6 Texans Players To Watch Against Steelers
Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast have six players to watch against the Steelers on Friday night.
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00:00K I L T K I L T F M H T 2 Houston insider access, exclusive content, sports radio six
00:0610 Texans play here and the odyssey sports station sports radio six 10 presents pain
00:13and Pendergast. All right. Six pack, six pack of Texans to watch for, um, for tonight, six
00:19guys. I can't wait to see, uh, tonight. And there's, there could be like 20, honestly.
00:23I'm, I'm excited for this game. I wish we had a sounder with a little can. I thought
00:27about that during the break. I don't want to waste six cans of beer that I, that I just,
00:32I can't justify drinking all six of those at this hour of the morning when we've got
00:36a pregame to show a show to do later. So yeah, we'll do. And some of these beers I'm about
00:40to lay out here might be skunk beers for some people. I may be more interested in some of
00:44these guys than the average fan. The one of these, uh, it's not, it's not a skunk beer,
00:49but it's, it's not like four year old Milwaukee's best light, right? But yeah, it's a, yeah,
00:55this is not a skunk beer right here. This to me, this is the number one player I'm anxious
01:01to see tonight. And it's not even close for me. It's Damian Pierce. Damian Pierce will
01:08presumably start at running back tonight. Joe Mixon has not practiced since July the
01:1319th. So we're, I mean, we're three weeks from Joe Mixon, even putting pads on. So Damian
01:19Pierce is going to start tonight. He didn't play in the hall of fame game. Thus, this
01:23is the first look we're getting at Damian Pierce. Hopefully version, as you point out,
01:27Seth version three.dot. Oh, one.dot. Oh, it was a good version. That was his rookie year.
01:31He ran for almost a thousand yards. Version two.dot. Oh, was it, what was it? Windows
01:34Vista?
01:35Yeah. Whichever the windows, windows Vista, new Coke. It was a highly anticipated yet
01:43deeply in disappointing. Yeah. Like, Oh, I'll just go back to counting by hand. I don't
01:48need this computer anymore. So supposedly we've got the bug fixed. Supposedly there's
01:54been a software patch that has been uploaded to Damian Pierce. Yes. And we see if it works.
02:01This is a, this is kind of, I don't know if I should use the analogy I just thought of
02:08or not. Damian Pierce, I'm excited to see, and yet I don't want to see it for too long.
02:12I, you know, I would be, it's kind of like here, you know, maybe finding out about your
02:17girlfriend's relationship history. It might be a little part of it. They were like, Oh,
02:22she did some crazy thing in college once, but I don't want to know too much about it.
02:27Fingers and ears. That's exciting. Except wait, no, please don't tell me it happened
02:3029 times on one weekend or something like, yeah, just so I want to see a little bit of
02:35Damian Pierce. Right. I want to see a little bit of Damian Pierce, just enough to scintillate
02:38me and excite me. And then I want to put it away. So I just want to say, I want to see
02:42three carries. I want to three carries for 30 yards, but one of those is a 20 yard carry.
02:50That's what I'm good. That's all I'm asking for. That's all I'm asking for is 10 yards
02:54per carry for three carries. I said this yesterday. I did this similar segment on the utopia podcast
03:01yesterday and what I, my thought on Damian Seth is that I don't like the, the box score
03:06doesn't really matter much to me. Let's say he gets five touches in this game, right?
03:10He's in for two series. He carries five times. If he were to go five carries 41 yards, I'd
03:15be incredibly excited. No doubt about it. Right, right. Yeah, no, but, but if he goes
03:19five carries for 18 yards, but he's putting a foot in the ground, finding a hole. And
03:25the reason it's not going for more is just, it's not being, you know, he's getting smothered.
03:29It's not being completely blocked. Well, to me, it's my point is to me, it's more about
03:33how Damian Pierce looks like as a running back in this system than it is him having
03:40to look like the old Damian, but they happen to block it well. And he runs over a few guys.
