The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
11/13 Hour 2 - Would You Go to $300 Million on a Kyle Tucker Deal?
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People for their top five in the NFL and their rankings lists are putting the Lions above them. Let's not forget that the Lions basically peed down their leg for a significant portion of the game. Yes, they were able to come back and win, but to anoint the Lions, to me I'm like, "Let's just slow down for a minute," because the one thing we do know is that the Chiefs when playoff time comes around, they're capable of flipping a switch and taking it to an even greater level to where a lot of people I think are already starting to look at the holes of the Chiefs and say, "The receivers were a problem," but they're starting to get some guys back now. They're getting Pacheco back. They're getting defenders back. They're getting guys back to where, "Let's slow down before we start writing off the Chiefs as not being the best team in football until they get knocked off the hill." I mean, they're the favorites to win it all, though, but I'm saying right now, there's everybody going, "Well, you know, that never has been," I think that's a lot of disrespect for a team that's undefeated as being, in some cases, the third best team in the NFL. I'm like, "Okay, so they're not winning by 10 plus in these games, but they're winning." Who said they're the third best team in the NFL? I want to say, was someone on ESPN said it was Ravens and Lions and then Chiefs? Oh, you're listening to like an individual take? Yeah, and then Stephen A's A-list had the Lions, then the Chiefs, then the Ravens. Linkers, I always tell you to stop watching those shows. Hey, Paul Blanche. He's going to fight. Paul Blanche got mad publicity today for one of those shows. I saw that. Well, press had McAfee. He had McAfee. It was Paul Galant. He said it right, said it multiple times, got JJ involved in the discussion. It was impressive. Yeah, JJ was looking mad the entire time. He did. He was bringing it up. The one that leads it for me, the week 10 over reactions, and it changed a little bit today. But the Colts are morons for playing Joe Flacco. They're going back to Anthony Richardson today and Shane Steichen said that they're going to play him for the rest of the season. How many quarterbacks are going to play for the rest of the season in Indianapolis? Because now it's two that are going to start for the rest of the year. Pretty soon there's going to be, I think Sam Elinger is still there as their third quarterback. In two weeks, Sam Elinger is going to finish the season for the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts were morons the moment that they said that Joe Flacco was going to be their quarterback for the rest of the year. If you had to do this fake one game suspension, because Anthony Richardson tapped out, okay, do the fake one game suspension, appease the veteran tough guys in the locker room, do what you got to do. But playing Joe Flacco as the full time starter was always stupid, and I'm glad that it played out that way, and they're making the change. Finally, the Colts are so dysfunctional. I see they're dysfunctional. I agree with you on that, but I don't think that that was the wrong decision to make. I think it was. How well have they played? Well, okay. But that might be more lend itself to the fact that they are just dysfunctional across the locker room. You got players basically talking about the shortcomings of the coaching staff, the attitude and the effort of the players themselves, and everybody in that locker room. I think that you're right where they made the biggest mistake was was they, when they put Flacco in and made the switch, that they basically were saying this was going to be for the rest of the season. If you want to suspend him, just suspend him, just have the stones to be able to say, look, quarterbacks don't tap out. That was something that we're not going to endorse. We're going to do something about it. He's going to sit one out. That's fine. But you go and you think, and I look, I think that they thought that they were going to be able to catch lightning in a bottle. That Flacco was going to be able to do some of the things he did a year ago. It's overrated a year ago through eight interceptions and five games, one games. He won games at the end of the day. That's all that matters. He won games and was able to take them where hammered in the playoffs. I agree, Jeremy, but at the same time, he got there. He was able to pick up when Deshawn left out and he was able to take them to where they needed to go. So they were going to take another chance there. It didn't work out, but the bigger thing is you got two teams right there in the same area that look like they're completely dysfunctional and the Colts are one of them, and there might be a whole lot of changes made before they worry about, you know, Anthony Richardson, he'll be fine there. He might have a whole new surrounding around him next year. Flacco is 16 for 27 in the first game. He played no touchdowns and interception this past week. He threw three interceptions. He's not going to win you football games at this stage of his life, making him your full time starter over the dude that you drafted fourth overall less than a year ago or two years ago was never the right play. Never the right play. Or dysfunction. I think I'm ready to declare that Drake May is the better rookie quarterback than Caleb Williams. Obviously, Jayden Daniels is at the top of everyone's list as far as the rookie class this year, but I'm ready to say Drake may. I mean, things could change. We'll see how the coaching shake up goes in Chicago. Maybe that'll change things once they also get their head coach out of there after also firing Shane Waldron, but right now I'm ready to say with what we've seen so far going into week 11, Drake May is the better quarterback than Caleb Williams. That's the other situation that I was going to say is almost as dysfunctional if not more dysfunctional than than the Colts. Both those organizations are completely in disarray and I don't disagree with you, Brian. I think that, you know, when you look at it, Caleb Williams, there's there's people that picked the Bears to go to the Super Bowl. They were the sexy pick to make the playoffs. Some people were picking them to win the division. They gave him all the weapons. Everybody kept saying he's got weapons galore all around Caleb Williams. He hasn't played good at all and Drake may with a whole lot less is starting to play a whole lot better than Caleb Williams and he looks good. Yeah, he can run the football, but he can also throw the football and I think