Brandon Scott, SportsRadio 610

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Absolutely. Now, I guess the first question is, who in Houston thought that the Texans would be in this position, this spot today? Tell me, who is it?

I need to know because I need to ask them lottery numbers. Yeah, JR, I'd be lying to you if I said it was me and I can tell you even the most pie in the sky optimistic Texans fans wouldn't have had them winning nine games and wouldn't have had the final game of the regular season be a do or die moment with an opportunity to go to the playoffs. So I would say close to no one. Maybe there was someone out there but it's somebody that's on the radio, interacts with people on social media, online, in person when we do our remote shows. There was some optimism.

Don't get me wrong, JR. There was some optimism and a buzz about D'Nico Ryan coming in as the head coach. He played here.

He's very trusted here, well respected, well known around the area. And so there was some excitement with that. And CJ Stroud, the number two overall picket quarterback, I think there was a buzz and an excitement about the newness of the team. I would say this myself, like the newness of the team was very exciting and interesting with the optimism to the level of, hey, this could be a team that's playing in the playoffs or at least at the end of the season playing with a game to go to the playoffs. I don't think too many people thought that.

Not at all. Brandon Scott is here with us, Sports Radio 610 down in Houston. So we know that CJ Stroud, especially during last year's draft, he was said to have been the consolation prize. And we all know what the hell is going on in Carolina.

There doesn't appear to be a lot of certainties there. So we know about Stroud and has the opportunity to pass for 4,000 yards, have one of the best rookie passing seasons ever. What else has taken place with the Houston Texans that America is not familiar with? Well, I would I would agree with you about Stroud being being someone that everyone knew. But I think on the point about Stroud that I'd make is just that I don't think we gave enough credit to or perhaps just did not know to the degree or level of how of how well he would make decisions and how accurate he would be as a rookie. Like his player profile, CJ Stroud's scouting profile, would tell you that he's an accurate quarterback. Watching him at Ohio State would tell you that he was an accurate quarterback and obviously he had a tremendous amount of success. But the thing I don't think we could have projected or predicted about CJ Stroud as a rookie was that he would be someone that would, as far as decision making, the biggest things about playing quarterback are what? Decision making and accuracy, right? Well, we knew his accuracy was on point, but it was hard to know or predict that his decision making would be advanced for a rookie.

And so that's one thing that's been a revelation about CJ Stroud on top of the fact that his accuracy has stayed true to the scouting report. He's a really accurate quarterback on top of the really good decision making. And he likes big plays. He wants to stretch the ball downfield. You talk about this offense, it is not a dig and dunk operation. This is a top seven passing offense right now in the NFL and they are not digging and ducking.

They are stretching the ball downfield and that is something that I would say the Texans fans and people who are observing the Texans are probably not used to, especially over the last few years. And then I will point out D'Amico Ryan, who I mentioned earlier. You know, it's hard to know, JR, who's going to be a good head coach before they've ever done it, a first time head coach.

You know, it's probably even more difficult to predict than a quarterback. But D'Amico Ryan has been every bit as good as the folks who were optimistic about him becoming the head coach thought he would be. So I would say that the Texans are better in so many areas this season because they have upgraded so much in the head coach and quarterback area. And we understand how important it is to a team's success. Brandon Scott here with us from Sports Radio 610 in Houston, Texas.

The Texans getting ready to take on the Colts, trying to bolster their chance to get into the postseason. When you take a look at the defense, we know C.J. Stroud wasn't the only dude selected out of the draft.

We know Will Anderson was right there. And I know he's dealing with an ankle injury. We also have the same thing with Jonathan Grenard. He's already been ruled out. What do you think this game is going to look like tomorrow night against the Colts? Yeah, so like you mentioned, Jonathan Grenard, who is their lead pass rusher, at least in terms of sacks. He's their double-digit sack guy, is not going to play in the game. I know earlier in the week there was some optimism that he might be able to give it a go. With Will Anderson, keep in mind that he played in the last game and had a couple of sacks, but he had a snap count, a limited snap count.

Only played 12 snaps, but made the most of it, was really close to dominant in the 12 snaps that he played. So I think it's going to look similar to that in terms of personnel. They are going to have, you know, there was a fear because all four of their starting defensive linemen were on the injury report.

What it looks like, three of them are going to play, and then minus Jonathan Grenard. So I think that Texans fans feel good about, especially given how the health situation has paid out for the team overall throughout the year, feeling pretty good about the way the health looks like going into this game. But man, I'm expecting it to be a really interesting game of strengths of the Colts who have Jonathan Taylor, who's one of the very best players in the entire NFL, whether he's having a great year or not. Like he's a guy who can totally take over a game versus a Texans defense where you talk about things that are different now. Their rushing defense is one of the very best in the NFL after being one of the worst over the last few years. So what is one of the top rushing defenses do against one of the better running backs in all of football? And then obviously C.J.

Stroud. I think Texans fans are expecting, based on the way that C.J. Stroud has played this season, when he's been healthy and when he's been out there, they're expecting him to outplay Gardner Minshew, despite the fact that the Colts won this game in week two.

