The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
11/05 Hour 1 - Was the Texans Trade Deadline Inaction a Disaster for This Season?
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And unless something has already been turned in that has not been released, the Houston Texans do absolutely nothing. We made as many trades as the willing, dilling son of a gun. Ontario, no trades blankers, is this a disaster for the Houston football team? It's not a disaster, but it ain't good. I said they had to do something. It's not even so much as, yes, it's related that there were a lot of good teams and a lot of teams in your own conference that were making moves. It was just the fact that this is just unacceptable offensive line play. And I know that people wanted wide receivers and we said that, you know, you can make multiple moves, but to not make any move, to not do anything is just, you know, I guess they tried out Lyle Collins, the ex cowboy offensive lineman this week. I don't know what they're expecting to find, but whether it was for depth or to find someone that might be better than what they have to do absolutely nothing with all the moves that are taking place, especially amongst good teams. It's extremely disappointing and I'm bordering on it unacceptable. Okay, but, but not a disaster? Well, it's already been a disaster. The way that this offensive line is screwed everything up offensively. I think that it's already been a disaster offensively. The way that you could make it more acceptable was to get help and bring somebody else in. You didn't do that. So now it's just the expectations are very low that it's going to get any better and that you're going to improve as much as a lot of people were expecting you to improve. And you and I talked about yesterday. I don't know how much they could have improved, but they had to do something to try, whether it be guard center combination guy that could play both positions. Do something to try and make it better personnel-wise because Kendra Green obviously can't play dead. So the fact that they've done nothing is extremely disappointing. Yeah, I'm disappointed with it too. Now I also had the idea that you're not really making a trade deadline acquisition on the offensive line that is much of a game changer. Like the guy in Chicago had been thrown out. What's his last name, Davis? His pro football focus is awful and he was binged by Chicago. So I was of the impression that you're not really helping your offensive line tremendously at the deadline anyways. So I did enter trade deadline day with that as my prevailing thought. At the same time, you look around the league and all of these contenders that are making trades and they're improving their team, whether it's at positions of need or whether it's just adding pieces that are going to help them overall, like the whole money ball theme, right? The aggregate. We might not be better here in this huge position of weakness, but let's get better over here and then make our team better just in general. So yeah, I'm disappointed. You know, it's a dud for sure. Whenever you look at this trade deadline from a Nick Cassario perspective, he's incredibly aggressive but hasn't been very aggressive at the deadlines over the years. And this is only a second year with a contending team, but wasn't aggressive last year at the deadline. I was reading that the only time that he's really made a deadline trade. If you don't include Camacres, which I don't, was whenever he sold Mark Ingram whenever they had him in the early years. I think that was the color year. So like that's whenever they were sellers, they weren't even buyers then. So yeah, it's incredibly disappointing. Now I didn't expect them to add a name that would really move the needle a ton. But if you just take inventory of where the Houston Texans stack up in the AFC, they're certainly second or third tier. You were hopeful that they could make a move today that would help their cause and they don't. So it is a it is a wet blanket, so to speak, on the NFL trade deadline. Really is. I mean, I was watching it on a lot of fronts and hoping, hey, there's a guy for depth. There's a guy that maybe could improve you. There's a guy and not just at at at Garter Center, but looking across the league. And like you said, there were a lot of good teams trying to get better today. There were teams that knew that they had the roster capable of not only getting into the playoffs, but maybe making a little headway trying to get better so that they could solidify a better chance to go further. And we saw Baltimore already make moves. We we we know that the the chiefs made multiple moves. We know that the teams, the the bills getting them are a Cooper was another big move. The Steelers making multiple moves today. And you would like to believe that you're a better team than the Steelers. So you look at that and you go, hey, if you want to look at it for what the Joneses are doing, yeah, you're not keeping up with the Joneses. If you want to look at internally and just look at what you have and what you were trying to and what you're trying to accomplish, I don't think you have enough to accomplish what everybody seems to think is the the end goal that gets you to where your season is anything less than a disappointment. Yeah, we do have some some breaking news though. Okay. Ian Rappaport right at the buzzer, the Houston Texans have made a trade. They have made a trade. The Texans are trading Khalil Davis to the 49ers in exchange for a 2027th round pick. So there's your trade blankers. There's the splash. Yeah, there's the splash for the Houston Texans. They're sellers. They're selling Khalil Davis. They get a seventh round pick in 2026. So Will and Dylan Nicocario, he lives up to his name. He lives up to his name as a trader, as somebody who's very aggressive. So there you have it. The Houston Texans are not silent at the trade deadline. They go right to the buzzer. Nicocario beats the buzzer by trading for a 2027th round pick. I wonder if that seventh round pick can block. You think it can block? You think it can pass protection? My God, I'd evidently the Niners are enamored with now X Texans linemen more than the Texans were enamored with keeping them. Isn't that their second acquisition from the Texans for the defensive line? I mean, from last year and then now. He was calling, wasn't it? Yeah. So you look at it and go, you know, and DJ, and I were talking about it on the way out. I mean, for as much as they wanted to upgrade their interior defensive line and settle and Foley were the guys that and, you know, Edwards were the guys that they settled on. You look at the two guys that they walked away from and those two guys are pretty damn good and were pretty good for you here. So that all being said, the offensive line was the main focus. It should have been the focus and it should have had a priority, get something done. The fact that they walk away from the deadline and don't do anything. Well, they did something. They didn't do anything to help the line and that's, that's, that's not good enough. That's unacceptable. Yeah, I guess it kind of makes sense to, uh, to trade Davis. I wonder if this is good news for dinner hunter though. Like, if I try to put the two, like two and two together and read the tea leaves here, like I know they don't play, uh, I mean, Will Anderson, I know they don't play, you know, the same position. Will Anderson defensive in a little day of his defensive tackle, but there is some similarity there because you have to Nico Autry, you can kind of go back and forth. So wonder if they feel good about Will Anderson's sprained ankle to the fact that they're willing to trade from that defensive tackle depth, you know, like it makes me think that he might