The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
10/10 Hour 1 - Will A Quick Astros Exit Make Jim Crane More or Less Aggressive?
(upbeat music) (speaking in foreign language) (upbeat music) (speaking in foreign language) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - ESPN 97.5 and 92.5 proudly present the killer bees. - It's definitely a fan of the killer bees. - Don't sweat technique. Now from a Veritex Community Bank Studios, bringing you the fastest three hours in Houston sports radio. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. - Ooh, what a base down, hey, how are we doing? - I am Branham, he is blank, and it's Brian behind the glass. And it is a Thursday edition of the killer bees on ESPN 97.5, ESPN 92.5. We all locked in for some serious sports talks. You know that we are. Chris Mason, Patriot's beat. He'll be joining us at 3.15, Lee Sterling. Wind you money most weeks. He'll be joining us at 3.45, Adam Ronis for all of your fantasy football. Well, not your questions, just the questions we have for him. But Adam Ronis will be joining us to win your fantasy football weekend at 4.15 and locked and loaded in between. You know, I was thinking yesterday, which is always very, very dangerous. It's a dangerous place to be in the depths of my mind. But I'll see, I was watching Schwab tweet, which, you know, off season for him. He's tweeting a lot of stuff about like finances and off season stuff. And he was talking about how much money the Astros spent this past season. As we all know, Jim Crane went over the luxury tax. He was in the competitive balance tax. He had to pay a tax for the salary that he was above the threshold. So it amounted to $4 million in tax. He spent over $250 million on the Houston Astros this year. And he doesn't go above the competitive balance tax very often. He's done it twice in the history of his ownership with the Houston Astros. And I can, I don't know, Jim Crane personally, I like to think I can put myself, you know, in his shoes. I like to think that we're in the same tax bracket, all of that stuff. But I can't imagine he's too happy spending into the competitive balance tax, going over the luxury tax and having a wild card exit. You had two playoff games at home. That doesn't help the bottom line. You know, you make a deep run, you have all these home playoff games, you're making millions of dollars in postseason revenue. So he goes above the competitive balance tax and they're ousted in the wild card around, first time they've ever played in the wild card around in the history of the organization. So I can promise you, I feel pretty safe saying this, I don't think that Jim Crane is happy by the results of the 2024 season. Fast forward to the point. I wonder, and I'll ask you high, because whenever I need advice, I like to go to you all, 713780ESP and HRP listener line, 7137803776. Crane unhappy, I think it's pretty obvious. Is he more likely to turn that happiness into a competitive drive to go get more, to spend more? Let's bring back breakment, let's bring in a bat, let's add to this rotation, let's add to this bullpen. Is he more likely to do that or could it go the other way where it's hey, Dana Brown, all those years in the past when we were winning World Series and we were making deep runs into the ALCSs, we all but one year didn't spend into the luxury tax. How about we revert back to that? We're under the luxury tax and then you go figure out a way to win baseball games. - I think he's more likely to say, I don't like this feeling and I've loved the feeling of winning ever since I've been here and sometimes just like anything else in businesses, you take risks, you take challenges, sometimes the return on the investment isn't what you were expecting or wanting or you're used to. But at the same time, I think that in terms of what Jim, I don't know Jim Crane from any other person walking down the street other than what we hear, I've had people that have done business with him but I think he's the kind of competitive guy in business like he treats his love and his business interest in this team to saying, you know what, we had a down year. Sometimes you have down years, sometimes the market changes or other outside, or inside things happen that adjust what happens to you at the end of the year. But I think that he is competitive, he played and we know he played baseball. But I think that he feels like this team is close enough that he's not gonna throw in the towel and kind of take some steps backwards and start trying to man the bottom line and see if Dana can rebuild the farm system. I believe that he is more likely to say whether it's bring back all some or none of the free agents. I believe that he still believes this team can win and I don't think that this will deter him from staying that competitive. - Yeah, forgive me and maybe you said it and I missed it. I'm not sure you answered the question. Like is he more, if he is unhappy and I think it's safe to say that he is, is he more likely to turn that happiness into, yes, we agree he has competitive drive but that competitive drive too, I'm going to go spend tons of money to make sure that we're back into the ALCS or a deep post season run that we have a really good baseball team because Jim Crane, his quotes window never closes with me. So is he more likely to turn that happiness into spending or is he more like, more than likely to turn that unhappiness into hey, Dana Brown in the past, we've won by staying under the luxury tax. You need to stay under the luxury tax but you still need to win because I'm a demanding owner. So which of the two? See, I'm more of the latter. I don't think Jim Crane is cheap. By no means do I think Jim Crane is cheap. Jim Crane's had a top seven-ish payroll ever since they've been competitive, never since they've been in the golden era. They went over the competitive balance tax this year. He's signed Josh Hader most recently in the off season whenever Kendall Graven went down. He was playing at the top of the first baseman free agency market whenever they signed Jose Abreu that turned out spectacularly bad. Same thing with Rafael Monteiro. He reset the market for middle relievers in baseball that off season to the extent where all other owners were unhappy with him because they had to wait until the end of free agency to sign the sixth seventh inning relievers. But I get the sense that Crane is more, we are going to get great return on our investment. We're going to be top five-ish payroll but not into the competitive balance tax. And then it's up to my general manager to squeeze the most amount of wins out of the dollar that's below the CBT. See, I don't think that Jim Crane's gonna be like, oh, I don't like that we were ousted in the wildcard round. Let me spend $100 million extra on this baseball team. - I don't think he's gonna spend $100 million. But I don't think he's afraid to go over