The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian T. Smith On Possible Texans Trades: They Should Be Open For Business

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

Brian T. Smith On Possible Texans Trades: They Should Be Open For Business

is the Matt Thomas show. For the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal with you. Still have some NFL picks to get in. Still have the Chris Gordy horrible football Friday parody to replay for you folks. If you missed it, it was a doozy. That's coming up towards the end of the show. But right now, please to be joined by Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle. You can find him on Twitter at CronBrienne Smith.

Brian, I know you're always happy to get a week off from Matt Thomas. Well, I didn't know that Matt was off today. Usually he tells me, and it's not that I'm not excited, Ross, but I just found out just in time. So now, I mean, I was feeling good today. It's a beautiful day. Texans are obviously going to meet the Packers. Rockets are going to hire the right coach. Astros are going to resign George Springer.

We all know it's going to happen. But now it's an even better day. I know. I know it is. All right. Let's go ahead and talk about, well, basically, some of the things that you hinted on. Those are topics we're going to get to. First of all, let's talk about the Texans. And, well, before the game against Green Bay, let's talk about the Texans bigger picture.

Yeah. We've mentioned this week about possibly trades. Is it going to be JJ Watt? Is it going to be the wide receivers? And then Deshaun Watson, can you recall in your life, Brian, a player saying we squashed that when there was a trade rumors flying and getting asked about that? The way that Deshaun Watson just talked like he was the general manager, do you ever recall an athlete speaking like that? You sound like you wrote a column in the Houston Chronicle two days ago, Ross.

No, I haven't. It's funny. There's been a couple things, well, there's been a billion things, but there's been a couple things with the Texans recently. I'm not saying I'm right. Of course I'm right. But I mean, I'm not saying I'm right. Everyone, this is America, even in 2020, even after the last

debate, we can all have our own opinion. We all have a voice. But I feel like there's been a couple of things lately where Texans fans are split literally 50-50 down the middle, which means that 50% get it and 50% don't. I think it's just the state of this organization where everyone's still so angry at Bill O'Brien and they're so mad at Cal McNair and they want Jack Easter be run out of Texas, not even Houston, just Texas in general, maybe the United States of America. And so everyone is so split. To answer your initial question, no. I've never seen that because the thing was Ross. So you know the NBA. You know Major League Baseball, right? These

things will really heat up around the MLB NBA trade deadlines a few days, a few days before. And even then, I mean, maybe once in a billion will a LeBron James type come out like the day of and say, we're not trading anybody because he got that from the GM, the day of the trade deadline. To have that happened two weeks before when you're one in five, and oh yeah, speaking of panicking and not staying in the course, did Deshaun forget that they fired Bill O'Brien, who's the head coach and general manager and offensive play caller after just four games? So it's not like the Texans in 2020 have a track record of staying the course and not panicking and not overreacting within a 16-game season. I've never, ever seen anyone say that.

Doesn't mean he can't say it. Doesn't mean they won't trade anyone? maybe they beat the Packers. Maybe they win five straight games and make it a little interesting. But to say it two weeks before the deadline, when you have an interim head coach and an interim GM, and Cal doesn't talk to pretty much anybody in the local media, tells you how backward this organization is in terms of its message,

in terms of its delivery. And in terms of its times, Ross, it feels like who's actually running an NFL organization. It feels like Deshaun Watson has a much. more of a voice and more of a handle on things than anyone else in the organization. And that's what I'm trying to figure out, because if there are trades to be made, which there are, they, you fired your coach and you're one in five. You should be making trades because you don't have a first and second round pick. You should be open for freaking business. It should be not maybe a fire sale, you know, not like the day after Christmas or the day after Easter when you go into Walgreens and all the candy is 95% off.

And that's a really good time to buy candy, by the way. But it should be like, right after Thanksgiving and all of the Thanksgiving decorations are on sale, pretty much like 50% off. That should be the Texans right now. We're 50% off. Well, how about Amazon Prime Day, where the deals are kind of good, but really not as good as they're going to be on Black Friday? But you do them because you're sucked in Amazon Prime and you get free shipping

and you know the Texan Bark and I won a Super Bowl, so you might as well pick up a cornerback or a linebacker or whomever be a trade. Why in the world would your franchise quarterback say, We're not trading any of these dudes when you're one in five, and it's two weeks before the trade deadline. That means that on some level, Deshawn, Jack, Cal, the whole crew just doesn't get how you're supposed to operate. But anyways, keep going. Yeah, and so that's the thing. Who is, if there are trades to be made, look, if they lose this week and you're one in six and you've already fired your head coach, there needs to be, like you said, not necessarily fire sale, but trades need to be made because you need draft capital for the future for this squad.