be healthy as I try to just kind of read the tea leaves. Maybe it's not related at all. Maybe they were just unhappy with Cola Davis for whatever reason. But it kind of gives me the sense if I'm trying to reach and put something together that they feel somewhat confident that Will Anderson's not going to miss games. Hopefully anyways, and I think that maybe also in the fact that when they were doing the rotation on the defensive line, the fact is is you didn't expect to get what you've gotten until he got suspended from Mario and you look at the rest of the guys on the defensive line and and they've been doing fair, they've been doing decently enough that if he wasn't going to get the run and you could get something for him, so be it, I would have liked that seventh round pick to be turned around and dealt in another deal or the backup plan when you deal one of them to get someone that that will seem to be the going rate that were a lot of veterans that were on the market that you could have achieved, achieved, you know, won or more of the holes that we've seen have been glaring for this team in the last several weeks and tried to make them better. I mean, to be fair though, there was not an offensive lineman they got traded today. Like the only one that was traded really at the deadline was the Jacksonville left tackle that went to Minnesota when they really needed the left tackle and maybe you didn't need a left tackle. Now I didn't hate your idea yesterday where, hey, like we're so bad at pass protection, let's play a bunch of tackles. It just plays pass protection guys and try to protect C.J. Stroud. So Khalil Davis is gone. He's a 49er. That's the big trade for Nick Casario today. 8 0 8 9 Lyle Collins has to be an upgrade. I'm not sure that he is. Like he hasn't played football since 2022. Do you realize that? Like he has not played in an NFL game since 2022. He's bounced around for a couple of teams. I think he was most recently with Buffalo and got let go. He was on their practice squad for a little bit. He hasn't played a game since he played with Cincinnati started 15 games with Cincinnati in 2022 did not play a single game last year. Sweet. So like I don't know if that's an upgrade and like there's also some some thought that he like he might not sign like he came in. He's still not a Houston Texan. So I don't know if that's like automatic that he's going to be on this team and I certainly don't think it's automatic that he would be somebody who would all of a sudden be you know on your starting five. I think the I think the answer is going to be Jared Patterson whether he's starting at left guard whether he's starting at center. The problem you have there. I mean you have two options left. You have Jared Patterson in your interior offensive line. It doesn't matter. Left guard center. And then you have the the Blake Fisher right tackle Titus Howard to left guard. Like that that's what you're stuck with for the rest of the year. The trade deadline passed today. Like either practice squad guys whatever those guys were on the street for a reason. The Texans have two options. Jared Patterson interior offensive line which Dameko already did but then Jared Patterson played 10 snaps and got himself concussed and then Blake Fisher to right tackle Titus Howard to left guard. Those are your two configurations for the offensive line for the rest of the year unless you're playing you know this jag to fill in whenever you have injury. Yeah I just think that if you were looking at a guy like Collins for me at least he was going to be depth that might be capable of being better than Kendrick Green and what we saw to the Kendrick Green experiment because he shouldn't be on any rosters if he's that bad and try to give you depth that maybe in a few weeks if he gets right and he gets in its shape that you know he could be a guy that maybe could turn into something that gives you an alternative. But for the meantime you know that's not going to move anybody's needle to say yeah I'm going to take a guy right off the street and I'm going to put him right into the starting five of my offensive line and we're going to be better because that's not going to happen. So you're right. I think that there were options out there. There wasn't a lot of movement with offensive line except for left tackles. I don't think David Bakhtiari and who has dealt with injuries his whole career and is completely not what you're looking for positionally is the guy you should look at and he's a street free agent but there's not going to be a street free agent that's going to make your starting five better right now. Those guys are also tackles like yeah if you're going to if you're going to try to like insert some street free agent to tackle you might as well just play Blake Fisher at tackle like if you're going to move Titus Howard to left guard because of these like street free agents then just play Blake Fisher at right tackle. So I'm not I'm not really mesmerized by you know these tackles that are out there three seven seven two as far as trades are concerned activities not necessarily progress and moving on a player right now because it is expected may hamper future trades because you have left to offer. Look I get that sometimes the best trades that you make are the ones that you don't make and I'm not I'm not a huge you know advocate for trading future assets. Now I think the argument here is our sixth round picks seventh round picks assets Nick Coursera yes Nick Coursera has drafted well and later rounds Nick Coursera also is pretty stinking willy nilly with late round draft picks and you could have gotten a lot of players for late round draft picks like I don't know much about Preston Smith Packers traded him to Pittsburgh for a seventh round pick Mike Williams now fifth round pick that might be more than you're willing to give up Pittsburgh traded a fifth round pick for Mike Williams the Mashaart the Marshaan Lattimore trade probably more than you would be willing to give up Lattimore to fifth for a third fourth and a sixth Jonathan Mingo went for way too much Dallas desperate traded a fourth rounder for Jonathan Mingo maybe the Mingo eight year baby for and 2005 seventh for a fourth round pick Killel Herbert though seventh round pick could he help your football team is he a better back than Daray is he a better back than JJ Taylor you know I think that's fair to ask I like Killel Herbert is it area Smith he went for a fifth and a sixth like yes he can't protect but is that somebody that's gonna help your football team fifth and a sixth maybe that's too much for a guy who wouldn't be a starter a Baron Browning went for a sixth a Cam Robinson who was the tackle that was traded he went for a fifth round pick like he is starting left tackle immediately for one of the better teams in the NFC went for a fifth round pick Deontae Jefferson Deontae Johnson rather Johnson in a six round pick for a fifth round pick is that something that would have helped your team Ernest Jones went for a fourth round pick that's probably too much Deontae Hopkins had a huge game yesterday fifth round pick so like you know how much are we really assigning value to these late round draft picks I don't put much value in sixth and seventh rounders and Nicocerio in the past hasn't either like he's traded sixth and seventh round picks and even fifth round picks for dudes that he's cut that played less than two games with the Houston Texans so I don't think that six and seventh rounders have much value quite frankly I'm with you and that's why I think if you're worried about trying to save your sixth and or seventh round picks because I had heard that Pittsburgh before they settled on Williams was after Thielen and it was a back and forth between a seventh and a sixth