Full Transcript for Understanding Enemy Sidelines

as well. Mark's gonna stop by. We'll talk a little bit more about the Cleveland Browns. You've had a chance to kind of break bread last night and the O'Briant show a little bit on All Access last night. So we're moving on to the Cleveland Browns, and then we'll also talk to our buddy Andre Ware, look back a little bit with Dre, and then we will look forward to Cleveland Browns and then to ball season. For Dre. Finally got the regular season over with. You got the championship weekend this weekend, so not a bunch of games and a full slatey games, important games and college football. But we will find out on Sunday during the game with the Browns what the Academy Sports and Outdoors Texas Bowl will be. There was a part of me going into last weekend I thought there's a possibility for Adam Baylor maybe, but then am one looks like Adam's gonna head to Florida for a bowl, which I know Aggie fans are thrilled about and I'm happy for him. So don't know what's gonna happen here with the Texas Bowl, but looking forward to nonethless, So that announced, we will come down during the game on Sunday. It'll come from our good friend David Fletcher, who we had on last week, who announced the twenty nineteen Advocare Texas kickoff between You of H and Washington State that will take place on Friday, September thirteenth. So a lot of good stuff coming out of our friends LSSC. So that's kind of the outline of this show. Nathan Sigura, Jamie Roots, Eric Sono Sencio, Mark Vandamir andre Ware got all that. All right, let's do it. Let's get this show started. Our Hot Reads. Hot Reads brought to you by Geico. Fifteen minutes can save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. And the first nugget of news came down earlier today and man, what a good piece of news it actually was. And I go back to that conversation I had on Twitter before the season started about one mister JJ Watt. I got tweets from people saying he's passed his prime, he's over the hill, he's done done. Zoe, you're not gonna get anything from what You're not gonna get anything. He's passed his prime. Well, I read you the notice that came today. The NFL has named Houston Texans defensive end JJ Watt the AFC Defensive Player of the Week following his performance in the team's thirty four seventeen victory over the Tennessee Titans on Monday Night pass his p What finished with nine tackles, one and a half sacks, one forced fumble, two quarterback hits and one tackle for a loss. On successive plays, he had half a sack with Christian Covington. That's the tellustrator play that you gotta see. It's phenomenal. It is. I've seen JJ do some things over the years, whether it's a spin move, whether it's a different technique he used. But the speed to power conversion that you see in the tellustrator that I have for you, oh my goodness. And he got half a sack on that play. In the very next play, he got a tackle for loss. He's unbelievable. What now leads the AFC in sacks with eleven and a half. He ranked second

in the entire NFL. He has recorded at least one sack in four consecutive games. That's the seventh time in his career that he's done that. It's the most streaks of four consecutive games with a sack in the NFL since two thousand one. Watch joined von Miller Chandler Jones is the only players who record five seasons with ten or more Sackson's twenty eleven and keep in mind what missed the majority of two years. WAT is tied with Leonard little Well that's a name from the past, for forty nine on the the all times sacklist and has the second most through players first ninety nine games of their NFL career, trailing only Reggie White at one hundred and three. That's unbelievable. Now the Texans, this is the second time the Texan has gotten the AFC Player of the Week offense or defense this year. Jeffyon Clowney got it for his Week four performance against Indianapolis. What has been named player of the Week seven times, seven times. He was also the AFC Defensive Player of the Month for September earlier this year. It's the sixteenth time a Houston Tech has won the AFC Defensive Player of the Week award in team history. And again seven of those, I think my math is right, two or six, seven, Yeah, seven of those are J. J. Watts. Unbelievable to think what that man is doing. It's unreal. And I saw the other day and I don't remember who wrote this, maybement Peter King, but he looted the fact that, yeah, it's a fatal complete Andrew Luck comeback player of the year whole, Non there, Sparky, You're sure about that? You sure because Watt didn't miss one. He missed two years and is coming back and is doing this eleven and a half sacks on the year. Come on, people, I mean, what JJ Watt is doing this year is just phenomenal. The defense as a whole has been great. J J. Watt is one of the big reasons why. And like I said, go check out the telestrator because it's you can see it playing his day. He's going against one of the better tackles in the AFC, just dominates him. And yeah, it's one play, but there were a lot like that turned the game. That was just one. That was only one that I picked. But the news coming out of the NFL today J J. Watt AFC Defensive Player of the Year seventh time in his career. First AFC Player of the Week honors this year. But that is in addition to his September Defensive Player of the Month honors that he took down earlier this year. All Right, our next hot read, let's hear from your Texans and one piece of sound from everybody if you will. How about how about that? Let's start with J. J. Watt. He obviously was asked about being Player of the Week. This is what he had to say about all of that doesn't mean a whole lot to me. I mean, it's cool, it's I mean, I appreciate and I'm very thankful for any honor, But I don't I don't have any closers up on my wall about defensive Third of the Week awards, that's for sure. Yeah, I don't care. I just gotta I gotta play. The next game is here. From Bill O'Brien, he was asked about Zach Cunningham and how happy he is to have Zach back on the field for this defense. Zack's an athletic guy. Made a big play on fourth down in the last game, made a nice play early in the game, and the on the tackle in the flat um on Dion Lewis, which who's a very difficult guy to tackle U And now you have Chubb, who's an excellent running back. There's other guys gonna be involved with, you know, tackling him, covering him. But Zach is a is a four down linebacker, so he can play on first second third down and then he's he's one of our better special teams players here. One of the things that I like is there's familiarity. Nick Chubb played Zach Cunningham for three years at Vanderbilt and vice versa. They know each other. He's tackled Chubb before. He knows what it's like to run it to that brick wall. So Za' had that experience. I think that, uh, I think that that's great, to be honest with you. From the Shawn Watson, he talked about Baker Mayfield. They met before long time ago and twenty fifteen, it feels like a long time ago, but they met a cod Football playoff game and yeah, they walked away with the w But he said, Baker is a pretty confident guy. He's a guy that has a lot of confidence in himself, a lot of confidence in his team. And he's a leader and everyone is in that organization is following him. You know. That's the reason why he was the number one pig and that's the reason why he's, you know, the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns because he's doing everything right for that organization winning games. You know, given that organization a hope and he's playing really well. So I mean he's doing a good job for himself and then you know for that organization. Yeah, those two have known each other for a while. That matchup the Orange Bowl is just the start. I got a feeling they will see each other for a while. Fact, let's hear from Baker. He said, playing to Texas defense is going to be a challenge. Oh absolutely, I look at it is a huge challenge for us, not only myself, but us as an offense. You know, we've we've been building the past couple of weeks and so now we're gonna have a great test in front of us. And so you know, I hope everybody looks forward to the challenge of plan of that defense. Yeah, no doubt. Now the Texans will face it. Greg Williams defense and Greg Williams the defense coordinators, also the interim head coach. He talked about Deshaw Watson what he sees, and he says, Deshawn's taking the strides you want to see a young quarterback. I think he's grown. I think he's taken the next step. I think Bill and that staff, Bill O'Brien, that staff have been a very good job on some of the very same things we were talking about. Baker on on how you know, devising and setting the skill sets up to what DeShawn can do. I think the game's slowing down for him. You can see that. You know, he's more relaxed, and he never did show any stress or panting, but you can see he's more comfortable and what he's doing. And then the fact that he

