- 11 hours ago
ITL asks whether complete confidence in Nick Caley would change how concerned you are about losing Jayden Higgins and the Texans’ remaining receiving options.
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00:00Within the injury, within the conversations that we've had about who are the potential players that you could see come
00:06in,
00:06what is the potential ways that maybe even within, in-house, you kind of change the way of your approach
00:11in the play,
00:12the way that you maybe deploy these guys, all of that still comes back to something that we have not
00:18talked about yet,
00:19which is the offensive coordinator, Nick Cayley, and how his impact is shown within the way that we react to
00:25this
00:25and within the way that they are going to continue to move forward dealing with this injury for Jaden Higgins.
00:30Yeah, when I typed this down and sent it to you guys or put it on the doc, I kind
00:34of felt like a texter, like a listener.
00:36Hey, how come nobody's talking about, you know, we get that a lot, or you know what, no one's talking
00:42about this.
00:44I really felt like that because I do feel like it's really, really important and nobody or very few are
00:50really talking about it.
00:51This is a Nick Cayley story. This is as much a Nick Cayley story, Jaden Higgins going down, as much
00:59as anyone.
01:00Offensive line, C.J. Stroud, other receivers, because I started, and I asked, this is the question I asked you
01:07guys,
01:07because I know my answer. Would you feel different about the injury if you knew Cayley was good?
01:13Like if you knew they had a dude that was calling offense.
01:16Like if this happened with the Chargers, if this happened, hell, if this happened with the Patriots.
01:23That's what I was going to ask you.
01:24I was like, let's put names on it, right?
01:28Who is the offensive coordinator that you go? Really good offensive coordinator. I know he's good.
01:33McDaniel?
01:34All right, let's go with Black Mike himself.
01:36Yeah.
01:36Or wait, actually, you went, no, yeah.
01:39Or Patriots.
01:40McDaniel.
01:40You went McDaniel, because I was like, is it McDaniels or McDaniels?
01:43I did throw a curveball there, and I didn't even know I was doing that.
01:45Damn, which one are we talking about?
01:47Let's go with Black Mike.
01:49Either one of those guys.
01:50Or McVay.
01:51Or McVay.
01:52Or McVay.
01:52But then we're talking about the, but yeah, those are offensive play callers.
01:56A wide receiving core of Nico Collins, Jalen Knoll, Xavier Hutchinson, especially the way
02:01that we've seen him thus far, Lewis Bond, Jared Wayne, Justin Watson, right?
02:08I'm not even throwing Tank Dell in there, because we have not seen him out there on the practice
02:12field.
02:12So then the last time we saw him on the practice field get in there with team, we then didn't
02:15see him for the next, what, three practices or whatever.
02:18So it's hard to say that in two or three weeks, he's going to be playing football for sure.
02:22I would be very happy if that was the case, but it's hard to say that.
02:26So for the time being, we'll leave that where it is.
02:28With those receivers I mentioned, again, Nico Collins, Jalen Knoll, Xavier Hutchinson,
02:32Lewis Bond, Jared Wayne, Justin Watson, what, with those groceries, what do you think is
02:37the meal that is cooked by a Josh McDaniels or a Black Mike McDaniel?
02:42Look, I think I can see, and then also it's not just the ones wide receivers, it's also
02:47Dalton Schultz and Marlon Klein and Foster Moreau and Woody Marks and David Montgomery.
02:53Like, I can see a path with a, with a offensive coordinator that I go, I know that they are
02:59going to add advantages for the guys that they have, I can see this group, and it's
03:02not, it's not the best group in the world, don't get me wrong, but I can see this group
03:05and go, yeah, I can make some things shake with this.
03:08Right, right, and I don't know, I don't know how much better I would feel, but I do know
03:12I would feel better than Nick Kaley.
03:14And man, you know what, I feel bad about it because I really like Nick Kaley, like just
03:20as a dude.
03:20I know how hard he works.
03:22We've heard D'Amico Ryans basically, you know, share the story of, hey man, quit calling me.
03:27You know, quit texting me.
03:28I'm on vacation.
