Payne & Pendergast
Power Ranking the POWER Ranking
2025 is here! Woo-hoo! It's time for a fresh start with the sharpest rides. Introducing their new year new ride celebration. It's your chance to snag your dream whip during the end of the year clearance sale blowout. The sharpest ride is clearing space for new inventory, with incredible deals on over 900 sharp rides. Pre-owned luxury cars, SUVs, sporty to dance, and more. Whatever you're looking for, they've got it! Celebrate the new gear and your new whip with a champagne-worthy moment. You've earned it, but hurry, because these deals won't last long. Visit the SharpestRides.com to browse their unbeatable inventory or come see them in person at 2250 South Tea Home Street in Inglewood to experience their award-winning service. The sharpest ride is here to make your new ride happen. New year, new ride, new you! Start 2025 the sharpest way. With the sharpest rides, Denver's trusted name in pre-owned vehicles. The sharpest rides, affordable, sexy, sharp. Looking for a financial institution that has fewer fees, better rates, and gives back to the local community. As one of Colorado's largest credit unions, Belco offers great rates on products like our free-boost interest checking, and lower rates on loans, including our home equity choice line. Bank virtually any time anywhere through our online banking and our mobile app. Becoming a member has never been easier. Visit belco.org or stop by any Belco branch. Membership eligibility required, equal housing opportunity, all loan subject to approval, insured by NCOA. Belco, banking for everyone. Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available HTRAC all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild, conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey. All right, pain and pender gas. It's nine o'clock on a Tuesday. That means the power rankings are out. And as we do every Tuesday at nine o'clock, we check in and see where the experts think the Texans are, and we do that by ranking the experts. We power rank the power rankings at nine a.m. There's four of them we use for this exercise in no particular order yet. ESPN.com, theathletic.com, cbsports.com, nsi.com, sports illustrated. So let's do this here. We power rank the power ranking starting with number four, the athletic, which Seth has the Texans at number 15. This is about as low as the Texans have been on people's power rankings all season long. They've spent the entire season, for the most part, hovering at worst, like around 12 or 13, to the last couple of weeks. They've gotten as high as three or four when they were six and two earlier this year. I think both you and I thought it might have been a little bit of fool's gold at that point, just based on how. I mean, they were playing like a 500 football team, no matter what their record was over the course of the first half of the season. You know, the point differential would show you that. They had scored about the exact same number of points as they'd had scored against them. I think the fact that some of these places love the advanced stats, and like the Texans look better on some of the advanced stats than they actually are in reality, including on defense. I think they're overrated defensively in some ways. But yeah, as much as it feels like, oh, the Texans suck. Like, no, they're a 500 football team. They play and compete like a 500 football team. They've lose to some bad teams. They beat other mediocre and bad teams. They've only beat one good team all year long, and then they've lost to other good teams. So just this last week notwithstanding, it's been like a 500 football team the entire year. And in that division, that's good enough to clinch the division with three weeks left in the season, you know, that's just how it is. The category for the athletic, by the way, the Texans were 13th last week, so they lost to the Ravens, pushed them down two spots with the athletic. The category they do in terms of the topic for each team is what's next. And I don't know if it means what's next after the season or what's next this week or whatever. But for the Texans, I think this applies regardless of whether next means today or in a month, self-scouting for the offensive coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowick did so well in 2023 that he got head coaching interviews in the off season. He might get fired this off season. Houston has dropped from 12th in yards per play and 15th in EPA, expected points added per play, to 24th and 25th this season. And I think just if I stop right there, there was a period earlier this season where a lot of the stats for the Texans were, they've been this bad over the last four weeks, or they've been this bad. This, the last two months have dragged this offense down so drastically. This is where they are for the year. They're a bottom, they are a bottom quartile offense by, in my mind, two of the most important, if not the two most important metrics that measure offensive play, other than scoring points, because I know that's what you're going to say. But yards per play, yards per play and EPA per play are big efficiency measurements, I think, and they're horrible at both of those things right now. Yeah, especially when it comes to how routinely can you successfully run the football very, very rarely is that the case. It's great when they do do it well, because Joe Nixon ends up with huge yardage. I got annoyed at somebody on X the other day because he did the thing, which I hate much, was he tried to use an argument based on something I never said, which is, he said, "Well, oh, so Bobby, Bobby wasn't an ever issue before, but now he's an issue this year." That's not what I heard in the off-season, like no. What I said the entire off-season was, Bobby Sloake was promising. He's got to show that he can actually establish a respectable rushing attack, not even a league leading rushing attack, but he's not a proven commodity as an offensive coordinator. That was the big question. In that regard, he still