The Texans could have done a better job tackling last season, head coach DeMeco Ryans admits. But that was last season. They need to start this season tackling well against the Indianapolis Colts. Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast talked about it here.
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00:00There's the key is consistency and it's always important the first game is gonna be about tackling
00:05All right, you have to tackle as a team, right? We saw
00:09Talk about our defense last year as too many missed tackles
00:13So for us to improve and run game and also the passing game
00:16We have to be a better tackling team and it takes just more hats to the ball more guys securing and wrapping up now
00:23That was D'Amico Ryan's yesterday
00:26something that
00:27Something that you've pointed out Seth and I hope I don't butcher this but part of the swarm mentality
00:32It feels like baked into swarming is the fact that there are gonna be some missed tackles when you swarm
00:38the hope is that the quantity of bodies that are being thrown at the ball maybe makes up for the
00:44Lack of quality in the first couple guys that might get to the ball the first time like it's just the swarming is
00:51There are missed tackles that come with swarming, but you get a lot of bodies to the ball. Well, and I and I think
00:57I
00:58And I think that there might be some truth to that except that and maybe last year was more that case
01:03But when you go and you look at the entirety of the season, there was just some flat-out poor tackling
01:10Fundamentally bad tackling last year
01:13And that you realize yeah, the swarm is great, but it's got to be the classic
01:17All right
01:17The first guy the first guy on the spot for sure maybe try to lay a big hit but do it in such a way
01:24That you're not you're not also neglecting tackling
01:27I think when I one of the things that still irks me to this day is when I see people say well
01:33Ronnie a lot couldn't play in today's NFL
01:36If go back and I honestly I felt that same way, too. I went back and I watched a compilation of
01:42Ronnie lots hundred greatest hits in the NFL and I swear
01:46There are only a handful of them that would have been illegal by today's standards. Ronnie a lot was
01:52First and foremost a very fundamentally sound tackler who also happened to
01:59Make a big impact as he was as he was coming in for a fundamental tackle. So they're not mutually exclusive
02:05It's not like you can only go for the big hit at the expense of proper tackling Ronnie
02:10a lot did a really good job of it and
02:13And he did that in an era by the way where the 49ers did not practice in pads ever
02:19They didn't yeah practice the way basically that you're legislated to have to play to play now and he did it with
02:26Fundamentally sound techniques. So I thought the notion that somehow well in this day and age, you can't teach good tackling
02:33It's just it's complete bogus BS because all the drills that you do like rugby rugby players are pretty good tacklers and they do it
02:40no pads, you know, there's there's ways to practice it without going to the ground and
02:45And I think that hopefully that's one of the improvements this year on the text
02:49Are you confident? There'll be a better tackling team this year?
02:51I am based on just what I saw of Jalen Petrie
02:54Which is that you can see even though it's a preseason game the fundamentals show up in there
02:59It's one of the things I like watching for in the preseason. It's alright. Yeah, you might be playing against backups
03:05It's not for real, etc, etc
03:07The fundamentals show up and Jalen Petrie fundamentally is a better tackler now than he was in the in the previous two years
03:14Here's D'Amico hands
03:15We just done talking about Kamari last which by the way, he he he accounts for about half the missed tackles on the team
03:20Yeah, so there'll be a better tackling team of Jalen Petrie's a better tail and Petrie. They'll improve by 50%
03:26Yeah, I'm exaggerating. I'm exaggerating on the percentage, but he had the Lions share a lot of them. No doubt
03:32We talked about Kamari Lassiter rookie cornerback. He's gonna be under a lot of pressure
03:36Especially early in the season is defensive core offensive coordinators opposing offensive coordinators will be testing him
03:42Here's D'Amico Ryan's on Kamari Lassiter. What stood out the most to me about Kamari is his consistency like he shows up every day
03:49Where there was rookie minicamp OTAs like Kamari no matter who lined up across from him
03:55Like I just love that
03:56He never wavered with whoever lined up across from him and he accepted whatever challenge was thrown his way a very smart player
04:04He does he finishes the right way, right? And that's what it's all about in this in this league
04:09Everybody's about the same talent-wise, but you have to make up in your mind
04:13How are you gonna finish each play and he finishes with the right mindset?
