The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Texans General Manager Nick Caserio Downplays Importance Of Upgrading At Trade Deadline

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

In the final moments prior to the NFL trade deadline at 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday, the Texans made their only move of the day, sending defensive tackle Khalil Davis to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2026 seventh-round pick. With injuries to the linebacker and receiver positions as well as an underperforming offense line, many looked to general manager Nick Caserio to address the depth issues on the roster and help keep the Texans a top contender in the AFC. However, no players were added to the team before the deadline. Only offensive tackle Zachary Thomas was claimed off waivers from the Patriots on Wednesday afternoon. When asked by Texans media on his thoughts about making moves at the trade deadline, Caserio said, "If there's an opportunity to add a player that you have a specific, defined role for, great. If not, you're not going to do something just to do something just to create a bunch of busy work." Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" react to Caserio's comments and discuss whether this Texans roster is competitive enough to win against tougher opponents in the second half of the season.

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 D'Amico 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 anyways, Matthew, and no deal made, major deal anyways, by the Texas. But meanwhile, plenty of other teams around 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 was more activity this year than I remember in 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, I would say more than not, the top Super Bowl contenders traded for a piece to improve their team for this year. 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 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 up. 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 nothing. Yeah, exactly. That's what you see. 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 blend. We're going to play this comment again. And you guys can jump in at 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-9. 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 of do 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. 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 is going to have C.J. Stroud picked up by a spatula and put it on the end of the season

and scooped off the field. 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 CJ 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 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 as if it's like 2005. I think that's why I'll never be a text event 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,

I'm just a damn, damn, 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 cassero 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 them out because, I mean, it's a lot of, it's just a lot of guys next time. I don't know. They would have seemed 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. my seven-round picks with such reverence. Get your asses bouncing the first round again. And 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-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 and a lot of us do over the age of 40, for that matter, you want to get to Game Day, men's health.com slash Houston. Game day, men's health.com slash Houston. That's where you go to get your testosterone levels checked absolutely free.

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for peptide enhancement, and weight loss. All from GameDay, menshealth.com. slash Houston. Lunch timers. 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 Gassera 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 clicked didn't sit on his hands, when Jeff Leno certainly didn't sit on his hands. Sarah just said, eh, 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 franchise as a history.

Instead, I got a guy who's justifying, well, it'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 a 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 they were, perhaps there was an air of desperation. And then when when others are licensing that, then they're absolutely correct. No, Dick Ocero 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 ado about nothing. And he's not been paying attention. 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 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 was one thing. But to say it's nothing and completely brush it off. A lot of expiring contracts. I mean, he knows his team better than I do. I'm not going to hide that. But the result of 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. Thank you for the call. Hey, look, you know, the comment about Casario, whether what Casario just made or that y'all played, I mean, come on, we finally, we finally have a team that has, like you said, that has a 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 longtime fan of football here in Houston, and we get that. I mean, come on. And you can tell by CK'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 your 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 the minute 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 he was, he was filling out a form in page nine of his tax form and didn't want to fill it out because it wasn't 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, let's see how this goes. Oh, this will be better mind. It's like he bought something and there's 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 is nothing. Which is zero.

Robert and Stafford at 1226 on 7 on a, hello, Robert. Oh, how you do you? Hi. I've been here all my lives. lovely blue orders and anyway, George Blanda. Anyway, all I'm just want to get, that guy

needs to put his job on the line. That's all. It's just scared that as long as everything's going fine, we can just worry about it, but everything's going down. That's not going to be no baby wins, this or that, and let's see if our quarterback. But we ever getting to get another, you know,

chance like that? No, it just happened all the time. So, but, I don't know, it's It's very 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 again?

I don't think so. Yeah, we're going to 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 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 endgame 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 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 are your face. facing. So I'm just trying to tell you what they're thinking. I don't necessarily believe it. 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. Not in previous years, trade deadline meant nothing. This year, it meant a lot.

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Shellfcc.org or 713-84-41100. 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? 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 were a recent laid off from a job. What? Not you. Oh, man, I wouldn't be surprised, but that's a different issue for a different time. Thanks. And you get to claim unemployment insurance.

But it's a big logistical nightmare. I don't want to fill it out. paperwork. 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 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 window on players, and they don't, Jonathan Brooks a couple of weeks, three weeks ago they opened up his

window and now they're just activated. 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. We're going to get, well, 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? Sean. I don't know. I think so. Okay. We'll take the clips.

Willie in the Heights on 790 or 1236. Hi, Willie. Hi, how are y'all doing? Good. Man, I listen to your show as much as possible. And I'm just devastated with these pictures. Here's two things I got to say. Nick and Sir have a pretty good job early on. Nick and Sirle need to be fired. Offensive linemen need to be fired. and I just don't know. They're playing the Detroit Lounge 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. But, man, I'm just sick in my stomach. If it ever was a team that was trying to give a team a win last week, is with the Jets. They did everything possible to give the Texan a win and they still come away with the lungs. Man, I'm just sick to 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 of 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's going to be a 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. upright, 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. Oh. 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 pay. hat 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 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, and the oil pressure shows below normal, but not in that red danger area. Yes. How about that?

that's the best the best of a bad situation thank you and thanks for calling in Willie you can't have 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 we're going to have a sip on it where 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. Never in your life. Okay, how about we do whiskey instead? Okay. Well, whiskey is a bourbon. Bourbon is whiskey.

Yeah, it's very confusing. I know. You're going Kentucky straight? No, 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? What are 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 out of your 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 offensive 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.

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 offseason 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 an alignment, going to take a lease 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 offensive line to gel. 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. 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 impossible. 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 all the top of my head. I don't think you're seeing anything over a fourth. Maybe the Devante Adams was the fourth that could be a third with if he makes all pro and plays over 60% of a snack.

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 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 six 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 in the country land of 30. Very, very much in the prime base 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, 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.