look like for you going into ah March Madness here in a couple weeks? So definitely going to be a team that I'm going to take a look at on my bracket as it comes around. that It's hard to not acknowledge them as they kind of get into into the thick of it.
00:35:19
Cody Atkinson
Well, yeah. Yeah. So joe Troy was the one seed, so they really only had to go through a couple games. um I think they played the fourth seed and then they played Georgia Southern, the 10th seed to to win the tournament. i This is my favorite um style of postseason tournament because it is like – If you're the 10th, like the 10th, so Georgia Southern was the 10th seed.
00:35:43
Cody Atkinson
They played, they won five games in five days to get to the conference championship to play Troy. And so to win the the tournament, they would have to win six games in six days. And they should have had to do that because they went eight and 10.
00:35:58
Cody Atkinson
in the regular season in ah Sunbelt play.
00:35:58
justin_daulton
Yeah.
00:36:01
Cody Atkinson
But it also was, if you were what if you were following along, you know, it was electric to just watch this team go on this run. They beat it like the number six, then the number five, then the number three, then the number two, and then they got to get through the number one.
00:36:15
Cody Atkinson
um Electric, love the format. Georgia Southern falls just short, um which I'm sure America was rooting for them, but you got to feel good about Troy. ah coming out of this. They they put ah a bit of a hurtin' on Georgia Southern tonight.
00:36:30
justin_daulton
I mean, when you obviously when your regular season obviously speaks for for what you're doing, but then to win that gauntlet style type of tournament, man, like hard to not look at the Sun Belt and what they're gonna what they're gonna produce into the tournament this year.
00:36:44
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I hope more mid-majors go that route.
00:36:45
justin_daulton
Honestly,
00:36:47
Cody Atkinson
It's just a lot of fun.
00:36:49
justin_daulton
would be okay with even your your big conferences going to the same style. Like there isn't but like, but how much I think
00:36:53
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, there's just not enough at stake, though. Because like in the in the big conference, like you know eight of those teams are going to make it. so like a lot of times I don't really care if they win or not.
00:37:04
justin_daulton
Fair
00:37:04
Cody Atkinson
That's the kind of the problem. But I feel, yeah, it would be it wouldd be cool. I just don't think you're going to have big teams. i don't think they want to play that many games. They're trying to get their one to two wins, get some rest, and play in the tourney.
00:37:16
justin_daulton
fair enough. I'll concede that point to you then.
00:37:18
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, it's a little bit of a shame, but like it it's just ah it is what it is, you know?
00:37:18
justin_daulton
um
00:37:23
justin_daulton
Yeah. Last one to talk about before we get into just our teams. um All eyes on Maction this week, man. Maction usually a big football conversation, but definitely this year, Miami of Ohio has been the darling of the college basketball world for the wrong reasons, if you ask me.
00:37:42
justin_daulton
um Obviously, undefeated still undefeated. Probably going to win their conference title and would should win an automatic qualifier. Correct if I'm wrong. But
00:37:52
Cody Atkinson
If they win in the tournament, they' they'd be automatically qualified.
00:37:55
justin_daulton
But the conversation, and there's almost this unwritten rule um to kind of bleed back into baseball here of unwritten rules in sports. of If a team is in their transitional year and or a rebuild year, whatever it is, this is the conversation saw today, they're not allowed in.
00:38:11
justin_daulton
Voters aren't putting them into the tournament, even though they are an undefeated team, but they have this transitional rule, unwritten rule that they're not allowed into the tournament.
00:38:21
Cody Atkinson
I think we might be mixing up to two different teams here. So, yeah, so so the the transition issue, i think, is Mercyhurst versus Long Island.
00:38:25
justin_daulton
Am I?
00:38:33
Cody Atkinson
um Long Island has already clinched a spot in March Madness, despite the fact that they haven't played the final yet because Mercyhurst is not allowed in. Miami, Ohio doesn't have any any transition tag issues.
00:38:48
Cody Atkinson
um But the Miami, Ohio issue is they haven't played anybody. Like they're, I think, 31-0. But i'm going to I'll look up a couple of these like these stats um while we while we talk about this. Like they're 31-0, but their like Ken Palm rating puts them like in the 90s, I think it is. And then like all these kind of predictive metrics that people use to see what committees would pick.
00:39:16
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, they're 91-0. in Ken Palm around the same level as 14 and 17 Georgetown, 21 and 10 Wichita State, Stephen F. Austin, Utah Valley, 13 and 18 Notre Dame, not that much higher than 13 and 18 South Carolina.
00:39:36
Cody Atkinson
um So this is kind of where people are, um this is where people are are kind of fighting the like, Miami of Ohio went undefeated, but if they don't win their conference tournament, there are people who who would still keep them out of the tournament because their metrics are are not in line with other tournament teams. So you could go undefeated, lose a game in your conference tourney, and then miss March Madness, which is a a wild concept, but also like they really haven't played anybody.
00:40:16
justin_daulton
Yeah, but we talked about it in college football. I mean, should J&U have been in the college football playoffs?
00:40:22
Cody Atkinson
I mean, I think they should have personally, just because that's the the way the system set up is I think they should have, yes.
00:40:27
justin_daulton
But that's how the system is set up, right? like if If Miami, Ohio goes undefeated, wins their tournament, obviously they get automatic qualifier for winning their conference turning.
00:40:34
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:40:35
justin_daulton
But like if they drop the they dropped the the championship game and they're out, you still win undefeated. You won your games. It doesn't matter what you your schedule is. You still win. You should be able to get in.
00:40:47
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I guess it's just like for a lot of people, it's kind of like what I've been hearing is like this fear of, promoting week scheduling. Like I think you're seeing it a little bit with football where like teams are wanting to get out of big games because they don't want to get hit with, with, with losses. And, and so you do want to promote that. I think Miami, Ohio has done enough 31 to know if you, if you don't win the conference tournament, cause you had one fluky loss, like they're a fun, and they're a fun story. People will want to watch them. Let's let them in.
00:41:19
Cody Atkinson
um But i I think there's enough merit to the conversation that I understand where the other side's coming from.
00:41:27
justin_daulton
You win your games, Duran. I don't care what you're, just because your conference is garbage and you you don't you don't play anyone is not your fault.
00:41:29
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:41:34
justin_daulton
You still won your games.
00:41:37
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. i mean, I think it's an, I think they are the kind of team where if they lost one or two, that would have been enough to keep them out because the schedule is that bad, but at at at undefeated,
00:41:48
Cody Atkinson
it Undefeated is undefeated. um You got to just ah we let them in. And then if they get if they get run out of the stadium, then, you know, maybe we reassess.
00:42:00
justin_daulton
That's on them. Yeah, that's on them at that point. But all right, cool. Well, moving on. um A new kind of way that we're doing this this week is that we're going to, instead of trying to put or letting A&M and all of our teams take precedent of a rundown topic, we're going to put them at the very end and do a little recap for you guys.
NFL Legal Tampering Period Explained
00:42:18
justin_daulton
I'll do my bit. Tempe Lightning go one and three this week. um Another down week for the Lightning. ah But the the big thing to talk about is last night's game against the Buffalo Sabres, over 100 minutes of penalty minutes,
00:42:32
justin_daulton
in the game there was fighting consistently throughout the entire game these are two teams who are going to to fight tooth and nail the last third of the season they're one and two in the atlantic buffalo taking the number one spot last night um the final score was eight to seven and regulation.
00:42:48
justin_daulton
This did not go to shootouts.
00:42:50
Cody Atkinson
Oof. Mm-hmm.
00:42:51
justin_daulton
So this game was absolutely bonkers. if you For anyone listening, go check highlights. Braden Point swinging mid-play out of at the out of back of the head of a player. There was just bad blood throughout the entire game going on.
00:43:04
justin_daulton
um so yeah, definitely going to be...
00:43:05
Cody Atkinson
Is there history there?
00:43:06
justin_daulton
I'm going to be honest. I don't know. Buffalo's been irrelevant for the last couple of years. So i think it's more so just it's just getting chippy. We're getting to that point where...
00:43:17
justin_daulton
you know we're we're two months from the end of the regular season um month and a half right until end of april um so you're just going to be playing very intense talking you're talking about two teams that are playing for playoff seating ultimately so um yeah one and three this week um but before i kick over to you one stat correction that i want to get from last week's topic um i did give a prediction in the wwe aspect of the show last week that i thought that um Dominic Mysterio was going to retain his title against Penta last week.
00:43:48
justin_daulton
Penta ended up winning the title. So that changes my entire storyline from now until Mania with Dominic Mysterio. We'll see what what goes on. But that happened while I was recording. So I did want to acknowledge that for the WWE listeners um that as we get closer to Mania, i'll I'll kind of talk more about what I see going on with that storyline. But just want to give one little one little stat correction there as it happened during the episode.
00:44:09
Cody Atkinson
nice um and then on the really right now for me all that's going on is the wbc and a and m so a m basketball um Needed to go 2-0 to feel good about making it to March Madness. Goes 2-0.
00:44:23
Cody Atkinson
um Comes back from down 12 to beat Kentucky by like 11. um Goes on the road to LSU and has to in and wins in three overtimes, 94-91. Feel really good about March Madness. um So great week for A&M basketball. A&M baseball.
00:44:40
Cody Atkinson
3-0 on a rainy weekend. They played a doubleheader Friday um and then played another game at 11 a.m. m Saturday. So the weekend was over by Saturday afternoon. 3-0 over Oakland. 4-0 on the week if you go back to the Tuesday game. um They open up SEC play this weekend at Oklahoma. So season's getting real.
