Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast break down which Texans' stock is up after the final preseason game and who's not looking good.
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00:00I almost felt like I felt like it was a stress test, you know, like when they want to see
00:05how like, okay, we got a new brand of rubber band. Let's see how it does, you know, or
00:10a belt, you know, a belt for your car. Let's see how this radiator belt does. We're going
00:16to run it until it breaks. We're going to run it for RPMs and run it until it breaks.
00:21Achilles or the radiator belts in this stress test. And it passed whatever his usage was
00:28the other night with flying colors. This whole training camp has been one big passing
00:32grade for, I'm not even passing grade. Like I would say exceptional grade for cam Acres,
00:37who you just heard right there, who in the game, and we're going to do a little stock
00:40up stock down here. A lot of people texting and saying, what are your guys' thoughts on
00:43who's making this team? We're going to give them to you here over the next 45 to 60 minutes.
00:50But cam Acres was the big stock up for me set in that game. And that would, the play
00:53we heard right there was a catch on fourth and three where I don't know that he caught
00:59it in position where he would've gotten three yards, but it was, he, he, he shook a tackler,
01:05which was really just, that was more impressive than the three spins. The spins were sizzly,
01:10but the, the making the first guy miss kind of the angle his body was at when he caught
01:14it was really impressive.
01:16Vandy's call on that though, when he was going spin move another spin move, I'm like, is
01:19he going to get the third one? And another spin move. I'm like, yes. That's why you're
01:23the goat. Good job. Here was cam Acres after the game talking about what he showed everybody
01:29this training camp.
01:30I feel good. I feel good. I feel like I show people I'm still who I am. I haven't lost
01:35a step and just see how it goes.
01:38Dude, you, you nailed it earlier. If, if you just brought somebody to the game and, and
01:44watched, said, watch this game and then pick out the guy who's had two Achilles tears in
01:49the last four years, three years, actually. I know four years it was training. No three
01:54years training camp, 2021, three years, two Achilles in the last three years. He would've
01:58been the last guy on the list. He would've picked.
02:00Yeah, I think so. I think so. Um, I tell you what the guy probably would have picked if
02:06I had somewhere along the way, asked a, how old is this guy to, uh, would be case Keenum
02:11because I got case cases a bit, a little off, you know? Yeah. Case cases a little bit off.
02:16I think that the, the guy who's talking might have been most up after that game was Davis
02:20mills just because I think in that game you could see that. All right. Case knows where
02:24to go with the ball. Could have had matchy on a mega bomb. Uh, that wasn't, uh, you know,
02:30Xavier Hutchinson had a really good game partly, not just because of his production, but because
02:34just about every catch he had to make was a little bit off and it was, um, but, uh,
02:41but I, I, I still do think case ends up being the third string quarterback because of knowledge
02:45and system experience, you know, coaching ability for the other guys. But cam acres
02:51was everything. I think that you would want to see to see if this guy has actually recovered
02:56and it's impossible. Even though this is a fair comparison, I just always wonder, man,
03:01there are exceptions to the rule and him even coming back from an Achilles tendon tear and
03:05making it a couple of years in the NFL puts him is an extreme exception with running backs.
03:09There's very few running backs that come back and make it at all after Achilles tendons.
03:13I think of Frank Gore who early in his career in college, and I think his second ACL, but
03:19anyway, he had two ACLs early in his career when he was young and then went on to be one
03:23of the most durable running backs of all time. That maybe cam acres is one of these guys
03:27that just, you had a couple of, and that was back when Frank Gore tore his Achilles or
03:31his, uh, ACLs that was back when it wasn't such a slam dunk, easy recovery. So maybe
03:38he could be that exception. Maybe he's built different, man. Maybe he's different. I, the,
03:42I boiled down the cam maker situation. Cause I think, look, we're staring at the possibility
03:47that Damian Pierce makes this team having not played good football for this team in
03:51over a year and, and, uh, or for about a calendar year or so. And, uh, and cam acres not making
03:59this team, having had one of the best training camps of any players offensively, if that
04:03were to happen, my big question would be, why did you bring cam acres in, in the first
04:07place? Unless, unless they trade cam acres for a fifth round pick over the next 24 hours,
04:13I thought would have been a cool plan if you had told me about it in July when they first
04:17signed them. And I was saying, Hey everybody, look, I know the name has, it's got some flash
04:22to it and you know, you remember his highlights, but he hasn't been the same guy, et cetera,
04:26et cetera. I was very cautious about cam acres and I don't regret being cautious about it,
04:31but man, everything that gave me reason for skepticism has been disproven. So this would,
04:39if they, if they retain Damian Pierce, but trade away cam acres being like, they looked
04:45at that last preseason game as some kind of showcase for him.