the seventh and the sixth wouldn't mean as much to me for next season as it would be to add a player that can hold his own in the slot and be better than what you have with Metchy Hutchinson and Woods in terms of trying to replace some of the the snaps that that you were getting out of digs so you have to look at these things with the the the feedback of also well how value is the pick if the guy doesn't make your roster or he's not going to make you better whenever you take him for the foreseeable future as opposed to with all the ways that you've gone all in on this season you're not willing to try to do anything today to try and take that final swing to make your team better so we can see what this team could truly be based on injuries and and less than play that's disappointing to me yeah not not to uh fun trade deadline for the Texans which you know we talk about how far the gap is between the Texans or how big the gap is between the Texans and the best teams in the AFC you were hoping that today you could close that gap a little uh doesn't happen 7151 just gave up Davis for a seventh little man Nick cooked acres for a pick swap a decent defensive tackle for peanuts cusario is a moron like i'm not willing to go that far like i'm disappointed that the Texans didn't close the gap today but i don't think cusario is a moron i do think he's a good general manager 0166 typical Texans so the fans are not happy they are not pleased blankers with the Texans doing almost nothing at today's NFL trade deadline no it's it's extremely disappointing and you know all you can do is is again hold out hope that somehow some way internally uh you know they're gonna fix this and you know as DeMico always says there were good reps in there too well we better find more good reps than bad we better find someone that doesn't have a concussion that can actually try and do at least serviceable work at left guard and we better hope that the continuity is just all of a sudden night and day when they play the best team in the NFC on Sunday night yeah i mean what if it's not though they're just gonna be the team that we kind of think that they are right yeah it's just kind of who they are you know it's going to make this trade even funnier is it the 49ers win the Super Bowl in 2025 so it makes this 2027th rounder the mr irrelevant pick that could make it sweeter cus little Davis for mr irrelevant maybe all right 713780 ESPN business show it's a big day across america so we'll have some fun with that we'll rock the vote a little bit later it is a Tuesday so or cash or trash i will get into some text stuff rockets how about their win yesterday against against the knicker blockers how about the uh how about the cougars opening night victory as well we'll get to that plenty to talk about 713780 ESPN HRP listener line on twitch twitch.tv/espn975 on youtube and espn used in blankers at pac man Joel brian at sack by b meck i'm a jeremy brandon what also makes today disappointing doesn't it feel like the AFC is giddable this year 7137803776 it is the bees on espn97 5 and espn 92 5. all right guys a quick minute here for underdog fantasy the best way to maximize your fun watching games and taking advantage of your own sports knowledge you know the game right well then winning big money with picking games on underdog fantasy is simple all you have to do is choose higher or lower on player stats like yards touchdowns and interceptions in the NFL not much on tonight no no NBA no major league baseball that seasons over hockey isn't my game so not much going on but my next pick of entry is looking ahead to this weekends college football action so you think jilin jaylin millrone that big alabama lsu games scores are rushing touchdown he's got 12 in his eight games this year how about taj brooks from uh from texas tech you think he uh scores against colorado he's scored in all but one game this year and finally will Carson Beck throw a pick i mean he's throw up multiple picks in four of his last five games so give me higher than 0.5 for all those stats and don't forget while playing pick him on underdog fantasy that with underdog's double flex option you can even take two L's and still have your entry be a win and every dog deserves a second chance and with underdog rescues you can get your money back and receive a promo if an early injury causes your entry to lose and with that type of flexibility why would you play anywhere else than with underdog fantasy so download the app sign up with promo code BMAC and deposit now to get to one thousand dollars and bonus cash bonus cast instantly that's promo code BMAC BMAC must be 18 plus and present in state runner dog fantasy operates terms apply concerned with your play call 1-800-GAMBER or visit ncpgambling.org you're back with Nutkiller beans on ESPN 97-5 at 92-5 live from the paratex community bank studios here's Joel Plankett Jeremy Branham killer BCSPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5 typical text a lot of people saying the same stuff 60-30 we praise how good Nick his delts in the one year he doesn't do what everyone wants he's just a moron dot dot dot idiots that's not very nice uh 6 0 3 0 look i think casserio is a good general manager um and we don't know what those phone calls were i did see nick casserio over the weekend i kid you not he was over at the football stadium but it didn't look like he was working the phones i will say that um what is the approval rating though of nick casserio like it's it's election day so we can have a little fun with this 7 1 3 7 8 0 3 7 7 6 it is also NFL trade deadline day today what would your approval rating of nick casserio be one through 100 um i mean look i i think overall he has some shortcomings but he's done a lot of good work i probably say 72 72 oh okay where are you at on this Brian where's your approval rating of 1 nick casserio yes 72 percent would i mean i technically it's a passing grade but that feels pretty low uh i mean approval ratings are a little different right i mean approval ratings i mean if you're above 50 you're probably you mean you have the majority of the people that think you're doing a good job yeah i mean that that's certainly true i i guess i'm thinking of it more on the long lines of a letter grade that you receive in school and 72 would be passing but you know just barely sees get degrees sort of thing so i i would go higher than that because i mean other than this trade deadline and missing on king and green if it feels like mostly hits with nick casserio so i would go about 85 okay i'm at a i'm at a 71 percent with nick casserio approval rating that's that's a higher approval rating like if a president had an approval rating in the 70s they would be doing a tremendous job like at a fantastic job eight four nine seven his approval ratings at 84 so look i think the people are overwhelmingly happy with nick casserio for the most part right i think the people are okay with with their general manager zero seven two one casserio should be criticized for going into the year with kenyan green is the only viable option at left guard he's never been a good NFL player i think it's a good take i think the casserio should be criticized more for that than not making a trade for left guard today i think it's very difficult middle of the year to make a trade for a starting left guard and then you talk about the cohesion learning a new scheme learning a new system but you're joining an offensive line that is already struggling i would say that casserio should get more criticism for what the texter said not bringing in a capable left guard in the off season then not making a trade today i think it's two years in a row i think we talked about the fact that and i was really really hot about the fact that if it wasn't if