QB Carousel: Seth Payne, Former Houston Texans Defensive Lineman

Step right up here. Don't be shy. The Super Bowl is over, but the NFL quarterback carousel is just beginning. You could ask yourself a question.

Do I feel lucky? What does the future hold for all 32 NFL teams at the QB position? Now, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to spin this wheel right here. Let's spin the wheel and find out which teams we hit today. The Houston Texans. Alrighty, let's go down to Houston and we're gonna welcome in a man right now that usually lasts two, two and a half years when we talk to him. It's always a negative story with the Texans, but now the Texans have their new head football coach, a familiar friend, and a guy that was an unbelievable player for them in D'Amico Ryans.

And there's some optimism because they have the second overall pick in the draft. And now joining us is Seth Payne. Seth, I guess it's good to talk about something positive with you for once.

It is. I think the last time I talked to you, I was visiting family in upstate New York and I was driving through a blizzard and I remember very distinctly thinking I wish I would just go off the road instead of having to keep talking about the Texans. So this has been a much more enjoyable experience ever since D'Amico walked in the door. So what was your first reaction about D'Amico Ryans getting the job? Because I know that that is basically NFL home for him and what he did in his career, but I was surprised that the guy that was probably the hottest name and the guy that everyone interviewed with ended up with the Texans. Yeah, I was in a position where I had pretty good reason to believe that D'Amico was interested in the job, but it wasn't anything that I wanted to go public about. And I had to kind of just tell people listen, these reports that D'Amico doesn't want the job are likely erroneous. And so it's frustrating for a little while there, especially when you know, there's radio darkness during the playoffs and D'Amico basically had told the Texans on his interview before they had to go into a moratorium period that he wanted to come to the Texas. This is where he wanted to be for a multitude of reasons, but that's rare in the NFL, you know, that's rare for an NFL head coach to even have a specific location. He wants to be at their largely mercenaries going where that wherever the best opportunity is, but his wife is from Houston. He played here, obviously, and and I think I think what mattered a lot too was that he knows the McNair family as opposed to a lot of other people that, you know, think they know what the Texans ownership is about D'Amico actually knows the McNair family and I think that helped a lot.

So it's it's a 180 degree difference from how things felt a month or six weeks ago. You were there for his rookie year. What do you remember about your time together with D'Amico Ryan? I'll tell you honestly, they they put him in as a starter pretty early in camp and I was in my tenth year in the league at that point and I was kind of I was just kind of grumpy about rookies getting starting jobs.

You like an old dog that doesn't want to play with the puppy. Yeah. Yeah. So I remember the first day we were in in camp and he was in the huddle as a starter. He was having a hard time getting the call out.

He was kind of stuttering a little bit and I and I yelled at him and you know with a few choice swear words and everything and I remember he just he kind of looked at me with this like this wise old man look about it. I don't like a Beastmaster economy and it was it was really apparent from very early on that he just had a special quality about him that was just born to lead and you know, you hear that universally from people that have played alongside of them. The guys that were coached by him in San Francisco. I think I think sometimes people make the mistake of saying that that San Francisco defense is just loaded with talent and they are but they're not high draft picks, you know, Fred Warner was a mid round draft pick, you know, both obviously the stud and they got some first rounders there, but the the safety there you Funga was not a high draft pick. They they got coached really well by both Robert Sala and then you know now D'Amico Ryan's the last couple years.

So there's a lot of moving factors here. You got to go get the talent now in that building, but this is the first time in a long time where the Texans make a higher and it's like, okay, you can actually expect that guy to be there for the rebuild and not just some of their hiring just to hire then they'll fire after a year. You're pretty confident that there's not going to be that much of a struggle going from a defensive coordinator to a head coach because we've seen guys before be these highly touted coordinators and then be disastrous as head coaches. Yeah, you know and I and I totally get and generally now go for the idea that you should be hiring an offensive coach if it's a tiebreaker. I think first and foremost you should be looking for the guys who have the best leadership ability and you know, frankly a lot of guys who are really good coordinators. We know this by now.

It's well established. They get into that head coaching role and they just they lack those leadership qualities. They like the ability to delegate to budget their time and more than anything, you know split their energy Matt Patricia. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

That's exactly it. So I think he has all those things and then the other thing is that you know, they hire Bobby Flowick who comes over from San Francisco and D'Amico spent most of his career as a player and as a coach in a Gary Kubiak or Kyle Shanahan type of system. So I think he is a guy who is very inquisitive from very early on, you know his rookie year. He was quizzing Matt Schaub all the time. Well, Schaub wasn't there his rookie year, but from very on early on, you know, he was quizzing Matt Schaub about exactly why the defense operates the way it does, you know, what are they looking at when they make their checks and their calls and he kept up that curiosity as a defensive player and as a coach. So I think hopefully he has a really good idea of a what he's looking for and how to help those guys to help those offensive coaches, but then be you know, there are enough teams running some version of the Kubiak Shanahan system.

