00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, Texans.
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Speaker 2: Welcome to the show as we are so close to the opener. Sunday at noon against the Buffalo Bills. Three days, less than 72 hours. Johnny, what's the hour count on this one? It's 72 minus 6, right?
00:00:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, 66.
00:00:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, 66 hours.
00:00:16
Speaker 1: That's what it would be. Like Route 66.
00:00:19
Speaker 4: Man, wow.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: Speaking of Route 66, it's the 20th anniversary of the Cars Pixar movie, and that's... That.
00:00:26
Speaker 4: Is such a great movie. In fact, did you send me this the other day? There's a video of Lightning McQueen. It's like the pace car.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for F1. Yeah, for F1. But is he doing NASCAR too?
00:00:37
Speaker 4: I don't know. That's a good question.
00:00:38
Speaker 1: You should do NASCAR.
00:00:39
Speaker 4: Should.
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Speaker 1: Or NASCAR should demand.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 1: Request heavily.
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Speaker 4: We want Lightning McQueen.
00:00:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he's a NASCAR. He's not an F1 car.
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Speaker 5: No.
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Speaker 2: So what are you doing here? But they embraced it. You got to embrace that NASCAR. It's one of the better Pixar movies, man. I love that movie.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: Did you see Days of Thunder? They're doing it again.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
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Speaker 1: They're doing the reboot.
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Speaker 4: I don't know.
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Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a reboot or it's got to be a sequel. Cruise is in it.
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Speaker 4: We'll see.
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Speaker 1: He's not going to Cole Kidman with this one.
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Speaker 4: Okay, look. When there's been a long time frame between the sequels haven't been great. Coming to America 2, anyone?
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Speaker 1: Hang on. I was okay with it.
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Speaker 2: But Cruise will not screw it up because Top Gun Maverick, anyone.
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Speaker 1: That's pretty good.
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Speaker 4: You can go either way, but I loved Cars, Days of Thunder. I thought it was... Days of Thunder was so good. It was so 90s. It was right at the beginning of the 90s. I feel like it's late.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: It's 90, right? It's such a 90s movie.
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Speaker 2: I feel like it's late 80s all the way. Late 80s, early 90s, whatever. It is when it was made, right? And I told you recently that I had never seen it really. I'd seen scenes. So I watched it on the plane.
00:01:46
Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
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Speaker 2: And it was wonderful because it felt like I was watching an AI movie. Hey, AI, make me a Tom Cruise blockbuster with Jerry Bruckheimer from 1990.
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Speaker 1: And that's what it was. It was so awesome.
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Speaker 4: You know what struck me about that movie? If you've seen Days of Thunder, you know this. Why were they so dirty after the race? They would have dirt all over their face. You don't see NASCAR guys there like that. They don't have that after a race.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: I don't know.
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Speaker 4: They're sweating hot, but not like that.
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Speaker 1: Maybe the tracks weren't as clean back then in the 90s. I don't know.
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Speaker 5: Maybe.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: All right, so we will be on a clean artificial surface on Sunday at Reliance Stadium. Liberty White presented by Hyundai. It's going to be awesome to see the Texans play the Bills. Two AFC contenders going at it. We saw another AFC contender last night, I think, play the Seattle Seahawks on the road. And, Johnny, it was so pleasing... to watch what happened to the Patriots last night. To hate-watch the Patriots is one of the great things to do.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: It is.
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Speaker 2: My last experience watching NFL football was hate-watching them in the Super Bowl.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: That's right. But that was bitter because, man, I felt like, ooh, coulda, woulda, shoulda with the Texans.
00:02:54
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:02:54
Speaker 1: This was a lot more fun last night.
00:02:56
Speaker 2: Let's see how this goes with you guys going up to the Pacific Northwest. Oh, not so well. And you're playing a backup quarterback. Drew Locke looked pretty good, though. For a backup guy coming into that situation, you don't expect to play opening day if you're him.
00:03:08
Speaker 5: Opening day.
00:03:09
Speaker 1: But he did.
00:03:10
Speaker 4: He did. He did a really nice job. I think Drew Locke, Davis Mills, these guys are so valuable to your team. You just never know. I mean, that's a game that got away from Seattle early. New England's got a 10-0 lead, but they kept plugging away. I think Jadarian Price is going to be a superstar for the Seahawks. They'll give him more touches going forward. The Seahawks stars made plays. Cooper Cupp made that great one-handed catch that led to points, then JSN obviously makes his play. There's a great NBC clip. If you haven't seen it, you got to find it, where Mike Tomlin just was getting his letters mixed up. Yeah, yeah. So Mike Tomlin's now on the SNF pregame show. He's pretty good. And so he kept talking about Sam Darnold and JNS.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: And Maria Taylor, I guess, apparently had corrected him once, but then he did it again. And so Maria Taylor's like, JSN. And he's like, yeah, I know. And she's like, well, you didn't say it. It was what I say. And he goes, and she goes, JNS. And he goes, exactly. Like, it was funny how he reacted, dude. It was really good. It's a good clip.
00:04:20
Speaker 1: He's got a sense of humor. He does. More than you would think.
00:04:23
Speaker 4: Mark, I'm telling you, when I would go to the Senior Bowl, and I've gone to the Senior Bowl every year, Aaron Donald's year, so 2014. I've gone to every senior bowl. And it's everybody. Now, it's not all at once. It's been over a course of how many ever years. But I have never seen anyone down in Mobile have the reaction to them being there more than Mike Tomlin.
00:04:48
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
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Speaker 4: He's the mayor of Mobile. Everybody just made a beeline over to him to shake hands. He's the godfather. It's unbelievable. It was fascinating.
00:04:58
Speaker 1: So when he.
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Speaker 4: When it was announced he was going to go join, you know, be on the table with those guys, I thought, you know, this is going to– people are going to be really impressed with him. And you've seen him on Hard Knocks, the one Hard Knocks they did, the AFC North, and you'd hear him speak to the team, and you're just like, this guy, man, he gets it. But I remember he was on a podcast with Raheem Morris. It was Tomlin, Raheem Morris on with Sean McVay and Peter Schrager. And Schrager and McVay were doing a– like they were doing a podcast together or whatever. So they got Raheem Morris and Mike Tomlin. And Tomlin just told stories.
00:05:34
Speaker 1: It was great. It was tremendous. I remember that. It was so darn good. Do they still do that podcast? It's the McVay quarterback. I don't know what they call it now. Coaches, something. I don't know.
00:05:44
Speaker 4: Schrager's got different.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: He had Shanahan and Rob Sala on. It was awesome.
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Speaker 4: That whole podcast. That season, he had Shanahan. He had Shanahan. He had Sala. He had those two, Tomlin and McVay. And he had Matt LaFleur.
00:05:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, Matt LaFleur. Yeah, Matt LaFleur.
00:06:01
Speaker 4: Now the LaFleurs get confusing. But anyhow, back to the game. Seattle just stayed after it, and I can appreciate that. They got knocked down a couple times, but I felt like Drake May early on was taking advantage of some of the things. And I always battle this, Mark. When you beat a team, and I think this applies to the Texas taking on the Bills. When you beat a team the year before, and you've been so successful, I always think it's tough to come back and replicate it because if you do the same things, well, they're going to be prepared for it.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: Right.
00:06:36
Speaker 4: But you don't want to do different things because, well, those other things worked, and you know they worked. And so it felt like the Patriots were really prepared for what the Seahawks were throwing at them. But in the fourth quarter, Drake May melted down, and the Seahawks took advantage of it. I sent you some numbers right away. And I think these are, I'll spare people the long version of it, but essentially last year, last year, the Patriots, well, and count this game too, so last year, and then this last game, the Patriots played nine teams, one, two, three, four, yeah, nine teams against with winning records. That's it. Nine. Four playoff games, four regular season games against teams with winning records. Now, what was the narrative about Drake May last year? Well, they haven't played anybody. Easy schedule. But when they did play somebody in those nine games, his game average, 21 of 32 for 231 yards, 1.2 touchdowns, 1.1 interceptions, 1.1 fumbles, and. 7 fumbles lost. In total, in those nine games, he had 11 touchdowns, 10 picks, 10 fumbles, 6 fumbles lost, and he was sacked 39 times in those nine games.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: Against the Texans, what were the numbers?
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Speaker 4: He had the three touchdowns.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: Right.
00:08:13
Speaker 4: He threw 16 of 27 touchdowns. For only 179 yards, a pick, four fumbles, two fumbles lost.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: Okay, so he fumbled the ball four times, lost two of them, three turnovers. So three touchdown passes, three turnovers for Drake May.
00:08:28
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:08:29
Speaker 1: And not a lot of yards.
00:08:30
Speaker 2: But the Texans outdid him in the turning the ball over department.
00:08:34
Speaker 4: That's right.
00:08:34
Speaker 1: And that was a big part of the recipe.
00:08:37
Speaker 4: But this right here, this information that I just gave, I mean, I went through each game. They're... Crowning Drake May in this offseason, I got frustrated because it was right there. The Patriots fans didn't want to see it. We don't want to know about this.
00:08:54
Speaker 1: They were talking about he might be better than Brady. Right.
00:08:58
Speaker 2: This was coming out of their mouths. Show me you don't know football. You've had a great team there. You've had a great team there, but you still don't understand this game? That you had the greatest quarterback ever and maybe the greatest coach ever? Or one of them, certainly. And you expect this to just kind of transform itself into that kind of dynasty again?
00:09:17
Speaker 4: Against winning teams. A one-for-one TD interception ratio.
00:09:23
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker 4: Against winning teams.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: I mean, that's horrible. Plus the fumble. Well, plus the lost fumble you were talking about. And the lost fumbles.
00:09:29
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously, I think we had the most. But he had two fumbles and a fumble lost against the Chargers. Four fumbles, two fumbles lost against us. One fumble, one fumble lost against Seattle in the Super Bowl. Now, he didn't lose a fumble last night, but he did throw three interceptions. He did throw three interceptions last night, all of them in the fourth quarter.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: Are you ready for their schedule, Patriots?
00:09:51
Speaker 4: Oh, I know it gets tough.
00:09:52
Speaker 1: All right, Bills next week.
00:09:54
Speaker 2: Wait.
00:09:55
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sorry, Bills. That's three weeks from now.
00:09:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, three weeks.
00:09:58
Speaker 1: So, all right, Pittsburgh. next week.
00:10:01
Speaker 2: Jacksonville on the road. Pittsburgh's at home. Jacksonville on the road the following week.
00:10:05
Speaker 1: That'll be tough for them. The Bills, and I'll be rooting for the Patriots in that game.
00:10:09
Speaker 4: At Buffalo.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: The Bills at Buffalo. Then the Raiders at home. Then the Jets at home. Okay.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: Bears, Dolphins. Gosh, you have three of four in that stretch with Dolphins, Jets, Raiders. So that's not too bad. But you also could say, hey, we have three of four against Bears, Packers, Lions because they're playing the NFC North.
00:10:27
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:10:28
Speaker 1: That's tough.
00:10:29
Speaker 4: They got the NFC North and the AFC West, right?
00:10:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, because they have Chargers. They have Chiefs down the line. That was us last year. So they have at Arrowhead. They have at the Chargers. Yeah, kind of. All right.
00:10:42
Speaker 2: They have the Bills again. Obviously, they have the Vikings at home. Denver at home later on. This is a tough schedule. This is a tough schedule. This will show who they really are. Yeah, much tougher.
00:10:52
Speaker 4: I mean, they played three teams in the regular season. Three teams with a winning record in a regular season. Three. Pittsburgh was 10-7. Buffalo they played twice.
00:11:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:11:04
Speaker 4: And then Baltimore.
00:11:06
Speaker 2: They still get four games, Dolphins, Jets, right? That's four games right there that you should go three and one at minimum.
00:11:12
Speaker 4: And look, I know that argument, in a sense, was used against the Texans when the Titans and Jags weren't that good.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: So I understand that. But still, this year, they're going to get those four games.
00:11:21
Speaker 4: But again, look at what Drake May did against the Dolphins. Look at what he did against the Jets. Juxtapose that against what he did against teams with winning records. And maybe we'll bring that hype train back down to earth. Look, I still think Drake May is going to be a really good quarterback in this league. But one of the things you and I discussed... before we went on the air, we started talking about younger quarterbacks, guys that have been drafted from, say, 2019 or even 2020 on.
