The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - What Direction Do the Texans Go Now?

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

What Direction Do the Texans Go Now?

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Tweet came in 15 hours ago, Ross. Kudos to the Houston Texans on advancing to the second round of the playoffs. This team showed real determination,

playing with hard and discipline, despite major offensive injuries. That kind of resilient. matters. Jack Easterby. Nope. Michael, I mean, Magic Johnson. Out of sports. Out of sports?

Mm-hmm. Dom Deloise. No, he's dead. Oh. I don't know. Alina Hidalgo. Who? Lina Hidalgo. Hildalgo. Lina Hidalgo. Shut your bum ass up.

Nobody wants to see that. How those corruption cases going? She's busy. funneling funds and whatnot? I don't know. I don't want to hear... She's Teflon. From politics, political people, or TV news anchors wearing gear.

Your team gets your asking. The last thing you want to hear about is how resilient the team was, shut you bum ass up! Seriously. Hi. You're all right, man? Yes. Have a good weekend? I had a great weekend. Come on.

I'm 99% sure I have her muted, so... Well, I got it sent to me and I'm like, are you kidding me? I don't follow any politicians. There we go, yeah, she's muted. Good for you. I'm going to hit the mute key too. I didn't see that.

Seriously. Just take care of our county. Be a judge, whatever judges do. I don't even know what judges do. I don't know. I'm not worried about it. Well, I just had to say, come on. And by the way, they did the wave at Energy Stadium yesterday.

You should get your ass kicked by doing the wave. They did? Yes. Oh, the watch party thing? Yes. They had enough people for a wave? Yes. How many people were there?

I don't know, but they did the lower level doing the wave. McNairs are cashing in a little... Because they charge full prices, don't they? That was free to get in, but everything else was probably... That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know what it was. Can I make enough all those $20 beers? So, I'm a flight-aware geek.

What's flight-aware again? That is a live website. You can track planes. There were three PJs, private jets. Okay, pajamas. Leaving a suburban Boston airport. Okay. Heading to Houston.

Okay. And then the big one, the Texans plane, did not leave until the middle of the night, like at 2 o'clock in the morning. They had icing issues and other sort of delays. Okay. So I just was... So what are the three that left? I don't know who they're owned by. Air McNair.

One of them's got to be the McNair family, right? Okay. The other two, I can't tell you, but I'm just... Bunby? Think Budby was the game? Yeah. Was he thrown up his H's? Probably.

We're going to take a little hiatus and throwing H's up. No, then we're not, Matt. Yes, we are. Literally no one but you is mad about that. You're the only person I've ever heard complain about H's. I'm not a H's fan. I know. Because you know what people throwing their H's up?

Put them down. That's what your team did. It's still an H either way. You throw it. That's true. I'm going to throw you an H right now. Man, your H's doesn't use your middle finger, man. Oh, sorry about that, Rossi.

All right, we have to tell the truth at the bottom of the hour. Okay. I have... Ooh, this can get spicy. It's a spicy. It's a spicy one. Okay. Three truce and one line.

Okay. Three truce. Yes. One line. Okay. How many lies, Jonathan? Seven. Thrice. No, one. I just said three truths, one lie. Oh, I thought you said three truths.

Three truths. I said, how many lies? Yeah, one lie. No, you said, wait. How many truths? I thought you asked, Fres, Thruse. How many truths? Three. Okay. All right. Three truths, one lie. Can't wait. All right, let's go to the phones. Manual, 1108 on the Matt Thomas show at Ross Manuel. Thank you for holding a good morning. Hey, good morning, fellas. How are you?

Good. Great. good good um you know man i've i got a good night's rest uh as best as i could get right um you know that that loss was probably about as worst the game seven the rocket phase 2018 um that's about as hurt as i felt um in a long time but i just want to ask this um one uh what has CJ earned right we keep feel like as a fan base maybe we're 50 50 in this what is he's earned, in my opinion, he hasn't earned anything. He hasn't earned anything. He's not an all-pro. He's not a pro-bowler. He's not an elite at any one thing. Maybe he had an elite moment to his rookie year, but he's not elite. I don't even think he's good. He's teetering on

average at best some days, but I just want to know what is he earned. And I really believe, and I don't think this is a debate. I really think we've got a Sam Darnel situation on our hands here. I think he's lost and I think he's gone. I think he's out there. It's obvious that he's seeing ghost. And I really don't believe that there is anyone on our staff. I don't think there's anyone that D'Amico will hire that can fix him. I do not think this is a D'Amico problem. He was drafted the second overall for Christ's sakes, you know?

Like, at the end of the day, there has to be some accountability within themselves to get better and to be better. and I think D'Amico and Nick are perfectly safe. Hell, even Nick Cayley, I mean, I blasted him for four months. And for Christ's sakes, he got better. I'll be damned. He got better. But for some reason, CJ has regressed, and I think that he's broken. I don't think he's fixable here.

