# Power Players: Texans OC Nick Caley

An episode of [NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/680904259), 11 Aug 2026, 50 min.

Audio: https://pdrl.fm/91be81/podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/claritaspod.com/measure/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/9ce11dad-e86a-444f-ba83-ae27003475be/a12b1ade-2dda-44d0-8a4d-b4a20117c482/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=deff018f-4b51-4501-937c-ae27003475d1

Jourdan Rodrigue is joined by Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley to talk about how he collaborates with quarterback C.J. Stroud while establishing the Texans offensive identity. Nick also discusses his early lessons in coaching while with the Patriots and the transition to a position with the Rams. Plus, Nick explains the influence growing up in Canton, Ohio with the Pro Football Hall of Fame had on his life and what it's like practicing against the Texans defense every day. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcasts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:04] Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of NFL Daily's Power Players,
[0:09] Speaker 1: where we talk to football people and learn from them
[0:11] Speaker 1: and pull back the curtain on the sport we love
[0:14] Speaker 1: just a little bit more. Today. I am so excited
[0:18] Speaker 1: to be talking to Houston Texans offensive coordinator Nick Kayley.
[0:22] Speaker 1: Kaylee is a John Carroll graduate, part of that coaching
[0:25] Speaker 1: in front office fraternity that now spreads all across the NFL.
[0:29] Speaker 1: After spending his first decade of coaching as a defensive
[0:32] Speaker 1: coach in the collegiate ranks, Kaylee moved on to a
[0:35] Speaker 1: dynasty when he joined Bill Belichick's New England Patriots as
[0:39] Speaker 1: an offensive assistant coach in twenty fifteen. He quickly moved
[0:43] Speaker 1: up there, becoming the tight ends and fullbacks coach until
[0:45] Speaker 1: leaving for the Los Angeles Rams tight ends coaching job
[0:48] Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three. In LA where he also became
[0:52] Speaker 1: the team's offensive pass game coordinator, Kaylee helped install the
[0:55] Speaker 1: new version of Sean mcvay's offense, using some influential run
[0:59] Speaker 1: pass concepts he helped perfect in New England, and the
[1:02] Speaker 1: Rams were off and running. In twenty twenty four, Kaylee
[1:06] Speaker 1: became the Texans offensive coordinator joining a team that now
[1:09] Speaker 1: has big time Super Bowl aspirations, including on this show,
[1:13] Speaker 1: and a clear path of evolution and intention ahead of them,
[1:16] Speaker 1: especially on offense. I can't wait for you to hear
[1:20] Speaker 1: Kaylee's energy and thoughts about the game and coaching and
[1:23] Speaker 1: everything else. Let's get into it. Welcome to NFL Dailies
[1:27] Speaker 1: Power Players, where we go inside the NFL with people
[1:31] Speaker 1: who shape the sport. I am stoked today to be
[1:35] Speaker 1: welcoming Houston Texans offensive coordinator Nick Kayley to the show. Nick,
[1:40] Speaker 1: how are you? Thank you so much for being here today.
[1:43] Speaker 2: Jorgne, I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. How
[1:45] Speaker 2: are you doing?
[1:45] Speaker 1: I'm good. I think I'm in a little bit of
[1:47] Speaker 1: a cooler you know, not cooler like rad but cooler
[1:52] Speaker 1: as a temperature environment than you are right now. So
[1:54] Speaker 1: I feel for you, man.
[1:56] Speaker 3: There's no question about it. It's pretty steamy, pretty hot here.
[1:59] Speaker 2: Yes.
[2:00] Speaker 1: So I'm excited to talk to you today because I
[2:02] Speaker 1: just we've known each other for a while, and I
[2:04] Speaker 1: just I love the way that you think about football,
[2:06] Speaker 1: and I love the way that you think about the
[2:08] Speaker 1: big picture and the little picture of football and how
[2:10] Speaker 1: it's evolving forward. And building puzzle pieces together and working
[2:14] Speaker 1: with people especially, and I think that really shines through
[2:18] Speaker 1: and every stop you've been in. But I really want
[2:21] Speaker 1: to go back a little bit further. I mean, if
[2:23] Speaker 1: you can put yourself back in like very very young
[2:26] Speaker 1: Nick Cayley shoes and tell me about what sparked for
[2:30] Speaker 1: you for football, Like, what are some some of the
[2:32] Speaker 1: reasons that it really became your purpose and your why?