It felt like totally different teams and totally different experiences back then when that game was played in September. So that's the feel around here, J.R. Brandon, there are going to be a lot of people tuning into this game tomorrow who haven't seen a Houston Texans game all season long, but certainly know the storylines and what they've been able to do. Is there a player or are there multiple players that everybody listening should pay attention to tomorrow that they might not be familiar with? Well, on the defensive side, I would say, since we've already talked about Will Anderson, I would say pay attention to Derek Stingley Jr.

This is a guy who was highly motivated. He was the number three overall pick by the Texans in 2022. If you remember, J.R., and everybody out here does, he was selected one spot ahead of Sauce Gardner, who was an All-Pro and a Pro Bowler. His rookie year is named a Pro Bowler again. In his second season, the feeling has been, I think league-wide, but certainly in a lot of pockets is that the Texans got that pick wrong.

They should have picked the All-Pro and Sauce Gardner over Derek Stingley. Meanwhile, Derek Stingley's just had issues staying healthy, and when he has been healthy this season, he's been really good, man. He looks like an All-Pro, at the very least Pro Bowl type of cornerback when he's out there healthy.

He had a period there where he had four interceptions in the course of three games. So this is a really good football player. I think Derek Stingley, he's a quiet guy. He's not going to be a real flashy guy, someone you're probably going to read or hear a lot about.

But he's a really, really good football player, and I think the nation is going to get a chance to see that. And then I'll throw another name out there, a couple of other names on the offensive side that are like names that you know, but maybe you didn't realize this is where they were. Dalton Schultz and Devin Singletary. Dalton Schultz, of course, from the Dallas Cowboys in previous years, and Devin Singletary was the running back for the Buffalo Bills that they moved on from.

And, you know, they're with James Cook now. Devin Singletary has quietly had a really good season for the Texans this year, taking over their lead running back job. And Dalton Schultz is one of C.J. Stroud's more reliable pass catching options.

So I would point out those three names. Derek Stingley Jr. is the cornerback on the defensive side of the ball, and Dalton Schultz and Devin Singletary on the offensive side. What do you think is going to happen? I mean, are we going to see some Texans in the postseason?

I know we got to wait on some of the other games. And what do they need to do, win or lose, to continue building in the offseason? Yeah, I think that they're going to have to get C.J.

Stroud some more weapons. I mean, you guys are familiar, I'm sure, with Tank Dale. If you play fantasy football, I'm sure you're familiar with the rookie, Tank Dale, who went down earlier in the season with a broken leg.

I believe it was a fibula, actually. So he's going to be back, but they're going to need more than, I think, Tank Dale, Nico Collins and Dalton Schultz as their featured guys. They're going to want to soup up that offense a little bit now that they know that they have a quarterback who plays the way that I described earlier.

Good decision making, elite decision making, you might even say, with elite accuracy. So I think they're going to have to continue to build this offense. One thing that's interesting about them is that they've invested a lot of money in the offensive line, but it's struggled to either be healthy, stay healthy, or to play to the level that I think is the expectation.

Even though Laramie Council is a Pro Bowler again, I think that's something to keep an eye on. But as far as this game, man, I'm expecting the Texans to win. I think that they overall have the better team. They've got a top 10 offense, a top 10 defense, or at least a top half, I should say, a top half defense.

Whereas the Colts have neither of those things. And so I'm expecting them to win this game, but certainly they've got to do a lot more to build upon what they've got now to be in that conversation with the Baltimore Ravens, like you were talking about in your earlier segment, the Ravens and where the Dolphins are, and teams like that are right now. Well, I know they're going to be a lot of folks in Houston paying close attention to what's going on with them Jaguars. Not necessarily any expectation, but this is where we're at at the end of the season, man.

Pretty wild. I had people calling me over the past couple of years saying that they would not go back to a Houston Texans game, that they were giving up on the Texans until they got things together. And I mean, damn it, things have changed rather quickly here, Brandon. So I'm just happy everybody down in Texas. It's amazing how quickly, and I was writing about this not too long ago, JR, it's amazing how quickly you can flip the script or how succinctly you can do it by just getting your head coach and your quarterback situation correct.

You can flip the script, you're right. Nobody, even after that week two game when they lost to the Colts, nobody was talking about preferring the Texan situation over either the Jaguars or the Colts. It's going to be a sneaky pick to win the ASC South next year, and no one would have thought that. We thought around that time that it was the Jacksonville Jaguars division to run for years because of Trevor Lawrence.

Now that conversation's completely changed. Absolutely. Well, good luck to the Texans tomorrow. Let's see what happens over the weekend.

It would be crazy if they get into the postseason. Either way, this is a successful season for the Houston Texans. Brandon, I appreciate you taking the time to hop on. Where can people follow you and all your good work surrounding Sports Radio 610 and more? Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah, that Brandon K. Scott on X, formerly Twitter.

I'm still getting that right, calling it X. You know, mama named it Twitter, I'm going to call it Twitter. But at Brandon K. Scott on X and Sports Radio 610, everything we do there online and of course on the app, on the Odyssey app. Brandon, I appreciate you for taking the time to hop on, Brandon. I look forward to talking to you into the future, okay? Good luck. Appreciate it, man.