00:45:01
justin_daulton
There we go. Well, that concludes the wrap up a little bit longer this week, but it makes up for because we don't have two big topics for you guys this week.
00:45:06
Cody Atkinson
you Only got one.
00:45:08
justin_daulton
I'm going to kick it over to you so you can drive the big topic of the week, man.
00:45:12
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I mean, we we we kind of said it at the beginning. um it's It was a hard breakdown to put together because the NFL legal tampering period is ah quite possibly the fastest moving day in sports.
00:45:27
Cody Atkinson
You almost couldn't write this until like a couple hours ago. And honestly, I need to pull up the tracker while we're doing this to make sure there's nothing new. Yeah.
00:45:37
justin_daulton
Yeah, I've got one pulled up myself too, so that way I don't i don't mix any anything up.
00:45:39
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:45:41
Cody Atkinson
All right, so I'm going to get one pulled up while we're doing this as well. um So we're we're going to look at this both from ah from a national perspective and then we're going to look at it from a Texan's perspective. um The big thing to to kind of highlight there, it's the legal tampering period. So nothing that gets announced today is able to be finalized until ah free agency opens on on Wednesday. So that's kind of the difference there between legal tampering and free agency. They're allowed to make these announcements.
00:46:11
Cody Atkinson
ah But none of these will be formalized, approved by the league and processed until until free agency opens on Wednesday. However, we don't really tend to see many changes between what gets announced today and Wednesday. I think there's a few cases where a player might back out um that we've seen in the past. But most of this um is is kind of treated as is treated as finalized, even though it won't be until Wednesday.
00:46:35
Cody Atkinson
um until Wednesday. so So we'll kick it off from ah from a national perspective. We're not going to dive deep into everything that's happened. There's way too much um to remotely try to do that, but we're going to try to catch the we're going we're going to try to catch the catch the highlights. So um my my first question for you, Justin, is what what are you considering the biggest move um of ah i guess going back to to like Friday? I know we had some trades over the weekend. Like what's been the biggest move um in your mind?
00:47:06
justin_daulton
Yeah, I'm going to go a little different than you because I agree that the one that you have written down is the big one. That's that's pretty cut and dry. um i think the one that surprises me is the DJ Moore trade that happened over the weekend to Buffalo.
00:47:20
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, that was a big one.
00:47:22
justin_daulton
um Setting the wide receiver market in a year where AJ Brown was out of Philly as well, setting that that market at a second-round pick for DJ Moore is absolutely bonkers to me.
00:47:29
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:47:36
justin_daulton
um that now like what do you like what's the asking price for for an aj brown where you know you probably could have seen an aj brown go for maybe a late first and deservingly so but maybe definitely ah a couple second round picks um but dj moore who is someone that's on the back end of his career still warranting a second round pick at this point in his career is absolutely insane to me. So I think that's the big one for me in terms of the biggest move in terms of trades. I'll talk more about kind of the moves in terms of free agency of this contracts later on.
00:48:10
justin_daulton
um But definitely, definitely the biggest trade for me is, is that DJ Moore trade.
00:48:16
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, that that was a huge one. And I think we've been saying it for years now that the Bills need to figure their wide receiver room out. um And so that was because he was bears to bills for DJ more. Right.
00:48:28
justin_daulton
Yeah, bears the bills.
00:48:28
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. they've They've been they've been saying that for for years. And so that's a huge move for them to. to so to really bring in somebody that can help sure that up, especially somebody that can help with maybe develop Keon Coleman as well.
00:48:42
Cody Atkinson
So, um yeah.
00:48:43
justin_daulton
Yeah, to recap that trade for you, it was ah
00:48:43
Cody Atkinson
i
00:48:46
justin_daulton
trade to the Chicago bears along with a 2026 fifth round pick in exchange for 2026 second round selection. Um, so they did get a draft pick back. So I guess that kind of sweetens the deal up a little bit for Buffalo that you're not just blowing entire draft capital on it
00:48:58
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:49:00
justin_daulton
But I guess the only question i have for you before we move on is if you're going to spend that high, why not just go ahead and go after aj Brown?
00:49:09
Cody Atkinson
I guess it's got to be, I don't know what DJ Moore's contract is though. Like, cause AJ Brown's getting paid like 25 or something. Right. So like maybe there's a cost saving from a, I mean, it could be cost saving from a cap perspective.
00:49:15
justin_daulton
Something like that, yeah.
00:49:21
Cody Atkinson
It could just be personality. I think DJ Moore is much more agreeable and he's just gonna, he's gonna walk into that room and he's just gonna become a part of it. um Where I don't, I don't know if, if AJ Brown's going to be super happy walking into another room with a, ah a run heavy quarterback.
00:49:39
Cody Atkinson
um They're very different quarterbacks. I don't want to say that Jalen Hurts and Josh Allen are the same, but um you know I could see where A.J. Brown might be like, we're not doing this again.
00:49:50
Cody Atkinson
um And I do really want that. so i I guess I can see it from that perspective. I like D.J. Moore a lot, so I do like this move.
00:50:01
justin_daulton
Yeah, it just seems like the the price tag was a little high. So, I mean, ultimately, i think the Bears win this trade because, I mean, that secondro that second round pick is going to go way further than, what was it, the fifth round pick that they got back or that they sent away along with it.
00:50:08
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I think so.
00:50:15
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:50:16
justin_daulton
Yeah, that 2026 second round selection in a year where there isn't a ton of first round talent, like you're going be able to get a ah really good value pick in the in the second round that's going into to really help out the Bears within and the team that
00:50:19
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. it's a
00:50:30
justin_daulton
doesn't need any more help if i'm being completely honest yeah i agree
00:50:32
Cody Atkinson
yeah Yeah. No, I think the bears win the trade as well, but I i do like and see what Buffalo is doing there. Yeah. yeah And I think mine that I'm picking as well is very similar. It's Max Crosby traded from the Raiders to the Ravens. And I'm going to tell you, I think the Raiders won that Max Crosby is an incredible player.
00:50:50
justin_daulton
yes
00:50:52
Cody Atkinson
um yeah The Ravens have a defensive first coach, um so and they need help on the defense. like Their defense was atrocious last year. They need help. They got a defensive coach, and now they got an absolute stud edge rusher.
00:51:04
Cody Atkinson
But for two first-rounders, I'm going to go with the Raiders on this one because the Raiders cleared up cap space. And I won't spoil it because we'll talk about some of the moves they're making later, but the the Raiders are spending.
00:51:15
Cody Atkinson
They know they're drafting a quarterback, number one. And they are spending to make sure that they can try to be competitive from the very first day he walks in there. And I personally love what they're doing. I think you, I think you have a really good chance that, that you draft Fernando Mendoza number one. And then with that second pick, you draft another offensive lineman to help make sure that he has as smooth of a transition as possible. And I think that was an incredible trade for the Raiders. I'm sure the Ravens will love Max Crosby. I think they need more than him um to, to get that defense, right?
00:51:48
Cody Atkinson
um But yeah, I i think that that would that was my my biggest move of the the period so far. I think it's a 1A, 1B with the DJ more for sure.
00:52:00
justin_daulton
I think my only two cents on it, yeah, I agree. I can i agree completely with the Raiders. I think the Raiders win that. one Anytime that you come out with two additional first-round picks, you imagineed you automatically win a trade, and you're dumping, what you're dumping like, what what is it?
00:52:11
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, you feel good. of
00:52:13
justin_daulton
It was $30 million a year. Now that's going that's going over to Baltimore, right?
00:52:15
Cody Atkinson
It was a lot.
00:52:18
justin_daulton
um i don't know what the dead cap on that is Raiders, obviously, are going to to own a little bit of the dead cap money. But yeah, I mean, in terms of winning the trading time, you come out to first round picks and you're going to talk about Fernando Mendoza being on a rookie contract and you're going to be able to get some guys around him with that.
00:52:24
Cody Atkinson
Now
00:52:34
justin_daulton
With that second first round pick, obviously other moves coming down later. But anytime that you do that, I watched two Ravens games this year, obviously the Texans game.
00:52:38
Cody Atkinson
e
00:52:44
justin_daulton
And then I watched the Pittsburgh game to see who the Texans were going to play in in the wildcard round. This doesn't fix what's wrong in Baltimore.
00:52:52
Cody Atkinson
now
00:52:53
justin_daulton
Does it, does it?
00:52:53
Cody Atkinson
I mean, they can they can make moves around it, but like...
00:52:56
justin_daulton
Sure, but they still couldn't stop anything in the secondary. Now, granted, if the quarterback's being hit you know seven times a game by by Max Crosby, maybe that makes a difference.
00:53:07
justin_daulton
But at the end of the day, they're still not doing enough that ah that I don't see it. You're not stopping the run. like The middle of their defense was so porous that you can't stop the pass.
00:53:18
justin_daulton
While you hire a defensive-oriented coach, you had a defensive-oriented coach before, and it still didn't work.
00:53:23
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, very true.
00:53:23
justin_daulton
so i i just giving up your draft capital to try to win now and try to win in this lamar window i don't think it's enough and i still don't think you're i still don't put you as number one in the division when you still have joe burrow across the river like so i mean i don't know i did to me
00:53:39
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:53:43
justin_daulton
I don't know what the Ravens are thinking. Maybe, maybe there's more going on behind the scenes that that we don't know about that. Maybe they found some pieces in the draft that they're, that they're ready to pull the trigger on, but this doesn't fix the issues from what I've seen in Baltimore.