fought through the injury. He's done that several times in his career, be at high school colleagues, and now at this level. You can see as the season's gone on, each week he's more and more comfortable with how he's and physically, let alone mentally, they're both coming together pretty well. So those are your hot reads, a little bit of sound from the locker room, and a couple of calls today with Baker Mayfield and Greg Williams. All Right, it's time to go behind enemy sidelines, and we will do that with the Cleveland Browns. Nathan Zagura next with DBC on Texans All Access going on Houston area teachers, you want to bring a little Texas football to your classroom, then sign up for Toros Matris presented by Conico Phillips Toros Matris, the video series designed to help third and fourth graders learn how to tackle math in the classroom. Go to Houston Texans dot com slash Toros Matris to learn more. Welcome back to the show Texas All Access on this Wednesday evening from the Monday Texans Radio Studio. I am John Harris, football analyst and sideline reporter for your Houston Texans. It is time to go behind enemy sidelines, and we're gonna do that with the sideline reporter of the Cleveland Browns, Nathan Zigur. Amongst other things, Nathan is a silent reporter. I guess you could say he's the John's equivalent. Maybe not enough going to put that on anybody, to be honest with you, But if you said I can't had a chance to catch up with Nathan to get his thoughts on the four six and one Cleveland Browns deep, you take it away joining me today, Nathan. So you're a senior media broadcaster and host of Cleveland Browns Daily. How's it going to say? Nathan? It is going very well. Thank you for asking. The Browns coming off of a huge road victory over Cincinnati Bengals, the Browns of now one off to back games for the first time since two thousand and fourteen, and I know you guys are on even more impressive eight game winning streak down there in Houston. But things are feeling very good. There's a lot of optimism around this organization and it all starts with number six, Baker Mayfield. Yeah, I definitely want to talk about him. The season started off very differently for these two squads, and now Baker Mayfield, like you mentioned, he's coming off back to back wins and pretty vocal after that last win against Cincinnati. What's the feeling in the locker room. I know there was a lot of uncertainty a few weeks ago when you let both your head coach Hugh Jackson and the offense point or Toddy go. In the Browns locker room, it is a confident group that feels very very good. They're not looking backwards, they're only looking forwards. And you know they've come off of these two wins. They played their two best football game. Greg Williams has installed instilled a sense of discipline in this culture, and then Baker Mayfield has taken it upon himself to be the leader on the field off the field, and in every which way, and you see that, and you know he's not afraid to say what's on his mind. And then he goes out there and he backs it up on the field. So Baker Mayfield, really, when John Dorsey drafted him, you know, we all hope that he would be the franchise changer. I remember being at the combine when he sat up then and said, I am the guy to turn things around in Cleveland. And then I'm so much like you guys feel about Deshaun Watson. Baker Mayfield, I can tell you is the guy to turn things around in Cleveland. And and talking to numerous players this week and coaches, they are all just so impressed with his leadership and just the fact that he carries himself like a veteran even though he's really only started eight games in the NFL. Baker Mayfield week nine, number two in the NFL and quarterback rating behind only Drew Brees. He's thrown multiple touchdowns in five straight games, something that no rookie in the history of the Cleveland Browns has ever done before. So he's playing at a high level on this team believes in him, he believes in himself. The city believes in him. And right now we know that maybe twenty eighteen isn't the earth, who's to say it isn't. The funds still alive. In the playoff unt, we're going to play a meaningful game in the cinema or something we have not done in years and years, and so let's see what could happen to him. But I would say the feeling right now with the most positive it's been in my six years with the Browns. That's amazing. And in the last few games, Mayfield has thrown nine touchdowns and just one interception in the last three games. He threw a lot more picks early on. But how has he been able to play at such a high level and how much has that offense changed now with Freddy Kitchens in charge. Well, I'll throw another set at you. That's kind of crazy. In the last two games he has ten incomplete passes and has thrown seven touchdowns. Wow, he is playing at a ridiculously high level right now. And I think when Freddie Kitchens came in, one thing that he did and I've heard this from offensive lineman, running backs, quarterback obviously, Baker Mayfield receivers, he collaborates with everybody, what plays do you like? He goes into the offensive line room on Fridays and sits down with the offensive line and says, what are the five runs in the game play this week that you guys like the most? And so he is playing to everybody's strength. He's taking advantage of the talent he has a supposed saying this is how I run an offense. You guys need defend in this He figures out what they all do best. It's a collaborative process, which not only helps because guys are running plays that they believe and they have confidence in, but it also gives them some ownership. When you say, hey, I like this play and he calls it in a critical situation, you definitely want to make sure that play works because that's your input leading to that play calling. So I think they've done a great job of getting to fall out of his hands quickly. Our offensive line has done a great job

left two weeks as well. They have not allowed a sack in either of the last two games, which I know is going to be one of those kind of irresistible forces of mole object situation because you have stacks and each of your lasting games of the defense, So that's going to be a big battle to watch. But I think it's really catering to the strength of the players. Getting the running backs, Nick Chubb, who has been a phenomenal and Duke Johnson more involved than they worked earlier in the season than letting Baker do what he does, and frankly, he's doing it very very well. Yeah, you mentioned Nick Chubb. Just before the Texans played the Jaguars in Week seven, the Browns sent Carlos Hide Hide to Jacksonville, and so we sort of saw the writing on the wall for Nick Chubb that he was going to get a lot more carries. What are they seen in him early on? He really had some limited carries and not so flashy numbers early on in the season. What did they see in him that made him realize, Hey, he's going to be the feature back and we need to put him out there more on the field. And has he exceeded expectations for you so far? Oh? Well, when you go back to one of the early games, I believe it was Week number four against the Raiders, I think he had three carries for over one hundred yards and two touchdowns. And after that game, everybody was a hand. We got to get a Nick Chup more involved, more involved, more involve than he wasn't getting the football. And I think John Dorsey said, Okay, I know how to get Nick Chup more involved. We're going to get Carlos tied out of the way. And that happened and Nick Chup has come in and has been a feature back, touching at twenty times the last two weeks, multiple touchdowns, over one hundred and twenty yard total yards in both games. He is leading the NFL in yards after a contact per carry. He's leading the NFL enforced smith tackles per carry. He is strong, he is fast, he's elusive. He is better than anybody expected. And in the last two weeks he's been thrown the ball six times. He's cut all six for seventy seven yards and two touchdowns, which is something. I think. He had nine catches his final year at Georgia. He's got six to last two weeks, and he's showing I'm a complete back. My past protection skills have improved, my ability to catch the football has improved. He had a great touchdown catch justin this past week. There was a real highlight, real catch and he is doing it all for this football team. Short yardage, hitting the home runs, he has been absolutely spectacular. Yeah, he certainly is a versatile weapon, being able to score both on the ground through the air. And like you mentioned, he's up to six hundred and sixty three yards and eight total touchdown six rushing, two receiving on the season. Can you tell us what makes him so hard to bring down as a as a as a running back and as a receiver. What makes him so elusive and what makes him so good? Is it just so I asked him this and if we taught glimpsons of it in training camp, you know a lot of people thought coming out of Georgia that kind has a more plotting power back. And Tony Mitchell is a home run hitter. Well, job has shown the ability to hit those home runs. Three touchdowns are more than forty yards already this year on the ground, and if he hits another one, by the way, that'll give him more on the season, which would be the most in the NFL since going back to two thousand and twelve with Adrian Peterson and Doug Martin did it. He ripped off a ninety two yard run, which is the longest run in franchise history, although I'm sure Lamar Miller would be like, yeah, I just ran through a ninety seven yard touch. However, Job is no nonsense, as kind of out there and raggedosis. I would say as Baker Mayfield as Nick Job is a throwback, just a worker. He has that will. He never wants to be tackled by the first guy. But he also has tremendous vision. And I think as you watch the NFL, the one trait that all of the great backs have is tremendous vision and an ability to be able to pair their feet to that vision. And Nick Chubb has that as well as the power that he carries. He's a big guy, and is the speed that he is able to bring. You mentioned Greg Williams. I saw a story that he wants to talk playoffs with this Browns team four six and one, just sort of keep that out there that hey, you guys are not out of it just yet, which is the exact opposite of what's happening in Houston, because despite winning eight in a row, Bill O'Brian wants none of this playoff talk. Explain a little bit about that mindset behind keeping the players motivated and playing meaningful games. In December, you've won two in a row, won the first one on the road in a really long time. Snap that losing streak. But now you really have no margin for air. What is it like with Greg Williams in charge? There No, there is a much and I think what the players love about Greg Williams. And then you know he's got a discipline to this organization. Somebody adults, they're accountable. He's here are the rules, Okay, here's what happens if you do If you do a you're gonna get bat and lays it out for them. They totally understoo into a top and actually told them about the playoffs prior to the Vangal game and say, listen, you are not out of it. We have an opportunity to do something great. So let's take it one game at the time and go out there and do that. It's not hey, let's not playoffs. And I don't believe me Browns fans. In two weeks if done, I'm talking about another top five pick in the draft to playoff fever has hit Cleveland with these two wins. But this is the obviously the toughest test the Texans are playing great football. But I think for Gage's saying, look, you guys, all of you have come. You know, a lot of our team is young, and a lot of them came from very successful college builds. Denzel Wards at Ohio State, Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma, Nick Schutt of Georgia, just in this rookie class, and he's saying, Okay, you guys are