he gets more credit now. His deep balls are good. The way he throws the football. I'm with you. I agree with that. Yeah. I'm a little worried that the two things on this, like I think Caleb Williams is an uber talent. I don't think that talent's always what gets you by, especially as a quarterback in the NFL. I think you have to be really good from the from the neck up. I think you have to be cerebral. I think you have to have the right mindset. All of those things. And I'm worried that Caleb Williams does not and that really tracks back to college too. Like those were things that came out about Caleb Williams too. Like does he have that right mentality? Does he have the ability of being this, you know, really good teammate that you need to you need to be at the, at least as a leader from that quarterback spot. So that is certainly in question right now, like there was a lot of the reports to that whenever they fired Waldron, that a bunch of the veterans went to eber flust and we're trying to get them benched for the backup quarterback and say, Oh, that's not a great sign. If you're losing the locker room as a starting quarterback, that's not terrific. And then just that entire coaching staff too, I think it's really put Caleb Williams in a bad spot. And I think that a coaching staff and bad offensive line play, I think it could force the regression of a QB. And if you do that at a very early stage, I think it could really hurt the development of a QB and have long term implications. I think that's one of the reasons they didn't want to play Drake may early in New England. And you're starting to see like Caleb Williams had a couple of good games there earlier in the year. Now you're seeing this huge regression. I think that's the fear in Houston too is because CJ Strauss, just a second year quarterback, was playing at a higher level last year than he is this year. Why is that the case? Because you see him playing out from his hills. You see this hesitation. Why do you see that? He doesn't trust his offensive line. If you can't recover from that, you're never going to be the quarterback that you are. So worried about Caleb Williams as a professional and as a leader. And then too, I'm also worried how much they've damaged the development of a young rookie quarterback in Chicago. I would even say that they're more dysfunctional in Indy than they are. I would say Chicago is more dysfunctional than Indy because at least Indy was just like one bad decision. I think their coaching staff's pretty good. All the questions I can throw on the ball with Anthony Richardson as much as he does. Whereas Chicago, I think they're just really poorly coached. Well, I agree with you. And I think that the one thing when you look at it, and this is something I harped on when Sam Darnell was playing so well this year, when you go through the ridiculous number of offensive coordinators, head coaches and systems and playbooks that he went through his first five, six years in the league, it's really tough to succeed. And if you want to have any hope of saving Caleb Williams, I think you need to get a guy in a system that he's more comfortable with just to see what you can get out of him to make sure you maximize it because you look at what happened with Bryce Young and Bryce Young's in a really tough situation and he hasn't played well at all. If you want to salvage Caleb Williams, I think Cliff Kingsbury's probably going to be at the top of the Bears list to take a guy that's had success that knows Caleb that might be a guy that could do some things to kind of get him righted before it's too late. What's their relationship? I believe that wasn't he at SC for last year or his last year at SC or two years ago at SC where he was under Lincoln Riley. They brought him in as like the advisor or whatever. Yes, he was an advisor and I think that that might help. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that I saw that report too. I would certainly want an offensive mind because you drafted the quarterback as highly as you did and he has a huge stock in the company quite frankly. I would make Ben Johnson turn it down before I'm calling Cliff Kingsbury. Ben Johnson probably would turn it down, but I'm calling Benny before I'm before I'm calling Cliff. I would settle with Cliff, but Benny's that first call. All right. One more. What else you got blinkers? I really don't think the Green Bay Packers are going to be a playoff team. I think that as much as everybody is anointed them and they were another sexy pick in the Super Bowl and see Brian looking to see if he can look at the schedule right now. No, I was looking for the stroke. I don't know man. You have no walking. So I don't know if I can take your opinion seriously. Robert, take my opinion on this because Milwaukee's in Wisconsin. I don't know if you know that, but I really, I really don't have a lot of hope in the Green Bay Packers and the fact that they haven't played great football all year for as much as they've gotten to where they've gotten their schedule. They still got teams on that schedule. It's going to be tough for them and and I'm not sure the health of Jordan love for the rest of the season. I'm not sold on the Packers as much as everybody else is still pointing at them. There's six and three though, like you don't think that they have enough of a cushion. They're still behind Minnesota and Detroit in their own division. Sure. They're six and three. Like there's there's three wild cards. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like you're saying they can't get in with nine and eight. Like if you're saying if they have to get to 10 wins, if they get in, they'll get in at nine and eight. But I think that's where I have them. I have them around nine and eight. I just I just don't think with everybody that was saying, Oh, there are another sexy pick for the Super Bowl and they're going to be better than everybody thinks. I just didn't see it then. I don't see it now. I think that they get to 10 wins. I think they get to 10 wins. Now you are, I've noticed that you are usually pretty pessimistic about Green Bay. You're usually pretty pessimistic about the fingers whereas, whereas Joe is the opposite with the bears. Like he's overly optimistic and then you're pessimistic about Green Bay because I did pull up their schedule and it's like, okay, six wins now. You got to get you still, you still have two games with Chicago. They haven't played Chicago yet. When both of those, you're looking at eight wins. You have a home game versus Miami, Miami is a little different now than they were two weeks ago. So maybe that's a way, I think they would be favored in that game. You have, you go at Seattle, that was tough, a