The Texans have to cut their roster down to 53 player by Tuesday afternoon and it's still unclear what they will do at running back No. 2. Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast discuss it on a Reaction Monday.
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00:00I feel good. I've got a little bit of angst about these cuts that are coming up. I did a little exercise yesterday where I went through and I was, this has been a very competitive training camp, but I think a lot of it's been concentrated mostly at places like the running back position, the wide receiver position.
00:21There are some other positions on the team where after going through all of the potential cuts, I realize, all right, you know what, we're not actually as deep as I'd like it to be. I'm not, I had zero emotional attachment to any of the potential interior offensive line or offensive tackle cuts.
00:39The linebackers I think are, I wish I'd been a little bit more miserable about potential cuts there. So there's some positions that are very hotly contested and there's others where I think we might be looking at somebody outside the team as a backup in some of those spots.
00:55Corner, corner was my, I got my, I got my 53 right here that I did yesterday for the podcast, for the Utopia podcast. Drew it up on the back of a cocktail napkin slash piece of paper here. And corner was the one where I'm like, Ooh, wow. It, A, it drops off quick after Derek Stingley and Kamari Lazarder. And B, I can really see why they're throwing Jalen Petrie at slot corner.
01:19It's not just that that's where Petrie might be best suited. Like, I don't know that he's, I don't know how good the solutions are at corner right now.
01:28Well, yeah, I know though too. I think part of that is that for one, you know, Petrie's more of a hybrid linebacker slash safety than he is a safety slash cornerback. I, I'm okay with Dez King or Miles Bryant if they end up being the, the, the slot corner. I think like Dez didn't help himself at all with that muffed pun or that missed tackle on the game the other day. I think those guys are in competition there, but just overall depth.
01:55Yeah. If you're going to, if you're going to keep six cornerbacks or so, it's a, there's not anybody you get really genuinely excited about.
02:04I had five corners and five safeties on mine just because I think Petrie, I have Petrie listed as a safety. He's sort of like, okay, it's like five and a half and four and a half. You know what I mean? So I won't go through my whole 53 because I think once you and I get done doing these couple of hours of radio, we'll have fleshed out a lot of where we feel on these things, Seth.
02:20And again, the Texans do win that game 17 to 15. If you care about the final score, um, the big, I think the biggest storyline to me and you touched on it is the running back position. And we said on Thursday and Friday last week, like the possibilities of what could happen with Damien Pierce on Saturday ranged from.
02:38Doesn't play at all in street clothes alongside other guys who have earned starting roles on this team. It feels like it still feels like Damien has work to do to do that. Or he plays the whole first half and gets as many touches as cam acres ends up getting in the game.
02:52Came acres had 10 touches in the game and was still in, in the fourth quarter, returning kicks. That's what was really interesting about it is that, man, I felt that's where I felt like the running backs, the running backs, you could see where, you know, Pat Mack, excuse me, Nick Casario had said on the Pat McAfee show that there were probably five or so guys where it was really a real competition going into that last game.
03:19And if you look at the way they handled the running backs, every one of them was a target in the, in the passing game. Um, you saw British Brooks used as a fullback. If you saw, you saw a lot, like, as you mentioned, um, cam acres being used throughout the entire game.
03:38I really wanted to get a feel for all of this. And I think a couple of things might've come from it. I, if I watched that game and I was genuinely trying to make a decision, then cam acres is on this team. Yeah. I mean, he checked all the boxes in terms of things you want to see that one cut back against the grain on a zone run, which he, which he did last week as well.
03:58He was used as a receiver and then he, who may have been the smallest running back out there other than maybe JJ Taylor was probably the most physical guy on the field. I mean, he trucked Jason Taylor, the third. I have no idea if he's related to Jason Taylor, the dolphin on the sideline. Um, when he was going up every chance he had for contact, he lowered his shoulder and went after it. Like he was trying to prove something.
04:23And, um, I, yeah, that was, and then that spin move those, that three and a half spin moves, which Sean, I know from the Olympics, the, that, that move gets named after him now. It's an acres. It's an acres one. Yes. And he did not have the twisties at all. He was, he was all about spinning and spinning and spinning. That was a fourth down play too. That was a, I mean, I know it's a preseason game, but you're playing it like it's a real game.
04:48It catches the ball, dismisses the first guy with a nice little juke and then spin spins. We'll play the audio from all this a little bit later. My, my, my big, this is my big question with cam acres. If he's not on the team, why the hell did you bring him in in the first place?
05:02Right. Right. Yeah. I know. Cause this is exactly what you would either the guy, what did I call it? I called it an experiment because he's coming off of a second Achilles tendon tear. I was, I cautioned everybody, you know, look, he's coming off a second Achilles tendon tear. He wasn't really that good after the first one. Um, and so it's an experiment. It's a cheap experiment and they'll see, maybe there's upside there. And I feel like everything that I, every reason I was skeptical and I still would be just because of, you know, injury history.
05:31Sure. But as far as the guy on the field, from the moment he showed up, there hasn't been a single moment where I've thought that guy looks like he's recovering from an Achilles tendon. No, I never would. If you had asked me if I knew nothing about the Texans and I went out to that game yesterday on Saturday and you said, Hey, try to pick out the guy who had an Achilles tendon tear nine months ago, cam acres would have been dead last.