the luxury tax. I think that without going exorbitantly over the luxury tax, I still believe that he's willing to take the risk to get the reward, to go over the luxury tax if it means bettering this baseball club. I hope that answers it better because I think that, I think to an extent, you're right in the fact that as a businessman, he does not like going over it to the level that they went this year. I think that he saw based on his moves and then the move that however you bill it, the franchise made to go get Josh Hader, that there was some serious probably uneasy moments for him based on how widely open he put that checkbook and the numbers that he put down. But I also think that he believes that, hey, with this team in this market, with this club, you realize that when you have all these ring nights, when you have all these abilities to do these things promotionally because you're winning, you can get back some of that money, maybe not all of that money, but that also that feeling, that taste of winning is not something that he wants to let go of. So I think that he's not gonna go over to the extent that he did say in the last year or so, but I do believe he's still willing to go over. - I'm fascinated by the way this off season is gonna play out. And we don't have a lot of clues really. I mean, we're guessing, right? We're guessing on what Jim Crane is going to do. We do know that Crane has went over the competitive balance text twice. We know that he's had a top five, top seven payroll, really since the Golden Era got underway. We also know that Jim Crane said that as long as I'm here, the window is going to be open. We also know that we Astros have had their most success. They have not been in the competitive balance text over the luxury text. We know that free agent after free agent after free agent has left the Houston Astros, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Garrett Cole. So the MO and previous regime, Dana Brown hasn't really had the opportunity to resign those caliber of players. He's only had one real off season with the Houston Astros, but the MO of the organization in Crane is that they don't give these huge contracts to anybody, whether it's free agents, whether it is their own. The biggest contract they've given out was Jose Altuve most recently. The longest contract they've given out was Jordan Alvarez, and that was before he was even up for arbitration, which bought out a few of his free agent years. The only recent clue that we have is Dana Brown, saying they're going to have to get creative with the payroll. And I don't know how much value we can give the words that Dana Brown says, because Dana Brown a lot of times, pretty loose-lipped and loose-lipped, sync-ships. So it's like, how much weight are you going to give Dana Brown for saying, we're going to have to be creative with payroll. Because whenever I hear the general manager at the exit meetings after a year where they were in the competitive balance tax and a year that they have breggman up and a year that Kakuchi is up, that Verlander is up, that their payrolls already stretched then, even before they bring anybody in, whenever I hear the general managers say, we're going to have to be creative with payroll and maybe give our minor leaguers a look, I don't think the Astros will be operating over the competitive balance tax for a second year in a row. And the other part of this equation is that once you're, once you have been in the luxury tax and you're there for, you're a repeat offender, you're there for a second year in a row and then a third year in a row, blah, blah, blah, blah. You get taxed at a higher rate. So I just have a hunch. I have a hunch and I'm working with very little here. I'm working with everything that you're working off of. But I have a hunch that the Astros will not be above the competitive balance tax in 2025. - And that's fair. I think that the way Jim Crane seems to operate too, it's a case-by-case basis. And I think that if there's an opportunity to make a move that he feels will, in his mind, impact this franchise positively, you know, whether it be a big time name again or just an impact type player that he feels like we haven't had or we really need or can really help us, that he's still gonna be willing to do that. Because other than that, I think that that kind of reverts back to in my opinion of what he's going to do. He doesn't wanna relive that again next year. And seeing a lot of these owners and how they operate. A lot of times, especially when they're sitting on a team that they know can still be competitive. They're not gonna sit there and say, well, if their GM comes to them and says, hey, I can get this guy and or this guy, and they're gonna make us slightly better. They're gonna be like, okay, but don't we have guys that can do at least enough to do that. But if I can get, if he comes to him on another situation and says, but I can get this guy right here who's better than that or one of the premier play this, that'll open some eyes. That'll open a checkbook. That'll be a guy that says, you know what? I can do something with this and I love what this does for me, but I love it more for what it does for the team. And the city and I'm willing to do that. So a lot of times what they do is, kind of what we've seen in the past, you start the season by staying under or being right there. But then at the right time or when you start evaluating everything you have and everything you need to do, if you have to go over, but you know that the ramifications are I'm going to benefit, the team's going to benefit at a significant level, or at least I think it is, then I'm willing to do that. - Are you talking like late in the off season or trade deadline? - I think it's gonna be both this year because they think that you're gonna have to really, you know, you're gonna have to stay all in on monitoring everything with your free agents. Regardless what you do outside of it, because when you brought up all the numbers and explained to people just how close they're going to be, that I think that even right then, but in the off season, you have to realize, do I have to move a couple of players? Can I move a couple of players? Because I feel like one of these guys leaving is too significant to let them walk. Say Braggman, for example. - Yeah. - But at the same time, I could possibly move some players get creative that way. Now, if I start the season and I realize, you know, I've got a shortcoming here or there, or I let everybody walk. And I'm really kind of behind the eight ball a little bit. Now, I'm willing, I'll probably be more willing to go, okay, find me or something that solves the problem, 'cause we don't want to do it. We dealt with last year at first base and other positions. And I'm willing to explore getting over the balance. - I think that's the way to play with Braggman. Braggman, what his demand's gonna be