The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Anthony Becht: 'Dalton Schultz Becomes A Big Priority' For Texans Vs. Jets

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

Anthony Becht, former NFL tight end and current Jets radio announcer and head coach of the St. Louis BattleHawks of the United Football League, joins "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" to preview the Houston Texans taking on the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium for Thursday Night Football. The Jets are coming off a 25-22 loss to the New England Patriots and sit at 2-6 on the season. The Jets are underperforming due to a "lack of execution" week-to-week, Becht said. "It's not just Aaron [Rodgers]... guys have to take accountability." With a "decimated safety situation," the Texans' offense has a chance to succeed against the Jets defense. "Everything has to flow through Joe Mixon," and with Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs out, "Dalton Schultz becomes a big priority." For the Jets to keep their postseason hopes alive, "they have to have balance offensively."

Joining us now is the head football coach of the St. Louis Battlehawks. You're saying, well, Matt, why are we talking XFL right now? Will we will? But we're also going to talk about the New York Jets, tonight's Texans opponent, and the man who calls the games with Bob with Schuzen on the Jets Network is Anthony Beck, who was a former tight end, did some games against for the Houston ESPN for the Cougars years ago with the American Athletic Conference and joins us here on Sports Talks. So, Anthony.

It's Matt. Thanks for joining us. How did you celebrate national tight ends day? last week. You know, it's nice because, you know, a lot of my, you know, constituents in the past, my wife and some people that know me, they post some pictures of me and stuff like that make me feel good since it's been hell. What now?

Almost 2013 years since I put on the uniform. So it's good, man. I celebrated, obviously. I called the game, so I was able to watch football. But it was good to see some throwback West Virginia picks on. line and a couple jet picks online, so it was good stuff. Who is the greatest tight end in NFL history? Greatest tight end in NFL history.

I'll go with Gronk. I just think, you know, his run was pretty impressive, and he did everything. I mean, you know, we can pull clips of him blocking a guy out of bounds into the bleachers, right? So I like complete tight ends. You know, I got a lot of appreciation for the tight ends that play now in their skill set, but Granc was one of a kind and he did everything great. For sure, for sure. Anthony, joining us here.

I'm Anthony Beck with us on Sports Talk 790. Now, obviously, the Jets get a lot of national attention with all the games and being in the market. And we focus, obviously, on the Houston sports side of things. I am perplexed, Anthony, that the Jets have gone off to the start they have so far at 2 and 6. And you've seen every game, you've been in every one of them. is there a way to wrap it up in a nice package to explain what has happened because you've got great running backs, you've got skill position receivers, I don't think Aaron's career is over with, your defense has got one of the best corners

in the game in Soss Garner. Help me to the Houston audience, what has gone wrong this year in a nutshell? Yeah, you know, I just think from a week-to-week standpoint, it's been just a lack of execution by multiple players taking their turns. that have really, you know, set this team back. And I think as the weeks have gone on, you know, I think Aaron's played decent. I just, he's not the same Aaron Rogers, but I don't think, at least I didn't. I didn't want the Aaron Rogers of, you know, 2018.

I wanted a guy that can run a system, get the ball where it needs to go, and what the playmakers, this team has, go make some plays. You know, I think we're second in the NFL and drop balls. That was an issue early on. Then there was some penalties, and some games there wasn't a lot of penalties, but some of those penalties were strategic moments in the game where it cost us. The special teams hasn't been great. Obviously, it's documented.

Greg's Erlein's struggles throughout the year. And then defensively of late, it's not been at its best, you know, especially in the fact when you let the Patriots drive down the field. And I think a couple things come with that. I mean, you have a designated safety situation. And also, you know, your head coach is now, was your full-time defensive coordinator. And me being a head coach, you know,

I want to sit in on offensive meetings and be a part of that game plan for the entire time that we put the run install on the play install is. But I might be in there 20 minutes and all of a sudden I get pulled out because I got to do other head coaching duty. So I'm not there for the hall install. So, you know, I can imagine late nights. Those things, I mean, ideally, Jeff Holbrook is a head coach in this league somewhere at some time,

but in the circumstances that it's in, it's not an easy proposition. So combine all those things, I just think to me it's a lack of execution all the way through. And Aaron's kind of pressing right now. I think he's trying to do maybe a little too much. And with the changes and everything, I think, you know, everybody's trying to get it right.