05:54He would have been the last guy that I thought, well, certainly not the little guy that's, that's, uh, uh, pulling off a, what does that end up being a 10 50 or whatever. Um, when he's spinning or trucking guys on the sideline or cutting back against the grain.
06:10So I'm, um, yeah, I'm all on board. The cam acres train right now. I don't think that means he's going to lead the league in rushing or anything, but he provides something that I haven't seen the other running backs on this roster in the preseason provide.
06:23I'll be legitimately disappointed if he's not on the team. This, this was Ryan on Saturday after the game, very first question right out of the shoot, he was asked why didn't Damien Pierce play in this game?
06:34I didn't play Damien cause I've, I've seen enough from Damien and practice and everything. So I've, I've had a good look at Damien.
06:40All right. So no effusive praise, not a long answer. Short answer. Yeah. You, you, you real quick, you've pointed out that there could be two reasons for it. He could have made the team or he could be on the trading block. One or the other.
06:53It's funny that D'Amico gave that answer. And I think there's one of a lot of people are having a very polarizing response to it too. Some people like I did a live stream about this and some people said, Seth, you silly fool. Yeah. You might be pretty, but you ain't so smart.
07:08Obviously they're planning on trading him the way he gave that answer. He said, we've seen all we need to see from him. But I think it's a little bit more complicated than that in normal. If it were other coaches, I might say that if it was another situation, that would be my first reaction to.
07:23Um, but I think this, this team last year stuck with Damien for far too long at the beginning of the season, waiting for it to click and, uh, and D'Amico and others have been effusive in their praise about how Damien looks in practice. And that's, it just makes me nervous that maybe D'Amico and Nick have a blind spot for Damien Pierce.
07:47I, and I could understand having a blind spot for him. Cause you absolutely love everything about the kid, except for the way he's currently running the football, whether it's good blocking or bad. Uh, you know, I'd asked him earlier in the week, what Damien's biggest obstacle was. And I mean, D'Amico said bad blocking, like he hasn't had good blocking. This is a guy that remember, D'Amico very rarely criticizes players in press conferences and he threw the whole line under the bus in that instance.
08:14Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, uh, I just, I feel like that's what makes me nervous that they are just emotionally invested in Damien Pierce and it's clouding their judgment. I get the contention that that was just coach speaking. They're planning on trading him. I'm ho I hope that's what they're doing, but I just don't know.
08:30Let's compare. We just heard the answer, very short answer about why Damien didn't play. Here was D'Amico Ryan's after the game on the performance of Cam Akers.
08:38Cam has done a really nice job since we got him, got him late there in training camp, but he's, he stepped in and he's done a really nice job. And there's everyone sees like when he gets the ball in his hands and the games, he's able to make defenders miss and he's able to continue to press forward and make plays. So exciting.
08:54Right. And it's also, it's tough. Right. And it's also, I love that it's tough to make these decisions because we, that means you have a good football team and when it's not just set, you know, you still have decisions to make. That's how it should be.
09:07Okay. I don't like that last part. Okay. Let me be clear. I don't like him pro like kind of, and I, to be fair, I don't, I didn't hear the whole question. So maybe the question also had to do with tough cuts at the end. And that's why he's bringing that up.
09:20I feel like just the question, the answer in a vacuum, the very end there is when, you know, your parents are preparing you that you're not getting that air hockey table for Christmas, you know?
09:29Right. So, so that part worries me a little bit. I will say this and we'll know more in the next 24 to 36 hours. It's three, whatever, however many hours it's three o'clock tomorrow is the deadline to make these cuts.
09:42This, this Damien piercing, and I can't believe I'm saying this about Damien Pierce because he's so poor and he's a great dude, but this, if this turns into Damien Pierce making the team and cam acres, not making the team, this has the potential to be kind of the first thing that the fan base gets legitimately upset at D'Amico Ryan's about.
09:59Right. I think, I think it's my first, it's our first fight. I think it's a, how strong is our relationship? We have to see if it can withstand our first fight. And I, there's a, there's kind of a baseball feel to this too.
10:13Almost like a Kyle Tucker, like, come on. Why are you guys so in love with Kyle Tucker? What are you even doing? I would imagine that 90% of the people who said that right now have actively denied that in their brain.
10:25They don't even remember that there was a time when we were kind of, that people were disgusted that they were, that Kyle Tucker was untouchable. So, I mean, that's the other avenue you have to keep open is like, all right, man, maybe they're just, maybe they just know and believe in somehow it will click at some point, but it's, it's hard. It's hard.
10:43It is. It is. All right. We're off and running on a reaction Monday. We are under two weeks away from the start of the season. Cannot get here soon enough. Texans went on Saturday against the Rams and now it's cut down time. We will, I would imagine we're going to start hearing about some of these cuts today. D'Amico Ryan's meets with the media at nine o'clock today. So maybe they start trickling out after that.
11:03So we'll see, but we'll keep it tuned here to Sports Radio 610. We'll have them all as they're happening here over the next couple of days, leading up to the 53 man roster deadline tomorrow at three o'clock.