[2:36] Speaker 2: Sure?
[2:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, well, the first thing is, I think
[2:38] Speaker 3: we're all a product of our environments. I was born
[2:40] Speaker 3: in Kanton, Ohio, really roughly three miles from the Pro
[2:43] Speaker 3: Football Hall of Fame. So, you know, in the eighties,
[2:46] Speaker 3: late eighties, early nineties when there were the populations declined
[2:51] Speaker 3: a little bit, but high school football at the time,
[2:53] Speaker 3: I mean, it wouldn't be uncommon to see fifteen to
[2:55] Speaker 3: twenty thousand people at a high school game on a
[2:57] Speaker 3: Friday or Saturday night. Longest time ongoing high school rivalry
[3:01] Speaker 3: in in uh, you know, the country, Maslin McKinley. So
[3:05] Speaker 3: that's been going on for you know, well over you know,
[3:06] Speaker 3: one hundred games, easily one hundred games.
[3:09] Speaker 2: So as a kid, I got an opportunity.
[3:11] Speaker 3: Unfortunately, my dad love ball and would take me to
[3:14] Speaker 3: high school games as an early kid five six, seven
[3:17] Speaker 3: years old, got an opportunity to just be around you know,
[3:21] Speaker 3: those players, those coaches, those environments and really caught fire.
[3:25] Speaker 3: And then mixed that with the fact that the Pro
[3:27] Speaker 3: Football Hall of Fame's there, that that's the time of
[3:30] Speaker 3: the year where you just see can't and shine and
[3:32] Speaker 3: it's it's a great place. It's part of the fabric
[3:35] Speaker 3: of a culture. It embodies hard work, you know, it's
[3:40] Speaker 3: it's just it's a passion filled game. And and you know,
[3:43] Speaker 3: I would say most of the guys that I grew
[3:46] Speaker 3: up with when we were kids, that's what we did.
[3:48] Speaker 3: We played football on the streets. We went to the
[3:50] Speaker 3: Hall of Fame day parade. I used to be on
[3:52] Speaker 3: my dad's shoulders and take me down to the Hall
[3:54] Speaker 3: of Fame and shrim and ceremonies when they used to
[3:55] Speaker 3: be on the front steps there, uh of the Hall
[3:58] Speaker 3: of Fame.
[3:58] Speaker 2: So that's where that that's where I got the first taste.
[4:01] Speaker 3: And it hit me and it really just continued to
[4:05] Speaker 3: you know, fuel that fireing me.
[4:07] Speaker 1: You know, to this day, I think a lot of
[4:08] Speaker 1: us are are really shaped by like the see it
[4:10] Speaker 1: be it quality, right, Like you see people coaching. You
[4:14] Speaker 1: were up close to those high school games, and yeah,
[4:16] Speaker 1: you're looking at the players at the time, and you're thinking,
[4:19] Speaker 1: I want to be just like them, And eventually your
[4:22] Speaker 1: path shapes into understanding the game and and like really
[4:27] Speaker 1: feeling passionate and fueled by like all that goes into
[4:32] Speaker 1: it to help those players succeed. When did that sort
[4:35] Speaker 1: of start to switch for you that, like, you know, Okay,
[4:38] Speaker 1: these guys are in Canton and they're being enshrined as players,
[4:41] Speaker 1: but there's coaches here too. There are so many people
[4:44] Speaker 1: behind maybe the headsets that help shape the sport just
[4:49] Speaker 1: as well. I want to be like them.
[4:51] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean probably around the age of seven eight
[4:55] Speaker 3: nine years of age. To be honest with you, I
[4:59] Speaker 3: had my you know, a lot of my family members
[5:01] Speaker 3: went to Camp McKinley High School. Ironically, that's where Josh
[5:04] Speaker 3: McDaniel's played. I had an opportunity to work with Josh
[5:06] Speaker 3: for seven years in New England. But his father is
[5:10] Speaker 3: a Hall of fame high school coach, and I just
[5:12] Speaker 3: I can still remember going to the Masle McKinley games.
[5:16] Speaker 3: You know, I had a two cousins There were multiple
[5:18] Speaker 3: cousins that played at Camp McKinley, my mom's first cousins.
