Jason Fitz, Charles Robinson, and Frank Schwab discuss whether or not C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans will have a successful season this year. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
What about the Texans?
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Obviously, the cream of the crop in this just trash division.
Uh, they went 10 and 7 last year.
Over under on it is 9.5 this year.
Rise, repeat, or retreat, Frank, from where you were a year ago on the Texans.
How do you feel now?
A year ago, pretty hyped on CJ Stroud being, you know, the.
coming and the next Dan Marino and there we go.
He’s still had a very good year, but still, I like, where are we now?
Easy retreat.
I, I thought that over the second half of last season, the Texans were a pretty bad football team and we forget that because they won the, they got into the playoffs one playoff game, competed against the Chiefs.
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So maybe they found something late in the year, but there was a stretch of about 2 months where you’re just like, this is not a good team and everything kind of fell apart for CJ Stroud last year, and I don’t blame it all on him, by the way.
Their offensive line was a mess.
Well, their offensive line is still a mess and the receiving situation, which we loved last year, oh, take Dale, Stefon Diggs.
Well, those guys, well, Stefon Diggs is gone.
Take Dell, we don’t know if we’re gonna see him this year, replaced by a couple of rookies, good looking rookies, they might, uh, you know, show out, but I just don’t see how the tech.
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are better this year.
I, I do trust the coaching staff.
I really do like the coaching.
I like Dmico Ryan’s a lot.
I like CJ Stroud’s talent a lot.
I just don’t like the infrastructure there, don’t like the way they played late in the season.
I just don’t think this is a year ago we were talking CJ Stroud for MVP, Super Bowl contender, blah blah blah.
We got two over our skis with that.
I, me personally, I did.
I know that.
And I’m just taking, I’m kind of taking a step back with them and saying, I don’t think this Texas team is really that good.
I think they’re gonna need another offseason.
To fix some of their offensive problems before they can get back on that track where we really feel like, oh, the Texans are coming, the Texans are gonna be a Super Bowl contender.
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I think they’re gonna need another offseason to fix some of their issues.
I think, you know, like you said, the, the wide receivers now heading into this season are far more unpredictable.
Compared to last season when we knew Stefon Diggs was gonna be on the field, we knew Tank Dell was gonna be on the field and Nico Collins was gonna be there.
Um, I, I was with you.
I went through, I was flying high on them.
I was like, uh, you know, this, there could be an MVP season for CJ Strout in year two.
I did not foresee the offensive line just completely falling apart the way that it did and him getting pounded.
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Um, I, I, I don’t blame everything on him.
I think, look, look, Bobby Slovik gets fired as offensive coordinator, clearly.
The, I think D’Amio Ryan did not feel like Bobby Silk adapted his play calling or the offense down the stretch to augment for what was going on with that offensive line.
He just, it just kind of ran it the way it was gonna run and it fell apart.
I think it’s a retreat because I, I look at a team that wholesale changes on the offensive line and I have no clue whether or not that’s gonna, you know, fix the problem.
And uh it’s just very uncertain at the skill positions beyond Nico Collins and not having any idea whether the offensive line can protect um TJ Stroud, whose play definitely decayed as he got hit over the course of, of last season.
So to me, I, I, I don’t think they make 10 and 7 this year.
I think they’re, they’re short of that.