little bit tough because you at Seattle, but still I think that's a winnable game. And then you're home for the Saints. There's other games in there that are more difficult maybe 10, they have a pretty soft schedule. But at the same time, like Seattle's their kryptonite, San Francisco's their kryptonite, but they don't have to beat them together. You don't have to beat them. You take the Chicago wins. That's two. You beat the Saints. That's three. And you're looking at nine wins there. Miami. There's 10. Washington, Philadelphia playing so well in that division, you've got, and you look across the league with Atlanta playing better than people in that division, Atlanta's playing better. You would need two Tampa's play and Tampa's been playing better. Yeah. I don't see how they miss it. They get the 10 wins. We'll see. Yeah, I don't. I don't see how they're. I mean, I get your point there. Not playing well. Just I don't think the math works out for them to miss it if they get the 10 wins. If they get the 10 wins and they make the playoffs, I'll admit I'm wrong. I just, I got a lot less confidence than most of the people do that watch that team. Cowboys should and shouldn't after learning the extent of the deck, the deck injury and they have a couple on each side. One thing that they should have done. One thing that they shouldn't have done. They should be playing trade lance. Like why are you making a trade for trade lance and then Dak Prescott gets injured and you're going with Cooper Rush? I know the answer would be, well, Mike McCarthy's coaching for his job. I don't care about that. If I'm Jerry Jones, I'm calling downstairs and I'm saying, let's see what we got in lab dance lance. Let's see what he can do after trading a draft pick for him. So they should be playing trade lance. They shouldn't be playing Cooper Rush. The thing that they should not have done. If you knew the severity of the Dak Prescott injury right away, which, how do you not? You're the organization. You're paying for the MRI's. You have all of the intel in front of you. If you know the severity of the Dak Prescott hamstring, you should not have traded a fourth round pick for Jonathan Mingo. What are you doing? What's the weapon for Cooper Rush and what is a lost season? What do you do in Jerry? Yeah, I think I'm right there with you on the lance part of this. The fact is, is at a certain point, some team has got to at least give him the reins, give him the confidence that, hey, we're behind you for the rest of the season and see what he can do because the Niners never really did that. And then they dumped out on him after the injury and the fact that he didn't look like he was getting it. You didn't have to give up much to get him. Out of the two, the higher ceiling with the more potential at this point in their careers is Lance. I definitely want to see what he can do. And besides that, whether Dak is the answer or not, they need the higher draft, the highest draft picks they can get with the money that they tied up in CD lamb and Dak and with whatever they are going to try and do with Michael Parsons. I believe that at this point, they might as well embrace the suck. Yeah, don't don't love what they did there. Last one, Brian, wrap it up for us. I think the Arizona Cardinals, despite only right now a half game lead in the NFC West, they win the NFC West this year. I'm back on the Cardinals train. It's a slim lead right now. There's six of four. And like I said, San Francisco is the half game behind them. But you look at their schedule and they play so much better at home. They've got the Seahawks and the Patriots at home remaining on schedule. They've got a road game at the Panthers. That looks to me like it gets them to nine wins. And then you're talking about either trying to win at Seattle or getting a home win against San Francisco or a road win against the Rams. I think they get to 10 wins and win the NFC West. I just I have a I have a sneaking suspicion that the Niners are still going to win that division and it's very winnable for them for as dinged up as they've been. They're getting green law back. They got McCaffrey back. They're getting guys back and getting getting them back into form and they have a very talented team. You called the Cardinals. I didn't see that coming. I didn't think that they were going to be a playoff team. I think that they definitely will be a playoff team. I just don't see them winning the division. And I think San Francisco still wins it. Who called the Cardinals? I think we both did. I know Brian was on it for the last couple weeks. Okay. Well, let's let's remember who better who the Arizona Cardinals to make the playoffs at the start of the year. Yeah, that was that was Jeremy's correct. He's had it all season. I think I I jumped in with a cashier trash in week two. So Jeremy's had it for a little bit longer than I have, but yeah, I think that San Francisco wins the division. I'm with blankers on this one. I think San Francisco wins the division. I like Arizona. Arizona is still going to lose a few of these games that they shouldn't lose. It's just who they are. It's in their DNA. I think San Francisco is going to get hot. I think they're going to enter the NFC playoffs with a team that is hot champions of the NFC West and they're going to be a threat in the NFC yet again. All right. 7137803776. Would you give $300 million to Kyle Tucker? It's the bees on ESPN 97 5 and ESPN 95. Hey, I'm in it for my good friend Doc Linville right here in the medical center in Houston, Texas. If you're losing your hair, you've got pattern baldness or you're just thinning out and you don't think there's anything you can do about it. 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And the number that really stuck out in my mind, almost 99% of the follicles that they move in the Neograph procedure stay with you for the rest of your life. That's why I did it. That's why it was a game changer. That's why I'll tell everybody to see Doc Linville and his staff. Check him out today. Go to 975hair.com. We're listening to ESPN 97-5 Your back with a killer bees on ESPN 97-5 at 92-5 Live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, here's Joel Blankett, Jeremy Brand. We're just talking about it will be hot stove where all the top three agents are going to land and where they're going to go and perspectives from teams and all this great stuff and lost in the shuffle. We kind of buried his lead here. Maybe it didn't even lead, but this was kind of buried in it. We're talking about the Astros, Alex Braggman, remaining a lifetime Astro alongside Altuve is a real possibility, particularly with the Astros concerned about ponying up for outfield or Kyle Tucker, who