[5:20] Speaker 3: One played in the National Football League, John Grimsley for
[5:23] Speaker 3: ten years, seven of which here in Houston, if I'm
[5:26] Speaker 3: not mistaken at least I think it was seven years,
[5:29] Speaker 3: but played ten years in the NFL. So I remember
[5:32] Speaker 3: going to McKinley games. I could hear the crush cinder
[5:34] Speaker 3: on the sidelines with the cleat hitting. You could smell
[5:36] Speaker 3: the popcorn, you know, in the in the air, and
[5:39] Speaker 3: those were times where you looked up the high school coaches.
[5:44] Speaker 3: They were so respected in my community. And then as
[5:48] Speaker 3: a kid when you're playing football for the first time,
[5:51] Speaker 3: first time we could play tackle football. I was in
[5:54] Speaker 3: the fifth grade, and you just had opportunities to go
[5:57] Speaker 3: out there and get coached, and you had people that
[5:59] Speaker 3: poured believe into you, and it was fun, like you
[6:02] Speaker 3: enjoyed it. It was it was you know, they were intense,
[6:04] Speaker 3: they were competitive, and you know, it was just it
[6:08] Speaker 3: was it was what I loved.
[6:09] Speaker 2: I caught you know, I caught fire.
[6:11] Speaker 3: And then coupled with that, when I was nine years old,
[6:13] Speaker 3: there was an NAI school at the time, Alone College.
[6:16] Speaker 2: It's still there. Leave Ashton.
[6:19] Speaker 3: Dulin graduated from there, but they were at an ai
[6:22] Speaker 3: A School and Joe Palomazano was their head coach, and
[6:25] Speaker 3: at nine years of age, I got to be a
[6:26] Speaker 3: ball boy and I got to see every interaction. It
[6:28] Speaker 3: was at Fawcett Stadium now Benson Stadium. There we're at
[6:32] Speaker 3: the Profooball Hall of Fame Tom Benson Stadium. Prior to that,
[6:35] Speaker 3: it was Fawcett and I got to sit there and
[6:37] Speaker 3: have a ringside seat.
[6:38] Speaker 2: Every single day.
[6:39] Speaker 3: My dad would drop me off, I'd walk into the stadium,
[6:41] Speaker 3: I'd sit there for the home games, and then he'd
[6:43] Speaker 3: come pick me up and I'd go home. And you know,
[6:46] Speaker 3: you would have thought that.
[6:46] Speaker 2: Was a super Bowl.
[6:47] Speaker 3: There may have been a thousand people in the stands,
[6:49] Speaker 3: but it didn't matter. And so I got to see
[6:51] Speaker 3: the impact the coaches had on players. I got to
[6:54] Speaker 3: see the camaraderie. I got to see the collaboration firsthand.
[6:59] Speaker 3: And it was at the age of nine that I knew,
[7:01] Speaker 3: you know, look, we all had dreams to one day
[7:04] Speaker 3: hopefully be an NFL player. I knew pretty pretty you know.
[7:07] Speaker 3: I had one hundred and thirty five pounds in high school.
[7:09] Speaker 3: I knew that probably wasn't gonna be my calling card,
[7:11] Speaker 3: but I did know that ultimately at some point I
[7:14] Speaker 3: wanted to coach football.
[7:15] Speaker 2: That was important to me.
[7:17] Speaker 1: It's cool because I mean, for me, that's English teachers,
[7:19] Speaker 1: right like you have people who pour belief into you.
[7:22] Speaker 1: And obviously I'm on the you know, the writing side
[7:24] Speaker 1: for the most part, I'm podcasting right now. But then
[7:27] Speaker 1: in like you remember those people who made you feel
[7:30] Speaker 1: like I can do this, and you want to be
[7:33] Speaker 1: one of those people for people, I think that's football
[7:36] Speaker 1: is such a powerful cycle. It can be it can
[7:40] Speaker 1: be a dangerous and negative cycle, sure, but it also
[7:43] Speaker 1: in terms of people perpetuating those types of qualities to
[7:47] Speaker 1: others and then those people carrying them forward. That's one
[7:50] Speaker 1: of the things that I love the most about the sport.
[7:53] Speaker 1: And then the perpetuation of ideas comes in that too.
