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00:00 What is understood does not need to be explained.
00:03 I have CJ Strauss sitting to my left right now.
00:06 Offensive Rookie of the Year.
00:10 How you feeling, man?
00:11 I'm blessed, bro.
00:12 Blessed to be here, man.
00:13 Appreciate you having me.
00:14 Yes, sir.
00:14 Real quick, before we even get to football talk.
00:17 Next week,
00:20 we're going to be in Indianapolis giving bubbles.
00:23 Talk, I mean, the highlights have been going around.
00:25 Talk to us a little bit about your basketball game, man.
00:28 Yeah, I feel like I'm a shooter, you know.
00:29 That's what I'm best at.
00:31 I can take it off the dribble, get to the rack, but you know,
00:33 I'm gonna be careful.
00:34 I'm not gonna be out there doing too much, you know.
00:36 Yeah, you can't do too much, baby. Houston needs you.
00:37 You gotta be good.
00:38 And I got Mike Hayden on me, so he didn't want me to score no points.
00:41 He's just a hater, you know.
00:42 So, I'm gonna try to do my thing, though.
00:43 Yeah.
00:44 Let's talk about this season, man.
00:45 Rookie year.
00:47 Did you expect to have this much early success going into the
00:52 Texans in which the last couple years haven't been so good for them?
00:55 I wouldn't necessarily say that I would expect what happened
00:58 this year, but I did not expect it, you know.
01:00 I just came with the mindset, like, I'm gonna work as hard and
01:03 do whatever I gotta do to, you know, win games, you know.
01:05 Whatever that took, I was gonna have to, you know, will our way
01:09 to win. And, you know, I also had a lot of great teammates and
01:11 coaches that helped me along the way.
01:13 So, you know, I wouldn't say that I wasn't expecting it, but
01:16 it's been a blessing to have that type of success.
01:18 And now I want to do more, you know.
01:19 For sure.
01:20 So, what's your biggest takeaway after year one, dawg?
01:23 You just came from a high state, big-time program.
01:26 You go into the league, ball out, take it to the playoffs, feels
01:28 just like college again.
01:29 But what's the biggest takeaway? Biggest takeaway, you know,
01:33 is players make plays, you know, like that's my job is to make
01:36 plays and win games.
01:37 And, you know, even sometimes the other team makes plays and
01:40 you can't do nothing about it.
01:41 Since those guys are good just like us, they get paid like us.
01:43 But, you know, it's, you know, my job to, you know, try to
01:46 make that not happen.
01:47 You know, it's been exciting to learn a lot.
01:49 My first year now, you know, a lot of learning experiences.
01:52 So, good to just double down on that.
01:54 Yep. Going into season two, what are some things in your game
01:58 that you feel like, I know we ain't really in the film room yet.
02:01 We just had a break.
02:02 You just came off the season.
02:03 But what are some of the things that you think you need to
02:05 improve on to get better, to take it even to a next level
02:08 next year?
02:08 Yeah, you know, it's a multitude of things, you know, we always
02:11 do like self-scout, you know, and for me, really just the
02:15 operational stuff sometimes, it's getting them out the huddle
02:17 faster, you know, getting to play call and relaying it the
02:20 right way.
02:21 And, you know, it's different from college where you're getting
02:22 signals and stuff, you know.
02:23 So, that's something that I definitely can improve on, you
02:26 know, especially in the playoffs where it's loud, it's an away
02:28 game and hopefully we don't got to do that.
02:30 We just get all home game, you know, just win our AFC, you know,
02:33 win the conference.
02:34 But, you know, if that's not the case, then, you know, we got
02:37 to lock in and be able to execute at a high level in those
02:39 harsh environments.
02:40 Yeah.
02:40 Talk to me a little bit about your relationship with head
02:44 coach Domingo Rhymes, man.
02:45 Like, I grew up watching him play for the Texans and then
02:48 seeing him coach, playing against them, defenses that he
02:51 coached and now seeing him with you.
02:54 Talk to us a little bit about your relationship.
02:56 It's a great relationship, bro.
02:57 Somebody that I know I can go up to his office and talk to him
03:00 about anything.
03:00 Yep.
03:01 He'll text or call me to, you know, make sure that I'm straight,
03:03 you know, especially like during my concussion.
03:05 He stayed like in contact with me, which I appreciated.
03:07 Yeah.