00:11:52
Speaker 2: There are not many success stories. Not many great success stories. You pointed this out. How many of those guys are on their second coordinator, at least, if not head coach?
00:12:01
Speaker 1: And there are many.
00:12:02
Speaker 4: Right, many.
00:12:03
Speaker 3: Many.
00:12:03
Speaker 1: When you look at Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels even, C.J.
00:12:06
Speaker 2: Stroud, his second offensive coordinator, Bryce Young, second offensive coordinator, second head coach. Let's just keep going here. Trevor Lawrence.
00:12:13
Speaker 1: Right. Second, third head coach?
00:12:16
Speaker 4: Where's he on now? I don't even remember. Yeah, third head coach.
00:12:19
Speaker 1: Third head coach.
00:12:20
Speaker 4: Third head coach.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: Because he had Peterson and now Liam Cohn after having Urban Meyer.
00:12:24
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, Urban Meyer.
00:12:25
Speaker 1: To start his career.
00:12:26
Speaker 4: I mean, Zach Wilson. I mean, how many teams has he been on?
00:12:28
Speaker 2: Well, he doesn't even count anymore. He's already been eliminated from this little discussion.
00:12:31
Speaker 4: Justin Fields eliminated from the discussion. You know? I mean, Bo Nix is of the... Everybody talked about a 2024 class. I was part of that. It was going to be a good quarterback class. I didn't totally buy into guys that were after Jaden Daniels, Drake May, and Caleb Williams. But those three guys I mentioned, they're all on their second coordinator, second head coach. J.J. McCarthy is still on the same guy, but obviously it's gone to hell in a handbasket there. Michael Penix, same thing. That's gone to hell in a handbasket. He's actually on his second head coach, second coordinator. And then you've got the only one that we could find, the only one that we could find that has had the same coach, head coach, and actually his offensive coordinator's changed, but the head coach still calls, you know, is still part of it. And that's Bo Nix in Denver. He's the only, he's really the only one where there's been continuity in All the way through for those three years. And yet, at the end of the year, how many of those guys and names we just mentioned are going to get $ 65 million per?
00:13:37
Speaker 2: You know what's amazing about last night? And I'm sure they mentioned it on the broadcast. I listened to a lot of it, but I didn't listen to all of it. And I would be shocked if Tariqo didn't say this almost right away. But especially as the game unfolds and you're winning a game... Opening night with Drew Locke in a tough situation. This is a Super Bowl rematch. The Patriots are supposed to be good. Your starting quarterback goes down wicked early. Drew Locke is thrust in there. This is the quarterback you got. Not that you expected him to be your future starter because you didn't. But this is the quarterback you got in the Russell Wilson trade.
00:14:11
Speaker 4: That's right.
00:14:12
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:14:12
Speaker 2: So you got rid of your franchise all time. I mean, Russell Wilson in Seattle won a Super Bowl, played in another. A lot of success. A lot of playoff appearances and playoff wins. You trade him to Denver for the world and Drew Locke's thrown into the deal. And here he is playing for you. and winning for you on national television opening night.
00:14:35
Speaker 4: I mean, to kick off a season, I mean, look, a lot of Patriots fans have been like, look, last year we lost to the Raiders, and look how we turned out. Look, things can turn around. The Eagles were 2-2 in 24 and then got hot. I get it.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: But this game was right there for the Patriots.
00:14:50
Speaker 4: It was right there. You just couldn't punt it away. No pun intended. You just couldn't screw it up, and they screwed it up. They did. And the MVP boy screwed it up badly. I mean, the interception that he threw down to Dobbs where Dobbs was supposed to go up 50-50 ball. Okay, I can maybe.
00:15:08
Speaker 5: Okay.
00:15:09
Speaker 4: But the throw across the middle to Julian Love. Julian Love picked off that same exact pass in the Super Bowl. Same exact route. Same exact everything. Picked off that pass. And then the throw that he makes in the end zone is just a horrible decision.
00:15:22
Speaker 1: It's horrible. It's horrible.
00:15:23
Speaker 4: Horrible.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: Because he's.
00:15:24
Speaker 2: Off balance, falling backwards, just got to get rid of the football, kick the field goal. If it's fourth down and you're down four, obviously you have to throw that ball into the end zone and just hope somebody makes a play.
00:15:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but you're down three and you're in field goal range.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: You just got to kick a field goal and just keep playing. You know what they look like?
00:15:40
Speaker 4: They look like North Carolina Drake, man.
00:15:42
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:15:43
Speaker 4: YOLO. He's just YOLO ball. I got to throw this ball. I got to make something happen. Nope, you don't. Throw it away, kick a field goal, go to overtime.
00:15:52
Speaker 2: It was rough to watch for Patriots fans, but I like that. I also like catching up with the general.
00:15:57
Speaker 1: Here he is.
00:15:58
Speaker 2: John McClain joins us now on the line on his way to a gridiron event.
00:16:02
Speaker 1: General, so great to catch up with you.
00:16:04
Speaker 2: What were your thoughts on last night's tilt between the Seahawks and the Patriots?
00:16:09
Speaker 3: Well, I'll be honest. I don't give a rat's you know what about the Patriots and the Seahawks. All I care about is the Texans and the Bills. Yes, I watched the game so much. Patriots lost to the Raiders at home in the first game last year. Drake May's been terrible. People forget Drake May was terrible against the Texans. It's just that C.J. Stroud was worse. So good for Seattle. It's good to Sam Darnold. Not going to be out a long time. I think the Patriots missed the playoffs because Super Bowl losers are bad the next year, and the Patriots have gone from the let's see, what is it? the 25th easiest schedule in 25 years to the hardest schedule in 25 years.
00:17:02
Speaker 4: Well, no program or organization deserves it more than the Patriots. So, General, let's move forward then to Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. We all know that Houston has been the kryptonite for Josh Allen. Oh, does that continue on Sunday? How do you feel about Josh Allen, a.k.a. Superman, as he's called, coming in to Reliance Stadium to take on this defense?
00:17:26
Speaker 3: Titans, as you said, have been quick tonight. Lex Luthor, people don't know what that is. Google it. I can't wait to see this defense. Could be even better than it was last season with the addition of several players. I'm curious to see if the Bills do anything differently on offense. People forget they led last year, and then the pass rush just dominated Josh Allen. If, say, Allen gets strip-sacked on the first series by Will Anderson Jr., then all of a sudden it's going to feel like deja vu all over again. So I think it's going to be low scoring. The key is... What can either team do against the other team's defense? Buffalo's got a good defense, but the Jacksons have a Super Bowl winning defense. Tonight, I am so fired up for Sunday afternoon. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: Well, will you watch the Rams and the 49ers in Melbourne? Will you watch that on Netflix? It's a Netflix game, right, Johnny?
00:18:40
Speaker 1: Netflix.
00:18:40
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:18:41
Speaker 1: Will you watch it, General?
00:18:43
Speaker 5: It is a.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: Netflix game, and no, I will not, because I will be moderating a panel at a Gridiron Legends event with people like Wade Phillips, Van Chancellor, Pat Osterman, Johnny Moore, fired up about that. So, no, I will not be watching it. And truthfully, if I were home, I wouldn't, because we still don't have Netflix, even though Carol gave it to me for my Christmas present two years ago.
00:19:12
Speaker 1: Wait a minute.
00:19:13
Speaker 4: Okay, time out, time out, time out, time out. You got a Christmas gift, and you haven't redeemed it yet?
00:19:20
Speaker 3: I have a certificate that she hand-wrote for me, giving me Netflix, and I didn't get it. I brought it back last year and put it in front of her. I'm going to bring it back again. I realize I could have watched the game and then canceled, but I can do it any time, but I want her to do it Because it's supposed to be my Christmas present.
00:19:46
Speaker 2: So I'm not saying this just because Netflix is a big partner of the NFL. but netflix is worth it all the sports documentaries netflix has general you are a sports documentary guy you would love some of the stuff that's on netflix and only on netflix only available and they eventually get everything anyway all right back to the game here for a moment Am I wrong in saying I think the Texans will run the football against the Bills? This is not a great rush defense historically. Now, maybe they're a lot better under Jim Leonard in this 3-4. We'll see how they handle things. But to me, they'll be able to run the football. I think it's about execution, playing clean, not turning the ball over. How are you looking on third down? Are you picking up those third and fours you get in their territory? Or are you going to have to make those tough fourth down decisions or rely on long field goals by Fairbairn? Your thoughts on the Texans' ability to run it against the Bills.
00:20:38
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, with David Montgomery coming into Woody Marks, going into his second year, they've got the running backs. The key is the offensive line. You have a new center, you have a new left guard, and you have those three returning starters. The thing that I am more interested in than anything fired up about the defense is But interesting is the offensive line. You know, it's been rebuilt again. Can they do a better job of run blocking? Will Keelan Rutledge's nastiness rub off on his teammates? So, yes, it would be great if they could run the ball better. Because last year they put C.J. Stroud in so many holes by getting stuffed. And it'd be great to see him go down the field score of the first series. with a good balance of running pass and having Stroud throw a touchdown pass, that would be a great way to start the game.
00:21:37
Speaker 4: General, you mentioned C.J. Stroud. Two-parter. One, what do you want to see? And B, what do you expect to see against a revamped Bills defense?
00:21:48
Speaker 3: In that Pittsburgh playoff game, C.J. makes some really good throws. People forget about it because of the interceptions and the turnovers. And I expect to see more of that. I expect to see Nick Haley doing a better job of playing Colin Stroud, doing a better job of operating the offense. Nico Collins, you'd think he'd be doubled. And by the way, do you think Moody, who would have been inactive in the game last night, according to Mike Grable and Romeo Dobbs, still can't catch the ball. And now A.J. Brown's out. I bet that booty's looking pretty good to Mike Bregman.
00:22:31
Speaker 4: Okay.
00:22:32
Speaker 1: He said it.
00:22:33
Speaker 2: All right, General, some other games I want your opinion on. The Jags hosting the Browns. This is a terrible game for me because, and thankfully I don't have to watch it, I'll be doing our game. I don't want to root for the Jaguars, and I certainly don't want to root for the Browns, but you kind of have to root for Cleveland in this case. How about 10-9, the Browns pull it out. I have to see the Jags lose this game. Who's going to win this game? It's got to be the Jaguars at home against a Cleveland team that does not look so hot.
00:23:03
Speaker 3: Ordinarily, this wouldn't be that big a deal, but because it's Watson, came out this morning, he had a ticket doing 86 and a 40 in Cleveland. I think it was last month. But they need to win. The Texans need to be Watson fans and Browns fans. And considering everything that the Browns have done for the Texans, I don't think they're going to pull the upset. When we were in the last time, Jacksonville won the division, won a playoff game, did not make the playoffs the next season. I think Jacksonville will blow them out, but I'd sure like to see Watson engineer an upset because he is unbeaten in Jacksonville.
00:23:47
Speaker 4: That is a good point. Wow, okay. All right, here we go. Let's get it done, General. The Colts are taking on the Ravens in Indianapolis. Alec Pierce apparently is going to be back. Daniel Jones has got some cadaver in his Achilles or something. I don't know. He's back. But Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are healthy. Ravens are favored in Indianapolis. I don't think that's too surprising. Everybody has a shot to win, but do you give the Colts a realistic shot to beat the Ravens on opening weekend?
00:24:17
Speaker 3: Absolutely I do, John, because the last time Daniel Jones was healthy. They were 8-2. A lot of people thinking Ravens go to the Super Bowl after missing the playoffs. They have a new head coach, first year, untested. They had to let several key players go because of the salary cap. At some point, Derrick Henry is going to start to show his age, whether it's this season or not. Who knows? I'm thinking the Colts in this game over the Ravens because I think The AFC South is going to be a three-team race. And did you guys see Kyle Brand on NFL Network and ESPN? I really like Brand. Taking the Texans out and the Titans in.
00:25:03
Speaker 1: Wait, what?
00:25:04
Speaker 4: I did not see that.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: Titans in where?
00:25:06
Speaker 4: Titans make the playoffs.
00:25:08
Speaker 1: Oh, come on.