used to playing in big games this time of the year. Well, we have the opportunity to do that three every single one of these games like a playoff game. Leave it out there and let's see what we can do. If we can shock the world. Great, But I think you've seen a Brown team that is playing it's best football at this moment, which is not anything I've seen in my time with the Round. Miles Garrett now has ten sacks on the season. It's hard to believe. It's just his second year in the NFL and a lot of people in Texas are following his career very closely, especially the Aggies. How has he improved from his rookie season. I think Number one, he's healthy. I think that was a big thing. Last year he wasn't healthy, and this year he is he's got ten sacks, he could not easily have plenty. He probably can have twenty. Holding penalties is probably like what you guys feel watching J. J. Watt, that he's gonna get a sack or he's getting held on every play. That's how it is with Miles Garrett. His ability to get around the edge and the bend that he has is as good as I've ever seen in the NFL, and he's developed a lot of counter moves to that. He is a force to be reckoned with. He plays the one peason well and there was a game two weeks ago in get Ins Atlanta. He didn't show up in the statueet, but everything that our defense was able to accomplish, and holding at the sixteen points and all the other pressure. You know, they're double teaming and sometimes trouple team. The attention that he commands, and I'm sure you guys know this experience with you know JJ Watt is it's a game changer. You truly have to game plan for him as an offense, and if you don't, he will make you. Kay, I was going to ask you about a hard knocks because I feel like the season started off with hard knocks there in the building and a lot has changed for the Browns. What were your impressions after watching the show. I know we went through it a few years ago, but you know, how did you feel about how the coaches and the players were portrayed. Did it sort of seem like the writing was on the wall the way that things were portrayed, or is there anything that really surprised you or stood out to you from it? I think with the benefit of hindsight a lot at the time, you know, you saw the kind of emerging rift between Todd Haley and Hugh Jackson that ultimately led to the dismissal of both of those men. Now it was very much downplayed at the time. Really there was some truth to what was shown as far as the players go. I think the Jarvis Landry speech will always stand out about you. Oh, definitely to be out there, the work ethic, to play through the injuries and how that's contagious, that will be a highlight moment. I think the one thing that was unfortunate is the players that they really shows the focus on really never had a chance to make the roster. Carlinason would have been the only one that I thought really added to make the roster. That ended up being a very big surprise that he was like,

Oh, but you know, Cajuiced and row Back and nadal Orson really never had a chance to make it, and so I wish they had been able to tell the stories a little more of some of the guys that had a chance to make it, or even some of the new acquisitions. If I like the Marias Randol, who's had a fantastic season and it's really changed our defense as that free safety's got three interceptions down the year and has brought a lot of attitude and swagged to that side of the ball. So looking back on it, those are the tweets I was to pay it made, But I think ultimately you did get a peek behind the curtain and maybe ultimately real of a peak behind the curtain for ultimately how this season has played out. Yea, we saw a little bit of Baker Mayfield. I was going to ask you, now that he's been there for most of the year, was there anything that you've learned about him that it's really surprised you just how good he is? Honestly, I mean, you watched the college statement and you say, Wow, this guy's incredibly accurate. He has all the treats that you would want in a franchise quarterback. You know, you saw the natural leadership and glimpses, but just seeing the Baker that has kind of emerged mount that it is his team consuci book. I can't truly keep a leader if I'm not playing, and now that he's playing, playing at a high level as you're seeing that, and just the command that he has over the locker room and over this organization is very impressive. And you've heard the stories, you know, I've known some guys that are cons some guys who have played with the met Oklahoma and they all it's you get the same story. But until you see it and live it, it's hard to believe that it is exactly as it was presented to you. But it is exactly as it was presented. In the case of Baker Mayfield, two very young, dynamic quarterback is going to be facing each other in Sunday's game. I'm looking forward to looking forward to seeing Baker Mayfield make his debut in Houston and see which of these teams can continue their streaks. Good stuff, Nathans, that you're a senior media broadcaster and host of Cleveland Brown's Daily Nathan, thank you so much. We'll see you here on Sunday, absolutely and hopefully it'll be a little different than the note that's that's absolutely right, all right, Thanks so much, Nathan. We'll see you soon. Thank Yeah. If there was any decision to Browns made last year that was a little bit of a head scratcher, it was that one going in. Deshaan Kaiser had been not so great heading into that one, but he was way better than Kevin Hogan. But Kevin Hogan had looked good in the game prior I think it was the Jets and had thrown some really good balls in that game, and then against the Texans it did not go well. It did not go well for mister Hogan. That's that's for sure. And that it's gonna be Baker. The step up in quarterbacks the Texans are gonna face is significant, to say the least. With no more Kevin Hogan to knock around a little bit, it'll be Baker Mayfield. We'll talk a little bit more about that throughout the week. All right. Come up next, We've got a visit from the president of the Texans, Jamie Roots. Jamie joined Mark and I on Monday during Texans Monday and Mark hit the record button. He always does that we have in studio anymy, it's just just in case. And Jamie was just excellent on Monday morning talking about the game on Monday night, talking about everything that went with it. We thought, you know, it should be a great time to replay that for you. If you weren't able to get up on Monday morning or missed that interview, we'll have that for you next. Jamie Roots, President of the Houston Texans up on Texans All Access. Next. Parents, grab your kids and their friends and join us for a free f R E spouse free free day of fun and Levy Park on Monday, December third from four to six pm. Play sixty at the Park, presented by Texas Children's Hospital, will feature special appearances by a Houston Texans player, cheerleaders, toro, and much more. Additional information is available on Houston Texans dot COM's events calendar, So go to Houston Texans dot com and look for the events calendar and you will find this three day of fun at Levy Park on Monday, December third from four to six pm and right when you're done with that and you get back in the car, you can listen to Texans All Access. So just keep that in mind. Speaking of Texans All Access, that is the show that we have going on right now on this Wednesday evening. Thank you for being here. I'm your host Football Annals to silent reporter John Harris. On Monday mornings throughout the year, Mark and I do Texans Monday, the one show that we never do, in large part because we haven't playing Monday games at home. But we did not plan originally to do Texans Monday. This past Monday whenever we have a Monday night football game. Most of the time, in fact, all the time up until this year, we've been on the road, so it's tough to do that show. So we usually turn it over to a couple of guys in studio. They run with Texans Monday. We call in, we give our thoughts from wherever we are. We have our normal cast of characters, Andre Ware, Spencer tilm and John McClain, and then we would call him over the weekend. Mark texted me and said after we had done the show on Friday night, memorializing Bob McNair with myself Drew and Mark. Mark texted me and said, I think we need to do Texas Monday, and I said done, we're in let's do it. And he texted me a little while later and he said Jamie's coming in. He's coming in studio and I was like, oh man, this is great because we tried to get Jamie on Friday, but something's going on. We just couldn't get him in on Friday. So Mark was able to finagle an appearance from Jamie in our studio. Now Jamie will come down here in the studio every saw often where there's something they can talk about. And obviously the passing of Bob McNair was something that impacted all of us on so many different levels. And Jamie

has been here since the beginning, and so we thought he'd be a great person to talk to. Marked out that I thought that this would be great. Let's do this. It was even better than we thought. And Mark happened to hit record when Jamie was as we started the interview, and as he got done, he looked at me and Mark said that was really good. He goes and I was recorded, and he said we can use it whenever we want. Well, now is that time. If you missed it on Monday prior to the game down in Texans Monday in the morning, when Jamie Roots, president of Texans, joined us, it was absolutely fantastic and I have that for you here now. Jamie Roots, president of the Houston Texans, joining us on Texans Monday. Jamie, we had Charlie casually on on Friday night, first general manager in team history. And I know you worked very closely with him and obviously with mister McNair in the early days of the Texans. What was that like being around Bob McNair for the first time when you first started working here and the way you guys had to put this whole thing together before there was a stadium. Yeah, and you mentioned Charlie. I mean, it's just Charlie Dom. The thing that Bob did better than anyone else was brought together people of character to do the work that he was looking for. You look at Bill O'Brien now Brian Gaine, and you know, as we talked about Brian and debated what we would do a general manager, it was really all around. Certainly had to have the fundamental blocking and tackling, but who's somebody that had the honesty, the integrity, the high character that we expect from the Houston Texans, and that's just really special. And so those early days were really interesting. I mean, we had so many great, great things happening to bob Led by example, But the guy had the greatest sense of humor because you can imagine you're starting a franchise. Nobody had ever paid that kind of money for an NFL team. He had the stadium that was being built, everything was moving a million miles an hour. But he never ever lost perspective. He never lost his sense of humor. And I have always attributed that to his strong sense of faith that when he can't handle it, God's going to take over. And there's so many things that he's instilled in me in that regard that have changed my life. He's changed my family's life, the whole trajectory. So um, but it was it was interesting. We had so many things to do. Guess what, Uh, you know, when we think about the colors of the team, I mean the red, white, and blue, and you've heard that one Liberty White is named after his black dog named Liberty, and uh, we just have so many I mean, at a time like this, you just reflect upon how positive, how optimistic, how inspiring Bob always was. Yeah, and he I thought about this yesterday as I was running. You know, one of the one of them, one of the aspects that he was definitely behind, was a salute disservice and the way the schedule has the way the schedule broke out that we didn't have a home game since October twenty three, and November is Salute the Service month throughout the league. So when we've gone to certain places we've had salute I think it was in Denver we had our Salute the Service night. Well, we didn't have one because we didn't have a game in November. So on the same night that we have a Monday night football game for the first time the twenty ten it's also salute Diservice to night. And obviously we'll be recognized that Bob McNair and the Salute the Service was really one of his grand ideas that the NFL took and really ran with for all thirty two stadiums. Well, that's another great point in the you know, the work of God in our daily lives, that he created this opportunity to two thousand and five because of the deep, deep affinity that Bob and Janis and Cal and the entire McNair family have always had for our men and women in uniform. We created this this game theme of uh, you know, recognizing the military. Did it year after year, and the league liked it so much they took it and put it across all the teams. And did we have an issue with it, Absolutely not. Did Bob have an issue with it? Absolutely not. There was no pride of authors ship in anything. He just always wanted to do the right thing. And if other people copied us in the process, that's great because that's greater impact, you know, being felt for the cause that he felt so passionate about. Jamie Roots, president of the Texans, joining us. When are you running your book because you worked for Lamar Hunt and Bob McNair. I mean, that's incredible right there. Yeah, you know, never mind the soccer national championships that Clemson and all of that, working for Procter and Gamble, but those two guys, those two owners and professional sports, that's phenomenal stuff. Yeah, that's the only two people in sports that I've worked for, and so have I been blessed ab solutely and I can tell you from an eyewitness account. Even though there are differences between the two of them, folks would would point those out initially, I would say, there's a whole lot more similar between the two of them. There. They were so humble. Both of them cared about everyone around them, put their needs first before themselves, always every day, put the needs of others first. Wanted to develop people, wanted to do something meaningful that brought people, brought people together, that created value, created community. For Lamar, it was all about the tailgating, and it was all about the experience, and it was all about doing it in such an exceptional way, and had such an eye for every little detail that needed to go right to ensure that an experience really transform people. And Bob the same way and went beyond relative to philanthropy, the guy who's given five hundred million dollars to help others in healthcare, in education, in entrepreneurship, things, things that would far outlive his presence here on the world, in the world. And so yeah, I've been blessed in so many ways to know and

