Seth Payne | SportsRadio 610 Houston Morning Host; Former NFL Lineman

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. Seth Payne getting ready for his show, also former NFL defensive lineman. Well, is that true of the year Mark VanderMeer on Texans radio? Is it true that it's a win you'll never forget?

Yeah, I believe it will be. I think this is the first win of the season as the Texans are now five and two in their last seven games, five and four on the year. But this was the litmus test. This was a real bona fide Super Bowl contender that they'd be facing. And CJ Stroud would be lining up opposite Joe Burrow. So yeah, I think whether it's this season or in the context of CJ Stroud's career, this felt like a step forward. He had a record-breaking performance last week with 470 yards. But this one, driving to kick a field goal with a street free agent kicker that you just elevated from the practice squad and with multiple game-winning drives in the final minutes of games over the last several weeks, it's been a fun run here in Houston.

Okay, I looked this up but I just want to clarify. Did you and D'Amico Ryans cross paths at the tail end of your career in Houston? We did. I actually yelled at him in training camp once because it was my final year in the NFL and it was his rookie season. This is when I first really kind of learned that D'Amico has a different way about him. He'd been elevated a starter early in training camp and he was a rookie and I was kind of a crusty old grumpy veteran and it was hot out and he was having a hard time getting a play call out and we were in some kind of a situational drill where there was a play clock running and I yelled at him and I was like, get the bleep and bleep call out and he kind of looked at me. It was almost like he was a Beastmaster or something. He calmed me down and just very patiently got the call out and from there on, you know, his rookie year uses everything you want in the line back.

He was all over the place. He was just vicious when it came to hitting people but he's so calm and even tempered in every other area of life. So he's just got a rare blend of all the things you want in a football player in terms of fire but then also all those things in terms of maturity on and off the field and that's frankly a bit of what I've seen in CJ too. He's just freakishly mature for his age and he's got a different perspective on life I think because of his background and both, you know, in life and in his family but then also as a football player where he didn't, you know, I don't want to say he came up the hard way. He's still got a scholarship to Ohio State but he was relatively lightly recruited and one of the last guys really really plucked from that class behind guys like Bryce Young is a high school recruit. So it's a really cool blend between those two.

Still though, to have it come together so quickly, how is it happening? I think it's obviously when you have a quarterback it makes all the difference in the world. So, you know, you can't ever ignore that and CJ's done an incredible job but I think a couple things aside from some of the talent acquisitions, I mean Bobby Sloat, the offensive coordinator, has also worked very very well with CJ Stroud and if you look at the way CJ's been able to spread the ball around there are just, there are options out there. You know, Noah Brown, the wide receiver who, I don't know if he's ever had more than 500 or so yards in a season, he's had 300 yards receiving in the last two games. Tank Dell, the rookie out of Houston, is just very very fast. He's undersized but you get a lot of separation. Nico Collins was injured yesterday but he's been the very best he's been since he's been here in Houston.

You know, Nico's been here but we're getting the best version of him. I think Bobby Sloat does a really good job working with CJ and kind of surpassing all these hurdles and this is where, this has been the interesting thing to watch. You know, with any rookie you're kind of waiting to see, okay, what's gonna throw them, where's the next, what are defensive coordinators gonna throw at them, diplomacyism. Really from the Atlanta game onwards, defensive coordinators have been showing a lot of different looks. You know, rushing three and dropping eight, trying to vary coverages as much as possible.

They're throwing a kitchen sink at CJ and he's adjusted each step along the way. So, you know, we got another half season to go but it's been very impressive so far. Yeah, it is impressive considering the number of rookie quarterbacks who've started and you see kind of the median, the mean where a lot of them, it's just a wild ride and with CJ, well, they're certainly, it's not perfection.

There are a couple mistakes here and there. It's amazing how much better he looks than your average rookie. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Seth Payne is with us from Sports Radio 610 in Houston getting set for their morning show, Payne and Pendergast. So, I saw that you posted on your Twitter that it was just so much fun. I know you don't just mean winning. What else is fun besides the winning? Oh, well, I, you know, and I posted that, I posted that right at the beginning of the final field goal drive and most of the replies from text and chance were like, what the hell are you talking about?

I'm losing my hair here. I just, to give a damn, you know, to care about a football team at the end of football games and more than anything just to believe in the quarterback and that part of it is a whole lot of fun, especially given, you know, the Texans. The Texans have, it's not just as losing on the field over the last couple years has been tough. They've had just a litany of atypical issues, whether it's Sean Watson or things going on in the front office, like all this stuff has just been really weird and I think a lot of Texans fans just got tired of being a spectacle, you know, like it was more about gossip and weirdness than it was about even your run-of-the-mill bad football team, so it's just, it's nice to be relevant in a good way again. Okay, well, let me piggyback on that.

About two and a half minutes to go just as a warning. There was a lot of criticism of Nick Casario when he was hired. In fact, that was theoretically one of the reasons why Deshaun wanted out before we heard about all of his other issues, but there was a lot of criticism. Has Nick now earned the respect or at least earned, I don't know, a couple of attaboys for the the team that he's put together and the hire he made in D'Amico? I think so and you know how it goes with GMs.

It's going to be, it's going to be a mixed bag of responses on that from various people. The biggest obstacle he has right now is that the two first round picks from last year, Kenyon Green and Derrick Stingley, have been very injured and a lot and you haven't gotten much out of them. Derrick Stingley came back and played yesterday. Getting a quarterback changes everything I think and you know some of the mid-round picks like Tank Bell, like Jalen Petrie, not a mid-round pick but a second-round pick, those guys have done well. So I think a lot of it will ride on A, CJ Stroud continuing to play well and then B, Will Anderson. The team traded a lot for Will Anderson.

He's only got a couple sacks on the year but he's been getting very, very close to the quarterback and like getting a lot of pressures. I feel good about Will Anderson over the next couple years taking a lot of steps forward. I mean it certainly is a complete change after the Texans were down to the dumpers to use the Dan Campbell word but a couple of words just about their toughness too because I think it feels like they're taking on that personality of D'Amico. Yeah, yeah and I think again both D'Amico and CJ embody that and I'll tell you what too, just to piggyback on what I was saying about Katerio, I think Nick doesn't get enough credit for getting all the picks he did for Deshaun Watson.

I mean if I were a GM I would have cut fate so quickly on that because of the stress level and because of the uncertainty. So that was an ugly situation but like he came out of it the best possible way for the Texans and as far as D'Amico, yeah, he's brought in like they've gotten all the toughness out of these guys. I think a lot of these guys are naturally tough and D'Amico just has such a way with people that guys are really allowed to shine and show that toughness. And you know it personally, I love that. All right, you can find Seth on Twitter at Seth C Payne. Former D lineman in the NFL knows D'Amico from their encounter in training camp. Getting ready to host his show with our friend Sean Pendergast on Sports Radio 610. Thank you for a couple of minutes, we really appreciate it.

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