03:43I'll go, you know what? Yesterday I went and I went back and watched the, in my film work,
03:48I went back and I watched the Texans versus the Raiders in 2006. And this is why Landry
03:54would accuse me of wanting to go back and watch myself. I didn't play in that game,
03:58so I was injured, but I wanted to watch D'Amico Ryan's cause K Adams had brought that game
04:02up as one of D'Amico Ryan's best games. One of the most impressive plays D'Amico made
04:06in that play was actually on a goal line stand where the Raiders scored. But D'Amico in filling
04:15his hole in his gap, he waylaid the Steelers right tackle, like embarrassed the hell out
04:23of him, like came up and stood him up and rocked the dude backwards. And so that was
04:28enough. That was the first play in the game where I was like, Oh yeah, I remember what
04:31I remember what I remember what D'Amico Ryan's was like as a football player. Yeah. I just
04:37need to see one or two plays like that out of Damian Pierce, where it doesn't have to
04:40be jaw droppingly impressive statistically or anything, but like, man, he's got that
04:44old oomph back. Yeah. Like Cam Acres game in the hall of fame game, I think is a good
04:49example of what I'm talking about. You look at Cam Acres, you look at Cam Acres box score
04:53and he had seven touches for 31 yards, you know, including a couple of catches, nothing
04:57earth, earth shattering. But if you watch the game, you see three or four runs in there
05:03where it's like, Oh, okay, man, he did his job. He looks good. Look at that spin move.
05:06You know, that kind of thing. All I need is I need a couple instances of him in, on his
05:11own running play where he just sticks his foot in the round ground and gets vertical
05:17and then breaks a tackle or somebody there. I'm like, okay, does he feel the flow of the
05:21offense? And first and foremost, of course, attached to that is I want to see that the
05:25run blocking looks correct. It gives them that gives them that clear picture. Yup. Number
05:29two, John Meche. Here's John Meche, uh, earlier in camp on his expectations for training camp.
05:37Um, I didn't really have crazy expectations, honestly. Like my expectations aren't bigger
05:42than the day. Um, and that's something I started practicing like towards the end of last season
05:47and it carried on through the off seasons. Like my expectations don't go farther than
05:50next week. My expectations are all today on to make sure I, um, I'm checking off everything
05:54on my process every day. So as I peek ahead at this game, Seth, I'm guessing Meche is
05:58going to play quite a bit in this game considering he played a decent amount in the hall of fame
06:02game. Yeah. Um, considering that he's reportedly not had great practices this week, he was
06:07really a non-factor in the hall of fame game. A lot of, a lot of drops. Yeah. A lot of drops
06:12throughout, throughout camp. We see a lot of drops. Yup. Um, and Meche is playing at
06:18a position where there are other guys who are performing at a, you know, at a fairly
06:23high level competing for wide receiver five and six right now.
06:26Meche's a really complicated one too because I don't know how the team is evaluating him.
06:31Like do you look at him almost like a rookie in that man, these last two years he's been
06:36physically taxed. Even last season, even though he played, he just, he finished his cancer
06:42treatment and rolled right into training camp basically. So the, I think he's shown a lot
06:49of promise and a lot of potential and I think athletically he has changed. He just hasn't
06:53translated it into scrimmage and game situations yet. Like in that game last week, he didn't
07:00look like he was moving the same way we've seen him move in practice. And sometimes it
07:04takes a guy a while to just really truly get integrated into the offense, but he's already
07:09been in this offense for a year. So I, I think right now, unless he really flashes over these
07:15next couple of games, they're going to have a tough decision to make with him. And maybe,
07:19maybe they hope that they can keep him on practice squad without him getting picked
07:22up by somebody else. Or maybe some other team looks at his upside, given everything
07:27that we talked about with his recent history, that another team that doesn't have as packed
07:31a wide receiver room is willing to trade a late round pick.