love both of those gentlemen. I remember I was living in North Carolina and Jamie when the franchise came to be and I remember hearing about you mentioned we're tailgating. I remember tailgating, and I was like, wait a second. I used to do to the Oilers games. We didn't tail maybe tailgate into parking lot, Like who's tail getting into Wait, they're allowing tailgating down in RG Stadium. And I feel like that's one of the aspects that Bob and you really wanted to bring back, well I actually bring to Houston, was the ability to have fellowship before the game in this form of tailgating, and tonight there will be hundreds of thousands of fans out there tailgating getting ready for this game. And I feel like that was just another way for Bob the show. Yeah, fancy to come together before they come into the stadium and share for the team to have this. But I'll never forget hearing you got tailgating. Now, yeah they got tailgating, And I heard you say that. It just made me think about how important that is to the overall football experience here that we've all tried to create, that the fans are taken and run with. Well, one of the things that Bob said, you know, really immediately after getting the franchise was Hey, guys, here's what we're here to do. We're going to create the most respected, the most valuable professional sports franchise on the planet. And that's our mission statement as an organization. And so, folks, the respect I get. I mean you want to you want to operate at the highest level, do things that other people can't do or aren't willing to do. That make a difference. Okay, so the respect, But the value. People get a little confused on value. I mean it's not about dollars. Value is delivered in so many different ways. And when he thought about value, he thought about bringing people together, building community. He thought about economic impact for the city of Houston. Just this past year in twenty seventeen, when you take the Texans Super Bowl things we brought in, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, there was over one billion dollars delivered for the city of Houston, over one million out of town visitors, and all of the events that we've created because of Bob. We have international soccer here because of Bob. We have the fourth best attended Bowl game in America. Because of Bob, We're only one of a couple of cities that have a kickoff game for college football. We have all all these things to be proud of because his focus was not about not on himself or about financial gain. It was about doing something great for the city of Houston, and not just a singular thing every day pursuing doing great things for Houston. Jamie Roots joining us President of the Houston Texans. Jamie, what can you tell us about the franchise right now, short term anyway, and long term about the future of the Houston Texans as mister McNair has passed. Let me tell you one one person who does not get discussed in this conversation very often, and somebody who's so near and dear to my heart is Janie McNair. Who is that She's kind She's the kindest person I think I've ever met. But the thing I always say about it would be we'll talking about janis I say, please do not mistake her kindness for weakness, because she is a steel magnolia. And so Janice is in that position where she is the taker of all of the McNair interests. There the children are there in Uh I say children, I mean Cal Uh, Cal and Carrie and Ruth and Melissa. Uh. Cal has been doing a spectacular job in Bob's absence over a fairly significant period of time, leading the franchise, working with me, working with Brian, working with Bill and Uh. I tell you people ask me about Cal and Bob and boy that they don't know Cal very well, and there are there are differences, they've had different experiences, But I tell you the important things in Bob absolutely exists in Cal. He is he is humble, he's kind, he's he's you know, he cares about others. He cares about the community. He cares deeply about this franchise on the field and off so and carry. McNair has been deeply involved in the McNair interests. So, Uh, there's a plan. Uh, it's not time to be working on that right now. Right now the time is to allow the family to be together and do what they need to do, and we're working hard to keep them on that. It's it's time for us to celebrate all that Bob McNair was and what he meant to this community. I mean, just a really a legend and it really hasn't struck me yet because I mean, you you're walking with a giant day after day, and at some point it will, but right now it's not time for that. Right now, it's time to celebrate all of what he was and the thing he would want, which is what he said to me over and over and over. People think this was a maybe a financial investment in some way, he would say, Jamie, the only reason I got into this was to bring a championship to the city of Houston. Houston deserves it. Great, great stuff, Jamie. Now one more for you honoring him tonight. And I know this is just really the start of a lot of different things. But what can you tell us? Is it a supper eyes or what can you share with us about what's going to happen in the building tonight? As the Texans play the type well in in um, you know, typical McNair fashion, it will be very, very tasteful, It will be impactful, um, and it will be brief. Bob would want us to keep, you know, the majority of the focus on the game of football, his his Houston Texans and getting a victory against the Tennessee Titans. But um, it will be a very special moment for our fans, and I think fans across the globe will have an opportunity too if they choose to and would like to remember Bob for all of what he was and uh and it's really our great privilege to do that. Jamie, thank you so much for joining us. Jamie was absolutely right. The tribute was perfect, one percent apropos It was just beautiful. And by the way, I want to make sure I give this heads up if you guys have not seen

our video on Houston Texans dot com, I say ours put together. A lot of a lot of man hours went into that, but mainly Mum and Tyler Suttarth put that together. It is phenomenal. If you weren't in the building for Monday night, or you were in the building and you know somebody that wasn't and they want to know what it was like, show him that video. It's three minutes. It encapsulates everything about that evening. It's just flat out brilliant, just brilliant. Now, there was a lot that went with that app that weekend. There's a ton that went with it here. We thought originally we would just have a weekend Saturday and Sunday watching football coming on Monday, Monday Monday Night football where we go but Bob's passing on Friday afternoon changed things immensely. And a guy that was really caught in the crosshairs is a good friend of mine by the name Eric Son and has sense Yo. He is our senior director of Digital Media and Strategy. In essence, everything that runs through our website, our social media channels, all of that runs through Eric. He was given one of the biggest tasks, no doubt, of anybody in this building. I asked him to stop in studio to kind of give us an an outline and kind of relive that for us, because I think it's a really interesting peek behind the curtain, if you will. Eric Son and Asensio next on Texans All Access, Welcome back to Wednesday edition of Texans All Access from the Hounday Texans Radio Studio. I am John Harris, football analyst and silent reporter, and I need to do this more often. I'm joined by my my, my good pal, senior director Digital Media and Strategy for Houston Texans. I had to make sure that I pulled up to get the actual your title, eric Son and Asensio, because basically, you're just my dude. I just I go to you for anything content related, like you're my guy, so like I had to go find your actual title to figure out what it is. Mind's kind of easy, Like I'm a football guy, but I go to you for anything, So your your official titles a little bit longer, but it was it was Eric, it was to me and you and I talked about this a little bit beforehand, about coming on the air and talking about this, and I thought it would be great to really kind of give our listeners in some sense, what last weekend really was was kind of all about, like we found out on Friday at about probably four thirty or five o'clock that that Bob McNair had passed, and I think everybody thought at that point was not only that we need to get this right, but we need to pay tribute in the right way. And that then falls all in your lap. How did we, as you manned the website and TV and radio and all this, how did we then do it right? When you heard the news at that point, what were you what were you thinking about that particular thing, Like, oh man, you're grieving for a second, and then it's like, okay, we got to make sure we do this right. No, you're right, And I think that's that's something that a lot of people experience when you know, tragedy or something like that happens. You have all this emotion as to what actually happened. But then you've got to have this tunnel vision and focus on, Okay, what is the task at hand. Put one foot in front of the other, so that weekend and properly, and how do you do that? How do you properly you know, give tribute and pay tribute to a man who's done so much for Houston, done so much for you know, not only the Texans, but everything else that you guys have talked about over the past couple of days. And I think it starts with having a lot of people in the room and understanding, you know, what are we trying to do it as an organization. So I think Amy Palasick and the PR team, you know, we're planning out all these different facets because digital is just one part of it. Right Then you have the game presentation that happened on Monday. You know what we were doing for the game, all the things that are going to happen. Further, they announced yesterday that they're going to have a memorial service here, so all these things are happening, and what you're trying to do with digital is take a little piece of that from each part and then set together some kind of plan where you feel like you can touch all these different areas that his life influence. So I think for us in that moment on Friday, it's how do we set the right mood and tone? And that's really difficult on social because you're that tone changes every single day depending on what you're doing. Right on a game date, you could be a little bit more snarky, you can be fun because you're interact in a moment or something like this. You want to be respectful, you want to be understand what this means in the grand escape. So I think for us when we put the plan together, that's a lot of you know, ways to say it, but really we were trying to find the best way to honor him and something that he would feel proud of us. Did you have any I mean a lot of times, you know, I know, as it pertains to coaching and kind of what I do, like I'll go back and look at previous games film to see what teams have done so that I can better anticipate what things might happen in our game. Did you have anything that you could look back on that you were ever really a part of, or or there was a team maybe where something had happened, maybe where you looked at what they did. Was there any sort of precedent for you in your mind in dealing with this or was this you just saying, Okay, we've got to these are the things I think we need to tackle. This is how I need to do it. Then you threw out to the group and said, hey, what else do we need to do? How did you have any precedent for this? In some sense, I think it's a little bit of both of what you said, because I think what you your voices as an organisation is so unique to you that it's hard to look at, say, maybe when mister Benson passed in New Orleans and to try to figure that out, because you know, the way they present digital social so different from the way we do it.

