The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Nico Collins Still Not At Texans Practice, Rockets Destroy Spurs, Paul George Gets Booed

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" review the Texans injury report and discuss how Houston will fair if Nico Collins does not play against the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football. Matt and Ross also:recap the Rockets defeating the San Antonio Spurs 127-100debate whether Paul George should be upset about getting booed in his return to Los AngelesSay, "I Just Don't Get It"have Dr. Roto cure their fantasy football ailments and more.

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10.3. Good morning, Houston. And welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. That is up, and that's no good. You want him taking that shot all day long.

Van Bleet looking for a long pass in front. Jabari with a two-hand flush. Another timeout to San Antonio. The lead at game high 14 on a 13-2, Houston. run. Almost face-guarded by Landel. He lost the basketball, both poked away. Rockets on a break at their own. A man Thompson gets by Champany and then jumps it down with the two hands. A nice flush for a man Thompson didn't know if he was going to lay it up and then he decided, oh, he's going to dunk it in after all. Brett comes across the timeline. Screen set by Jalen. Fred to the window

goes up, turns to a right hand and throws it up the backboard in for two. Tough shot on that left baseline. 5836. Friday's got 15. Saving it is Tomlin. And he throws it all to Tari. He's sending a brand new 14 for the Rockets. Eason on the post up. Fade away from 16. A tub. My goodness.

Tari, Easton, with a fall away to make it one 1384. Give it up now to Suscoe. And ladies and gentlemen, the Houston Rockets. Tonight inside Tota Center. Wire to wire. With one tie, the rest of the way, it was an all rocket lead. And a nice, impressive. Rockets win.

Final score tonight. Not true. 127 for Houston and 99 for San Antonio. No, we should never play. Kept that highlight. They screwed the scoreboard up. I don't know, man. It sounds like you can't read. No, I would have, I look at the scoreboard when I read that. Get rid of that highlight.

I love it. I tell myself, I read it for the wrong score. Hey! By that, that song I've never heard of before, you say it's on the beat all the time. Yes. It has a lot of texts in it. And I have not said this much. in my life, especially as a broadcaster in the last 20 years.

The Spurs suck. They are terrible. I mean, my God, are they terrible. And I love it. Thankfully, after all the years of Tim Duncan and Mani Genobley and Bruce Bowen and Robert Ory and Mario Ellie and Sean Elliott and who else. And Matt Bonner. And Matt Bonner.

I mean, now I've replaced that with Zach Collins and Blake Webb. Leslie and Sandra Maimo Kellechevili. Huh? Citi Soko, Malachi Branum. Thank God they suck. Malacca Brannum. Okay. Love it.

You think? Yeah, let's pass. Right now? Well, it's 10.06. Okay, sure. Why not? You never done it prenoon. I know. I'm not even awake it right. My eyes aren't even open full right now.

I'm like an infant child. Malichai Brannum. Oh, okay. Am I doing this or you doing this? You're doing it. I don't think I can pull this off. It's too early. Okay, go ahead.

Good morning. It is the Matt Topler Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Well, we are here to celebrate all things on Rockets' victory against the San Antonio Spurs. Yes, five and three now. Are you serious now? You're tweeting out if the playoffs started today, eight games into the season. You're ridiculous. I see the embarrassment on your face. You're a little embarrassed of yourself.

You should be. I am holding out supreme optimism. And is that okay that I do that? that? Yes. Yeah. You know what? You're trying to dunk a little too early on what's going on, and that's basically what some others on this station are doing. And that's okay. I just thought it was because I looked at the standing just to see how things are going so far, because there are a couple teams in the NBA that are off to terrible starts. And I thought, well, where are the Rockets compared everything? And I looked and went,

oh, dang, playoffs started the day. The Rockets would be hosting Dallas in the seven round, first round best seven series. I'm like, you know, I'll tweet it, why not? seven game knockdown dragout with the maver's. Be easy travel. You could go with me for sure. I could stay in my room for sure. Okay, let's go. I'll get two queens. We'll be good. Yeah, we'll go to head out to the wind store every night.

I'm sorry, the men's mom. Yeah, they don't spend money. That's fine. They do spend money in Dallas for us. Or the mock towel. Whatever. Yeah, an off days in between after shows? Oh, absolutely. It's probably from downtown Dallas.

We're off at two now. Maybe like an hour and a half. I think about an hour and a half. Yeah, that's not bad. That's not bad at all. We can drive your vehicle, put the miles on? You don't get a rental? Charge it to the game.

Charges to Iheart. I hear they're spending money. Okay, I got you. All right, we are here today until 2 o'clock. It's going to take still a while to get through some of that. I'm working on it. 10 to 2, the Matt Thomas Show. With Ross.

On the radio program today, the return of our Thursday feature, we're going to do this every Thursday now because we're looking to have a little few benchmark segments. time setters. Yeah, I think appointment setting is always a very important. Appointment setting. Yeah, it's always important for radio. So 11.30 today we're going to do, I just don't get it. Normally we did for a while, and then we replace it with the rotten, rotten five during football season.

But we're going to get the, this is where your four hours, we get the best of both. Great. So at 1130 today, I just don't get it. You're like, well, Matt, what is I just don't get it? That's the thing where you just call in anything on your mind that you just don't get, whether it's, like, one gas station is 25 cents more expensive on the other side of the street. You don't just don't get. You don't get, I mean, anything.

Like sports rule, like the kickoff rules in the NFL. I still don't get it. I've been trying to adjust to it, trying to adhere to it. I just don't get the kickoff rules. Yeah, that's more of I just don't understand it. Either way, that's the bit. So that'll be at 1130 today. We have the news at noon.

We will have Dr. Roto at 1 o'clock. He's moving up a half hour for us every week. So he'll be with us at 1 o'clock. and then you'll have the Rotten 5 at 130. So we've got a nice little show for you today. Wow. Jam-packed. Four-hour show. Let's go, baby. We're ready to go.

I don't know if the rockets are moving the needle just yet. It would be probably my guess entirely too early for that to happen now. It would be nice if they go to Oklahoma City tomorrow night. We're leaving today, as a matter of fact, to get up to OKC, play the Thunder. I think the Thunder lost their first game of the season last night. Oh, they lost to the Nuggets? The Nuggets. I know they were leading in the fourth quarter, but I didn't keep up with it.

So that's their first loss of the year. every one of their previous seven victories were by at least 12 points. So they're really good. They're pretty good. They're pretty good. They're really good. Over there in Oklahoma City. I don't know if the NBA is necessarily excited about Oklahoma City being the franchise team of the Western Conference.

I mean, they went around 2012 when they were going to the finals with Kevin Durant and James Hardin and Russell Westbrook. They were, I mean, they were a big deal. You can win anywhere. And you can be a star anywhere in the end in 2020. That is nice. And it's not nice for Rockets, but it's nice that in the NBA, just like the NFL, you don't necessarily have to be attached to a big market team. That's the one big problem that baseball has is that you just, you know, Kansas City was made the playoffs this year, but Kansas City, by and Larton does a World Series to its credit in the last 15 years. Yeah.

But Kansas is going to have way more down times and they're going to have uptimes. Yeah, but on the football side, they have the two biggest stars, I would argue, in the NFL. Yeah, but I mean, Green Bay and Pittsburgh had to compete. Yeah. And Pittsburgh hasn't competed in baseball in a long period of time. Correct. So, yeah, salary caps work. They do.

Baseball. It's the players union. It's the players union. I was going to say, I don't think the unions are looking forward to a salary cap. I know like Alex Breggman wants a salary cap. No, he doesn't. I don't think you say Kikushi wants one. Biggest money possible from the New York markets.

Let's go. Yeah, Kyle Tucker is anti-sattery cap. Yeah, the Dodgers and the Yankees are anti-salary cap. Yeah. I still want to know. and it would probably take a sports economist to help me. How in the world do the Dodgers sign Sho Hay Otani for all that money? It is all that deferred money.

And no one is batting an eye on that. Is that because the Dodgers just know their economic forecast for the next 30 years to say, we can cover his cost, no big deal? Yeah, if they go under, they're going to be in some trouble, Matt, but I don't think it's going to happen. They just won the World Series. But don't you eventually? It's like layaway, right?

Or it's like putting, you know what the Dodgers, did is they put the they put uh showy on a credit card yeah layaway works too or whatever and that's the thing too is is is all that it's not only the money that show hey is giving up it's up front it's if he would put that into savings or bonds or mutual funds or whatever he's costing himself all that interest over those those many years too he he put a lot of money left on a lot of money on the table it takes two to tango yeah absolutely yeah but i again if that was what show hey did then why wouldn't every team do it. Why wouldn't even the lower end teams, the Pittsburghs, the Milwaukee's, the Clevelands,

why wouldn't they take their superstar players giving these huge contracts and say, hey, we'll pay, we'll defer the dollars. They would, but it's just what I just told you. Shohei Otani not only threw away all that money, he threw away all that accrued interest, and it's because he makes like 40 million a year in endorsements. So you've got to be really comfortable in your own skin financially. You need somebody of the ilk of the star of Shohei Otani to say, you know, what, I'm making so much in endorsements, I don't need this money up front.

Okay. Or want it. Okay, so let's use Bregman as an example. Bregman doesn't need the money. No, he does. If he all of a sudden said, I'm retiring from baseball. Yes. He's got enough money for Knox, Knox's future sibling, and Knox's grandchildren.

Presumably. You would think. I mean, unless I don't know, he buys expensive Fabrizier eggs on eBay or something. Well, you know he's big in the horse racing game. Horse racing is not cheap. So maybe actually that's, ooh, horse racing is expensive. Yeah. But my point is this, is that if you are in this world now of sports and you've made a couple hundred million dollars,

you could certainly take 10 to 15 years to pay off your next contract. Yeah. But players don't want to do that. But you only get one, your amount of time and career, the retirement age, right, in America is 65. The retirement age in baseball is like 37, 38. Yeah. So he needs to make all the maximum that he can. for the rest of his life.

713-212-5-790 is how you reach a show. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 7-13-212-5-7-90. The Rockets get that wire-to-wire win over San Antonio. And also, I've been staring at the Texans injury port. Staring at it? I don't know why. But I'm obsessed with who's playing and who's not playing.

Okay, well, we'll go through it. It's at least a Wednesday. 7-13-212-5-790. Matt Thomas and Ross be a real. Two guys extremely passionate about Houston sports. You can tell them to go get a room. We've shared a hotel room. But they already have.

And then I've been used to bed. Truth be told. That's true. Thanks for the visual. Pillow in between. There's no pillow between you and more lunchtime Houston Sports Talk on Sports Talk 790. It is 1020 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Good morning to you. People still sending me tweets.

good friend Tom, ask, what are we going to do about the strippers? And the strippers do not get up at 10 o'clock in the morning under any circumstance. They will... They might be going to bed. That feels... I mean, I think the latest stripper goes to bed at about 8.30. Because you work till 2.

You go to an after-hours bar. Then you go get breakfast, and then you get out... When you're smoking meth till 6, and then you get some breakfast. And then you've got to come down from your meth high. Speaking of strivers. You've got to put the kids to school. There had to been some of the... Rockets game last night.

Strippers? There were three women that were at the elevator that I swear to God had maybe that dollars coming out of their shorts? I mean, they might have had a little bit of dental floss and clinics on their body as what they were wearing but I was like, I mean,

I understand, normally the average sports fan is going to wear a sports garb to a game. Yes? You know, a jersey, a shirt, maybe some sweats. Okay. There was one Burnett. I don't know who she was. or where she was headed.

Well, I think I had a pretty good feel of where she was headed after, but I was like, my goodness. I don't know why I brought this up, but I just like... Okay. It's just everybody treats dressing up for a sporting event a little different than others do. Mm-hmm. And they were out to... Well, when it's the playoffs and the playoff talent comes out.

Oh, the playoff talent is good. Toyota Center is nice. Or when the Lakers are in town. That's why you're going to see Conner-Rover and more games come playoff time. Yeah, it's true. Our Rockets Insiders is going to be there a lot more often. playing the groundwork now, which we appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, that's right. All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-7-190. As the Rockets win last night, the injury report on the Texans was out late yesterday.

We'll go through that coming up in just a couple of minutes. What else we got going on? It feels like we're just in a wait-and-see on the Lions. Now, you were looking at our buddies at Pro Football Focus. Oh, I was actually during the break. Should we get some of the – we had to get some of the – we had to get. one of those guys on. Well, they've been laying off most of them. Have they really? Didn't Collinsworth buy him? A lot of massive layoffs there.

Yeah, well. Yeah, Collinsworth invested and then he just, yeah. He just goes into meetings and says, here's a guy over and over again. I just hate. No, wait a minute. I like Chris Collinsworth. He's okay. You don't think he's great?

No, he's okay. Okay, so that's not great. Okay is not great. Who is your favorite analyst right now, pound for pound? I mean, I still think Tony Romo does a good job. I like Tony. I think Tom Brady does a good job. Yeah.

I think, I don't know. Name me some more. Greg Olson was doing it. Greg Olson, spectacular. Yeah, he got very good. He got demoted. They're like, sorry, Greg Olson. You haven't won seven Super Bowl, so we'll see you later.

So this is a little in the weeds on broadcasting stuff. So stay with me in for one second. So Greg Olson last year was the number one broadcaster at Fox. Former Cowboys fullback, Daryl Johnston, was the number two broadcaster. He's decent. Okay. So everyone's making the big deal out of Greg Olson going from the number one game to the number two game of the week. The bigger fall was Daryl Johnson.

He went from two to five. So he's calling like Eagles commanders last year to now he's doing like New England, Tennessee. I mean, that's a fall from Grace. It's not good. All because of Tom and his $190 million Fox contract. And him being a part owner and can't say he can't even speak his mind on the broad. You know what? I brought this up on a, to tell the truth a few months ago. I don't know how this is going to happen, but do you think owning the Raiders financially will be worth more than his Fox contract, even the small piece that he owns of the Raiders, that he would basically say, if I got a chance to buy a bigger chunk, because look, Mark Davis has got to be, what, late 60s at this point?

Owner of the Raiders. Brady's making a lot of money. Maybe he buys a bigger piece. Maybe he says this. broadcasting bits kind of cool and I can give up the Fox money because I want to own a football team because every time an NFL owner touches a football team, the valuation of that franchise goes up about a 15% per year. I don't know. He wants to do both. I'm going to put my name on something right this second. Oh, hold on. Hold on. Let me get the NOSER longest file. No, it's Nostra correctest file. Tom Brady's not finishing out that Fox contract. Oh my God. Are we going to be on air? How long is that deal? Well, I would hope that you and I would be on air at that point when that bad boy's done. You're going to be like 75.

That's not true at all. That's terrible. Okay, hold on. Let me write this down. Geez. Yeah, that Tom Brady is going to realize that maybe owning a larger stake of the Raiders. Right now, I think he owns, what, 5%? I think it's 3%.

Okay, it's in the single digits. I think he got a discount because I think the actual valuation on that was way more millions than he paid. But anyways. Okay. But why wouldn't Tom Brady put together an investment group to buy the Raiders if when Mark, how old's Mark? I'm going to look up how Mark and Mark is now. It's a 10-year, $375 million deal.

That just shows you, I think, how great it is to own a sports franchise. Mark Davis is 69 years old. Okay, so let's see he wants to run the day-to-day operations for the next 10 years. Tom Brady and a co-investor paid $244 million for his stake in the Raiders. 5%. For $244 million. Yes. And he will get a tremendous kickback on that right away.

I guess so. Every time they negotiate a new TV deal, that's just more money in the coffers for them. Let's talk to Gil in Hockley at 1026 on 790. Hi, hi, Tim. Our Gil, excuse me. What's going on, guys? Good morning. So, I like to make a statement.

taken up by strippers. I've put a few through college in my time. I'm 63 years old and I'll get my money wisely, but every once in a while, I'm pleasantly surprised when I walk into a doctor's office or a, I don't know, teachers or something, I recognize a place. And so not all strippers. Don't give one stripper a bad name when there's 10 of them. Is that okay? Yeah, Matt. But do you agree with me or disagree? Don't speak ill of the strippers. And thank you for your service, Gill. Yeah, I don't really know any strippers, so I don't have any kind of relationship with any of them. I just happen to see the one that was waiting by the elevator yesterday, and she wore basically nothing.