[7:56] Speaker 1: And then like you hit the real stuff, as you did,
[8:00] Speaker 1: I know early in your career where you're like this
[8:04] Speaker 1: is hard, this is this is a grind. I am
[8:07] Speaker 1: in the you know what right now, and I'm wondering
[8:10] Speaker 1: what those moments were like to like keeping that like
[8:13] Speaker 1: real passion for it even though you are in some
[8:17] Speaker 1: grueling environments, especially you know, as you leave your twenties,
[8:20] Speaker 1: you're in your thirties in New England, you're in some real,
[8:24] Speaker 1: real trenches with those guys.
[8:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
[8:28] Speaker 3: It was a laboratory for learning, I mean for sure,
[8:30] Speaker 3: and some days you're drinking out of a fire hose.
[8:32] Speaker 2: I'll never forget. So I was on the defensive.
[8:35] Speaker 3: Side of the ball as a graduate assistant all the
[8:38] Speaker 3: way through through becoming a you know, a full time coach,
[8:41] Speaker 3: a position coach at the college level, prior to going
[8:43] Speaker 3: to the Patriots, prior to getting an opportunity to get
[8:46] Speaker 3: hired by coach Belichick and the Patriots. And I'll never forget.
[8:52] Speaker 3: I interview in twenty It was spring of twenty fifteen.
[8:55] Speaker 3: I was out recruiting and I got a call to see,
[8:58] Speaker 3: you know, if I would want to come up in
[9:00] Speaker 3: interview for a possible quality control job. They called a
[9:02] Speaker 3: coaching assistant at the time, and I said absolutely.
[9:05] Speaker 2: So, long story short, I get an opportunity to go
[9:07] Speaker 2: up there.
[9:07] Speaker 3: I interview installing quarters coverage, defensive back centric, going through
[9:13] Speaker 3: really a car wash of an interview from seven thirty
[9:15] Speaker 3: seven to forty five am to roughly about four thirty
[9:18] Speaker 3: PM when my flight was scheduled to leave. They fly
[9:22] Speaker 3: me back to Saint Petersburg, floridcause I was out with
[9:24] Speaker 3: spring recruiting, and when I came back, they called the
[9:26] Speaker 3: next date off me the job and I flew up.
[9:28] Speaker 2: It was a pretty quick turnaround. When I got there.
[9:32] Speaker 3: One of the first stops I made, they brought me
[9:33] Speaker 3: to coach Belichick's ops and he said, you know, I'm
[9:36] Speaker 3: going to put you about as far out of your
[9:37] Speaker 3: comfort zone as possible, and we're going to put you
[9:41] Speaker 3: with the offensive line. Dave Biguliamo was the offensive line
[9:44] Speaker 3: coach in twenty fifteen Forest there in New England.
[9:47] Speaker 2: He said, it's.
[9:48] Speaker 3: Going to be it'll it'll put you as far out
[9:50] Speaker 3: of your comfort zone, but it's going.
[9:51] Speaker 2: To be the best thing that will happen to get professionally,
[9:54] Speaker 2: and he was right. I remember that first spring.
[9:58] Speaker 3: I got hired really the weekend of rookie any camp
[10:00] Speaker 3: in twenty fifteen, so I was already I wasn't there
[10:02] Speaker 3: for phase one of the off season program.
[10:05] Speaker 2: And when we got going.
[10:07] Speaker 3: I just remember, actually Jerry Schaplinsky, our quarterback coach here,
[10:10] Speaker 3: I took his role, they moved me to offense.
[10:12] Speaker 2: I took his role.
[10:13] Speaker 3: He got elevated to assistant quarterbacks coach, and a couple
[10:17] Speaker 3: weeks in he takes a four inch binder and he
[10:19] Speaker 3: sets it and drops it right on my desk and
[10:20] Speaker 3: he goes, here you go, man, I'm giving you one
[10:22] Speaker 3: day this summer. We're all at answer any questions you have,
[10:25] Speaker 3: but go figure it out. That's what everybody else had
[10:27] Speaker 3: to do here. So you're really I'm breaking down film.