00:53:55
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I agree. But i really i really like it for for Vegas. um Yeah, i I think we're in agreement on that one. um Biggest surprise move.
00:54:09
Cody Atkinson
um I don't know if you want to if you got one ready or you want me to kick it off to give you a little bit of time.
00:54:14
justin_daulton
Take that one. i'm i'm sold I'm between two, so go go and take it.
00:54:17
Cody Atkinson
Okay. ah Michael Pittman traded to Pittsburgh. I simply did not see this coming. um a be We'll get into it with later answers, but the c Colts bring back Alec Pierce, who's their wide receiver to, to Michael Pittman.
00:54:33
Cody Atkinson
Michael Pittman obviously had a much, it just did not have much of an impact last year. It's really kind of fallen off, but I did not see them dumping his contract. And I honestly, I didn't see him going to Pittsburgh either.
00:54:46
Cody Atkinson
Pittsburgh is the king of acquiring receivers and not fixing their quarterback position. So like, I don't know what they're doing at quarterback next year.
00:54:54
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
00:54:57
Cody Atkinson
um I like, mean, I'm assuming DK Metcalf is still, is still going to be there. Um, and, and with Michael Pittman there, I think that's a really solid one, two punch, um,
00:55:10
Cody Atkinson
in the receiver room, but it leaves, it leaves the same questions for me of who's, who's getting them the ball and can they do it well enough to matter? um And, and honestly, I just, I didn't see Pittman leaving. ah I didn't see him leaving India. I thought they were going to keep trying to develop a Pittman Pierce combo.
00:55:30
justin_daulton
Yeah, i I think ultimately one of the big things, that and we'll talk about it here in a little bit, is the is the Pierce contract. I think that's insane, but we'll talk about that next section.
00:55:42
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:55:43
justin_daulton
um I have a couple. i don't I don't think I can decide on one because there's a couple that i that are just crazy to me. First one that um I want to touch on, Mike Evans signing a three-year deal in San Francisco, leaving Tampa I think I touched on it last week. Maybe it was week before. I think we were maybe you and I are discussing it that there was a potential of him ending up in Houston on ah on a hometown deal.
00:56:04
justin_daulton
I just didn't see where it made sense for him to end up in Houston to have three big body receivers with Nico.
00:56:06
Cody Atkinson
evening
00:56:10
justin_daulton
Um, um,
00:56:13
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:56:14
justin_daulton
Higgins, thank you. And then Evans. So definitely that was a head scratch for me that he ended up in San Francisco. I don't know if he necessarily fits that scheme really well out there. But hey, he's an Aggie in the NFL and I support the hell out of that guy. So nothing but the best for him.
00:56:30
justin_daulton
um And then Travis Etienne, I think is the only other big one that I like. it Insane contract to leave what is a winning situation in Jacksonville.
00:56:43
justin_daulton
You know, obviously I don't know what the path is in Jacksonville still. There's still a lot of pieces that they're short there, but Travis ETN leaving for only four year deal to New Orleans for a $52 million dollars is crazy where he probably a B tier running back in the league, not knocking him. mean He's just not an eight year. He's not a CMC, right? Like he's not that type of running back.
00:57:04
justin_daulton
but a four-year, $52 million dollars deal to go and probably lose for two to three years on that contract while they tried to build a roster around a C-tier quarterback.
00:57:13
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
00:57:18
justin_daulton
So i don't I don't know. Just head-scratching moves in terms of some of these contracts. We'll touch on some other big ones, i think, as we kind of go through. But those to me are the more surprising ones of just like, I don't i don't know what's going on there.
00:57:26
Cody Atkinson
yeah
00:57:31
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I agree. That one was a ah head scratcher from the sense of like ETN is coming off of a really good year, but I think that was largely the first like full really good year he put out.
00:57:44
Cody Atkinson
um and And they gave him four years. What's that math out to like $13 million dollars a year. It's just a lot, a lot to pay.
00:57:51
justin_daulton
Yeah, it puts them behind puts them behind buts my hand Kenneth Walker and above David Montgomery in terms of the running back deals for the through the so far.
00:57:56
Cody Atkinson
yeah So I, yeah Yeah, feels like a ah rich contract for what he's done so far. um But I guess one thing to keep an eye on coming out of that is is Alvin Kamara might be on the move now because you don't need you don't need both of them.
00:58:13
Cody Atkinson
you think youre I don't know what they're paying Kamara, but um with they they I think they also like Devin Neal, who's a guy they drafted last year.
00:58:14
justin_daulton
Correct.
00:58:21
Cody Atkinson
So um probably some more fallout coming from that. um All right. Least favorite move. um I have this flagged biggest overpay just to clarify how we are viewing least favorite.
00:58:35
Cody Atkinson
you want to kick You want to kick that one off or?
00:58:37
justin_daulton
Yeah, I'm going to go Homer on this one in in a weird way, but I'll connect to that. Laramie Tunsil. um You want to talk about the Texans dodging a bullet last year, right?
00:58:48
justin_daulton
Trading Laramie Tunsil, catching a lot of flack for sending probably a top 15, some even considering him a top 10 left tackle in the in the league.
00:58:54
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:58:58
justin_daulton
um I want to get the number in front of me. Make sure i don't misquote the number to you. Where did Where go? Where did it go?
00:59:08
justin_daulton
There it is.
00:59:08
Cody Atkinson
Man, i don't I don't have that one in front of me to help you.
00:59:09
justin_daulton
um twoyear contract sixty point Two $60.2 million dollars extension, including 52.65 million fully guaranteed.
00:59:14
Cody Atkinson
No.
00:59:19
justin_daulton
So that's about 8 million, 7 million and some change in incentives over the next two years. Now, obviously it's a restructure because it's an extension. So obviously they're they're clearing some cap for this year, which obviously looking at their their breakdown, they've already done a lot of moves.
00:59:28
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
00:59:33
justin_daulton
um But in terms of the Texan side of the thing, right? not spending 60 million dollars on laramie tonsil on a guy that couldn't avoid a false start or a holding penalty um in any game that he played two years ago for the texans um but just dodging a bullet in terms of that and of ariante erosie versus laramie tonsil but in terms of
00:59:48
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
01:00:04
justin_daulton
overspending on a guy this is this has to be one of the top conversations i have why you just overspend like crazy on their mutants
01:00:12
Cody Atkinson
Well, it's $30 million, dollars like you said, for a guy who leads the league in false starts regularly, but also just doesn't make the people around him better. Like he never, he was never known as a guy who made the line better.
01:00:19
justin_daulton
correct
01:00:23
Cody Atkinson
And I think you see that in that he was on, while in Houston, he was consistently the best piece on one of the worst lines in the league. And he goes to Washington and kind of Houston gets clowned in in a way that the league doesn't understand Laramie Tunsil like people who watch him every day do. And then Washington goes out and Jaden Daniels couldn't play last year. he He couldn't stay healthy because you had a line led by Laramie Tunsil, who is over, you know, in a lot of ways overrated. um and isn't making the talent around him better.
01:00:57
Cody Atkinson
and And you cannot pay $30 million dollars for a guy whose only sole responsibility is himself.
01:01:03
justin_daulton
And I think and i that that that part, the last sentence that you said, I watched all 17 games of his final season in Houston, and not once did I ever see him go back and pick up C.J. Stroud.
01:01:15
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, he's just not that guy.
01:01:15
justin_daulton
and that's and that to me And that to me is like, you know, we in ah any in a year that we talk about the New England england Patriots left tackle, that guy clowned throughout the playoffs, but coming out, he had his his draft day press conference saying that he would die for Drake May.
01:01:28
justin_daulton
Ariante Harris, for he's sending a DM to see that the stroud when he got drafted, he's like, I was like, he's like, I'm not letting anyone through this offensive line. Like, you are my boy.
01:01:35
Cody Atkinson
you
01:01:35
justin_daulton
And then seeing him back it up on the field of going out there, anytime that CJ did get knocked down, he was one of the first people out there helping CJ back up, picking him back up. And that, to me, that's the culture piece that um'm that I was missing in Tunsil.
01:01:47
justin_daulton
He cared too much more about, you know, wearing Jordans on the field and making sure that everyone knew that he was feeling good because he was, he he was you know, he was looking good, right?
01:01:57
justin_daulton
It just wasn't the culture that D'Amico was trying to build at Usain and we dodged a bullet.
01:01:58
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:02
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I agree 100%. For mine, I'm going with, we already referenced him a little bit, the c Colts re-sign Alec Pierce to a four-year $116 million dollars deal. he he is He is a really, really, really good wide receiver too.
01:02:19
Cody Atkinson
They are paying him like he's one of the best wide receiver ones in the league.
01:02:19
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:02:24
Cody Atkinson
I have written down here, this contract is more expensive than what the Texans are paying Nico Collins currently. Nico Collins on par with like a Devonta Smith contract as well.
01:02:35
Cody Atkinson
um he The Amon Ra St. Brown's contract, I believe, that he's playing on is four years 120. So he's about a milli-year short of Amon Rao, and he's just not that player. I like him a lot. I had flagged him to you earlier as like a, hey, if we want to pick up a speedy wide receiver too, this is the guy to look at.
01:02:55
Cody Atkinson
But that's an unreal payment.
01:02:55
justin_daulton
Right.
01:02:58
Cody Atkinson
I don't
01:02:58
justin_daulton
Yeah, I think ultimately, like, the way that I was with you, I think even before you flagged it to me, I was like, I can very well see the Texans moving on an Alec Pierce, right?