But I think simply just going out and just playing good ball is enough for this team to be good, to be one of the better teams in the league. But until they show that, you know, they're just a collection of really good players right now. So you mentioned it's a different Aaron Rogers in terms of is it types of plays, is it getting rid of the football a second too late,

maybe getting into a line of scrimmage a little bit? Tell me some differences. If no one had seen him as a jet this year as compared to maybe the last year or so in Green Bay. Yeah, I mean, he's doing things at times where you're like, man, that's the legit hall of fame quarterback. And then there's times where maybe he doesn't quite trust the protection, but it's there. Or he trusts the protection, and it's not there.

So now it's like, now, you know, getting into a rhythm. I mean, the best game he played all year was against the Patriots in the first game they played. I mean, creating plays on the move, getting out of the pocket, doing all these things. You know, he's a little nicked up in those areas. He's not that guy. He can't do it week to week. But in that moment, that looked like a guy that was trending in the right direction. Unfortunately, that's not a guy that can consistently do that at this point in his career.

So winning from the pocket, obviously, has got to be a leap. And for him, you know, being able to have some type of run game around him consistently, that that has not been there of late and, you know, for him to go out there and do it all. Now, to the other flip side is, you know, he's not quite hitting, you know, I'm a layup guy, right? Like, you know, if you're a really good quarterback, you're a little older, right? But you got, I mean, you could see do everything. Like, to me, the Jets for the last 10 years haven't had a quarterback to just hit the layups, right? Like, Zach Wilson tried to, but he couldn't complete him because he was just so inaccurate, right?

So for like, for me, it's like sometimes you see him pull the trigger back on a couple circumstances. Like, just get the ball to the guys and let them do their thing. Move the sticks, move the chains, and just execute at that level. I just think that consistency right now has to be the thought process. The plays and whatever it's been, I. I actually think that, you know, from a standpoint of the offense, this is his system. I mean, this is him and Hackett work together. And Todd Downing's running the same time.

I actually think Todd Downing's called some, you know, two good games since he's been here. But again, it's just this execution situation. And at the end of the day, man, players got to go out there and play. Your best players got to show up consistently. And they're not doing that. It's not just Aaron. I mean, they got a lot of good players. You just talked about.

They got a lot of good players on this roster. But it may be the left guard one time. And the right tackle one time. It might be a receiver. It might be the running back. It might be the tight end. But you cannot have that. And it starts from the top down.

You know, it's got to be handled. It's got to be dealt with. Guys have to take accountability. And every team's dealing with it. But, you know, at some point, the Jets have to get over the hump and play a good game completely. And they haven't done that, really, since their win versus the Patriots, about five weeks ago. Yeah, a couple more minutes here with Anthony Beck calls the color analysis on the Jets Radio Network. The Texans are sending a woeful offensive line to East Rutherford tonight.

Tell me about the defensive pressure of the front four, really the front seven. Do you think that's a way the Jets can get to C.J. Strada is by maybe using one of their strengths. Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, CJ's obviously missing a lot of his key receiving options. And I think just watching him the last couple weeks is he may be holding all the ball a little bit too long, waiting for some of those other targets to kind of get open. I think for me, it gets a little simple. I think everything has to flow through Joe Mixon in this game for them to have the success that they want. You know, I think their line has been okay, but they are struggling.

Obviously, left guard, you know, green seems to be just from what I'm watching a bit of a weak link right now. And then, you know, some other injuries have caused them maybe to have a setback at that. But I think C.J. Strata is enough. Now, do you have enough weapons to get it done? Sure. I mean, you know, you look at a guy like, you know, Tankdale, you know, you just don't have a receiver, one guy you can lean on. I think Dalton Stoltz, I think, becomes a big priority.

And if you look at the history of the Jets defense last couple of here, the tight ends been kind of a place where they've had some issues, you know, containing a tight end. And I think he's really talented. It was really high on him when he was a free agent coming out of Dallas. He felt like he could be, you know, a game-changing tight end. And that's what he was in Dallas. So I think C.J. Shral just got to. just looking at from their perspective is just kind of change what the priorities are. I think he's so good.

And then I watch him on me. He's so talented. He's just so smart with the football. I mean, you guys are fortunate to have a guy like that. And I'm just kind of doing like a little bit of a study because this big talk right now is about, you know, why these quarterbacks coming out or, you know, have so many struggles. And I think it comes down a couple of things like, you know, how many games did they play in start in college?