right now is that in your price range. But if it continues to play out, the market's not there, and then all of a sudden his demand starts to lower and lower, maybe it gets close to the price range where you're willing to pull the trigger. So I agree that is the play for Braggman. I'm not a huge fan of going into the season, saying, well, we can make some moves at the trade deadline, because that tells me that you don't really love your opening day roster. And then secondly, it kind of puts you over the barrel on a trade that you must make at the deadline, which you're pulling from a minor league system that's already pretty depleted. So I'm okay with that as a fallback plan. I don't like that as a, well, if we're in this situation, we can always make a trade at the deadline. I don't like going into the year with that. I like more, hey, but I have a complete roster on opening day. If we have an injury, we have a couple of injuries. Now let's add a piece of the trade deadline to fill one of the injured guys. The other has been a couple of texts coming in on this. 713780, ESPN, to your point, he does love the splash. Like Hader, okay, well, we have a relief picture in graven going down, what do we do? How about we sign the best reliever on the market? We haven't needed first base. What do we do? We sign what was perceived as the best first baseman on the market. Even people look at Dusty Baker as a splash hire after he fired AJ. - JV twice? - JV, yeah. - Twice, right? Because the first time was one thing. Yeah, Grinky's the other one that, you know, you took this chance once with JV, but then again, you gave up two top prospects to get him back 'cause you thought that's exactly what the team needed and he wasn't afraid for that salary though they did work out and deal with the Mets. But I think that's another significant one that he loves that kind of thing. - 9198, I think Crane will see the parody of Major League Baseball this year and decide to tighten the purse strings and recoup some money. Another 10979 with all the injuries and coming back from 10 games back and winning the division, he is good and going to spend the money. Dana earned his trust. Right now, Jim Crane is a huge advantage. The home crowd shows up, although they were down this year. Tenants was down this year. What's gonna happen if he doesn't have a fan draw at the stand, start looking kind of like the rest of the MLB standings. Tenants was down a little bit this year, 60-30. I think he realized how much money he wasted on a Bray U in Monteiro. A businessman like him will tend to reel things back and wanna recoup these losses. I think we lose Verlander, Braggman and Kakuchi. So with that in mind, how much does it free up money wise? Not a lot. Like if the Astros get all of their arbitration guys back, what do we say it was? Like $218 million. It's somewhere around $218 million if you bring back all the arbitration guys at their arbitration estimate. And that's a floating number. What was the line? The competitive balance tax is 241 million. So if you're at 218, 241, that's 21 plus three. It's $24 million to spend. And that's a lot. That's $24 million to spend with Braggman out the door, Verlander out the door, Kakuchi out the door. Below the competitive balance tax. Now you can always go over it. And we mentioned too that a Harrison Bader could cost $10 million on today's market. So when you get into the open market on players, you're going to overspend, not underspend on just about everybody that's out there. So that's gonna be a problem. And again, people do think that you unload all those contracts and you're gonna have just this boatload of cash sitting there waiting to spend to go reload your team. And it's not that simple. It's not the way it works. - Yeah. That's kind of why I just get the hunch. It's just a hunch. Just a hunch. I don't feel that Crane is going to want to operate above the competitive balance tax. And quite frankly, if he signs Braggman, he's above the competitive balance tax. When I hear Dan or Brown say, we're gonna have to be creative. We want to look at these minor leaguers. I think they're gonna be below that number of 241. Now, if you want to get super creative, that's where you talk about the Fromber trade, the cow tucker trade, and you can get some big salaries off the books, which opens up some things for free agents or bringing back your own. And it's gonna be an interesting off season. - Interesting. And you're right because of the fact that with all the guys you rattled off that are free now, they still have those two guys looming that are gonna be significant in terms of everybody's minds, everybody's watching, and what you could possibly recoup for them. And if you're thinking about doing something like that, when is the right time to get maximum value in return? Because otherwise, we've seen the other history of this team, which is that they are more likely to let a guy play his entire contract out here, get nothing for them, and let them walk away to get their next deal and get overpaid without ever reaping any benefits of saying this guy played here, and he played at a level that got me these guys. - Yeah, all they've been getting back is the compensation pick, and this is the first time we'll see Dana Brown making this sort of decision. Will he be empowered to make this sort of decision? It's gonna be fun to watch. It's gonna be fun to watch. I don't think they're gonna be as creative as they made it sound, and I don't think they're gonna be over the competitive balance text. That's just where I'm at, total hunch. 60/30, did you all know that we're still paying drinking until 2027? My understanding of that is, yes, they're still paying drinking, but it does not count against the competitive balance tax payroll. That's my understanding of it could be wrong. All right, 7-1-3-7-8-0 ESPN. Lee Sterling joining us later in the three o'clock hour, hand you some winners. Adam Ronas, fantasy football advice. It is a Thursday, so a little bad take Boulevard coming your way as well. We're on Twitch, switch.tv/espn97-5 on YouTube, ESPN Houston Twitter. He's at Pac-Man Joel, Brian's at Psych by BMAC. I'm at Jeremy Branham. When we come back, Patriots beat reporter Chris Mason as we get a little bit of a look at the Patriots ahead of Sunday's matchup in Foxboro. It is the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. ESPN 97-5. You're locked in with a killer bees on ESPN 97-5 and 92-5. Live from the Veritex community bank studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. Let's go straight out to the HR&P guest line being joined by Chris Mason, Patriots beat reporter for Mass Live News. You can follow him on Twitter at @ByeChrisMason. Chris, thank you for taking a few minutes, hanging out with the killer bees. Why now? Why now would Drake May? Why is it this week that they're making a change in quarterback? Because you could be