And what if I read this in the Chronicle. So 50% of fans liked it because Deshaun sounded assertive and strong. And technically he was just repeating what Romeo said, even though I would like to think that all of us can, and you know, we can say what we can say. We don't have to say what our bosses tell us to say. Here's the point. What if somebody called the Texans front office? I don't know if he would pick up the phone. But what if somebody called the next morning and said, we're going to offer you a third round pick for Wolf Fuller?

you know, a third round pick and a future fifth. Look what happened the next day. There was a major trade raws between Jack, I mean, between Baltimore and Minnesota for a player whose name had been in trade room was for a year. How in, you know, how in the world you're just going to turn that down on principle? It makes no sense if you're running a well-run organization. Yeah, it makes no sense. And I also have the question, who's making these conversations?

Is it Jack Easterby? I mean, what and what experience does he have negotiating and, knowing other teams and scouting and valuating draft capital because the only thing he's had to go off of is Bill O'Brien and his trades clearly demonstrate that he does not know how to value draft capital. So who's having these conversations and what kind of experience do they have? And let's flip that upside down because it's a very, it's a great point. Here's the other part of that. Do you not, why would you not be aggressive?

Like, it's not about like this whole thing of winning a few games. Okay, now, if they win the Super Bowl this year, if they go from 1 in the Corona year and win the Super Bowl, that'll be awesome. That might be the best story in NFL history. It's probably like 99.999% not going to happen. If that happens, we'll look back and be like, you know what, the Texans are right. Congratulations. If they don't win the Super Bowl, should you not be setting yourself up for 2021 and 2022 and

whenever you're actually going to maybe be a contender again with a Sean Washington is your quarterback? So point being, if you go one and six and you have a week before the trade deadline, you shouldn't just be taking calls, Ross. You should be on the damn phone calling every GM, every assistant GM, every agent, trying to work things because you know if you can actually evaluate NFL talent and build an NFL Super Bowl, you know, contender caliber roster, you should be able to say, you know what, we've got like seven or eight guys that are overpaid, 20 guys, whatever number you want to go.

maybe we can move a few. Maybe we can pick up a third round pick, a fifth round pick. And then you take that third round pick and fifth round pick and you're Brad Pitt and Moneyball and you're trading that for a second round pick. Whatever you have to do. But it's not just about taking the calls. It's about making the calls. And other than the Brandon Cook's trade and giving away DeAndre Hopkins for free, yeah, we have no proof that there's anybody that's truly in charge that saying, I want to do this and this and this and this and this. And that's exactly what the Texans should be doing right now. Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle. Find him on Twitter at Cron. Brian Smith. Let's keep it with the Texans here. Talk about the game this weekend. Obviously, we here on radio are in the business of hoping for interesting teams to talk about and storylines.

Same thing for you there with the Chronicle. But, I mean, when the team is one in five and they've already fired their coach, what do you think, what do you feel like the pulse of this city, the interest level, just not necessarily trades and stuff we talk about. The actual game on Sunday, what do you feel like the buzz level is? 1%. I mean, here's again where Twitter is really misleading because if there's any bit of news, they play the Titans and they go for two and let's not debate that again. But whatever it is, Twitter reacts and it's like 500 people or 2,000 people.

But in the actual city, I mean, there is, and the Chronicle proved it because our web numbers or through the roof for the Astros because they were in the playoffs, and the Texans, even with all the drama, just don't rate right now. I mean, it's not just, you would you have to be Green Bay and then you're going to a buy. You're going to have to roll off, what, four straight victories, get to five and five. And even then, then you're basically back at zero. I mean, you're a 500 team. That's the only way.

And Ross, if they lose this game, if they're one and six and they go into the buy, and obviously everyone's going to predict them to lose, if they lose this game and go into the buy, I mean, 99.999% just move on with this season. And that's why the trade deadline should be so important. But they don't have enough young talent to get excited. I mean, other than the Sean Watson, it's not like we're talking about the 2015-16 Astros, you know, the rockets when they could maybe get a Dwight Howard type and make a franchise changing move. Texans are so hamstrung, Ross, because of the previous decisions they've made.