[10:30] Speaker 3: I'm trying to be you know, learn how what our
[10:32] Speaker 3: language is, what our vernacular is, how we call things,
[10:37] Speaker 3: in addition to trying to find my way through the building,
[10:39] Speaker 3: and what our rhythm and routine is that first spring
[10:42] Speaker 3: and I'll never forget. I'm sitting there going, man, I
[10:44] Speaker 3: know we used to call this twenty six power from
[10:46] Speaker 3: a defensive perspective, like, why is this called JAB twenty
[10:48] Speaker 3: eight power?
[10:49] Speaker 2: Boss?
[10:50] Speaker 3: Why is this called JAB twenty six sub? Why is
[10:53] Speaker 3: this called you know, JAB twenty eight pow, you know power?
[10:57] Speaker 3: We had all these different variations of power and then
[11:00] Speaker 3: but it would take it took an enordinate amount of
[11:03] Speaker 3: time to break down film that the first couple tries,
[11:06] Speaker 3: I mean really the first month in the summer that
[11:08] Speaker 3: I got there, because it's not about identifying what's actually
[11:11] Speaker 3: on the tape, it's putting it into their language. And
[11:14] Speaker 3: so you felt like you were drinking out of a
[11:16] Speaker 3: fire hose every day. And then, you know, the only
[11:18] Speaker 3: thing I says, you just keep drinking, you keep swallowing.
[11:21] Speaker 2: The water, and you keep going.
[11:22] Speaker 3: And and then you had great people there to lean on.
[11:27] Speaker 3: Josh McDaniel's, Dante Scarnakia, listened to Brian Dabel.
[11:33] Speaker 2: There were just so many good people. I've in fears.
[11:35] Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, I'm going to leave people out
[11:37] Speaker 3: because there's so many of them. But it was a
[11:39] Speaker 3: lot at first, and all you can do is really
[11:42] Speaker 3: roll up your sleeves and go to work. And that's
[11:44] Speaker 3: what I tried to do every single day. And you know,
[11:47] Speaker 3: and there was a lot of growth in those moments.
[11:49] Speaker 3: A lot of hard work, a lot of tough time,
[11:51] Speaker 3: but there's a lot of growth.
[11:52] Speaker 1: I love that. And it's interesting to me because when
[11:55] Speaker 1: you talk about I mean, it's such a vivid memory
[11:57] Speaker 1: for you. It's almost like when you are talking about this,
[12:00] Speaker 1: I can hear you setting the binder on the table
[12:02] Speaker 1: in front of you and flipping it open and being like,
[12:04] Speaker 1: oh my god. And so I like to think that
[12:09] Speaker 1: when we have such transformational experiences like that early in
[12:13] Speaker 1: our careers, the really good coaches, the really good communicators,
[12:17] Speaker 1: you know, take that forward and remember that always when
[12:20] Speaker 1: you're maybe uploading something to your new players or your
[12:23] Speaker 1: young players. We're going to talk about the President of
[12:25] Speaker 1: the future later on in this conversation, but I do
[12:28] Speaker 1: want to know, is that something you still think, Okay,
[12:31] Speaker 1: I remember what this was like, and now this is
[12:34] Speaker 1: how I'm going to try to help be and be
[12:36] Speaker 1: really empathetic to people who are maybe learning this language
[12:39] Speaker 1: and this installation for the first time.
[12:43] Speaker 3: I think you have a great appreciation for that, and
[12:47] Speaker 3: you have a great appreciation for the process. And I
[12:50] Speaker 3: think the thing that was always stated to me, and
[12:52] Speaker 3: I've stated it to numerous good there's people that Cole
[12:55] Speaker 3: Popovich came after me. He's our offensive line coach. Carmen Brisillo,
[12:59] Speaker 3: the offense blind coach for the Tennessee Titans, one of
[13:02] Speaker 3: my best friends in life. He came after cool. So
[13:04] Speaker 3: we had a run of guys there, and what we
[13:08] Speaker 3: always tried to do was help each other out along
[13:10] Speaker 3: the way, and you know, you never lose perspective of that.
[13:13] Speaker 2: And as hard as it is, it's it gives you
[13:17] Speaker 2: a foundation.
[13:18] Speaker 3: Where there was no shortcuts. You had to earn everything there.