So you're basically telling them you never entered a strip joint? I didn't say that. Okay. Okay, you just don't know them personally. Yeah, I'm going to be honest with you. I've gone to a fair number of strip clubs in my life, and I've never gotten in any sort of intimate relationship with any of them. Okay, except for the ones in the booth at the time, right? What are you saying?

Are you some of whack job, Gil? Thanks for the phone call. I feel like Gil's, I think Gil's one of those guys. Thanks, Gil for the call. And it's kind of proud of gets to know the girl's names. Hey, what's wrong? You get bored in Hockley. What's a Hockley stripper like?

Oof. Cigarette burns. Look at you stereotyping. You asked the question and I answered. Two things I hate in life. Stereotyping and Hockley strippers. Maybe, Gil, if you've got a relationship with some of the strippers, it's good for you. Yeah, what's the problem, Matt?

He said he put many of them through college. Good for him. Yeah. He's a resourceful man. They see Gil and they go, you know what, let's go and get him a dance and he can pay for my college. Yeah. What's the problem? I didn't say there was a problem.

It's a little something called free market economy, Matt. That's true. All right, 713, 212-5-7.90. We'll have stripper-talk and Gil will come. come and give us the stripper of the week. Stripper Talk, 790. Stripper of the week. Desiree joining us.

Can we partner with a strip club? This will really help Connor out. Why would it help Connor out? He's already got his girl. He's fine. That's true. She's making him run a 10K. You don't want to do that.

Poor guy. Turkey trotting. Man, he's found a woman that makes him run. Gobble, gobble, gobble. I don't care what they do in their bedroom. 713, 212. 5790. 713, 212 5790.

A Texas injury report is up next here on the Thomas show with Ross. Welcome, good afternoon. The best sports lunch in H-town. Matt's really smart. He works hard. He has a good grasp of players. He's been around the game. You love him. We love him.

So excited for the opportunity that Matt has in front of him for sure. This is the Matt Thomas show. Nicky C, I hope you trust what's in the building. I love that term, in the building. That's a very football-esque type phrase. in the building say. Well, Anderson Jr. did not practice yesterday. Derek Parinette did not practice. Forerunso Fadokasi did not practice. Kenyon Green did not practice. Dylan Horton not practice. He was sick. Damien Piers did not practice. Wait, Kenyon Green was on the practice report? Yes, the shoulder.

I thought he had shoulder surgery. Well, yeah. So we could take him off the list for a while. I was going to say, it must be a miraculous recovery that he's even on this report to begin with. Seriously. Limited participation, Al-Zis Al-Shire. Jake Hansen. Very Hughes, Shaq Mason, Jeff Akuta, Laramie Tunsell, he's resting, of course, because he's just a loafer and Jimmy Ward. Why is Laramie Tunsel resting? Did they not, did they not have Friday, Saturday, Sunday off? Did you see him chasing around edge defenders all week on Thursday? I mean, all night on Thursday? He's tired, Maddie. It's called veteran rest. Let him, it's fine. What's he going to learn on a Wednesday practice that he needs for the weekend? Well, he just rested.

He said limited participation, so he didn't, he'd actually put the uniform on, so I give him, yeah. And then Jared Patterson was a full participant yesterday. And probably going to be your starting left guard, right? I would, I would, I would guess so, yes. Yeah, Patterson, who's the swing? Does it Derek Fisher, is that the guy's name? Derek Fisher, the swing a tackle, the rookie out of Notre Dame who is, well, I mean, he's not overmatched at this point.

He's young. I'm telling you, and I don't want to be the doom and gloom guy. Is they call me Mr. Positive around these parts? No, they don't. I don't see how C.J. makes it the rest of the year. Okay. Go ahead. Predict it. Predict he's going to get hurt.

It's the NFL. You could be right. No, because it's too easy. Because even the best offensive lines can have quarterbacks get hurt. So it's not even worthy of making a prediction. I'm just telling you that your buddies are pro football focus. Jared Golf loves the five guys that are in front of him. C.J. Stroud is tolerating the five guys in front of him. I mean, they have the lines with the number one line.

They have the Buccaneers with number two. Baker Mayfield's hurt with a toe injury right now. They have the Chiefs number three. Pat Mahomes have been hurt all year. Yeah. So I'm saying, just because you have a great offensive line does not guarantee any sort of success that you're going to stay upright. Correct. But they have the Texas at 24.

They have the commanders at eight, excuse me, eight. And Jaden Daniels got a rib injury. He was almost going to. to miss sometimes. And remember last year's offensive line was not great either, but CJ Strae was able to live through that. He missed a couple of games. Yeah. With the concussions.

Concussion, I think he had multiple last year, quite frankly. Yeah, there's probably at least two other times that he looked very woozy. And I think my guess is, and look, the state of the concussion world in the NFL is always changing that they went back and looked at it and said, we sent CJ out there maybe once, if not twice, when he never should have gone out there.

Do you want to hear their blurb on the Texas offensive line, the pro football focus folks. Okay, remember this is pro football focus. Is there a gentleman that oh gosh, go ahead, that spend time studying the intricacies of the NFL?

Yes. And that's all I'm going to say. We appreciate that. Left guard, Kenyon Green suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in their loss against the Jets. He was replaced by Kendrick Green, who allowed five pressures and finished with a 14.3% pressure

rate tied for the third worst clip among guards in week 14 or week 9 So Kendra green stepping in at some point is not all of a sudden going to make things significantly better. I'm going to tell you there's probably a reason that Kenyon Green, multiple reasons that Kenyon Green was was continuing to play and one of them was that

there wasn't an all pro waiting in the wings. Yeah, all right. So we'll see and it also begs the question then why didn't Nick Casario do something at the deadline? Why didn't he make a deal for somebody? And again, there was a top 10 list that was out of top 10 available players. None of them featured offensive linemen, but there were offensive linemen that were moved before the trade deadline.

Yes. So what we don't know the answer to, and it's just us as guessers, either the price was too high, whether they're like we couldn't find anybody that we really liked, or we think that the return of Jared Patterson and putting in Kendrick Green and just maybe even being CJ's job, being a little bit more wiser when it comes to where he needs to throw the football, how to get rid of it, where to find himself in space, all those things will fix itself. And that last year's offensive line was never graded great, but CJ was able to stay upright for 15 games. Yeah.

And DeMico Ryan did, Ryan's did speak last, yesterday on the trade deadline saying there's no savior for this team. No, I didn't emphasize anything to our team. Like, we have the guys we have. I mean, everybody thinks the trade deadline comes and you're going to, you know, find this guy who's going to save your team. I don't see it that way, right? Transactions were made across the league. And there has to be two parties available to do a trade.

Everybody's antsy about trades is not just us going. and taking somebody from another team, people have to be available, and the trade has to be on good terms for everyone. So I know everybody's in an uproar about us trading at the deadline. It's like it's not from a lack of us working to get our team better and improve our team, but there's no savior coming to save our team, and there has to be two parties involved in trading.

Meaning we may have liked one or two guys, and we were held by King's Ransom. Where do you want to go? I mean, you can fall back on what Domingo just said, Ross. But if you're picking up C.J. With a spatula this year, because the pressures continue to come, there's going to be some criticism towards Domingo and Nick on this. Now, fluky injuries are going to happen in the NFL.

But if he faces the pressure rate that he faced against the Jets, and that's a regular occurrence the rest of the way, there will be, for the first time, in Domingo's life, heavy criticism towards you defended your guys way too much and Nick Casario was not aggressive enough at a time where he knew there was a problem.

Now the pressures back off a little bit and CJ changes a few things about how he gets rid of the football maybe a split second sooner and this may be water under the bridge. That's what I think the Texans are hoping for. Yeah, I mean, and I think it'll be more falling on Nick Casario than it would, Damico Rines.

D'Amico Rines is in front of the microphones every multiple times every week. Nick Casario's not. So what is Domingo O'Rion's going to say? Yeah, I told Nick to get a somebody and he threw his hands up and I'm really pissed with him. He's not going to say that. That would be really good. That would be really funny, but it's just not going to happen. So D'Amico Rines

is doing what he has to do and I think there is a nugget of truth and what he's saying and that the savior wasn't, the savior of our team wasn't available for trade. Yeah. So we got to go with who we got. Maybe they

think they're going to get better with Kenyon Green out. And now Jared Patterson back. They can't really be much worse. And they were not great in the first six weeks of the season, but solid enough to where we weren't really talking about this as much as we have in the last three weeks. But that's what I'm saying is that sometimes things show up during the most crucial times of the year. We knew the back half of the schedule was going to be more difficult than the front half of the schedule. Yes.

And so if you want to secure your spot as an elite team in the AFC, knowing that you've got a problem in the middle of the season, what do you do to address it? But that back half of the schedule, it's really kind of the chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens. Well, and this game coming up against the Lions. Right. Every other game, they should be favored in and should win.

They're not going to win every game. But you're thinking about playoffs more than anything else on a regular season. Right, but we kind of went through it. If they somehow beat the Lions this week, and then they lose a couple of more, if they lose to the Ravens and the Chiefs, then what's that? That's 12 and 5.

But that's not going to happen. They've been in too many one-score games. I don't think that they're just going to, you know, I don't know that they're going to beat the lines this weekend, and it's not an automatic that they're going to sweep all of the Cowboys, Titans, jags, and then Titans again. Yep. 713-212-5-7-9 to Anthony on Twitter says the Texans offensive line being 24 is insane.

I hate to see what 32 looks like. 32 is the New England. I was actually typing up a tweet to him, and I'll go ahead and hit send. The New England Patriots are 32. They made, look, Will Anderson's good. They made him look like Prime Reggie White. What did he have like 3? sacks in that game. That's crazy.

All right, 713, 212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. I just don't get it coming up at 1130. The news at noon and Dr. Roto at 1 o'clock plus the rotten five today. A busy Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We certainly appreciate you spending some time with us listening to Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas now on Sports Talk 790. All right, it is 1048 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-9-0. Let's talk to some people in the Great City of Houston. Let's start with, actually, we're not going to go to Houston. We're going to El Paso, Ross. Dwayne is on the Matt Thomas show. Ross, Dwayne, good morning. Good morning, Matt. How's everything going?

Excellent. What's on your mind? All right. As far as the game this weekend, I think it's going to be a real good one. And I'm not going to predict who's going to win or lose. But both of those teams have had plenty of time to practice on exactly what their plans are to do what they have to do offensively and defensively. And then you guys are getting another receiver back this weekend to play with y'all, which is another opportunity for y'all's quarterback to, you know, get through that, hopefully that defense that Detroit's going to bring. So I think that now in the NFL, the records are not counted anymore like it was at the end of the season. Now it's percentages.

And you can have a 9 and 18 going to the playoffs possibly if their percentage is higher than someone else's percentage. But I think it's going to be a good game. And I think that if they can keep that defense from pushing back the quarterback and that quarterback just lets it. that ball go right away to his receivers. I think they got a pretty good chance of winning it. That's all I've got to say. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you, Dway.

We don't know if Nico Collins is playing, by the way. He is not on the injury report because he has not been taken off of the injured list, injured reserve. So we don't know exactly what's going to happen. You know, when the Texans were practiced here a little bit later on, they'll be able to figure it out. But right now, we don't know what's going on. It doesn't sound good right now.

He's not been activated. I would think if he's been gone the four weeks that he's, been gone, you're like, oh, he's feeling great. He's ready to get on the football field, ready to put the pads, I'm ready to run some routes. And I haven't heard that. Now, again, that could obviously change. Yes.

But he's basically going to have two days of practice while missing those weeks that he's missed to go against a team that they're going to need him to have a big game whenever he comes back. Look, they didn't go after a receiver either. So they're hoping that Tank Dell is WR2 and Nico's WR-WR-1. They're all in on Robert Woods and Xavier Hutchinson. John Mechie and Dalton Schultz and guys like that. Dalton Schultz. Let's go.

It's not had a great year. No, he has not. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-9. And the rest of I couldn't understand what he was saying. That's okay. I just accused. No, he was just saying that, I guess the record,

like, you know, the old 12 and 4 we used to think of, that's a really good year. Right. It's just different now, and it's more about the percentages. but it was always about the percentages, so that's fine. I understood what he's saying. Okay. The reality is they're going to win the division.

You get to hang up another AMC South banner. But that's been kind of what the Texans mantra has been, and I think they want to change that. They're going to make the playoffs, and they're going to be out in the division around. That's what it feels like right now. Yeah. Max.

Do you think other six and three teams are the NFL feel this way right now? Let's run through them, Matt. So go through what's going on on this. Okay, let's see. I clicked the wrong button. Hold on. You stall. Tell the people where to find you on Twitter.

Never mind. We're good. Baltimore Ravens are 6 and 3. They also have a plus 64 point differential. The Texans have a plus 1. Save scored one more point than our opponents have. Yes, the Texans have. That is so weird.

Yeah, no, it makes sense. They've been getting blown out and they've been winning ones. Usually if you're 6 and 3, you've got a couple of blots in the mix, right? They've got one, and that was against the Patriots, who are terrible. Let's see. Who else is six and three? Green Bay Packers, well, they beat you.

If you're a Green Bay Packer fan, are you feeling greater about your Super Bowl chances than the Houston Texans fans? I would say no. Do you feel better or worse than Pittsburgh? Pittsburgh, six and two? I think it's foolish to sleep on Pittsburgh. Because their defense? Their defense, and then Russell Wilson has been good enough. They were winning.

games with Justin Fields. They made the playoffs with Mitchell Trubisky and Tiny Hands, Kenny Pickett last year. Tiny Hands, Kenny Pickett. Yeah, that's not fair. I mean, that's kind of rude, frankly. You're right. You wouldn't say it to his face. No, I don't think I would. But you'd say to it on a radio show for sure. Yeah, that's, you know what, that is rude. I'm

sorry, Kenny. But he knows. I'm not saying anything he didn't know. Yeah. Atlanta Falcons, Six and Three. On three, Matt, better chance to win the Super Bowl. Falcons or Texans. One, two, three, Falcons. Because the NFC is easier.

Okay. Okay, better team. On three. One, two, three. Texans. Yeah. But that wasn't the original question. You asked me.

Okay, well, I changed it. Yeah. Because you're a hater. No, I'm out of hate it. I'm a realist. Texans hater. And that's why I'm here for. I'm here because 98% of the rest of the market are drinking every bit of the

Kool-A. You ought to thank me for being part of the 2%. Thank you, Matt. When they're good, and I mentioned that C.J. Strais a franchise quarterback. I'm so proud of you. I tell you that. that's why you should thank me.

I cried on my pillow last night. I was so proud of you. Well, you and Jimmy Kibble both cried yesterday for different reasons. But yeah. Well, yeah, they are, they're really, really good. But Baltimore, Kansas City are great. Pittsburgh's really good. See, I'm not nearly as worried about Pittsburgh as you are.

Okay. I'm not really worried about Denver. I think it's, I think everything is about what do you do to climb the hump to get over the top. to go on the road in winning Baltimore and go win in Kansas City. And so far the Texans have been unable to show they can do that.

Well, they're going to go on the road and play in Kansas City. And that will be a good dress rehearsal for the AFC championship game. I imagine the one seat will still be on the line then, unless Kansas City just continues to pull off miracle after miracle and win all these close games week after week. Yeah. And look, they can't, they're not going to be, Kansas City is not, is going to lose a football game.

There's going to be something that we're going to see. And again, here's the strange part of it. And you mentioned this because you were watching the Buccaneers and, the Chiefs, Chiefs, I saw your tweets. There was a little bit of worry about whether or not Pat Mahomes is going to be able to stay up right. Yeah. He was, he was getting beat up in that game.

He's been getting beat up, really, a lot of the, this year. And Baker Mayfield has been, he's got a toe injury right now. I think he, I think he didn't practice yesterday. Yeah. So, it's everywhere. It's the NFL. It's the most violent game. As far as a major American sports, that's not a combat

sport. That's true. But anybody can go down for any reason. I think they should let them fight like in hockey. 50 yard line, square up, you're off for two drives. Is that what it is? Yeah. And not kick anybody out. Yeah. How come you can throw 76 punch in a hockey game, you throw one punch in a football game, and you're out.