01:03:06
justin_daulton
He's a different type of wide receiver that we don't already have in the building. I think someone that would have complemented really well with Higgins and even Dell coming back at some point this season to be on the other side and take some pressure off of Nico.
01:03:18
justin_daulton
But yeah, man, four years, 116 is insane for a wide receiver that's lived pretty much in that 60 receiving like receptions in a season.
01:03:29
justin_daulton
No more than and I, we can pull up his stats. I don't think he's ever been a double digit wide, uh, tight or touchdown receiver in a, in a, in a season.
01:03:36
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:03:38
justin_daulton
So I don't know where,
01:03:38
Cody Atkinson
I'm not sure on that. I think he's only broken a thousand yards once. I think that's the, that's the stat I heard today.
01:03:44
justin_daulton
And that's the litmus test, right, for a wide receiver. You're getting wide receiver one money. And maybe maybe it is that maybe the splitting the reps with Pittman, maybe that was something that hindered him, and maybe they they see more Pierce as a wide receiver one going forward, and that's why they're going to pay him as wide receiver one money.
01:04:02
justin_daulton
But I just don't see the justification on giving him wide receiver one money. And you're going to sit there and say that, and I don't have the numbers in front of me, but you're going to what I assume is a top 10 contract in terms of wide receiver money.
01:04:13
Cody Atkinson
i Yeah, it it would seem like it would be in the, so ah highest touchdowns on a season is seven. um I don't have it in front of me. it's If he's near Amon Ra, I feel like he's got to be top 10.
01:04:27
justin_daulton
Yeah, I don't get that that move, especially when you're they they transition tagged um Daniel Jones, who isn't even slotted to start until probably midway through the season as he tries to come back from his ACL injury that he had.
01:04:42
justin_daulton
Or no, not ACL, um Achilles tendon issues or a pop that he had and towards the end of the season, which is like a 9-10 month recovery process. So you're still going to be down Daniel Jones until probably...
01:04:55
justin_daulton
November, probably at the earliest unless he pulls some Aaron Rodgers type stuff and gets back sooner. um But yeah, i I don't know. It makes me happy. As a Texans fan, it makes me happy because it just continues to to permeate the the losing culture that that's in Indianapolis over the last five to six years.
01:05:06
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:05:16
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. A hundred percent. Um, I don't get it. Um, let's go with biggest move. That's the biggest threat to the Texans. Um, it take this in any direction you want to, do you want me to kick this one off or do you got this one holstered and ready to go?
01:05:31
justin_daulton
Go ahead. You take this one.
01:05:33
Cody Atkinson
All right, so so i what I wanted to do here was I wanted to pick a guy in the division and be like, this is now a guy that we have to face twice a year. I don't really like anything that anybody in the division is doing.
01:05:46
Cody Atkinson
like i don't I don't think the Jags have done much yet. i I've never liked the Titans signing in my entire life, um and and we've I've already flagged two c Colts ones ah in not great categories. So what I went with was Kenneth Walker to the Chiefs,
01:06:02
Cody Atkinson
Um, the thought process here is that the biggest storyline of this year was the path to the play, the path to the Superbowl is easier than it's ever been because Patrick Mahomes isn't in the playoffs and the the Patriots are so young and Bo Nix is the, you know, was all that. And, and a move like this has me feeling like the chiefs can get back sooner than later.
01:06:28
Cody Atkinson
Um, cause I, I think I'd said it before. I don't know if it was before we started the pot or not. Like I still felt like they were a ways away from cleaning it up, fixing it up. Obviously you're going to have my homes, not there all next year.
01:06:39
Cody Atkinson
Um, and I think mostly on the O line is where I'm like, you got, they got, they got some stuff to clean up there, but, but a move like this is, is one that scares me. Cause it adds a second dimension back to that offense that was missing last year.
01:06:54
Cody Atkinson
What are you, are your thoughts?
01:06:54
justin_daulton
ah No, that could put that can completely makes sense.
01:06:57
justin_daulton
um You know, a team that until last year, didn't get over the hurdle of beating them in terms of Houston, right? And I think as you were becoming a fan, we had the 24-3 in Kansas City in, what was that, 2016, 2017 range, right, with Deshaun Watson, second year.
01:07:11
justin_daulton
collapse you know in kansas city and was that twenty
01:07:13
Cody Atkinson
Oh, I remember
01:07:15
justin_daulton
twenty sixteen twenty seventeen range right with dehawn watson second year um and that really just sent us into the spiral because that was the off season that all the stuff came out about to shine um bill o'brien got more power in the organization when you shouldn't have and you know and then everything just kind of spiraled and we traded deandre hopkins for a bag of a ah potato chips that didn't have any potato chips in it um and then jj watt walked out of the organization and then
01:07:37
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
01:07:40
justin_daulton
had to sit on Deshaun Watson for a couple of seasons. It just spiraled. It spiraled over the next couple of seasons, ultimately leading us where we are now. But yeah, the Chiefs were always that monkey on our back that we could not get past. Same thing with Baltimore, right? We couldn't get past Baltimore until this past season. So, I mean, there's there's a lot to be said about this booth for Kansas City for a team that has had issues keeping running backs healthy.
01:08:04
justin_daulton
Pacheco hasn't played a full season. You've really, you know, done a running back commit by committee in Kansas City over the last three or four years. So this is a big move for them. They get a, they get an instant day one starter in Kenneth Walker.
01:08:18
justin_daulton
You and I talked at the Super Bowl that would love to have seen Kenneth Walker in the battle red Jersey this season, but David Montgomery, I think fits better with, in terms of Woody Marks and what we're trying to do with the running back room in Houston and even Jowar Jordan, if he can get healthy and be ready for, for opening day.
01:08:33
justin_daulton
So i think, giving Patrick Mahomes more ammunition sucks for the AFC.
01:08:41
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:08:41
justin_daulton
especially in a year that they re-signed Travis Kelsey again, right? So he's got his boy back, and Tyree Kill is still floating around. So do you reconnect Tyree Kill with Patrick Mahomes again, right? they're You probably don't see Patrick Mahomes the same way that I just said about Daniel Jones, right?
01:08:54
justin_daulton
You probably don't get Patrick Mahomes until that late October, early November range again. But if you can just live and survive those first month that first month and a half and you get Patrick Mahomes back, Patrick Mahomes on 90% is still better than most quarterbacks on 100%.
01:09:12
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:09:12
justin_daulton
and you're giving him weapons that and he doesn't have to run around for his life like he had to last season and you let travis kelsey play the way that he plays football and you let kenneth walker run the ball down the hill and you potentially bring in a tyree kill on a hometown contract you start talking about kansas city being a threat again so i i'm with you man that's that's a tough one to to look past i'm to take the same type of route from mine um And obviously we're about to do a full on deep dive into the Texans.
01:09:41
justin_daulton
But the bills, um the bills came to town in Houston this season and Josh Allen got sacked more times in the game than he ever has in his entire career.
Texans' Offseason Needs and Strategies
01:09:51
justin_daulton
So immediately you start talking about, you need to shore up the offensive line.
01:09:55
justin_daulton
Josh Allen can't play hero ball the entire time, right? He's got to be able to get the ball out. DJ Moore, obviously a big get for him, right? That that gets the wide receiver room going in the right direction. My pick for this is going to Connor McGovern.
01:10:05
justin_daulton
Um,
01:10:06
Cody Atkinson
Okay.
01:10:07
justin_daulton
there's going to lot of conversation around Tyler Lindebaum that we're going to get to here in a little bit, right, with the Texans and, you know, missing out on the Tyler Lindebaum situation. But Conor McGovern was widely heralded as the number three center in this free agency.
01:10:20
justin_daulton
And once Lindebaum and Mays went off the board, McGovern being there at at three for the bills, That's a big one because the Bills is going to be a team that's going to be there in this championship window for Houston.
01:10:34
justin_daulton
So when you when you start talking about, you know, now Will Anderson can't get to him on an inside dig or or Daniel Hunter can't get in there off of a, you know, on a shift and get now because Conor McGovern is a beast at that center.
01:10:49
justin_daulton
So that that definitely can hinder the Texans on this path to Super Bowl in a year where it was the easiest path that we ever had. in franchise history and still couldn't get it done so that that hurts the texans because that's a big name that's not there anymore
01:11:04
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, no, absolutely. um I liked McGovern as the number. dig McGovern was my backup to Linderbaum as far as what I was hoping for for Houston. I liked him better than than Mays, um and I was really, really disappointed to see ah to see him taken off the board and um back Buffalo. um Yeah.
01:11:27
Cody Atkinson
It's a definitely it's really these these big teams, this that we've struggled to get past that we've struggled to get on the same level as the Chiefs, the Bills, the Ravens.
01:11:39
Cody Atkinson
Those are right now. Those are like the biggest those teams are going to generate the biggest moves because um that's who we're trying to be so that we can beat them like we have to be them to before we can beat them. And we haven't even shown that yet.
01:11:54
Cody Atkinson
um And so, yeah, that's why you're seeing those as the biggest threats to the Texans is ah chiefs and Chiefs and Bills, two teams we have to get through if we want to get to the Super Bowl for the first time. um Last one I have here before we move on to the Texans is position or player you're watching that hasn't moved yet.
01:12:13
Cody Atkinson
What do you got for that one?
01:12:16
justin_daulton
ah My answer got answered like an hour before the pod rolled off. It was Tua. Like, what happened with Tua? Obviously, this move can't be official until the league year rolls over because you can't have the the cap casualty cuts until the league year rolls over.