not a win when you knew kenyan green was going to go yeah go down last year with his injury that you didn't have better depth and yes you did scramble and get some veterans in here and move some things around to where you made it work but it shouldn't have been that difficult and i think this year you don't know that he's going to be hurt but if you don't know no matter how much you're soft selling to the media and everybody else that wants to listen that he's a changed player that he's going to be a better player that he's going to be all these things then the depth should have been better better than kenya green because kenya green obviously can't play so i i just think that yes they're you're right during the season you're not you shouldn't be expecting to have to replace your starting guard but at the same time you should have had enough adequate depth knowing that yes you drafted him in the first round you want to give him every opportunity to succeed but at a certain point you know that he might not be the guy and you might want to have one or two guys lined up that could be because the rest of this team has so much talent that you don't want to be this have this be the driving force behind why you're not going to succeed him on uh you too we traded for digs in the off-season so we clearly don't trust mechie and hutchinson why wouldn't the texans go after another receiver to make a playoff push uh i mean i think there's two different things you're you're adding a guy in the off-season that you think can boost the uh the roster i don't know if that means that you don't trust mechie or hutchinson but i'd be okay with that if the if the texans traded for adam thieland today i would be pretty excited about that i'd be happy about i wanted him i wanted him and when pittsburgh moved and changed directions and went to mike williams i thought well thieland still out there he's probably not going to cost you much even though i want offensive line to be the top priority if you add adam thieland and tell me now cj's got you know a better option at third receiver i'd be really happy i'm disturbed with the the amount of people that are giving a letter grade for approval rating like is this the first time that you've heard of approval rating do they not hear your ratio harrisin on twitter d minus kc chris d minus uh raw uh f i'm not gonna say the other word he used f like it's it's a number approval ratings a number i'm a little i'm a little concerned with the american citizens not knowing what an approval rating is knowing that not knowing that approval rating is a number not a letter that's that makes me it makes me a little bit worried a little bit worried for the american citizens you're jeremy brandon and you don't approve those messages i don't approve letter grades for approval ratings i approve numbers i was a math major so i have a uh you know i have a bias here seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six speaking of a number let's go out to the hrp listener line travis and spring you're the high what's up travis thank you guys you got a couple things first of all i've been to every texan game this year and i want to say our fans are horrible the stadium's been filled about 70 percent okay a lot and a lot of empty seats and when chicago and buffalo were in there were so many dank chicago fans buffalo fans they need we need to grow up and support our team to show up to the game second of all with the uh the dr trades the main main goal is win the super ball we have a horrible offensive line we have a horrible semi-horrible secondary we're not going to win the super ball regardless of what trade do we make i'd rather trade away colill Davis like they did then maybe a couple other and get some draft capital where we can actually move up in the draft and get those people that we need i'll hang up and see what you guys have to say i mean i don't think their secondaries as bad as you made them out to be um i think that when you make the move spend the money and did do the things that they did in the off-season you have set yourself up for success rather than failure and when you see that yes the injuries happen and that's one thing and that's something that you can't adjust to and you may believe that you do still have depth within that room it's obvious you don't have depth on the offensive line it's your biggest weakness it's your biggest problem and that's why i think we were so hell bent on them at least i was on adamant that they have to make a move that they needed to make a move that it wasn't just casually seeing how you could better your depth that this was a move that had to be made to better the possibility of being better at your offensive line the rest of the season not doing anything is disappointing because i think you disappoint i think you let down the players that are still in that locker room and the fact that there was a belief that this team was going to go further and take another step because of how good that they got in the off-season after what they did to be good last season yeah i kind of uh i kind of like that take from Travis now in no way is nikusario gonna have the attitude of were sellers at the deadline although they could trade kaloo Davis for seventh rounder but i think it was more roster crunch than anything else i think a little Davis's spot on the 53s really hanging by a thread uh so i think that was more depth like a surplus a defense attack will than than anything else but i agree with Travis i don't think that anything that they were doing today is going to make him a Super Bowl contender but you're just not going to have nikusario that is acting like this is a rebuild in trading all these pieces away although i don't disagree a whole lot where Travis mind is at and then also Travis man we talk about divided america how about dividing texans fan base their Travis uh taking some shots at the the fans in NRG he's not wrong he's not wrong but taking some shots at the texans fan base it doesn't feel like the AFC is more gettable than the last couple of years and i say this knowing that Kansas City is undefeated i say this knowing that Kansas City kind of struggled through the regular season despite winning a good amount of games uh i say this knowing that i have a very difficult time picking anybody to win the AFC other than the Kansas City Chiefs but another game where they kind of play with their food another game where they very much could have been beaten shocked that Todd bowls didn't go for too late in that game after they scored a touchdown with a chance to give him the lead with less than a minute to play like Tampa Bay's not very good Tampa Bay's a pretty mediocre team in the NFL yet Kansas City nearly lost to them at home yesterday it just feels like Kansas City's gettable it feels like the AFC's gettable but at the same time as i talked from both sides of my mouth i would still put Kansas City to get through the AFC yeah i think that Kansas City's a team that always looks vulnerable in the regular season and people want to poke holes and somehow if they get better during the playoffs they do what they need to do they're extremely well coached they have the best quarterback in the NFL and their their general manager seems to keep trying to do whatever he can do to fill holes and make them better and fill voids that might be there so yeah they they've they want a lot of close one score games this season that's what good teams do so you look at that and say well you don't worry about the NFC until you get to the Super Bowl anyway but the lines look really good but in your own conference the Ravens look like that they are a team to a force that they're really really good and it seems like it's just those two teams at the start of the year we were putting