It's not right. Should you be allowed, like, one personal foul slap across the bitch slap and then go on? You know, it'll be like that movie, did you ever see Troy? No. Brad Pitt is Achilles. He represents their army, and then they send their baddest dude from their arm. So each team sends their baddest dude to go fight at the 50, and then that'll settle it. Whoever wins.

that should just be settled the game who would the Texans send oh who would be Deniel Hunter Will Anderson's too much of a finesse Will I mean Will Anderson's his ankle's gonna snap out there

Yeah you need somebody out there That's like built from granite from head to toe I'm going to Neil Hunter Maybe a Aziz Alshare I don't know if Joe Mixins I thought I can shift it Joe Mixin's a good one Just throwing that out there's a possibility Who is the best MMA fighter on the Texans

717 713 212 If you wanted to go see a Texans player tap somebody out, choke him out. Oh, it's got to be Joe Mason. He's got the pedigree. He's done it before. Am I telling something that's not the truth? Well, this person would in theory be defending themselves.

All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-2-5-790. Our time is 1057. We start the second hour of the Matt Thomas show coming up in moments. If you weren't to the Rockets game last night or listened or watch it, are you kind of happy with things that turned out? We'll hear more from Nemeco from his press availability yesterday.

We have a former NBA player going back to his old stomping grounds and calling fans not a very nice term. We'll tell you about that as well. 713-212-5-790. I want to tell you about uptown appliance repair. These are the wonderful people that can take any of the issues you have in your home when it comes to appliances and get them fixed. Uptownappliancerepair.com is the website.

They've got an office in Dallas. They've got one here in Houston. And I promise you, friends, if you're looking for 100% customer satisfaction on things like your refrigerator getting fixed, your ice maker, your microwave, your washer dryer, maybe the gas grill, anything laundry equipment,

anything involving the refrigerator, wine cellars, wine coolers, whatever the case, they are the premier appliance professionals here in Houston. Their number is 281. 7589978. That's 281, 758-9-978.

They got locations again in both the Metroplex in here in Houston, but you want to take care of all of your Houstonian needs when it comes to appliance repair. So no need to go buy a new refrigerator or new ice maker when things are on the fritz. Get Uptown appliance repair to fix it for you at a good price. 281-758-9978. That's 281-78-9-9-78 or online at Uptown Appliancerepair.com. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. We start the second hour of four. We are now with you 10 o'clock until two right here on Sports Talk 7.9.

Good afternoon or good morning to you. It's still strange. We will be waking up the lunch timers or just hang what's up with you guys in an hour. Now the strippers will be open and woken up tomorrow at noon. That doesn't change. I'll be in Oklahoma City tomorrow for the Rockets and the Thunder. We've still got, I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. you just have to figure out something in life you just don't get and you've got to get some advice from Connor D. McGovern takes care of the young group. Ross takes care of the middle-aged. I take care of the middle-aged. I laugh like that. Don't do that. 713-212-5-790. You're all right over there?

He's shaking his head. I'm going to take a nap. What time are you coming back? If you come back, you're back at 1230. I mean, that's still an hour and a half. All right, I'll see you. You got Rodo at 1 o'clock today. That's always easy. I can't wait. And the Rotten 5 at 130. We might skip that.

Well, I mean, I'll be probably on a plan. Yeah, you'll have no control over. This is a lot of writing. It's a little prep. I'm not feeling like I have the mental capacity to write right now. Okay. Well, we'll get you fixed. 713-212.

I'm struggling. 5790. Good point from Pollard's vision on Twitter. Aaron Wilson says that Nico's 100%. It has not been cleared yet. Okay. What up at that? So what's the point?

That's what I'm saying. We don't know what's going on. He didn't say 100% ready to go. That's just not accurate. I think it's been 100% healthy, but difference has been having a passed all tests, whatever that means. I think there is a difference between having a hamstring that is ready to go and actually getting out on the field and doing it. Passed all tests for hamstring, no setbacks per league sources.

Regained speed mobility ready to. Oh, he did say ready to go. You know what? I'm wrong. I thought he didn't use that way. word, but he did use those words. Ready to go. So what does that mean? Ready to play? But it says matter of when, not if he'll be designated for returns.

Does that mean he's going to play this weekend? It says, team's still determining if activating him for a lion's game. So that's what Aaron Wilson said. And that was a Monday. So today is Thursday. So maybe there's an update by then. He didn't even practice yet. Wouldn't he have practiced yesterday? Yeah, he was not listening to the injury report. Well, can he practice and not be activated?

Are they trying to like play this? He was not a practice yesterday. He was not at practice. Okay. Well, then that doesn't sound like it's looking good for him to play this weekend to me. I mean, we'll find out more today, obviously. I would think if he doesn't practice today, he doesn't play Sunday. Because why would you send him out there for one day of practice on Friday, which is usually a light workout day? Don't you want to see him kind of go 100%?

Well, if he's 100% ready to go, then why wouldn't they practice him yesterday? I mean, just, I mean, it's not making me have a good gut feeling about him. playing this weekend. You know, it's crazy, and you know the Astros get a lot of criticism for this. Yeah. But it's really, generally speaking in sports, these teams just

they don't mind if you have to guess. They don't care if you guess. They'll be ready to tell you when a player is ready to go, when they're ready to tell you. It makes more sense in football, because, I mean, it does change the Lions and Nimitz legend Aaron Glenn's

game plan. If he if Nico Collins is on the field or if he isn't. What changes if Kyle Tucker has a shin bruiser or a fracture? Nothing. He continues to be He's out for 90 games. It's time, well, we won't or no want to divulge any information.

They might learn that he had a fracture, okay? So what? But I think when you become a general manager or a coach in any sport, you think the world is going against you. I think and I think because of the inquisitive nature of

reporters and fans in general. I do think some people relish in keeping things a secret and keeping them, I'm not going to tell you because I don't have to because you're a reporter or you're a fan and you don't have to know.

I think there's an element of that. I totally agree. I think Dusty Baker relished in that. I think it's a half of the Astro's organization too. Forget, this is anybody listening? Do you know some things in your life that you're kind of proud that you know?

that you're never going to tell anybody. Yes. My answer is 100% yes. Guess what? I don't have to tell you, reporter. Do your job elsewhere. I don't have to tell you, fan. He's on the field or he's not. You're going to watch us anyways.

But I don't think that's the driving force. No, no. There's just a small smidge of that. I think there is a smidge. I'm with you. We're on the same page. Yeah. I will say that what if going back to the Astros

and when Kyle cracked his shin, if they would have announced that four to five days later, or maybe even two weeks later when they figured it out. When the swelling went down, as they said. Were we going to blame the Astros? No. Dems the brakes. Injuries happen.

It sucks. Dana, we feel for you. But it felt he was an unnecessary layer of cynicism. And that's where I think to a much more smaller, extent this Nico Collins situation is. Now, do you game plan if you're the Lions differently if Nico Collins is out there compared to him not? Yes, way more so than a baseball. But still, do these general managers and these coaches want to keep an element of surprise to not give their opponents even a smidge of an advanced preparation? And I can understand that. And I guess you

also set a precedent. So when it's one injury that may affect a game plan and it's one that won't, If you hold back both of them, you say this is our policy. This is what we always do, I guess. I mean. But obviously, Aaron Wilson didn't just write that off of a tweet and go. You know, I think I'm going to say he's 100%. Somebody must have told him at least that part. Yeah.

And it better not have been a team doctor because you cannot be giving out team doctor information unless the team authorizes you to do that. That's true. And so far, Domeka hasn't said word one, except for we're hoping to get him back soon. Let's talk to Renee. And where is Maple? What? I haven't know where Maplewood is. Hi, Renee. Hey, Maplewood's right next to Bel Air.

We can look right across the street to see all the $2 million and the $7 million homes from our little homes. Oh, okay. I asked an answer. Thank you very much. So earlier you were talking about what Texans you thought would be proficient or do well in the MMA file. They got two for you. Some oldies with goodies. I don't know if you remember these guys. Brian Cushing and Aaron Foster are both big, big Brazilian jutsu guys. And I have a lot of blackbell friends who roll with them, and those guys are amazing. Not only are they talented athletes, but they're amazing. Jiu-Jitsu practitioners as well.

So, I mean, you could put them up on top of the fact that they're already extremely gifted. But those two guys will tear apart anybody in the Texans roster now. Wow. Well, there are some bad – I mean, an NFL locker room is full of badasses. I'm going to assume that Jerry Hughes 10 years ago would probably crush you like grape, too. I mean – These guys will look at you in the face, so hold on to you and say, if you want to stop, we can stop.

It's not like you tear your knee off. But, so anyway, thanks. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm tapping out right now. I'm good. I only got a few years left to walking without limbs, so I'd like to keep that going. Yeah, MMA.

And we had Derek, what's the name? Derek Lewis. He pulled out of that fight, I think. Did he really? Yeah, he was so devastated from your. interview. Didn't we try to fire him up a little bit? Get him motivated?

Yeah. Derek Lewis. I put in Derek Henry. Derek Henry would be a guy I would want to watch an MMA fight for sure. He might be. If there was like NFL fight club, he might be the last man standing. Who's the meanest SOB right now in the NFL? I mean, there's so many to choose from here.

I don't know. You know, I wouldn't take a quarterback. That's for sure. No. No. No. It was dangled out there. tap out so quick.

Uh, yeah, medical issue. It just says undisclosed medical issue. Hope he's okay. Non-weight cut related medical issue. Oh, you in air quotes. You know, I've been clumped over that. Poor Derek Lewis. Now he's coughing, let me tell you, I cough up a storm too.

I ain't judging you at all. I know, you better not. You're the last one. That's why I said I ain't judging you. Uh, apparently he weighed in. they have a heavyweight limit in UFC, which I think they should do in boxing. I agree.

But 266, he was right at the limit. So it wasn't, this says it was not due to a weight cut related issue. All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. At the bottom of the hour, I just don't get it. There's something in your life, whether it be sports-related, whether it be life in general, that you just don't get.

I want to hear from you. Okay. What are some of our classics I just don't get? Taking your shoes off on an airplane? Jersey guy. Jersey wearing guy. Or how about the fan of two teams splitting a jersey in half?

And having half one log one half. Okay. But what if you're in the family? That's acceptable. Especially if we got like two sons that are playing. playing for two. Yeah, that's, but yeah, generally speaking. Or how about this? I just don't get why Dan Matthews, or the producer of the afternoon show, is one week jumping all crazy over Georgia football.

And the next week, he's going crazy over LSU football. Well, I think he grew up with LSU, and then he worked with, like, the Georgia Radio Network or something like that. I worked in Minnesota. I'm not Golden Gopher Matt. I know. I mean, you'd love to be. Why would I love to be a Golden Gopher? I don't know. Why not? It sounds fun. They've been frankly an underperforming athletic program for a long period of time.

Middle of the pack in the Big Ten and below third in the basketball. So definitely wouldn't be gold and gold for Matt. Although it's one of the rare cities in America, big cities that have a college team that actually draws people. Unfortunately, the university. We had 23K solid there. We did. We had a rally on the field and party. It was more of like a get.

It was like a mixer. It wasn't a storming of the field. It was like a gathering. The weather caused 17. thousand people want to come. That's my smithere. How many sellouts this year? In my mind, too.

But how many in reality? I don't know. I don't, I'm not a ticket taker, Ross. I don't count. Okay. I'm just asking. 713, 212.12. 790. 713.

212.790. So, yeah, the Texans will be practicing here pretty quick here, and we'll get an update in exactly who is going to be partaking an event, and hopefully Nikko Collins will be one of them. 713-2-2-790. Matt has eye trouble. He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything anytime soon. Sorry about that, friends to the north. Back to the Matt Thomas show.

11 to 18 in the a.m. here on Sports Talk 790? That's right. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. With you until 2 p.m. if you're not aware, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Now the time slot for this program coming up at the bottom. of the hour, one of the signature segments of the show. I just don't get it. Something that you're seeing that's popular in this country or whatever.

Non-sportually typically. You don't understand it. And you're like, how does this happen? You call this show and you say, I just don't get it. Yeah. Mine might be a tinge political. Oh. I don't want to do it, but it's legitimate.

I just don't get it. Okay. Not very political Okay But just a tinge A little political A little political Ooh that rhymes

Right that put that in your rhyme book Well you had me calling a highlight yesterday Saying I was a poet and didn't even know it I didn't realize that I was rhyming I said I didn't know if you knew it No I did not for sure It was it I can't remember

Green for three or something like that I don't know Yeah something It was good Okay I thought maybe Yeah I know Maybe Maybe you start

Start rhyming somewhere Matt Some people rhyme on Rockets broadcasts or used to. All right. Last night and the beard should be feared. But besides the Rockets win over the San Antonio Spurs, Paul George

for the Philadelphia 76ers. He made his debut? He did make his debut. They cleared him. They let him play in a wheelchair. Yes. That's great. He played against L.A. Clippers, a team that he used to play for. Uh-huh. He was 7 to 9, 18.7 rebounds, three steals. but the Clippers lost 1 10 to 98.

Paul George got a video tribute and called the Clippers Franchise First Class. He said his return drew a fair and split reaction but did not understand or care for the booze after helping the Clippers win their meet, reach their only Western Conference Finals in 2021. This is how you don't endear yourself to the fans which they used to love you.

It is stupid. I mean, I was a free agent, you know what I mean? It wasn't something that I demanded or traded or went against the team here. I was a free agent. The team presented something that was team friendly, and I did what was best for me in that situation. So there were cheers. I appreciate them. They were the ones that I played hard for.

The booze, I didn't get it. I still don't get it when I go back to indie, but it is what it is. It's sports. I look forward to next year being back here and more booze. Here's the reality. When you go back somewhere for the first time, and you've had a great run, you should get your fair amount of cheers. But I'm not, I mean, as much as I appreciate Carlos Correy on what he did for the Astros,

or Garrett Cole, or any of the Astro players that have left, or any of the, if there was any of the great Texan it left and came back, you get one round of applause, and then it's fair game. You left, you chose, you could have stayed in L.A. Now, granted, you didn't like this financial situation the Clippers were offering you. And that's fine. But booing is just a fundamental. a right in sports.

And you just don't cheer for the teams you don't love. And you are hurt most of the time you were there. Yeah. So people, people, look, it is what it is. It's not necessarily Paul George's fault, but people don't like when players make a bunch of money and they're hurt and they don't play and then they sign away somewhere else. And you were, Paul George, Kauai Leonard and James Hardin,

on paper that should have been a team that should have gone to at least one NBA final, if not win it. Paul George has an interesting NBA career. We never talk about him as one of the best the planet. We never really talk about, I mean, maybe in the end of his Indianapolis career, he was one of the great two-way players. But I just kind of pulled up his page. Nine-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA.

What's his career numbers? First, second, well, five of those are on the third team. Yeah. Four times all defense career averages, they're not good because early in his career, he was averaging like seven points a game. 20.8 points per game. Because it's funny, you know, the-38 percent, three-point. One of the last years he was in Indianapolis with the Pacers was one of the first

years I was doing Rocket Games and I was calling the game and Paul George having a big game against the Rockets. And I was telling my status I said, man, this guy is such a star. People must love him here. And like, you know what? He can't get out of here fast enough. Hmm. I don't, I just think Paul George

just probably isn't considered a fan favorite. Add on top of the fact that he spent much of the last handful of years being injured and people are going to be resent resent resentful of that yeah it's just funny if i'd told if i'd have said to you like not giving you the name nine time all star five times all third team defense i think one time first team four time all defense most improved player award you'd be like that guy's a borderline hall of famer i just don't

i don't feel that way or a guy that would be on the marquee of a of a uh billboard i don't feel that way at all about paul george he's good he had a great prime his very short prime and he's just been injury riddle as well lately yeah but i i i don't understand why these players take it personally. When, frankly, fans take it personally. Why wouldn't they be upset? You said, I don't want to play for you.

I can make a godly amount of cash somewhere else, which again, nobody's begrudging you on that. But you don't have a warm, you have one warm and fuzzy moment, you get your little video tribute, and then you play on. Yeah, I don't want to. Why are players so sensitive if they don't get,

like, and to the former Astros credit, George Springer hasn't gone on and said, why are they booing me? Just George Springer gets booed now. Does he? Not booed, but just largely indifferent. Carlos Correa is largely indifferent here now. There's a few smatterings of claps in here that whatnot, but it's not like it's, you know, look, it's going to be tough when Bregman leaves. By the way, speaking of Bregman.