has very much not proven that. And then on the other side, just in the passing game with everything else, offensive coordinators are just like quarterbacks. It's once they start to get, once a league has film on you and they start to get to know your tendencies and your strengths and weaknesses, it's harder in the second year. And so far, you could argue about how much Bobby Sloake is to blame or not, but there's no way you can argue that he hasn't proven anything positive this year. You can make excuses for him, but you got to concede that he hasn't shown anything positive, or to just show that he's built on the promise that he had last year. Well, he doesn't even have good answers when you ask him what they do well. Like he said, explosives. And I'm like, OK, well, we're all big. The explosives have largely been Nico or Joe Nixon being a superhero. Yes. Like I said that a few weeks ago, it feels like a bad high school team that has a couple of future pro football players. Yeah, that's what it is. You know, like it's enough that they just win with those guys, but they're doing nothing else offensively. Offensively, you're absolutely right. Yeah. All right, number three, power ranking of the power rankings, SI.com, which also has the Texans at 15th down four from number 11 last week. So the Baltimore Ravens, the loss to the Ravens at this juncture in the year, you fall four spots. That's a pretty big, pretty big dip. And Connor or says this about the Texans, Seth, all of the biomarkers in a massive loss to the Ravens in which the offense was shut out, we're troubling. CJ Stroud again looked frozen against split safety looks. The defense was stomped out by Derek Henry, Houston's not alone there. And that's Connor or saying that, not me. And Lamar Jackson was allowed to spend more time from snap to throw than at any point this season with no punishment. That's pretty damning. Barring a major identity shift, the Texans are looking like a prime candidate to get boat race just as their playoff journey begins. Yeah, as far as what he's talking about CJ reacting to shell coverages and all of that, it was it was watching the Bengals and the Texans and that same several day window. Man, Joe Burrow was just thrashing the Broncos over the middle in the soft spots in zone. It was it was really interesting because the the one starting cornerback there for the Broncos has kind of been he's been he's had health issues. And when they had to play zone and when he was out of the game, man, he burrow just thrashed him. So I'm watching him thinking, all right, boy, he's pulling the trigger really fast. But also you got to concede that, man, he's also throwing to wide receivers that have been with him for a long time. And it's a more balanced offense. There's more the linebackers were actually biting on the play action. Where were the Texans? They they just don't bother. The linebackers just kind of sit back and they're like, I'll come up and make a tackle when it's right. Right. Right. Because like, what am I worried about these guys? No. Yep. All right. Number two, power ranking of the power rankings. CBS sports.com. That would be Pete Prisco. The Texans are 14 holding steady at number 14 on CBS sports.com. Here's what Pete Prisco says. He's always very brief. They got rocked by the Ravens on Christmas Day and seem to be limping into the playoffs. They are locked in as the fourth seed, but they don't look like one. Actually, they do. The fourth seed is typically the worst of the four division winners. They look like that. Yeah. What are you talking about? They look every year. There's a couple of four seeds that you're like, oh, they should be the seven seed. Right. Right. Right. Right. They look exactly like a four seed. Macking. I tell you. So 14th on CBS sports.com. I think also though, too, like, yeah, okay, they don't look like they should be a four seed, but the other than the AFC North winner, whoever the other, the six and seven seed, like they've got their blemishes and flaws. Sure. So it's not, I don't think it's, it's not as big an insult as Prisco. I think is kind of presenting. Are the Texans favored at home against against the Steelers or the Chargers? Do you think like would they? Will they be a favorite at NRG? They against the Steelers as you and I have pointed out several times. They may not even be the home team. I think they'll be favored at home because of how the defense has played versus those two cards like, you know, the Chargers have had some lulls offensively. It really is just the last couple of weeks that they got it going again offensively. And then like Russell Wilson has looked like the best version of Russell Wilson and the worst version of Russell Wilson at times this season. So I think the, I think the Texans will be favored in both those games and it'll be a surprise to a lot of people locally because it feels like they shouldn't be favored to anybody. But the, yeah, the way, the way they build the lines and everything, I'll, I'll be surprised if they're not favored. I'll be surprised if they're, I'll be surprised if they're not favorites. I'll be shocked if they're more than a field goal favorite. Yeah, it's going to be, it'll be, they'll need that home field advantage perhaps to get the, to get the, that three points is going to be the, the crucial factor in them being favored. Yeah, I think if you played either of those teams on a neutral field right now, if you made the Texans a favorite on a neutral field, I think the money would go hardcore to Steelers or the Chargers. How we're thinking like handicappers. So yeah, and an even field either of those, yeah, so it ends up, Texans end up being like a one and a half point favorite for either of those games. That sounds about right. That's exactly what I was thinking, one and a half two points for me on that one. Number one, power ranking of the power rankings, ESPN.com, which has been the most bullish on the Texans throughout their tumultuous last eight weeks. They were 10th last week, even though they were three and four in their last seven games going into that Ravens game. Oh, it's such a clutch off season pickup, Dave. I know, right? I was worried we'd bring back the same team. Oh, no, I meant those blackout motorized shades. MVP of the room. Lions.