[13:23] Speaker 3: You had to be a forward thinker about things and
[13:26] Speaker 3: solve problems and try to figure it out. And that
[13:29] Speaker 3: was by design to see if you were willing to
[13:32] Speaker 3: do the work and if you were able to to
[13:35] Speaker 3: figure out you know, the solutions, and as hard as
[13:38] Speaker 3: it felt on the front end, it made you better
[13:41] Speaker 3: every step of the way. And I wouldn't have I
[13:43] Speaker 3: wouldn't change anything. And you know, I will never ask
[13:46] Speaker 3: anybody to do anything that wasn't asked of me because
[13:50] Speaker 3: there's a lot of golden there's a lot of value,
[13:51] Speaker 3: and there's there's you know, a lot of growth that
[13:53] Speaker 3: comes from those experiences.
[13:54] Speaker 1: For sure, Yeah, you touched on something I'm super curious
[13:57] Speaker 1: about because it's all if you look back on your life,
[14:01] Speaker 1: Nick Kayley, this is your life, you know, like, and
[14:04] Speaker 1: you think about all of these moments that kind of
[14:07] Speaker 1: we're all leading to where you are now. And as
[14:09] Speaker 1: an offensive coordinator, you have to be so good at
[14:12] Speaker 1: walking that line between the macro and the micro right
[14:17] Speaker 1: and all of the little little tiny details and all
[14:20] Speaker 1: the little communications while continuing to keep that focus and
[14:25] Speaker 1: also sort of supplement and really be that focus for
[14:28] Speaker 1: other people if maybe they're very in the weeds in
[14:31] Speaker 1: certain roles and things like that. So, how did those
[14:34] Speaker 1: experiences and how did you personally maybe develop that skill
[14:38] Speaker 1: set over time? I'm sure it is still something you
[14:41] Speaker 1: are always working on.
[14:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, yeah, definitely.
[14:46] Speaker 3: You know, I think the biggest thing is, I think
[14:47] Speaker 3: everything just starts with in terms of relating to the
[14:51] Speaker 3: people that you work with and interact with. I think
[14:53] Speaker 3: it's about it's about really understanding who you're working with,
[14:56] Speaker 3: and understanding the value of having people around you and
[15:00] Speaker 3: so and and supporting people. And as a coordinator, like
[15:04] Speaker 3: you know, I can't do this job alone. And I
[15:07] Speaker 3: I value everybody that we have on our staff. Everybody
[15:11] Speaker 3: has an important role and you make that role. You know,
[15:14] Speaker 3: you make of it whatever you want to make of it.
[15:16] Speaker 3: You know, and and and I truly believe that the
[15:18] Speaker 3: more you can do, the more things expand for you
[15:21] Speaker 3: in terms of being able to take on responsibility and
[15:23] Speaker 3: all of all of the guys we have here on
[15:25] Speaker 3: our staff, I have so much appreciation or respect for
[15:29] Speaker 3: and it's just no differently than as a position coach.
[15:31] Speaker 3: You know, my job as a position coach was to
[15:33] Speaker 3: support the offensive coordinator, the head coach and in any
[15:36] Speaker 3: way that I possibly could to help help us be
[15:39] Speaker 3: at our best. And I just try to keep that
[15:41] Speaker 3: into perspective, try to try to lead with humility and
[15:45] Speaker 3: hunger and and really, you know, I learn a lot
[15:49] Speaker 3: from our coaches. They we pour into each other and
[15:52] Speaker 3: and it's a you know, I value that. I value collaboration,
[15:56] Speaker 3: you know, when we're sitting there trying to solve problems.
[15:59] Speaker 3: And I don't ever want want people to feel like
[16:02] Speaker 3: they are apprehensive to ask questions, you know, and speak
[16:06] Speaker 3: in me like I want a psychological safety that permeates
[16:09] Speaker 3: to our staff because I think that, you know, that's
[16:12] Speaker 3: how you solve problems. That's a you know, not one
[16:14] Speaker 3: person has all the answers, and you can conquer a
[16:17] Speaker 3: lot more with the team. And you know, we tell
[16:19] Speaker 3: our players that it's the same thing with coaches, and
[16:22] Speaker 3: and so I think being rooted in that having a
[16:26] Speaker 3: level of humility and just trying to take a step
[16:28] Speaker 3: back collectively as a staff and doing everything we can
[16:32] Speaker 3: to help one another so that we can help our
[16:34] Speaker 3: players and we can help this team an organization.