This is in the A team yesterday. Very entertaining show. Who? Clinton and Wexler. No, not familiar. I don't know what Wexler's percentage is. Clinton thinks it's 50-50 he comes back. are some people getting caught up in the Dana Brown,

we're doing everything we can to keep him here? We've had substantive talks the last few weeks on this. They had Chandler-Roman. What did he say? I trust him. I trust Chandler. Well, no, I didn't listen to much of Chandler. I didn't get to hear anything really,

except maybe just like one small soundbind. They're just saying it's their top priority. and to the pro-bregman stays crowd, that does make a little bit more sense that you'd feel a little more hopeful because you've never heard George Springer was a top priority, you never heard that Garrett Cole was a top priority, you never heard that Carlos Correa was a top priority.

But also, I mean, none of those were Dana Brown at the helm. That's right. Dana Brown is kind of a different cat when it comes to, as we said, he sees a glass that is half full and he says it's spilling over. Like he's over-optimistic. all the time. He said Jose I'm right. He was going to be great when it came back from the Florida Complex League.

Kyle Tucker, he'll be back real soon. And the crazy part about contracts and players deciding where they want to play is, you can be on a Monday, I'm never coming back. Go to bed Monday night, wake up Tuesday morning, go, you know what, why don't I do?

I can just stay right here. You can have changes of heart. You can change your heart so fast that if you were, if you and I have predicted that we believe, there's no chance he stays. Yes. But that's not us for us to decide. That's one human being's decision. And the human mind and the human emotions

and the heart changes on a dime. Well, I mean, well, and two. I would say two. Jim Crane as well. Depending on how close they are. I think they're close to the tax after arbitrate, once they settle arbitration with everyone. Yeah. Could Jim say, we'll pay the competitive balance for a second

straight year? That'd be shocking if he did. It would be shocking. But he can also have a change of heart as well. He can say, you know what, Bregman's our dude. The window is still open. We want to continue to sign players. We're probably going to lose Kikuchi and free agency, which means we're going to probably

have to go find somebody else there. And we don't want to lose our goal glove, third baseman, who's been a rock-solid part of this organization since his entire championship run. So I guess, I guess the question is we probably shouldn't put percentages on these things because it's only one person's

mind and its opinion. There's no formula to say, if this happens this. Because even if the Astros offer him ridiculous to crazy money, he can still say no. He can still say, you know what, it's maybe just time for a change. I wouldn't think that's how way Bregman's built, but you know what?

That's only for Alex to decide. All right. Do you not get something? Every day. There's a lot of things in my life I just don't get. Every day. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Mine is a tinge political. Uh-oh. Just a tinge. And we'll have it for you next. I just don't get it here on the Matt Thomas show. There's something in your life you just don't get. Let us know. 713.

212. 570. Big city wings. I totally get big city wings. They're going to, once again, go to the finals of the best wings in Houston challenge. Culture Maps got that going out there. Tonight, it's buy one, get one free.

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When I listen to the Matt Thomas show, I don't even understand the eclectic nature of the show, the dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas show. Whoever

Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends. It's time to say I just don't get it. All right. Mine is a tinge political.

Uh-oh. Here it goes. So we've all been inundated with all the amount of money that was being spent on political commercials and texting all that. What a relief. But it feels like this year, the celebrity endorsement has been a bigger issue than ever before. Elon Musk, supporting Trump. He's not really a celebrity.

Joe Rogan. He's a very well-known person. He made himself a celebrity. There were wrestler like Hulk Hogan. He was Hogan, Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock. On the other side, you've got Beyonce, you've got George Clooney, you've got Taylor Swift, all. And again, when have I ever cared about what a celebrity wants me to do with my vote? I mean this with the passion of a sum of it is as apolitical as it gets.

I just don't get why anyone would give two craps about why any celebrity would endorse anything and why anybody would care what any human being that is a famous person, singer, writer, would ever want performer, actor, actress, athlete who they're rooting for. Oprah rooting for Kamala didn't do anything for me.

Hulk Hogan's putting his support behind. Donald Trump did nothing for me. It didn't, Matt? I know you're a big Hulk Hogan. I looked at the issues and I said, here's the person I think is going to lead us towards the better for the next four years. that's where my votes are going to go.

So I say to anybody that thinks that celebrities coming out and saying, I support this candidate over this candidate, I say, Ross, I just don't get it. I'm sad to say I do get it, Matt. Okay, please explain it to me there. It boils down to us being dumber and more simple as society, where hundreds of years ago,

we would respect more the voices of, I don't know, politicians, writers, journalists, scientists. Now we live in this hubbub world of a lot of people, the biggest figures in their lives, are a Taylor Swift, or whatever celebrity, or a LeBron James, and we're just, the educational system has gone down. We are all wrapped up in our own lives that are the celebrity driven, and people are stupid, and so they listen to these celebrities.

That's it. No, I get it. but their vote is as awesome as Taylor Swift is well it didn't seem to work and as fantastic as I like Hulk Hogan is I didn't take you know if like my favorite American performer would be Billy Joel

I don't know if Billy Joel came out with somebody or not but I love Billy Joel the singer I don't care what Billy Joel the person or the political stance happened to be on it well it's also it's like advertising it's the exact same thing as advertising just because I don't know who's a celebrity that speaks for something. I'll give you example.

I speak for things. If you like me and I read a commercial and tell you about something, it's because I believe in it, and I would hope that you would try it out. But I'm not forcing you to do it. I would like you to do it, but I'm not forcing you to. Right. So people who hear those advertisements, they're not necessarily sitting in their car and saying Matt Thomas did this, so I'm going to copy him.

It's also about brand awareness. And it's about building momentum and snowballing at all. I tend to believe that me talking about big city wings or uptown appliance repair is not on the same spectrum as, well, my favorite celebrity, LeBron James wanted me to vote for one person or mine Thompson wanted me too, so I've got to go vote for this day and age. It's very, it's not too dissimilar from for speaking for a corporate product. Are you going to buy more icy hot because Shaq told you to buy more icy hot or are you going to say, you know what, I've heard of that. And then you go to the store and you go to the aisle, you go to the shelf. And it's more front of your mind because you saw that advertising. Are you going to say Hulk Hogan votes this way?

So I'm going to vote this way. Maybe not necessarily, but it's going to be more front of mind for you. It's a form of advertising, basically, is what it is. I still don't get it, though. Because I think I'm smart to realize the difference between an endorsement of a commercial and endorsement of a political candidate. It's all part of the continual dumbing down of our society, and it's only going to get worse. All right.

Well, I still don't get it. I would hope four years from now that every celebrity keeps their political opinions themselves. It's irreversible. That's not going to happen. It's going to get worse. The education systems are going to get worse. The parents and, therefore, the students and teachers and all that, it's all getting worse. All right.

Well, now you've made me feel worse about the whole situation. I mean, it's fine. And I'll conclude my political conversation for the day. I would like to make it clear. I'm not saying this because of who won the either way, by the way. I am very, this is, I don't really speak on political things because I think I would make everybody upset with my opinions. I think the world is going this way

and there's nothing we can do about it and it's not about who wins the, it's not at all about who won the presidential election. All right. There you go. That's me. Sorry, I just had to say that I just don't get Celebrity endorsements. George Carlin was talking about this in the 90s.

Yeah. In the 90s he was talking about this. By the way, I saw him perform one of his last conference ever. You said he was terrible. He was terrible and I was a big George Carlin fan too. He was nearly dead. Yeah. All right, what don't you get? Selfish, ignorance.

By the way, if you have something you don't get, and I would hope it's maybe not political, but I just had to say mine. I'll go sports. 7-13-212-5-7-90. I'm going to go sports for you, for I just don't get it, since we just went off the sports. All right. Why did the Panthers just sign Chuba Hubbard to a big deal? They spent a lot of money on him.

They drafted Jonathan Brooks. Now, Jonathan Brooks hasn't played at all, the Longhorn Legend, but he was drafted in the second round, hasn't played a game because he's recovering from ACL, an ACL injury, and they just signed Chuba Hubbard to a four-year $33 million deal. Yeah. Wow. I just don't get it, Carolina Panthers. Yeah, what are you doing?

You couldn't let Chuba Hubbard go? He's Chuba Hubbard. He's been very good for them. But that team is in the toilet, and you're going to spend money on running back when you just took somebody in the second round? Especially when those guys are utterly replaceable because as they get older, they fall off dramatically. They're replaceable with draft picks. You just took a guy in the second round. Yeah.

What are the Panthers doing over there? I got another one for you. Okay. I used to work for the Golden Arch's. Okay. And the signature sandwich has been, I'm going to say, because it's while I know it, the Big Mac. Okay. It's two all beef patties.

It's special sauce, lettuce and cheese, pickles onions, and a sesame seed bun. And the sauce is amazing. You've had the Big Mac around for, I don't know what, 60, 70 years somewhere, give or take. why did you in 2025 go to the chicken mac to make more money yeah but that the chicken the chicken patty's been in the McDonald's repertoire for a long period of time

yes exactly what made them think in 2024 all of a sudden chicken mac was going to work that's smart that's the that's the that's the Taco Bell method every Taco Bell item has the same six ingredients so they are you don't have to buy more special sauce more buns or anything you just slap the chicken patties on there

this is very smart by McDonald's You market it as this new, brilliant idea. You don't really have to change your inventory that much. But you got to go get a chicken patty. They've got to flatten it out. They already have chicken patties with the chicken. They're not the same chicken. No, they're not.

So they had to really go back to the factory. Everything else is the same. And they're going to test it out. They're going to try. I'll tell you what they're trying to do. They're trying to make more money. They're trying to give you another reason to go to McDonald's. I think sometimes you just don't want to take the number one premier thing and

bastardize it. It's not. That's exactly what they're doing. It's the same. It's the same. It's the same. you're bastardized in a Big Mac with a chicken mac? Well, I'll tell you there's a place in New Orleans that has a pig mac, and that's quite delicious.

What is that bacon? It's... Pork? Ground pork. Really? Oh, Le Pig Mac at Couchon Butcher in New Orleans. Please have it. It's delicious.

All I would say is, let's stop worrying about the chicken mac and get more McRibbs out there. Make McRibb great again. McRib was never great. It's always been great. It's disgusting. It's a pressed grishell sheet that some people, have alleged has bits of shoe leather in it or shoe sole. You know, that's fake news.

I think it's fake news too. Thank you. But I choose to believe fake news. That's because it's 2024 and I can do that. All right. McDonald's, don't mess with a big mic. You're questioning one of the most profitable companies on the planet. I am. And their marketing strategies. Well, one of the most profitable companies ever went with

McDonald's breakfast in the morning. They got in the evening and they got rid of that really quick. Yeah, that was because of the pandemic. No, no, that's post-pondemic. They did the McDonald's breakfast. Absolutely. In the middle of the pan... Didn't they do that recently? They brought all day breakfast and then the pandemic happening went away.

No, no, no. It's been gone sooner than that. I mean, after that. Yeah, I was getting back a year ago. But it went away. Are you sure? Yes. I'll look it up.

Connor will give you his what he just doesn't get when he come back. If you got something you just don't get, let me know. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Want to tell you about quality home products of Texas. These are the amazing people that have said, hey, you need a generator because when the power goes out, not a question of if it goes out, but when you want to have a Generac standby generator with you at your home to keep all your essentials going. A lot of you that work from home need to have the electricity and need to have power when the power goes out. That's why you get the Generac standby generator.

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Home Products of Texas. The Houston Sports Buffet is open. How about any of your responsible radio host and I give you sizzling, hot-firing tech on this. Lunch with the Matt Thomas show. I ain't no sizzler. I'm the Golden Corral. On 790.

All right, Connor, your life is complicated at times. You're balancing women that like to go out and run on Thanksgiving, being a Rockets insider, dancing, keeping the youth alive. What don't you get? outdoor weddings my brother and his fiance are planning an outdoor wedding now they've booked the venue uh two two years from this past september and it's in the northeast okay so normally it should be nice but summer weather was extended this year who knows what it's going to be like in two years i really don't want to be sweating in my suit knock on wood there isn't any rain or anything like that

the venue might be beautiful but i just don't get uh taking the risk of planning an outdoor wedding well i got some news for you is it your wedding no it's not Are you paying for any of this wedding? This is why I'm not telling him. I'm telling him everybody. I'm not telling him specifically. You're not telling him. You're just telling all of Houston.

Which is about three more people than his brother. Hey. What city is this going to be in? I don't know. Somewhere, I think somewhere in Delaware. Okay. And we're talking about one month? I'm sorry?

What month is it going to be in? September. September in Delaware? You're going to be fine. I totally get it. Let the lovebirds have their outdoor wedding of their dream. it might be hot. Let me tell you something.

I went to a Vegas wedding in July. 114 degrees. That's hot. Delaware and September, you know what? You're S-A-W-F-T. You're soft. You're soft.

You're soft like the folks that are calling on the Yankees and talking about the six-game series loss. Look, it's like anything in life, it's a gamble. You've got to roll the dice. I think outdoor-door weddings are more picturesque and beautiful. than indoor weddings, and I respect them for rolling that said dice. I totally get it.

Yeah, live a little. Connor? That's not worth it. You got to risk some in life. Nah, got to be safe and secure. What if you wanted to have the wedding of your wedding on the at St. Thomas High School? Beautiful area outside. Why there?

Definitely not. Why don't know? I mean, it's nice. I have no idea. St. Thomas's pictures. I was looking at it. Why do I got to go back? Yeah, but it's maybe where you,

Maybe he had some bad times Maybe you met the St. Agnes girl there or something. I don't know. I'm just... There's an old guy school. I didn't meet my wife there. Yeah, but I mean, you could have brought her to a dance. Did they? They had dances, yeah.

Oh, good. St. Agnes was like the sister school. Okay. A little private talk, school talk for it. I have a idea what's happening. All right. I went to, I went to Alde. Oh.

I was going to say something rude, but I don't want to say. No, no. No, go ahead. No. What's up? I was going to ask if you're, if you're, if your, if your, if your, if your, if your, were in Harris County jail, but that's not nice. See, that is very rude. And no, they weren't, Matt.

They were at the school like everyone else's. And no, there were no stabbing or shooting incidents that I recall. Did you have to have massive, like, metal detectors before you went to the dance hall? I don't think before the dance hall, but there were metal detectors to get into school. Okay, that's right. Everybody's got that now. No, Connor, you're going to take a loss on this one. This is their wedding.

They want to be outside. How does your brother feel? There's no one. Is your brother offended by this, or is he okay with it? I mean, I didn't ask for my opinion, so I didn't tell him. Actually, we're getting word from him. He says, shut your old bum ass up. Yeah, he's actually moving over from one day to the other on this one.

No, I mean, I get that you don't get it, but I get that I get it. What? Nice. That was highly confusing. Get some more green tea in your system. I'm trying to get as much caffeine in my system, but I can. I'm getting withdrawal mid-show. 713-212-5-7-90.

For those of you, the new to this segment, this is what we do for about a half-hour, once a week. We just kind of run through things in our life that we just don't get. Okay. And Connor's now telling his brother he's texting him, I'm not attending your wedding, and I hope the marriage lasts about two years. Oh, I've got another one I just don't get. Please.

Jonte Cook sophomore, four-star receiver with the Texas Longhorns. Yes. Now, his snaps and his catches have gone down since the start of the season. but he and the program have mutually agreed to part ways.

I just don't get it. He can't enter the transfer portal for a month. The Longhorns have another month of games left. I mean, you could suffer any number of injuries. Sure, he's been further back of the depth chart of guys like Isaiah Bond. Of course, Matthew Golden, who got called up for big leagues. But just because your snaps have gone. down and you haven't been getting as many catches.

Why don't you wait until the transfer portal opens? I don't get it. He wants to get his name out there early. So you get himself on the top of the debt chart on the transfer portal. December 9th is when he can do it. That's before any sort of, I mean the long wards are in the likelihood going to be in the playoffs.