Cincinnati in that mix we were we were thinking that Buffalo could be in that mix with the way they started the season and yeah they traded for Amari Cooper after you beat them but you beat them so i think that there's a lot of teams less than that we thought the Jets the Dolphins we thought those teams might be playoff contending type teams so it does seem that it's a more gettable AFC than it did at the start of the season when we looked at the schedule we anticipated the Cowboys would be tougher for you we thought Miami still might be better than what they've shown until they got to a back but without two of for so long they're a lesser than team and so lesser thought about then what the way you thought about it when you looked at the schedule to start the season i never thought that everyone the AFC though like i thought that they would be a playoff team i never really considered the Dolphins like an AFC contender i really only thought two teams were AFC contenders Kansas City and Baltimore yeah i still feel that way i still feel that way although Baltimore's defense is shaky Kansas City plays with their food half the time but i still have a hard time believing anybody else comes out of the AFC uh Kelly says uh uh cesario approval rating 65 when it comes to trades draft wise he's at a 79 or 80 i think it's fair i think he's a better drafter than he is a trader maybe maybe so uh i i think that again and a lot changes your approval rating when just the overall over the course of his tenure here we're talking right now we're talking today right but i'm saying the cj the the the will Anderson trade that trade that's worked out really heavily in his favor and then getting cj i think changes a lot of people's ability uh want to be critical i think that then then when you see what he did this offseason when that was something that i don't think anybody was expecting to the extent that he did his approval rating went went way up now because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where their glaring weakness is he doesn't do anything and people are already jumping ship and ready to start you know putting the crosshairs back on him so it's a tough job that's what a general manager has to deal with from week to week but i think that overall he's done a damn good job he got the right coach obviously as well uh to kind of turn the corner for this franchise and from where they were in the reputation they had to where they are now it's night and day rosé gives it a 30% approval rating on nichocario 5603 cesario went out and traded with the Cardinals and got the rookie of the year got two rookie years uh now he traded one of them uh or four one of them i say approval rating is at a 75% so it goes to the whole body of work uh although you know how approval ratings go they ebb and flow triple zero two wait the NFL trade deadline has ended yes pencils down texans beat the buzzer zero one six six maybe the texans thought addition by subtraction but i would make a change in align coach same mistakes every week starts with culture right i don't know if it's a culture thing i think it might be a lack of talent thing the coaching aspect of it's confusing to me because other the texans were actually coached up pretty well in the offensive line last year now if you're talking addition by subtraction and you're talking about fixing the offensive line with addition by subtraction trading colo davis really isn't going to accomplish that like that's seems a little reachy there 5180 texans have had low expectations in the past but now expectations are too high too quickly texans are a couple of years of transactions away from putting out an elite team okay if that is true let's let's assume that it is texans probably shouldn't trade for step on digs right i mean look yeah absolutely because again i don't know how you can say anything other than the way look the window let's be very clear the window is going to be open for years now and i think that this is being the first year of the window really being open because they accelerated the rebuild process and the by by doing everything they did last year when when i personally thought that they were still a year or so away from being able to get to that level of wins do the things that they were able to do but the expectations with that changed and everybody started to say now you have to set your goals higher now you've got to aim at the next level up that's cool but guess what to go with it he made the moves in the off-season with trades for digs and mixin and the free agent signings to get in you know el Shire and Autry and and Hunter and the guys that he brought in for you to say okay now it looks like we've improved our roster too to really believe that we can do what everybody thinks we should do and now because of how less than they've played the last several weeks and because the offensive line has been so putridly bad everybody's willing to say you know this is this is a disaster as opposed to the starting the kind of the next step in getting to a consistent run of being a playoff Super Bowl caliber team. The pushback that i would have with that though is it's very difficult to win once you pay your quarterback big money like you look at the history of it since like the you know quarterback money became so crazy in the salary cap era and the only one that's been able to sustain being a winner once he got paid that big is Pat Mahomes so like how long is that window like i feel confident that he be a sprout and you have a good head coach and Dameko that your team should be good but Super Bowl good like i think that's why Nick Caseria was so aggressive this quickly with CJ Sprout just in a second year offensive play calling has been horrible 0 3 1 2 i think it's a fair point 0 1 6 6 says he meant with Kendrick Green being out the rest of the year or Kenyan Green Kendrick Green might be out the rest of the year too just because of performance he's not very good all right 7 1 3 7 8 0 ESPN HRMP listener line Astros made a flurry of moves yesterday way more moves than Nick Caseria made today does it tip their hand at their off-season plan at all 7 1 3 7 8 0 3 7 7 6 it is the beast on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 95 ESPN 97 5 i assumed you knew live in the paratex community bank studios it's the killer beans now back to Joel and Jeremy Jeremy it's blank and branham we are the bees 7 1 3 7 8 0 ESPN the Astros made a flurry of moves yesterday Dana Brown was the will in dealing son of a gun with all the moves and there it is Dana Brown who will reflare they acquired Taylor trammel for cash which just wouldn't confuse me blankers like yeah maybe it's probably just the you know Trey cabbage on the roster organizational depth in case there's injuries or to keep your options open Taylor trammel doesn't have options though so like and i know that you only you only gave away cash like you probably traded 10 bucks for Taylor trammel but you acquired him he has to be on the 40 man roster he does not have options so if you don't you know he don't carry him on the 26th man on opening day then you're releasing him like the conspiracy theorist in me which i like to play from time to time it makes me wonder if chasmachormic or jake myer see i just don't believe they did they non-tender them it doesn't make any sense because they're so cheap and chasmachormic has potential jake myers yes he's only a defensive minded center filter but defensive minded center filters that can't hit a lick go for 10 million dollars a year and chasmachormic is going to make 3.3 next year jake myers 2.2 like i just can't imagine that they non-tender either one my mind immediately thought that when they traded for taylor trammel but i just don't believe it now what i think is more likely