But me personally, I just remember when Commissioner Mike's Live passed away. I used to work at the SEC and just seeing the outpouring of support you know that came from different areas, that kind of you know, was something that set in is like, oh, I really liked the way they you know, had all these statements put together. And so when Amy and the PR team were working on that, because you know President Bush sent in statements, I mean there was all over there's a game. So for us, we wanted to put together a page that allowed people to see what he meant to so many. I think that's kind of what our overarching goal was. Everything that we do here, whether it's the story that Mark wrote about you know, what he meant to this organization, or Drew meeting him personally, or deeply talking about what he did in the community, all of that was to serve that greater purpose. What did he mean to so many? And how can we help celebrate that and tell his story? Was there one piece that stood out for you? I know for me just you know, the Friday Night show for me and Drew and Drew and Mark knew mister men are a little bit better than I did, because he was really around twenty fourteen that he first had treatment, and I remember meeting him and I told my stories of meeting him and uh, you know for the first time, and what a thrill that really was, and you know how at first I was really kind of nervous, and then it just really made me feel at ease. But I know they knew him a little bit better. But that show will always resonate with me because I felt like that was radio in a different way than I've ever done before. You know, most time when I'm doing radio, it's it's informative about you know, football, or you know, it's you know, it's cutting up a little bit. You know, it's taking things off the beaten path. You know, it's talking about what are the top five serials of all time? You know, what are the top ten jay Z songs of all time? Which I know you could opine upon as well. Yeah, I can do that. Listen about five minutes we're ahead. But that was that was a really fun That was a really fun show to do. I have funds not the right way saying it, but it was one I'll remember forever. But from Friday all the way through today, was there anything where you went that right there? That's that's maybe one of the best things that we did throughout that entire weekend. You have anything that stands out in your mind for sure? And I think to your point, like I came later here, I started in you know, twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, So I didn't have as much of a relationship with mister McNair like I have a better relationship with cal just because it's around Moore during my time here. So I think what I learned or what really will stick with me is kind of few pieces of the stories, but deepy story about the community, like that half a billion dollar number that comes up, I had no idea. And then if you delve further in the stuff he did in his hometown allowing people to get

education, you know, the Tony Wiley story that came out later about him going to Rice and you know, paying for him the chance to get a master's. I just don't think I understood the scope. Like for me, Bob McNair is the owner of the Texans, because I'm here and that's the capacity with which I work alongside him. But to understand and like and you drive around town and you see it, you know, you go to Rice and you see the McNair building or you see you know, school of medicine named after McNair, But you don't really understand the depth of how much he gave to not only the city. Another thing I'll stick with me too, is when the Super Bowl is here. They did a big awards ceremony the ninth before the week of you know, for mister McNair and the amount of people that were in there. You know, we were covering it for the website and it wasn't like you know, we were invited there where you just got to experience all these different people. It's like five six hundred people talking about all the different ways that he not only helped the Texans in the NFL, but the city of Houston. I just don't think I understood the gravity of that until you see some of these people come out and say the things that he's helped them do, or like I said, Deepe's story that laid out what a champion he was in the community. So I think you just have this greater appreciation for it because we're just so we have blinders on here. You know, we are Houston Texans. We're focused on the team, but he's got other companies with you know, the other family members are involved in It's just when you look at it, you take a step back, and I don't think we still probably have had the time to do that because we're in the midstier of a season and we're running along. But just to see, like, wow, look at all the things that he influenced during his time. I think that's what it will stick with me the most. It's just how much he mattered to so many here. I went over in twenty sixteen. I think it was twenty sixteen. I did my first TV game at HBU. So whenever we have a home game or we've got a road Monday game, something that, you know, on a Saturday, I can be I can, you know, be here. I'll do some college games and and so I got asked to do an HBU game. HBU was playing Texas Southern. It was the first game I ever did. It was HBU Texas Southern. Great Ball game. But I go to HBU an HBU has been program Wow six years, I think I think it's six years. So I go over there and I'm walking, I'm walking into the stadium and I look over and there's this this kind of statue monument sort of thing, and it's got it's got a placard on it and it's it's Bob and janisis you know placard you know, made out of I don't know whatever it is, uh, you know, the stone or whatever it was made out of. And I was like, I had no idea. I mean, it's kind of the same thing, like, wow, you know he gave to get that program going and to help that particular program at HBU. So it's like Rice HBU, he has the Tysons Universities. Other than the fact that he lives in Houston, I mean, other than the fact that he came to Houston in the sixties and wanted to give I think the best one though. That really stood out to me and I read this on Friday. Actually, we were during the show and edwarder I tweeted something about his son, Trey, who had who had cancer and I think I think he passed maybe a year ago, maybe a little over a year ago, I think, and Trey was going through treatments and he was at AMD Anderson and one day he said, out of the blue, he got a call from Bob what can I do for you? And Trey and a family like what can I do? And I just thought, I mean, that kind of blew me away because I'm like, you know, here's a reporter for the NFL. He's a national reporter. Sounds like he's like a Texas reporter, you know. I mean, he really covers the Cowboys more so he's gonna cover anything else. But yet Bob reaches out to him, and I thought that was such a I don't know, it just really spoke volumes to the width and breadth of the people that he tried to help. But Monday night, when the A and M choir, Yeah, could I acquire same aising grace I was doing? I was. I was done. I don't know how Mark spoke after that. I mean, I really don't. It's you know, it's something that will stick with me for a long time. And I usually I'm not down on the field pregame because we have our pregame show and we're getting things ready, and Jesse and a IV usually take point on things happening on the field. But it was one of those days where I wanted to make sure I was there because I knew how hard Gavin Gird, who's in our department in Jackie Maldonado, had worked on that pregame show, you know, to try to pay tribute because like you said, it's a really difficult balance because you know, Mark says this all the time, and he says it, and I mean, you know, like our fans come to the game and it's about football, and I'm still having a wonderful atmosphere for them, you know, to experience the game. And then all of a sudden, you've got this that kind of happens, you know, really thirty six hours before the game, and so how do you manage all that? And again, nobody's perfect, but I think what we as an organization did really well is that you find out in times like this a lot about the people that stand next to you, and you know, the mentality here was how can we help you know, we all have things that were happening, you know deep he wrote a story on a Sunday, Drew wrote a story on a Saturday. You guys came in and shot a show on a Friday. You know, like it was all hands on deck, what can we do? And when you have that kind of mentality in this building, and that goes for outside of our department as well, I think you're able to put together something that you can feel proud of because you understand everybody's moving in the right direction. So you're proud of the organization that you know all this could come together in that short time period, But then you're also, like you said, just at some point it's going to