03:29You know, like, that's D'Amico Ryans saying that, you know.
03:34Have we ever really seen D'Amico Ryans like thoroughly annoyed?
03:37Because I, in my mind, I just imagine him.
03:39Sure has.
03:40Well, yes, that's a great point.
03:43But I, I can think of where I go when I see that phone light up with a number that
03:47I
03:47don't give a damn about.
03:48I'm like, hey, come on, man.
03:49I saw in that moment, I just viewed him being annoyed.
03:52By the way, you're right.
03:52You guys good?
03:54Yeah.
03:54Y'all good?
03:55Do you think, by the way, do you think D'Amico Ryans didn't answer?
03:58Like, just went, like, slit, you know, not today.
04:00Oh, send him the voicemail?
04:01Yeah.
04:02Or just send him a text, hey, I'm busy right now.
04:04What you need?
04:04Or did the automatic button.
04:06I will call you back.
04:08He probably answered real quick when he said, you good?
04:11You good?
04:12That's one of his favorite lines.
04:13Y'all good?
04:13Yeah.
04:14So, I mean, on a very serious note here, I don't know how much better I would feel as
04:19much as I like Nick Caley.
04:20I know how hard he works.
04:21We all do.
04:22He's trying.
04:24Still doesn't make me feel, like, comfortable.
04:27Like, I would feel better with Josh McDaniels if this were the case.
04:31Or Mike McDaniel.
04:34You know, and so, like I said, this is about Nick Caley big time.
04:38Yeah.
04:39Big time.
04:40100%.
04:40And from the 281 on the text line, how quickly forget all OCs went into the second year
04:45worth question.
04:46Yeah, but I kind of hate when we do this.
04:49And I'm not trying to single you out, 281, but I kind of hate when we do this, which is
04:54we flatten something to the point where we make a wide swath seem like a very small, narrow
04:59gap.
05:00Questions, not all questions are the same, right?
05:03I think that the way that I've talked about it is like the proof of concept in year one.
05:06One, there's a lot of OCs or offensive play cards where you go, I'm not sure how good
05:12it is, but I can tell it's going to be good.
05:14That is not the feeling that I got with Nick Caley last year.
05:16Distinctly not the feeling where I go, I don't know how good, but I know it's going to be
05:20good.
05:20The question I still have is, let's see if it can be good.
05:23Yeah.
05:24And this is the type of challenge that I would feel a lot better with somebody that I go,
05:27I'm still wondering how good it'll be, but I know it'll be some level of good.
05:30Now, to his credit, it seems like he's incorporating, especially with a tight end room that feels
05:36like he'll be able to utilize it, unlike last year where he just did not have the bodies
05:40there.
05:40It feels like he's incorporating things that seem logically smart, whether it's moving
05:44the wide receivers around, whether it's utilizing multi-tight ends formations to obviously impact
05:53the way the defenses line up.
05:54It seems like he's utilizing some of those things, but there still was enough questions
05:59last year that are not just the average first-time OC questions.
06:03I mean, getting play calls in is something that he vocalized that he needs to get better
06:06and work out this offseason.
06:08That's something that feels like that is a first time on the job question, and this is
06:13year two that we're headed into, and now the big question on top of the ones that we were
06:17asking that's been dropped on him is, what do you do without this secondary option that
06:22feels like he was going to challenge defenses in a way that I don't know that you have very
06:26many other players can do right now?
06:27And I want to address, again, not to pick on the 2-8-1 there, but that specific text,
06:33how quickly we forget all OCs went into the second year with questions.
06:38Fair, but I'm talking about this one.
06:41If Mike McDaniel were here going into his second year, I would have the same question.
06:45If Josh McDaniels were going into his second year here with this offense, I would have
06:51questions.
06:51So it's not about how quickly you forget.
06:54No, I have questions because he's going into his second year and we don't know.
06:58And we do know about Mike McDaniel.
07:00We do know Josh McDaniels.
07:01Those are just the two examples we're using.
07:03You can go into, like I think you said, McVay or, you know, Shane Steichen.
07:08Hell, Shane Steichen.
07:09You know, I would feel a lot better.