I just want to know what he's earned. And why do we need to give him another year? Well, whoa, whoa. You don't have a backup plan. No, no, no, yeah, you're giving him. Thank you, Manuel, for the call. You are giving him another year. This, this, this, this, okay, there are two things we're not going to discuss.

C.J. is the quarterback next year. And number two, Joe Burrow ain't it. Joe Burrow makes about $50 million. You got to send $50 million back. You don't have $50 million to send back. Let me make sure I'm very clear in this. Joe Burrow will not be a Houston Texan. Period.

End of story. I'm putting my name on it. Joe Burrow, not a Houston Texan. You're going to be right, but I'll say. So write it down just in case. You need to write it down. I was working with somebody. I don't want to bring him my name.

Spanagan-Samanant. Like, you could just trade $50 million back. What are you going to trade him back? No, no. You need to send a bunch of picks. You got to send picks and money. No, no chance, no way, no house. Yeah, go ahead.

But I'm just going to say, C.J. Stroud is your quarterback in 2026. After that, I cannot guarantee. Yeah. And you're saying what he's earned, I mean, what he's earned was his, I mean, his rookie year, he was insane. He was every bit of the franchise quarterback that you thought you were going to get. And these, it's tough to say out loud, but these last two games, they're atypical of C.J. Stroud performances,

but they're also under the bright lights and the playoffs. You know what? You pay franchise quarterbacks $55 million a year to beat playoff teams. You don't do it to beat Carolina. Yeah, that's just the truth. So you can find somebody to give you 19 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. And that's what Jack Prescott has crushed, even though he's at a really good year,

that's a lot of money spent for a guy that, again, not through a lot of fault of his own, but his contract in part with C.D. Lambs contract hamstrings you. I'd rather have Dack Prescott than C.J. Stroud. That's not even close right now. Yeah. But what C.J. Stroud is, he's asking what he's done to earn it. He was a pro bowler, his rookie year.

I don't know if he was named to it or an injury replacement or whatever. Was he a Matt Schobb pro bowler or a real pro bowler? I don't know. I think it probably was the former. But he has been a pro bowl. He hasn't been all pro. He was the offensive rookie of the year. He's earned that.

All right, I got one for you. We're going to our comp. He's 24 years old. Sam Darnel or C.J. Stroud. Right now? Right this second. Okay, but assuming Sam Donald, who's not been healthy, is healthy. Sam Darnold?

Sam Darnold. But he brought up that name. which is going to be a part of what we need to fold into the conversation. Because what Sam Darnal has around him is better than what C.J. Stroud has around him. That's fair. Oh, C.J.'s got a few things going against him for sure. Could C.J. Stroud? Could I envision a scenario where C.J. Stroud ends up with like the Pittsburgh Steelers or something. And he plays well and he's successful. Yes. But what's going to happen here is if you want to keep C.J. Stroud,

You're going to have to pay him $50 to $60 million. If he goes somewhere else, he's probably making like $30. And you can build a better roster around him. That's the thing. You need a better offensive line. You need a legit RB1. You probably need a legit WR2, although maybe the two young guys may be coming into that.

Maybe Higgins can be that. So you're going to have to pay all those things that we just said. And you've got to pay him, and you're going to try to retain your entire defense? That ain't happening. It's not happening. So I'm saying there is a cap. For a reason.

Yes. And that's why I was saying this yesterday to family and people were talking about the game. You didn't do a podcast on this? No, I didn't do a podcast. I should have.

There's a world where we just witnessed the best Texans offense of all time also healthy into the playoffs. Lasseter, Petrie, Anderson, Deniel Hunter, everybody's healthy. Everybody was healthy

in the playoffs, in the divisional round. Yep. If I say out last night, loud, that was the best and healthy if the Texans defense will ever be during this Amico Ryan's run. That's not crazy. Even with Lassiter, in and out of practices for the last month, even with Petrie

were in that soft shell on his head. That's fine. He was out there playing, flying around, making plays. And you squandered it. The best defense in the history of this franchise, which goes now 24 years, still can't compete in a championship game.

Let that soak in. I don't want to. Too bad. I'm going to throw it out. We had this all offseason long. Do you understand this? All offseason long. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Does Dimeco treat CJ differently than his other players? The answer to that, no doubt, in my mind, is yes, but in relation to the other quarterbacks. Does Sean McDermott crush Josh Allen probably not on Sunday? I'm thinking. Did Ben Johnson crush Caleb Williams with throwing interception late in the game yesterday? Probably not. So I know you're going to say, well, you know, D'Amico's got to be harder on him.

Of course. But knowing that the fraternity between a quarterback and his coach and the podium are two very similar things.