hits free agency after next season and is looking at a $300 million deal. So it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? So you're talking about Braggman and then you throw in this little nugget, okay, this is what it's going to take to sign Kyle Tucker and maybe we should have known that. We talked about the cost of it at times. So it does beg the question and I know that Alex Braggman is the priority and this offseason is here now and you're going to have to look at all of that stuff before you even, you know, maybe not. But maybe you look at the Braggman deal with the Kyle Tucker deal in mind too or the lack of possibility of springing Kyle Tucker back. The question that I have is would you give Kyle Tucker $300 million? For how many years? Does it matter? It kind of does because if I can get him at a reasonable price and obviously he's not going to settle for what you're doing. Okay. $300 million for three years. Yeah. No. I'm not doing that. $300 for 10. So again, does it matter? It does because of the fact that with, you know, we know salaries are going to go through, you know, keep going up and so we always talk about, you know, what's the AAV and what's, you know, what are you going to be, you know, per year, how that's going to factor in. Look, the same way when we talked about Braggman, I hope that there's- Is there any amount of years where you're giving Kyle Tucker $300 million? No. And it's- No, I don't think so. I mean, look, if he gave you a sweetheart of a deal, nonetheless, you know, the $300 million is a massive amount of money. I think depending on how many years you get him for, and there's a price that you could say I would like Kyle Tucker back. But I know that a lot of people just pay the man. Just pay the man. Just like they've been with other guys that have been through this with the Astros. The fact is, is that there's going to be people that point the finger and say, "Look, in the playoffs, he's been less than more times than he's been more than." And, you know, I made the comparison and we've talked about the fact that he could be the next killer be from that perspective and he's had good regular seasons. But at the same time, do you know and do you feel comfortable enough that this is a guy that is the kind of superstar, status type player that is going to continue to do this and be this productive, get better and be a guy that can carry your franchise? And I've always had some doubts, but I still have doubts about Kyle Tucker. And I know that from a franchise perspective, they're not into deals that get into the $300 million. They're not into the deals that get, you know, over five, six years. I just don't think that there's a scenario that they're going to pay Kyle Tucker, especially what I think Kyle Tucker is going to be chasing. Yeah, I don't think that there are, there are very few players in baseball that I'm willing to give $300 million to right now. There might only be one, it would be Shohei. Like there's others that would be on the short list, like Juan Soto's about to get paid. He'll make north of $300 million. Mookie Betz is going to make tons of money, Garrett Cole tons of money. I'm not a big believer in spending tons of money in free agents though. So that's why my list is probably shorter than a lot of other people's list. My answer to this is a hard no. I'm not paying Kyle Tucker $300 million, which does bring in a couple of different points. It's why like the years to me doesn't matter. Like what's the ideal amount of years? Let's say that there's, there's a hundred percent chance Jim Crane's giving $300 million to Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker is going to accept that. Now you tell me how many years you would like that term to be. I don't know. Oh, this is seven, I guess. I think he's going to be 29 next year. I mean, even if, even if it's a 10 year deal where you're looking to try and maximize it by the time he's 38, 39, 28 next year. Okay. So 38, when the deal closes, are you really believing in the last two, three years of that deal that he's going to have, you know, be worth much at all for you? Because I'm not. I mean, I think that's not that it's a death sentence for this franchise, but I think for a lot of franchises, they get into really bad deals that really, really paralyze them. And they don't even know it sometimes and you look like the Anthony Rendon deal. We always talk about the pool holds deal when he went to the Angels or we talk about the Miguel Cabrera deal at the end when he went to the Tigers, but even the Anthony Rendon deal when he went to the Angels and you're like, you're thinking this is going to be your cornerstone franchise, you know, third baseman that's going to put up all these big numbers. He's been awful. He's hardly played and he's completely, you know, limited them in a lot of ways in trying to make the team what they always wanted them to be. Those deals don't work out. And so you're right. If you're looking at paying him $300 million, no matter how many years it is, there's just no way I see the Astros doing it. I don't think they should. So the first question would be, well, if you know that, should you trade Kyle Tucker this off season, get something for him before you lose him for only the compensation pick in a year. We've discussed that. The other domino effect though is if you like, if you are forecasting ahead, this is what general manager should do. It is their job and you're looking at the Kyle Tucker 300 million. We're probably not going to pay that the chances of us re signing Kyle Tucker or less than 10%. Does that put more emphasis on pregnant knowing that the chances of signing Tucker are very, very small. Does that increase your desire to sign Alex Bregman knowing that Tucker's probably leaving in a year? I could see it again, the years now, the years really matter in the Bregman conversation because I think to maximize this team with a chance to go after another world series while you still have Tucker, then Bregman should be in that picture and in order for him to be in the picture, well, then you're going to have to give him, you know, maybe closer to the years he wants, maybe you have to give him five years to get to where you need to go if he's willing to accept that. But I do think that it would, it would up the ante a little bit in terms of the importance of bringing back an Alex Bregman because if you know you're going to lose Kyle Tucker and you also, you know, you don't want to lose the popularity but with the fans as well, but you want to make sure that, you know, you keep an assemblance of guys around that can win. I think Alex Bregman on a shorter term deal for probably half of that is probably more likely