Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast dive into some of what Nick Caserio had to say after the first night of the draft about the Texans trading out of the 1st round and where it puts them heading into night 2.
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00:00Here's Nick Casario last night, his opening statement at his press conference.
00:04Yeah, we're in a good spot.
00:05We're really good about where we are.
00:06We went into the day, I'd say, honestly, we had three different scenarios.
00:10Trade up, stay at 25 and pick, trade back.
00:13I mean, D'Amico and I have been talking about it basically for two, three days.
00:16Here are some different scenarios.
00:17Here are some possibilities.
00:19I don't want to say we talked to the whole league,
00:20but we probably talked to the whole league on every different level.
00:23So, you know, there are some players that we identified.
00:25Some were out of reach.
00:26You know, some, you know, any end trades are a byproduct of teams willing to make a decision to move or not.
00:34So, you know, we fell at 25.
00:36You know, that was the best thing for us.
00:38Puts us in a pretty good spot.
00:40Two twos, three threes, picked up another three next year.
00:43So, I mean, we'll deal with tomorrow.
00:45We think we're going to get some pretty good football players tomorrow.
00:48We felt like the value of the draft was basically in the middle.
00:51So we'll try to take advantage of our opportunities here tomorrow.
00:53Put ourselves in a pretty good position next year as well.
00:56One, two twos, two threes, two fours.
00:58So, I mean, we've always talked about just creating as much flexibility and optionality for us as possible.
01:03And that's where we are.
01:04So, I mean, there's two more days of the draft that are left.
01:07We'll see how these next few days go.
01:09Try to, you know, make good, smart decisions tomorrow.
01:12Trust our process.
01:13Trust our evaluations.
01:15Do the draft to kind of flip the page and kind of go to the next phase.
01:18So we're going to get good football players.
01:20D'Amico and I feel really good about tomorrow.
01:23So, you know, we'll kind of see what happens.
01:24And tomorrow is today, obviously, on Friday.
01:26Here's where they're at.
01:28And we'll hear more from Nick in just a second.
01:29A lot of you reacting.
01:30We'll get to your reactions here on the Jim Adler, the Texas Hammer text line.
01:34But just, Seth, to kind of summarize, net out where they are quantitatively with picks,
01:39I think is a good thing to do for people here as they wake up this morning.
01:42Texans trading out of the first round with the Giants.
01:45Their first pick today will be second overall on day two, the 34th overall pick.
01:51They've got, as of right now, subject to change, obviously, they've got five picks tonight.
01:57Two in the second round, three in the third round.
02:00And next year, as Nick just pointed out, they've got their first round pick.
02:05And now they've got two seconds, two thirds, two fourths.
02:08They're going to have five picks in the top 100 as of right now, next year, unless they
02:12use some of that capital to move around tonight.
02:15Five picks makes it a lot of fun tonight.
02:17And over under on how many picks the Texans make tonight is probably right there at four.
02:23Yeah, I'd say three and a half, four.
02:25Yeah.
02:25They're three and a half, maybe.
02:26Yeah.
02:27They're going to move up or back.
02:28Although, I think just by them trading onto the 25th pick overall, there's a big mush
02:34of players right now that a lot of people thought that's where the real value in the
02:39draft would be.
02:40If you're upset about the draft just because the Rams totally just, the Rams got a boatload
02:48of value one pick later when they traded out with the Falcons, the Falcons are getting
02:52crushed for that.
02:54The Falcons are getting the trade value.
02:56So, it makes it look like the Texans got built.
02:59The Texans did win that trade with the Giants by the trade value charts.
03:04So, it was a good trade for the Texans.
03:07The Giants, you know, they're trading for a quarterback, so they tend to give up more
03:10if you're trading for a quarterback.
03:11But on the sum total of it all, a lot of how you're going to judge this trade in the future
03:15is whether the two offensive tackles taken after the Texans end up being really good
03:20offensive tackles.
03:21Yep.
03:21By and large, that's how people are going to look at it.
03:23Josh Connerly went a few picks later.
03:26I forget to who.
03:26I don't have it in front of me.
03:27I know Josh Simmons went to the Chiefs because it probably means that Josh Simmons is going
03:32to wind up being a five-time Pro Bowler now because he went to the Chiefs with the 32nd
03:36pick.
03:36Well, I mean, there's a lot of question marks about it.
03:39It was a really smart pick by the Chiefs because the Chiefs can sit and let him recover from
03:44his patellar tendon injury.
03:45He's got maturity issues.