You know, how much experience do they have in their completion percentage? And when you look at him and just his year, I don't think anybody, but he had more than 30 games starting out of college, but he was kind of the enigma of that draft class in 2023, but he was almost a 70% pass completion at the quarterback position. So, you know, I just think, you know, he's another guy, you can use his legs a little bit as well. I mean, a lot of man-to-man defense that jets are going to play. I mean, you've seen the quarterbacks week the week.

They're getting out of their lanes, you know, maybe you take off and run instead of holding on to that a little quicker. So there will be a pass rush tonight. It is good. Will McDonald is a good player and Hassan Reddick didn't show up in the staff box last week but he did open up the ability for Quinn and Williams to have a big game last week. So that's what happens when you add the other pass rush.

Now Quinn and Williams has a little less to have occupied to him on certain situations and he showed up. So when you're talking about quarterbacks and young quarterbacks, probably the one place you don't want to have your pressure is in your face and you're going to be facing one of the better ones in the NFL and Quinn and Williams. we mentioned at the very top that you are also a coach in the XFL we have seen broadcasters in baseball and basketball leave the booth to get out of the field is the NFL part of your dream

or are you kind of like in having the flexibility of kind of doing both yeah I mean right now my priority is coaching you know anytime you can I mean the job that I took on with the Jets probably you know it's it's been 25 years since they had somebody different so So at some point I'll probably get fired, right? And I'll just do this for the rest of my life. So whenever that happens, I got something to fall back on. But yeah, you know, my goal is to continue to be a head coach in the UFL, which was formerly

the XFL. And I just keep doing that. I mean, you know, continue to win, continue to build my resume. I'm trying to expedite that process. I do want to be a head coach in college football. And, of course, the NFL is a path for me that makes sense now where I can get there the quickest. And, you know, working on those things moving forward. I've had some opportunities to kind of slide into the NFL at a positional standpoint. And I just think right now continue to

be a head coach, continue to be a leader of men. I'm a CEO guy. I'm a guy that oversees extremely detailed, excels in messaging, knows how to handle people very where and tries to really be elite in the situational part of the game because I don't call the play. So I have to be elite in that department. And I learn every week from college coaches and NFL head coaches on what not to do. So, you know, being a former player, being in those circumstances as a player now

as a coach, you know, those things are a premium for me. So just continuing to grow and be at my best. And then, you know, like I said, I love to make the transition to be a head coach in college when that time comes. Maybe when my son graduates, too. I'd probably be better to watching him play at Iowa State. Yeah, for

sure. And we saw the cyclones there. Certainly a very good team in the Big 12. I got 30 seconds left and thank you so much for your valuable time here. A lot of us here in Houston think this could be a potential trap game, short week, long travel up to New York, beat up offensive line, defensive players are an issue. If the Jets win tonight, what happens for New York for that to happen? Yeah, they have bounced offensively. I mean, yeah, I don't think it's a trap game.

The Jets are a good team. They're just record isn't there. When they show up and it turns on and the light goes, I mean, they're going to be a hard team to deal with. So, you know, I don't know if that's going to happen tonight. It's a wait and see. But Bree Saul, Braylon Allen are problems in the backfield. You know, they are offensive line. They're, you know, outside of Elijah Vera Tucker being out.

They're pretty good, you know, physically up front. They just haven't been able to maintain and get to the second level. And, you know, their receivers are dangerous. You know, Devonte Adams, does he take a big leap from two games that plan? And Garrett Wilson, obviously, is a guy that can, you know, beat anybody one-on-one. So a lot of matchups, we got to block your edge guys. If we don't block the edge guys, then it's going to be a problem. Then I for obviously a quarterback like Aaron Rogers, who isn't moving around as well as he wants to.

So the ball's going to come out of his hands pretty quick if that's the case. So if they get some time, can have some balance and take advantage of some of those edge rushers and what their strengths are, then this is a dangerous game for Houston or anybody they're playing. But until they show it, that ultimately is going to be the goal. Continued success to you and your family. Thank you, Anthony, for the time. We really, really appreciate it. You got it, Matt.

That's not having me on, bud. You got it. That's Anthony Beck, joining us. The radio announcer, part of the broadcast team with the New York Jets, head coach with the Battlehawks in the UFL.