to happen if they know that they're going to walk from, from Tucker and honestly get from the trade standpoint, I think that's something they have to explore this off season. If it were up to me, I wouldn't care about what the fans thought in terms of me building my roster. Sure. At the moment you start listening to the fans, you're going to be going and sitting next to them. And the best marketing tool is winning, not who's filling out the jersey. You could bring out the most popular Houston Astros all time and if they're 72 and 90, there's nobody that's going to the ballpark. So win, that's the goal is to win. That is the best marketing tool. Personally, I think that they should be case case, case by case scenarios. I don't think that what you're thinking of Kyle Tucker should be how you're handling Alex Bregman. I don't think that's how the Astros view it though. I think the Astros kind of acting out of desperation a little bit, not wanting to close the window, although there's ways to keep the window open without bringing back Bregman. I think they are going to look at that Kyle Tucker down the road as we desperately need Alex Bregman back. I wouldn't pay Kyle Tucker $300 million. You know my number on Alex Bregman. I feel like the Astros will go over that number. I do feel like the Astros are actually going to sign Alex Bregman like my, my hunches that they're going to get it done with him at a number that's higher than I'm, I'm really comfortable with, but I'm not going to be like heartbroken over that. I would love Alex Bregman to stay. I just eliminate my personal feelings and the business aspect of it. 713, 780 ESPN, Steven, that's like $300 million per clutch playoff moment that he's had. Brian on Twitter. Yes. Brand saying regular season tuck. Yes. postseason tuck. Yikes. You got to decide Tyson. If I had Jim Crane money, sure, uh, Bubba, uh, says trade him now because heck no. Patty says to hit 150 in the playoffs now pass people on the text line. If you give Tucker 300 million, say 10 years, does he have a chance to be the greatest Astro ever? If that's a no, then it's not worth it. I don't, I don't envision Tucker. If you gave him 10 years in Houston, I guess it'd be 11 because you have this year. Then 10 year contract. He's not passing out too. But I don't think so. I don't think so. And I think that, you know, in terms of already the memorable moments because people are so fixated on the playoffs and the performance in the postseason, Jordans already put up enough moments that you're done in terms of legendary status. He has that. And as long as you're done, can avoid injury and keep doing the majority, you know, play the majority of seasons. I think he's going to put up massive numbers. Even with those massive numbers, I don't know that he's going to catch out to be in those categories. Yeah. I wouldn't give him more than, I wouldn't give him 300 million. Why can't gray? Why can't cray and give Tucker a deal structured like Otani's deal? He could. But then he's paying on that deal longer. Yes, it's more spread out. Also read that MLB rule, though, that you have to start putting that money in escrow. Like 70% of that salary has to go in escrow year by year. So I don't think it's like this huge savings that you think that it is a seven eight three zero. Tucker is worth 300 million, not much more, but at least 300 million. I think he would get 300 million on the open market. So I don't necessarily disagree with that. I just don't want to be the guy paying Kyle Tucker, 300 million dollars. I think you can find another right fielder that might not put up the regular season numbers. If you expect that this is going to be the consistent Kyle Tucker from year to year, but I think you could get another right fielder that could, you know, do a lot of the same things and wouldn't be nearly the price. And I still think that you were going to be a very competitive baseball team. And you might be able to repurpose the money that you didn't spend to either lock up or get other players along the way that keep their Astros, you know, in this winning mode. Yeah, seven one three seven eight zero ESP and HRP listener line. Are you blessing or stressing? We'll see what Garrett's got cooked up today. It is the bees on ESPN 97 five and ESPN 95, before we go to the break, or for all state siding and windows, I need you to check out all state siding and windows.com right now, because this is the exact thing you need to look at when you are thinking about giving your house a facelift. You're looking for an upgrade. You're looking for something that makes the outside of the house look more modern, look more new is more durable is going to last is not going to have the way paint fades and chips and all the different things you can have to your house. Same thing with the windows. The windows are going to upgrade the overall look, give it a more modern feel. The curb appeal is going to go way up. I just had my windows replaced replaced by all state siding and windows. Amazing how the curb appeal went up and the overall look of the house had a more modern feel to it. 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That means they'll come to your house and tell you exactly how they can help and tell you and recommend to you because of your structure, the right windows and siding to consider just by calling them a 32 204 1936, they will come and talk to you and show you exactly what they can do. It's a 32 204 1936 in the meantime, go to all state siding and windows and check out all the different variations and options that you can choose from on windows and siding and see how you might choose one or both to make the best upgrade for your house. Check them out today. Come to you live from the Veritex community based studios, it's the killer beans on ESPN 97 5 and 92 5 Here's Joel Blanket, Jeremy Brannon. This is Brian's favorite it's time of the week so they can play the song and spurt corner is about. I've got Garrett Williams from Blessings or Stress at HoustonStressons.com joining us in front of an Instagram and Houston Stresson's Texas commenter on TikTok and Twitter. Sad, sad not to see you of course on location today, I'm on assignment, we'll put it that way. Garrett, what you got for us? What are we blessing or stressing about today? Well, I definitely miss you but I will say this chair is nice. That's much more comfortable than the one I normally use so I'm not too mad about that. Blakers didn't say that he missed them. How the hell would that come out of your mouth? That's very disturbing. That's okay. I have to, you know, stroke both sides of the... Hey, phrasing! Yeah, that was a, that was a pause moment right there by me. Whatever you're smoking on his