is that chasm or jake myers get traded yeah yeah i group that i think they're too cheap to just let walk away and i think that other teams would be quick to snag one if not both of them as quick as they could because for that price you got to believe that for his career chaz is a better than that a lot of teams would like to have for depth on their out their roster in the outfield i think did jake's a good enough defensive center fielder that regardless if he can't hit his way out of a wet paper bag or not teams are going to take him to be just that a defensive replacement that can play center field that even on some of the less the the smaller market teams probably could start in centerfield so they have value and so i don't think that they're going to do anything there i think the more interesting thing is that you know when we heard dana say we're going to have to get creative i mean maybe some of the guys they let walk away yesterday and the way that he's trying to do things you know with the move you're talking about today is the fact that he's he's getting ready to try and be as creative as he can for whatever reason we still don't know because depending on who you talk to and yeah bragman want a gold glove the other day and everybody's like oh that's going to change it i don't think it's going to change it all that much we already knew he was an above average defensive third baseman what's going to change it and move his needle is the money and the years and that's going to be a big deal and when you read the columns and talk to people he's going to test the market he wants to get to a point where he can truly understand what his open market value will be i think he's going to be a little disappointed but at the same time like i saw i don't know if it was sports illustrated and or one other one other publication on the internet was was talking about the top 50 free agents of where they're going to go well they predicted that bragman would be back but the problem is is that the first thing that tells me they don't know what they're talking about is they projected him to be at an av of a little one over 31 million dollars a year fine but six years and over 180 million dollars and i just don't know that the Astros are ever going to be willing to go six years on a guy in his early 30s like bragman no but i think it isn't play for bragman i think bragman coming back yes that's in play no i think that contracts in play for bragman not here not here oh well that i think that's i think it's in play for bragman i just spoke on the fact that they said that was the number that would get him back in houston and i completely disagree and think that they're completely out of touch with how the astros do business yeah i just really put no stock in like these national talking heads like people are like oh yeah they're going to go after petalonzo okay man like i just don't believe those people so maybe i just don't look at it you won't like the other one that they had coming to the astros because they had could go into the diamondbacks um and then they had the solution at first base that we all have never even tried to think about going through uh an aging veteran first baseman to fill a hole i probably uh santana uh no oh little better than that but not much pugles from it huh yeah i don't like that and i don't know at what price but haven't we just lived through the aging first baseman and a bray you that didn't work out what are you going to give gold the oh it's another homecoming oh super how's that going to work out i i don't think i mean if you did that if you did that for like a one-year deal uh for like five million like okay yes it's really super cheap yeah i'm not i'm not it wouldn't excite me but like if they were to sign goldsmith it better be a one-year deal now five million is probably too cheap you're probably gonna get ten million i wouldn't touch goldsmith i'm moving out our ds the first base i was gonna say is it minor what we both thought is the solution with a full off season to get in ready and just have him play first base caratine is your starting catcher you get a backup catcher and you're done that's what i would do and you might already be in the organization with salazar and if they're trying to be creative in in terms of like their fiscal responsibility well that makes the most fiscal sense yanard is is under contract well okay he's or my starting first baseman victor caratine he's more than capable of being a starting catcher he's under contract well he's my starting catcher and then says our salazar is a capable backup catcher in the big leagues too so if they're trying to be fiscally responsible and be creative in how they fix salary i think that's the that's the way to do it uh the other the other moves that the uh the astros made yesterday seth martinez is no longer a houston astro he was placed on waivers was claimed by arizona a tray cabbage waivers claimed by pittsburgh pin murphy waivers claimed by the white socks a little surprise that the uh they wave murphy they must have just hated what they saw from him coming off of that tommy john because he was affordable he would have been under a contract like eight hundred thousand dollars this year who is a guy who in the past he got your career year eight under three so his stuff must have been atrocious whenever he came back from injury they outrighted all of her or tega and then uh hose air kitty uh cleared waivers and free age now now i still think there's a chance they bring back hose air kitty on a cheap two-year deal uh let them let them basically rehab this year maybe you get them back late in the year depending on where your injuries are to other pitchers throughout the season and the next year is the year that you really you know get him back we'll see on that uh but what uh what did the moves yesterday tell you do you think it tipped their hand at all about their off-season plan i don't think that much i think that it just basically kind of told me hey look dana's gonna look for a lot of ways to be creative and one of the ways is he's also gonna try and put his stamp on this team and and you know if he's seen enough of guys or saw the guys do what they needed to do and now wants to move on in the case of cabbage and and seth martinez and guys like that and even a pen murphy as you mentioned then so be it if if he's you know got guys in mind that he thinks can fill those rules maybe they're cheaper maybe it's someone that's already in sugarland that can do the similar kind of things that they're looking to do okay so be it i just think that when he didn't hide in the fact that he said he's got to be creative this off-season he's also going to try and hopefully put his stamp more on this organization and one of the things he's probably going to do is look at guys that he knows that he wants that he thinks will make this team better so i i don't think it though they were big enough moves i agree with you that i think there's a good chance that irkita could come back he loves it here that coming off an injury i don't think that there's going to be a ton of takers for him anyway and if he has a say in it maybe he wants to stay here it was interesting they put jp france back on their roster maybe that's for a trade as well if he's healthy but i don't think that there was a big like smoke signals that that told me that this was the moves they made were making sure we're telling me they were going to do this or that yeah i think france is more just like an arm that's capable of eating some innings very very cheap like i don't think that they're thinking trading jp france because i can't imagine his any sort of value uh was not good at the big league level last year and is coming off a pretty serious shoulder injury i think that's