upset because it really, really bad the last couple of weeks were expected. And I think they're trying to keep them buying in a locker room here. The move here is go to the kid where they've been split and snaps before this week where Percet was taken 70% of the reps that practice. Drake was taken 30 with the first team. And I think they just felt like, all right, if we want to try and get this thing back on the track after a four game losing streak, they're going to rush it a little bit and that's why you're going to feed Drake May this Sunday. Chris, not that things don't change in the way organizations work, but this is for all intent and purposes your franchise quarterback in the future. You're going up with a kind of less than offensive line against some pretty significant pass rushers. My big concern is this kid is not supposed to be here just for the short term he's for the long haul. And they're not only giving him his first start quicker than I thought that they would, but they're kind of putting him in harm's way right away, aren't they? Yeah, and I think it's a really fair question when you look at the schedule right now. And last week they had the Miami Dolphins at home who are limping themselves. It ended up being a 15 to 10 game where neither offense could do anything, but the Dolphins pass rush wasn't there. It was just the game was a mess. And you would think, all right, if you're going to drop him into like a soft landing spot, it's last week against Miami, not here, or even next week. And they're in, they play Jacksonville in London. That, I mean, I get not wanting to give the kid a London game is the first game. But still, that's another opponent quite a bit easier. Chris Mason joining us on the HRNP guest line. What is the fan base's vibes when it comes to new quarterback Drake May? Are they all in? Are they believers? Is there reservation? What do you sense the fan base is at with Drake? It's interesting here, where I think the fan base wants to be all in on Drake, right? Where you see a number three overall pick with a huge arm. He has all the raw tools. But they also just lifted the Mac Jones experience where things went off the rails so quickly with him. But I think they understand how, like, delicate a young quarterback can beat a certain time. But I think the fan base is cautiously optimistic. Another thing though, last week, that's often's game. The fans weren't full. There are a lot of empty seats in there, which isn't something you see very often, Gillette. Have to wonder a little bit of that place in the decision here, too, where I think it's going to be a full house this Sunday. Chris, I'm interested because of the fact kind of something you mentioned also translates to the fact early in the season when people were prognosticating. They had the Patriots as one of the worst teams in the league looking for a high draft pick. But all of a sudden you get a win early, you got a new coach. Now you get a new quarterback. And I'm wondering, when you look at this team, is it better than we thought? Is this a team that's still kind of on a complete rebuild? And they're just trying to see at different times what they need to do? Or is Mayo out of the Belichick mold of, we're still all in on whatever it takes to win right now? - That's why he keeps saying, and that's part of the reason why he said he put me in, or it may have going to come in this week, is that they're focused on winning football games. They need to win football games now. But you know, that's not entirely true when the five weeks preceding this drink may have taken 30% of the first team reps at practice, right? Like, if you're all in on winning this week, no matter what, Jacobi Wristet is getting 100% of those reps and you're trying to get him started. You're trying to get him ready for a game. So I think they're trying to walk a fine line between competing right now and developing for the long term. And I don't know that that's possible. - Being joined by Chris Mason on the HR&P guest line, I remember Gerard Mayo kind of being a hot name here, at least for people like us that we're trying to put two and two together when it came to Casario and former Patriot ties probably wasn't as realistic as we were trying to make it to be because it seems like Gerard Mayo has been the head coach in waiting for some time, even though not officially on paper. How are the fans feeling about Mayo early into his first tenure taking over for arguably the greatest head coach of all time? - The fan base is pretty split. There's some fans that are definitely willing to give Gerard some grace here and realize this is going to take some time, especially given the roster that he was handed, right? This is a multi-year rebuild they're staring down. That's how bad the Patriots offense has been staffed. And so there's the truck that definitely is understanding of that and willing to give him time. And then there's a whole other chunk that's just, oh, well, Bill was the greatest coach of all time and you're not Bill and you came in here and you've tapped him in the back and now you're the head coach and where you're like, it was so great with Bill and they like selectively forget that Bill's last three, four years here have not been competitive and haven't been good. So they really are divided on the two. - Chris, I'm curious from your perspective, I always like to get the outside looking in perspective on the Houston Texans. We know they're foreign one, but we also know that, you know, doing what we do on a daily basis. There are a lot of people that are less than pleased with the way the team has performed. How do you see this Texans team and where do you see them stacking up in terms of teams in the AFC? - So I think this Texans team is exactly what the Patriots want to be and that's exactly what they want. Like Patriots fans want, I think that's, the Patriots who Texans is kind of a best case scenario for them in a couple years right now, where they're a young, talented roster. They have a quarterback who's young and looks like you can play and, you know, there were certainly between years there, right? But now it's all come together and they look like a legitimate contender. And I think as long as you're out of quarterback and he's playing the way that he can play, like I assume him as a contender and I think the AFC is pretty wide open right now. Even with like, I don't know, it's tough to take against Kansas City forever. You know, that's best just Kansas City. If they're like the Patriots of 10 years ago, but I mean, I think Houston can hang with just about anybody. - Be enjoyed by Chris Mason. Chris, big number on Sunday. Texans are six and a half point favorites on the road, which is a huge number for a road favorite in the NFL. If the Patriots pull the upset, what has to happen? - They have to run the ball really well. That's their path to victory. And it's part of the reason