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install. No, it was easy. Even you could do it. Nice. I installed these and then got some from my mom too. You fly across the country to do the install. Nope. Blinds.com can do it all. All she had to do is pick what she wanted. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Look at you, Hall of Fame Sun. Oh, I just picked the winning team. They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Oh, blinds.com is the goat. The goat. Shop blinds.com right now and get up to 40 percent off select styles plus a free professional measure and a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. Save up to 40 percent at blinds.com. Blinds.com rules and restrictions may apply. Ah, can't you see it? A glistening 100 megawatts solar field begging to be built. It's photovoltaic modules and balance of system powering a renewable energy tomorrow that's squeaky clean. We know that unless you have the right supplier, that world might just be a fantasy. But here at Graybar with years of renewable experience, we live in that world. Get in touch to see for yourself. We are now ready to depart. Look here to visit at Graybar.com. Yep, Graybar does that. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet-black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. So they fall four spots in the eyes of ESPN. This is DJB anime typing this biggest off-season contract to watch. This is a good category. Biggest off-season contract to watch and DJB anime says Stefan Diggs says Diggs proved his value to the Texans on and off the field through the first eight weeks with him. CJ Stroud had a QBR of 60.5, that's 10th. But since Diggs tore his ACL, Stroud has a QBR of 40.4, 29th through week 17. So CJ has gone from a top 10, he was a top 10 quarterback with Diggs. He is in like rookie Bryce Young range without Diggs. So with Diggs, it'll be interesting. He turns 32 this year. By this year, I mean, 2025. He turns 32. He's coming off of an ACL. I think the Texans would like to have him back. The reality of this situation is he's a 32-year-old coming off of an ACL injury. What does that contract look like? My fear would be that as much as Stefan Diggs was a model citizen while he was here, does he at some point feel disrespected by playing for whatever the Texans think is the the fair price for Stefan Diggs. Sometimes it doesn't feel like disrespect in the moment and then you get in all of a sudden you're playing really well. I guess that's the only thing I worry about. And if it's I don't want to resign a 32-year-old wide receiver coming off of ACL, if it means you're turning down drafting a wide receiver or signing a younger free agent. So I'm very I'm open to whatever they do with it. I just I'm not I'm not hungry to get Stefan Diggs back on the team. Yeah, I think something that should be pointed out without getting too cap nerdy about it is the Texans. We know that the Texans took Stefan Diggs four-year contract and took all the guaranteed money and basically just made it a one-year deal a one-year $22 million deal for Diggs. They took about 16 million of that and crammed it into voidable years in the future. So there if Stefan Diggs leaves, there is a credit card statement coming due for the Texans of several million dollars. That's where I so for both parties, the Texans that might be worth their while, just like they maybe give a contract that's a bit more if they can rework it into an extension. Yeah, so they give them a contract. Maybe it's a bit more than what others would pay, but it helps them out with a cap because they can spread it out more. Yeah, short term. Yeah, yeah. So that's it's just it's worth noting. I mean, I think ultimately the biggest thing with Diggs is how do they feel about the knee at that age? You know, it's just you also get now this is a thing if you get a compensatory pick back potentially, I could see Diggs going to start ring chasing. Same if he goes to a place where he actually plays a lot, gets a lot of production and they end up getting a really good compensatory pick out of it. Yeah, maybe so, maybe so. Um, text message, uh, Bobby Slowick listening to Slowick speak at press conferences reminds me of a sales person BSing their sales manager about their pipeline to avoid getting fired. I've I'd made that comparison several times when somebody's just up there just freestyling and just trying to survive till the next forecast is due, you know, the way it went. I mean, he gave an answer about what they looked, you know, what they did during the bi week and what they were trying to identify and one of it was identifying the strengths. On the next question, when asked, what are those strengths, he didn't have an answer at the ready. Now, now he also did say, okay, maybe I maybe I got a backup. He prefaced it by saying, I don't want to give you a all the secrets or anything, but I don't know, I feel like that's like, okay, like any if you're good at it, other teams are going to know you're good at it. Yeah, I like, so that should be the question. What are you worried that other why are you really worried that somehow other defensive coordinators aren't, I haven't realized what you're good at doing. Yeah. Um, I don't think that like what are so what are other defenses? What are defenses going into a game saying? What they're saying is we just got to take away Nico Collins as much as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, we feel pretty good. We're going to be able to stop the run. And it's as it's as simple as that, like, because Joe mixing has done some really good things, but he's not a steady machine and with this offensive line and with these tight ends blocking form and with the wide wide receivers aren't blocking the same way like the 49ers do when