01:12:31
justin_daulton
But Tua ending up in Atlanta is a weird destination for me. Obviously... I like Penix. I think Michael Penix is a pretty decent quarterback. i I'm not going to say he's the best out of that class or even top three in that class, but I think he has the most potential to to step up and be that guy in Atlanta.
01:12:51
justin_daulton
But Tua obviously being a very similar quarterback, now you've left-hand quarterbacks, too, in Atlanta. um so that's so that's weird um but i think that was not that was my big one is like obviously being down here in florida you hear a lot um from from dolphins fans in terms of you know what you know what is to ah what happens with that situation how much are the dolphins willing to tank um so to ending up in atlanta is just a strange destination for me where
01:12:56
Cody Atkinson
interesting.
01:13:17
justin_daulton
you know i think he was always going end up as a backup quarterback somewhere but it was going to be in a situation where i thought it was going like almost like the jets where he starts off as a backup and then ends up as a starting quarterback and and can potentially win the job back i the interesting thing on top of it all is that he signs the veteran minimum so he's he's definitely trying to take a prove it deal.
01:13:39
justin_daulton
So we'll see what it looks like Penix falls off, you know, Penix fell off in the second half of the season this past year. So what does that look like for Tua?
01:13:46
Cody Atkinson
Mm-mm.
01:13:47
justin_daulton
But that was my answer going into it. In terms of position, you know, we're going talk a whole lot about it here in in a couple minutes. But I'm going to keep watching off offensive line as we get more and more into it. Obviously, a few names have moved in that, but Linderbaum was the big one that fell today. But there's still a lot of other names that are kicking around that still need to decide their fate as they get into free agency over the next couple of days.
01:14:10
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, for sure. um I think we're on the same page here. My position, I chose guard specifically um just because so many centers have moved already. I don't really think there's an opportunity for the Texans to upgrade its center and free agency anymore. Like I think those options have all changed.
01:14:27
Cody Atkinson
been picked, but they do still have opportunity to um go after guard. um And so keeping an eye on that, centers moved way faster than guards. So I'm curious to see when the guards start going, what the price is, and if we'll be in play for that.
01:14:41
Cody Atkinson
Um, player same vein as yours, which is different guy. I'm i'm curious to see what happens with Kyler Murray. Um, I'm not a huge Kyler fan, but I think he's a guy that could still have some juice in the tank if he lands in the right spot.
01:14:56
Cody Atkinson
Um, akin to a Daniel Jones, um, Mac Jones type situation. He's a guy that that could have something left. I'm curious. I like to see where these guys move and keep an eye on ah the the projects that you can go grab if if you need a quarterback in a non QB heavy draft year. I mean, that's what Seattle did, right? Like it worked. And so you did those are just fun names to keep an eye on guys you gave up on that that that might be able to rebound their careers.
01:15:24
Cody Atkinson
um So I think we're keeping an eye on the same thing there. um Just just ah targeted two different guys. um And with that, i think we'll I think we'll switch it to the to the Texans perspective. I mean, that's that's kind of what we're looking at from the national.
01:15:37
Cody Atkinson
um With the Texans, I mean, Justin, i you can see kind of what i how i I thought about um structuring this I mean, ah I wasn't here last week for us to do our primer that we wanted to do. So I was thinking maybe we could just quickly sprint through um just a rank of of of what we saw as needs for the Texans this offseason and how we hope they they address those just kind of as a primer before we get into what they've already started doing.
01:16:07
justin_daulton
Yeah, I think for me going into the offseason, the number one was center. um The rotating door at center this past season, whether it was Jared Patterson, or Jake Andrews kind of rotating through there.
01:16:20
Cody Atkinson
Thank you.
01:16:21
justin_daulton
That just wasn't the answer. um We did it at at left guard as well. Like the whole left side of the line outside Ariante Hercery was a mess this season, um especially once you added Trent Brown to the right when he got healthy.
01:16:34
justin_daulton
It was truly the center and left guard that were where the big question marks for me going into it. But its center is the big one because so much of your communication goes through the center and CJ having young players along with him that are brand new to the system sometimes, right? Where, you know, Jake Andrew comes in this past season as as a free agency pickup.
01:16:56
justin_daulton
um And then, you know, Patterson has been in the building since day one with CJ and all this stuff, but you haven't had experience at center. You know, you look at, You know, to take it back a couple years ago, right?
01:17:07
justin_daulton
You look at Jason Kelsey and how much of a difference that made for Jalen Hurts, right?
01:17:11
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
01:17:12
justin_daulton
So that makes such a world of a difference. I have a guy that's going to help you in protections and scheming and and pointing guys out to you, especially for a young quarterback who's still learning in CJ Stroud, um that's still developing, especially going into year two in the Kaylee system.
01:17:27
justin_daulton
So if you can go out there and get a guy that fits in that Kaylee, New England, McVay kind of hybrid system that we're trying to run in Houston. um So getting a center that makes the most sense and fits that and has experience in the NFL, that was my number one.
01:17:43
justin_daulton
um you and i obviously when we went back and forth for the probably the last two weeks right of we wanted lender bomb and we were restructuring to make deals to go get lender bomb and then seeing the deal for lender bomb come out today um and realizing that that was just way too rich for for houston money at this point um but i really thought that we were going to be in conversations for k mays or mcgovern um as it as everything kind of unfolded and obviously it didn't um with mays going to detroit and then we talked about the government going to buffalo so but for me it was center then guard um obviously we shored up tackle right um with which i brought coming back in um but on the flip side what i wanted to see
01:18:21
justin_daulton
um What defensive tackle? um I think you and I, we talked a lot before the pod happened that we loved the de-tackles that we rotated around towards the second half of the season, um whether it be a ah tomy Tommy Togiai, Sheldon Rankins, Naquan Jones, you name it, the guy, like we played like six defensive tackles there towards the end of the season.
01:18:42
justin_daulton
So stirring up defensive tackle with a guy to fill that to fill that void was big because you know what you have on the bookends, right? You've got Hunter and you have Will Anderson Jr. So you've got to be able to stop the run up the middle.
01:18:58
justin_daulton
I love Tommy Togiai. He's not a top 30 defensive tackle in this league. Was he a great vibes guy, especially there towards the end of the season, and you know was a spark plug for that defense?
01:19:09
justin_daulton
100%. But in terms of ah of a dog or an alien, you know whatever verbiage you want to put around, you know, special players, you need to go get someone to show up in the middle of that. And we still don't have that.
01:19:21
justin_daulton
We'll talk a little bit more about D tackle as we kind of get out of this primer section. But for me, it went center guard defensive tackle. That was my top three going into the free agency period.
01:19:31
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I think that's that's about the the same. So center one, um guard two. ah to To mix it up a little bit going into free agency, I'll say running back because I think it was pretty well known that Mixon wasn't going to be back. That just whatever happened there wasn't gonna it wasn't going to resolve itself. and And you were going to get get stuck with um you know Woody Marks and company.
01:19:57
Cody Atkinson
And you really needed to improve from that. I like Woody Marks a lot, but um you really needed more around him. So so i'll go I'll go that route um with it. I'll go center guard.
01:20:08
Cody Atkinson
ah running back from an addressing standpoint. I think the only thing that I'll kind of highlight is um I really felt like they had to go center in free agency. Cause I don't think there are centers. I don't, I don't think there's really a center that you can go get in this draft.
01:20:29
Cody Atkinson
That's going to be a day one starter. um So that was something that I felt like they had to address in free agency. we'll get into it in a little bit. I feel like they already missed the boat on that. um And that's kind of ah my biggest concern there. I think you can go guard in free agency or center or sorry, free agency or the draft.
01:20:46
Cody Atkinson
um I've got guys I like in in both Chase Basantis in the draft, Emmanuel Pregnon. um There's also, ah zeit i think Zeitler, who was with Detroit through Tennessee, now back in free agency and Guys like that. um Running back, I would have been out have been happy either way. I'm really happy with David Montgomery, and I hope they they add another a piece in the draft just to add to keep adding to that room.
01:21:09
Cody Atkinson
um ah You got anything on that front before I kick over? I can read off the transactions here, and we can kick to the next section or anything you wanted to throw there.
01:21:17
justin_daulton
Um, I was trying to pull something real quick. No, he signed. Um, the, one of the, the Houston podcasts I listened to for the Texans, uh, the locked on Texans.
01:21:30
justin_daulton
Um, one of the guys on there was talking about the Cowboys, how to center that fell out, um, with the team and was looking for a new deal. Um, but he signed with the chargers, tyler but bedaz um, um,
01:21:41
Cody Atkinson
Oh, yeah. beam Yeah. ah I don't know how to pronounce it, but I know you're talking about.
01:21:46
justin_daulton
Yeah.
01:21:47
Cody Atkinson
yeah Yeah.
01:21:47
justin_daulton
So he was the one that he was on that you could have got on the, that got on the cheap.
01:21:47
Cody Atkinson
He went to the Chargers.
01:21:51
justin_daulton
Um, I don't know what he obviously ended up signing for in, in, in LA. Um, but he was on that. I was thinking like, maybe you can make a run at, that's only him. Um, Yeah, I mean, ultimately, i agree. And I talked about it in my part, right, where, you know, you need someone that has experience in the NFL at center.
01:22:09
justin_daulton
And I think going rookie just doesn't make sense for center, unless it's someone that's going to come out from a program that just lives and breathes the trenches. you know i think of Wisconsin type of guy in there, a Michigan blue blood, right?