hit us even more, and it hit you like Monday night, and it's going to hit you know, so many other people throughout the rest of the year, and you know, this timeline of when it's happening for people is going to be something that we have to be aware of as well, because social media changes in a just in a whisper, just changes in a snap. Did did you was the approach? Was your approach different for Monday night for the game at all? And I think leading up to it we posted less obviously once the news came out of mister McNair, we wanted that to be the focus, especially for the first twenty four to forty eight hours, so it's very little about anything other than mister McNair's life, you know, celebration of all the things he did, the community pieces I mentioned. But then on game day, for sure, we wanted to make sure that you know, it was about Monday night. Football is about a great opportunity for our team, but we wanted to weave in what mister McNair meant and that that game's not happening at least here and in ourgue stadium in the fashion that we would know it without him being here. So you know, the video of us getting the you know, the stuff on the field with his initials, helmet, macal, you know, all that stuff was part of the plan that we wanted to tell this larger story. There's a game here, but this game wouldn't happen without him, So we wanted to make sure you know that we're doing both. And that's delicate, you know, like and again I'm not and we did it perfectly, but that was kind of what our philosophy was, is that this is a huge game for us, but this game never happens. The Texans never happened without mister McNair, So you can't tell the story of one without the other. I think that's kind of what our goal was when on game day, normally it's all about what's in between rights. Yeah, no doubt well, Eric, it was brilliantly done, Bro, it was brilliant and it was it was really done. It's I'm proud of being in this department. I'm proud of the work that we put out and alongside you, man, I'm glad that we get to do this every single day. Brother, thank you, sure, thank you. I appreciate I can I tell you how awesome it is every single day to work with that man right there, and this weekend what he was able to spearhead was just amazing. And everybody I know in my department pitched in. I mean what you saw on the video board with Gavin, Kenny and Tom and what those guys did, and then Matt Lombardi did one heck of a video thirty second video of the guy's painting the RCM logo on the field, you know, Jay and the two Tylers, I mean the video Tyler Souther did. I told you earlier on this you gotta go check it out. It's just amazing. And Jesse and in eight OFV what they did from a social perspective, and of course DP, Drew and Mark just wrote unbelievable pieces. And the Friday night radio show that we did was just It's one that I'll stick with me for a very very long time. I know. I'm I'm really proud to be a partist department and to see the

people put into work. And we thought we could give you a little peep behind a curtain air with our good buddy Eric Son in a sense yo, speaking out of my department, I have an apartment of three. Well technically it's five every single Sunday if you count Jonesy and Robert, which we always do. But Andrea where Mark Vandomir and myself? So there ourselves the radio broadcast team. Mark will join me next, and then Andrea will join us in the following segments, so you get in the whole radio broadcast team in this final half hour of the show. Mark Endemir joined me next to talk about Cleveland and moving on on Texas All Access next before we get to Andre, where it's time for the Choose Fun moment of the week, has brought to you by Carnival, the official cruise line of the Houston Texans. Choose Fun. There are a lot of fun moments on Monday, a lot of fun moments, without a doubt, But was there one any more fun than this first down from the Texans three? And here's Miller over right guard has a little room breaks of tackle ten, fifteen, twenty, right side twenty five thirty. He's still the sideline the forty to fifty. He's gonna go all the way, the thirty, the twenty, the ten, the five rock and Roll touchdown Hstan ninety seven yards. That one's for you, Bob. That was certainly fun. And then Mark obviously with the final words, that's for you, Bob Man. What a moment, the choose Fun moment. The week has brought to you by Carnival. Don't forget Dent for your chance to win a cruise every week if the Texans catch a touchdown Carnival, the official cruise line of the Houston Texans, Choose Fun. All right, Let's get to our buddy Andre where who talked about this one? And then what to look forward to from the Cleveland Browns Mark take away, Drea. Short week for the Texans, and Monday was so good for this team and everybody around the organization. Very emotional evening and it's just not easy to move on from that, but the team has to, we all have to. Yeah, you know what was amazing is to have what happened to mister McNair is passing a couple of days before the game and really try to focus in on the task at hand, both the coaches and players and everyone involved. And the pregame was just an unbelievable event in his honor, and then falling behind, facing some adversity early in the game and then bouncing back from that to put on one hell of a performance was just amazing. So you mixed that in with a short week, a couple of bumps and bruises, but hopefully, hopefully the team will be ready by Sunday Andrea team record number of rushing yards in the game. I know the ninety seven yards by Lamar Miller certainly helps on one run, but hey, they did it, and Watson running the ball a little bit more too as well. But what about this offensive line and Bill O'Brien's commitment to run the ball really seems to be paying off right now? Yeah, it really is. I mean, I think that's the strong suit of the offense right now. At this point in time. We know Deshaun's capable of of dropping back and throwing at thirty plus times, maybe even forty fifty plus times it need be, but I don't think that's in the best interests of his health right now based on the offensive line and their play in terms of pass protection. Now, where they are solid is in the run game. So why wouldn't you limit the quarterbacks, passing attempts, run the football, success fully score points when you get in the red zone like they did against Tennessee, and everybody comes out of it smelling like a rose, including your most prized possession, and that's Deshaun Watson. I think it's been a brilliant game plan during this eight game run of wins, and I expect him to continue to do. So. What are you seeing in Damarius Thomas right now as he continues to get acclimate and he's about to enter his fourth game as a Houston Texans receiver. Yeah, I see a true pro, a guy that has come in. He's embraced the culture here, that's in the locker room, that's in place already. He just kind of quietly goes about his business and has really started to really fit in. He's and I'll say he's a pro's pro because he's come in, he's learning the offense where he could be affected. He's not trying to be the man, He's just trying to fit in with what's here already at that position. And by doing so, with Hopkins drawn double coverage and in certain points during the game, it's going to free him up and when it does. He has learned what to do, where to be and become a viable option in this offense. And that's all you can ask of it. You know, when you look at this Texans defense in front Andre, they have so many options up there with all the d lineman. Covington has a huge game on Monday night. Of course, JJ, Watton Clowney are still in that front seven. They've got a lot of guys who can contribute and put pressure on the quarterback. And it worked out well on Monday Well I got Covington played like his hero was on fire. He played one hell of a game and arguably the best game of his career. I thought in the middle, you get pushed. It's a way to frustrate, especially a mobile quarterback like Marcus Mariota who likes to escape the pocket, and they're going to get pressure from the outside. With Jadevian and JJ, they needed it up the middle, and he certainly provided that. It's good to see it on Angelo Blackson. He played well inside is along with Covington. When you start to get that the inside player to go along with the outside play, you don't have to blitz quite as much. You're getting a pass rush necessary to get there and affect the quarterback, and they did at certain points during the game, at critical points in the game. What do you make of DeAndre Carter? Nice pickup by Brian Gamee returning the ball. Well, actually had to play some receiver the other night. My hat talked to him as well. When you come in and your role, your soul role is just to be a special team's contributor. But you realize as well that if you're going to be valuable to a team, the more you can do,

