SURGE: Will C.J. Stroud and Houston Texans OVERTAKE Division Rivals and SECURE Playoff Glory?

SURGE: Will C.J. Stroud and Houston Texans OVERTAKE Division Rivals and SECURE Playoff Glory?

Can the Houston Texans come all the way back and win the AFC South? We’re explore that and a whole lot more today on the Locked On NFL scouting podcast. You are locked on NFL scouting with the Draft Dudes, your daily podcast for NFL and college football scouting. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What’s better than this? It’s guys being dudes here on the Lockdown NFL scouting podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now, the number one sports podcast network. We’re the draft dudes. I’m Joe Marino from Locked On Bills. He’s Kyle Krabs from Locked on Dolphins and we are your NFL experts here with you daily to talk team building across the league on the Locked On NFL scouting podcast with the Draft Dudes, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Want to issue a big thank you, shout out, and welcome to our everydayers. Those of you who never miss a single episode, we appreciate y’all being here very, very much. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’re going to get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Joe, happy Friday. Happy Friday. Happy technically Wednesday, but it is our Friday. Yeah. And it’s everybody who’s listening, it’s their Friday as well. So, keep in mind, we have no idea what happened during those Thanksgiving. Those games last night were great. Yeah, they were awesome. Great games. Joe Burrow 300 yards. Don’t put numbers on it. Uh, so we solicited takes on Tuesday, recording on Wednesday. Today’s the Friday show on the program. We were off yesterday and uh I have no idea what we’re going to talk about other than you told me three bullet points to put in the righth hand third for the YouTube show. And I’m ready to be surprised. I did not look at and catch any of the this week. All right. Well, there there’s some fun stuff to get into. Um, and we’ll start with this one from Matt who says, “The Indianapolis Colts are going to miss the playoffs. Their lead in the division has dwindled and I think they lose three of four to Houston and Jacksonville and at least one of Seattle and San Francisco. Losses to Pittsburgh and Kansas City means they could lose tiebreers as well. Yeah, they they have just not been a team that’s played particularly well. Um the DeForce Buckner injury feels like it’s it’s been a monumental one for them defensively. And then offensively it’s it’s been congrats you ran over the you bullied the Falcons the way that we thought you could. Ran for 32 yards like overtime to win the game, right? Um 55 yards rushing against Pittsburgh, 74 against Kansas City. you’re going to have some real deal fronts to have to deal with the rest of the way. And I think there’s a 10- win team that’ll miss the playoffs in the AFC. I think you had that take as well earlier in the week. So, I’m I’m in on this take. I’m I’m very concerned about the Colts right now. I’m not ready to say that they don’t make the playoffs, but I am ready to say this. I think the Houston Texans win the AFC South. I think they do it. I think they come back and do it. Their defense is unbelievable and the ceiling of the team will be elevated when CJ Shroud’s back. And I know that Davis Webb has done a great job of is it Davis Webb? Davis Mills has done a good job of uh winning, right? The 3-0 under his starts, which is a big deal, including some late game stuff that he was able to pull off. But I think those receivers are starting to get going a little bit here. You know, their offense was always going to take a little time with a new coordinator, a new offensive line, a new running back room, a new receiver room. Um, but I think I think they do it. That’s my take. I think they come back and win the division. Yeah. I think um if you told me that Strad is back, maybe not even against the Colts, but if you get Strow back for Kansas City and then you go Arizona Raiders Chargers Colts to finish the last four, I think they’re going to be a 10- win team, which is crazy because they they started one and three and 0 and three really um before kind of climbing back into this position and They’ve rode their defense a great deal of the way with all the multi-turn turnover games that they’ve had in the stretch and I have no reason to believe that that’s not going to be sustainable for them and it’s really just continuing to raise the floor of the offense and I think they will do that. So yeah is coming along too man and Kirk’s actually coming along as well. Yeah they go four and two down the stretch their 10 wins and you have a chance for two of those wins to be headtohead against the Colts. Yeah. So that’s my take. they come back and do it. Uh, Bull. Well, and are we dismissing Jacksonville? There’s probably a Jacksonville angle here. I don’t think we should dismiss Jacksonville because they’re seven and four, right? They got the Titans, the Jets. They got the Titans twice and the Jets. Yeah. I mean, that’s my 10 right there. That should be 10 right there. What’s their other three? Uh, Colts twice and Broncos. So, which team’s going to go four and two down the stretch and not three and three, right? You have a realistic chance that the third place team in the South has 11 wins. I think that the third place team in the South has 10 