07:34That's, that's was my prediction yesterday with matchy. And that's what I would do. If
07:38matchy doesn't, if matchy doesn't get to a level that he was forecasted to be when they
07:43use the second round pick on him, if he doesn't get to that point at some point in camp, then
07:47I think you trade him because I think someone would pick him up in a second, just based
07:51on upside, like in a heart, if he gets cut, he's getting picked up by somebody. If nobody,
07:55if nothing else, the Panthers will pick him up to repair him with Bryce young because
07:59they played together back at Alabama, you know? So, um, well, got to play well, man,
08:06you know, I would love it. If matchy all of a sudden showed up in Carolina and like demanded
08:10a new deal or something, even though it's not even, not even allowable by the CBA and
08:15just like, yeah, I've watched, this is not the Bryce young.
08:18I knew at Alabama pulls a Garrett crochet on him. I'm not playing in any playoff games.
08:24If you don't give me a new contract, we're Carolina, we're not going to the playoffs.
08:28What are you talking about? So that's where I mean, like, I think most Texans fans are
08:31very much emotionally pulling for John matchy. He's just in a tough spot right now. Big time,
08:36deep position. Yeah. So Damian Pierce, John matchy two guys, I'm looking to watch Davis
08:41mills is number three for me. Um, CJ Stroud is going to start this game, but Davis mills
08:46at a very solid hall of fame game. Here was Davis mills earlier this week on his takeaways
08:51from his performance in the hall of fame game. I think the big thing was just going out and
08:55executing what we've been doing all camp. I thought a lot of guys, uh, were ready for
08:59the moment. Um, obviously we've put a lot of work in throughout OTAs and through the
09:03start of camp so far. And, um, we, our whole goal is just go out there and play clean and
09:07move the ball down the field. And I think we did that. He's a super intriguing player
09:10to me, Seth, just because of how he was handled last year. He was on the depth chart, the
09:15backup all year long. And yet clearly the team didn't have the level of trust in him
09:19to start a late season game on the road at Tennessee. Um, and yet I feel like he's the
09:24second string guy again this year, he started the hall of fame game. He had a, he had a,
09:29I thought a really good game. You, you had, you were, uh, you were not as bullish on his
09:36game at first blush as you were after you rewatched it.
09:39Yeah. Um, I, well, I wasn't at first and then I went back and watched the third time. Yeah.
09:45I watched it on the quick, quick rewatch. I was a little too, I was guilty of confirmation
09:50bias. I was kind of really focusing in on the negatives that I saw in some of the questionable
09:54decisions. I went back and when I watched more thoroughly, like, all right, man, he
09:59was executing the offense. There were a couple moments where I think he might've, he might've,
10:04he might've second guessed himself a couple times, but one time he worked through it another
10:08time he didn't. But I'm almost, um, I was very, the third time I went through and watched,
10:15I was very pleased with the positives just in that. Hey, can he execute the offense?
10:18Yes, I think he can. And then also when you've got a backup quarterback, he's not super athletic,
10:24but he can, this isn't even like a white guy thing. He can run better than you think he
10:29can. You know, he's just, you know that he's athletic and he's big, but the debt that matters
10:33with your backup quarterback, because teams aren't necessarily ready for that.
10:37Yep. Um, so Davis mills, can he build on his performance last week is a big one for me
10:42tonight. Can he built to the point where, Hey, maybe Nick Casario's phone rings about
10:45Davis mills. You know what I mean? Like it's right. There's at least a third of the league
10:49run right now is running a Kyle Shanahan office. And when you're starting quarterback goes
10:55down or Matt Stafford finally catches the age bug or something like that, that yeah,
11:00it can get tempting to, to bring in a guy who just knows the system. Like Bill O'Brien
11:05did it with Brian Bill and Brian Bill O'Brien got rid of Ryan Fitzpatrick for Brian Hoyer
11:10And then replace Brian Hoyer with Ryan Mallet at one point, just because those guys knew
11:15the system, you know, like that's, that's how extreme it is. And for a guy who genuinely
11:20can execute an actual system, because the bill O'Brien system was like, let's, let's
11:24just try to create the next Tom Brady.