the better off you are. And so a lot of guys will come in and just do that, spend time returning punch and kicks, building them and you know, learn a couple of player two here and there in the offense. But he has come in and in a short period of time, like da Marius, has picked up the offense where he can be a contributor both at slot wide out in conjunction too being the returner on punts and kicks, and so that makes it more valuable. As you spent it forward to next year and years to come, you you pretty much solidify a spot for yourself long term, not just being a returner because most people are most staffs can find someone that can do that. But when you can do you can add to that by contributing in the offense. That's where you really you build a future for yourself in this league. Drey, Cleveland, what did you think of Baker Mayfield coming out? What do you think of what he's doing so far? As a pro? Liked him coming out? Is kind of surpassed what I've maybe expected at this point in his career, especially playing at Cleveland and doing what he's doing there. It's a franchise that has been notorious for low level quarterback play because there's just not enough around that position. But last week four touchdown passes. He's had at least twenty completions for two hundred yards and in six games I think so far this year, so he is highly productive in that role and they've they've leaned on him a lot more than I thought they would at this point. Dre, what about the keys to this one? As you face a Browns team where the record is irrelevant, they're playing really well back to back wins, what do you think overall and pulling it out well. I think the first and foremost to stop to run. Nick Chubb has done a nice job the last couple of weeks for their offense, and then it's it's keeping Baker Mayfield in the pocket, not allowing him to escape and get outside and make plays that way. Force him because of the small instatching you want him, force him to see over rushing defensive lineman, and then you'll need more from Covington and Blackston as well, to push the pocket and getting his face a little bit and to kind of frustrate him that way. But you can't allow him on the edges. He'll try to get the ball out quicker. You've got to present big, big obstacles for him to throw over and just try to force frustrate him as much as you can. But I think I think the Texans will come. They'll have a pretty good game plan ready for Cleveland this week. Give me a taste of this one, Jacksonville and the Colts. Do the Jags have any kind of shot here with Kessler starting and the removal of Nathaniel Hockett as OC What do you think of that situation? There's always a chance because you know of injuries and how they play a part in the game on game day, Who's who's in, who's out and you know, losing Jack Doyle is a is a big, big piece of what the Colts do. But um, I don't think so. I don't think that if it's just we're just going off paper. I think this team is about ready to shut it down or has, especially last week and losing to the Bills. I don't care if it's in Buffalo or wherever. That's a game that they should not lose. They did it, they found ways to do it. They've benched, the quarterback, fired, the offensive coordinator, a lot of circumstances flying around with a jaguar that you just don't like. And so you mix that with the way the Colts are playing in hot pursuit of the Texans. They're healthier, and I think the Colts come away smelling like a rose in this one. The Jets look like they're just about done as well. They'll be at Tennessee. So good bounce back situation for Tennessee. Perhaps, I think so. You know, that's that's another team that's can kind of shut down mode. Though, you know, you start to think at this point in the season that you're playing for jobs and futures and for future coaches that will come in and you want to put together some stuff on film for them, But I think Tennessee will will still have a bitter taste after giving up a record number of yards on the ground that they should win that game. All right, my friend, Let's have a great rest of the week looking forward to Sunday with you in the booth. Let's do it. I'll see either. It will be our first Sunday game at noon since the Buffalo game, and really we've only had two games at noon. We had the Giants and we had Buffalo, and now we got this one against the Cleveland Browns. So there was there was there was some talk, and I don't know, it's kind of out there, some noise that potentially the Colts game would get flex the afternoon, not to the evening, to the afternoon, and that might be a CBS game that Romo and Nance would do. Nance and Romo would do. But that's not gonna turn out. So we get noon games for the final three games, which I'm totally fine with. It kind of gets us back on our football homeostasis, if you will, And hopefully the Texans will get it going early against the Cleveland Browns and we'll be all ready to go. A ton of people to thank for tonight's show. Gotta thank dpcito and Nathan Sigura. Gotta thank the President of Texans, Jamie Roots, Eric Stunted, a sen ceo who you heard from earlier, who's just fantastic in our department, does such a great job, obviously, Mark vandermir to our buddy Andre Where to all there listening, Thank you so much. It's been so much over these last few days. It's time to put the Browns right in the focus for Sunday afternoon. Looking forward to it. Baker Mayfield's gonna be here, Nick Chub's gonna be here. In Miles Garrett, It's gonna be here. That's gonna be a tough challenge, no doubt. Hopefully the Texans can get win number nine moved to nine at three on the year, and get ready for the Colts following that. But we'll take him one at a time. In Cleveland's up next, we'll see that everybody has always go Texans. Welcome back to Wednesday. They should have Texans All Access from the Monday Texans Radio Studio. I'm your host, John Harrison. We are finally back on a regular

schedule. Or so it seems. I don't have to hear about, well, this is Wednesday of game week or Thursday of game week. I don't have to hear about that. This is literally Wednesday, game week Sunday. So it's Wednesday. And that's why Man Mark Vandimir joining me. Mark, how you doing? Because Monday was Sunday. No, it really was. We're back on We're back on schedule, and we should up until the week we go to face the New York kids, you know what, and that'll be you'll you'll have me going again. It'll be a Saturday game, one short week for that one. We don't have to think about that right now. But what happens after a Monday night game is sort of the science fiction time folding upon itself because or it's like a Daylight Savings, except you lose an entire day, not an hour, you know what I mean? Because Tuesday does become Monday and Tuesday and one day for us and for the team, and they just have to get everything done. So did we that you do it on Monday and a Tuesday and then you're back into it Wednesday. And the practice today was a jog through, but they had to go over some stuff. They had to loose it up, and they had to obviously go over the choreography of what they're gonna do schematically against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. So you're right here. We are normal week, so to speak. I don't know about you, but I got home Tuesday night after doing the show at fund Wreckers, and when I got in the house, I was looking for Monday Night football. Oh I was too. I was like, where's the game tonight? What's what's the game? I was? I was out of it, and I kept thinking, man, who's the munn in football? And I was like, oh, wait a second. And here's the even weirder part. I was as I was driving in this morning and I was listening to NFL Radio and they had a promo for the Thursday night game of the Saints and Cowboys, and it's like tomorrow night. And I'm like, whoa wait, wait a minute, yep, yeah. And you know what's fascinating, because we talked about this for a long time, marked that Thursday night game. Look, people aren't watching it. I mean last show, it was a big that was a big thing last year. Nobody's watching that Thursday night game. You know, TV ratings are down and all that kind of stuff for the thursdaynight game. Man, that has changed so complete this year. It just feels like without like Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm not even sure what to do, Like what do you what do you do on Tuesday and Wednesday? Like there's no football on, Like, what do you do? I know what I would do if I were a TV executive or an executive of another sports league like professional golf, I'd go to the West Coast and put on events, especially early in the season and get into that Tuesday Wednesday mode. If I was tennis, I'd be doing that Volvo Masters whatever it is, the Masters, it was here for a year or two with mattress Mac. I would do that on Tuesday and Thursday heavy the finals. Because you're right, those are unused days and you don't have as many college games on those days as you used to used to meaning late five to ten years ago. Yeah, late in the year you'll get maction. You'll get some action in there, but it doesn't happen till late in the years. So it's only they're not drawing. You know, a lot of schools just don't draw, so they have to very creatively have the cameras on the field, and you're gonna see that in a bunch of the bowl games. Not here obviously, because they've always drawn well here, but a lot of the bull gate and this isn't you know, the fourth highest drawing non playoff bowl or something like that. This is a very high drawing bowl. But some of the other bowls have problems, Yeah, no doubt. In fact, they can't even show the upper decks. They can't even show the upper decks because there's there's nobody up there. But here we've had we've had great crowds. Last year is Texas Missouri. So forward to seeing what they're able to pull off this year. You know, Baylor's in a bowl. You know, I kept I wanted a M to beat LSU because if a M beat LSU, that's gonna be great for It's gonna be great for Jimbo Fisher and I do things with tex SAgs and so there's part of me I want to and went, there's a part of me I wanted A and M to lose because it's seven and five. I thought, man seven and five and get them here against Baylor a bowl game oh, I mean that would have been fantastic. Would have been I mean, that would have been great, but not gonna happen because it looks like a M will end up going to one of the affordables, which is something that they wanted to do. They wanted to get to affordable. That was a that was a goal. Let me ask you a cliction about the A and m LSU game. I, Johnny, you know, I hate college over time. I don't mind it as much when my team is not in it. I don't really have a team anymore. I mean, I like, I like all the Texas teams, but I just think it's too much. And I think these college scores, even without overtime, are getting ridiculous. Like they got to run that clock. And I know we had Rams Chiefs and it was beautiful in the NFL, both teams in the fifties. But I really believe some of this is getting a little too crazy. What are your thoughts? I agree, I think so. I think what some teams have done, which I give them credit for, especially at the end of the first overtime, I've seen a lot more teams try and go for two. Now, the rule in college is the third overtime, you got us everybody to have to go for two. But what teams are doing if they've given up a touchdown and the first overton the first inning of overtime, when they get to the bottom part, you know, when they the second part where they know they've got to get seven to tie it. A lot of teams are going for two there because they don't want to get to where they have to go for two and the third overtime, and they know that they're gonna flip and have to go first and second overtime, so they figure, you know what, if we score a touchdown, we got the momentum, let's just go for it. Boise State did that in the game