04:49I'd be really upset about that. If they keep Damian Pierce as a thought of like, okay,
04:56look, we're waiting for it to click for him in this offense. I would still be skeptical
05:00of that if, but in maybe they're keeping them as the third running back. But if they
05:04did that and also traded away cam acres, uh, that this would be the biggest issue I've
05:09had with this regime of D'Amico and Casario being paired up. Yeah, I think so too of this.
05:15Are you right with these two guys here? I think there were some moves made early on
05:18with the team when they were trying to rebuild that you could, you could take or leave, but
05:21this would be one of this pairing of Nick and D'Amico that if Pierce is a Texan come
05:26Tuesday afternoon and acres is somewhere else. I think this, yeah, this will be like
05:30the, like, I think you put it great earlier. Like this will be our first fight of the D'Amico
05:34Ryan's era. Like it's been a year and a half long honeymoon longer than a lot of honeymoons,
05:38but this will be our first fight. It'd be the first time D'Amico farted in front of
05:42us. And we're like, okay, do I still feel the same way about this person? I feel that
05:46I will, but it's like rancid and nasty. You know what I mean? It's nothing lovable about
05:50it. Like it's not, it's not a cute little pop. Yeah. It's not just like one where it's
05:56the noise, but there's no smell like, Oh, okay. You do fart. It's like, Oh God, I gotta
06:02get out of the room. What's going on? All right. So stock stock up. Good job, Seth.
06:08Stock up, uh, cam acres for sure. We'll see what happens. We'll see what I, I would expect.
06:13We'll start seeing moves from the Texans after just press conference today. D'Amico has got
06:19a press conference at nine o'clock today. According to the schedule, the Texans sent
06:23out, I would imagine we'll start seeing moves after that. Um, maybe before if we haven't
06:27before and we haven't before eight o'clock, we'll tell you what they are. Um, stock up
06:33Neville Hewitt. Here's a handoff to Scott starting right. And he's going to be brought
06:36down short of where he needs to go by Neville Hewitt. That's a lock bubble wrap him. He's
06:45going to make it and he's as you, it can play linebacker. He's a special team superhero
06:51and he had the bubble wrap out in full force on Saturday. I feel like Neville Hewitt would
06:56not through the bubble wrap and go out and find somebody to hit. He's like a Neville.
07:00He would definitely needs a cone around his neck. If he's, he needs one of those dog cones
07:05to keep from Neville. He would just flex his trapezius and the thing would just pop off,
07:11put them in bubble wrap and a neck cone. I think, uh, I really feel like if Neville
07:16Hewitt played in 1997, he'd be a pro linebacker. He's an old school linebacker. He is just
07:23hell on wheels against, well, Dex Thomas was undersized and like kind of speed. I just
07:28mean like a tackle machine kind of thing. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I think that, uh,
07:34yeah, I think he's on the squad, especially cause especially, uh, the problem is there's
07:38a lot of guys now where there's more depth at positions than there's been in the past.
07:43And there's more guys like a gumbo Wiley and Neville Hewitt where you just, you can't just
07:47call all of these guys a lock because of special teams because they are also competing with
07:52other guys who might not be as good at special teams, but might be better at their, at their
07:56position. And I hesitate to call any of the really good special teams players a lock,
08:02but I think that linebacker is thin enough right now that Neville Hewitt's definitely
08:05a lock. Yeah. I, that's the thing. Like if Christian Harris is not playing in week one
08:09against Indianapolis, there's a really good chance that Neville Hewitt is out there on
08:12first and second down quite a bit, you know, just based on his ability against, against
08:17the run. So I think, uh, I think I agree with Vandy sentiment in that highlight. That's,
08:21that's my point here is I think he had a, he had a good game. It wasn't just that play.
08:24He was all over the place. There's a reason that Andre said, guess who? During that highlight
08:28is that Neville Hewitt had made a bunch of plays up to that point in the game. I hadn't
08:33watched. We were like, I hadn't watched the TV copy of it. Did he get away with a little
08:37bit of a mini horse collar on that one? Or was it one of the plays he did? I don't know
08:41if it was that play in particular, but on one of the plays he did, and I don't know
08:45who the running back was. It might've been Zach Evans. Cause he was getting a lot of
08:47the carries for the Rams. Whoever it was, it was literally as, as he was falling to
08:52the ground, was pointing at his horse, like you guys falling. He's like, he got me, the
08:58horse collar. Honestly, the horse collar is a way more nuanced rule than I, you would
09:01ever think it was. So I, I always hesitate to call something definitely a horse collar
09:05or not.
09:06A few people weighing in here, just to mix, mix a few of these in before we get to a couple
09:09more stock up, stock down. We'll do acknowledge me in about 10 minutes or so. Text message.