03:47Now, the Chiefs tend to be a great place to cultivate character issues more so than get
03:53rid of them.
03:54Fair.
03:54So, I mean, if you want to get arrested, the best place to go.
03:58Now, he doesn't have any criminal issues or anything.
04:00It's just people have cited maturity concerns.
04:02But he could develop into a guy with more hardcore concerns right there in Kansas City.
04:07Yep.
04:07So, good job.
04:07I mean, I think it's pretty clear that the Texans didn't have a grade on Josh Simmons
04:12like a lot of people that did mock drafts thought they might.
04:15Josh Simmons was getting mocked to the Texans left and right by draft experts, and he was
04:20on the board there at 25.
04:21They chose to trade out, and so now we'll see what happens.
04:25Yeah.
04:26Did you say where Josh Connerly went, or did you?
04:28I didn't know where he went.
04:29He went to Washington.
04:29He went to Washington.
04:30Oh, that's right.
04:3129th.
04:31Yep.
04:31He went to the Commanders.
04:32Which is notable because in a lot of ways, I do influence to a game in pass protection
04:38that reminded me of Laramie Tunsil.
04:39I think he has the potential for that.
04:41He's not as gifted as Laramie Tunsil.
04:43Yep.
04:43But I think he's got more of a blue-collar mentality.
04:46I think he needs to work at his run blocking, but he does look like he cares about run blocking.
04:52So, that's the one I thought there was a really good chance after Donovan Jackson went
04:57off the board that Josh Connerly was going to be the pick.
05:00I didn't think the Texans were going to be interested in Josh Simmons at 25 just because
05:04of the injury issues and the reported, you know, potential lack of maturity.
05:09Maturity issues.
05:10Yeah.
05:10So, that's the one.
05:11Connerly would be really interesting to watch and develop.
05:15Yeah.
05:15For sure.
05:16But other than that, the guys that went, you know, Tyleek Williams goes to the Lions defensive
05:22tackle.
05:22So, that's potentially somebody the Texans might have drafted.
05:25Yeah.
05:25But everybody else was safeties, cornerback, linebacker.
05:28Yep.
05:28There's not as much, you know, I don't think the Texans really were eager for those positions
05:33as much.
05:33Yeah.
05:34I think if people are waking up this morning and they're upset with the Texans moving out
05:38of the first round, the sense I get, and I'm feeling some of this as well because you
05:43guys know Matthew Golden was the guy I wanted.
05:45But you got so close to getting Matthew Golden.
05:47I would have loved to have known if teams were willing, you know, if the Packers would have
05:51been willing to move.
05:52They're the team that picked Matthew Golden.
05:53And what would have been the price to trade there?
05:55What were other teams asking for from the Texans?
05:58Obviously, if the Texans were talking to teams in that 18 to 22 range about Golden, we don't
06:05even know if the Texans loved Matthew Golden enough to take him there.
06:07We don't know what their evaluation was.
06:08Well, this is what's clear is, this is the thing that annoys me some is when people say
06:12somebody, a GM failed off trade up.
06:16Look, any GM on earth can pull off trading up.
06:19Look at what the Falcons did.
06:21The Falcons pulled off an idiotically valued trade to trade up with the Rams.
06:25Look at the Magnificent Gladstone last night.
06:27Right.
06:28Which I, look, I give the Magnificent Gladstone credit for Cajones.
06:31Yeah.
06:31He gets Cajones credit.
06:32Much in the same way that, hey man, the Texans really, really stretched and reached to trade
06:37up for Will Anderson.
06:38It was one of the most aggressive non-quarterback trades in NFL history.
06:41Yes.
06:42And it worked out for him.
06:43So likewise, I can't fault anybody that looked at Travis Hunter and said, oh, this guy, he's
06:49a unicorn.
06:50Right.
06:50I'm going to go get him.
06:51Yeah, no, absolutely.
06:53I think it's, back to the Texan fan thing.
06:55For me, it's the golden thing.
06:56I think for a lot of Texan fans, Seth, the sense I got was, hey, these offensive linemen
07:00are starting to fly off the board.
07:02Yeah.
07:03You know, you start to get into the teams where Zabal was picked and you had Donovan Jackson go
07:07right before.
07:08Casario was asked about that.
07:09What were you thinking as Kelvin Banks and Tyler Booker, these guys are coming off the
07:14board in this run on your biggest position of need is starting.
07:18Yeah.
07:19I don't think there was really a consensus on a lot of grades.
07:21I mean, honest to God, if you look at some of these mocks, like where so many guys were
07:23mocked and where they went and wasn't even close.