wins and does not make the playoffs. That’s my That’s my take. I think that’s a factual take. Yeah. Bowl with an interesting one here. The Giants head coach opening is better if Joe Shane stays. roster is good enough to win with. And if there are problems, just blame the lame duck GM who’s already on the hot seat. Presumably, the new coach would have power over the new GM and control their own destiny. I hate this. I don’t think he’s wrong. I think this is a good I don’t think he’s wrong, but I I I hate that. Like looking at a job through the lens of a candidate to fill one of the vacancies is very different than looking at all of your positions as an as an organization, right? And if I’m the Giants, like I hate the fact that I’m potentially bringing in a coach and promoting the idea that, hey, you get a freebie here and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll just fire the other guy. And then the cycle perpetuates and continues onward and onward and onward. Right. It’s the same thing with like I’ve heard the same thing about the Dolphins GM position where it’s like, “Oh, it doesn’t work out with McDaniel.” Like McDaniel being a potential lame duck and the owner wanting him is a good thing for you because you get a free year. Yeah. And it’s true, but you don’t want to you don’t want to be in that cycle, right? You don’t want to be alternating every two years firing one half of the football operation versus the other half of the football operation because a lot of your draft picks that don’t end up working out. How many of them end up being because the player completely forgot how to play football versus how many of them are well he’s on his fifth offensive coordinator in six years and his third head coach and the guy who picked him wasn’t the guy who is here anymore so he doesn’t want him anymore. like that it’s that’s just such a it’s not wrong through the lens of a candidate for the spot. Right. Right. But it is all the wrong reasons to want to take a job because the organizational stability should mean just as much if not more to you than the personnel at this snapshot in point in time. Winter says if Mike Tomlin and the Steelers finally divorce this year, there’s two clear candidates that ownership would likely target given their history. the names Chris Schula and Anthony Weaver. You’d be fired up about Anthony Weaver. Roy, I that’s why this one made it. I want to talk about Anthony Weaver as the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s what I want. You go ahead and talk about it because I I I’ve lost my license to talk talk about it and people take me seriously because I’m the lock. It’s It’s very simple. This man has grossly overachieved based on talent and those defense have gotten better and better over year. The Dolphins legitimately have had one of the best defenses in the NFL over the last month, but everybody’s nobody cares, right? Nobody cares because the the time for joking about the Dolphins is over and they had their blunders and they fired the GM and everyone’s just nobody they’re just not relevant right now. Weaver is getting it done and he did the same thing last year and I I’m just blown away about how he’s been able to overachieve based on talent. So yeah, I think he should be their next head coach. I’d love Anthony to stay. We’re being honest. You know, no matter what else happens, I’d love Anthony to stay. Um, yeah, I think it’s a good call out for last year they had none of the edges, right? Bradley Chubbed in play. Jim Phillips got hurt three and a half games into the season and the unit got better as the year went on and then this year it was all the secondary players. But as far as Pittsburgh, what cower, Chucknull, Mike Tomlin, that’s coaches for the Steelers since 1970. That’s all of them, buddy. I think you can make an argument that Pittsburgh’s trying to shake things up. And I don’t know like if you end up going through a coaching hiring cycle, are you going to lean on your traditional values or are you going to try to shake things up? I think that makes him a really interesting potential vacancy. Yeah, I also I’ll believe it when I see it. Mike Tomblin not roaming the sidelines there at Acer Stadium. think Mike Tomlin has a better chance of deciding he doesn’t want to be with the Steelers anymore than anything else than the Steelers moving on. Speaking of moving on, we’re going to move on to a lot of great takes. Uh the quarterback conversations that we’ve been having have inspired some folks to uh you know get into some potential movement. We’ll talk about that next, folks. Be sure to stick with us. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who’s going to score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. And look, I know there’s some some NFL stuff out there right now that I’m interested in. There’s some some underdogs this week. We talked about Houston on yesterday’s show as a underdog that’s going to go into Indie and win the game. go get in on the money line if you believe us on that. So, just makes all these games way more exciting. So, check it out, folks. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com, sign up, and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, thank you for making the Lockdown Sports Podcast Network the number one sports podcast network in the world. And this next one comes from Nick who says, “Going off your talk on Brock Purie on Tuesday, the Vikings should look to trade for him this off season with Mack fitting in nicely with San Fran and the Vikings looking to win now and KOC’s ability with castoff quarterbacks. They’d both benefit from the pairing. So the trade is what? Well, there’s no terms. It’s just that the Vikings should trade for Brock Birdie. Let’s say it’s a two and a four. Please hold. Kyle’s gonna get into some very specific contract things and use words about cash. Exactly. What’s going to happen here? Here it comes, folks. Hope you can understand it. Um, Minnesota next year because M Minnesota spent aggressively. Minnesota has, you know, where they rank in cap space for 2026 right now. I guess they don’t have much. uh their 30th with negative $24 million in cap space as things currently stand. Yep. Now, you have some finagling that can be done. We can finagle Justin Jefferson and restructure down a $25 million base salary. We can finagle Jonathan Grenard or Jonathan Allen or Javon Harrave, although I might move on from some of these guys, these two defensive tackles that you brought in on the north side of 30. They’re scheduled $30 million in cash next year. Um, we can finagle Van Ginkle and Will Fry and Byron Murphy. So, we have restructured potential, but you spent the way that you did because you had a quarterback on a rookie contract and allowed you to do it. And if you’re now going to start allocating an additional $50 million in salary, not in cap, but in salary, like Minnesota’s number one in cash spend this year. $344 million in cash. Yeah. It wasn’t the season they envisioned. If you put Brock Party into that mix, you theoretically, just to be sustainable, have to subtract $50 million from elsewhere on your payroll. Now, you could do that with Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen and get 30 million of it, but that’s still $20 million more of that’s another big contract you got to move. I think that they should be a team that’s knocking on M. Jones because it’s a one-year contract for $4.2 million in cash relative to a long-term Brock party contract extension that’s $52 million a season. Be tough to give the come up with a trade package for M. Jones because I think he is the more valuable asset because of the contract. But I mean, I think it’s an easier sell to San Francisco to say, “Hey, you you paid this guy a two-year deal. You’re going to cash out after one and get a top 100 pickax.” The second Brock party gets hurt hurt again, that’ll be a real problem. And Kyle Shanahan will have somebody. Dude, we we had C people talk people took CJ Bethard seriously for six years because he looked functional with Kyle Shan. Yeah, it’s true. Made a lot of money for that. Zack Wilson. If you’re San Francisco, trade Mac. Jones and sign Zach Wilson. You feel like it’s not hard to just get somebody like that in there? I mean, they they could probably give Zack the same contract they just gave M. Jones. So, you’re you’re willing to do it? Well, I mean, if you if I’m San Francisco, I think it is it would be redundant given your history with backup quarterbacks and your ability successfully to cling to M. Jones. Cling to M. Jones and be like, “Oh, well, maybe that then if you feel that way about M. Jones, they get rid of Brock Party.” Well, that’s kind of how I feel. So, but I I think it’d be redundant to keep both of them when you have a potential cash out opportunity with the scarcity of this year’s NFL draft quarterback class in free agency. Joseph says tua for Kyler straight up this off seasonason restart for both and money is close enough to matching the clo the the so this this one is a fun idea because the money is close they’re within $10 million of each other. I actually think the Kyler Murray contract is a little bit less attractive because he’s into the rolling guarantees and in March he’s going to have $17 million in compensation for 2027 that guarantees two is only going to have $3 million in 2027 compensation guaranteed. So, it’s the $14 million extra for 2027 that you’re signing yourself up for for potentially, hey, fresh start for both guys, but are we going to keep paying them long term if it doesn’t work out in 2026? Does that make sense? like two is owed more cash in 2026, but Kyler’s going to have four times as much, five times as much in 2027 guarantees in the March of 2026. So, you’re signing up for a bigger long-term multi-year commitment with Kyler. Do you want this to happen? No, I don’t want Kyler Murray. Yeah, I wouldn’t either. Yeah, I’m with you. I I I would as a fan of of the team in the division, I’d rather face Kyle than Kyler Murray. Yeah. Uh Beats says that M. Jones will be the best Jets quarterback since Mark Sanchez. Oh man. If if the Jets do all this moving of heaven and earth just to trade a three theoretically for M. Jones or Kyler Murray. Or Kyler Murray. I’d be disappointed if I was a Jets fan. Yeah. you you strip this roster down to be in a position to target and acquire the young guy that you want to head yourself to in my opinion because if you were just going to move vet picks for a vet you didn’t have to trade Quinn Williams and you didn’t have to trade S Garner to accomplish that and open up additional massive vacancies on your roster. Chris says, “When assessing wide receiver prospects, traits should be prioritized as follows. Number one, hands. Number two, route running. Number three, blocking. Number four, yards