09:14If they keep DP, it's going to make me angry. I obviously hadn't seen the day to day at
09:18practice, but it's like they've insisted on giving him chances, which is fine, but it
09:22feels like it's taken away from other guys. That's boy, one of my biggest things on my
09:28podcast right after the game sets where I do four winners, four losers. One of the losers
09:32wasn't Damien Pierce himself. It was the entirety of the situation with Damien Pierce, where
09:36I find myself now look, staring straight in the face, the possibility that I'm going to
09:42get angry at two of the people who are my favorite people in this Texans organization,
09:47D'Amico Ryan's and Damien period.
09:49And probably maybe Nick Casario too. If, if, if Damien's still on this team, I just, there's
09:53been no evidence that he's better than the options they have right now. It feels almost
10:00like a Lance McCullers situation where a lot of people that just are angry at Lance McCullers,
10:05basically because he's like, he's a guy that's done great things for the organization, but
10:11he just, he can't stay healthy and people get angry at him over time. And likewise with
10:16Damien, it's not injury issues, but it's just his actual production. He goes from one of
10:19the guys that you love the most to where all of a sudden he becomes the object of,
10:25of all of your derision. And yeah, I don't want to feel that way about Damien. So the
10:29texter says that, you know, he hasn't seen the practices. You and I have seen almost
10:33all of the practices that have been here in Houston. I've, I've missed like two or three
10:37of them. Yeah, I've been impressed with him in practice, but that's what makes me nervous
10:42because the running back position, as I say over and over again, practice lies about running
10:49backs because breaking tackles is a very, very big and important part of especially
10:55Damien Pierce's game. And he's not tested with that in practice. So he looks great in
11:00practice, but Damien's superpower is breaking tackles. So even when the blocking is bad,
11:07can he break some tackles? He hasn't really shown any aptitude for that over the last,
11:13you know, season plus this training camp. And I just, I don't want them to be diluted
11:19by good practice performances by Damien Pierce. It's just, it's not as simple as that. Yep.
11:24Last stock up John Metchie. Boyle gets the snap. He's got time, fires right side, hits
11:30Metchie, winds to the outside, sheds a tackle, across the 50, nice burst of speed, close
11:36to a first down. I think he is rounding into shape and is becoming the player they thought
11:42they would have when he was drafted. Yeah. Metchie weathered the storm, at least the
11:47storm that was coming from the media. I don't know if the people in the building ever viewed
11:51Metchie as being on the bubble or not. I mean, look, they don't view Damien Pierce. It looks
11:54like as being on any sort of bubble right now. So who knows how they felt about John
11:58Metchie, who was just going through a period of a couple of weeks where he was dropping
12:02the ball and was having tough time, having a tough time getting open. He's doing both
12:06of those things. Now he's getting open and that, that play right there, I can see why
12:10it got undersold a little bit. Like when you rewatch that play right there, the spin move
12:14that he made to the outside on that play, it is something where you watch a second time
12:19you go, wow, that was really impressive. That didn't, that didn't pop with me the first
12:23time, but that was a really impressive move to get away from it. Honestly, Sean, it felt
12:26like he was a guard who was about to kick the ball out to a corner three and then Euro
12:33stepped his way, like spun in Euro step and then, and then hit it hard towards the, towards
12:39the hole. It was really, it was an impressive move. I think with Metchie, this is what I
12:44always try to remember, looking at it from Nick Casario's perspective, was in some regards
12:50you almost have to look at him like a rookie, even though this is his third year in the
12:53league. The first two years he was battling cancer and really even after he cleared recovery,
12:59it was still a tax on his body last year, that I think that there's a really good chance
13:04that they all along were looking at, okay, but he's making progress. He's just not quite
13:08there yet. And that he, he might've been safe no matter what, even if he had made this turnaround.
13:13But I think with this turnaround and, and really just like Damien, okay, the biggest
13:18thing is he's not breaking tackles. And I think there's a lot that goes into that, but
13:22with Metchie it's, he wasn't catching the football, you know, his, he had so many drops
13:27and even with a lot of the positives in practice, he still also had a lot of drops in practice.
13:32He's he's rectified that in the last couple of weeks. I think I'll be really surprised
13:36if both Xavier Hutchinson and John Metchie don't make the team.
13:39I'm a hundred percent with you on that. There was another play, like there was another play
13:43where Metchie was wide open and might still be running. If case case almost threw an interception
13:49on the play, like case threw it right at a linebacker. But Metchie, if you go back and
13:52watch that play, Metchie is wide open running down a seam. So Metchie yeah. Metchie's on
13:59this team. I'm with you. Hutchinson and Metchie, I think are both on this team.
14:02I think the other guys too, that I would put on there is not, not on the team, but stock
14:07up from that game was John John, Johnny Johnson and Steven Sims. I think they both did things
14:13in that game where you can really appreciate their upside. And like at least one of those
14:19guys, if they don't make the team or on the practice squad, if they cleavers, I think
14:24I thought that I thought I enjoyed watching that game because the two positions where
14:29I think the most battles are at wide receiver and running backs, you really saw those guys
14:34step up to the plate. I thought they all played their butts off. Yeah. Great point.