Well, he's probably failing out of school. I mean, that's first and foremost. Well, he could be. He's in his second season. Does he want to go to class the next month? There's no chance of that. Can he leave class and still go in the portal? How does that work? I don't know. I don't know anybody's ever been in the portal. Well, highly touted four-star

DeSoto, Texas recruit. Number 26 overall player in 2023. I think you're just upset that someone would leave the 40 acres. No, I'm not upset. He's hardly playing, so it doesn't matter. Oh, okay. I just don't get why you wouldn't wait until the transfer portal opens, and maybe there's a couple of injuries

and the team needs you. And then guess what? Then you could put good tape on the field for other programs. Then there must be a backstory to it. Maybe he's got a promise. somebody. Maybe he's already trying to get his NIL lined up. Yeah, maybe he's...

No one's to get a little bit of a jump start. I found that puzzling for some, for the the portal not opening for a month for him to already mutually part ways, it's what they're calling it. To wrap up our segment here, there is something that just came down from Pete Thammell. Do we like him? Do we have a feeling on Pete Thammle at all?

Yeah, he's, I would say, extremely accurate. Although he was, he was headbutton with Brett McMurphy, and McMurphy won that battle. I don't remember exactly what the, what the story was. Yeah. Um, there was a tweet that says, and I wish I could have Pete Devil, by the way, when he was on Yahoo, he used to come on the show. Now he doesn't. He's big time. Well, I mean, that's fine.

Here we go. Big 12 board chair, Linda Livingstone. That sounds like a porn name. Linda Livingstone? Oh, absolutely. Have you seen a movie with her? It sounds like a bad 80s comic who wore pantsuits. That's Paula Poundstone. Same thing. Big 12 board chair, Linda Livingstone. I didn't even realize there was such a thing as a board chair.

Okay. Sent a letter to college presidents and chancellors calling for, quote, an urgent need from where the presidents and chancellors from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and ACC to gather in person to discuss, quote, models for the future of college football,

specifically in college athletics overall. Specifically, please don't leave us out of any alliance that the Big Ten and SEC are going to make. It's funny that you would say that. Pete Dammel, two tweets later, said, sources telling you, ESPN that there is no expectation that any Big Ten or SEC presidents will attend.

There you go. So she must be filling the pressure. There's going to be a super conference built out of those two, and everybody else is going to be playing for the next round. Oh, boy. Terrible. Ross, I got news for you. We may hate the next round of the changes in college football.

Money. It's all about money. Forget that. But, you know, we've gone through the Transfer Portal and I. we still love college football on a Saturday. We're still going to watch. Are we still going to watch if it's only 24 teams playing for a championship? Yep.

Are you sure? I feel like this could be the one that would really hurt. And I can see it in your voice or you see it in your face. You're thinking there's a possibility. I'm not saying that people are going to turn away. I'm not saying that at all. That's not. But I'm saying that you're really going to take two conferences

until the rest of the other hundred to go away. And you're going to have the winner of the SEC, play the winner of the Big Ten for some glorified National Championship? I'm really trying not to spout more cynicism on the show today, Matt. You've been very cynical. I think it's, I'm tired.

I'm trying to get more caffeine. All right. I just don't get... Well, actually, you know what? I do totally get it. The SEC, the Big Ten, don't care about anybody else but their own conferences. They have zero interest in maintaining

any sort of umbrella of college football. Of the pageantry. They don't care. So Alabama's going to play Ohio State every other year for the national championship in college football. Yeah. Okay. I hope, I don't hope this works, hope it falls flat on its face. And that was, I just don't get it. The news at noon is coming up in a matter of moments.

713-212-5-790. Dr. Roto with us at 1 o'clock this afternoon. We have the rotten five today at 1.30, and we'll take it all the way to 2 o'clock right here on Sports Talk 790. Word right now for Berkeley Eye Center. Berkeley Eye Center. wants to give you $1,600 in savings on your LASIC laser vision correction. They also want to give you a pair of designer sunglasses at 40% discount. So you've got that, the savings on the LASIC, the savings on the sunglasses, and you've got the opportunity to get clear vision without glasses and contacts by getting the revolutionary technology, the equipment, the physicians, the staff that makes

Berkeley Eye Center the place to go in Southeast Texas to get your LASIC laser vision correction. 713-526 eyes, the number of two, call 713 526 EYESBECLASIC.com. Remember, $600 in savings plus 40% off designer sunglasses from Berkeley Eye Center. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 12-4. What's happening in lunch timers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to our number three of the Matt Thomas Show and Ross. Time now for the news at noon. All right, Matt.

Here on the news. Let's go. Aaron Wilson underscore NFL. Texans wide receiver, Nico Collins, not practicing today. Matthew, your reaction. Lions by 13. Come on.

You asked my reaction. I'm giving it to you. Get to Lake Charles and put your life savings on it. It's three and a half. I'll be, the problem is I'm going to be at MGM in Detroit on Sunday, but I won't be able to cash a ticket because we're playing an afternoon game.

Why don't you designate somebody to mail it back to you? That seems like a lot of work. A certified mail. I'm good. Okay. Lions are going to win. You can't have Tank Dell and a bunch of people that don't do much. I choose to believe the Texans will cover the three and a half.

Will they win the game? The Texans will cover the three and a half. I believe you're as big of a phony as ever. What are you talking about? It's my lock at a week. I've hit 14 piles in a row. It ain't like to October, baby. It's a November to remember.

It's like Vimba. How is that holding it three and a half, by the way? I don't even know. See, maybe they're not as bad as we think. Maybe we're overreacting to one game, which we tend to do in an NFL season. It was a horrible, short week, short-handed Texans. They've had the extra days off. They got more days to game playing.

Jared Patterson's back. and they're going to be ready to go to cover the three and a half. Lions 31 Texan 17. 6. No, I'm going to say that. No, 3117. Kami Fairbren is going to doink a couple of field goals. Also from Aaron Wilson, you have Will Anderson practicing.

I'm sorry, Will Anderson not practicing along with Damien Pierce as well. Folli Fadikasi, also out of practice as of right now. but Aziz Alshire and Jimmy Ward returning. All right. And they will return for the Lions game, according to Aaron Wilson, both of those guys. So that's some good news. Your defense is going to get a little bit bolstered. And you're going to need it against that Lions offensive line that is rated number one in football.

And then their skill position players and their quarterback are pretty good too. Yeah. 3117 Detroit. All right. We'll keep it going on the news at noon, but we will keep it with the Texans as well. Here's what Domingo Ryan's had to say about all that outside noise about not making a deal on Deadline Day. No, I didn't emphasize anything to our team. Like, we have the guys we have.

I mean, everybody thinks the trade deadline comes and you're going to, you know, find this guy who's going to save your team. I don't see it that way, right? Transactions were made across the league, and there has to be two parties available to do a trade. everybody's antsy about trades. It's not just us going and taking somebody from another team. People have to be available, and the trade has to be on good terms for everyone. So I know everybody's in the uproar about us trading at the deadline.

It's not from a lack of us working to get our team better and improve our team, but there's no savior coming to save our team, and there has to be two parties involved in trading. Takes two to tango, no savior on the way any. Anyways, Matthew, and no deal made, major deal anyways, by the Texas. But meanwhile, plenty of other teams were on the NFL that were contenders made deals to get themselves better, including the Lions who will be here on Sunday. I think that is kind of, that's what's more telling to me. Is it, yeah, okay, you can say, look, the deadlines, years ago, there would be hardly, we wouldn't even talk about the NFL trade deadline.

The NFL was the worst one, yeah. But there's more activity this year than I remember in the last year. the last five years. Jets. However other many teams we can point to, they tried to improve their team at the deadline. Lions who are coming in here, they traded for Zadaria Smith.

I mean, a lot, I would say more than not, the top Super Bowl contenders traded for a piece to improve their team for this year. Yep. The Texans did not. And here is what, here's actually Nick Casario, this from Texans Media.

Here's what he had to say about the trade deadline, not being a roster builder. Usually much to do about nothing. So essentially a lot of players, a lot of players that get moved, A, are on a kind of expiring type contracts, B, hasn't worked out with their team. Most of it is kind of late round picks, some flips, essentially. You saw a few trades there with a compensation, maybe it was a little bit

bigger than what it was, but you're kind of looking at your team. There's an opportunity to add a player that you have a specific defined role for. Great. If not, it's just, you know, you're not going to do something just to do something just to create a bunch of busy work. But you're not doing that. That's my point. This is, you're not doing it just to do busy work.

You're doing it because your team is a contender for the AFC. Right? Correct. You're keeping, you need to keep up with the Joneses. We talk about this with baseball. That sounded like somebody that was, I don't even know what that sounded like, but that was just terrible words. Once again, terrible Nick Casario word salad.

Again. Usually much to do about not. Yeah, exactly. but your quotes are typically. How do you get behind this guy? You know what? Prove us wrong. Prove us wrong.

That's just not the right way to attack that question and topic. You should say, look, we tried to have some conversations, substantive conversations. We're always looking to improve the team, but we felt the prices were too high to try and make this team better, which we want to do. But at the end of the day, the draft compensation was a little too much for our blood. We're going to play this.

We're going to play this comment again, and you guys can jump in at 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790. Was this a guy that was just trying to brush it off? Or was this a guy seriously, perhaps, on the phones until the very last second? Here's the comment. Usually much to do about nothing. So essentially, a lot of players that get moved, A, are on a kind of expiring type contracts, B, hasn't worked out with their team. Most of it is kind of late round picks, some flips, essentially.

You saw a few trades there. compensation maybe was a little bit bigger than what it was. But you're kind of looking at your team. If there's an opportunity to add a player that you have a specific defined role for, great. If not, it's just, you know,

you're not going to do something just to do something just to create a bunch of busy work. Okay. You know what? That's your guy that thinks that everything is just fine. That was a little... That is going to have C.J. Stroud picked up by a spatula before the end of the season and scooped off the field. That's...

That's what he is. That's what it is. Give him credit for draft picks, although that offensive lines of mess. Give him credit for Tank and Tank Dell, for going C.J. Stroud, for the picking up with Joe Mixing. Stefan Diggs was a nice try, but that's ultimately not going to pan out. But your general manager, just word salad you to, we're not doing it just to do it. You don't do it just to do it. You do it because you need help.

why am I the only one not catching us understanding this? Ross, you are. But just to do it, that's not what people are asking for you to do. That. God, I mean, seriously, that's word salad. Is that what you wanted on a chance to go for a Super Bowl this year? Is word salad from your general manager? To dismiss the deadline, dismissing the deadline as if it's like 2005, I think.

That's why I'll never. never be a Texan thing because that's them in town in the building. Hannah, I have been on your side. Once you got that second black card and you told Cal to go eat barbecue and play video games and get out of the way. Hannah, you walk in that office and say, Nicholas, you don't call him Nikki. Nicholas, you go get a deal because my franchise quarterback is running for his life. Instead, you get, well, we don't know, just a damn, blah, I mean, not even Dana Brown sounds like that. Jesus.

Sorry. And that's your news at noon. It is the news at noon. We've got a couple of things we didn't get to, but... The Rockets won last night. The Rockets won last night. And is Ryan pressing on the move? We will discuss.

We will discuss. I'm sorry. Now I'm revved up. Hearing that Casario soundbite just pissed me off. I'm not even a fan. But if I was a fan, I'd be pissed. We're not going to just make a move because, I mean, it's a lot of... It's just a lot of guys next time.

I don't know. They would seem like 10 teams thought they wanted to get better before the trade deadline. I don't know. Maybe that's just me. We're just going to do some things that do this and we're going to change this. And we're going to, you know, I want to get caught up in the logistics. I don't want to give up a, you know, how I hold my six rounds and my seven-round picks with such reverence. Get your ass is bouncing in the first round again.

And then all the fake media who's been serving up cows burgers can go run around and go. here we go again. AMC South champions four years in a row or whatever the hell it is. You know what I do? I sound like a fan. That's exactly what it is, Ross. I'm a fan. I'm a behind the scenes fan. Really?

And I'm pissed off to my general man. Not low key. I'm high key right now. I'm a high key-key-ass rocket Texas fan. And my general manager didn't want to take the time because, you know, it's just a lot of extra movement and moving parts of things that don't make a difference. All right, good. Enjoy it.

Enjoy watching C.J. Stroud being picked up by a hospital gurney. 1215 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. Game Day men's health. You can tell I don't need testosterone issues, but if you've got some

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Lunchtimers. This is the Matt Thomas show. You know what? We broke our own rule earlier today. I said I don't want to hear from Cassara anymore. And again, I respect the job that he has. It's difficult. And I think he's gotten done a good job.

He's built a good team. But I want him to do a great job. Okay. And we would have said the exact same thing of Dana Brown would have sat on his hands. When James Click didn't sit on his hands, when Jeff Leno certainly didn't sit on his hands. Cacarra just said, nah, we're good.

Can you say Cacucci play left guard? Let's go. That wouldn't be bad. Can't be worse than King and Green. Again. I don't have a dog in this fight, but let's just show you that I have a, maybe I do have a dog in this fight. Maybe I want to see the Texans do something they've never done in their franchises of history. Instead, I got a guy who's just a lot of extra work.

That's what your job is. The great general managers find ways to get better in the middle of the season. They just do. Help me, Ross. Tell me. I don't know, I don't know what the, I can't help you. I don't know what conversations Nick had. I don't know what kind of composition people were asking.

for your left guards. I think people do know that perhaps there was an error of desperation. And then when they're right, sensing that, then they're absolutely correct. No, Nick Casario didn't have any desperation. If he had a desperation, he would have made a move. So the only thing I, look, and I'm just, you're

just asking me to give you a reason. And the only reason I can think of is basically first of all, if Nick Casario believes what he said, if he believes that the trade deadline is this, usually much to do about nothing. And he's not been paying attention. He's not, he's, he's got his head in the sand.

This is not 20 years ago when the trade deadline was much ado about nothing. He's not paying attention to what the Steelers and the chiefs and the bills and the jets and all these other teams are doing to try and improve their teams. That's what, that's what does trouble me about those comments. If he came out and said, we were working hard day and night, burning the candle at both ends, but we couldn't come up with the deal that was right for us. Agreed. And the deadline came and unfortunately we fell short. That's one thing. But to say it's nothing and completely brush it off.

A lot of expiring contracts. That is trouble. I mean, he knows his team better than I do. I'm not going to hide that. But the results are everybody has two, as a pair of eyes, we watch the Sunday games.

We watch the demeanor of CJ Stroud. C.J. Straub by his own admittance this week said his team needs to start having fun again. You know the reason why I'm not having fun is because he's running for his life. He's running for his life. Greg on 790, thanks for holding good afternoon. Hey, thank you. Thanks, Matt.

Thanks, Ross. Thanks for calling. Hey, look, you know, the comment about Casario, whether Casario just made or that y'all played, I mean, come on, we finally have a team that has, like you said, that had the chance to do something that they've never done before and to sit back and blow it off as a,

oh, just too much to do. you know, about nothing. Oh, my gosh. I don't know about you. I mean, you hit it right, Matt. I mean, I'm with you on this one. I'm a little bit upset. Being a fan, I mean, a long-time fan of football here in Houston, and we get that?

I mean, come on. You can tell by C.K.'s demeanor, like you said, he is definitely not the same person that he was at the end of last year or at the beginning of this year. So I just, you know, props to you on that. I mean, you hit it on your head. You hit it on the head and, you know, keep up the good work, you guys. We'll see you. And again, I'm not great comment.

Yeah, thank you. What Ross, what you said a minute ago makes absolutely 100% sense. We burn them in at all. We tried. We, you know, we love our guys, but we know we've got to get some of the fix. The problem is we just couldn't get the guy we wanted. Or the expectations of what we were willing to give up were too high. I can buy all that because we've heard that before from other general managers.

But he treated it like it was, he was filling out a form in page 9, of his tax form and didn't want to fill it out because it was going to cost him a few extra minutes. I mean, my God. Yeah. But you just, yeah. Unless, unless he's, and I don't mean to have a pun here, keeping it close to the vest. It's like, I'm going to make an analogy, man. Let's see how this goes.

Oh, this will be better mind. It's like he bought something and there was like a $5 rebate and he's explaining to his wife why he didn't bother mailing in the $5 rebates. I was just $5. It's not a big deal. Yeah, at the end of the day, it would have been better to have the $5. but it's not something I'm really overly concerned about. That's what he sounded like.

That was an average analogy. Thank you. Better in mind, though. Which was nothing. Which is zero. Robert and Stafford at 1226 on 7. Hello, Robert. Oh, how you doing?