after catch. Number five, speed. Number six, contested catch.” This is a very extensive take. All right, hold on. So, wide receiver traits in order. Chris says, “Hands, route, running, blocking, yak, speed, contested catch.” It’s not my order for sure. And it’s only six traits. That’s what he has. Yeah. I have 10 traits. Same. My number one is ability to create separation. Your hands like I hear you. You want good hands. That goes into route running, right? Sure. Okay. So, route running for me is number one. You you you want receivers that can get open and catch the football. You want step one is get open. Brandon Brandon Bean told you that, right? But he he also doesn’t really understand that. Um, I wish he did be helpful. Uh, well, Brandon Cooks. Brandon Cooks would be the perfect receiver if this was 2020. Um, yeah, you got to be able to get open before you can catch football. So, route running is number one for me. I am pulling up my database to to read through my my grades. My wide receiver grades, I have them in tears. Okay. Uh, route running, football IQ, hands are my three premium traits. I have versatility, run after catch, and blocking skills are in the next group down. I then have u functional athleticism. So, more than just speed, but also like change of direction, burst, all that kind of stuff. Um, release package is kind of my next tier down. Uh, and then I have vertical receiving and special teams ability as my last two traits. All right. Um, we’re going to do some fun Thanksgiving type things here in the next segment. So, folks, be sure to Is there any football or is it just Thanksgiving? Uh, I got one. We’ll see how the time goes. All right. Stick with us. All right. Do you want the potential football one first? Let’s do the football one. So, once I unplug my brain from like Okay. football stuff, it’s unplugged. Max says the Bears uh could look to deal DJ Moore this off season due to offensive surplus of talent and should explore using those picks in return to trade for a pass rusher. DJ Moore feels like a receiver that might get traded in the offseason, right? Yeah. I mean, you I think it’s the right window for DJ if you’re Chicago to unplug and kind of have a transition kind of like what Seattle did with with Lockett and Metaf. I know those guys were were in like they were in different age brackets when they moved on from both guys. But I think you’ve got a player in Roma Dunes who clearing the way for him to kind of be the the foundation of your passing game unquestioned and and not have to assimilate multiple receivers. I don’t know. I’m I think I’m kind of getting indoctrinated with this idea that two superstar wide receivers is kind of a bad thing. It’s kind of a what? It’s a bad thing. And then somebody this week came out and said that having two superstar receivers is the cheat code in the NFL. somebody meaningful that that I don’t remember who it was, but they said that I mean I think it is for quarterbacks, but I think it’s I think it’s redundant. Um and and maybe it’s just Miami’s inability to solve their own problems, but we sat here for two years and talked about, oh, teams are playing cover two and we need to figure out all the exotic cover two. Yeah. Isn’t it hard to it’s hard to apply that to Miami because I don’t think that having Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Wadd was the reason that they didn’t get over the hump? No, I agree with that. But their per their ability to manipulate defensive personnel and create more explosive plays in the passing game has been easier without Tyreek Hill. Understood. Because everybody kind of came out and said, “Here’s the book on Miami.” Well, maybe you want two different styles of receiving. We’re going to play we’re going to play light and we’re gonna play high on the roof and we’re gonna play to two high shells. And like you could it didn’t matter what downer distance it was. you could try anything. You are going to get a a tailored specific game plan to you versus now if you play 13 personnel. Teams are going to play accordingly and you’re more willing to run the ball. And then Wadd Wadd second in the NFL since Tyreek Hill went down in 30 plus yard receptions. And we had a whole pity party for Tyreek Hill in September because he went a whole calendar year without a 30- yard reception. I I I do think I Miami I get they’re a unique situation, but I’d rather spend the money a different way than spending two $30 million wide receivers. How’s that? Sure. Yeah, of course. I agree with that, too. All right. You got to find an economic second option there. Uh future Bills receiver DJ Moore, obviously. Um he’s next, right? And then you’ll get Wadd like eight years from now. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a vengeance and Brandon Bean always goes back and gets the guys he tried to trade for Diggs, Von Miller, Emanuel Sanders. He always gets them, the ones that got away, right? Yeah, he’ll be there. He’ll be 32, but he’ll get there. He’ll get there. Jaylen Wadd will play for the Bills at some point in his career. Mark, by the way, don’t say that. Brandon, it’ll be like you having to watch Thurman Thomas play for the Dolphins. Something I had to do. Um, you got to watch Jordan Phillips play for the Bills, Kyle. I mean, you know, how do you live? How do you live? I’m I’m I’m happy with that one. Tyrone Dodson. The right Jordan Phillips and not S Douglas. No, no, that that one. That’s the one I wanted. That’s the one I wanted. The wrong Jordan Phillips. No, I know. I know. The Dolphins fans probably don’t trust me because I like Cam Smith, but I I also did like Jordan Phillips. That’s true. Um, all right. We’re doing Thanksgiving things for the remaining time. Uh, we’ll work through these. Tua’s burner says, “Pumpkin pie is overrated. Apple or blueberry pie is infinitely better.” It’s the kind of take I would expect from Tu at a press conference with how he’s done in front of the microphone this year. I I vehemently disagree with this take. I I like all of the pies, but I definitely I definitely like Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Uh Dan says, “Italian family should include a pasta dish along with traditional Thanksgiving dinner.” Uh we do. I We do. We have rietoni or sometimes a kougalugi, could have lasagna. You’re going to have something there. So, uh that that does happen, Dan. Uh, August says the big three uh, parenthesis Kyle helped Joe with the Avengers reference of Thanksgiving sides as mac and cheese stuffing and mashed potatoes. You know that you’re anti You’re anti mac and cheese. I’m not anti-Mack and Cheese. I just it I don’t identify it as a Thanksgiving Yeah. piece. The big three of Avengers is Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. We talked about that. The three best ones. We talked about that about a month ago on the show and we did like a whole educational period on it. I can use deductive reasoning and figure this one out though, you know. So there’s no sweet potatoes like the sweet potato casserole or whatever. I like see my wife makes amazing sweet potato casserole. That’s on my big three. Yeah, it’s on my big three with stuffing. My wife had a friend’s giving and she made it and she brought home like half the casserole. It was gone within two days. Did you just eat it out of the fridge? Kyle with a spoon. Just I’ve seen your habits, man. Casserole dish. I just eat it out of the Kyle. I think he just keeps a spoon in his pocket and just opens the fridge and just starts eating stuff. It’s an unbelievable situation. You know that. Pop some maple syrup in there. This is an unbelievable man. Got to get to know Kyle. You know that little like dish that you leave on top of like you leave it next to the stove or on the stove and then if you have like the big like wooden spoon or whatever when you’re cooking like and it’s dipped in something, you just leave it laying on there. I know about that. Yeah. My eating spoon just rests on that in perpetuity. Unbelievable. I always have an on call spoon in the kitchen. I know. I’m spending enough I I’ve got you figured out at least a little bit with this. Stuffing is on the big three though. Isn’t is Oh, absolutely. Stuffing is it’d be sweet potato for me. And then do you have a third you have great conviction with? I would rather sweet potatoes than mashed potatoes. Um I mean I I’ve always talk about stuffed artich chokes is something I enjoy for Thanksgiving. So I’ I’d go with that. Okay. We’ll finish with this one. Con. I I hate this take, by the way. Jumping into a pile of leaves or snow is not fun. The leaves and snow get everywhere. You could potentially land hard on the ground, and worst of all, it’s a onetime thing. You got to rebuild the pile after one use every time you want to do it. Maybe I’m just an old man, but I I hate this take. I think people need to be jumping in more leaves piles and more piles of snow. Man, I don’t know if it’s cuz I’m going to be 40 here in six months, but this is exactly the things that that make me happy to see. And so if people want to jump in leaves and snow, put your phone down and jump in a pile of leaves and snow. I I try to make it a habit to not jump into things that I do not know what’s at the bottom. What’s in there? Is there a fire hydrant buried underneath that pile of leaves? I don’t know. I’m assuming you made the p the pile. It’s not like you’re you’re just like, “Oh, pile of leaves. Let me just make something worth jumping in.” Anyway, now snow like I I have fun in the snow. I get down with with playing in the snow with the kids. Have any snow, Kyle? So you got leaves and I got snow. Yeah, jump in the pile. People like takes. That’s going to do it for us. Takes on takes in the book. Kyle Krabs, Joe Mar, we appreciate you guys. Check out the show. Make it a great rest of your day. Enjoy the weekend for the football ahead and we will talk to you all again on Monday. We hope to see you then.

Houston Texans surge in AFC South—can C.J. Stroud’s return lift them past the Colts and Jaguars for a dramatic division win? With the defense dominating and offensive weapons finding their groove, the playoff race tightens as tough matchups loom. Will a 10-win team miss the postseason in the crowded AFC, and is Indianapolis slipping at the worst possible time?
Joe Marino and Kyle Crabbs tackle bold predictions, including Brock Purdy trade rumors and the Vikings’ quarterback search, Tua Tagovailoa–Kyler Murray trade hypotheticals, and what Mac Jones would mean for the Jets. The discussion shifts to NFL coaching carousel drama, New York Giants roster implications, and how traits rank for draft-eligible wide receivers. Plus, hot takes on the value of superstar receivers and creative Thanksgiving side dishes add flavor to the show.
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