why they've gone off the track. So they've gotten away from that, where they had probably prospect dropping back 38 times. And I think they ran the ball 18 times in their last game. That's not how they went football games. They have to run the ball and do more important this week where with the rookie trying to get a seat wet, you got to take some of the pressure off of them. You got to slow the pass rush down. You got to run the ball effectively. That's, I think that's their path to victory. They have to win the turnover battle. The one thing about that bangles when they had early in the season, their margin of error is so, so slim. And they were able to, basically everything went right in that game. And you had a bangles team that basically hadn't played over the summer and looked really rusty. That's how they stole that one. They're just team that everything needs to go right for them to have a chance. - Chris, when you look at on the flip side of that, where do the Texans need to attack? If they're going to take advantage of the Patriots, where's the weakness that the Texans can exploit? - The Patriots' safety is right now, where Jabril Peppers is away from the team with a legal situation. And definitely, how about your return to practice today? But missed all of last week with an ankle. And I'm looking at him in the locker room. He's still hobbling a little bit. He's still really taped up. I don't know, even if he plays, I don't think he's going to be at 100%. So you have a really young inexperienced safety room. So I think targeting deep in the middle of the field is a way that the Texans could get this one out of hand in a hurry. - Chris, great insight. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us this afternoon. - Awesome, thanks for having me on, guys. - Chris Mason, getting the insight from the Patriots side of things. Beat reporter for the Pats for Mass Live News. If you're interested in following him on Twitter, he's @ByChrisMason. All right, DeMico's underrated secret weapon. No one talks about the secret weapon that DeMico Ryan's has. And to me, I think it could be the secret sauce for the Texans. It is the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. - ESPN 97-5. (upbeat music) Now back to the killer bees. - On ESPN 97-5 and 92-5. - Live from the Parentex Community Bank Studios, here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Brando. - Key from LA, whoever that guy was, needs to get fired. He has no loyalty to the Patriots. He just kissed Joel's butt the whole segment. Key from LA, we deserve more respect than the one in four Patriots. He's also not employed by the Patriots. He's employed by Math Live News. He means, why would he have to kiss the Patriots? - Yeah, he doesn't know the Patriots, anything. - Key from LA. If Blankers and I did radio in New England, now it's a little easier for us to kiss the Texans' tale because the Texans are four in one, not one in four. But let's say it was during the David Cully era or the Lovey Smith era. - I know what analytics have. - Yeah, should we be kissing the tale of the Houston Texans when we go do radio in other cities? I wouldn't. - I wouldn't at all. - I wouldn't. - You gotta be honest where people aren't gonna have you back on if you say the sky is green and it's blue. - I'm off for banging on people and trashing people and talking a little ish. But that wasn't deserved for Chris Mason there. He didn't deserve any ish talk there. I think that this is Demico Ryan's underrated secret weapon and we don't talk about it as much as we should. We talk about the leadership aspect of it, which I think he's elite there, building the culture that he did. He took a rock bottom culture in the NFL to one of the best cultures in the NFL in a matter of 12 months. Pretty miraculous with what he did to the culture. But I think his underrated secret weapon is player development. You look at this team and you look at how many young players are having tons of success. And I think that's one, Demico Ryan's commitment to young players, but then also like telling his coaches, we gotta coach these guys up because you know in the NFL, especially a salary cap league, you have to get production from your young players. You look at the offensive side of the ball. C.J. Stroud had one of the best rookie years for a quarterback that they've ever had. He's in his second year. He's only played five games into his second year and he's pretty much a consensus top five quarterback in the league. You look at the offensive line. Drew Scruggs is playing at an extremely high level. A player that was kind of questioned whenever the Texans drafted him late in the second round, played out of position last year at left guard. This year is a center. He's playing at a very high level. Unfortunately, Nico Collins got hurt, but when did Nico Collins really start to take off? Last year, last year is whenever he took off in the first year of D'Amico. This year, he was playing as perhaps the best receiver in the NFL. Tengdell is a third round rookie, was fantastic. And now you hope that he steps up in Nico's absence. Look at the defensive side of the ball. Will Anderson, we've been critical at times. Hey, why don't you finish some plays, Will Anderson? Instead of being Will, maybe Anderson, maybe get a few sacks. But you can't argue that Will Anderson's a good football player, development of D'Amico Ryan's. Christian Harris last year went from unplayable early in the year, 'cause they didn't trust him, to at the end of the year, playing at a top 10, top 15 linebacker level. When did Derek Stingley take off? Last year, we're starting to see Jalen Petrie in year two of D'Amico and move to a different position, because maybe D'Amico saw the skillset for Petrie who was better suited at nickel than it was at safety. Jalen Petrie is playing better. People have Kamari Lasseter as their defensive rookie of the year. He was a second rounder. So when I look at the Texans and I look at D'Amico Ryan's leadership, culture, but the underrated secret weapon that we usually don't talk about is the development under D'Amico Ryan's. Yeah, I think there's no doubt. I think that whether it's a combination of him and Nick and actually also being able to work in unison to get those players in year two, but there's no doubt that whenever he gets the players, no matter who they are, he knows what to do with him. And this goes back to his days in San Francisco when he developed Fred Werner from a lower draft pick into a guy that's an all-pro linebacker. When he took Hufanga and made him into - I'm glad you said. - From nothing to just like an unbelievable freak athlete safety all over the football field. And there were many other guys. And it's an underrated trait because we know that we talk so much about what a coach has to do in terms of leadership and ability to be organized. And then do what he does with his specialty in