This wide receiver is someone Ron "The Show" Hughley says the Texans should stay away from in the first round of the NFL draft.
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00:00Clint, we've heard a lot of players connected with the Texans.
00:05And the one to me, I don't think he's going to be a bad football player.
00:10I think he's going to be a good football player.
00:11I think he's going to play a lot of years in the NFL.
00:14I just think for what this team needs and to me what you should look for
00:23in a first-round pick, a top 25 pick at wide receiver,
00:27I just don't think the Ohio State wide receiver, Emeka Ekbuka,
00:36I don't believe that's what you go for when it comes to a top 25 pick.
00:48I don't believe that's what you go for when you're looking for a starting caliber
00:53wide receiver that you want to, I would think, on this team,
00:58get speed and open things up.
01:01And when you look at what they say are his maybe weaknesses
01:07or things that could potentially give him issues at the next level,
01:11I just don't think that's the type of receiver that the Texans probably need right now.
01:17In this, average, quickness, and separation in and out of breaks.
01:23Struggles to drop weight and open quickly on cornerbacks.
01:26Speed appears average in drive phase of the route.
01:31Takes time to find acceleration after slowing feet inside the route on receiver screens.
01:38Things like, to me, I just feel like they need an outside threat that could really,
01:46hell, I'm not even going to say put fear yet,
01:48but give some concern to the defense that you might go past it.
01:53So you have speed.
01:54I just think this is, this to me, you get guys like this in the second or, you know, third round,
02:00you know, I get that.
02:02I think, I think for me though, even though he has a lot of those swarm qualities
02:07that they love and they're looking for it, leadership is one of his big strengths
02:12and, and, and, and how he, how he helps other teammates and stuff.
02:18Like that reliability, good hands.
02:20Like he's got some strength, but to me for this team,
02:23and when you talk about first round, I, I, that's not enough for me.
02:28Yeah, look, I, I've, I've said this a million times over the last couple of months, man.
02:32When it comes to the draft, when it comes to free agency,
02:34they didn't really accomplish this in free agency,
02:36but there, there's a real problem of speed, a need for speed on, on this, on this offense.
02:40And, and, and they, they went through free agency and they added Christian Kirk.
02:44Christian Kirk's got some twitch and some speed from the, from the slot position.
02:48And, and, and, and I believe he can get over the top of defenses kind of thing,
02:51but I don't, I don't know that defenses walk up and go all hell.
02:54Christian Kirk is on this offense.
02:56We better look out.
02:56I don't feel like teams look at Nico Collins as that.
03:00Now they focus on Nico Collins.
03:01They tilt the coverage of Nico Collins.
03:02They give Nico Collins all the due respect, but, but I don't know that Nico's necessarily that guy.
03:08If I'm just going to beat you over the top, if you blink, you know, if you,
03:10if you even peek in the backfield.
03:12So with that said, I look at this team with the Texans.
03:16If one of their first round or second round pick,
03:18really anywhere that they draft guys that are going to be offensive skilled players.
03:22Uh, I think they, I think their, their weakness does not need to be.
03:26The one thing that they surefire better have is speed, twitch, explosiveness, the ability to separate.
03:32Hey, if you don't necessarily have the best hands in traffic, cool.
03:35If you don't, if you don't necessarily aren't the most polished guy and you, and you, you know,
03:41come back to the ball every time or you run out of your breaks or you give up on routes.
03:45Okay.
03:45That, that, that we can work on and we can work through.
03:47I think speed needs to be the absolute must when you're drafting.
03:51You can't teach that or change.
03:53You can't cheat.
03:53You can't.
03:54It's you damn right.
03:54You can't coach it.
03:55That's for damn sure.
03:56And so.
03:58I just,
03:59all more so than a good,
04:00well-rounded receiver that can play slot and inside that blocks.
04:03Well, you've got plenty of those guys that can block.
04:06Well, that, that can, uh, that, that can, you know, see, see defense as well that have
04:11been in the league.
04:11And, um, you've got plenty of guys that, that are developmental kind of guys.
04:16Um, I just think you, the one thing you lack across the board, there's not a guy on this
04:21offense and let's say not named Nico Collins.
04:25Let's, let's, let's give Nico his due respect.
04:26Cause I do think he's got the speed.
04:28I just think he's used differently.
04:30There's not a guy on this offense that you are, you are, you come into the game and you
04:34go, man, this, this cat right here got some good.
04:36Wheels look out now, let this guy get an open field.
04:39If you want to, he's going to chew you up, but you don't have that guy.
04:43Um, not saying you don't have really good players, not, not saying you don't have specific
04:46players that have certain skillsets that you can win with, but you just don't, you're
04:50tidy and ain't running away from nobody, right?
04:52You're running back.
04:53I ain't running away from nobody.
04:55Um, you're receiving core overall lack speed.
04:58No doubt about it.
04:59Um, so I, it's they, to me to draft a guy with a premium draft pick first, second round
05:05that, that has suspect speed that, that would, that would not be ideal for me for the Houston
05:12Texans.
05:12No, especially right now.