00:25:09
Speaker 4: As Jason Bateman said in dodgeball, it's a bold move, Kyle, and we'll see how it pays off.
00:25:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
00:25:15
Speaker 4: Bold.
00:25:16
Speaker 3: Remember last year, Mike Tannenbaum... said on ESPN that the Titans were going to win the division. And I said, that's why he's a former general manager.
00:25:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big stretch. Obviously, they're going to be better. They've got to be better than what they were last year, but not that much better. All right, the Bucs are at the Bengals, General, this weekend. That's another Sunday nooner Central time. And I like this one. This would be a fun game to watch if we weren't doing the Texans game. And I definitely don't want to have that happen. I want to do the Texans game. So Bengals, Bucs, Incensee, who do you got?
00:25:55
Speaker 3: I got the Bengals because Joe Burrow is healthy. And Baker Mayfield doesn't have that chip on his shoulder like he did before last week. Now they respected him, didn't disrespect him, because they pay him $ 55 million a year. Burrow is one of the top quarterbacks in the league, as you guys know. He missed, I think, almost half of the last... season he needs to stay healthy and if he doesn't and they miss playoffs most people think zach taylor is going to be out as their head.
00:26:24
Speaker 4: Coach okay this is for all three of us right it's sleeper time yep i want each of us to come up with a team a team that had a losing record in 2025 right That you think will at least turn it around to get a winning record. Doesn't mean they got to win a division. Doesn't mean they have to go to the playoffs. But they have to go from a losing record to a winning record. All right? Let me give you the teams that this applies to. In the AFC, the Dolphins, the Jets, the Ravens, Bengals, Browns, Colts, Titans, Chiefs, Raiders. Okay?
00:27:07
Speaker 1: Over an NFC. Okay, go on.
00:27:09
Speaker 4: NFC, well, it's Cowboys, Commanders, Giants. Then it is everybody in the NFC South, and it's the Cardinals. So pick your sleeper team amongst those teams that were under 500 last year.
00:27:25
Speaker 1: You want to go first, Mark?
00:27:26
Speaker 2: Not to rewrite your little thing here, but you've got to eliminate the Ravens, and I think you should eliminate the Colts as well.
00:27:33
Speaker 1: From this conversation. It's too easy. It's too easy.
00:27:36
Speaker 2: But it's one of the NFC South teams because you had three 8-9s and a 6-11.
00:27:41
Speaker 1: So who's going to have a winning record there? If I said the Buccaneers.
00:27:45
Speaker 4: I know mine. I know what I'm going with. General, do you know what you want to go with?
00:27:49
Speaker 3: I sure do. I think there should be one in each conference. And since I picked the Cowboys to win the NFC East after losing to the Texans, I'm going with the Cowboys in the NFC And if I had to pick somebody in the AFC, I think I would pick the Bengals.
00:28:08
Speaker 4: Well, the Cowboys, that was going to be mine in the NFC. That's where I was going. But I'm going, I don't know if I'm going well off the page here, but I just, I'm playing a hunch in the NFC. I'm going with the New Orleans Saints.
00:28:24
Speaker 1: I like this.
00:28:25
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:28:27
Speaker 1: I like the boldness.
00:28:28
Speaker 4: Before people scoff.
00:28:30
Speaker 1: Six wins. They were two off the pace.
00:28:31
Speaker 4: Who was the first to call the Detroit Lions a few years ago amongst the three of us?
00:28:36
Speaker 1: What, that they were going to win?
00:28:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, that they were going to turn things around, and they did.
00:28:40
Speaker 1: Before they went 9-8 that year and missed the playoffs?
00:28:42
Speaker 4: That's right. So I'm going to say the Saints and the NFC. I think in the AFC, I mean, it's easy to pick the Chiefs. So I'm going to try and stay away from that. All these teams like Burrow. Burrow was what? Six and 11. Now he didn't play the whole season. I mean, Bengals would be that team for me, I guess.
00:29:00
Speaker 6: I mean.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: If you went out on a limb and said the Dolphins, then I'm impressed if that comes through.
00:29:05
Speaker 4: No, Dolphins. See, that's not coming through. That's going to be ugly. So I'm going to go with Bengals and Saints. Those are my two.
00:29:11
Speaker 1: I'll go with the Buccaneers because they were 8-9.
00:29:13
Speaker 3: Who do y'all think is going to have the first pick in the draft?
00:29:16
Speaker 7: Hmm.
00:29:17
Speaker 1: That's a good one. I think the Dolphins are a really good candidate for this.
00:29:20
Speaker 4: It's whoever the Manning family says should have it, General. That's who's going to have it at that point.
00:29:28
Speaker 1: But, General, do you think Arch is definitely the number one pick? I don't think so. I don't think he's the number one pick in the draft. We have to decide. It's September 10th. We need to come up with this right now, this second.
00:29:40
Speaker 3: I would take Arch Manning over Dante Moore. And if the Manning family is going to decide, they're going to say the Saints are going to be awful so he can go to New Orleans and replace Tyler Shug and make John Ayers look awful.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: You know, they got to get that's mean. They got that's bullying.
00:29:57
Speaker 4: Come on, General.
00:29:58
Speaker 2: They got to get their story straight. The Manning family, by the way, because everyone's going to take the blame for it.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: Right.
00:30:03
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:30:04
Speaker 2: You know, Arch is going to take the blame. Eli's going to take the blame. You know, Cooper's going to take the blame.
00:30:09
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, everybody but Archie is going to take the blame.
00:30:12
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, Archie took all the heat for Eli.
00:30:16
Speaker 1: Right. Because it was his decision.
00:30:18
Speaker 4: No, it was Eli's decision.
00:30:19
Speaker 1: Oh, that's what Eli says.
00:30:20
Speaker 4: That's what Eli says.
00:30:20
Speaker 1: He's protecting his father.
00:30:21
Speaker 4: I guess. I don't know.
00:30:23
Speaker 2: I'm my own man. My father wouldn't do it.
00:30:25
Speaker 4: I don't know.
00:30:26
Speaker 1: I know this, General.
00:30:26
Speaker 4: I read this probably about a month ago that Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, that if Arch Manning gets in this draft, that Jimmy Haslam will do whatever it takes to bring Arch Manning, because Jimmy Haslam's got connections with Tennessee Vols, with Peyton and all that kind of stuff.
00:30:45
Speaker 1: Including higher Sark.
00:30:46
Speaker 4: That he'll do whatever it takes to go get Arch Manning to bring him to Cleveland. So I ask you this, if Cleveland does have the number one pick, do you think Arch goes back to the University of Texas?
00:30:59
Speaker 3: No, I think he goes to the Cleveland Browns. They're moving into a new stadium. You won't have the wind and rain and hail and lightning as a factor in the stadium anymore. And I will say this, Browns have two number one picks, but the Jets have three. And if Arch is clearly going to be the number one pick, and neither one of those say Miami is the number one pick, then they're going to be offering no telling what. to get that pig from the dolphins. And I tell you, we know this, I guess they'll give him a guarantee. Has only given 230 million guarantee general three.
00:31:45
Speaker 2: Number one, you mentioned you're doing a grid irons event tonight, grid iron legends event. And Van Chancellor is there who is more like a hard court legends guy, but I like it that you have him.
00:31:57
Speaker 1: Cause I know he can fit into any situation. Why is Van there?
00:32:01
Speaker 3: Because Van is a great Iron Legend. We wanted a good talker. Because of all the controversy in the WNBA and because we had the Connecticut Sun move into Houston next year. And Van lives in Houston, plays golf just about every day. As he said, whenever I play free, I'm there. And so last time I interviewed him about six months ago, he was fantastic. And I expect him to be again.
00:32:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
00:32:30
Speaker 2: All right, General, thanks so much for joining us tonight. We appreciate it.
00:32:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you very much. I can't wait for Sunday.
00:32:36
Speaker 2: All right, that's John McClain. Coming up, Aiden Fisher. We were supposed to have him on last night. In fact, we did, but Westwood One took over as they went into the National Game broadcast.
00:32:46
Speaker 1: So we have Aiden Fisher.
00:32:48
Speaker 2: Linebacker, Indiana Hoosier, national champion, two-time All-American, now a Houston Texan wearing the green dot on occasion in the preseason. We'll catch up with him next on Texans Radio. Right back into the fray here in the Hyundai Texans Radio studio. So great to have you listening to Texans All-Access tonight as we get closer to kickoff.
00:33:08
Speaker 1: Noon Sunday.
00:33:08
Speaker 2: 9 a.m. Texans countdown presented by Modelo Especial. Cannot wait. I know you feel the same way. Aiden Fisher feels the same way. Rookie linebacker, wore the green dot on occasion in the preseason, won a national championship with Indiana last year, two-time All-America. We visited with him in studio and asked him how it's going so far.
00:33:31
Speaker 4: A lot of learning, a lot of growing.
00:33:33
Speaker 6: It's been a great Experience so far.
00:33:35
Speaker 2: A lot of reps in the preseason, not only joint practices, the games themselves, and that's a lot of activity so far because it's got to be tough for you guys pre-draft. You have the post-draft stuff, the rookie camp, and then everything you've done in the preseason. What about the wear and tear, for lack of a better way of putting it, Aiden?
00:33:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, coming in as a rookie, you know, you're not handing anything. You've got to go out and earn it and work for it, and that's just part of the process. You know, you've got to keep your body, you know, along for the ride as you go. So, you know, having guys like Aziz, Henry, really the whole linebacker room teaching us, you know, how do you take care of your body, especially your rookie year, because everybody knows, you know, the rookie year is the longest one of your career. So you just got to be able to manage it, take care of your body. We have great vets all in the locker room that are helping us along the way.
00:34:19
Speaker 4: So, Aiden, how cool is it that you could just go out and do football stuff, come back and do football stuff and.
00:34:24
Speaker 7: Not have to go to any classes after that?
00:34:26
Speaker 4: How does that feel?
00:34:27
Speaker 6: Oh, it's been great. You know, the whole no class thing is awesome now. Doing this full time as a career.
00:34:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:34:33
Speaker 6: You know, it's a dream come true. And it's a lot better without classes.
00:34:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can imagine.
00:34:37
Speaker 2: So tell us about Aziz and the kind of leader he is, because we've talked to him a lot. He came into the league as an undrafted guy and he is who he is today. What about his leadership and what it's meant to you so far?
00:34:47
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, he's not somebody that's going to tell you what you want to hear. He's going to tell you what you need to hear. And that's kind of the thing that I appreciate the most. You know, he told me kind of his background, his story of how he got in the league and, you know, how he got to where he is now. And that was important for me to hear, you know, coming from almost a similar space, the seventh round to an undrafted guy and just hearing, you know, the trials and tribulations that he went through, how he responded and how he managed different things.
00:35:13
Speaker 5: Along the way.
00:35:14
Speaker 4: It's been huge for me.
00:35:17
Speaker 6: The success I've been able to have so far, a lot of it has been learned. The techniques that he's taught, the way to handle things and take care of your body, I can't say enough about him. He's been great for us.
00:35:28
Speaker 4: Aiden, everybody's got a superpower. I'm not sure what mine is. I know what Mark's is.
00:35:32
Speaker 7: What would you say your superpower is in a game of football?
00:35:38
Speaker 4: I would say the intangibles.
00:35:39
Speaker 6: You know, the things you can't see, I think it's no secret I'm not, you know, 6'4, 250 and running a 4'2, or anything.
00:35:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:35:46
Speaker 4: But I think it's the things that you can't measure.
00:35:48
Speaker 6: You know, how hard I play, how much time I put into this game, and the mental side of things, for sure.
00:35:54
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker 2: Okay, so compare and contrast the coaching styles D'Amico Ryans versus Kurt Cignetti.
00:35:59
Speaker 3: Oh, boy.
00:36:00
Speaker 6: Yeah, first thing that's very different is Coach Sig's an offensive guy. And Coach Ryan is definitely, you know, defensive, you know, hands-on, which has been great, you know, as a linebacker, learn.
00:36:11
Speaker 4: From him, which has been an unreal experience.
00:36:13
Speaker 1: You're wearing his number.
00:36:15
Speaker 4: I am, yeah.