01:22:24
justin_daulton
that's gonna You can plug and play into any system in the NFL. So unless you get a guy like that i in the draft, and I'm not super versed in the draft yet. We'll talk more about the draft in about a month right when we get ready for that primer.
01:22:35
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, we'll have a primer, don't worry.
01:22:37
justin_daulton
um But I agree. Going center in the draft just doesn't, it doesn't make the most sense to me. So a little concerning that we weren't, but that we didn't win on the sweepstakes in the draft or in the free agency there.
01:22:44
Cody Atkinson
I think you...
01:22:48
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I think you can go center in the draft. I just don't think you can go center in the draft and expect a day one impact. um And I think it's also very specific to this team.
01:22:55
justin_daulton
Mm-hmm.
01:22:59
Cody Atkinson
Let me read off what they've done so far because we're really getting into what's missing, biggest concern. So let me read off what we've done real quick and then we'll dive back into this. So obviously we know they traded away Titus Howard, um traded for David Montgomery.
01:23:13
Cody Atkinson
I think that was a huge move for the running back room. On the offensive line, they've re-signed Trent Brown and Ed Ingram. um On the defensive side, re-signed Sheldon Rankins.
01:23:25
Cody Atkinson
Signed Dominique Robinson, who was ah kind of a rotational edge rusher for the Bears. um And the big defensive signing is Eagle safety Reed Blankenship on a three-year, just just south the $25 million dollars contract. um I think while we're getting into the O-line here,
01:23:45
Cody Atkinson
That's my answer to to to what's what's missing. like What we have so far is a re-signing of a tackle and a re-signing of a guard. we have we're We're bringing guys back who were on an O-line that didn't cut it last year.
01:24:00
Cody Atkinson
um and yeah And you want to see them... And this is what i texted you this morning, right? When the Ed Ingram was announced. And I think you were a little more pumped for it than me. And i was my my thought was, I can't get pumped yet because I need to see what's new before I get excited about what's coming back.
01:24:16
Cody Atkinson
Because if all that we do is come back, then I can't get excited for for running it back. It just wasn't good enough. and And that's because you have a quarterback who is going into, basically, this is ah this is a make it or break it year for CJ.
01:24:30
Cody Atkinson
and And I feel like you need to give him the best offensive line you can so that you have all the data to make a $40 million dollars decision at the end of the year. Like, you need to know, because I think they're still holding on to that rookie year a little too much. And it makes me scared that they're going to pull a Giants and they're going to give him a Daniel Jones contract and he's going to flame it and then go somewhere else after you paid him a hundred something million dollars. Yeah.
01:24:55
Cody Atkinson
I felt like Linderbaum was the answer to that because you know they they were giving a lot of, I think this year they had announced that they were giving more pre-snap responsibilities to CJ um and and he struggled with that. I thought i think that's that's pretty pretty evident.
01:25:13
Cody Atkinson
um He struggled with that and if you signed a guy like Linderbaum or a proven center, um like you said, a center with NFL experience, then that's something that you can take back off his plate, off a CJ's plate and give to that center and try to set yourself up for the best success. If the center's diagnosing the blitz because he's, you know, capable of doing that and passing that information on to CJ and CJ can, can work within that.
01:25:38
Cody Atkinson
yeah Maybe that's a better recipe than, than what we had last year. And that's why it was my number one. I think that's probably partly why it was your number one, but This offseason for me was you have to fix the O-line because you have to decide if the O-line was the problem or if CJ was a problem so you know what to do with the $40 million dollars decision.
01:25:56
Cody Atkinson
And I'm still worried that they're going to bargain bin this and we're not going to have an answer to that question at the end of the year.
01:26:06
justin_daulton
No, I think that's completely fair. Right. I think the reason why I was more excited for you than you, I think, with the editing Grimm deal is what I referenced earlier. Right. The right side the line was not the issue.
01:26:17
justin_daulton
The right. way Anytime the Woody marks ran to the right hand side, he got positive game. But anytime you read the left hand side of the of the line, he was it was I think he was one or one point four, one point five.
01:26:28
justin_daulton
yards per carry, and more often than not, a loss, but also more of our sacks came from the left-hand side of the line as opposed to the right-hand side don line with the asterisk of once Trent Brown got healthy and was inserted on the offensive line, which didn't happen until like week eight, seven or eight, right, when CJ went out with the concussion.
01:26:45
justin_daulton
um I think for the reason why is Titus Howard, right, I think is the conversation where I think you and I, where we agree that moving Titus was the right decision because his capital was high or his stock was high right now because of what he did last season, right?
01:27:02
justin_daulton
He played three different positions last season. He was super versatile. You know, you were going to get the Browns to overpay on him. And not only did they overpay him in the free agency or in the trade market, but they also overpaid for him on a contract basis more than what the Texans were going to pay Titus Howard.
01:27:18
justin_daulton
That doesn't diminish what Titus Howard brought to this team. When Titus Howard played along with Ed Ingram and Trent Brown, the line was better. And that then that that is period, the end, right?
01:27:28
justin_daulton
So what does that look like going forward for the left-hand side of it? Right now, Jared Patterson or or Jake Andrews is your starting center. And that that worries me. So i can be excited about Ingram, but also be super concerned about who is going to protect CJ right up the middle.
01:27:46
justin_daulton
And it doesn't matter if you have a David Montgomery or Woody Marks running the ball 20 times a game. You still got to be able to to create a gap on that left-hand side. And until we can get a ah ah left guard and a center, I'm going to be worried.
01:28:00
justin_daulton
i I think you and I both agree that you can go left guard at the draft and be just fine. You can plug and play a left guard because he's going to run with Ursary there on the left-hand side.
01:28:11
justin_daulton
um It'd be fine. But running with a rookie center day one, does worry me. um But I could still be excited about it because it's we re-signed him. He's on a three-year deal now.
01:28:24
justin_daulton
The money makes sense because of how good he's played the last two seasons since coming over here. The Trent Brown deal, it's a transition tag for me, right? It's one-year deal up to $7 million with incentives.
01:28:37
justin_daulton
um I think ultimately, I think you see us go right tackle somewhere in the draft. I can see it with that second second round pick that we have um or even the third round pick that we have.
01:28:50
justin_daulton
Kassiria loves a good third round pick. So I think you can see us go right tackle somewhere in there, put him behind Trent Brown, let him learn behind. I think he's going to turn 34 this year.
01:29:03
justin_daulton
um so I think you you let him learn through a a career guy, a veteran, and that only makes the O-line better. And then you put them right next to Ed Ingram for the next couple of years, and that only bolsters that rookie going forward, whoever it ends up being, unless you can trade up and go get like a peg run, as you referenced earlier, right?
01:29:21
justin_daulton
So I think ultimately the concern is still there. I think why you're worried definitely makes a whole lot of sense, right? Because CJ got blindsided a lot. We couldn't run the ball to the left the entire season.
01:29:34
justin_daulton
So I think until I see us go out and get a left guard or a center, I'm going to be worried about this offensive line. And especially when you have to make um a fifth-year decision on CJ and a fifth-year decision on Will Anderson Jr. by May 1st.
01:29:50
justin_daulton
So like that's that decision is coming because if you don't make that decision by May 1st, CJ Straub becomes a restricted free agent at the end of the season because you don't pick up the fifth-year deal.
01:29:50
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:30:02
Cody Atkinson
Well, I mean, I assume they, yeah I mean, I assume they're going to pick up the fifth year deal if for no other reason than to have the opportunity to hold his contract if they decide to move on from him.
01:30:02
justin_daulton
So there's there's a lot there.
01:30:12
Cody Atkinson
um just so you can trade him instead of letting him walk.
01:30:13
justin_daulton
Sure.
01:30:14
Cody Atkinson
um i I hope we're not making a Willie Anderson decision still. I hope that's been made and you give him whatever he asks for.
01:30:21
justin_daulton
Yeah, I think, i think and granted, I don't have the agencies in front of me, right? So I don't know who's representing Will Anderson Jr., but I'm sure since the season ended, Will Anderson has been talking to his agent about getting a long-term contract this offseason.
01:30:36
justin_daulton
Regardless, you're going to pick up the fifth-year option on Will Anderson, and even if you don't get the new deal done right now, you're going to get that deal done immediately. probably before the end of next season.
01:30:47
justin_daulton
Like that's something that like, he's a cornerstone to this to this franchise, whether CJ is going forward or not, will understand is a piece that you build around.
01:30:48
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:30:55
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Will Anderson definitely Yeah.
01:30:57
justin_daulton
Yeah, you build around that, right?
01:30:58
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:30:59
justin_daulton
right You know, we we haven't even talked about Hunter's extension, right? Hunter getting retirement money basically at this point on on the extension that he got. You know, you probably get Hunter for another maybe two years, three years most, I think in this...
01:31:12
justin_daulton
where he's at age wise and in that position. So you sure you, you give him that money to hopefully get that retirement deal on the backend where you can get Hunter on the, on the cheap um for his last year or two.
01:31:25
justin_daulton
um and then you let him right off into the sunset and then you have will Anderson on a, on a mega deal, a miles Garrett, TJ Watts style contract very soon.
01:31:35
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, absolutely. um i I didn't have the Daniil Hunter thing in here. i kind of um Since it was just an extension, I kind of fer forgot about that. um But no, i I do think that's a big move that buys you time because when Daniil Hunter...