his case being defense, but then also kind of the coaching staff around him. But there's no question that one of his kind of significant traits that gets overlooked is his ability to not only to evaluate, but to develop the talent so that it fits exactly what this team needs. And in this case, this team needed to take advantage of lower draft picks, mid-round draft picks, and making them into players that could contribute on this team. 202 is one guy that I completely point the finger at because we saw early on once they got him that there was a quick flash and then it was like, oh, he's just gonna be a guy that's really instinctive and really can do the exes nose. He's not gonna be able to do a whole hell of a lot other than that in terms of athletically and play the position. And now look the way he's playing. And you mentioned, the other one that sticks it in my mind is I don't think that any other coaching staff previous to him would have said, hey, Jalen, Petrie, you're supposed, you're gonna be best suited in the nickel. You're not gonna be suited as well in my defense to play safety. Moved him there, he's flourishing. He does a whole hell of a lot better than he did last year. And I think that's where total credit goes to Tobika. - I'm glad you mentioned toe and toe, 'cause it slipped my mind too. Like toe and toe in his second season, playing at a higher level, way higher than my expectations. So it's always been exceeding my expectations all season long. You bring up the point about Casario and Ryan's working in unison, bringing in specific players. I think that that one guy has to kind of cater to the other guy in these scenarios, these GM head coaching relationships. Like I think that in some cases, the general manager's drafting the player, whoever he thinks. Yes, he's picking the brain of the coach and things like that. But GM picks the player and then it gives them to the coach and then the coach's like, okay, now it's your responsibility to go coach him up. I think there is other situations where the head coach isn't making the picks, but it's these are the type of players that I like. These are the guys that are gonna fit my scheme. These are the things I look for at certain positions and the general manager takes that information. And again, coach isn't making the pick, but he is drafting with all of that in mind. With the Texan situation, do you think it's more kind of favored to the GM side or the head coach side? I think it's kind of like square peg round hole. If you go and take a guy that was successful college, football player, no matter the position that he plays, but he's gonna be out of position when he plays in Domico system or on Domico's team, then it's senseless to take that pick. So I think that what Nick did, and I think intelligently Nick did, is no matter how he did it prior to getting Domico in here, he knew Domico was now the man. He knew that this was the guy that was gonna be here for the long haul, no matter what happens to him. So in order, and because there were a lot of questions like who's gonna be the guy calling the shots, how are these two gonna get along? Remember Nick at the one point had the quote we're basically saying, "I'll do what the organization needs me "or wants me to do." So I think it's exactly kind of how you kind of put it, put it out there is the way I perceive it happening, which is I talk to my head coach, I see the kind of player with the kind of skill sets that he's after at a certain position. I then go and get with my talent evaluating and scouts and staff and say, "I wanna look at these kind of players. "This is what we're looking for." And then at a certain point, I have a meeting with D'Amico and I say, "Hey, these are the five guys that safety that we found "that kind of fit the bill for what you're looking for. "Which ones do you think you really like?" And then evaluate them in terms of where we might draft them. - Yeah, I'm of that sense too. I think it's favored a little bit more to the D'Amico Ryan side, where Nicocerio has a pretty good idea of what D'Amico wants, whether it's for his defense, whether it's the style of offense that he wants run. And sure, Sloak has a lot of say on what the offense is gonna look like, but I think D'Amico does too. Maybe not on play-calling and how many times you're running the football, passing the football, but I think D'Amico once kind of a defensive-minded football team, where if they're up by 10 points, he doesn't want this quick strike offense. He would rather have a long methodical drive, take some time off the clock. I think that's one reason that the Texans aren't ever gonna be a team that leads the league in scoring under D'Amico Ryan's. They might have the offensive weapons to have tons of yards. They currently have tons of yards. It wasn't seventh in offense in the NFL. Number one, passing offense in the NFL. Now, there are reasons why the 19th highest-scoring team in the NFL is because they've had some problems once they crossed the 50. They've had some problems once they get into the red zone. They've been settling for field goals way too much, but the idea that the Texans are gonna be this quick strike offense that's hanging 500 yards and 40 points on the board every single week, that's not gonna happen because D'Amico Ryan's with a two-possession lead is gonna want his offense to be methodical. So kind of full circle. I do think Casario, when he's making all of his moves, draft picks, trades, free agent signings, certainly they have great communication, but he has a really good idea of the type of player that D'Amico Ryan's. - I also feel that Nick has the kind of, they have the kind of relationship now where if Nick finds a guy and says, "Hey, I need you to take a look at this guy." We found this kid that we think has this unique skill set. Can you work with him, even if it wasn't kind of fitting the style mode that D'Amico was laying out for him? I feel like it seems like no matter how much we over-evaluated every time they had interactions and we had video in a draft room or in a press conference. I feel like now Nick can go down the hall and say, "Hey, Mico, I want you to look at this kid." He might not be exactly your prototypical whatever position he plays, but we think he's got a whole hell of a lot of talent that people are looking past, so we might be able to utilize and get his opinion because they think to your point, he's not gonna tell Bobby Slowick what plays to run and how to run his playbook, but what he is gonna do is tell him the style that I plan on running from an offensive perspective 'cause he said it multiple times. We wanna run the football, we wanna run the football well. And so, yes, we wanna take advantage of all of the skill sets of our best players, but at a certain point, we are going to be a team that establishes and is able to run the football whenever we want to, and that's the kind of