00:36:16
Speaker 6: A ref in our first preseason game reminded me of that. So, yeah, it's been great, though. Both of them are, you know, extremely, you know, honed in on the details that make things go, you know, make a program go. I think, you know, with D'Amico we had a little bit more more fun uh you know he's a a very bright character that you know he brings out the best of everybody but he has fun along the way uh coach said we were straight to business you know at all times.
00:36:43
Speaker 4: Yeah seemingly at all times one of the things i've always i'm intrigued by is communication in football always you wear the green dot now you got used to that in in college a little bit now you come here you wear the green dot there in the preseason games etc i What does that sound like in your helmet? I mean, can you actually make out what's being said? Maybe on the road, maybe it's a little tougher. Maybe at home when your crowd is getting going, it's a little bit tougher. What's that like hearing all that communication in your brain, like right in your helmet?
00:37:14
Speaker 1: How do you like that?
00:37:15
Speaker 4: How have you adapted to it? Do you like it now?
00:37:17
Speaker 7: Did you not like it before?
00:37:18
Speaker 4: How do you like that little green dot, the little communicator coach comm in your helmet?
00:37:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
00:37:23
Speaker 6: I think it's really cool to have to be able to communicate. especially with your defensive coordinator who's, you know, getting the call, but also can, you know, throw in a little something here and there that you need to hear. There are times, you know, back when I was in college, you know, me and my DC had to tell him, you know, you got to quiet down a little bit.
00:37:39
Speaker 4: I can't hear you a little too loud. So he'd give you the call and just keep chirping. Yeah, he just keeps going. He forgets that, you know, it's not on mute or anything.
00:37:45
Speaker 6: But it's been a great thing that I think helps more than it hurts anything. Obviously, when it gets to a loud environment, it's kind of hard to hear. But I think it's something that's definitely great for, you know, the sport.
00:37:55
Speaker 2: What about special teams? What are you doing now? And how much did you do in college? I mean, you're a two-time first-team All-American, so were you playing a lot of special teams at Indiana?
00:38:04
Speaker 1: I'm thinking no.
00:38:07
Speaker 6: I started out with special teams when I was at James Madison, and then I stayed on the punt team every year of my career. So that was something I took pride in, being able to stay on the punt team, play special teams. And I think that kind of shows– the team how much you care at times right um you know we had guys that were starters that play special teams for us at indiana i think our teammates and you know especially me look at my peers like this guy cares to keep playing special teams even when the coach has told him you know maybe you don't have to yeah who blocked the kick last year in the championship.
00:38:38
Speaker 4: Game was that is that kyle kamara yeah yeah his starter came off the edge blocked the kick that was kind of nice.
00:38:43
Speaker 2: It's got to be interesting though rookie camp we see out here and Introducing Coach Ross, and now you're going to learn the basics of what we're doing here on special teams, right?
00:38:52
Speaker 4: That's a baptism.
00:38:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, Coach Ross, he's been great. I've never met somebody with that much energy all the time. But the way that he's able to kind of harness it and get the details across, it's been so much fun to play for. Big adjustment with new rules. Even the punt is a little bit different. But the kickoff and the kick return, which I actually like a lot better, I think is great. but it's been so much fun to play under Coach Ross and learn from him.
00:39:18
Speaker 7: So in preseason, you guys don't do a lot of game prep.
00:39:22
Speaker 4: You might discuss you know carolina joint practice or whatever the raiders but you're really like in-depth preparing i don't know the right way of asking this but the last time you did that you were preparing for the miami hurricanes and national championship game now you're preparing for josh allen former league mvp that's a pretty wild swing in getting ready what's that been like to start getting ready for the bills it Oh, it's been great.
00:39:46
Speaker 6: To me, this is the best part of football. When you can sit down and game plan and you're playing chess pretty much. And how much time are you going to take to study, to put the time in to be able to know your opponent? This is the part of football that I love most. And it's been cool to kind of adjust from the college setting. Now it's the NFL. Be able to see different things and different schematics. It's been great. And we have great vets and Coach Billy Davis as well. Teaching football has been important along the way because at the end of the day, it's still 11 guys on the field. You're still playing football. But being able to understand new language and different ways that the NFL sees it compared to college, it's been so cool.
00:40:26
Speaker 1: It's been exciting. So you're a Virginia guy, right?
00:40:30
Speaker 3: I am.
00:40:30
Speaker 2: And you were deciding between James Madison and Old Dominion, right? And you go to JMU, obviously. But if I tell you during that process, hey, you're going to be a national champion one day, would you have believed it?
00:40:42
Speaker 1: No.
00:40:42
Speaker 4: No way. I would not have believed that.
00:40:45
Speaker 2: What was it like, though, when Coach Cignetti gets the job and you go over with him to Indiana?
00:40:51
Speaker 1: What was that process like? That must have been really interesting. Yeah, it was weird for sure.
00:40:55
Speaker 6: Because at JMU, that's a school that is just the whole tradition is winning.
00:41:02
Speaker 4: It's a winning football program.
00:41:03
Speaker 1: The Dukes.
00:41:04
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you get to Indiana, and that's not the case at all. They're the most losing program of all time. So you talk to the guys, and it's like, yeah, if we win three to four games, that's a solid year for us.
00:41:17
Speaker 4: And we're coming off of JMU.
00:41:18
Speaker 6: We were 11-1 and winning a lot of football games. So it was such a different atmosphere around the team and the program. Obviously, it changed pretty quick, but it was so weird to go from James Madison to Indiana, which Indiana is the bigger school that has the Big Ten tradition.
00:41:35
Speaker 4: It was weird, though.
00:41:36
Speaker 2: What was it like when you saw your Indiana friends when the Raiders were here? Oh, man, there was a ton of them.
00:41:40
Speaker 6: Oh, it was great.
00:41:41
Speaker 4: You know, I love those guys.
00:41:42
Speaker 6: Being able to talk to them and just kind of see where they are, not only in their careers and what's going on, but how their lives have changed. You know, we spent every single.
00:41:50
Speaker 4: Day together for a year.
00:41:52
Speaker 6: And now just, you know, being able to talk to them and play against them, it was weird, but it was really cool to do.
00:41:57
Speaker 4: What's it been like for your family, Aiden, as they're kind of watching your performance? your progress growing from Jamie, going to Indiana, winning a national championship. What's it going to have been like for your family now to watch you as a Houston Texan? Are they all wearing number 59 jerseys and making sure they say Fisher and not Ryans, of course? But what's it been like for your family to watch you kind of continue.
00:42:15
Speaker 6: To grow and become the man you are and a player you are for the Texans? I think for my sisters, they would tell you it's been really fun. We've all been able to travel to so many cool places with football, and it's taken us to some incredible venues and different places across the country. But it's really brought my family really close together. You know, I have uncles, aunts, cousins that would travel.
00:42:37
Speaker 4: Yep.
00:42:37
Speaker 6: And that's just more family time together. So, to me, that's awesome. And if you ask my mom, it's been emotional. You know, she's been up and down.
00:42:44
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:42:45
Speaker 6: But she's loving it. She's so supportive of me. You know, that's who I lean on all the time. So, she's always so positive. But, you know, there are times, I think it was the Panthers game was the first one she was able to, or the Raiders game she came to, and she said that she.
00:42:58
Speaker 4: Had been emotional all week, crying and stuff.
00:43:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:43:01
Speaker 4: It's been really cool.
00:43:03
Speaker 2: What you guys do is very intense, but in the linebacker room, who's got the best sense of humor? Who's the cut-up when needed? Who can keep the atmosphere light enough?
00:43:12
Speaker 4: Oh, Jake Hansen for sure. He's hilarious.
00:43:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, good stuff.
00:43:17
Speaker 4: I think that would probably qualify for sure. We talked about Aziz. Henry's been at room. He's been here for four years and Henry was not a first round pick. You know, he's a guy that, you know, a day three pick as well as really grown into that type of linebacker. What does he meant to the linebacker room? What's he meant to you learn from him? Oh, Henry, Henry has been great.
00:43:34
Speaker 6: Um, he's kind of took me under his wing as well as he's just, you know, having those similarities, you know, we're both day three picks, nothing's ever going to be handed to us. Like you're going to have to compete day in and day out. Um, and just sitting and talking to him every single day, picking his brain, um, So.
00:43:50
Speaker 4: Cool to just see the way that he's.
00:43:52
Speaker 6: Gone through his process and different things I can pick that he does and put it into my routine, my regimen, see what I can take from him and improve as a player and a person.
00:44:03
Speaker 4: He's been great. He's meant a lot.
00:44:04
Speaker 1: Excellent. Aiden, thanks a lot for joining us. Good luck to you this year.
00:44:06
Speaker 4: Thank you, guys.
00:44:07
Speaker 2: There's Aiden Fisher, Texans rookie linebacker. Coming up, we close it out, Houston Methodist Minutes, the injury report, and whatever else comes along on Texans All-Access. Closing it out here on Texans All Access tonight, injury report information. Will Anderson Jr. just had a day of rest today, so did not practice. Caden McDonald did not practice. He hurt his ankle yesterday, it looks like, because he was limited with the ankle yesterday and out today. And that's too bad for the rookie. We'll see how his status lines up tomorrow. Full participation for Trent Brown and Wade Woodaz, who both were full yesterday with various injuries. Now, for the Buffalo Bills, Ty Johnson, the running back, second straight day out with the hamstring. That doesn't look good for him. And TJ Sanders out with a knee. He was limited with a knee yesterday, so that means he probably hurt it during practice. And limited today, defensive back Jordan Hancock. Okay, let's get to Houston Methodist Minutes.
00:45:01
Speaker 1: This is Dr.
00:45:02
Speaker 2: Robert Flannery on dehydration. What about electrolytes and stuff like that?
00:45:07
Speaker 1: Do they really help?
00:45:07
Speaker 5: So I think the first thing to look at is, you know, when you taste your sweat, what does it taste like? It tastes like salt. And so salt is the most important thing from an electrolyte standpoint that we can recover. It doesn't taste like sugar. It doesn't taste like potassium, right? It tastes like salt. So we want to make sure that we're putting that salt back. Some people are heavy sweaters, so they're losing a lot of volume. Some people are salty sweaters, so they're losing a lot more of the electrolytes. Those electrolyte drinks are great to put those back, but you really don't need them unless you are doing some sort of strenuous activity in the heat, prolonged activity in the heat. So save those for when you really need them.
00:45:51
Speaker 2: Now, what about preparation? If I know I'm going to be outside for a while, say tomorrow, start tonight. What's the best way to go about this? And I've heard Eat something, too. I mean, obviously don't starve yourself, but eat something.
00:46:04
Speaker 1: Eat a good meal. What are some of the do's and don'ts there with food consumption prior to being outside for long periods of time in Texas?
00:46:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, and so really, if you're starting the night before, you're probably already behind. From what I tell, I've got kids, too, that play sports, and I tell them that your hydration starts after your last game, after your last practice. If you have those really hard days, things that you know that are coming up, you want to start early. You want to avoid caffeine for the most part. It doesn't mean you can't have any, but caffeine can be a little bit of a diuretic and make you a little bit more dehydrated. So staying hydrated, avoiding caffeine, starting early, four, five, six days beforehand, because really once you start that activity, you're not going to catch up. You're not going to be able to rehydrate while you're in the middle of any kind of strenuous activity. Food is another really important part, good balanced meals. I know we've all heard how bad salt can be for you, but if you're doing those high-intensity exercises or you've got outdoor work that you've got to get done, you're going to lose salt. So having a well-balanced meal, even if you put a little bit of salt on it, is okay. Same thing with the electrolyte drinks. They've got a lot of sugar in them, but those carbohydrates are important to put some of those building blocks back in. So when your body is recovering from it, from that activity, you're able to recover from it quickly.
00:47:38
Speaker 1: Dr.
00:47:39
Speaker 2: Robert Flannery of Houston Methodist. We might have more on that dehydration topic next week. It's the official healthcare provider of the Houston Texans, Houston Methodist Leading Medicine. That's it for the show tonight. We've got Thursday Night Football next. The 49ers and the Rams from Melbourne, Australia. Have a great evening. Go Texans!
Speaker 1: Hello, Texans.
00:00:00
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show as we are so close to the opener. Sunday at noon against the Buffalo Bills. Three days, less than 72 hours. Johnny, what's the hour count on this one? It's 72 minus 6, right?