Hi. I've been here all my lives is lovely blue orders. Anyway, George Blanda. Anyway, all I'm just going to get, that guy needs to put his job on a line. That's all. It's just scared. As long as everything's going fine, we can just worry about it.

But everything is going to be going down. That's not going to be going to maybe win, this or that, and let's see if our quarterback. But we ever get another, you know, chance like that? No, it just happened all the time. So, but I don't know, it's just, it's very, you know, upsetting. Maybe we don't lose them, maybe, I don't know, this or that, but every time we see somebody get hurt,

you think they don't want to come back in the end? No, I don't think so. Yeah, we're going to let you go, Robert. You got a very bad connection. Probably our fault, and I apologize for that in advance. If I don't, if I, honestly, Ross, I'm, I'm upset at us that we didn't play that sound bite earlier because we worry about trying to get revved up. That would have revved me up if we'd have played that comment at 10 o'clock this morning. You are fired up, Matt.

I am, I'm seriously. And it's, I mean, I've been around a lot of great general managers. And Nick's a good general manager. Nick is getting a good grade. He is not a poor general manager. Not perfect. Kenyon Green first round, not perfect. No.

But what's the end game here? And I'm stunned that Hannah wouldn't have gone in there and said something. Like I thought she was going to say. This is also what I believe they think. I think Vegas says they're only three and a half point dogs to what we think is this offensive force that is going to drop 50 on them. If they believe in that building that they can correct the things. things that have been ailing the offensive line. You've still got C.J. Stroud. Doesn't look like Nico Collins is coming back, but you establish the run with

Nico Collins and you put on a good defensive performance and you win on Sunday night football. If they win as a three and a half point dog, which happens all the time in sports, then we're sitting here on Monday. But I don't give two craps about what Vegas thinks about this week. I think about what the city, Houston, and the NFL thinks about in January. This has never been about a week-to-week basis for me. This is about doing something that you built. You went and got all the defensive guys in the off-season. You went and got Joe Mixing.

You went and got Stefan Diggs. You didn't expect everybody to be healthy. You didn't. Yeah, but if you win the Super Bowl, it could be in likelihood, the lions are who you're facing. I'm just trying to tell you what they're thinking. I don't necessarily believe. I would have liked to have seen them improve the team.

I think they should have made a deal. What this signifies to me, and the fact that Nick Casario is being so dismissive is that they believe in their guys. Now, will that turn out to be true? I don't think so, but they believe it. And he's going to have to answer to somebody if it doesn't. Not Cal, Hannah. In previous years, trade deadline meant nothing.

This year, it meant a lot. 713-212-570. Want to ask you to use your Shell FCU debit or credit card as often as you can for in-store and online purchases between now and December the 31st. You could be a winner of one of five lucky $1,000 bonus prizes. That's right. They're giving away $5,000, $1,000 of five different people. If you've not joined the Shell FCU yet, please do so by going to ShellfCU.org or texting 713-844-1100. The Shell FCU family wants you with just a $5 initial deposit if you live, work, worship, attend school, or do business in Harris County. So happy holiday shopping with a chance to win $1,000 from the Shell Federal

credit union. Shellfcuh.org or 713-8441100. That's the Shell Federal Credit Union. Right. Half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt. Hey Matt. Love your shell.

Look, what was you talking about? And by the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. I want a better analogy than your $5 rebate. I just, I'm not able to give you one. $10 rebate. How about this? You got a, you, uh, were recent laid off from your job.

I, what? Not you. Oh, man, I wouldn't be surprised, but that's a different issue for a different time. Thanks. And, uh, you get to claim on unemployment insurance. But it's a big logistical nightmare. So I don't want to fill it out the paperwork. Oh, that's way worse.

Okay. That's what I'm saying. I'm not a good with analogies. Because they're trying to incrementally improve the team. Employment, that'd be your whole, uh, that'd be your whole, uh, income at that moment. So Noel Anderson and no Nico Collins. at this point. Nico probably not going to play on Sunday. It doesn't seem like it, right? He hadn't practiced today.

No Damien Pierce. They haven't even designated for him to return and open his window. Sometimes they open a window on players and they don't, Jonathan Brooks, three weeks ago they opened up his window and now they're just activating him. T.J. Hawkinson on the Vikings, he had his window open for a couple of weeks. They don't have it even opened Nico's window. I'm concerned.

I'm confused because Aaron Wilson's tweet was ready to go. Yeah. It's Aaron Wilson's fault. Yeah, let's get him on. He's not a lot on other shows. I guess we can have him on if you want to. Yeah, what other show? Sean's? Does he go on with Aaron?

I don't know. I think so. Okay. We'll take the clips. Willie in the Heights on 790 or 1236. Hi, Willie. How are y'all doing? Good. Man, I listen to y'all show. as much as possible. And I'm just devastated with these Texan.

Here are two things I got to say. Nick and Serle did a pretty good job early on. Nick and Sirrne need to be fired. Offensive linemen need to be fired. And I just don't know. They're playing the Detroit Lions this week, the best team it is, which if you had pretty much everybody held, it was going to be hard to beat this team.

team. But man, I'm just sick in my stomach. If it ever was a team that were trying to give a team a win last week is with the Jets. They did everything possible to give a Texan a win, and they still come away with the lungs. Man, I'm just sick of my stomach with what these Texans doing. Well, I'll say this. I'm not, look, Willie, he took a calculated risk. I don't agree with it. Thank you for the call, by the way. I wouldn't say I'm sick to my stomach.

This is not a travesty. This to me, just like a lot of teams at the trade deadline in baseball, is a big missed opportunity. And it's opening yourself up for second-guessing both ways. If CJ stays upright, offensive line improves,

you have whoever, is going to be wide receiver opposite tank doing some things. You're not worried about going to get somebody else in the passing game. If the line holds up and, you know, whatever combination is out there, Kendrick Green, Patterson, whatever, keeps CJ up right, it's a win-win. I got another analogy for you. Okay, this is going to be the best of the three? Maybe not. Go ahead.

Nick Casario has a car. This car can get him A to B. It has issues, especially the last few weeks. So he's looking at new cars, but he just didn't find the right deal to pull the trigger on. The interest rate was a little bit too high on the loan, so he decided to stay Pat for now. There's going to cost him up too much down the road to improve right at this moment. The warning light goes on frequently. The check engine light goes.

goes on quite a bit. Yes. But it turns off occasionally. And it still runs. And the vehicle still goes. And you got a good driver. And the oil pressure shows below normal, but not in that red danger area. Yes.

How about that? That's the best. Okay. The best of a bad situation. Thank you. And thanks for calling in, Willie. You can't have enough Willie's on the show. I feel like, yeah, the way Willie talks, he's got some good stories.

about the good old days. Let me tell you something. I want to go and have a little sip of bourbon with Willie. Okay. Now we're not going to like go up, but we're going to have a sip on it. You got a splash cherry sprite in it? You don't drink anything without like some kind of fruit. Oh, water. I don't believe you. Bourbon and branch? When's the last time you had a bourbon

water? Been a while? Yeah, never in your life. Okay, how about we do whiskey instead? Okay. Well, whiskey is a bourbon. Bourbon is whiskey. Yeah, it's a lot. It's very confusing. I know. You're going Kentucky straight? No, I'm going to, but we're,

Willie and I are going to sip on it. We're going to talk about this. And I don't want to be disgust. I want to be disappointed, but not disgusting. You have a cigar too? But I'll tell you this. Yeah. Or I'll just have a swist or sweet in my mouth and just chew on it.

That's weird. I'm just telling you. The second guessing is we're there. And you know what? Here's what I'll do. And I'm marking it here on November the 7th. I'm wrong. If everything works out well and the Texans reach new plateaus,

at least the AFC championship game, I will apologize on air. I can do that. I'm okay with that. This is not a hot take. This is me being realist here. I will throw a statement at you and you can choose to buy or sell it. I don't know if it's true either. Is this a vote of confidence in Jared Patterson? It better not be. Why not? Friend of mine.

Oh, friend of the show? You can say that. Okay. He's an offensive line guru. Okay. Doesn't like him. Is this the same friend that really liked Kenyon Green though? Yes.

Okay. But that guy knows his stuff. Yes. That guy told me because we were talking about it just a couple nights ago. Really? Were you guys talking? He called me. Really?

Mm-hmm. Oh, I know why. You really don't know the real reason why, but it was part of the conversation. Okay. Rich and Katie on 7.90 and 1241. Hi, Rich. Matt, how you doing? Good.

Great. Hey, listen, been listening to your show for a long time. Love it. But I just wanted to give you my two cents on the situation with the officer. line and people calling in and talking about Nick's got to go and buy everybody. I'm sure the Texans have a plan. They don't have the one-year plan. They probably have two, three, four, five-year plan.

And what I've been saying in the last couple weeks, got to have two to tango when it comes to a trade. And I'm sure, Nick, again, in my opinion, these other teams have been probably asking for quite a bit in return. So I think Nick is trying to do the best he can with what they've done over the off season and what's happened this year. And I just think he doesn't want to give up a lot of trade capital, my opinion.

And, but to call for firing him. Plus, too, you bring in a lineman, going to take a least probably a week or two, even if he's a veteran, to understand the calls and what's going on. So it takes time for an office of lying to jail. And lastly, I'll say this. I think if the Texans can get,

out of the regular season without any more major injuries and work on this offensive line and other areas that, you know, that's why they call it a season. They get into the playoffs with that offensive line playing a little bit better, more efficient for Tech CJ, who knows what happened at the dance? And that's all I can say. Yeah, by the way, I want to make sure people turn in and out. I'm not calling for Nick Aser will be fired. A caller did that.

I want to make sure I'm very clear. I think Nick Aserro has done, generally speaking, a very good. job. You can't be thinking about the future, about, there's nothing about the future that says sixth and seventh round picks and fifth round picks create your future. High-end prospects in minor league baseball, that's your future. Fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round picks, add layers to your team. And you can find a, you know, you can find a starters in those late rounds. It's certainly very possible, but no one builds their team around giving up an extra fifth round

pick. And to be really honest, not that I've looked at every NFL trade so far, but it feels like the number of trades that have happened so far in a very active trade deadline season have not involved first or second round selections. I think there was maybe a third it was maybe given somebody.

I'm trying to think of it's more than four five and six. I don't think you're seeing anything over a fourth. Maybe the Devante Adams was a fourth that could be a third with if he may all pro and plays over 60% of a stack. You're not going to be able to find, I should say this, you could certainly find a swing guard slash tackle,

been there, done that, for less than anything you would consider it mortgaging the future. And I don't think Casario did his job on this particular situation. Because I don't think the people that I trust that look at the offensive line says you had to do something. Mike Williams was a fifth Marshawn Latimore was a third and a fourth a third, fourth and sixth for a fifth hmm

yeah for the most part that was probably the biggest one Marshawn Latimore a very good defensive player yeah who's still country lander 30 yeah very much in the primevis career Cam Robinson's a good left tackle that costs you a fifth so I mean if we go on the Cam Robinson that's what the Vikings traded for Cam Robinson and a seventh and gave up a fifth.

And that's for an impact left tackle. So you have to think that a guard would have cost you less than a fifth. So we're thinking fifth max, probably a sixth. So yeah, that could have been done, I would think. No, I'm more mad than I was 25 minutes ago when I first heard the comments. I'm sorry. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90.

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Fantasy promo code SportsMT. Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. All right. Coming up. Dr. Roto. I'm going to run out because I'm going to Columbus City with the team, so I'll be bouncing at the top of the hour. So you'll be like, basically Ross, I get into all your fantasy questions answered by your team. I was going to say, what is this list you just handed me of the top five questions for the Houston Toros? I don't think I'm

going to ask these, Matt. I don't care. I'm done it to this. You know that. Matt, come on! Richard and Link City on 790 on the Matt Thomas Show of Ross. Hi, Richard. Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Hi. So, while we're so down on the Texans, and I'm feeling it, but I got to say, Matt,

well, first off, thank you for your call on the Rockets. games. Thank you. I probably spend more time listening to you than I do watching the show because I start listening on my way home and it's a long commute. And I just got to say, you're really great at what you do and I almost feel like I'm watching it when you're

making the call. Well, first of all, thank you very much. I wish I had a larger audience. It's just radio for basketballs is a little bit different than the other sports are, but I thank you very much. It means a lot that you said that. And I truly am humbled by you saying that. Thank you.

you. Well, thank you. What I wanted to say is to the, maybe to the Houston sports fan, who's kind of lost interest in the rebuilding rockets over the last couple years, I think it might be time to get back on the rockets train, because when this season began, I was worried the way they came out of the gate, because they have all this potential, and I'm waiting for them to grow into it. But then they beat Dallas, and the way they beat Dallas, and the way they didn't allow Dallas to come back in the fourth quarter, I thought, okay, this might be the team. And then they went and beat New York, another sure playoff team, a really good team, and they beat them well. And then last night, and I know San Antonio is struggling, but what I saw last night felt like that's the

identity of this team. And if that's the identity, that kind of swarming defense with Tari and a man and just these young players just being so aggressive and turning it into offense. I thought if this is their identity, this is going to be a really exciting season. If this becomes the norm, we're really going to be lucky to have this team. And so I'm just encouraging folks to listen to Matt. Oh, you're the best. Get on the Rockets train. The check is in the mail, Richard.

Thank you for the phone call. The reality is Ross and Richard. And thank you again. It's going to take 25, 30 games. It just is. And if we're talking about this team being seven or eight games above 500, it's game 30, then I think we're going to have a lot of folks jumping on it. But really, the basketball season for a lot of sports fans and a lot of markets outside the championship markets,

doesn't really start until after the first of the year. That's just the reality of it. I was going to say two or three years, but not like your optimism. Not like every single day, but just, hey, I'll peek in on them more. Good. Okay. I think in the city of Houston is going to take longer than that. You're probably right. I'm just trying to be sorry.

You know what? I don't want to be a wet, blanket. I got the Dana Brown cup in front of me. I want you to be right. I'm doing these postgame shows taking one call a night. Which is an improvement from last year, which was zero calls a night. There you go. I appreciate you.

You're up 100%. Slow and steady climb, as one would say. I like it. I like it. I like it. All right. Love volleyball. LovB.com is a website you need to go to if you enjoy the sport of volleyball like I do.

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L-O-V-B.com for Love volleyball starting this January at the Fort Bend epicenter. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on a Thursday, which means we got to get to one of our signature segments of the week, bumping it up a half hour earlier, but that's the way it goes. It's time for the one and only Dr. Roto. Turned out to be a...

really? Hey, baby, you know what that theme song means. It's time for our favorite time of the week. A couple of seconds with Dr. Roto fixing up your fantasy squads of phone lines open at 713-213-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Dr. Roto, we're giving you a reprieve from Matt. You're welcome.

How are things over there in Florida? We're doing fine. It's good to be with you, Ross. Hopefully we don't have to hear about MT's team being in the car. Oh, well, actually, the Toros, you're resuscitating them. They've won a couple of games in a row. He still says he's going to quit the league, which we've got to have that discussion for another time. I'm still upset with him because it's hard enough to fill this 12-team league up here at work.

But anyways, we're not going to talk about the Toros, at least right now. Let's talk about some of the injuries that you're monitoring and maybe some of the backup plans as far as the skill position players, quarterbacks, et cetera. What are we kind of keeping an eye on as far as practice reports this week? Well, you're going to keep your eye on Trevor Lawrence, who right now looks unlikely to play in week 10. So they're talking about Mack Jones possibly getting the start there. I think we're absolutely looking at the receiver position. You know, C.D. Lamb, is he going to play? A.J. Brown, is he going to play? Debo, is he going to play? Drake London, is he going to play? I just saw I literally just watched a video. London looked a little tight there with that hip.

So I can't say that he's a guarantee. Remember, Christian McCaffrey, obviously, I think is playing, and Brian Robinson will probably go down to the last second for the commanders. It's Thursday. Friday's the big day, right? Friday's the day where we know 80%. Then on Saturday, Schefter or Rapporteur, one of those guys usually drops some knowledge on us and tells us even more.

Don't get worked up about Thursday injuries. I don't panic yet. I start panicking tomorrow. And just philosophically, especially when it comes to like ham, it feels like there's just been a rash of hamstring injuries throughout the year. Are you more wary, let's say if it's an ankle injury as opposed to a hamstring and soft tissue, are you more wary to put a guy in your back in your starting lineup with risk of re-injury when it comes to something like a hamstring? They're all bad for me, right? So a hamstring, the worst part of a hamstring injury is that you think you're better.