05:14I like if they had, you know, two speed guys on the edge, they had like, they had two guys
05:22with, with good speed.
05:23Hell if tank was, if tank was still here, right?
05:26If they had tank and they had Nico and tank was there and you knew he was going to be
05:29there.
05:30And you said, Hey man, this guy would fit in perfect in the middle as a slot guy for us.
05:35When you have the two guys on the edge, we can use them as a reliable guy, but no, you
05:41wouldn't spend $16 million to get a guy that, that has that.
05:45It has more twitching speed and you got the guys on the outside to take that this team
05:50and we've talked about it is in desperate need of that.
05:53Yeah.
05:54Well, and this is where we talked about it yesterday.
05:56This is where the, the, uh, you know, the guy that fits in Houston, man, that, that is,
06:02is just team first.
06:04And he's a Nick Casario, D'Amico Ryan's kind of guy.
06:06And he fits that.
06:08This is where leaning so heavily to that can bite you in the ass.
06:12Cause, cause right now you've got plenty of those guys.
06:14You've got those guys, uh, in every position, you know, position room right now.
06:20It's there, there are a couple of needs, man, that, that, uh, I personally would like to
06:24see them address a certain way.
06:26And that this skill positions, one of them from the, uh, Jim Adler, the Texas hammer text
06:31line, um, to us, I believe do yourself a favor and look at the rookie wide receivers and
06:37the developing wide receivers that excel the best.
06:41It's not about twitch.
06:42It's not about speed.
06:43It's about adequate speed and explosiveness.
06:46And more importantly, it's about route running.
06:48You want a polished route runner.
06:50The Ohio state kid would pair well with Nico.
06:54Everyone falls in love with speed and go look at the fastest wide receivers in the draft over
06:59the past 10 years and find me more than 20% of them that make difference.
07:04Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd.
07:07Draft expert.
07:08Chill out, bro.
07:09Chill out.
07:10You want it or you got it.
07:13Well, no, I mean, I just, there's a lot there.
07:15There's a, there is a lot there.
07:16I mean, there's, there's, there's, there's a lot of receivers that are big body receivers
07:21that are polished route runners that are this or that, that, that fell in the league.
07:25A lot of people fell in the league.
07:26Very few people come out and just balls to the wall are, are lights out wide receivers
07:31in the league.
07:32The one thing that you can damn sure hang your hat on at the league or in the league is speed.
07:37The, the one thing that if you're a poly, if like, like, if in there, if you don't have
07:43adequate speed and burst in your stems, NFL DBs are never going to come out of their pedal.
07:49They're going to sit on every route that you have.
07:50Hill is still not a polished route runner.
07:52Right.
07:53Right.
07:53Yeah.
07:53I mean, it's just so, look, I'm not saying, I'm not saying the kid's not going to be great,
07:56but, but it's not, it's not as easy.
07:59Yeah.
07:59And don't, and I'm not saying that you don't have examples.
08:01Yes.
08:01Uh, the kid from the, the Bengals drafted up real early from Washington.
08:06Uh, I forget the John Ross, John Ross.
08:08There's some examples of that, but like last year with the chiefs, like Xavier worthy wasn't
08:14polished, but, but, but he just did things that, that, that there was fear.
08:19Like I, Nico Collins wasn't Paul.
08:21No.
08:21And I'm not.
08:22And, and, and what, what it seems like you're doing is the texture is like, you're putting
08:27it all in the box.
08:28Like, no, there aren't, there aren't guys that there are guys who are, who have speed
08:33that, that didn't amount to nothing.
08:35Like you said, and there are guys who are supposedly polished route runners.
08:39Charles Rogers is one that comes to mind that didn't amount to anything, right?
08:43I'm not saying that it's a guarantee.
08:46You get somebody with speed that it works for me though.
08:49If I am drafting at 25 and I've just spent $16 million on a slot receiver, I'm
08:57I'm trying to know talent that the, the, the talent that you hope that, that really like
09:06gives you a chance to have a big time receiver.
09:08Yeah.
09:09Yeah.
09:09No, look, I mean, I'm, I'd like a polished, I'd like a polished receiver.
09:12I'd like a speed guy.
09:13I'd like them all together.
09:15Yeah.
09:15Give me, give me all great hands, polished, great route runner.
09:18The reality of it is all I'm saying is if they're going to draft a receiver or any skill
09:23player with a premium draft pick on this team built as it is, I would prefer that guy's
09:30weakness to in no way, shape or form mention speed.
09:35If you're going to have five bullets of weaknesses, which they all do, none of them are perfect.
09:40I would prefer a guy that doesn't have that.
09:43That's it.
09:43That, that, that doesn't mention speed and acceleration and twitch that, you know, in his
09:48weaknesses, I would prefer guys we've watched on the tape where linebackers have run him
09:52down or, you know, struggling separation with Western Michigan and Mars.
09:58Like, I think he's going to be a good player.
10:00I just don't think that's.
10:01And by the way, if we're talking about tangible, tangible, I would argue that twitch and speed
10:06are the two most important as it pertains to being successful in the league.
10:09If you, if you don't have either, your ass is in trouble.
10:13You'd be smart as hell.