00:00:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, 66.
00:00:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, 66 hours.
00:00:16
Speaker 1: That's what it would be. Like Route 66.
00:00:19
Speaker 4: Man, wow.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: Speaking of Route 66, it's the 20th anniversary of the Cars Pixar movie, and that's... That.
00:00:26
Speaker 4: Is such a great movie. In fact, did you send me this the other day? There's a video of Lightning McQueen. It's like the pace car.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for F1. Yeah, for F1. But is he doing NASCAR too?
00:00:37
Speaker 4: I don't know. That's a good question.
00:00:38
Speaker 1: You should do NASCAR.
00:00:39
Speaker 4: Should.
00:00:39
Speaker 1: Or NASCAR should demand.
00:00:42
Speaker 3: Right.
00:00:42
Speaker 1: Request heavily.
00:00:43
Speaker 4: We want Lightning McQueen.
00:00:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he's a NASCAR. He's not an F1 car.
00:00:47
Speaker 5: No.
00:00:48
Speaker 2: So what are you doing here? But they embraced it. You got to embrace that NASCAR. It's one of the better Pixar movies, man. I love that movie.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: Did you see Days of Thunder? They're doing it again.
00:00:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
00:00:57
Speaker 1: They're doing the reboot.
00:00:57
Speaker 4: I don't know.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a reboot or it's got to be a sequel. Cruise is in it.
00:01:02
Speaker 4: We'll see.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: He's not going to Cole Kidman with this one.
00:01:04
Speaker 4: Okay, look. When there's been a long time frame between the sequels haven't been great. Coming to America 2, anyone?
00:01:11
Speaker 1: Hang on. I was okay with it.
00:01:12
Speaker 2: But Cruise will not screw it up because Top Gun Maverick, anyone.
00:01:17
Speaker 1: That's pretty good.
00:01:18
Speaker 4: You can go either way, but I loved Cars, Days of Thunder. I thought it was... Days of Thunder was so good. It was so 90s. It was right at the beginning of the 90s. I feel like it's late.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: It's 90, right? It's such a 90s movie.
00:01:33
Speaker 2: I feel like it's late 80s all the way. Late 80s, early 90s, whatever. It is when it was made, right? And I told you recently that I had never seen it really. I'd seen scenes. So I watched it on the plane.
00:01:46
Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
00:01:47
Speaker 2: And it was wonderful because it felt like I was watching an AI movie. Hey, AI, make me a Tom Cruise blockbuster with Jerry Bruckheimer from 1990.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: And that's what it was. It was so awesome.
00:01:57
Speaker 4: You know what struck me about that movie? If you've seen Days of Thunder, you know this. Why were they so dirty after the race? They would have dirt all over their face. You don't see NASCAR guys there like that. They don't have that after a race.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:02:12
Speaker 4: They're sweating hot, but not like that.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: Maybe the tracks weren't as clean back then in the 90s. I don't know.
00:02:17
Speaker 5: Maybe.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: All right, so we will be on a clean artificial surface on Sunday at Reliance Stadium. Liberty White presented by Hyundai. It's going to be awesome to see the Texans play the Bills. Two AFC contenders going at it. We saw another AFC contender last night, I think, play the Seattle Seahawks on the road. And, Johnny, it was so pleasing... to watch what happened to the Patriots last night. To hate-watch the Patriots is one of the great things to do.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: It is.
00:02:46
Speaker 2: My last experience watching NFL football was hate-watching them in the Super Bowl.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: That's right. But that was bitter because, man, I felt like, ooh, coulda, woulda, shoulda with the Texans.
00:02:54
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:02:54
Speaker 1: This was a lot more fun last night.
00:02:56
Speaker 2: Let's see how this goes with you guys going up to the Pacific Northwest. Oh, not so well. And you're playing a backup quarterback. Drew Locke looked pretty good, though. For a backup guy coming into that situation, you don't expect to play opening day if you're him.
00:03:08
Speaker 5: Opening day.
00:03:09
Speaker 1: But he did.
00:03:10
Speaker 4: He did. He did a really nice job. I think Drew Locke, Davis Mills, these guys are so valuable to your team. You just never know. I mean, that's a game that got away from Seattle early. New England's got a 10-0 lead, but they kept plugging away. I think Jadarian Price is going to be a superstar for the Seahawks. They'll give him more touches going forward. The Seahawks stars made plays. Cooper Cupp made that great one-handed catch that led to points, then JSN obviously makes his play. There's a great NBC clip. If you haven't seen it, you got to find it, where Mike Tomlin just was getting his letters mixed up. Yeah, yeah. So Mike Tomlin's now on the SNF pregame show. He's pretty good. And so he kept talking about Sam Darnold and JNS.
00:04:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:04:00
Speaker 4: And Maria Taylor, I guess, apparently had corrected him once, but then he did it again. And so Maria Taylor's like, JSN. And he's like, yeah, I know. And she's like, well, you didn't say it. It was what I say. And he goes, and she goes, JNS. And he goes, exactly. Like, it was funny how he reacted, dude. It was really good. It's a good clip.
00:04:20
Speaker 1: He's got a sense of humor. He does. More than you would think.
00:04:23
Speaker 4: Mark, I'm telling you, when I would go to the Senior Bowl, and I've gone to the Senior Bowl every year, Aaron Donald's year, so 2014. I've gone to every senior bowl. And it's everybody. Now, it's not all at once. It's been over a course of how many ever years. But I have never seen anyone down in Mobile have the reaction to them being there more than Mike Tomlin.
00:04:48
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
00:04:49
Speaker 4: He's the mayor of Mobile. Everybody just made a beeline over to him to shake hands. He's the godfather. It's unbelievable. It was fascinating.
00:04:58
Speaker 1: So when he.
00:04:59
Speaker 4: When it was announced he was going to go join, you know, be on the table with those guys, I thought, you know, this is going to– people are going to be really impressed with him. And you've seen him on Hard Knocks, the one Hard Knocks they did, the AFC North, and you'd hear him speak to the team, and you're just like, this guy, man, he gets it. But I remember he was on a podcast with Raheem Morris. It was Tomlin, Raheem Morris on with Sean McVay and Peter Schrager. And Schrager and McVay were doing a– like they were doing a podcast together or whatever. So they got Raheem Morris and Mike Tomlin. And Tomlin just told stories.
00:05:34
Speaker 1: It was great. It was tremendous. I remember that. It was so darn good. Do they still do that podcast? It's the McVay quarterback. I don't know what they call it now. Coaches, something. I don't know.
00:05:44
Speaker 4: Schrager's got different.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: He had Shanahan and Rob Sala on. It was awesome.
00:05:48
Speaker 4: That whole podcast. That season, he had Shanahan. He had Shanahan. He had Sala. He had those two, Tomlin and McVay. And he had Matt LaFleur.
00:05:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, Matt LaFleur. Yeah, Matt LaFleur.
00:06:01
Speaker 4: Now the LaFleurs get confusing. But anyhow, back to the game. Seattle just stayed after it, and I can appreciate that. They got knocked down a couple times, but I felt like Drake May early on was taking advantage of some of the things. And I always battle this, Mark. When you beat a team, and I think this applies to the Texas taking on the Bills. When you beat a team the year before, and you've been so successful, I always think it's tough to come back and replicate it because if you do the same things, well, they're going to be prepared for it.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: Right.
00:06:36
Speaker 4: But you don't want to do different things because, well, those other things worked, and you know they worked. And so it felt like the Patriots were really prepared for what the Seahawks were throwing at them. But in the fourth quarter, Drake May melted down, and the Seahawks took advantage of it. I sent you some numbers right away. And I think these are, I'll spare people the long version of it, but essentially last year, last year, the Patriots, well, and count this game too, so last year, and then this last game, the Patriots played nine teams, one, two, three, four, yeah, nine teams against with winning records. That's it. Nine. Four playoff games, four regular season games against teams with winning records. Now, what was the narrative about Drake May last year? Well, they haven't played anybody. Easy schedule. But when they did play somebody in those nine games, his game average, 21 of 32 for 231 yards, 1.2 touchdowns, 1.1 interceptions, 1.1 fumbles, and. 7 fumbles lost. In total, in those nine games, he had 11 touchdowns, 10 picks, 10 fumbles, 6 fumbles lost, and he was sacked 39 times in those nine games.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: Against the Texans, what were the numbers?
00:08:11
Speaker 4: He had the three touchdowns.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: Right.
00:08:13
Speaker 4: He threw 16 of 27 touchdowns. For only 179 yards, a pick, four fumbles, two fumbles lost.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: Okay, so he fumbled the ball four times, lost two of them, three turnovers. So three touchdown passes, three turnovers for Drake May.
00:08:28
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:08:29
Speaker 1: And not a lot of yards.
00:08:30
Speaker 2: But the Texans outdid him in the turning the ball over department.
00:08:34
Speaker 4: That's right.
00:08:34
Speaker 1: And that was a big part of the recipe.
00:08:37
Speaker 4: But this right here, this information that I just gave, I mean, I went through each game. They're... Crowning Drake May in this offseason, I got frustrated because it was right there. The Patriots fans didn't want to see it. We don't want to know about this.
00:08:54
Speaker 1: They were talking about he might be better than Brady. Right.
00:08:58
Speaker 2: This was coming out of their mouths. Show me you don't know football. You've had a great team there. You've had a great team there, but you still don't understand this game? That you had the greatest quarterback ever and maybe the greatest coach ever? Or one of them, certainly. And you expect this to just kind of transform itself into that kind of dynasty again?
00:09:17
Speaker 4: Against winning teams. A one-for-one TD interception ratio.
00:09:23
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker 4: Against winning teams.
00:09:25
Speaker 1: I mean, that's horrible. Plus the fumble. Well, plus the lost fumble you were talking about. And the lost fumbles.
00:09:29
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously, I think we had the most. But he had two fumbles and a fumble lost against the Chargers. Four fumbles, two fumbles lost against us. One fumble, one fumble lost against Seattle in the Super Bowl. Now, he didn't lose a fumble last night, but he did throw three interceptions. He did throw three interceptions last night, all of them in the fourth quarter.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: Are you ready for their schedule, Patriots?
00:09:51
Speaker 4: Oh, I know it gets tough.
00:09:52
Speaker 1: All right, Bills next week.
00:09:54
Speaker 2: Wait.
00:09:55
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sorry, Bills. That's three weeks from now.
00:09:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, three weeks.
00:09:58
Speaker 1: So, all right, Pittsburgh. next week.
00:10:01
Speaker 2: Jacksonville on the road. Pittsburgh's at home. Jacksonville on the road the following week.
00:10:05
Speaker 1: That'll be tough for them. The Bills, and I'll be rooting for the Patriots in that game.
00:10:09
Speaker 4: At Buffalo.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: The Bills at Buffalo. Then the Raiders at home. Then the Jets at home. Okay.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: Bears, Dolphins. Gosh, you have three of four in that stretch with Dolphins, Jets, Raiders. So that's not too bad. But you also could say, hey, we have three of four against Bears, Packers, Lions because they're playing the NFC North.
00:10:27
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:10:28
Speaker 1: That's tough.
00:10:29
Speaker 4: They got the NFC North and the AFC West, right?
00:10:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, because they have Chargers. They have Chiefs down the line. That was us last year. So they have at Arrowhead. They have at the Chargers. Yeah, kind of. All right.
00:10:42
Speaker 2: They have the Bills again. Obviously, they have the Vikings at home. Denver at home later on. This is a tough schedule. This is a tough schedule. This will show who they really are. Yeah, much tougher.
00:10:52
Speaker 4: I mean, they played three teams in the regular season. Three teams with a winning record in a regular season. Three. Pittsburgh was 10-7. Buffalo they played twice.
00:11:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:11:04
Speaker 4: And then Baltimore.
00:11:06
Speaker 2: They still get four games, Dolphins, Jets, right? That's four games right there that you should go three and one at minimum.
00:11:12
Speaker 4: And look, I know that argument, in a sense, was used against the Texans when the Titans and Jags weren't that good.
00:11:18
Speaker 1: So I understand that. But still, this year, they're going to get those four games.