If they go one in six and you've already fired the guy that all of Houston wanted fired, what is there really left to talk about with this team? Well, we'll have that, and then no Astros and no Rocket. So I guess we'll just have you on every week. What are your hobbies, Brian? Are you a gardening guy? Are you doing – I know you got a house. So, I mean, we'll have you for home improvement segments maybe?

Hey, you and I have done home improvement on a sports show before. Yeah, I actually worked in the yard for like five hours yesterday. I've been walking a lot during Corona. I just got back to Milwaukee. mainly music, mainly playing the old, the old electric six string and, you know, watching movies and reading books, just the normal arts. Okay. So I can stay busy.

But yeah, you're exactly right. Here's going to be the thing. We go from no sports, no sports, and then everything comes back. And if the Texans are 1 and 6, the Astros are done and the rocket still I'm hired a head coach. I guess at some point we'll have to talk about the University of Houston. I don't know. Well, we're not going to sink that low, Brian. That's for certain here on this show.

Well, one quick thing before we get you out on the Rockets. We mentioned them, the coaching search, the three finalists, Stephen Silas, Jeff Van Gundy, and John Lucas. Can you just rate those three in order of what you would most like to see for the Rockets going forward? Yeah, that's a good question. Look, I think it's a couple weeks ago on Matt show with you and Matt. Much respect to John Lucas, he's one of the most respected names in the NBA. I don't see him getting the job just because they would be able to retain him.

make him basically, you know, the lead assistant, elevate him, give him, you know, give him a pay raise, which you would deserve, and still have them on the staff. So for me, for the last couple weeks, it's been a two-man race between Jeff Van Gundy and Stephen Silas. I said this before, I will continue to say this. If I am Jeff Van Gundy, I do not take this job unless I get 100% assurance that James Harden and Russell Westbrook are fully on board, not just like, okay, we'll go along with it, fully on board, because that could turn into a nightmare scenario and why in the world if you're Van Gundy, which you want to give up a pretty darn good life and having one of the best announcing jobs in professional sports to go head to head with

James Harden because you know what, you're going to lose just like Kevin McHale lost. So for that being said, unless they can kind of flip Hardin and Westbrook, it feels like, it's always to me pointed toward Silas. I'm just not sure if the organization, it's fully sold on him. And that's also a hard sell, Ross, because he doesn't have true NBA head coaching experience. And you're going to tell Hardin in Westbrook, hey, we keep falling short and a guy who's never really coached before and has always been an assistant and to work his way up, he's the answer. It's just, it's a hard sell. So I'm going to rate Silas one hair above, I guess Van Gundy has a ton of hair.

One hair above Van Gundy and then have John Lucas a distant third. But you never know. I feel like it's going to come down to these two guys, but maybe they have to him. the reset button and go elsewhere. All right, Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle. Find them on Twitter at Cron, Brian Smith. Brian, as is our custom. When Matt is out, I have to give you your opportunity.

The platform is yours to shamelessly plug anything, any books, any articles, or just Houston Chronicle.com. I don't know I think Houston Chronicle.com, but my whole life, the last three or four months has been our new puppy, which we got from a shelter, and, you know, everyone's taking a dog. So I'm actually going to promote something. I'll promote, I don't know if I can officially. Can I mention it on the air?

Yeah, go ahead. The name of the place, K-9 Rescue Angels. It's a shelter in the Heights. I don't live in the Heights, but it's out there. It's hard to adopt right now, and it's really hard. We fostered a couple, and they were adopted. So if you're in the market for a dog, you know, you're trying to get through Corona, which is going to last, obviously, for 80 more years, you get the holidays coming up.

I highly recommend adopting or more importantly fostering a, pet through Canine Rescue Angels in the Heights. As Joe B. Eugenie would call them therapy puppies. Been very therapeutic. But last night, so long story short, my wife, last night I slept with a dog. My wife slept in the other room that was the first time we tried that. It was amazing. Okay.

Thank you, Brian. Have a good weekend, buddy. All right, Ross. You take care. Bye-bye. Oh, man, the always entertaining Brian Smith. Follow him on Twitter at Cron, Brian Smith. All right, we went over.

We got to take a break here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. If you want to talk about anything that he had talked about, what's happening with these Texans traits? Who's making the call? Who should make the call? 713, 2, 1-2-1-2-5-790 is the phone number. Also, who do you want for the Rockets Head Coach? 7-1-3-2-125-7-90.

Matt Thomas Show. Final hour continues next.