side, that's a little bla bla bla bla bla. Hey, phrasing! Yeah, I'm usually good about stuff like that but yeah, you caught me slipping on that one. Which part? Oh boy. Oh boy. I'll just, I'll just stop and get into the segment before we get too much more trouble here. Blessings or stressing, first up we got, I'll be blessing or stressing the Texans falling short to the Lions. I mean, obviously this was a devastating loss. One of the worst losses we've had as a franchise. Some people are putting up there with the Kansas City playoff loss, Bill O'Brien era. I will say my mood now, you know, a couple of days post loss as opposed to walking out of NRG is drastically different. So I will stay neutral to mildly blessing. Obviously, you know, five interceptions, you should win the game. But I've had time to kind of digress it and dissect it and see exactly what those interceptions were like. You know, it can be a little misleading but simply what it boils down to is going up to the game, if we said, "Hey, we have no Will Anderson, no Nico Collins," and we only lose by three at home on a last second field goal that barely makes it, "Would you be happy? My answer would be hell yes." And so with that in mind, you know, the sting being worn off because of that, I'm mildly blessing. I'm stressing it and I'll flip the script on you and say, "But if I told you going into that game that you would have five turnovers on the Lions and Jared Goff and still find a way to lose the game, how would you feel?" And that would be how I feel. Like the fact is, is you're not supposed to lose a game when you potentially could have had six turnovers. You think about the ball stingily dropped that he could have had to where they were preparing him to Willie Mays wearing 24. The fact is that Goff literally could have thrown six picks in that game and you found a way to lose. And I think when we were looking at the schedule and at the start of the year and we were trying to dissect wins and losses, if you would have gotten this game, which a lot of people were wondering, you know, this was going to be a true test of the Brometer where they were. If you won this game, now you don't have to have as much riding on the fact that you can't lose any of the next three games because of the rest of the schedule. Now there's even more pressure on the fact that you can't slip up against what supposedly is a bad Cowboys team and the, you know, the, the games that are going to follow where you're like, it's just a little extra on it as well. We still haven't solved all of the offensive line and everything else to where I'm stressed. Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to mildly bless this too. I think there were a lot of good things that happened in that game. Yes, you need to finish in the NFL. Yes, you want to win in the NFL. Yes, you blew a 16 point lead. There were a lot of positives and I do feel a lot better watching the tape on it. Like I feel better after watching the tape on it. A context is obviously king, like you're up 16 points, you got to win in the NFL. Even if you're doing nothing offensively, you need to go out and make the stops and get out of there with a victory. But the whole, oh, this is one of those losses that ruined your season. I think it's the opposite a little bit. I think there's a, I think there's a decent chance that this could kind of be like the epiphany moment of, okay, this is what it takes for us to reach our potential. This is what it's going to take for us to be the best version of ourselves. And there were things that I saw in that game where I'm like, dang, that's, that's elite. The defensive line play, I thought was pretty dang elite. Yes, there are always things that you need to fix, but the whole, like this is the worst loss in franchise history. I saw some people saying the two losses, you know, in franchise history, they're the worst or the, the playoff loss against Kansas City and this come on, come on. So I, I'm with you. I'm lightly blessing it. Yeah. You know, one thing we need to remember too is, you know, we're still a young team and we're learning how to win these big games and to be a legit contender. Obviously expectations this offseason put a lot of pressure on us to expedite that process, but I mean, we really only quote unquote tank for two years and we're only a year and a half into this, you know, first window of competing. So when you look at it from that perspective, you know, this was a big growing moment for us. And as long as we grow from it, it won't be as much of a stress as what it is now. So, yeah, next up, I got some, you know, decisions. Are we blessing or stressing the decision to kick the 58 yard field goal by Demico at the end of the game? I'm big stress in this. I get that Kaimi is elite and has hit these long field goals all season. But to me, it's just not a sustainable model. I think it boils down to Demico Ryan's once again, being a defensive minded head coach. His, his mindset is probably is, you know, I think he'll make this field goal. If not, my defense will stop them and not get one single first down because they got a short field. My logic is if you're willing to kick the field goal and miss it, you might as well go for the fourth down and be willing to miss it. Or I wouldn't even put it too far past the second option, even being a punt. The way your defense was playing most of the game, you know, I know they scored in the second half, but they really didn't drive the length of the field. If you pin them down, it's kind of reminiscent to the bills game where, you know, we were forced to punt because of the grounding potential grounding penalty, but we ended up pinning the bills back on their own one and they went three and out and then we ended up kicking the game winning field goals. So I was big stress in that decision. Yeah, I was blessed in it. I was fine with it. We talked about it the other day, the one I threw out the punt possibility to and I thought that that was a legit possibility that they might consider. I wasn't as big on considering going for it. Jeremy ran the numbers in terms of what the analytics said. I just felt like he felt kind of the momentum sliding away. He felt all that, but he knew that his kicker had been rock solid all season long and I'm sure he wasn't at that point. We had showed them his emotions, the cameras caught him several times where he was kind of disgusted with what was going on offensively, or at least he wasn't happy to where I think he felt like, hey, with everything we've seen with the offense, but also the fact that I know kind of he's been nails all year, I'm going to give this a shot. So I wasn't stressing it. Yeah, there's been, there's been moments like