04:16Which has allowed him I had to continue to grow as a rookie and be
04:20Consistent because of his mindset of how he finishes things
04:23I think that's where to when people get hung up on the four six forty time or any of that
04:30the
04:32like the lesson in football always is
04:35that
04:36The measurables are are way more overrated than they should be
04:41Just because they're I mean if you look at usually it's very rare that the fastest guy in the NFL is the best wide receiver
04:48It's very rare that the guy with the best bench press at the combine is the best offensive lineman
04:54You know did happen but usually more so than not those are guys that are kind of physical freaks
04:59But don't do the fundamentals well or just don't have the knack for playing football and I think with Kamari
05:04What you've seen is man talk about being fundamentally sound and understanding the finer aspects of it understand and
05:12Recognizing routes and playing them with the right leverage all that kind of stuff
05:15That's a lot more about the polish of playing the actual position. He's
05:20He's got the equivalent of a four three forty when it comes to that stuff. Yeah, and that all matters the guy
05:25I always think of Wayne Gretzky and the way that people talk about when Wayne Gretzky came into the league or even when he was a
05:33Juniors player people would look at him and just maybe like how is this guy so good like he's he's he's
05:41Tiny he's not that fast. Like there's nothing about him that looks like. Oh, yeah, he's gonna be the greatest, but he just saw the game
05:50differently than other people and
05:52You know his skill level with his stick and everything was just so far above and beyond everybody else
05:58That it had very little to do with the measurables and
06:01And I think Kamari is one of those guys that it's you got to kind of throw the measurables out the window because he does
06:06So many other things. Well, I didn't see a Wayne Gretzky Kamari Lasseter analogy coming today. I like that
06:12That's good. I've meditated for nine minutes this morning. It was good
06:15I had a I had a Yordan analogy that I was gonna bounce off Nick
06:20But we you know, we kind of ran out of time
06:22But I did send it to him my Yordan my relevant cross sport Yordan Alvarez analogy
06:27Andre Johnson, did he did he give you an opinion on your?
06:31Did he said it was your what was your opinion was my well my analogy for Yordan across sport was Andre Johnson
06:39Like is like Yordan Alvarez is is like Andre Johnson in that they're both like
06:44Ten out of ten on the freak level like they do freaky things like the highlight reel for Yordan and Andre is five stars
06:51but they are both
06:54Super super technical with their jobs like Yordan Alvarez isn't just some masher like he is a
06:59Highly technical like great
07:01I really good plate discipline like the science of hitting is a thing with Yordan Alvarez similar to Andre Johnson
07:07I think the science of being a receiver like if a route calls for nine yards Andre Johnson is running nine yards like there
07:14Yeah, you know, there's there's
07:16Yeah, and his ability his ability
07:19Like honestly some of Andre's was yeah
07:21He knew so well how to offset the fact that people were scared of his speed and for a bigger guy
07:26This is where I've seen Andre's influence on Nico Collins a little bit. I think in the Nico's a big guy, but who can
07:34Sit down and change direction underneath and get in and out of his brakes way better than most big guys
07:41Can I mean the the physics in the geometry works against you when you're a bigger guy like that?
07:46You're a shorter guy close to the ground. You know, you can you can be a little Zuzu pet out there
07:51Yeah, that's a good way. Yeah, you're done. You're done
07:55When you first look at him, you think oh, of course, he's just this huge power hitter who can crank the ball
08:00458 feet right, but there's a lot more that goes into it than that
08:04And I think Andre's a lot like that like you watch Andre's highlight family
08:06Oh, yeah, this guy's great because he can jump up over everybody guys bounce off of him
08:11But then you listen to people and we've we've deluged with Andre stuff over the last month because of the Hall of Fame
08:16but you hear people like Gary Kubiak his teammates talk about him and
08:21they talk about just like how
08:24Technically sound he is to to go with that. You're done
08:26The freakish thing about your non is his consistency, you know
08:30Other than like a little every now and then you get a two-month stretch at home where he doesn't hit a home run
08:34but even like he very very rarely has stretches where he's
08:39Where he's hitting poorly right like his slump this year
08:43He still had he still had an 800 OPS. That was his slump
08:47That's the freakiest thing about your Don is it can feel like your Don is going through a massive slump
08:51Yeah, and you go you got God when is your Don's OPS gonna get up around 850 again?
08:56And you look and it's 872 or something. Yeah, he's been that way his entire slump. Yeah
09:02He's just not superhero your Don. It just turns out he's like an average major leaguer and above average
09:07Text message Steve Largent was the same way slow, but was always open. Yeah kids. Steve Largent was this guy played for Seattle now
09:15He's like a senator or something like that in the state of somebody should ask Kamari Lassiter that
09:20Express availability. Do you consider yourself as the modern Steve Largent?
09:24Are you like are you like the Steve Largent of the defensive back world?
09:28And then and then you you would be standing in the scrum after that person asked it and Kamari super confused and you'd be like
09:33Hang on Kamari. Let me let me clarify this
09:35Are you deep Wayne Gretzky Kamari?
09:42And actually this is a political question, I want to know where you stand on Steve Largent's political, right?
09:49What is Steve Largent? What's his deal? Is he as your Republican a Democrat? I have zero clue
09:54No, I don't I don't know and I don't care to guess on the radio. Oh, I want to talk about it
10:01Ross Tucker