01:31:51
Cody Atkinson
is like when he's done, you're going to want to have a cheap young option ready to go so that you still have a dynamic duo. And I think extending him buys you a little bit of time before you need to invest in that, which is good for the amount of investment you need to make in your offensive line this draft.
01:32:09
Cody Atkinson
um Much like you, i'm I'm less worried about guard than center because I think you can find a guard in the draft and I would be comfortable with the idea of them starting a rookie left guard next to Ursary where I'm less comfortable with the option of them starting a rookie center.
01:32:28
Cody Atkinson
um So I'm still the the most worried about center because I think we might be stuck with Jake Andrews, um which, you know, it's just, I think it's less than ideal. You get to the point where you're running out the same,
01:32:44
Cody Atkinson
line as last year, but with a different left guard than Titus Howard. And I think that becomes a difficult situation to, to get to, to, to see significant improvement that I think we are all kind of hoped we would see in the off season. I just, I wanted to see them be aggressive and offensive line and then do whatever you want anywhere else.
01:33:03
Cody Atkinson
um And, and I haven't seen him do that. I, I am of the opinion that despite how overpaid Tyler Linderbaum is, that I would be more excited in this moment if we had been the ones to overpay him because i think it's that valuable to,
Focus on Texans' Defense and Draft Plans
01:33:26
Cody Atkinson
um to just I think you're getting value in taking stuff off of CJ's plate to try to get the best from him this year. I think you're getting more value in in having a firmer decision on whether he's the guy or not after this year.
01:33:41
Cody Atkinson
um And if you do move on from him, then you have Linderbaum there for the for the rookie. or whoever is brought in after him, which is the same a path that, that Las Vegas took that I've, you know, already kind of said that I'm i'm really stoked with, with what they're doing this off season, which doesn't mean it'll work, but, but it it looks good on paper right now. um So yeah, that's, that's still my biggest concern. That's why what's missing. this entire off season to me comes down to the offensive line.
01:34:09
Cody Atkinson
Um, And we we haven't done anything new yet. weve we've We've brought back, which is good a good start, um but we don't have a complete offensive line. and And the position I'm most worried about, I think we might have already missed the vote on.
01:34:26
Cody Atkinson
um Is there anything you wanted to throw in before we move on to to the positives?
01:34:32
justin_daulton
No, I think I'm definitely ready to talk positive. I think we spent a lot of time in the on the O-line, which I'm sure we're going to talk more O-line in a month when we get to the draft.
01:34:39
Cody Atkinson
Yeah. Yeah.
01:34:41
justin_daulton
And as we get into OTA, rookie minicamp, and even into into training camp and preseason football, right, in in August. So, I mean, it it's going to be the conversation because it it makes the most sense, right, that CJ is an improvement year. You and I keep talking about it in our in our text messaging, right, that, like, this is the biggest year of CJ Stroud's career.
01:35:01
justin_daulton
This is you either are to go out there, you're going to make $40 million dollars going forward, or you're going to go and be a backup quarterback somewhere. And that that's what this year is. And you have to feel for the guy because if if you do run out, Jake Andrews at center with a rookie left guard um alongside Ariansi Earths, who hopefully makes a good step forward in the second year,
01:35:10
Cody Atkinson
Mm-hmm.
01:35:23
justin_daulton
But then even Trent Brown, who's older, right? Like, what does that look like for for CJ? Do you even have the opportunity to perform to where you can go out there and prove that you can make $40 million a year? So, I mean, I hope that they have a good answer for us over the next couple months and we you know we get the we get it right, um especially because...
01:35:42
justin_daulton
How often do you have this type of championship window via the defense, right? That, you know, you've got to go out there and you've got to go win, right?
01:35:47
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:35:50
justin_daulton
And you've got to make the moves right now in free agency. You've got to get someone that's established. So hopefully they can do something that turns the tide for for both of us, I think.
01:35:58
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, I think that's a good transition too. So let's um but let's let's flip thought process here and and and let's go to what what's been your favorite move so far of the of the ones that that we've that we've listed?
01:36:14
justin_daulton
There's one that you didn't list that I'm i'm actually a really big fan um of because we're going to talk about the obvious one and I think we can go back and forth on it. But the one that I really like is Dalton Schultz.
01:36:25
justin_daulton
um i love I love the one year extension.
01:36:25
Cody Atkinson
Oh, okay.
01:36:28
justin_daulton
He was already on contract for this season. Had one hell of a season. provosub Probably should have been in conversation a lot more for top 10 tight end in the league. Yeah.
01:36:39
justin_daulton
but I love this $12.6 million dollar extension. Obviously there's a lot of incentive side up in that with pass catching and everything that goes along with the tight end role. But someone that has gelled so much with CJ really got comfortable in this Kaylee, New England, McVeigh hybrid system that we, that we have in Houston now.
01:36:59
justin_daulton
um But I love that pick a lot because it's consistency in that room and a room that we have not had a lot of consistency in since CJ has been, been here. Right. whether or not we get a Brevin Jordan back, whether whether or not you know we make a move or get a rookie tight end in the league, or you know a Kate Silver does make a make a leap forward, which i yeah at this point I don't think so. think the experiment's over on on Kate Silver, unfortunately.
01:37:21
justin_daulton
um But i like that move because it gives that safety blanket. And how much how often did we talk about Tom Brady with with Gronk, right? Like you've got to have that safety net underneath in this system. And Dalton Schultz is just continuously proven to be that guy and flourished in the in the Kaley system. So that's the one that I'm going to throw out there before we get to the the big one.
01:37:41
Cody Atkinson
yeah no i think that's I think that's a good one that I i kind of I guess in in throwing this list together i overlooked the extensions um as just because they're guys that were on the team that are still on the team and I just did didn't see them when I was writing this down but No, I think that's a good one. i ah with you as well, I think it's largely realistic to mentally move on from Cade Stover becoming something from Brevin Jordan becoming something. I think this is the Dalton Schultz tight end room. um And, and,
01:38:15
Cody Atkinson
extending Dalton Schultz buys you time before you have to figure out a replacement. So, you know, I would still would like to see them take shots at guys. I think there's a lot of good quality tight ends that they if, if not well-rounded, at least specialize in one thing in this draft.
01:38:32
Cody Atkinson
um And so I would still like to see them go and sure that up, but this buys time to kind of try to develop, um, Long term plans behind Dalton Schultz as he becomes more and more expensive.
01:38:44
Cody Atkinson
So, um no, I think that's a that's a good one. um I guess you've i guess you' figured out what I'm going to say. um i guess that to my text at 7 p.m.
01:38:56
justin_daulton
Thank you.
01:38:58
Cody Atkinson
gave it away, but I think I'm most excited for Reid Blankenship. um I think generally i i have more faith in the defensive moves of this organization because I have more faith in what the – what the defensive staff can do, led obviously by the head coach, D'Amico Ryans. And so, um big fan of the re-signing of Sheldon Rankins. He he did he did great things. um and And the second safety position was one that they really struggled to find a home with this last year. I think Jalen Reed from Penn State played it quite a bit when he was healthy, but then you also had MJ Stewart and other guys kind of rotating throughout there. And, and I feel like this really shows up the secondary where you're running out Derek Stingley, Kamari Lassiter, Kalen Bullock and Reed Blankenship. i the ah I'm going to, I'm going to transition us a little bit to the next question as well. The defense is, and should be everyone's biggest reason for hope, I think, because the defense is, is and was elite. Um,
01:40:00
Cody Atkinson
And if there was any weakness on this defense, um I feel like Reed Blankenship sure is that up. um and And I have no reason to think that the defense will be better next year than it was this year. And it was elite this year.
01:40:15
justin_daulton
It's crazy to think that there's a potential that this Texas defense is better next season. um Yeah, I mean, ultimately, at the beginning of this of this segment, right, you asked me what it I think was the you know the necessary or what was the necessary pieces, right?
01:40:28
justin_daulton
When you look at the defense, there's not a lot, right? There's not a lot of holes on the defense, right? You have ah a cornerback, too, that's on a rookie deal, right, in Kamari Lassiter. You have Stingley locked up, who's now proven now multiple off seasons to restructure deals to to make moves the right way.
01:40:44
justin_daulton
You have Caitlin Bullock, who's on a rookie deal on the back end and and and took a big step forward in the second year this past year.
01:40:50
Cody Atkinson
Big stuff.
01:40:51
justin_daulton
um Aziz Alshair making a big ah big move in his second year, right, between the first year and second year. um We didn't even touch on EJ Spee resigning as a linebacker depth, right, for and a big special team player, right, for the Texans.
01:41:04
justin_daulton
So when you talked about the holes, it was defensive tackle. And to your credit, you talked about Shadow Rankins re resigning, Naquan Jones resigning. I wouldn't be surprised that Tommy Togiai also somehow so squeaks back into the building on a resign.
01:41:17
justin_daulton
Um, but yeah, the second safety position is a position that we couldn't figure out the unfortunate situation of whatever happened with Jimmy Ward, um, last year with the legal issues and then not coming back to the team.
01:41:30
justin_daulton
Um, and then of course we took a chance on Jalen Reed and I think that was a third round pick as I referenced before that Casero loves was, it might've been later.
01:41:36
Cody Atkinson
It might have been later. it was, it was i think I think the third round was the USC guy.
01:41:41
justin_daulton
It was either third.
01:41:43
Cody Atkinson
i think Jalen Reed was even later.
01:41:45
justin_daulton
Okay.
01:41:45
Cody Atkinson
There's a USC guy that was hurt the whole season.