And then all of a sudden, you go out full speed and you're not. and you pull it again. And then when you pull it that second time, you're out longer than you were the first time. So usually when guys have hamstrings, so let's say they say it's two to three weeks. That first week back, I'm always hesitant. Now, the second week back, I'm better, right? But that's that first week because that's when you can really re-injure it. In terms of ankles, ankle becomes more of just a pain tolerance because these guys can't play for two or three weeks.

They can't play for four to six weeks of the high ankle. But when they're back, it's usually dealing with pain. the hamstring comes out of nowhere, those soft tissues, and it's a problem. That's why we call you Dr. Roto. Okay, well, with that injuries, you also have some buys. So let's go ahead and look at some of the streaming options that we would be looking at. Guys, we need to pick up off the wavewire that you think are viable starts this week. And let's start with quarterbacks.

Well, look, I think you first look at, let's say, a Cooper Rush, right? Going to play for the Cowboys, Dak Prescott, missing a few weeks. Do we want to go with Derek Carr? I know that the defense is bad. but hey, bad defense makes it for that they have to move the ball more on offense. What about Russell Wilson? They added Mike Williams this week, so I'm sure that maybe he's out there in some leagues. And yes, Joe Flacco, we call this flop lag where guys were supposed to be good last week and they weren't.

They stink. And now all of a sudden people like, oh, that guy is terrible. Well, now he's got a better matchup against Buffalo at home. I think Flacco will have a good week. So those are some quarterbacks that you could find. All right. What about tight ends? tight ends look Mike Jaseki may be out there if he's out there you definitely want to get him

Jatavion Sanders for the Panthers he's starting to really urge hook him horns he looks really good third round pick and you know we always liked his ability to catch the ball and now he's becoming a complete player and take a look at Theo Johnson for the Giants they play the Panthers he's questionable it's an early game on Saturday I think he goes and if he goes he should have a big day all right then some of the defenses you think that could be available and pop this week on the waiver wire? Yeah, so I think my favorite three, one, the Chargers. The Chargers play Tennessee.

I play anybody against Tennessee. I mean, Tennessee is just terrible. Two, the Giants, the Brian Burns revenge game. I don't care that if it's in Munich, but Brian Burns is going to be possessed. You know he's going to want to sack Young at least two or three times. I think he's going to have a good game. And Minnesota, if Trevor Lawrence is out and Mack Jones is in, I don't hate Mac Jones, but, I mean, the guy hasn't played all year.

Now you've got to go up against a Brian Flores defense. Good luck with that. All right. Now let's do a little bit. You mentioned James Winston and Joe Flacco. I wanted to ring those guys up and a few others. Let's just kind of do a little buy or sell. I'm going to give you the names of some people.

And then you just tell me if you're buying or selling what we've been seeing from them lately. And let's start with James Winston and Joe Flacco because I like that they have popped. But at the end of day, you're like, I'm starting James Winston and or Joe Flacco. How are we feeling about those two guys long term? I'm buying James Winston. There's no Watson anymore. And look, he's always willing to throw the ball, which is good for fantasy points. And yes, he throws it to the other team a couple times a game.

But, you know, look, the guy's going to throw $2.50 in two most weeks, so I'm buying. In terms of Flacco, I don't know. I think I may be selling. If the Colts continue to lose, are you going to keep a 39-year-old guy as a starter? Or are you going to bring Richardson back and see what he can do? I don't think that Flacco is obviously the long-term answer. So I'm buying Winston selling Flacca. All right, let's keep it going.

A big week for DeAndre Hopkins. How are we buying or selling his long-term viability? We love him. This week, I don't love him, but in general, I love him. So what happens is, Ross, there are different defenses play different coverages. Tampa plays the cover too. When they do that cover zone, Hopkins loves zone coverage. It's his favorite thing.

Not as good against man coverage. Well, what is he going to see this week against Denver? It's going to see Patrick Sturt. man, tougher matchup for him. So that's why I'm not as high on him this week. So basically, you just want to look at the defenses and try. And this is why depth is so important in leagues. People like, well, I've got three or four good guys in my bench.

I don't care. I want as many good guys on my benches I can find because some weeks I'm going to rotate guys in. And some weeks I'm going to bench them depending on the styles and the matchups. All right. Continuing with Dr. Roto, you can find them on Twitter at D-R-R-O-T-O with some buy or sell. You mentioned Mike Gisicki. How are we on him long term? And I'm going to throw, is Kate Otten,

a top 10 tied in the rest of the year? It could be a top five tied in the rest of the year. Tell me, tell me guys you want more than not. Let's go. Kelsey, Kittle, McBride, Bowers. Leporta? Do you put Leporta? No way.

Okay, okay, I'm asking. That's why I ask the doctor. And here's why. You got James and Williams back. You got Amar Ross, St. Brown. You got Gibbs. You got Montgomery. you got one football.

Laporta's not getting enough of that football. Right now, if you ask me, who is Baker Mayfield's number one target? It's Kate Otten. So as much as we like Laporta in general, and I do, I think Otten is more valuable right now. So just Sicky is interesting because T. Higgins wants out, right? He wants out. And my trepidation with him when the season started was that when he was going to get an injury, he wasn't coming back so fast because he doesn't want to risk himself in any way,

perform for a team that is cheap and he knows he's not playing with next year. So when he's out, when T. Higgins is out, Jaseki becomes the number two receiver. He really does. Now, they wanted to get Jermaine Burton, the rookie more involved, but this dude was missing meetings. Jaseki, they move him out. He's not a blocking tight end. He's the receiving tight end. And he's going to have a good night tonight. By the way, was that real? Is that picture of Jermaine Burton at a slot machine? Is that real? No, but there was a picture. Check it out. Okay. He went to sit down next to Joe Burrow on the sideline. And Joe Burrow looked at him and was like, get up.

You don't deserve to sit or something like that. Burton stood up two seconds later and moved away from Borough. That was bad. That does sound bad. And just a couple of more buyers sell real quick. I can't believe I'm even asking you this question. But Patmer Holmes, not very good. All year long, had a pretty good week this week.

How are we feeling about him long term? Well, once again, I mean, I told you that it was going to be a good week because Kelsey and Hopkins against that defense. It was perfect. So as we look at the Chiefs, let's look at the playoff weeks, right? He's got Cleveland, he's got the Texans, and he's got the Steelers. Not the easiest schedule in the playoffs, right? I mean, so are we going to have him throw 220, 2.40 and 1 to 2 touchdowns?

Yes. Am I expecting 300 yards and three touchdowns in those games? No. If you can move Mahomes for somebody with a great playoff schedule, I'm not against it at all. I'm not. I mean, look at Arizona. Arizona has New England, Carolina, and the Rams. That's a great schedule.

Yeah. And speaking of that, with trade deadlines coming up, do you got some buy-low candidates, guys that you're trying to poach from other teams, teams? That's a really great question. I don't play in a ton of trading leagues anymore. I'd play some. What I would do is I would go for guys like Ray Davis and Khalil Herbert and Breeland Allen, guys who are like one injury away from being a...

starter because those are the guys that when they get the look god forbid chase brown gets hurt tonight calil herbert's going to get 20 touches a game and all of a sudden it becomes a fantasy star so i want to try to train for guys like that who i think are one injury your way from being successful all right there you go dr rhodo d r o t r o on twitter you can also find them at dr rhodo dot com coming up in the next segment all of your calls start start or sit trades or anything like that 713 212 570 is the phone number. 713-212-5-7-90. More with Dr. Roto when we come back here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Matt Thomas continues on Sports Talk 790. All right, baby. You know what that music means. Time for the second segment here with Dr. Roto. A couple of lines open if you want to get in with some questions for the good doctor. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-9. 90. Dr. Roto, let's go ahead and get after it.

Starting with Mark in the Sugar Land holding Longest. What's up, Mark? All right, yes, sir. Mike Jaseki or a questionable Kyle Pitts, since I have to make the decision right now. Yeah, I'm going to go and I'm going to play Jaseki. I mean, like I said, T. Higgins is going to be out. Jaseki's been fantastic. Baltimore's got literally one of the worst two or three past defenses in a league. So, I mean, we have to ride the hot hand. And Cincinnati needs this game. This game is a very important game. And so I think they've got to go get it after it, and just like he's going to help him.

All right. One via email, C.J. Stroud or Kirk Cousins? It's a tougher one. Look, you beat Detroit through the pass, but, you know, they've been running the ball really well with Joe Mixen. So they're going to rely on him. Kirk Cousins, that game is always a high school. game. So let's put it this way. I think Stroud has the opportunity to be the

higher upside play, but Cousins is the higher floor play. So what do I mean by that? I feel like really guarantee almost. Kirk Cousin going to get your 15 to 18 points. Stroud to get your 14 where he can get you 22. So look at your opponent, see what you

need. If you need the upside, go with Stroud. If you're the team favorite to win, you have the better matchup, lock in Cousins's points. How are we feeling about C.J. Stroud long term because here in Houston, we are all panicked about the offensive line. They did not make a trade to improve it. The weapons have been limited. Nico Collins hasn't been practicing, even though we love the talent as C.J. Stroud,

the situation around him not great. It's not his fault. I mean, look, before the season started, we thought it was an embarrassment of riches, right? Diggs, and we had Collins, we had Dell, and we had Schultz, and now all of a sudden, he got nobody. See, he's still a great player, but remember, here, too. So look at what he did last year, and the expectations are through the roof. I still love him.

I still think he's a fantastic player, and I'm a big fan. So I think, you know, the question is, can they get an offensive line around him that doesn't get penalized every five seconds? Yeah, 713-212-5-790 with Dr. Roto. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. In the tradition of Matt Thomas, I will say, Koso, what is your Chili Con question? Hey, guys. Jared Gop or Daniel Jones also, what will be taking? about Marvin Harrison

going up that New York Jets defense. Thanks. Yeah, I actually like Marvin Harrison this week. The Jets play a lot of man coverage. Marvin Harrison is terrific in man coverage. Sauce Gardner has not been as good this year as he has been in previous years. So look, do I want to endorse Daniel

Jones? I know they're playing Carolina. I get all that. But you know, you've got to give me Jared Gough in a game that could explode. I mean, the Lions just run amazing plays. They've got arguably the offensive coordinator in the league. They just look different.

They're in another plane right now. So you think I want to play Daniel Jones over a guy who could be in a Super Bowl? Give me Jared off. You know what? You mentioned Patrick Shetain of the Broncos earlier. You mentioned Sauce Garder there. What is your thought as far as the shadow coverages and how much do we really want to avoid it? And what is the list, if you can kind of think of it, outside of Patrick Sertan, we know we want to avoid him.

Are there some other corners around the league we need to be aware of? Yeah, there always are. Jalen Johnson's pretty darn good for Chicago. Javier Alexander, when he's right, is fantastic. Marshall, a lot of more. Joey Porter. Joey Porter's been sensational for the Steelers. I mean, it's a real difference maker.

When you've got a guy out there that can take one guy off the field, it's a game changer and you pay those guys a lot. Now, personally, I don't like shadowing. I like a guy just taking, this is your side of the field. Don't let anybody on that. But certain guys are better than that. So when Patrick Sertan's out there, you've got to respect it. I love Terry McLaurin, but I don't know if I love them this week.

I get with your reporter there. 713-212-5-790. Questions for Dr. Roto. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Josh, go ahead. Hey, Ross Roto. Xavier Leggett or a questionable Debo-Samuel Sr. The problem with that is you're going to have to decide about 928 in the morning.

If everything is equal, I want to play Debo-Saniel. Samuel. Debo Samuel is great against his own coverage. I don't care that McCaffrey's back. Debo should have a good game. I would argue that Purdy may be the best quarterback play of the week against Tampa. I mean, how does Tampa not go for that two-pointed or try to win that game? It's a

short week. You get a bad loss. Now you get to go play the 49ers on just coming off a bye week? That's a tough one. I really like San Francisco this week. So if Debo is playing, we go with him. Yeah, that's actually an interesting angle, too. How much do you factor in like aggressiveness? We know that Dan

Campbell and the Lions are going to go for it. And maybe that hurts the kicking situation. And Todd Bowles is somebody that is going to be more conservative. Is that ever something you try to factor in in guys that you're starting? Yeah, absolutely. So especially when if you're in a league that uses kickers, you don't want the Lions kicker because Dan Campbell is going to go for it. You want a team that's going to stop and say, oh, we'll take the three points. That's great. I mean, Todd Bowles, retrospectively, that was a big L by him. You're on the road. You just got tied the game or you just start down by one, go forward, show your team that you trust them to get that

two-point conversion. And then you go and you lose that game? I mean, did anybody think Tampa Bay was going to win that game the minute went to overtime? I know I didn't. No, no, no, we didn't. 7-13-21-2-5-79 of the phone number. 7-1-3-212-5-79. You can also send tweets to at SportsRV at DR-R-O-T-O.

A couple of them on the Twitterverse. This guy, Yanez says he's desperate for a running back. help, Ray Davis, Warren, Alargeir, Taijee Spears available as well. Wow. Yeah. I mean, the problem is this. Do I like Davis the most in many ways? Yes, but he might do

nothing this week. So if you're trying to win this week and you're not playing in a dynasty, I think Al Jir is in a really good spot. I mean, the Falcons could put up 31 points this week. You know, Fijon gets taken out of the three-yard line and Algear comes in and he gets that touchdown. I don't love Jalen Warren. I don't think he's in a

great spot. But look, Ask yourself this question. God forbid something. Bejohn. Tyler, Al Jaze's a top 20 running back, maybe even a top 10. Yeah, absolutely. And just put a Bijan as far as in general, the way that it kind of been an up and down season, started off in a bell cow roll, kind of slackback, but now ran back up with the Falcons. Yeah, actually, it was actually they didn't use him enough, and now they're using him the way we wanted him to. So I think if you had to look back at this season, who would be the number one running back in a PPR format?

don't laugh. I might even argue Devana Chan when two is there. When two is there, he throws him the ball all the time. He's been fantastic. Dejohn's gotten better. McCaffrey, we haven't seen all season. Breast Hall, some games, they give him the ball, some games they forget his name. Alvin Kamar is still pretty good

and he's got a big week this week. But a lot of these, and Sequin Barclay would obviously be number one. He has been the MVP this year. All right, another one from Twitter. Pitman Jr. or Roma Dunzee? Man, there's bad vibes going on in Chicago right now.

If you're not seeing what I'm seeing, A, they hate Mattieber Fluss, B, Caleb Williams is overrated. C, T.J. Moore walked off the field during the play last week. Did you see the video on that wrong? Yes. He said he twipped his ankle. Right. Believe him

or not. No way. And then there was another video when Caleb Williams was leaving the huddle and Moore hit him on with his shoulder. Like, dude, that is bad juju going on there. So please, don't give me Roma Dunzee. I like Roma Dunzee.

I think he's tremendous, but I don't want any part of Chicago right now. The only guy want in that game is DeAndre Swift. All right. One more on the email. P.P.R. Naji Harris, J.K. Dobbins. Look, you've got to roll with J.K. Dobbins. He's been great. I think the

biggest fear about J.K. Dobbins was not the ability. It's the ability to stay healthy. So, you know, the best ability is the availability. He has been great. He has looked tremendous. The Chargers are the most improved team in the league on both sides of the football. Their defense against Cleveland was smoldering. It's going to be smoldering this week against the Titans.

You've got to roll with J.C. All right. Nick in River Oaks next up. What's up, Nick? Hey, guys. So my lineup is pretty much set this week, but going forward, long term, would you rather start in Joku or Hockinson? Thanks.

That's a really good question. I think my answer is going to be Nujoku, because James is going to throw the ball 38, 40 times a game, and Najoko looks like he's, you know, James's number one or one-A target. I like T.J. Hawkinson, but you've got to feed Justin Jefferson. Jordan Addison has been complaining for the last few weeks of not getting the football. You still have to run. So I like Hawkinson, but I think in terms of just more receptions, it's David Adjoku.