11:25Right. Um, that, that it actually makes a lot of sense for some team to, to potentially
11:30want Davis mills. Yeah. Mills playing well tonight would be who the Texans it would be
11:34who mills, but it would certainly be great for the Texans on many, many levels. Uh, number
11:38four. So we got Pierce one Mechie two mills, three number four Kenyon green, who did some
11:43good things in the hall of fame game, who obviously has changed his body completely
11:48from before having all those surgeries this past off season here was Titus Howard, who
11:54a Kenyon green teammate on the offensive line on the growth. He sees in Kenyon green,
11:58Uh, growth, man, maturity, uh, Kenyon matured a lot. Uh, he's put in a lot of work. Uh,
12:05his body, uh, is in the best position. He's been in his mind is in the best position he'd
12:10been in. Uh, he's very confident, uh, you know, his ability, uh, he's putting it all
12:15together, man. He's been out here putting some good stuff on the field, uh, for the
12:19first couple of days of camp. And I'm excited to see him grow. Um, like I told him, I've
12:23been in the same position he's in right now. Uh, you just gotta keep working, man. Just
12:27keep grinding and keep grinding. It's gonna, you know, it's gonna get better. And I feel
12:30like it's going to be a good year for him. You know, Kenyon green without even any health
12:36concerns was always going to be a guy that I thought would be a bit of a project because
12:41he was a, he was a big, strong mauler in college and it's impressive to be a mauler in the
12:46sec. Don't get me wrong. But those guys, when maulers get to the NFL, they got to learn
12:51how to use technique and they got to learn how to use their feet. And, and I thought
12:56he showed some, some signs of that in his rookie year. He had some promising positives
13:01in his rookie year, even as he was battling through injuries. And even as Lee, he faced
13:05the gauntlet of, he faced maybe six of the best 10 defensive tackles in the league that
13:10year as he was fighting through injury and everything else developmentally. So this year
13:17I have definitely seen a different version of him. I've seen a guy that man, he's really,
13:22I think he just honed all of his innate athleticism and he's just moving differently. I think
13:30technically he's improved. And in the hall of fame game, there was some really good positives,
13:35especially him getting to the second level, working on linebackers and, and moving well
13:39in space, all that type of stuff. And now it's just a matter of, all right, you're going
13:43to be doing it versus the Steelers are starting two of their interior defensive linemen. So
13:48he'll he and juice scrubs will face the starting interior defensive lineman, at least a couple
13:53of them for the Steelers. Can they, can they look like they did last week, but versus better
13:58players this week, that would be huge. I mean, that's, that's near the top of my list of
14:02things that if I had three wishes for this game, the interior, the offensive line looking
14:07as capable as they did last week, looking that way tonight would be really, really good.
14:13My last two in my six pack are really just curiosities of my own for two very different
14:19for, for two kinds of different reasons. And most Texan fans might be looking at these
14:22guys. Henry Toto is number five for me for a couple of reasons. One Christian Harris
14:27hasn't gotten on the field yet. So until further notice, you know, Henry Toto is going to,
14:33if they had to play a game tomorrow, he'd be starting at linebacker for this team. Probably.
14:37And the reason I know that Seth is because for some reason, Henry Toto didn't have to
14:41address for the game last week, the hall of fame game, right? That's, that's a curious
14:46thing to me that he's thought of presumably on that level.
14:50I assumed that it was either an injury or that he was going to get in, in the fourth
14:54quarter or something. It wasn't until I talked to John Harris that I even considered that
14:59he's that bonafide, a starter right now that they didn't play him in that game. That honestly,
15:04it really surprised me a little bit. I would say like Henry Toto is the consummate guy
15:09that needs to be really, really good at all of the, all of the technical and football
15:17IQ side things of being a linebacker. Cause he's not as athletic as the other guys that
15:22are out there. Like it just, it's glaring the difference in athleticism between him
15:26and the other linebackers out there. Even, you know, Jamal Hill, the rookie who's not
15:30ready for NFL action yet, but I, but I, you know, it's, it's hard to evaluate linebackers
15:37from field level. It's really hard from field level during practice. Cause you can't see
15:42what they're seeing and everything. So they seem to like what he's shown during training
15:47camp so far. I like without getting too technical about this, it's one thing if they want him
15:52to start at Sam linebacker for him to start at will linebacker, where you're really like,
15:58that's your best athlete amongst your linebackers in a four, three, a lot of times I'm, I'm
16:02very skeptical of that. So we'll see, we'll see exactly what it looks like tonight.