more just about having guys who can eat innings that are very very cheap uh which is the why they probably got rid of irkita on the one-year deal because this would have been irkita's final year under club control and he's gonna be out until at least august so why would you pay him on a one-year deal i think that's why it could be a two-year deal if they do bring him back and maybe they don't maybe they don't feel like he's good enough to to make that kind of offer four but i'm with you i don't think that there is much that we learned yesterday i think most of this was just procedural uh clearing some spots on the 40 man like kind of uh taken out the trash a little bit like sith martina is a little confusing to me uh but maybe they just you know they thought he was mediocre and they wasn't worth the roster spot doesn't have options uh same thing with tracabage like i've seen enough of tracabage so i don't i don't put much stock in what they did yesterday as a tipping of the hands now uh just moments ago john morosey i saw this on swab's twitter that he tweeted john morosey did astros general manager dainer brown told me he'll speak today with justin verlander's agent about a possible free agent contract how about that that's in that article that i was telling you about verlander was one of the top 50 and they had him coming back to houston and finding a way to make it work because he wants to play for a good team that he knows and he is still chasing his goals so i'm interested in what that discussion is going to be like financially the numbers are going to be intriguing to me because i don't think that verlander is going to get anything close to whatever he's looked for in the past but more so i don't think that what he did at the end of the year shows that he's worth anything close to what he might be thinking he's worth on the open market right now yeah see i i wonder if he like verlander's pretty realistic especially at his older age about like his worth and his value and he was very very honest at the end of last year about how poorly he pitched and how unhappy he was with it i wonder if justin verlander comes back on a very affordable one-year deal like i mean affordable that's relative he probably gonna get 10 million as an affordable deal but i wouldn't hate it i really wouldn't because i i don't think that the astros are signing a starting pitcher in less it's just in verlander so i don't think signing verlander takes you out of the kukuchi market i don't think they're in the kukuchi market period i don't think they're in the starting pitching market period unless it's just in verlander on a one-year deal so i don't hate the idea of verlander being back i think he's good for the younger pitchers i think he's fined the back into the rotation it's just for me it's a one-year deal and hopefully as affordable as possible and also i don't think it takes you out of anybody else that no i agree with you it would be nice that verlander gave you a sweetheart of a deal for all the deals you've given him to basically just sit around after being hurt and and the you know the fact that you went out and got him a second time and gave up two prospects to try and take another shot at him and pick up you know at least half of his contract or a good majority of his contract it would be awesome if you could say hey i'm adding depth to my starting pitchers i'm getting just in verlander even at 10 i'd probably entertain that i'd say okay cool for one year just in verlander at 10 i can live with that yeah that's why i'm at about 10 to 12 like preferably 10 but you know somewhere in that range and cranes the one that's footing the bill uh and i again i don't think it restricts you from somebody else like i think it's either verlander or no starting pitcher i don't think it's verlander or kakuchi i really don't thank you yeah 2727 if we don't sign a first baseman to have yiner play first who do you think will d h or do you think they would just rotate guys there's a day off well i'd never want yordon alveres to play the outfield so that's pretty big on that front yordon's my d h honors at first baseman then go sign the cheapest best left filter you possibly can i'm with you i think yordon should just stay a designated hitter and we've seen too many injuries and too many things and freak accidents and other things that cause injuries that he just needs to be your designated hitter and just stay healthy and and be the driving force in the middle of your lineup and you can find any someone else to play left field rockets beat the nicks yesterday what did the rockets win over the nicks tell you seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six it's the bees on espn 97 five and espn 9725 hey after that rockets win maybe you're starting to believe a little bit more and maybe you think the rest of the league is sleeping on the houston rockets maybe you want to put some money down on the houston rockets when their next game is tomorrow night against the spurs in toyota center i'll tell you where you can go my bookie dot ag and they'll tell you the reason why i tell you to go there is because my bookie dot ag is the place you need to be if you want extra bonuses and ways that they're going to take care of you as a customer while you enjoy some of the best betting that you can possibly get involved in because of the fact that there is a like-minded 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going on they have live dealers standing by so you can play casino games like poker and blackjack too all you gotta do is remember our promo code bet nine seven five that's how you unlock all these different opportunities when you sign up they're gonna ask you for a promo code when you put in bet nine seven five that promo code is going to do what you need to do to double that first deposit they're going to take you through all the different steps once you get in there and use that promo code but remember it because it's in your best interest as I always tell you to do bet anything anytime anywhere with the only place I tell you to do it it's my bookie.ag and always use our promo code bet 9 7 5 broadcasting live from the Veritex community bank studios it's the killer bees with Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5 good day in basketball in the city yesterday U of H opening the season with an ice victory looking good at the rockets getting good at New York Nick team what do you think that wind told you about the rockets bankers to me it told me a little bit more about the fact that so far to this point in the season look we saw Alpe sitting out a majority of fourth quarters no matter what you thought Alpe was going to be or how much extra you put on his contract Alpe's been a big piece of this puzzle and the fact that he was sitting out fourth quarters not troublesome but it was like yeah you expect a little bit more and Jalen was carrying a lot of the load himself he was shouldering a lot of this team he was carrying you with points he was doing a lot of things this was a this was a real team effort when you pair this with the game that they won in Dallas on the road against a team that was in the western conference finals a year ago that was really really good and got better adding clay Thompson this is a team victory that says this team is maturing right before our eyes they're getting better they're growing up Van Vleet was more like the Fred Van Vleet we know they didn't shoot the ball well from three and as much as they like to shoot a high volume of threes they didn't have to shoot a ton because they were in command for most of this game like they were against Dallas they're beating good teams and now you're getting Alpe to get a double double to be the kind of Alpe that you're expecting him to be Jalen had