07:25So, which again, like players come off the board when they come off the board.
07:28So that's all we can do is go through our information, try to figure out like where we think
07:33the best spot for us to pick that player.
07:35So, again, we made multiple calls.
07:37I would say picking a lot higher than where we were.
07:41So teams aren't interested.
07:42They're not interested in nothing we can do about it.
07:43Okay.
07:43One more from Nick here.
07:44When did trading become a reality in this draft?
07:49Yeah.
07:49Probably like way before we probably were picking.
07:52So, I mean, we were kind of looking.
07:55That's the team a little bit.
07:56You know, there were some other, some opportunities to kind of move or what are the teams going
08:01to do?
08:01So we were talking about it.
08:02It wasn't like we waited until 25 and all of a sudden, like, I mean, at one point, I
08:05think we had three or four trades, like potentially on the board before we got to 25.
08:11And then when we got to 25, we still had a couple scenarios.
08:14Some teams were looking at some situations.
08:16So, you know, we took what we felt was the best offer and what the best decision for us was
08:21at that time.
08:22So we made the move.
08:23Upper teens, the 18th pick, the Seahawks select guard Gray Zabel.
08:30And that makes sense.
08:33If you're looking at, if, you know, what most people were projecting or most Texans fans
08:38were hoping for a wide receiver or an offensive lineman, that's when you're looking at the
08:42board and, hey, Gray Zabel's still out there.
08:44Emeko Buka is still out there.
08:45Matthew Golden is still out there.
08:47Donovan Jackson is out there.
08:48But the math doesn't quite add up that one of those guys is going to slide to us.
08:52Let's start doing some work.
08:54If Gray Zabel is gone, then we can get Ibuka or we can get, you know, even Derek Harmon.
09:00I wouldn't have been ultra surprised, the defensive tackle, if Derek Harmon had gotten drafted by
09:06the Texans.
09:07But, like, he's gone too.
09:09So I think that Gray Zabel pick might have been when they really started feeling like,
09:13all right, this, this, the guys that we have really, that we'd be really comfortable with
09:19drafting at 25, the math doesn't add up now.
09:22Let's try, let's try to get a move up.
09:24Yep.
09:24Yep.
09:25So the Texans moved back out of the first round into the second round.
09:29So Nick Casario was asked this last night because there, you know, anytime you're making
09:36that, we have guys, we have an evaluation on that, that are worth the 25th pick.
09:39Are they worth more than these two extra third round picks surplus that we're getting for
09:44moving back nine spots?
09:46Might they still be there?
09:47Are any of the guys, Nick, that you were looking at and possibly drafting at 25 still sitting
09:52on the board here tonight at 34?
09:56Good question.
09:57Actually, one of the players that we were talking about is actually still on the board.
10:02Yeah.
10:02So it's a good question.
10:03So whether or not we actually pick the player, like, we'll see if that actually happens.
10:06That, that was his forthcoming, especially on something where you, I mean, that's not
10:12showing your cards necessarily, but that's more information than you normally get.
10:17I'm not even just from Nick.
10:18I mean, out of a GM that's, you know, trying to play things close to the vest that there
10:22is, who do you think the one guy is, Seth?
10:24You got your best available in front of you?
10:26There's a part of me that I wonder where there's part of it where, you know, I think when Nick
10:30says that they don't go just, they don't draft for need or by position or whatever, that's,
10:35you tweak that always a little bit based on, one thing Nick talked about last night, what's
10:39this guy's role going to be?
10:41Yeah.
10:41And I just wonder with Travion Henderson, the running back out of Ohio State, man, I wonder
10:49if they're looking there and they're like, well, he doesn't quite have the role that
10:52we'd envision right now because Joe Mixon exists, but man, we sure, we sure do think
10:57he's worth drafting number 25 overall.
11:00Yeah, you know, here's the thing about, you know, and again, we don't draft for need.
11:04We draft the best player available.
11:05I'm just using ESPN's draft tracker and the best available on here.
11:10The first several guys that are the best available are at positions where I would be like, John,
11:16the cornerback out of Michigan is the first guy on here.
11:18Then you got Mike Green, an edge guy.
11:20You got Nick Emmeri, the freak safety out of South Carolina.
11:24You got the Donovan Izuraku, however you pronounce his name, out of BC.
11:28He's an edge.
11:29Darius Alexander from Toledo is probably the first one where you can even kind of meld
11:33your brain into thinking, okay, he's a D-tackle.
11:35D'Amico loves D-tackles.
11:37He's fifth on the board.