I call it the kubeshanistan system. So we want to kubeshanistan coach because they're easy to replace. It's like a Ford F-150 like you can find spare parts for Ford F-150 because there's so many of them out there and likewise with that with that offense if you lose an offensive coordinator because he gets a head coaching job. You've got a multitude of other coaches out there who can come in and not have to upend your young quarterback with a whole bunch of new lingo and schemes and philosophy.

Seth Payne here with us. We'll talk about the potential quarterback pick at two in just a second. But where's your belief level in Nick Kisera because it feels like they have the right coach whatever that means at this stage, but still a lot of questions about Kisera. I think so far and this is you know, I know Nick a little bit and I know D'Amico, you know, somewhat just from conversations over the years. I was in my last year in the league when he was a rookie so we didn't spend a lot of time together. But I had a feeling that they would get on very well because they're both guys who I think are really adept at, you know, setting themselves aside, you know, not having big egos about things. So I don't I don't think there is going to be a lot of, you know, stubbornness like like it perhaps or was at times between various head coaches in the past here with the Texans, you know, between somewhere between Trubiak because Trubiak had no ego either, but there was some butting of heads at times with other guys. So I think that Bill O'Brien is what Seth is saying.

What's that? I said Bill O'Brien is what you're alluding to. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I like O'Brien. I think like honestly, he's the bad GM. Yeah, exactly. That was the biggest mistake the team ever made and it was just a snowball of effects after that. So those guys so far are getting on really well.

I think they see the game and break down the game the same way. So, you know, it's early on we can be very positive about all this but I do feel a genuine like there's a vibe there between those two that I don't think maybe that Casario might have expected. He was kind of, he said he was blown away by Tomiko in the interview and Nick's back the kind of guy that's going to be able to sell you a line. Like he's not a natural born salesman, you know, and when he was up in the press conference, he actually looked like he was beaming about the hire of Tomiko. Like he was just so happy with the interview and the discussions they've had that it was it was a really good feeling.

Wrap it up with Seth Payne. So it feels like you guys should have the number one overall pick, but we know you messed that up at the end of the year. If you guys did have the number one overall pick, would it be Bryce Young in your opinion?

It's you know, they've done a really good job of not leaking anything at all. I think it would be Bryce Young just because again between both those guys, between Tomiko and Nick, I think there's both those guys want football players first and foremost, and I think they're willing to set aside some of the measurable. I'm I love Bryce Young. I am as nervous as hell about his frame size. I you know, I wouldn't mind if he's just short, but he's he's we try to compare him to Doug Flutie and I think Flutie was a little bit thicker than him, you know, so that's that's what makes me nervous. I'm sure it probably makes some people nervous there, but I think he's the best football player amongst all those top quarterback prospects. Do you think that's the move up to one to get him because it seems like according to what your mercy said at that introductory press conference that they love that Alabama quarterback.

So do you fear maybe the Colts moving into that one spot? We were this is where I am with Jimmer say I think he's he's smarter than people. It remains a little less crazy than people want to believe that he is, but I don't think he's genius enough to throw that out there when they actually do want Bryce Young. It feels like there was a lot of smoke that he threw out there with the vague notion that hey, we'll throw some smoke out there, but I don't think you would have done it if if he actually liked Bryce Young.

So the fact that I had to think about it that much means that Jimmer say is already I've been bested by Jimmer. So basically what you're saying is he wants the Texans to take Bryce Young because they want CJ Stroud probably. Yeah, or they maybe they don't have strong feelings about either guy, but they'd love for the tech group to blow a few draft picks.

I'm trying to trade up one spot. Do you think there's any chance? I know they're sitting there at 2 and then 12.

Do you think there's any chance at 2? They don't take a quarterback? The Colts are all the Texans.

Yeah. Yeah, I do think there's that chance, you know, and part of that is both D'Amico and Nick have experienced now, you know, the Caesario through New England and D'Amico through San Francisco. They understand that there's multiple different ways. You can get a quarterback and that the draft is just one of them. So especially, you know, these last few years, some Super Bowl winning teams have had some success trading for veteran quarterbacks. So Caesario has mentioned multiple times that hey, the draft is just one tool for acquiring players. So yeah, if they are just too scared off by Bryce Young's size, or maybe they just don't like him for whatever reason.

I don't think that they would have a problem standing Pat and because of the goodwill that came with the fan base, because the fans are just over there, you know, over the moon about D'Amico. I think people are willing to be patient for a year and just see where it takes them if they decide not to draft a quarterback this year. I think that would mean they would have to make a move rather quickly on Carr or maybe you could wait a little bit with Jimmy G. Is that in play in your opinion? I think honestly, I could see them taking Anthony Richardson as a project, a guy that might not need to play immediately. And again, people probably think this sounds crazy. If they don't take a quarterback, I wouldn't be surprised if Davis Mills ends up at least getting a chance to start because it's going to stock the roster up as much as possible and then move forward from there.

I don't know if they want to be aggressive enough and blow those draft picks or cap space on Garoppolo or Carr just yet. Interesting. Appreciate the time. Thank you, Seth. I mean, my pleasure.