07:12So that's my point.
07:13It's not like, hey, we're picking on Nick Caley.
07:15I'm not.
07:16I think it just gives us that much more focus on this is really important on him and not
07:23just, you know, how he's going to adjust, but how he calls plays, how much more.
07:27I think we can fairly ask the question, does this impact how much more they're going to
07:31use 12 personnel?
07:33That's interesting because maybe so.
07:36One of the things that I thought about immediately within all of the questions and thoughts that
07:39we were having when we found out the news yesterday was, okay, who, and I think I vocalized that.
07:45I think we talked about it.
07:47Who may be possibly on this team right now bring you some of the things that you are losing?
07:52And one of those guys is Jay Leno.
07:53I could easily see him having an uptick in what you previously thought his workload and
07:57usage would be.
07:59But I also thought of, dang, it really sucks because some of the players that I imagined
08:03would have those types of skill sets.
08:06One of those might have been Brevin Jordan.
08:07He's been injured.
08:09We'll see if maybe he gets back relatively soon, but even still, I don't know.
08:13But then I go, okay, Marlon Klein, does he make, does he, you know, he seems like he's
08:16been able to get vertical and really challenge teams at least along the seams.
08:20Can you, how quickly does he come along and do you end up with more tight end sets where
08:25he gets involved or Dalton Schultz, obviously when you have, when he is one of your two best
08:30options or most veteran options that you trust, how much does his opportunities go up and
08:34how much do you maybe see some of that willingness to move him around?
08:37Do you end up with Dalton Schultz on the outside at times?
08:39Like, those are the things that I started going to.
08:41So yeah, you might end up with seeing more bigger personnel because you have some tight
08:45ends that I think you also have some hope and some belief that they can be guys that
08:50challenge defenses for you.
08:51I think that that's exactly where I went.
08:54And I think that's maybe, probably in my view, part of the reason that we're going to
08:59see the offense more now when we were told by an official spokesperson that no starters
09:04were going to play.
09:05In this game today?
09:05Yeah.
09:06I think they're going to tinker with some things.
09:07You have to.
09:08If this is going to be sort of, this is the final stretch of your frontline players really
09:15getting some run, you better get out on the field and, you know, because Jaden Higgins
09:18is not here and he's not going to be here week one.
09:21So you better get out there and maybe tinker with a couple of things.
09:23Not, you know, not give away everything, but certainly tinker with some things that you're
09:26thinking.
09:27Yeah, I have a feeling that just the protective, I think the protective nature of things makes
09:31it so that they're still not going to get out here and put it on, on ESPN.
09:34No, but you're going to be having rotations and personnel groupings and that's going to
09:39be that second receiver.
09:40Exactly.
09:41I think one of the things that I, yeah, but I think that that's one of those questions
09:45where would you want them to have a large diametric change from what they were doing?
09:51Or would you want it to just be like, okay, now we have these snaps.
09:54Perhaps let's just allocate them amongst what we have right now.
09:57Assuming that there's not an additional player coming from the outside.
10:01Because as of right now, that is not what's happening, right?
10:03We've had conversations of, is there a Kayshawn booty?
10:06Do you go and you contact Deshawn or rather DeAndre Hopkins?
10:09Do you, right?
10:10Like we've talked about the other options outside of various levels of, I guess, viability.
10:16But right now, as it stands, they are operating, I imagine, from a perspective of we have what
10:21we have in house.
10:21And until we know for certain that we have something else, we have to operate off of
10:25this.
10:25And so I imagine that what they're doing is, how do we take the snaps that we previously
10:29thought were for Jayden Higgins and how do we distribute them?
10:32Because I don't think it's just fully whatever the 100% of Jayden Higgins snaps now goes to
10:36Xavier Hutchinson.
10:37One, because Xavier Hutchinson already had some snaps there.
10:40But I think that it becomes, all right, how do we distribute this?
10:44Including Nico Collins getting more opportunities on the field, which it feels like, hey,
10:49he was already going to get a certain amount and maybe they were going to have opportunities
10:53for Higgins to play X when Nico either was moving inside or off the field.
10:57That's not there.