mentality that he wants for his offense. - 6-1-8-1, I had to push back on Nico Collins, CJ's more likely the reason. I wouldn't disagree with that, but you still have D'Amico Ryan's and I understand that D'Amico Ryan's focused more on the defensive side of the ball, but they developed CJ's drought. Like they, the coaching staff and D'Amico is at the head of the coaching staff. Yeah, sure, you could say they fell into a really great player and they maybe didn't have to coach up CJ as much as they would have to coach up another youngster, but it's hard to define what that is. It is hard to quantify, okay, well, CJ was this, he would have been this with another coaching staff. So in my mind, you have to give the coaching staff credit whenever young players excel. And if you're gonna say that Nico Collins, the reason that he excelled with CJ Stroud, I wouldn't say that you're wrong, but I would also say that this was the coaching staff that had a rookie quarterback playing in an extremely high level that thus led to Nico Collins also playing in a very high level. - I think the way your point is completely on point is you had a rookie quarterback in Davis Mills that couldn't find a way to get him the football and you had a rookie quarterback in CJ Stroud that could. The coaching staff knew that if Nico was good when he was getting open, that's the direction they should be looking at how to get him the football. They obviously didn't do that and we didn't know what we had in Nico Collins. But now when you get him in a system in which they see this of the size, the skillset, how to best take advantage of him and no doubt about it, it can be a combo platter because CJ played a big role in it as well. But now CJ with an offense that can identify the player with the talent to say, how do we put him in the best positions to succeed? Sometimes that is over the middle. Sometimes that is the deep ball or the ability to high point it. And then the combination shows you that the staff knows how to evaluate and use him and that DeMico knows how to develop him. - 6005, so a Stauver, a Nick Geyer, DeMico guy. See, I don't love doing this whole thing because we do this with Dana Brown and Jim Crane and Jeff Bagwell. I think Casario has an idea of what DeMico Ryan's wants out of a player. They collaborate, they talk about the draft board. This is the guy we want, this is the guy we want, this is the guy we want. But if I had to quantify one guy as who was responsible for Stauver, I'd probably say CJ Strouse. - I was gonna say the same thing. I was gonna say as much as we crapped on the fact that when we were doing this exercise when DeShawn Watson had to be involved in general manager and coaching decisions and input on who they should hire. And we were kind of like, you can check with them, but they're not gonna make the decision. I pretty much feel confident that CJ, just like I said, Nick can go down the hallway. I'm pretty sure CJ said, hey guys, just like I said, Nick would do. There's a kid that I played with at Ohio State that a lot of teams are sleeping on that I think could actually really help us and they agreed. - I think one thing that Casario does well here too is that he, not that he should have an ego in pride, but you know, maybe you could have been on the staff in New England and winning a lot of Super Bowl rings. Certainly his first two years as a general manager wouldn't give you a whole lot of ego or pride. But one thing where I'll give credit to Casario, and I like to bang on Casario too, but one area I'll give him credit is that he kind of knows his role. Like he kind of like, okay, we're bringing in D'Amico Ryan's. D'Amico Ryan's is the face of the organization and I'm going to do whatever I can to make D'Amico's job easier. And yeah, I'll still do my, you know, radio hit with Texas Radio on YouTube for 20 minutes every single week. But I do know that D'Amico Ryan's is the face of the organization. - To your point, a lot of guys that are working under Belichick, where Belichick got all the credit, the first thing they're gonna wanna do is not only spread their wings, but get full credit for everything that a franchise does. But it's harder to say that, hey, if I work with this new coach that I'm bringing in and we have success together, we'll both get enough flowers to be able to say that this was done our way. And I think that that's the best way to describe the, we've seen the transformation of Nick. I think when Nick came in, he had all intentions of being Bill Belichick, of running everything, deciding everything, and doing everything. And I think that after the two swinging misses at head coach, he kind of reevaluated himself, his place in this organization, and how he could have longevity going forward too, but also its success. And thankfully for all of us, they found that kind of synergy and happy medium to where that they can work together to get the best results. - Lee Sterling, Paramount Sports, all he does is win. Locktober, Lee Sterling's gonna give us his picks for this week. It is the B's on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. (upbeat music) - ESPN, 97.5. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Live in the Paratex Community Bank Studios, it's the Killer B's. Now back to Joel and Jeremy. - Let's go straight out to the HRMB guest line, being joined by Lee Sterling, a Paramount Sports combined 14 and four over the last two weekends, winning both 45-unit plays, standing 68-24 lifetime in that area, 74% on those 40-50-unit plays. Saturday, offering five rated college football games for just $55, including a 40-50-unit play. And then on Sunday, offering five rated NFL games, 55 bucks, and again, including a 40-50-unit play in that range. Lee, thank you for taking some time. I hope that all is well, after the hurricane came through late last night into the early morning hours. I trust that you're okay since you're with us, so we'll jump right into the games. Ole Miss LSU to great college slate on Saturday, great college slate. Rebels favored by three against LSU. How do you see this SEC tilt going? - All right, so LSU, if you look at the typical way to look at this game, it would seem like this would be an easy pick. They're 4-1-1 as a home underdog since 2021, and they're coming off of a buy. Why don't I like LSU? Well, in the three games against Power Five opponents, they have run the ball for less than 135 yards in all three games, and their one defense allowed 243 rushing yards to South Carolina, who we know now is nothing special at all. Having given us my capable replacement for Jaden Daniels, but his wins, his signature wins so far, just Purdue and Wisconsin in bowl games in South Carolina. So I'm not a buyer yet. The only thing keeping me from diving in the deep end and going all in is Ole Miss wide receiver Trey Harris, maybe the best playmaker here on both teams. His status is questionable with