against Oklahoma, that famous Fiesta Bowl. They didn't go for two after the hook and ladder. They went for two after they scored an overtime. And I talked to Chris Peterson about that many years ago, and he said, yeah, it's just too crazy at the end of regulation, because I thought might think about it, like end it right here, one play, three yards, it's all we need. Let's do it right here. And then of course, you know, you go on to this journey and overtime I hate it because you get a game at seventy four seventy two and you're like, it really is not indicative of the game it was. It was physical, it was hard hitting, the replays on both sides, defense, offense, everybody made plays at night. It was really, I thought, for the most part, a well played game. But then you see a score of seventy four seventy two and you're like, you know, I don't know. Look, we talked about this with the Titans on the NFL level when they went for two against the La Chargers in London and missed. They lost the game, and how big a loss is that? Right now? They'd be six and five without it and have a victory over the Chargers, which is big, which would be big in their wild card chances, which is their best path in at this point, you would, you would think. And by the way they played the Jets this weekend, so you could shovel dirt on the Titans if you want. And I just don't think they have the jews to get it done and win out, which is probably what they need. But they beat the Jets and all of a sudden, hey, with four games left, you still have a Huncher's chance anyway, four to five at home for them, four to five at home, and that ends up being a really big factor, including the Colts and including the Jacks. Both of them have to go to Tennessee. So and the Jacks, I mean, what are you going to get out of them right now? I mean, maybe you get this dead cat bounce out of them where Kessler plays. Well, maybe you know, whatever they drum up on offense actually is reasonably effective. Who knows. But here's the one thing about the Jacks. I said it last year. I said it last year because we were going through it. You remember seeing our injury reports at times last year, it was it was ridiculous. Then that time it just was cut really really short because everybody had gone on IR at that point. Right the injury report for the Jacksonville Jaguars came out today and there's so many names on it. Well, last year, I guess how many names are on it. Zero because everybody was playing on the defensive side. They lost Telvin Smith for two games due to concussion. That was it. Every other guy, every other guy in defense played all year long. Now Fournette missed maybe two or three games. He's missed a ton this year. He's missed two or three games. Cam Robinson I think got dinged up and missed a game maybe two. That was it. That was all they had this year. Everybody has been injured at this point. Now I should rewind that they did lose Alan Robinson to first play the game against US last year, the receiver. But that defense stayed healthy. But the defense was all year. That was it our defense last year. I mean it was a it was a nightmare with all the injuries that we had. I mean, think of the defense. I was playing against Indianapolis in Week seventeen last year. So the injuries and availability becomes such a massive thing. But we said this about Jacksonville. You're not talked about this plenty about Jacksonville. We both said, look, we'll see how they handle success. That's a pre eclectic type a personality, sort of locker room and just a little twitch one way or the other, and you never know, and all of a sudden, they're fighting. They're fighting in training camp. If you're Jail and Ramsey and you're talking like that, better be winning. You better be winning because it's a really bad look when you're not winning. I'll give him a little bit of rare. He was talking trash against Buffalo big time because he had made those comments about Josh Allen. But who was the first person to walk over to Josh Allen after the game, dap him up, get him a hug, Ramsey give him credit for that because Allen did play well and Ramsey recognized it. And look, Josh Allen is not gonna I don't think Josh is gonna turn into I don't think he's gonna turn into the next big thing. I think he's gonna be a good, solid quarterback for Buffalo. But he beat your team. But he beat your team, and that was the bit, and that was the key. And Ramsey went over and recognized that. And and I've said that about Ramsey. I mean some of the things that he says. I'll be honest. I love him. I love him. I mean he I don't it would be it would be so hard to coach him. But he's a guy that plays his guts out. He's competitive as heck. I just think it's got to be it's gotta start being channel in the right direction. But he says what he needs to say. And here's the thing. You almost can't have it both ways. Because they come home from that, went over to Pittsburgh and he stands up in front of that crowd that's in in in Tia Bank Stadium and he says, we're gonna win his b and the place goes nuts. And that's what they through that and they almost did, and they almost beat the Patriots with that. Looks like, you can't have it both ways if you're gonna do it that way, and then you're gonna do it all the time that way. So they got back from Pittsburgh and went to the stadium. They went to the stadium. That's what they did. They had kind of a pep rally. In fact, they did that back in ninety six when I was living there. The Monday after they beating the Broncos. The Broncos were thirteen and three. John always says it is the best team ever. Terrell Davis running the rock. I mean, they had a squad. It was a squad that would turn into ninety seven was the offensive coordinator. They had a squad and the Jaguars went to Buffalo knocked off Buffalo in ninety six and it was kind of the last like that was it. That was Buffalo's last run for a few years and then for a while. So he

knocked them off and they go to Denver and nobody thinks Wood he paid from ESPN, writes this article when he was with the Denver Pots and just jag Watts, I mean, it was just went off on them. The Jags win that game thirty twenty seven. They come home that night and there are more fans in the stands than there are there for a game. The place was packed. There were like sixty thousand people in there. And I had a couple of students they went there. That was a Saturday night. It was like three or four in the morning. They came in a Monday and they would just looked like, you know what, it's like, what's wrong with you? And they were like, oh, we went to the rally. Well, they had another one after they got back from Pittsburgh. So they all ride back at the stadium and I guess they told the team, Hey, everybody's in the stands, and so they walked on the stands and like one whole side is completely filled. And then they gave him a mic and they started talking, and then they gave the mike to Ramsey and where you go? Where do you go? But there's that's a very delicate balance, and that balance swung one way last year and one way this year. So it's they're gonna be an interesting team in the offseason to kind of see what they're doing and what they're gonna do. I just I just can't. I when I think about the Jaguars, I think back the draft night and you, me and Dre sitting here right in these seats, and we're watching the Jags come up, and we're seeing Lamar Jackson on the board, and it's like we're bracing for the fact that we're about to see Lamar Jackson and Shaun Watson twice a year for the next decade plus, which would have been great for the league, but bad for the Texans. And they went with a defensive line. I mean not that I shy away from the big challenges. Although I would like me to start a quarterback for the Colts when they visit in a couple of weeks as opposed to Andrew Luck, that won't happen. You would take you would take those hits. Yes, I would take the hits for the team. Take one for the team, so to speak. So Cleveland coming in. Yeah, what are your thoughts? What are you thinking? Well, you know, I've said it this week a few times that the record is so irrelevant here. This is the ultimate example of irrelevant record because they're playing hot right now. Mayfield's playing well. I know you liked Chub running the rock. They've got some things about their defense. Bill O'Brien was with us this week and he said that they disguise a lot of things. You don't know what you're gonna get. It's Forrest Gumps box of chocolates. So let's just see how how it all gets played out here. Because I think that the Texans being at home back to back is significant. Yes, I think the players are starting to smell what is out there for them, and I think they like the odor. I think they like the aroma. It's not really odor's negative, Aroma's positive. I think they like the aroma, and I think that they want more of it, and they like the feeling that they're having right now. And I do believe that they understand what it's taking for them to do this every week. Now. I can't sit here and be cocky because it's the NFL, but to win eight games in a row. I mean, Johnny, I don't even know how to put it all in perspective right now, and I don't want to have to. I just think we just enjoy the ride, see what happens week to week. We talked about it earlier in the day, you and I the ninety seven yard touchdown run by Lamar Miller. As that play was happening, I knew it was one of the greatest plays we've ever seen for this franchise. And let's see how great it turns out to be, you know what I mean. I think that no matter what happens this year, we're gonna look back on that one as a big one. We'll look back on spin a Rama as a huge one. There have been some really significant moments this season, and I'm really enjoying it. I think that's what the fans need to do. Enjoy it, Enjoy game week Cleveland and here on Sunday, no matter what the record is, Let's go have some fun. See if they can get number nine. Numbers nine, I mean, and that's you know, it's it's incredible to think about. And I keep going back to kind of the old coaching adage, you know, just be one or no after the weekend. If you're one or no after the week and you have taken care of your job. And I think the one thing that Bill O'Brien has definitely done, he and his staff have done over the years is compartmentalized that particular week. Yep, this week, this is who we have. Doesn't matter what we did before, doesn't matter what we'll do after. It's the one week that we got to take care of. Guess what happens if you lose and the Cults win this weekends are coming here to take over division. They're a game behind you, and they can tie you in the division. Yep. I mean, what is that? So as well as you've done, you're a loss away from that possibility. And that's the difference in the AFC East. It's the difference in the AFC North. Yeah, that's why the Patriots. Look, I'm not gonna say they're not great. Of course they're great, but they play in that horrendous division which has a team that can flash every once in a while. I respect what Buffalo is doing on defense. I respect some of the things Miami's done this year. I wish they would have beaten the Colts last week. I would have respected them a whole lot more. Even the Jets, you know, from time to time have flashed, but they don't. I mean, and that's every year though in the Brady era. You know, you got the one year with the Dolphins won the division when Brian Gaine was there, by the way, with Tony Sparano as the head coach and Chad Pennington. Boy, we could do a whole podcast with Gaine in the offseason on Chad Pennington and that team, because I think they'd be interesting just to dive into that a little bit. But that's and the Jets go into two AFC championship games, but they didn't win the division doing it. So to me, the division, like you say, means a lot. This is a tough division right now. I don't care what the records say. It's a tougher than you think division. Look at the teams that these teams have beaten and take it from there, no doubt. Well you look at that AFC East Jets are three and eight, I believe, the Bills are four and seven, and the Dolphins are five and six. Ye there's three games difference between those teams. Between the Patriots and everybody else. You look at the North, it's the same thing. Yeah. No, the Ravens are six and five, so they're they're creeping a little bit on the Steelers. But at least the Steelers got a split in that second game, so Ravens played d Yeah, the Ravens do play. So there's a little bit there in AFC North. But how do you feel for your Kansas city. You've been talk of the league from week three and you've got a one game lead for the AFC's best record. For the Acts right behind you and they beat you. Yeah, you've got a one game lead. That's it. I'm it's way too early for this, and I hope Bill O'Brian's not listening. But when the three way time possibilities are between those teams, let's not even talk about it right now. Yeah, I can't talk about that right now. We just we cannot talk about that right now. We're gonna take it one weekend a time. Got the Browns up next, Mark, appreciate it, Thanks, Johnny. I promised you three members of the radio team. You've heard from two, you lear from the third. One. Next is Andre Ware joins Mark right here on Texas Access