16:06Yeah. I just want to watch place and go, Oh, now I see why he got the starters treatment
16:11last week. That would be nice to see, you know, maybe they're seeing a different Toa
16:15Toa and training camp the last one. And this actually does circle back to John Harris and
16:20his appearance with us yesterday is I'm using Khalil Davis here specifically because of
16:26something Johnny said about him yesterday. But really, if I were to make this a position
16:30group thing, I am intrigued to see the interior, the defensive line, just because they've,
16:36I think they've been better than what people expected in camp. But I like big picture interior
16:41O-line and interior D-line are the two position groups. I'm most anxious to watch go against
16:45somebody else other than each other. Khalil Davis. I'm interested to watch and Khalil
16:50Davis was on this team last year. So we saw plenty of number 94 last year and he would,
16:54each game would have a flash play, but Johnny is talking about Khalil Davis.
16:59Like he was talking about him yesterday. Like he's Warren Sapp wrecking shop out there.
17:03There's this, there's this curious kind of counterintuitive about counterintuitive element
17:08to D'Amico's defense, where it is more aggressive. You do unleash the defensive lineman. It's
17:14simplified in a lot of ways for the defensive lineman. It's one of the reasons I love, this
17:18is why I love D'Amico Ryan so much. D'Amico Ryan's like knows defensive lineman and like
17:24knows how to get the most out of them. But as simple, as simplified as it is, it's still
17:30hard to really embrace it and put it into your muscle memory and to play the way you're
17:37supposed to play as a defensive lineman in this, in this system.
17:40And sometimes it takes a little while for it to click. And I think, yeah, with Khalil
17:44Davis, maybe we see a different level of him. The other defensive tackle that I'm kind of
17:49excited to watch develop over the course of the preseason is Marcus Harris, the seventh
17:53round draft pick, because he's boy, there's something there. He gets all, he gets across
17:59the line of scrimmage very, very fast. He's kind of raw from a skill standpoint in a lot
18:05of ways, but there's something there. And I could totally see them looking at him as
18:08a guy that like, okay, you know, because of his size and because he's raw, we can't use
18:12him as an every down starter now, but there's, there's something for him. So I want to, he
18:17had some bad snaps last week, but he also had some really good flashes. He penetrated
18:21really well a few times. So I'm excited to watch him for the next few years.
18:24Yeah. Number 59, if you want to follow along with Seth and watching Marcus Harris tonight.
18:28He's like us. He's like a squatty Whitney merciless. Yes. Yeah. He's if Hollywood did
18:34a really poor job of casting Whitney merciless or D'Amico Ryan's, it would look like Marcus
18:38Harris. Yes. Not dumpy. He's very solid and lean, but he's a, but he's not built like
18:42Whitney Mercer just way bigger. Yeah. Yeah. So our stock here to text in 7 1 3 5 7 2 4
18:496 10. I'm curious what the audience is looking for tonight. Who are the guys? We just rattled
18:53off six of them right there. Who are the guys and why that you're looking forward to seeing
18:57in tonight's game? We'll read them.
18:58Kalil Davis is kind of a cult favorite for a lot of Texans fans. I feel like there's
19:03a lot of Texans fans that feel he was one of the more underappreciated players last
19:06year. Yeah. Underdog story, man. Didn't he play on like one of those alternative leagues
19:10like USFL or XFL or something like that? I thought he did maybe the WNBA. Okay. Oh yeah.
19:16I remember him. It was an unheralded story. It got really big guy. It got too political.
19:19It got too political. Very polarizing.