00:11:21
Speaker 4: But again, look at what Drake May did against the Dolphins. Look at what he did against the Jets. Juxtapose that against what he did against teams with winning records. And maybe we'll bring that hype train back down to earth. Look, I still think Drake May is going to be a really good quarterback in this league. But one of the things you and I discussed... before we went on the air, we started talking about younger quarterbacks, guys that have been drafted from, say, 2019 or even 2020 on.
00:11:52
Speaker 2: There are not many success stories. Not many great success stories. You pointed this out. How many of those guys are on their second coordinator, at least, if not head coach?
00:12:01
Speaker 1: And there are many.
00:12:02
Speaker 4: Right, many.
00:12:03
Speaker 3: Many.
00:12:03
Speaker 1: When you look at Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels even, C.J.
00:12:06
Speaker 2: Stroud, his second offensive coordinator, Bryce Young, second offensive coordinator, second head coach. Let's just keep going here. Trevor Lawrence.
00:12:13
Speaker 1: Right. Second, third head coach?
00:12:16
Speaker 4: Where's he on now? I don't even remember. Yeah, third head coach.
00:12:19
Speaker 1: Third head coach.
00:12:20
Speaker 4: Third head coach.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: Because he had Peterson and now Liam Cohn after having Urban Meyer.
00:12:24
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, Urban Meyer.
00:12:25
Speaker 1: To start his career.
00:12:26
Speaker 4: I mean, Zach Wilson. I mean, how many teams has he been on?
00:12:28
Speaker 2: Well, he doesn't even count anymore. He's already been eliminated from this little discussion.
00:12:31
Speaker 4: Justin Fields eliminated from the discussion. You know? I mean, Bo Nix is of the... Everybody talked about a 2024 class. I was part of that. It was going to be a good quarterback class. I didn't totally buy into guys that were after Jaden Daniels, Drake May, and Caleb Williams. But those three guys I mentioned, they're all on their second coordinator, second head coach. J.J. McCarthy is still on the same guy, but obviously it's gone to hell in a handbasket there. Michael Penix, same thing. That's gone to hell in a handbasket. He's actually on his second head coach, second coordinator. And then you've got the only one that we could find, the only one that we could find that has had the same coach, head coach, and actually his offensive coordinator's changed, but the head coach still calls, you know, is still part of it. And that's Bo Nix in Denver. He's the only, he's really the only one where there's been continuity in All the way through for those three years. And yet, at the end of the year, how many of those guys and names we just mentioned are going to get $ 65 million per?
00:13:37
Speaker 2: You know what's amazing about last night? And I'm sure they mentioned it on the broadcast. I listened to a lot of it, but I didn't listen to all of it. And I would be shocked if Tariqo didn't say this almost right away. But especially as the game unfolds and you're winning a game... Opening night with Drew Locke in a tough situation. This is a Super Bowl rematch. The Patriots are supposed to be good. Your starting quarterback goes down wicked early. Drew Locke is thrust in there. This is the quarterback you got. Not that you expected him to be your future starter because you didn't. But this is the quarterback you got in the Russell Wilson trade.
00:14:11
Speaker 4: That's right.
00:14:12
Speaker 1: That's right.
00:14:12
Speaker 2: So you got rid of your franchise all time. I mean, Russell Wilson in Seattle won a Super Bowl, played in another. A lot of success. A lot of playoff appearances and playoff wins. You trade him to Denver for the world and Drew Locke's thrown into the deal. And here he is playing for you. and winning for you on national television opening night.
00:14:35
Speaker 4: I mean, to kick off a season, I mean, look, a lot of Patriots fans have been like, look, last year we lost to the Raiders, and look how we turned out. Look, things can turn around. The Eagles were 2-2 in 24 and then got hot. I get it.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: But this game was right there for the Patriots.
00:14:50
Speaker 4: It was right there. You just couldn't punt it away. No pun intended. You just couldn't screw it up, and they screwed it up. They did. And the MVP boy screwed it up badly. I mean, the interception that he threw down to Dobbs where Dobbs was supposed to go up 50-50 ball. Okay, I can maybe.
00:15:08
Speaker 5: Okay.
00:15:09
Speaker 4: But the throw across the middle to Julian Love. Julian Love picked off that same exact pass in the Super Bowl. Same exact route. Same exact everything. Picked off that pass. And then the throw that he makes in the end zone is just a horrible decision.
00:15:22
Speaker 1: It's horrible. It's horrible.
00:15:23
Speaker 4: Horrible.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: Because he's.
00:15:24
Speaker 2: Off balance, falling backwards, just got to get rid of the football, kick the field goal. If it's fourth down and you're down four, obviously you have to throw that ball into the end zone and just hope somebody makes a play.
00:15:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but you're down three and you're in field goal range.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: You just got to kick a field goal and just keep playing. You know what they look like?
00:15:40
Speaker 4: They look like North Carolina Drake, man.
00:15:42
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:15:43
Speaker 4: YOLO. He's just YOLO ball. I got to throw this ball. I got to make something happen. Nope, you don't. Throw it away, kick a field goal, go to overtime.
00:15:52
Speaker 2: It was rough to watch for Patriots fans, but I like that. I also like catching up with the general.
00:15:57
Speaker 1: Here he is.
00:15:58
Speaker 2: John McClain joins us now on the line on his way to a gridiron event.
00:16:02
Speaker 1: General, so great to catch up with you.
00:16:04
Speaker 2: What were your thoughts on last night's tilt between the Seahawks and the Patriots?
00:16:09
Speaker 3: Well, I'll be honest. I don't give a rat's you know what about the Patriots and the Seahawks. All I care about is the Texans and the Bills. Yes, I watched the game so much. Patriots lost to the Raiders at home in the first game last year. Drake May's been terrible. People forget Drake May was terrible against the Texans. It's just that C.J. Stroud was worse. So good for Seattle. It's good to Sam Darnold. Not going to be out a long time. I think the Patriots missed the playoffs because Super Bowl losers are bad the next year, and the Patriots have gone from the let's see, what is it? the 25th easiest schedule in 25 years to the hardest schedule in 25 years.
00:17:02
Speaker 4: Well, no program or organization deserves it more than the Patriots. So, General, let's move forward then to Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. We all know that Houston has been the kryptonite for Josh Allen. Oh, does that continue on Sunday? How do you feel about Josh Allen, a.k.a. Superman, as he's called, coming in to Reliance Stadium to take on this defense?
00:17:26
Speaker 3: Titans, as you said, have been quick tonight. Lex Luthor, people don't know what that is. Google it. I can't wait to see this defense. Could be even better than it was last season with the addition of several players. I'm curious to see if the Bills do anything differently on offense. People forget they led last year, and then the pass rush just dominated Josh Allen. If, say, Allen gets strip-sacked on the first series by Will Anderson Jr., then all of a sudden it's going to feel like deja vu all over again. So I think it's going to be low scoring. The key is... What can either team do against the other team's defense? Buffalo's got a good defense, but the Jacksons have a Super Bowl winning defense. Tonight, I am so fired up for Sunday afternoon. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: Well, will you watch the Rams and the 49ers in Melbourne? Will you watch that on Netflix? It's a Netflix game, right, Johnny?
00:18:40
Speaker 1: Netflix.
00:18:40
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:18:41
Speaker 1: Will you watch it, General?
00:18:43
Speaker 5: It is a.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: Netflix game, and no, I will not, because I will be moderating a panel at a Gridiron Legends event with people like Wade Phillips, Van Chancellor, Pat Osterman, Johnny Moore, fired up about that. So, no, I will not be watching it. And truthfully, if I were home, I wouldn't, because we still don't have Netflix, even though Carol gave it to me for my Christmas present two years ago.
00:19:12
Speaker 1: Wait a minute.
00:19:13
Speaker 4: Okay, time out, time out, time out, time out. You got a Christmas gift, and you haven't redeemed it yet?
00:19:20
Speaker 3: I have a certificate that she hand-wrote for me, giving me Netflix, and I didn't get it. I brought it back last year and put it in front of her. I'm going to bring it back again. I realize I could have watched the game and then canceled, but I can do it any time, but I want her to do it Because it's supposed to be my Christmas present.
00:19:46
Speaker 2: So I'm not saying this just because Netflix is a big partner of the NFL. but netflix is worth it all the sports documentaries netflix has general you are a sports documentary guy you would love some of the stuff that's on netflix and only on netflix only available and they eventually get everything anyway all right back to the game here for a moment Am I wrong in saying I think the Texans will run the football against the Bills? This is not a great rush defense historically. Now, maybe they're a lot better under Jim Leonard in this 3-4. We'll see how they handle things. But to me, they'll be able to run the football. I think it's about execution, playing clean, not turning the ball over. How are you looking on third down? Are you picking up those third and fours you get in their territory? Or are you going to have to make those tough fourth down decisions or rely on long field goals by Fairbairn? Your thoughts on the Texans' ability to run it against the Bills.
00:20:38
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, with David Montgomery coming into Woody Marks, going into his second year, they've got the running backs. The key is the offensive line. You have a new center, you have a new left guard, and you have those three returning starters. The thing that I am more interested in than anything fired up about the defense is But interesting is the offensive line. You know, it's been rebuilt again. Can they do a better job of run blocking? Will Keelan Rutledge's nastiness rub off on his teammates? So, yes, it would be great if they could run the ball better. Because last year they put C.J. Stroud in so many holes by getting stuffed. And it'd be great to see him go down the field score of the first series. with a good balance of running pass and having Stroud throw a touchdown pass, that would be a great way to start the game.
00:21:37
Speaker 4: General, you mentioned C.J. Stroud. Two-parter. One, what do you want to see? And B, what do you expect to see against a revamped Bills defense?
00:21:48
Speaker 3: In that Pittsburgh playoff game, C.J. makes some really good throws. People forget about it because of the interceptions and the turnovers. And I expect to see more of that. I expect to see Nick Haley doing a better job of playing Colin Stroud, doing a better job of operating the offense. Nico Collins, you'd think he'd be doubled. And by the way, do you think Moody, who would have been inactive in the game last night, according to Mike Grable and Romeo Dobbs, still can't catch the ball. And now A.J. Brown's out. I bet that booty's looking pretty good to Mike Bregman.
00:22:31
Speaker 4: Okay.
00:22:32
Speaker 1: He said it.
00:22:33
Speaker 2: All right, General, some other games I want your opinion on. The Jags hosting the Browns. This is a terrible game for me because, and thankfully I don't have to watch it, I'll be doing our game. I don't want to root for the Jaguars, and I certainly don't want to root for the Browns, but you kind of have to root for Cleveland in this case. How about 10-9, the Browns pull it out. I have to see the Jags lose this game. Who's going to win this game? It's got to be the Jaguars at home against a Cleveland team that does not look so hot.
00:23:03
Speaker 3: Ordinarily, this wouldn't be that big a deal, but because it's Watson, came out this morning, he had a ticket doing 86 and a 40 in Cleveland. I think it was last month. But they need to win. The Texans need to be Watson fans and Browns fans. And considering everything that the Browns have done for the Texans, I don't think they're going to pull the upset. When we were in the last time, Jacksonville won the division, won a playoff game, did not make the playoffs the next season. I think Jacksonville will blow them out, but I'd sure like to see Watson engineer an upset because he is unbeaten in Jacksonville.
00:23:47
Speaker 4: That is a good point. Wow, okay. All right, here we go. Let's get it done, General. The Colts are taking on the Ravens in Indianapolis. Alec Pierce apparently is going to be back. Daniel Jones has got some cadaver in his Achilles or something. I don't know. He's back. But Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are healthy. Ravens are favored in Indianapolis. I don't think that's too surprising. Everybody has a shot to win, but do you give the Colts a realistic shot to beat the Ravens on opening weekend?
00:24:17
Speaker 3: Absolutely I do, John, because the last time Daniel Jones was healthy. They were 8-2. A lot of people thinking Ravens go to the Super Bowl after missing the playoffs. They have a new head coach, first year, untested. They had to let several key players go because of the salary cap. At some point, Derrick Henry is going to start to show his age, whether it's this season or not. Who knows? I'm thinking the Colts in this game over the Ravens because I think The AFC South is going to be a three-team race. And did you guys see Kyle Brand on NFL Network and ESPN? I really like Brand. Taking the Texans out and the Titans in.
00:25:03
Speaker 1: Wait, what?