last year where D'Amico was punting whenever they had 54, 55 yard field goal attempts. So you've seen D'Amico's trust in Kaimi grow from where it was a year ago. He would have easily punted in this spot last year. And I agree with your mindset from D'Amico where, okay, if we don't either make this field goal or if we go for it and we don't get the first down, we think we're going to force the three and out and get the football back. And I think that that mindset was proven with his usage of the time outs, taking time outs immediately, defensive side of the ball, whatever, you know, the Detroit was still out of field goal range. I think it speaks to that D'Amico mindset of, okay, we didn't make the field goal, but we're going to get a three and out. We're going to get the ball back. I don't like the punt there because I really don't like the idea of playing for the overtime. If you're punting now, you're playing for the OT. So I don't love that one. I think it's a coin flip decision. I really wouldn't have been mad at either one. If they decided to go for it, I'm here for it. I totally understand I was a slight lean to kicking the field goal. So I'm blessed in it as well. Yeah. I mean, it's obviously one of those hindsight is 50, 50 moments. I mean, Kaimi, he's shown he can make those kicks. It's easy to criticize it in hindsight, but you know, it's tough. I try to ask the question to Garrett on Twitter because I hate the hindsight revisionist history people. Yes. So I try to get like, you can sense when these tough ones are coming, right? Like everybody could sense this was a difficult decision would go for it fourth and four, kick a 58 yard field goal. So I try to, I try to like post it on Twitter real quick to see where people's mindsets were then before having the benefit of hindsight. What were the results? Most of them were kicking. Most of them were kicking. And I also posted mine. I said I would have kicked it there. I would have kicked it. I didn't love what the offense was doing. I thought they were having difficult time moving the football. I don't think converting a fourth and four there is that high of a probability. Is it a higher probability than Kaimi making a 58 art field goal? Again, I think it's very, very close. Brian talked about the negatives of missing the field goal versus not converting the fourth and four. And there's better benefits of going forward and missing the fourth and four. So again, I think it could go either way. I'm a slight lean to the field goal. I think we can all agree too. That's about as tough as a decision you can have where like either side you can see. So I mean, that's definitely not an enviable position to be in for sure. It's a big word there. Yeah. I had a trouble saying it. Not only a content creator. Yeah, current award education. Anyways, yeah, I'll use my education to read off my next blessing or stresson, which will be the Cowboys game being not as anticipated as we thought. Are you stressing the fact that this isn't hyped up as big as what we thought it would be. I mean, going into the season, this was Monday Night Football, the Battle of Texas. It was, you know, two previous playoff teams from the year before, you know, Dak Prescott supposedly this high powered offense and it was potentially, you know, two good teams, but it turns out the Cowboys aren't anywhere near what we thought they would be and it turns out the Texans, albeit six and four, don't feel like they're six and four. I'm actually blessing that it's not as big of a game because we need this game desperately. I would be stressing if they were a winning team right now and we were in this position. So they're kind of like a wounded dog. So this couldn't have came at a better time in my opinion to get a bounce back from that devastating loss of the Lions there. I believe 31st in the league and rush yards allowed. So this could be a simple game for us just to run the ball to take control. And I really see it going like the Patriots game. It's a game you win with dominating defense. They have absolutely nothing on offense with Cooper Rush and or Trey Lance, lean on your defense short field position and then ground game and it should be a route. I'm blessing it because of the fact that you need, you know, I'll throw into what you said, you've you've you've blown a game and you've been embarrassed twice on national TV in the last two weeks. You blew a game to the Jets where you look like you were overmatched against the Jets team that everybody was hope a lot of people were expecting. We're going to be on this massive run to go upward and then they got their doors blown off by the Cardinals. So that's a bad loss. And then you come in and as good as you played in the first half and the turnovers you got, the fact that the way you lost and how everybody was looking at it as the only game going on as how the hell did you lose that football game? You need a game where you can blow someone else's doors off and prove to the world not only to yourself and get some momentum back to say, look, we are a good football team. We're going to do damage to a team that isn't a good football team like the Dallas Cowboys and show you that we belong. And so I think I'm blessing the fact that this game isn't what we thought it was at start of the year. Yeah, this is a big bless. I don't, I couldn't care less about the sizzle, the marquee, the cache of the game. Give me victories. Give me wins. I'm a path of least resistance guy. I don't, if you get to the playoffs, I want upset, upset, upset of other teams that you're not playing. And that way you get the weaker team in every single round. Yeah, give me the weaker team at all times. Do you want to play a team that has an injured quarterback or you want to face a team that has one of the best quarterbacks? Give me the injured quarterback. I'm blessing. I don't need cache. I don't need big nine, big time sizzle on Monday night. I need, I need dubs. I need wins. So a small follow up for y'all, what, what would the score need to be for y'all to feel comfortable? 