03:08 You know, and he's a player's coach, you know, he's been, like
03:10 you said, he's been in our shoes.
03:11 He understands what it is, the grind that it takes to win games,
03:14 you know, and he holds that standard and he holds a high,
03:16 you know, if you don't fake that standard, you stick out like
03:18 a sore thumb.
03:18 Right.
03:19 You know, that's the type of culture that we wanted.
03:20 So it's been amazing to work with D'Amico, man.
03:23 He's been a great coach, a great, you know, a great person,
03:26 you know, I'm just super excited to get another year with him.
03:28 All right.
03:28 So first year, first Pro Bowl, look like you were having a lot
03:32 of fun last week.
03:33 What was like, let's say this, who was the person that you
03:38 kind of gravitated towards last week?
03:40 Because you know how it is.
03:40 Yeah.
03:41 Played, you growing up, you go to these camps.
03:43 There's always like a guy that you're like, man, like I enjoy
03:46 hanging out with him.
03:46 Yeah.
03:47 Who was that guy for you last week?
03:48 I really got close to Stephon Diggs.
03:49 Okay.
03:50 Me and Steph got really close.
03:51 Okay.
03:52 We talked a whole bunch and Derek Henry as well.
03:54 Okay.
03:55 You know, two stand-up dudes, like I got a lot of respect
03:57 for them, of course, been watching them for a while now and
03:59 yeah, no, to see mutual respect, you know, my first year, man,
04:03 that's, it's like super cool to me.
04:04 It's actually like, I'm in awe, you know, of all the guys
04:07 who have respect for me, you know, coming out of the season.
04:10 So those are the two guys that I definitely got to talk
04:12 to a bunch and got close with and, you know, had this open
04:15 conversation and got to know each other a lot.
04:17 Yeah, for sure.
04:18 All right.
04:19 So we're in Vegas, obviously, it's a Super Bowl game.
04:21 We got Patrick Mahomes.
04:23 We got Brock Purdy.
04:24 What do you think Brock Purdy needs to do for them to
04:28 take the Chiefs?
04:29 He got to be himself, you know, I think Purdy is somebody
04:32 who's been a great quarterback in this league, definitely
04:34 top 10 quarterback and I think people got to start putting
04:37 more respect on his name, you know, like there's nothing
04:39 easy about being an NFL quarterback.
04:41 Don't get me wrong, he has a great team, but like at the
04:43 same time, you're the quarterback, you got to make plays,
04:44 you got to get guys in out the huddle, you got to, there's
04:46 a lot of things that have to go right just for the quarterback
04:49 to make everybody around them do their job and, you know,
04:52 I have a lot of respect for him and, you know, it's not
04:54 going to be easy because Mahomes is a dog as well and somebody,
04:56 I think he's playing at his highest level right now and
04:59 a lot of respect for that dude as well.
05:00 So and then you got two great defenses.
05:02 So, you know, it's gonna be a great game in my opinion.
05:04 Who do you think wins the game, CJ?
05:05 I can't bet against Mahomes, man, you know, so I'm gonna
05:09 go with the Chiefs, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's
05:12 a long four-quarter game.
05:13 Yeah.
05:15 Talk to me about your partnership with C4, dawg.
05:17 Yeah, so I've been working with C4 for a minute now, all
05:19 the way since college and, you know, it's been amazing
05:21 to work with them.
05:22 A great product, really is what helps me, you know, sometimes
05:25 on the long days and day 16, 17, the training camp, you
05:28 know how it is.
05:29 Yeah.
05:29 Need that extra burst of energy in that morning at 5 a.m.
05:32 get up, you know, lifting, got practice, got meetings.
05:35 So, you know, drink some energy drink or some pre-workout,
05:38 you know, and it helps me out a lot, you know, so it's NSF
05:41 certified.
05:42 So the league approves of it.
05:43 Yep, yep.
05:43 So which is really important and, you know, it's just, you
05:46 know, it's an amazing product.
05:47 My favorite is Starburst, so go out there and get it.
05:50 Ladies and gentlemen, CJ Stroud, catch him dropping buckets
05:54 fadeaways on Michael Parsons next week at the All-Star game,
05:57 baby.
05:57 Appreciate your time.
05:58 Appreciate you, bro.
05:58 Yes, sir.
05:59 Much love, bro.
06:00 [WHOOSH]