01:41:46
justin_daulton
So, i mean, Right. So, I mean, Jalen Reed obviously dealing with the injury issues that he had, especially towards the end of the season, not being there for the playoff run. So this this, for me, signifies that we wanted to spend money on the back end. And, you know, you can look at the Buffalo game, that we couldn't stop the deep ball against Buffalo, right?
01:42:05
justin_daulton
um even Even Drake May, you know, doing what he did with the, you know, going up against the you know stingley obviously being what he is and kamari being what he is but like not having that second position to work off of for for volok in the back um re definitely blakenship definitely covers that position for us um it's tough to not be excited um for a re-blankenship type of uh of transaction so it definitely fills that hole for of like of the needs that are out there for the defense which there's not a lot so
01:42:35
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:42:36
justin_daulton
you know, let's go out there, let's get, you know, we have Naquan in the building, we have Sheldon Rankins in the building for a defensive tackle, let's go get a rookie D tackle to join that room and learn and be the the guy of the future. And then you're looking at 11 positions on that field that they're none of them are are a skill gap. Everyone is playing at the at the level that D'Amico expects them to play at.
01:42:57
justin_daulton
You have five ball hawks that are ready to go out there and intercept the ball any time. You have a Jalen Petrie who's coming in on run stopping, who's also going out there and getting interceptions.
01:43:07
justin_daulton
So, i mean, Blankenship only adds to that. So, i mean, that swarm mentality is only going to continue to go through that that that side of the ball. So, ah hopefully we didn't spend too much um and then not have any money left over for the offensive line but um we'll see i'm still a little worried about the wide receiver room eight yeah three year 24 is eight year eight eight million um sixteen and a half of it's guaranteed as i have the number in front of me um so i mean obviously the other uh uh cooper de jean is the other big name affiliate that that's still there right um so i mean we'll see obviously i think
01:43:26
Cody Atkinson
I mean, that's like 8 million a year, right? So that's not crazy.
01:43:47
justin_daulton
Houston's a destination for defensive players, and that's been very obvious the last couple of seasons with bringing over Aziz and Hunter coming over when when it was when it was ready to go. But also these guys taking deals to come over here, right? Like, Reeve Langenship probably could have got more money elsewhere.
01:44:03
justin_daulton
Probably could have got more money for staying in Philly, if we're being completely honest. but because of what hewson is doing and they're a top five defense and they're not five four or three they were number two this past season in points allowed and the number one defense was the team that won the super bowl so like you're talking about adding re blank it's just out of you know the mentality at this point is the texas go up three nothing and we're not losing football games
01:44:17
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:44:31
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, absolutely. um So one thing you touched on um that i also think is a good point. So Reed Blankenship fills the secondary hole.
01:44:42
Cody Atkinson
um I think there's obviously the defensive tackle room is still... rotational and development pieces that they brought in that they've massively struck gold on.
01:44:53
Cody Atkinson
And so I think it's a very strong room, but I am of the, of the mind that I expect them to and want them to use one of those first two picks on a defensive tackle, just to see how great that room can be when D'Amico gets his hands on a guy that has a higher ceiling than the guys that are currently in there. Cause he he's made gold with what he's had. Those are ah incredible guys. And if we ran it back with the same ones, I would still be stoked with it. And I do expect them to improve that in the draft. and And so when I look at the defense, I look at safety's filled in free agency. I think defensive tackle gets filled in the draft and and you're looking at a better unit,
01:45:35
Cody Atkinson
You know, obviously, aside from just, you know, pray for health, but, like, you're looking at a better unit than even last year.
01:45:39
justin_daulton
correct
01:45:42
Cody Atkinson
And that's my biggest reason for for hope this season. It sounds like the defense might be yours as well.
01:45:47
justin_daulton
Oh, I mean, yeah. one I mean, while D'Amico Ryans is our head coach, the defense is the reason to hope.
01:45:48
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:45:53
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:45:55
justin_daulton
I will say my my my way early draft prediction is that we don't have a pick in the first round. I think we've trained.
01:46:01
Cody Atkinson
i I think my, was thinking about this, i was looking at tank-a-thon earlier today just to see who was who was projected where. and i I looked at it and I had this moment of chuckle where I thought how pointless this was because the odds are that every single pick on there, we're not drafting at that pick.
01:46:17
Cody Atkinson
It's going to either be moved up or down or gone.
01:46:18
justin_daulton
Correct.
01:46:21
Cody Atkinson
was like, well, the 28, you could do this. And then at the 38, I was like, those will both probably be different numbers by the time we draft.
01:46:27
justin_daulton
Yeah, the the theory that i that I, the, I think there's only two names that I see is moving up for just early on.
01:46:28
Cody Atkinson
I wouldn't be surprised either way, up or back at this point.
01:46:36
justin_daulton
It's the tight end out of Oregon that I don't know his name right now.
01:46:38
Cody Atkinson
Kenyon Sadiq.
01:46:39
justin_daulton
um Sadiq. Yeah. Thank you. And then it's Pegron as well, which I believe is also an Oregon, not getting it correct me if i'm wrong. Right.
01:46:45
Cody Atkinson
I don't think we would have to move up for him, honestly. i think he's kind of down right now.
01:46:48
justin_daulton
And I don't know. it It depends.
01:46:49
Cody Atkinson
unless Unless the combine picked him up, you you're you're more locked in on the combine.
01:46:50
justin_daulton
if it
01:46:54
justin_daulton
i didn't I saw his name pop up a lot more at the combine, but not enough. I mean, the the issue with this one, and we'll run through this really quick, is there's not a lot of quote-unquote first-round talent or first-round evaluations on players this year.
01:47:05
Cody Atkinson
you
01:47:07
justin_daulton
So there's going lot of reaching that happens in this draft.
01:47:10
Cody Atkinson
Yeah.
01:47:12
justin_daulton
But I think...
01:47:12
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, he could definitely go higher, but I think he there's a chance he's there at 28 or 38. He's kind of been in that range.
01:47:19
justin_daulton
Yeah, think if you don't move up, Sadiq is going to go early. The asking price, you're going to have to get the top 15. I think they get Sadiq, just one of the best tight end prospects we've seen probably since the Kyle Pitts came out of college.
01:47:27
Cody Atkinson
Probably.
01:47:31
justin_daulton
So if you don't go up and get him to bolster on the other side of of Dalton Schultz, then I think you move back and then you you hope that you get Pegron there. And then after the Pegron pick, I would then feel comfortable going to be tackled.
01:47:44
Cody Atkinson
Yeah, and there's going to be a lot of them there. Caleb Banks was the guy i liked the most, but I think he's shot up boards to where you'd have to go up to get him, which I don't expect us to do. But and there's an Ohio State kid, I think his last name is McDonald, that is in that range.
01:47:53
justin_daulton
Right.
01:47:57
Cody Atkinson
And there's, I want to say it's Lee Hunter out of Texas Tech, um also a really good, just a size guy, eat up the middle and let the edges go to work.
01:48:07
Cody Atkinson
So, yeah. No, really excited for what they can do there. i mean, Justin, that wraps up all the questions that I had. Is there anything you wanted? Is there anything you want to add or close out with before we wrap this up? I mean, we're getting we're getting towards the towards the the end of our little range here. so
01:48:25
justin_daulton
yeah no uh i my party shot i think i'll give for you for it all man it's just that it's exciting to see the texans make moves it's exciting to see us spend money i i remember many many many off seasons where the texans don't do anything um to to help improve so i think casario is proving to do the things that need to be done to to improve the roster um i still think there's some there's some glaring holes that he has to address whether it is via free agency or the draft Um, he's proven to be pretty good with that mid to late round draft picks. I need to see him hit in the early rounds right now, um, and get, you know, day one starters in the building from the draft. But, um, I, I have more hope in Casario than I did this time last year.
01:49:07
justin_daulton
So that's my, that's my parting shot that I'll, that I'll give you for, for today.
01:49:11
Cody Atkinson
All right. Sounds good. i think I think we'll leave it on that then. If you stuck with us this long, thanks for listening. Thanks for joining. This has been episode five of the Coastal Launch. We will be back next week um with March Madness, if I recall. It's a selection Sunday on Sunday. So I think next week is going to be a big March Madness episode. And we might be priming some MLB as well. I don't have the note in front of me.
01:49:36
Cody Atkinson
But I think we might be priming some AL and we got a little March Madness talk.
01:49:41
justin_daulton
I think it's soon.
01:49:41
Cody Atkinson
like i think I think you're pulling, I thought you were pulling it up.
01:49:41
justin_daulton
I think if it's not, if it's not, no, no, no. I think if it's not next week, it might be a world baseball classics in two weeks.
01:49:45
Cody Atkinson
I thought you had it there. Yeah,
01:49:48
justin_daulton
But yeah, i think, I do think you're right.
01:49:50
Cody Atkinson
World Baseball Classic is going to be in two weeks.
01:49:50
justin_daulton
I do think we're, yeah. so I think you're, I think you're right. I think we are as if I can give it one ale primer, very excited for a ale primer.
01:49:56
Cody Atkinson
Yep, March Madness and AL Primer. so get it. Yeah. So get excited for that. We're splitting the MLB up into two parts so we can deep dive. But, yeah, you're going to see us fill out some brackets probably next week um and and give give you the lowdown on the on tournament and prime you for the MLB with the World Baseball Classic. We'll still be in play at that point. So thanks for joining us. I've been Cody.
01:50:19
justin_daulton
I've been Justin.
01:50:20
Cody Atkinson
And this was the Coastal Launch. Peace.
01:50:23
justin_daulton
Peace.