10:58Do you get more Nico Collins opportunities?
11:01Do you then have more Dolan Schultz or more Marlon Klein, more Foster Moreau, a little bit
11:06more Louis Vaughn?
11:07A little bit, you know what I mean?
11:08Like I think that this becomes a distributing of those things and then mixing and matching
11:11within there.
11:12But even that, which is clearly part of the equation here, you know, how they use more
11:16tight ends or the personnel they have, like you're talking about, even that is on one
11:20person.
11:21And it's not on C.J. Stroud.
11:23It's on Nick Kaley.
11:24I mean, and the confidence you have and the ability he has to be able to make those adjustments
11:30and all that.
11:30Like I drove home yesterday, you know, I was like, okay, what do we do today?
11:34You know, I kind of go through my head and I was like, man, we didn't talk about Nick
11:37Kaley enough.
11:37You know, nobody's talking about Nick Kaley.
11:39This is huge, huge on him.
11:42Without question.
11:43Because, and to put it as plainly as possible, Jaden Higgins was feeling like, hey, there
11:49is yet another player that can go.
11:51And if you kind of just set him out there, go win.
11:53He can go win.
11:54You know what I mean?
11:55Like he was getting to a point because of his speed, because of the refinement and his
11:59route running and these types of things, that he was going to be a guy that could generate
12:03separation kind of by himself.
12:05Obviously you do it within the system, so I'm not trying to separate it entirely.
12:08But you know what I mean?
12:09Like Nico Collins, I don't care what the system is.
12:11He is the caliber of player that goes and wins routes.
12:14You know what I mean?
12:15Jaden Higgins, not in the same capacity, but was at least in my mind, and I think in your
12:19mind, and it seems like in the media that's had the opportunity to be out there for most
12:23practices in mind, was stepping into that era of his tenure as a Houston Texan.
12:30You take that out and you have fewer guys that can then go win on their lonesome.
12:35And so then it inherently comes back to how do you, Nick Cayley, as the man who's calling
12:40the plays and drawing them up, how are your plays going to make sure that Xavier Hutchinson,
12:44when he has to play Z, when he has to be out there, is getting open?
12:47Maybe not just off of the ability that he brings, because he was not a guy that I've
12:52looked at and of his own volition gets open.
12:54He has made some steps.
12:55Maybe that has helped as well.
12:56But he's not of his own volition getting open.
12:59That's going to be part of what are the schemes that we're running out here.
13:02Jalen Knoll can run across the field, but I think you're going to have to put him in
13:05the right places.
13:06I think we already knew that.
13:07Jared Wayne has looked good.
13:09Jared Wayne ain't getting open by himself.
13:10It needs to be this system.
13:11So I think as you are attributing more of those snaps to those types of guys, 100% I'm with
13:16you.
13:16This is on Nick Cayley to make sure that you have things that get them open, not just
13:20accentuate the talents that Jaden Higgins has.
13:23You know what I mean?
13:23I think this now becomes, you have to help elevate what these guys do.
13:26Look, Nick Casario kind of controls the big picture of the offense.
13:30What they're going to do, you know, the coaches that are here, the personnel that he thinks
13:35can fit with the offense.
13:36D'Amico Ryans also controls the, you know, I guess the tenor of the offense.
13:43I want to run the ball.
13:44We want to make no mistakes.
13:46Don't turn it over.
13:47But Nick Cayley had to go home yesterday and say, all right, how am I going to adjust?
13:54What are our priorities going to be?
13:56It's on him and it's going to be really fascinating to watch.
13:59I think not to, you know, to, to the nth degree, but I think they're starting the night.
14:05You're going to start seeing some of the ways that he's going to tinker.
14:07Maybe so.
14:08I'm just, I'm always hesitant to believe that preseason games are going to give you some
14:12level of insight into that.
14:13Personnel groups, people on the field, that kind of thing.
14:14I imagine that.
14:16Obviously we'll be watching for that tonight.
14:18I think that where that starts showing up specifically is what changes are you going to see joint practice
14:23to joint practice in Carolina and obviously practice once we get over the weekend as well.
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