10 plus point victory or is that going to cut it for me? I would like to see a multi score game. I would love to see a two touchdown game. I know the Eagles won by way more than that, but when you look at it, I would like to have a comfortable win. You said the Patriots game. I would like to have a game where they are comfortably in control throughout that they score in the second half that they look like the game, the outcome of the game is never up for grabs and that they're dominant for both halves of the football game. Yeah, I think context is king because it goes back to like the lions thing, right? If you lose a game by three to the Detroit Lions, when you were without the pieces that you would have liked, you would have taken that before the start of the game and you would think that you felt great about it, but you let the game play out. You see the way that it goes and you're like, I didn't feel very good about it. So I don't really love doing the whole margin of victory thing. Multi possessions is always better because like usually that's a pretty comfortable lead. However, you get there, right? Unless you're scoring a late touchdown late, but what if you're down the whole game and then you like rallied back in the fourth quarter, like you get one really long flute touchdown and then a late pick six and you win by 10. Are we really feeling great about that? So like I'm a context over margin of victory or whatever. Well, I hope Joel's, you know, prediction is correct because I'll be at the game with my wife. Look at that. That was a flex. Yeah. That was a flex. Big bags go to Arlington. Yeah. You know, you got to represent, but that's kind of why I got the shirt to the Will Anderson if you're not from Houston, you know, got to represent the to read the bottom part of that. It says it's got like an asterisk on it. I think, you know, you can probably figure it out. They can't see it, but yeah, you could have read it. Yeah. Don't. I would suggest that you want to be back next week. I like, I like coming to the studio. That's right. There you go. You got one more, Garrett? Yes, sir. I do. Are we blessing or stressing the outlook of the offense, the remainder of the year with Nico Collins back? Obviously the offense has been the hot topic, the area of struggle, specifically the second half, you know, it seems that Nico has not only, you know, shielded the struggles of CJ Stroud, but potentially Bobby Sloeic. And you kind of hate to say it or I hate to say it, but I'm blessing what the offense will look like with him. I mean, this is what happens when you have a premier top three top five receiver, that big X receiver who can do it all. You look at the first, you know, four or five, six games of the season with Nico and CJ. I mean, he literally it makes it his life easy. All he has to do is just look for Nico and he's there. It was evident last game. The scramble drill. How many times do you see CJ scramble and no one's available, whereas now you insert Nico Collins as soon as he scrambles, boom, Nico is wide open. So I'm blessed and I think things will look drastically different with Nico. I'm stressing because of the fact that you're not wrong, but everything is correlated to the offensive line and the offensive line isn't fixed. And the fact that we knew that the shortcomings of Kenyon Green were past blocking, but we knew that he could run block really well and he did that to where Joe Nixon had a lot of big games. So I think that as much as Nico's back. I do agree with you that in the scramble drill and when he goes off script, when he has to move the pocket and get out of there, Nico's a security blanket, their timing is impeccable, they're always able to do what they need to do. But at the same time, in order for this entire offense to click the way it needs to click, it doesn't start with Nico Collins, it starts and ends with that offensive line. And I still don't think they've done enough to convince me that their past blocking and or their run blocking from week to week are going to be consistent enough for me to feel good enough to bless it. I'm going to slightly bless it. I think Nico Collins will look a lot different. The offense will look a lot of difference with Nico Collins. I think the protection, it's the old Billy Bean thing, right? Like you lose a star player, you're not going to feel that position with a guy is good. But how do you improve it? You improve it on the aggregate. I think that's how you're going to have to improve this offensive line in the aggregate. And I think Nico Collins missing the last five games and Hertz had not having your top weapon, you know, Joe Mixon wasn't all that healthy when every Nico was going. Yes, you're without digs tanks playing at a higher level. I did think that the offensive line was better this past week than it had been. The coverage calls were a lot better with Jared Patterson. I thought that Stroud had more time. So maybe that could lead to him regaining, you know, this confidence in the offensive line and not being so hesitant whenever he's quarterbacking. So I'm going to be optimistic about it and go with a slight blessing on it. But I'm scared of the offensive line, though. It's a blanker's points. I agree with everything. It's hard to argue with Joel's point. I mean, there's no there's no way around that. So very good. Great stuff, Garrett. Did you have something to follow up there, blank man? No, I was just going to say, I mean, as well as Patterson is done, we've given him his flowers because he's done better than what was really bad. Yeah. What's the ceiling with him, right? That's the biggest question. Eric says I want to win where Brandon is complaining about the Mico not taking out Shroud and mixing late. That tracks. That's something I definitely would do. Eric knows me well. He's got me pegged. Pause. Hey, freezing. Garrett, a blessing or stresson. Is that Granado? Who is that voice? That's not Granado. No, it's from the TV show Archer. Well, it's nice that I have these headphones and I can hear like the little sound buys now. I feel like I'm more in tune with what's going on when you really feel like a radio guy. Then you carry your own headphones like people do when they want to get in the business. Maybe like by week 17, I'll start having my own headphones in. Good stuff. Blessings stresson with Garrett Houston stressons.com. I'm on IG at Houston stressons, text and comment are on TikTok and Twitter. I'm going to dip out. Going to go call some cougar basketball. What disappointed you most with the Texans through 10 games. 713-780-ESPN. It's the Killer B's on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. First of the moment on HR&P, Human Resources and Payroll, Cougar owned by my colleague, Go Cougs, my guy, Chris Fisher over there too and Aggie, great people with HR&P. They have the best customer service in the business. You're going to love working with HR&P. And business owners, you're going to love the customer service, but you're also going to love their help in HR compliance. Benefits administration. They're going to help you out and payroll. They're going to help you out and onboarding. Maybe you want to keep payroll and onboarding to you. Okay, we'll let them help out in HR compliance, benefits administration. Whatever you need them to do, they're going to do. 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