00:25:04
Speaker 4: I did not see that.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: Titans in where?
00:25:06
Speaker 4: Titans make the playoffs.
00:25:08
Speaker 1: Oh, come on.
00:25:09
Speaker 4: As Jason Bateman said in dodgeball, it's a bold move, Kyle, and we'll see how it pays off.
00:25:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
00:25:15
Speaker 4: Bold.
00:25:16
Speaker 3: Remember last year, Mike Tannenbaum... said on ESPN that the Titans were going to win the division. And I said, that's why he's a former general manager.
00:25:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big stretch. Obviously, they're going to be better. They've got to be better than what they were last year, but not that much better. All right, the Bucs are at the Bengals, General, this weekend. That's another Sunday nooner Central time. And I like this one. This would be a fun game to watch if we weren't doing the Texans game. And I definitely don't want to have that happen. I want to do the Texans game. So Bengals, Bucs, Incensee, who do you got?
00:25:55
Speaker 3: I got the Bengals because Joe Burrow is healthy. And Baker Mayfield doesn't have that chip on his shoulder like he did before last week. Now they respected him, didn't disrespect him, because they pay him $ 55 million a year. Burrow is one of the top quarterbacks in the league, as you guys know. He missed, I think, almost half of the last... season he needs to stay healthy and if he doesn't and they miss playoffs most people think zach taylor is going to be out as their head.
00:26:24
Speaker 4: Coach okay this is for all three of us right it's sleeper time yep i want each of us to come up with a team a team that had a losing record in 2025 right That you think will at least turn it around to get a winning record. Doesn't mean they got to win a division. Doesn't mean they have to go to the playoffs. But they have to go from a losing record to a winning record. All right? Let me give you the teams that this applies to. In the AFC, the Dolphins, the Jets, the Ravens, Bengals, Browns, Colts, Titans, Chiefs, Raiders. Okay?
00:27:07
Speaker 1: Over an NFC. Okay, go on.
00:27:09
Speaker 4: NFC, well, it's Cowboys, Commanders, Giants. Then it is everybody in the NFC South, and it's the Cardinals. So pick your sleeper team amongst those teams that were under 500 last year.
00:27:25
Speaker 1: You want to go first, Mark?
00:27:26
Speaker 2: Not to rewrite your little thing here, but you've got to eliminate the Ravens, and I think you should eliminate the Colts as well.
00:27:33
Speaker 1: From this conversation. It's too easy. It's too easy.
00:27:36
Speaker 2: But it's one of the NFC South teams because you had three 8-9s and a 6-11.
00:27:41
Speaker 1: So who's going to have a winning record there? If I said the Buccaneers.
00:27:45
Speaker 4: I know mine. I know what I'm going with. General, do you know what you want to go with?
00:27:49
Speaker 3: I sure do. I think there should be one in each conference. And since I picked the Cowboys to win the NFC East after losing to the Texans, I'm going with the Cowboys in the NFC And if I had to pick somebody in the AFC, I think I would pick the Bengals.
00:28:08
Speaker 4: Well, the Cowboys, that was going to be mine in the NFC. That's where I was going. But I'm going, I don't know if I'm going well off the page here, but I just, I'm playing a hunch in the NFC. I'm going with the New Orleans Saints.
00:28:24
Speaker 1: I like this.
00:28:25
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:28:27
Speaker 1: I like the boldness.
00:28:28
Speaker 4: Before people scoff.
00:28:30
Speaker 1: Six wins. They were two off the pace.
00:28:31
Speaker 4: Who was the first to call the Detroit Lions a few years ago amongst the three of us?
00:28:36
Speaker 1: What, that they were going to win?
00:28:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, that they were going to turn things around, and they did.
00:28:40
Speaker 1: Before they went 9-8 that year and missed the playoffs?
00:28:42
Speaker 4: That's right. So I'm going to say the Saints and the NFC. I think in the AFC, I mean, it's easy to pick the Chiefs. So I'm going to try and stay away from that. All these teams like Burrow. Burrow was what? Six and 11. Now he didn't play the whole season. I mean, Bengals would be that team for me, I guess.
00:29:00
Speaker 6: I mean.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: If you went out on a limb and said the Dolphins, then I'm impressed if that comes through.
00:29:05
Speaker 4: No, Dolphins. See, that's not coming through. That's going to be ugly. So I'm going to go with Bengals and Saints. Those are my two.
00:29:11
Speaker 1: I'll go with the Buccaneers because they were 8-9.
00:29:13
Speaker 3: Who do y'all think is going to have the first pick in the draft?
00:29:16
Speaker 7: Hmm.
00:29:17
Speaker 1: That's a good one. I think the Dolphins are a really good candidate for this.
00:29:20
Speaker 4: It's whoever the Manning family says should have it, General. That's who's going to have it at that point.
00:29:28
Speaker 1: But, General, do you think Arch is definitely the number one pick? I don't think so. I don't think he's the number one pick in the draft. We have to decide. It's September 10th. We need to come up with this right now, this second.
00:29:40
Speaker 3: I would take Arch Manning over Dante Moore. And if the Manning family is going to decide, they're going to say the Saints are going to be awful so he can go to New Orleans and replace Tyler Shug and make John Ayers look awful.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: You know, they got to get that's mean. They got that's bullying.
00:29:57
Speaker 4: Come on, General.
00:29:58
Speaker 2: They got to get their story straight. The Manning family, by the way, because everyone's going to take the blame for it.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: Right.
00:30:03
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:30:04
Speaker 2: You know, Arch is going to take the blame. Eli's going to take the blame. You know, Cooper's going to take the blame.
00:30:09
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, everybody but Archie is going to take the blame.
00:30:12
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, Archie took all the heat for Eli.
00:30:16
Speaker 1: Right. Because it was his decision.
00:30:18
Speaker 4: No, it was Eli's decision.
00:30:19
Speaker 1: Oh, that's what Eli says.
00:30:20
Speaker 4: That's what Eli says.
00:30:20
Speaker 1: He's protecting his father.
00:30:21
Speaker 4: I guess. I don't know.
00:30:23
Speaker 2: I'm my own man. My father wouldn't do it.
00:30:25
Speaker 4: I don't know.
00:30:26
Speaker 1: I know this, General.
00:30:26
Speaker 4: I read this probably about a month ago that Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, that if Arch Manning gets in this draft, that Jimmy Haslam will do whatever it takes to bring Arch Manning, because Jimmy Haslam's got connections with Tennessee Vols, with Peyton and all that kind of stuff.
00:30:45
Speaker 1: Including higher Sark.
00:30:46
Speaker 4: That he'll do whatever it takes to go get Arch Manning to bring him to Cleveland. So I ask you this, if Cleveland does have the number one pick, do you think Arch goes back to the University of Texas?
00:30:59
Speaker 3: No, I think he goes to the Cleveland Browns. They're moving into a new stadium. You won't have the wind and rain and hail and lightning as a factor in the stadium anymore. And I will say this, Browns have two number one picks, but the Jets have three. And if Arch is clearly going to be the number one pick, and neither one of those say Miami is the number one pick, then they're going to be offering no telling what. to get that pig from the dolphins. And I tell you, we know this, I guess they'll give him a guarantee. Has only given 230 million guarantee general three.
00:31:45
Speaker 2: Number one, you mentioned you're doing a grid irons event tonight, grid iron legends event. And Van Chancellor is there who is more like a hard court legends guy, but I like it that you have him.
00:31:57
Speaker 1: Cause I know he can fit into any situation. Why is Van there?
00:32:01
Speaker 3: Because Van is a great Iron Legend. We wanted a good talker. Because of all the controversy in the WNBA and because we had the Connecticut Sun move into Houston next year. And Van lives in Houston, plays golf just about every day. As he said, whenever I play free, I'm there. And so last time I interviewed him about six months ago, he was fantastic. And I expect him to be again.
00:32:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
00:32:30
Speaker 2: All right, General, thanks so much for joining us tonight. We appreciate it.
00:32:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you very much. I can't wait for Sunday.
00:32:36
Speaker 2: All right, that's John McClain. Coming up, Aiden Fisher. We were supposed to have him on last night. In fact, we did, but Westwood One took over as they went into the National Game broadcast.
00:32:46
Speaker 1: So we have Aiden Fisher.
00:32:48
Speaker 2: Linebacker, Indiana Hoosier, national champion, two-time All-American, now a Houston Texan wearing the green dot on occasion in the preseason. We'll catch up with him next on Texans Radio. Right back into the fray here in the Hyundai Texans Radio studio. So great to have you listening to Texans All-Access tonight as we get closer to kickoff.
00:33:08
Speaker 1: Noon Sunday.
00:33:08
Speaker 2: 9 a.m. Texans countdown presented by Modelo Especial. Cannot wait. I know you feel the same way. Aiden Fisher feels the same way. Rookie linebacker, wore the green dot on occasion in the preseason, won a national championship with Indiana last year, two-time All-America. We visited with him in studio and asked him how it's going so far.
00:33:31
Speaker 4: A lot of learning, a lot of growing.
00:33:33
Speaker 6: It's been a great Experience so far.
00:33:35
Speaker 2: A lot of reps in the preseason, not only joint practices, the games themselves, and that's a lot of activity so far because it's got to be tough for you guys pre-draft. You have the post-draft stuff, the rookie camp, and then everything you've done in the preseason. What about the wear and tear, for lack of a better way of putting it, Aiden?
00:33:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, coming in as a rookie, you know, you're not handing anything. You've got to go out and earn it and work for it, and that's just part of the process. You know, you've got to keep your body, you know, along for the ride as you go. So, you know, having guys like Aziz, Henry, really the whole linebacker room teaching us, you know, how do you take care of your body, especially your rookie year, because everybody knows, you know, the rookie year is the longest one of your career. So you just got to be able to manage it, take care of your body. We have great vets all in the locker room that are helping us along the way.
00:34:19
Speaker 4: So, Aiden, how cool is it that you could just go out and do football stuff, come back and do football stuff and.
00:34:24
Speaker 7: Not have to go to any classes after that?
00:34:26
Speaker 4: How does that feel?
00:34:27
Speaker 6: Oh, it's been great. You know, the whole no class thing is awesome now. Doing this full time as a career.
00:34:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:34:33
Speaker 6: You know, it's a dream come true. And it's a lot better without classes.
00:34:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can imagine.
00:34:37
Speaker 2: So tell us about Aziz and the kind of leader he is, because we've talked to him a lot. He came into the league as an undrafted guy and he is who he is today. What about his leadership and what it's meant to you so far?
00:34:47
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, he's not somebody that's going to tell you what you want to hear. He's going to tell you what you need to hear. And that's kind of the thing that I appreciate the most. You know, he told me kind of his background, his story of how he got in the league and, you know, how he got to where he is now. And that was important for me to hear, you know, coming from almost a similar space, the seventh round to an undrafted guy and just hearing, you know, the trials and tribulations that he went through, how he responded and how he managed different things.
00:35:13
Speaker 5: Along the way.
00:35:14
Speaker 4: It's been huge for me.
00:35:17
Speaker 6: The success I've been able to have so far, a lot of it has been learned. The techniques that he's taught, the way to handle things and take care of your body, I can't say enough about him. He's been great for us.
00:35:28
Speaker 4: Aiden, everybody's got a superpower. I'm not sure what mine is. I know what Mark's is.
00:35:32
Speaker 7: What would you say your superpower is in a game of football?
00:35:38
Speaker 4: I would say the intangibles.
00:35:39
Speaker 6: You know, the things you can't see, I think it's no secret I'm not, you know, 6'4, 250 and running a 4'2, or anything.
00:35:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:35:46
Speaker 4: But I think it's the things that you can't measure.
00:35:48
Speaker 6: You know, how hard I play, how much time I put into this game, and the mental side of things, for sure.
00:35:54
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker 2: Okay, so compare and contrast the coaching styles D'Amico Ryans versus Kurt Cignetti.
00:35:59
Speaker 3: Oh, boy.
00:36:00
Speaker 6: Yeah, first thing that's very different is Coach Sig's an offensive guy. And Coach Ryan is definitely, you know, defensive, you know, hands-on, which has been great, you know, as a linebacker, learn.
00:36:11
Speaker 4: From him, which has been an unreal experience.