11:38And then, yes, Travion Henderson, a cornerback from East Carolina, Siobhan Revell, who I think
11:43the Texans had in for a visit.
11:45Then Shadur is still sitting there.
11:46We haven't even talked about Shadur Sanders yet.
11:48We'll get into that in headlines.
11:50Tight end from Miami.
11:51I mean, there's not a lot – point being, you don't get to an O-lineman or a receiver
11:56until you get to 11th on the best available on ESPN's chart, at least.
12:01And that would be Jaden Higgins, the wide receiver out of Iowa State.
12:05Yeah, and I think that's where teams kind of tweak their boards based on what their needs
12:11and what Nick says, what the role for that player will be.
12:14So, they may have gotten to the point where they're looking at their board and how it
12:18looks, and, man, we've got a boatload of guys here that we feel pretty good about at
12:23the top half of the second round.
12:25And maybe it becomes a little bit less of just it's a guy that you're going to plug in
12:29immediately, whatever it might be.
12:31I really – the fact that Nick said that the guy that – one of the guys they really
12:36liked is still there, that they would have graded as, okay, this would make sense at
12:42least, that makes the Browns pick fascinating.
12:44Yeah.
12:45And I hope that Shadur Sanders gets drafted by the Browns, one, because then the broadcast
12:50will stop talking nonstop about Shadur Sanders.
12:53I mean, they will be – during the – I predict this.
12:56If Shadur Sanders goes first tonight, there will be zero conversation about the Texans pick
13:01because everybody's going to be talking about Shadur Sanders.
13:03Poor Owen Daniels is not going to get his flowers on TV.
13:06Yeah.
13:06Owen Daniels is announcing one of the Texans picks tonight.
13:09Hopefully not that one because you're right.
13:11It'll get buried underneath Shadur Sanders.
13:13A couple texts.
13:13Real quick, I want to read these.
13:14Keep sending them in.
13:15We're going to sprinkle – we've got a long segment coming up at 7 o'clock to get
13:18y'all's opinions in on this.
13:20But just to illustrate, Seth, the dichotomy here, these are back-to-back texts.
13:24First one, I'm not surprised.
13:25Ocho, noted Matthew Golden lover.
13:28Y'all can try to find logic in this, but Nick effed up, period.
13:32That's from Ocho.
13:33Very next text.
13:35People mad at Nick Casario are crazy.
13:37There's no trade machine that lets you just jump up 15 or 10 spots to go get a guy.
13:42SMH.
13:43Yeah, it does.
13:43It takes two to tango, you know.
13:45And to your point, you can trade for anybody.
13:48It's what do you want to give up to trade for.
13:50Listen, Ocho, you know, you and I are just different.
13:52I don't fall in love with these hoes, you know.
13:54I just – look, man.
13:55You want to be desperate?
13:56You want to, you know, roll over your 401k for some hoe?
14:00Nah.
14:01They're all dumb rookies, okay?
14:04I like Matthew Golden a lot, and I was enticed by him.
14:07But I ain't going to fall in love with these hoes, okay?
14:09All right.
14:09I like his vibe.
14:10His suit was awesome.
14:11Dude, that suit is an all-pro suit.
14:13I know, honestly.
14:14Matthew Golden – that hurt.
14:15Yeah.
14:15Matthew Golden hurt.
14:16Yeah.
14:17All those – multiple guys went that I would have been excited about.
14:20Matthew Golden hurt already.
14:22And he started – the fact that he started to slide.
14:24Yeah.
14:24He started to look at, like, oh, boy, the Texans will have options,
14:27and it might actually be Matthew Golden.
14:28Yeah.
14:28And then he walks out in that suit.
14:30Then –
14:30It's like, oh, man, he's going to be the rookie of the year.
14:32The way – the way that – the way that Packers announced the pick, too,
14:38where he said – he said, with the 23rd pick, for the first time since 2002.
14:43And I'm like, no!
14:45He goes, a wide receiver gets – I'm like, just say it and rip the Band-Aid off, please.
14:50Direct shot at Aaron Rodgers.
14:52Yeah, that's true.
14:55Rodgers had a – Rodgers had a justifiable issue with the Packers
15:00never drafting a wide receiver in the first round.
15:02That was a justifiable issue that Rodgers had.
15:05But, yeah, I felt like that was rubbing salt in the wound a little bit.
15:08.
15:14Really?
15:14.
15:15.
15:15.
15:16.
15:17.
15:18.
15:19.
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15:21.
15:22AL ficou
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15:23algumas