14:38Great point. Yeah. They all showed up. I have Sims making it on mine. Yeah. In part because
14:42of the, because of the special teams, right? That's another one where you're like, man,
14:46we've got a lot of guys. It's, it's good for special teams, but I don't know how many guys
14:49you can keep just because of special teams. But he's a guy who can win a game for you
14:52on special teams. You know, like if he's able to return, he's also a guy that adds a speed
14:56element when there's injuries too. And you're receiving Corey, you know, like he's a, he
15:00can open things up just by virtue of just being as fast as he is. Part of the reason
15:04the average six yards of carry is he had one carry for 38 yards in that game. You know,
15:09you take that one out. It's more like 5.2 yards per carry. Um, all right, let's do a
15:13couple of stock down. Des King, Ethan Evans, the punter unloads, Des King back deep for
15:20the Houston Texans and drops the ball. It's loose. The Rams fall on it. They've got it
15:25inside the 15 yard line. No sunshine to blame that on. And the Rams have the ball in the
15:31red zone. He was just running before he fielded the ball and it's going to be a big turnover.
15:37That was a guy who is probably feeling the crunch of making a 53 man roster. Yeah. Trying
15:42to make a play. I saw some people speculate that maybe the shaft of sunlight and the missing
15:48panel somehow did it. I went back and I did the geometry on it. Sean, I got out my protractor
15:54and everything. The hypotenuse didn't match up with a way that the apex of the ball, he
16:00was looking at nothing but a backdrop of roof when he was in that ball down. So that was
16:04just a muffed. That was a muffed point. Pythagoras is so proud of you right now, man, that you,
16:09you doing that a squared plus B I'm more of a Euclid ease guy. I talked to Pythagoras
16:15and he's really proud of you. Um, here's to be, he gets all the credit, but it's a Euclid
16:21is a pub hound. Everybody knows that he's exists. Everybody. He, uh, here's D'Amico Ryan's
16:27on a Desmond King. Does it, how does this affect your evaluation of Desmond King? Nothing
16:32has said, like I said earlier, nothing has said on who punt return or who, like we have
16:36a lot of decisions to be made. We'll see where we end up. Okay, well there you go. So that's
16:41a D'Amico has got his cards and he's holding them right up against his vest. Uh, another
16:46stock down. This was one that had you and I and Clint and everybody else up in the press
16:50box, looking at each other. Every time the referee would go holding number 34, we got
16:57four of those in the game on Saturday, Troy Hairston aspiring fullback. And this is the
17:01real shame with this is that the fullback position is kind of there to be grabbed right
17:06now by the throat with Andrew back out like that's, and I know Hairston got into the end
17:10zone.
17:11I feel like there's any number of NFL players that could have caught that ball and turn
17:14and got into the end zone that wouldn't have held on four other plays in the game. And
17:18he missed on a few blocks as well. Like man, he just, there was an opportunity there and
17:22touchdown or no touchdown. He did not take advantage of that opportunity. He's he's had
17:26some really glaring misses in the blocking game. The actual, even if he'd had zero holds
17:32on that game, I would have looked at his work as a blocker over the last couple of weeks
17:36and thought like, no, you can't, you can't go in trusting him to be your fullback. He's
17:40whiffed a lot. So it look, it's been, he's been a little bit of an experiment because
17:45he was a college defensive player and it's, you know, he's, it's been learning over the
17:50last three years.
17:51He missed all of last season, but I just, it's not working out. Not to the point where
17:55you can keep them on as an experiment. I think like British, British Brooks in the limited
18:00sample size I've seen, he hasn't had as many opportunities to miss blocks, but as a combo
18:06running back slash fullback, I like the idea of British Brooks a lot more than Troy Harris.
18:11No doubt. No doubt about it. A text message is coming in. If DP makes the squad, do y'all
18:16think less of D'Amico and Nick? No, no, I don't. Yeah. I don't think less of him at
18:21all. I think that, I think that every coach and every GM, they sometimes have blind spots
18:27for players. It happens all the time, no matter how great they are. And in my opinion, that's
18:33what this would be. Now we talked about Kyle Tucker earlier. Look, a lot, a lot of people
18:38were frustrated with the Astros organization when they, you know, deemed Kyle Tucker untouchable
18:43because it wasn't looking like Kyle Tucker should be an untouchable guy as a young player
18:48that worked out for the Astros.
18:50I don't, but it's just football's got a different timeline, you know? Yes, absolutely. It's
18:56got a different timeline and it's got fewer games. You just, you don't have time to let
18:59some of these experiments play out.