00:36:13
Speaker 1: You're wearing his number.
00:36:15
Speaker 4: I am, yeah.
00:36:16
Speaker 6: A ref in our first preseason game reminded me of that. So, yeah, it's been great, though. Both of them are, you know, extremely, you know, honed in on the details that make things go, you know, make a program go. I think, you know, with D'Amico we had a little bit more more fun uh you know he's a a very bright character that you know he brings out the best of everybody but he has fun along the way uh coach said we were straight to business you know at all times.
00:36:43
Speaker 4: Yeah seemingly at all times one of the things i've always i'm intrigued by is communication in football always you wear the green dot now you got used to that in in college a little bit now you come here you wear the green dot there in the preseason games etc i What does that sound like in your helmet? I mean, can you actually make out what's being said? Maybe on the road, maybe it's a little tougher. Maybe at home when your crowd is getting going, it's a little bit tougher. What's that like hearing all that communication in your brain, like right in your helmet?
00:37:14
Speaker 1: How do you like that?
00:37:15
Speaker 4: How have you adapted to it? Do you like it now?
00:37:17
Speaker 7: Did you not like it before?
00:37:18
Speaker 4: How do you like that little green dot, the little communicator coach comm in your helmet?
00:37:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
00:37:23
Speaker 6: I think it's really cool to have to be able to communicate. especially with your defensive coordinator who's, you know, getting the call, but also can, you know, throw in a little something here and there that you need to hear. There are times, you know, back when I was in college, you know, me and my DC had to tell him, you know, you got to quiet down a little bit.
00:37:39
Speaker 4: I can't hear you a little too loud. So he'd give you the call and just keep chirping. Yeah, he just keeps going. He forgets that, you know, it's not on mute or anything.
00:37:45
Speaker 6: But it's been a great thing that I think helps more than it hurts anything. Obviously, when it gets to a loud environment, it's kind of hard to hear. But I think it's something that's definitely great for, you know, the sport.
00:37:55
Speaker 2: What about special teams? What are you doing now? And how much did you do in college? I mean, you're a two-time first-team All-American, so were you playing a lot of special teams at Indiana?
00:38:04
Speaker 1: I'm thinking no.
00:38:07
Speaker 6: I started out with special teams when I was at James Madison, and then I stayed on the punt team every year of my career. So that was something I took pride in, being able to stay on the punt team, play special teams. And I think that kind of shows– the team how much you care at times right um you know we had guys that were starters that play special teams for us at indiana i think our teammates and you know especially me look at my peers like this guy cares to keep playing special teams even when the coach has told him you know maybe you don't have to yeah who blocked the kick last year in the championship.
00:38:38
Speaker 4: Game was that is that kyle kamara yeah yeah his starter came off the edge blocked the kick that was kind of nice.
00:38:43
Speaker 2: It's got to be interesting though rookie camp we see out here and Introducing Coach Ross, and now you're going to learn the basics of what we're doing here on special teams, right?
00:38:52
Speaker 4: That's a baptism.
00:38:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, Coach Ross, he's been great. I've never met somebody with that much energy all the time. But the way that he's able to kind of harness it and get the details across, it's been so much fun to play for. Big adjustment with new rules. Even the punt is a little bit different. But the kickoff and the kick return, which I actually like a lot better, I think is great. but it's been so much fun to play under Coach Ross and learn from him.
00:39:18
Speaker 7: So in preseason, you guys don't do a lot of game prep.
00:39:22
Speaker 4: You might discuss you know carolina joint practice or whatever the raiders but you're really like in-depth preparing i don't know the right way of asking this but the last time you did that you were preparing for the miami hurricanes and national championship game now you're preparing for josh allen former league mvp that's a pretty wild swing in getting ready what's that been like to start getting ready for the bills it Oh, it's been great.
00:39:46
Speaker 6: To me, this is the best part of football. When you can sit down and game plan and you're playing chess pretty much. And how much time are you going to take to study, to put the time in to be able to know your opponent? This is the part of football that I love most. And it's been cool to kind of adjust from the college setting. Now it's the NFL. Be able to see different things and different schematics. It's been great. And we have great vets and Coach Billy Davis as well. Teaching football has been important along the way because at the end of the day, it's still 11 guys on the field. You're still playing football. But being able to understand new language and different ways that the NFL sees it compared to college, it's been so cool.
00:40:26
Speaker 1: It's been exciting. So you're a Virginia guy, right?
00:40:30
Speaker 3: I am.
00:40:30
Speaker 2: And you were deciding between James Madison and Old Dominion, right? And you go to JMU, obviously. But if I tell you during that process, hey, you're going to be a national champion one day, would you have believed it?
00:40:42
Speaker 1: No.
00:40:42
Speaker 4: No way. I would not have believed that.
00:40:45
Speaker 2: What was it like, though, when Coach Cignetti gets the job and you go over with him to Indiana?
00:40:51
Speaker 1: What was that process like? That must have been really interesting. Yeah, it was weird for sure.
00:40:55
Speaker 6: Because at JMU, that's a school that is just the whole tradition is winning.
00:41:02
Speaker 4: It's a winning football program.
00:41:03
Speaker 1: The Dukes.
00:41:04
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you get to Indiana, and that's not the case at all. They're the most losing program of all time. So you talk to the guys, and it's like, yeah, if we win three to four games, that's a solid year for us.
00:41:17
Speaker 4: And we're coming off of JMU.
00:41:18
Speaker 6: We were 11-1 and winning a lot of football games. So it was such a different atmosphere around the team and the program. Obviously, it changed pretty quick, but it was so weird to go from James Madison to Indiana, which Indiana is the bigger school that has the Big Ten tradition.
00:41:35
Speaker 4: It was weird, though.
00:41:36
Speaker 2: What was it like when you saw your Indiana friends when the Raiders were here? Oh, man, there was a ton of them.
00:41:40
Speaker 6: Oh, it was great.
00:41:41
Speaker 4: You know, I love those guys.
00:41:42
Speaker 6: Being able to talk to them and just kind of see where they are, not only in their careers and what's going on, but how their lives have changed. You know, we spent every single.
00:41:50
Speaker 4: Day together for a year.
00:41:52
Speaker 6: And now just, you know, being able to talk to them and play against them, it was weird, but it was really cool to do.
00:41:57
Speaker 4: What's it been like for your family, Aiden, as they're kind of watching your performance? your progress growing from Jamie, going to Indiana, winning a national championship. What's it going to have been like for your family now to watch you as a Houston Texan? Are they all wearing number 59 jerseys and making sure they say Fisher and not Ryans, of course? But what's it been like for your family to watch you kind of continue.
00:42:15
Speaker 6: To grow and become the man you are and a player you are for the Texans? I think for my sisters, they would tell you it's been really fun. We've all been able to travel to so many cool places with football, and it's taken us to some incredible venues and different places across the country. But it's really brought my family really close together. You know, I have uncles, aunts, cousins that would travel.
00:42:37
Speaker 4: Yep.
00:42:37
Speaker 6: And that's just more family time together. So, to me, that's awesome. And if you ask my mom, it's been emotional. You know, she's been up and down.
00:42:44
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:42:45
Speaker 6: But she's loving it. She's so supportive of me. You know, that's who I lean on all the time. So, she's always so positive. But, you know, there are times, I think it was the Panthers game was the first one she was able to, or the Raiders game she came to, and she said that she.
00:42:58
Speaker 4: Had been emotional all week, crying and stuff.
00:43:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:43:01
Speaker 4: It's been really cool.
00:43:03
Speaker 2: What you guys do is very intense, but in the linebacker room, who's got the best sense of humor? Who's the cut-up when needed? Who can keep the atmosphere light enough?
00:43:12
Speaker 4: Oh, Jake Hansen for sure. He's hilarious.
00:43:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, good stuff.
00:43:17
Speaker 4: I think that would probably qualify for sure. We talked about Aziz. Henry's been at room. He's been here for four years and Henry was not a first round pick. You know, he's a guy that, you know, a day three pick as well as really grown into that type of linebacker. What does he meant to the linebacker room? What's he meant to you learn from him? Oh, Henry, Henry has been great.
00:43:34
Speaker 6: Um, he's kind of took me under his wing as well as he's just, you know, having those similarities, you know, we're both day three picks, nothing's ever going to be handed to us. Like you're going to have to compete day in and day out. Um, and just sitting and talking to him every single day, picking his brain, um, So.
00:43:50
Speaker 4: Cool to just see the way that he's.
00:43:52
Speaker 6: Gone through his process and different things I can pick that he does and put it into my routine, my regimen, see what I can take from him and improve as a player and a person.
00:44:03
Speaker 4: He's been great. He's meant a lot.
00:44:04
Speaker 1: Excellent. Aiden, thanks a lot for joining us. Good luck to you this year.
00:44:06
Speaker 4: Thank you, guys.
00:44:07
Speaker 2: There's Aiden Fisher, Texans rookie linebacker. Coming up, we close it out, Houston Methodist Minutes, the injury report, and whatever else comes along on Texans All-Access. Closing it out here on Texans All Access tonight, injury report information. Will Anderson Jr. just had a day of rest today, so did not practice. Caden McDonald did not practice. He hurt his ankle yesterday, it looks like, because he was limited with the ankle yesterday and out today. And that's too bad for the rookie. We'll see how his status lines up tomorrow. Full participation for Trent Brown and Wade Woodaz, who both were full yesterday with various injuries. Now, for the Buffalo Bills, Ty Johnson, the running back, second straight day out with the hamstring. That doesn't look good for him. And TJ Sanders out with a knee. He was limited with a knee yesterday, so that means he probably hurt it during practice. And limited today, defensive back Jordan Hancock. Okay, let's get to Houston Methodist Minutes.
00:45:01
Speaker 1: This is Dr.
00:45:02
Speaker 2: Robert Flannery on dehydration. What about electrolytes and stuff like that?
00:45:07
Speaker 1: Do they really help?
00:45:07
Speaker 5: So I think the first thing to look at is, you know, when you taste your sweat, what does it taste like? It tastes like salt. And so salt is the most important thing from an electrolyte standpoint that we can recover. It doesn't taste like sugar. It doesn't taste like potassium, right? It tastes like salt. So we want to make sure that we're putting that salt back. Some people are heavy sweaters, so they're losing a lot of volume. Some people are salty sweaters, so they're losing a lot more of the electrolytes. Those electrolyte drinks are great to put those back, but you really don't need them unless you are doing some sort of strenuous activity in the heat, prolonged activity in the heat. So save those for when you really need them.
00:45:51
Speaker 2: Now, what about preparation? If I know I'm going to be outside for a while, say tomorrow, start tonight. What's the best way to go about this? And I've heard Eat something, too. I mean, obviously don't starve yourself, but eat something.
00:46:04
Speaker 1: Eat a good meal. What are some of the do's and don'ts there with food consumption prior to being outside for long periods of time in Texas?
00:46:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, and so really, if you're starting the night before, you're probably already behind. From what I tell, I've got kids, too, that play sports, and I tell them that your hydration starts after your last game, after your last practice. If you have those really hard days, things that you know that are coming up, you want to start early. You want to avoid caffeine for the most part. It doesn't mean you can't have any, but caffeine can be a little bit of a diuretic and make you a little bit more dehydrated. So staying hydrated, avoiding caffeine, starting early, four, five, six days beforehand, because really once you start that activity, you're not going to catch up. You're not going to be able to rehydrate while you're in the middle of any kind of strenuous activity. Food is another really important part, good balanced meals. I know we've all heard how bad salt can be for you, but if you're doing those high-intensity exercises or you've got outdoor work that you've got to get done, you're going to lose salt. So having a well-balanced meal, even if you put a little bit of salt on it, is okay. Same thing with the electrolyte drinks. They've got a lot of sugar in them, but those carbohydrates are important to put some of those building blocks back in. So when your body is recovering from it, from that activity, you're able to recover from it quickly.
00:47:38
Speaker 1: Dr.
00:47:39
Speaker 2: Robert Flannery of Houston Methodist. We might have more on that dehydration topic next week. It's the official healthcare provider of the Houston Texans, Houston Methodist Leading Medicine. That's it for the show tonight. We've got Thursday Night Football next. The 49ers and the Rams from Melbourne, Australia. Have a great evening. Go Texans!