they're good. So yeah, I think Nico Collins is the only answer. Maybe the maybe the saddest thing for me about the Texans offense this year from like for me personally like with and I'm gauging kind of my reaction to things that happen this year is that when tanked L went down with the injury and this is before we knew the severity of the injury. Like this is when we just like, okay, well, tank, you know, he's hurt. He's down. Is it my first football reaction? And obviously my first personal reaction was, man, I hope he's okay. I love tanked L. My football reaction, like you're processing like, what does this mean now? Like, what's this going to look like? My reaction was they weren't going to win with offense anyways in the postseason. You know what I mean? Like they even with tanked L, this is an offense that had sunk to the bottom quarter of the league in offenses. So part of me is like, all right, well, I wasn't counting on more than 17 points in a playoff game even with tanked L, you know, like how much worse can it get? You know, the thing is if if they were going to make a run, it was going to have to be something clicking in the passing game. And the part where you just wonder what might have been was, all right, in that chief's game, it looked way more like you were hoping it was going to look all season long. And so the tank, Dell injury, I think almost symbolically, but also substantively, it was taking that away, pulling the rug out when man, maybe it looks like maybe something is clicking. Yeah, that's true. That's a and then in that very game, you get into the fourth quarter, and the better team handles the fourth quarter better than the Texans without tanked L do. So I don't, then who knows, like that's a, that's a, that's a most positive spin I could put on an otherwise miserable season. Yeah, yeah, miserable season offensively. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, man, text message, three things CJ must fix in the off season, pocket clock, escapability, accuracy. That's from Seifare Frank also. You know, the thing is too that he's done a, somebody on my YouTube channel had said that CJ needs to learn how to extend the plays better. And that's, that's actually not an issue. Like he does pretty well on extended plays. Now it's not like a high success rate on those to begin with, so it doesn't always feel that way. But in terms of EPA on throws attempts that are like over three and a half seconds long, it's Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Pat Mahomes, and CJ Strauss. CJ does a good job. The problem is the times I think he extends them too long at times, and that's where making the decision quicker to check down. He's gotten better as the season has gone along, taking the easy money, all of that stuff. It's, it's not that he can't extend the plays, it's that he's a little too dependent on extending the plays. He needs to just take the easy money more often. Yeah, man, that was number one. What was number two? Number one, a pocket clock to escape ability, three accuracy. Yeah, so pocket clock is right. Like he's saying the number one, it's capability. I don't know how much you're going to do with that. I think the, the thing that I'm more concerned about is pocket movement. Because I think last year as a rookie, he was really good as the season went along. It's starting to just, you know, no one to take just a half step to get out, to clear yourself some room to throw. And it feels like he's regressed as he's gotten bludgeoned week after week after week. I don't know if he's got the same feel for it. I think those, I was having a conversation with a buddy yesterday about CJ. And my conclusion I came to is I think those three weeks, Green Bay, Indy, Jets game on Halloween night, those three weeks where the pocket, the pressure rate was so extreme. It was like nearly 60% over the course of those three games. And he was getting hammered. I think those three games damaged him, like not, not irreparably damaged him, but I in 20, they 2024 damaged him. And this is where I'd like, it's all interrelated. And that's what's so frustrating about trying to figure this stuff out is that the types of pressure that he's getting, it's right up the gut. Like that for that Kyle van Noisack, it was, you know, the protection was right. They had the numbers matched up. CJ, CJ expects to get protection, but it's right up the gut. And yeah, that's what screws your decision making the most. That Dalton Schultz, the easy opportunity to throw to Dalton Schultz, you look at that, man, Larry tells, tonsils getting blasted into the backfield at a power rush. And the rest of the pocket was, there was no place for pocket movement there. He was just, it was so compressed. He had no opportunity to take a side step to the right to clear room, because all those guys were getting destroyed. And like, if there was, if there was a half yardage more space, what CJ was waiting for was a route to clear down field. And somebody was coming clear, but the pressure was right up in his lap. So okay, yes, that should have been an easy throw to Dalton Schultz, but maybe only if he had gotten rid of the ball quicker, but why did he have to get rid of the ball quicker? Because Dalton Schultz got hung up in the backfield because Larry Mitonso was getting destroyed. And the rest of the offensive line was getting destroyed as well. So it's just, it's all interrelated. And it's, it's just all a big mess right now. All right, pain and pender gas with you on a New Year's Eve Tuesday. Appreciate you guys hanging with us and tuning in up next the three biggest takeaways from Dimeko Ryan's press conference yesterday. There are big questions heading into this week 18 matchup with the Titans. Dimeko gave us answers. We'll have them for you coming up next. CNBC's big January continues with the JPM health care conference, the MX golf tournament inauguration day and the world economic forum in Davos. Get ahead of the game. Listen to CNBC on the Odyssey app.
Where do the Texans rank this week?