Yeah, I think kind of the back end of the tight ends, we do have a lot of questions. Getting another one, would you drop Jake Ferguson for K. Yes. Yeah. I mean, Dallas is a mess right now. And by the way, going to get Jonathan Mingo, seriously. If Mingo was any good, wouldn't Carolina have kept them? Yeah, I would think so as well. All right. Ed and Cyprus has rung in on the phones. What's up, Ed? Hey, Bill, is Ed? Dr. Roto, how are you doing? What's up, Ed? Actually, I moved to Magnolia, Ross. All right, cool. Yeah, it's nice here. A lot less crime. Anyway, listen, I want to ask Roto, I've got both.

Um, Purdy and Hertz. Okay. Purdy's probably going to get, is he going to get me more points this week? And also, other than that, um,

if my guy, if my, I had Oliva, he's out. I don't know if they're going to go to this new guy, Tipton, but, um,

between him as a flex player and this guy from, um, um, from Pittsburgh, the type of, the wide receiver there, Gabe Davis, I think his name is. Is Tipton worth a shot this week?

Because I got a lot of these out and I got a couple other guys out and then I got a jigba. He's sitting this week, so I got nobody. I got to pick somebody up. Okay. I was an awful there. Congratulations on you move to Magnolia.

Purdy and Hertz, I think, are very even this week. I like Purdy a ton. I mean, Tampa, like I said. I think this is a perfect storm for Purdy to throw three touchdowns. So I think he, I probably would lean to Purdy. In terms of the other one, if Olavé is out, Bub Means is out, Shaheed is out. Tipton may be like the last man standing there. Gabe Davis, for the Jaguars, I don't hate him.

But if Trevor Lawrence is out with Mack Jones, I don't know. It's hard to trust either of those receivers. But I mean, I have no problem with Tipton. He looks good in spots. All right, Dr. Roto, real quick, my producer, Connor McGovern has a question for you. So we were just talking about Gabe Davis. He didn't practice on Wednesday still listed as questionable.

Do I take a chance of playing him even with Trevor Lawrence, like you were saying, maybe not being able to go or should I start Noah Brown instead? I think you're going to start Noah Brown. So my assumption is that Joey Porter is going to see a lot of McLaurin. And that's going to leave Noah Brown open and the Steelers play a lot of zone defense. Noah Brown's been really good this year. I think he's emerged as a number two. All right.

Now I'm going to give you one full PPR. Brian Thomas or Jalen Waddle or Tyrone Tracy? Hasn't Tyrone Tracy been special? Yes. He's really been good. Against Carolina, too. This is a Tyrone Tracy week. I love him.

Really love him. I think so too, but I love Brian Thomas so much. But anyways... You know what? I would have told you Brian Thomas if Lawrence was in, but now it's back. Okay, cool. And then, well, let's go ahead and get to it. It is the signature moment of our signature segment.

And it is the absolute no doubt about it. Can't Miss Play of the Week. We call it Dr. Roto's. Lock in a week. What do you got, Dr. Roto? Assuming that Trevor Lawrence is out, that Jacksonville offense is going to be putrid, which means the defense is going to be on the field over and over and over,

which means Justin Jefferson is going to go for, I don't know, eight for one, ten, and a touchdown, maybe two. Vikings win big Justin Jefferson. Lock of the week. Justin Jefferson, Dr. Roto, Lock at a week, Dr. Roto. Tell us where we can find all of your great and well-informed content. All right.

First on X, a DRROTO, certainly at my website, Dr. Roto.com, and of course on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio, 8 to 10 a.m. on Saturday mornings, Eastern. And I appreciate you having me on, Ross. All right, thanks, Dr. Rota for the time, as always. May all your lineups be winners. You too, bye-bye. I appreciate it.

There you go. Dr. Roto here on the, Matt Thomas show with Ross. Okay, time for a quick break here. A couple of segments to go. Matt Thomas has left. He is being a five diamond mat, jet setting with the Houston Rockets. We got a lot of stuff to talk about.

If you'd like to get in, we're still talking about Nick Casario, not making a move. We have comments from both D'Amico Ryan's and Nick Casario on that. We didn't even really get to Ryan Presley. Should he be moved? Will he be moved by the Houston Astros for salary relief concerns? We also have the Rockets winning last night against the San Antonio Spurs. big blowout victory over Victor Wimbunyama and the San Antonio Spurs. Anything you want to get to, 713, 212, 570 is the phone number.

713, 212, 5, 790. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, Ross v. Real with you. A couple of more segments. It will be Adam and Adam coming up at 2 o'clock. If you're not used to the new lineup change or haven't heard, it is here. I'm not used to it either, but we're working on it. We'll be fine. 10 to 2.

The Matt Thomas Show, 6 to 10. It is, of course, the Sean Salisbury show with Brian Lillima, 10 to noon, the Matt Thomas show with me, Ross. And then Adam and Adam, the A team coming up at 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790 at 713-212-5-790. Did a lot of time, spent a lot of time in this show talking about Nick Casario and the Houston Texans and the comments that Casario had. If you had not heard them, maybe you want to sit down. I'm going to go ahead and play them really quickly. going to address the reality because, first of all, yes, the Texans did not

make a deal at the deadline, but we have to move forward from that. But Nick Casario's answer, I just thought, was not very good about the lack of moves from the trade deadline this year. Usually much ado about nothing. So essentially, a lot of players that get moved,

A, or on a kind of expiring type contracts, B, hasn't worked out with their team. Most of it is kind of late round picks, some flips, essentially you saw a few trades there with a compensation maybe it was a little bit bigger than what it was. But you're kind of looking at your team. If there's an opportunity to add a player that you have a specific defined role for, great.

If not, it's just, you know, you're not going to do something just to do something just to create a bunch of busy work. Can we time check that? Can we make sure that was from 2024? Or, I mean, at least at some point in the last five years, is Nick Casario not paying attention to what's happening across the NFL? did Nick Casario not see that the Steelers traded for a wide receiver to get better? The Ravens, the bills traded for wide receivers to get better as well. Other teams like the Detroit Lions who are going to be in town this week, and these are all teams I'm listing, by the way, who fancy themselves as playoff teams

and possible Super Bowl contenders. The Detroit Lions trading for Zadarius Smith and putting him on the edge against your offensive line this week that needs shoring up. How does that come out of the mouth of Nick Casario to just completely be dismissive of the trade deadline when while that rang true in the years past, this year, if you just get your head out of the sand, you could see that there are teams all across the NFL who are trying to make the playoffs and who are trading four players. and for the most part, not costing them more than at max a fourth round pick, generally fifth or sixth round pick. Just unbelievable that those would be the comments from Nick Casario as far as this deadline. We have to live in reality.

I mean, you're gas-sliding your fan base at this point. If you're going to say that it's much ado about nothing of the trade deadline, and Adam Schaefter and Ian Rapidport are breaking trades like every 15 minutes, the last week and change. I mean, just ridiculous. But look, that's Nick Casario's belief, or those are his comments at least, does he truly believe that? Was he trying to get something done?

And he's trying to cover up himself and saying, yeah, deals are getting done. But, you know, it's not much to do about nothing. His words, not mine. I don't know. I hope he doesn't truly believe that. Because if he does, he's stuck in the past. And he's not paying attention to what's happening around the least. The Texans, I'm not going to say they sat on their hands, but they did not make a substantive move to improve this offensive line or at pass catcher either, which other teams are doing.

And clearly there were wide receivers on the market. And Stefan Diggs tore his ACL, and he is out for the year. Now, if maybe you want to just go ahead and call that a sunk cost to where I spent a second round pick on a receiver to have for one year, which kind of just. didn't make sense in itself. I don't want to further compound that mistake by sinking more draft capital. But if the goal is to win to the Super Bowl this year, then it shouldn't matter. Fourth, fifth round pick generally not going to have the whole lot of value. But Nick Casario, of course, feeling differently about that.

C.J. Stroud also speaking to the media, here's what he had to say about improving the offensive line, saying he's talked with them. and, well, they need to wake up because they've gotten hit in the mouth. Yeah, I know. I had a lot of great conversation with him. And, you know, I believe, you know, that sometimes it takes getting hit in the mouth and maybe getting hit in the mouth multiple times to wake up. And, you know, I believe that, you know, this is a wake-up call for us to get things fixed.

And, you know, I understand, like, man, if we give ourselves a shot and we stay in the green, we move the ball really well. We just, you know, got to finish. We got to be able to lose those one bad plays and a drive. with those two bad players of the penalties. You know, it's always something. So if we can get rid of that, I believe that, you know, we can really be grateful of a team.

And we already are, man. We're a really good football team. Like, there's no time to hang our heads down. It ain't that bad. We're going to figure it out for sure. See, that's what I'm kind of thinking. And I don't know if we're overreacting, prisoners of the moment,

national game against the Jets, their absolute worst game of the season. in terms of Saxon pressures, and maybe we're overreacting, and it's going to get better, and everything's going to be fine, and they're going to go out there in NRG Stadium on Sunday, and they're going to crush those Detroit Lions. I'm not feeling like that's what's going to happen, but from everything I'm hearing,

from D'Amico Ryan, to Nico Collins, to C.J. Stroud, to others in the Texanville, they feel like they're okay. They don't feel like, you know, there's this horrible team that's just going to go up and give up eight sacks every week. And I don't expect them to give up eight sacks every week. And maybe there's the belief that they're going to get better with Kenyon Green out and Jared Patterson. And maybe Jared Patterson, of course, not some all pro waiting in the wings. But if he can be better than the literal worst guard in football, which is what Kenyon Green has been graded as,

then that's an improvement for the Texans. and we'll see. That's the beauty of it. We talk sports here on these shows and with you and your friends, and that's what this show is, is we're talking about this at the bar. And we're sitting at the bar,

and you and I are probably saying, man, I can't believe they didn't make a move. But clearly they believe in themselves, and they're going to play the game and we're going to see. As they say, the tape don't lie. How is that offensive line going to hold up? Are the pressure numbers going to be down? and are they going to, I mean, shocked the world at this point and beat the Lions.

Because even the sports books have made it three and a half. But I saw somewhere, like 89% of the tickets are being bet on the Detroit Lions. So it's something that's overblown. We're saying, nobody believed in us. Nobody thought we could do it. At this point right now, nobody does believe in the Texans. Not nobody. Not 100 out of 100.

but 89% of the betting slips against the Texans at 3.5. And right now I put a poll on my Twitter account as well. Lions minus 3.5 winning 68 to 32% on that poll. So the most part, I mean, my gut feeling at this moment, which can fluctuate, it's not feeling great. But there seems to be the swell of belief from those who are close to the team. We'll see on Sunday. 713-212-5-790.

The phone number if you'd like to get in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Final segment of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas, who left early, continues after this short break. The most awkward nooner you'll ever be a part of. This is the Matt Thomas show. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Ross, Ross V. Real with you for a couple of more minutes. We're handing it off to Adam and Adam. That is Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton. They're coming up. Two to six here on Sports Talk 790. Yes, the new format. 10 to 2, the Matt Thomas show with Ross, although Matt has ducked out early. 6 to 10, the Sean Salisbury show as well.

And also with all this, I normally like to do the nightcap program. I really haven't really talked about this much on air. It's a show that I like to do. It's a show that's fun. I appreciate those of you that reached out on Twitter. and all that type of stuff saying you enjoyed listening to it. It will be any good hands. Dan Matthews will be taking over the nightcap,

but for me to do, get here two hours earlier, do a four-hour show, wait for four hours and didn't do the nightcap. Just as a practical matter, didn't really jive with my schedule. So unfortunately, I will have to be dropping that. But you do get another hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. So you take what you can get in this life of ours,

but I will be dropping out and bowing out, unfortunately, of the nightcap program that started without me, I believe. Then I joined it. Then I hosted it solo. And then now it is in the good hands of one Dan Matthew. Still a couple of minutes left if you want to get in on the phone lines at 713-212-5-790. But something that I teased about talking about that we haven't really got to, unfortunately, in this show. Crazy. We got four hours, but we're so busy. Can't even get to everything here. Houston Astros, according to our good friend Chandler Rome, have had internal discussions about trading setup. up man, Ryan Presley, according to two people briefed on the conversations.

Perhaps a signal that Brown is exploring avenues to get further away from the luxury tax. Now, I don't know necessarily if this is a direct impact of Alex Bregman and getting closer and closer to under the tax threshold, that way making room, kind of like what you have to do. It's funny how it's not a cap league is major. League Baseball, but other teams and other leagues that are capped, NFL NBA, you got to make moves if you want to make, you got to make move B so you can stay under the salary cap. And unfortunately, for a lot of teams, the competitive balance tax threshold in major league

baseball has become a de facto salary cap. Now, Jim Crane went over that last year, but also, if he does it again this year, there is the repeater penalty to where everything over the threshold is. taxed at 20% that goes up to 30% in the second year and that goes up to 50% in a third year. So clearly something that owners are encouraged to try to stay away from over and over and over again. And that Jim Crane, I do not fault him. I'm not calling him cheap. I'm not saying he doesn't spend at all.

It's been one of the top payrolls in baseball over this run that the Astros have been on. But the fact of the matter is, Astros want to stay away from it. Ryan Presley is making $14 million this season right now, approximately, depending on where you look, Fingress, Roster Resource, whatever. Astro is going to be about $10 million below the first threshold. If you take out Ryan Presley, that becomes $14 million. Can you give them to another team at basically no cost and say, we'll pay half of this?

because if you remember with the Justin Verlander deal, despite him making $40 plus million with the Astros, and the Astros not being on the hook for that, if his contract says that's what he's making, that's what it counts against the threshold on the payroll. So you could send some money with Ryan Presley and take on maybe a nothing prospect, or I don't even know if they could do cash considerations,

or can you, they send a little cash and then you send more cash? I don't know how it works. I don't know exactly what they would do with Ryan, Presley and shipping him out. But that would help as far as salary relief, wanting to retain Alex Breggman. And even if you do go over that threshold, perhaps you don't go over as much.

But of course, the one caveat to all of this, Ryan Presley is a full no trade clause. So you'd have to, I would imagine, you'd have to find a contender willing to take on the $14 million salary of Ryan Presley. And let's be honest, Ryan Presley's not a $14 million reliever right now. He simply is not.

so you have to find somebody willing to take on his salary and somebody who can give you whatever it's going to take and then help out a team that's probably going to be a fellow contender and Ryan Presley has to agree to it. So that just makes it all kind of a mess. 36 years old, Ryan Presley will be when the next season starts. He wasn't a bad reliever. Got too much of a bad rap.

There's too many of you out there acting like Ryan Presley was horrible and he was like Rafael Montaro level. He wasn't that bad, but there was some slippage really in the last two years. Fastball hasn't been as good. He still got that wicked curveball, one of the best in baseball. But in order for that one pitch to shine, the other stuff around it has to be legitimate. And that just has not been the case for Ryan Presley the last couple of years. So if Ryan Presley were to be moved, he would have to agree.

First of all, you've got to find somebody that is even willing. to take on his salary and probably you're going to have to send some cash. And oh, by the way, they have to have that type of room, if it's another contender, under the competitive balance tax threshold. They have to say, we're going to take on this $14 million with the cash that the Astros likely would be sending. We have to send back whatever. And then Ryan Presley has to agree to the trade.

So I'm curious if that's going to happen. But this happening at all and being talked about at all, it does make me, make me think and wonder if this is impacted or if this is the result of Alex Bregman and the Astros legitimately trying to sign him back or would they be trying to do this no matter what because if Alex Bregman signs here or if he doesn't, Ryan Presley at $14 million, just not great for the Houston Astros. And perhaps they would be trying to get under the competitive balance tax threshold, regardless of Alex Bregman being signed back here and being Houston Astro for the

foreseeable future. I don't know. We'll see, but interesting to see how the offseason continues to play out for the Houston Astros, whether or not Alex Breggman signs back. That is going to be the first domino to fall, and then what's going to happen there? What is plan B? What is plan C for the Astros as far as the corner infield? Something we will certainly have to keep an eye on here in Houston. And with that, that'll do it for the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. My name is Ross saying thank you so much for listening to the program. If you made time, I do

truly appreciate it. Extra special thanks to those you've got involved directly. Thanks to Dr. Roto doing a great job. Thanks to Matt Thomas for leaving early. Thanks to Connor McGovern for producing doing a great job as he always does. I'll talk to you folks tomorrow at 10 a.m. right here on the Matt Thomas show, but now it's not only one at him.

It's another Adam. It's the A team. And it's coming up here on Sports Talk 790. Do not go anywhere.