it off night and yet it wasn't a big problem because other guys like a men Thompson and Fred Van Vleet and others stepped up this is where you see how this team is kind of kind of gelling in front of us they're maturing in front of us Steven Adams and some of these veterans are really seemingly getting to get get these guys also a little bit of a big brother that can help them when they are on the court kind of a I just am very impressed with the Rockets early in the season okay I'm usually the pro rocket guy here and I I'm a little surprised by this blankers and respectfully so first off any Fred Van Vleet shoot a little bit better from three yeah I need you to be a little bit better than a 28% three-point shooter big guy like I you're you're supposed to be a good three-point shooter you're taking a lot of threes can we be a little bit better than 28% so that for that you know for starters I don't like the inconsistency like I really don't and this includes Jalen Green because I was high on Jalen Green I still have high on Jalen Green but if you're gonna be an all-star like I was clamoring for a week ago with Jalen Green you can put up seven points and 15 points back to back game 15's fine like that if that's your off night that's fine but it can be coming off a seven-point game against Golden State you can't be an all-star and have seven points in a game and then follow that up with a 15-point game you're gonna have a seven-point game you better follow it up with a 30-point game but all-stars don't have seven-point games all-star all-stars when even when they're having a bad shooting night they're gonna score you 15 points so I'm okay with 15 being a bad night for Jalen Green I'm not okay with seven points being a bad night for Jalen Green Jalen Green be more consistent if we're gonna take you seriously and you need me and I'm gonna I'm gonna clamor for you and you're good but you better be good all year and if you have a bad night score 15 not seven that disappointed me and then also the consistency just to the Rockets like yes it's a nice win over the Knicks winning at Dallas is a very nice win but sandwiched between that you lost to a Golden State warrior team that's not very good a Golden State warrior team that doesn't have Steph Curry and not only did you lose that game and yes it was heroic that you had a nice little comeback and quite frankly you should have won because you took the lead with about five and a half minutes to play and you had all the momentum you can't lose to a Golden State warrior team you can't lose to the Hornets with a big lead you can't fall behind 30 against a warrior team without their Hall of Famer so I'm not I'm not pleased with the inconsistency that I've seen with the Rockets but I think that I didn't think Jalen was going to be that guy yet I didn't think the Rockets should have locked him up to the point that they did yet so I'm not I'm still expecting that Jalen Green is going to have the kind of nights that you just mentioned with the seven points and the 15 points but as a whole as a team to get two wins that you're right the Golden State loss sucked and yeah you can say well what a great effort though they fought all the way back from being down 20 some points to take the lead in the fourth quarter but you're at home you're right without Steph Curry you should be able to put your foot down once you catch back up and be able to win that thing but overall as a team I think that again I didn't think that they were going to be a playoff team this year I thought they were going to be a play-in type team this year but as you see the development of the guys you know that they have depth you have other guys that can step up. Amen Thompson has been extremely impressive in the fact that at his young age from when you drafted him to the contributions he's already making and to show that he can guard multiple positions on the floor that he is amazing around the basket with rebounding that he can still hang and finish around the basket he's a guy that looks like he's going to be a piece here for a long time. Tara Eason is getting back Tara Eason has helped them and the fact that they found a way to win games against good teams to me is impressive because when I looked at the schedule I thought those were both going to be losses specifically the Dallas game at Dallas and then because you're on the road and then to come home and be the next team that has aspirations for being in the western I mean the eastern conference finals if not more I thought that those were two impressive wins yeah you sandwich in between is a is a bad loss but at least they didn't stay down by 20 some points that if there's a silver lining at all it's that but yeah I hear what you're saying. Battery Chuck says the Warriors are six and one I would I had no clue I had no clue they were six and one how how is that team Jackson one I would argue yeah they're depth all right but I mean they have staff like my my biggest issue though is falling behind by 30 like you're going to lose nights in the NBA you should never fall behind by 30 that's that's atrocious city says has Whitmore fallen out of flavor or out of favor surprised he got a did not play coach's decision I was surprised by that too like he's kind of been going back and forth with Reed and Cam Whitmore is like who's getting the most minutes out of that like final spot off the bench sometimes uses both of them but Cam Whitmore literally did not play yesterday and Reed Shepherd played 14 minutes which might be the most minutes he's played in the game this year yeah it's I think it is and I think that it's it's it's a little bit it's look I credit to adoka to play who he feels like he's going to probably tell you look from night in to night out it's going to be different matchups and I'm going to play the matchups of the team we're playing and if I need more of a shooter then I'm going to go to read if I need more of a an athletic physical type body then I'm going to go to Cam if I'm Cam I'm probably extremely frustrated but I think we all know that Cam still had work to do to kind of get to a level again consistency wise to be the kind of player that I expect him to turn into being from a Reed Shepherd perspective yeah I know I get it he knows the game and everything like that but from a physicality standpoint and the speed of the game in the league I still think it's going to take a little while for him to get there but the good news is as you're deep enough that he can do whatever he wants and yeah to your point that you always make I don't think he cares about hurting feelings at this point of young kids he's trying to win basketball games yeah I'm not the biggest cam fan I think the cam is a little bit about Cam Whitmore and I think at times that that does not sit well they may adoka but I will agree he's got tons of talent 713780 ESPN HR and Pete listener like rock the vote today is a is a big day in the country we want you to rock the vote help us we're going to answer all of your yes no either or questions so ask us whatever you want yes or no either or like peanut butter or jelly so either or yes no question 713780 ESPN that will rock the vote it is the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 95 hey before we go to the break word from a good friend Doc Lindville look Doc Lindville right here in the med center it's not anybody that's out of town it's not all these people that want you to call or get in contact with them and you find out you got to fly halfway across the country just to get a consultation to find out if you can get your hair back Doc Lindville can get your hair back right here in Houston Texas right in the med center Doc Lindville the best in the business you're 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