a leg injury, so I'm gonna still go with Ole Miss. I think they win the game 35-28 if he plays, they might win by double digits. All right, Lee, next game's a big one here, especially for people in this state, as the horns take on the sooners in the Red River, you know what we call the competition. Texas might be doing a little quarterback switch route. It looks like Quinton Evers are gonna be back at the helm for the horns. Oklahoma's kind of just underwhelmed, but I'm interested in how you see this game with a big spread. Yeah, I mean, we've seen anything. You see blowouts, you see upsets in this game, and last year, Texas moved up and down the field. That Quinn, you were through for 371 yards, but the reason they lost the game, two key interceptions he threw, and they were minus three in turnover ratio in Oklahoma's 34 to 31. So Oklahoma, it looks like they're gonna go with Michael Hawkins, and I just don't know if I trust a true freshman quarterback in this game. I think that Texas has the better offensive and defensive lines here. And if OU's defense is on the field for 35, 40 minutes, I think they're in trouble. I like Texas here. I think the get revenge for last year, 35, 14. - Lee Sterling, Paramount Sports, joining us on the HR and P guest line. Let's switch to the NFL, a fun one between Baltimore and Washington near the same area. You got Lamar Jackson, the old vet, Jaden Daniels kind of following that mold. The Ravens favored by six years. There's too many. - You know, this is a tough match up here for Baltimore. You know, they're coming off an emotional win against the division opponent and overtime. Game they probably shouldn't have won. Now, after this game, they've got Tampa Bay on Monday night, followed by the Browns, a nice inner division opponent. And Washington, I mean, what's the difference? It's not like their defense is that much better. Better coaching. Now they've got Dan Quinn. He takes the helm for Riverboat Ron from last year. And they were lost in. They had the team that turned the ball over more than any other team in the NFL. And now they're not turning it over. They're dynamic. They have a quarterback that is probably going to be a top five quarterback in the next year or two. And I just think they're going to come up with that one key play here. They have no fear here. And they catching Baltimore at the right time. I like commanders. Wrong team favored outright 31-28. Wow, how about another big game? Look, we've got the battle of Detroit versus Dallas. We got Dallas still trying to figure things out and prove to people that they belong. Detroit, we know, belongs at the top or near the top of an NFC that seems to be in disarray. But a tight spread on a big game for both teams. Yeah, it is a tight spread. A lot of people will play a team that is going against a team with injuries. And last weekend, everyone loved Pittsburgh. Home on Monday night, lay less than a touchdown. And Dallas was able to really play well on defense. And they did it well without their best two pass pressures in that game. I think the week to go after them is the second week. And when teams get film on them and they came together as a team, give Dallas credit. Now Detroit, early in the year, they had to face teams who they knocked off from the playoffs the first two weeks of the regular season. Now they get to go and get some revenge for a game where last year they did not play well in that game against Dallas. In fact, CDLIM had 227 receiving yards in that game. So this is going to be a tough matchup for Dallas without their two key pass pressures. Detroit has so many weapons on offense. And I think their past defense is much improved. They improved that through free agency in the draft. I like Detroit here, big 31-13. Lee Sterling joining us on the HR&P guest line. Houston, a seven-point favorite on the road against the new England Patriots. Is this too big of a number, Lee? You know, I think it could be. This Houston team is now up and playing their best ball. Really have not played really all that well. Going back to that first half, last time they played well against Chicago. Now, all of a sudden, if we had Jacobi for set playing in this game, I probably wouldn't play the game at all. I think he is that poor matchup for this offense. But now they've got a guy, Drake May. I think that the team has been clamoring for him to start for a long time. They have trouble. They're not protecting the quarterback. They've given up the most sacks in the NFL. In fact, even 13 over the last two games. Now you've got a mobile quarterback here. So it might be a lot to ask without Nico Collins, Joe Mixon, we don't know his status yet. And the Texans, four victories. Average of just 3.7 points per game. I think Houston prevails 21-17, but I think 7.2 is too much. Lee, look, we know how good you've been. And we know you continue to ride the hot streaks and get people wins. And we need to get more people on board with you. So you even got a free play to kind of entice them even more. Tell everybody how to get in touch with you and how they can get on board. Yeah, so this is what we're going to do. The free play, if they want to get the free play, it's Alabama and South Carolina. We're going to find out if Alabama can get back off the deck and play the way they played early in the season. And we've got a special offer. We've never done this before. We rate our selections from 10 to 50 units. Normally you've got to be a monthly or season subscriber to get our 40 to 50 unit max wagers where we've won the last two weekends. We won two weeks ago with Kansas State. Last weekend we won with a beautiful play with Pitt. Even overcame a pick six to win that game by double digits. You can get five selections. Normally when we sell five selections on Sunday, doesn't have the star ratings. Doesn't have included 40 to 50 in a play. You get five selections either Saturday for $55. And it will include a 40 to 50 unit max wager and/or Sunday five for 55. So if you want to hop on, this is the best weekend ever. If you're not already with us or you're trying it on your own or haven't been able to afford a monthly or season subscription. So five selections either day to $55. And we are 68 and 24 going back since the start of our service on these 40 to 50 unit max wagers. So how do you get it? Just one place, paramountforch.com. What a deal Lee. We appreciate it. Have a have an enjoyable football weekend. If you guys take care, be safe. Lee Sterling, Paramount Sports, 68 and 24 lifetime on those plays, 74% win percentage. You got to take advantage of that. Got to take advantage of that paramount sports.com. Let's take Stefan Diggs temperature. Where is he at on the pain chart after maybe his most enjoyable win that he's ever had in his career. It is the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. Warning warning. 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