[16:37] Speaker 1: Man, I'm going to write that down. Psychological safety is
[16:40] Speaker 1: you know, I love you know me, I like words, right,
[16:43] Speaker 1: So I really that's a that seems to me like
[16:46] Speaker 1: one of your core values the way that you present
[16:49] Speaker 1: it like that. And maybe a teaching mantra or a
[16:51] Speaker 1: philosophical mantra that you try to live by, any others
[16:56] Speaker 1: that maybe developed for you over time, Things that you
[16:58] Speaker 1: live by with communication, things that you learn earned over
[17:01] Speaker 1: time in your career, that you really really try to
[17:04] Speaker 1: stay steadfast in.
[17:06] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean a couple of things, you know. I
[17:09] Speaker 3: think one thing is the three things that I that
[17:12] Speaker 3: were told to me, you know, a while back, were
[17:16] Speaker 3: you know, if you can do these things, if you
[17:17] Speaker 3: can work hard, you can treat people right, and you
[17:20] Speaker 3: can tell the truth and be transparent in your messaging,
[17:24] Speaker 3: you know, it'll go a long way. So everything that
[17:26] Speaker 3: I try to do a far from clearly, far from perfect.
[17:30] Speaker 3: Made plenty of mistakes in my life, you know, but
[17:33] Speaker 3: I try to do things the right way and just
[17:35] Speaker 3: give everything your best. And you know, Sean used to
[17:37] Speaker 3: say it all the time in LA and he was
[17:40] Speaker 3: He's awesome for every reason, but no one likes surprises.
[17:44] Speaker 3: So trying to be out in front of things, being
[17:47] Speaker 3: transparent in community from a communications standpoint, you know, from
[17:53] Speaker 3: h just the intent of what you're trying to get accomplished.
[17:57] Speaker 3: Just just be authentic and genuine and and be yourself
[18:01] Speaker 3: and treat people the right way and pour everything you
[18:04] Speaker 3: have into it. And it's amazing what you can accomplish
[18:08] Speaker 3: when you get when you do that, and then collectively
[18:11] Speaker 3: when you have a staff, do that, and same thing
[18:13] Speaker 3: with our players. So I believe that, I live by that.
[18:17] Speaker 3: I believe in that, and that's important to me. And
[18:20] Speaker 3: you know, and then just continue to to just try
[18:23] Speaker 3: to help everybody be at their best. And I think
[18:26] Speaker 3: those those you know, I would say, uh, those three things,
[18:31] Speaker 3: really working hard, treating people right until the truth, they
[18:34] Speaker 3: take you a long way.
[18:35] Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd agree with that one you mentioned. Sean McVay.
[18:40] Speaker 1: I met you when you first came to Los Angeles.
[18:44] Speaker 1: What was the moment for you where you said, Toto,
[18:46] Speaker 1: we are not in New England anymore?
[18:51] Speaker 3: Uh?
[18:52] Speaker 2: Right when I got there.
[18:53] Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I'll go back when I first
[18:55] Speaker 3: talked to Sean the first time. There was just this
[19:00] Speaker 3: unmatched energy as everybody knows, but like you could sense
[19:05] Speaker 3: this passion, this fire, this relatability, high emotional intelligence, elade
[19:09] Speaker 3: emotional intelligence, no question, he's he's an elite football mind.
[19:16] Speaker 3: But you could sense it even on the phone. The
[19:18] Speaker 3: first conversation I ever had with him, it was just different.
[19:22] Speaker 3: And then once I went there and I walked through
[19:25] Speaker 3: the door, the door over in kaow Low and you.
[19:28] Speaker 1: Remember the door in quotations, Yeah, yeah, but.
[19:33] Speaker 2: On the wall it said joy in the Journey.
[19:36] Speaker 3: And that's all I really had to see because from
[19:39] Speaker 3: a from a personality standpoint, a vibe standpoint, it really
[19:44] Speaker 3: felt like home from the time from the time that
[19:46] Speaker 3: I got there, and it was an unbelievable He runs
[19:51] Speaker 3: the energy in that building, the way that we, you know,
[19:54] Speaker 3: go about our day, the way you move throughout the building.
[19:57] Speaker 2: It's high level football.
[19:59] Speaker 3: It it's great people that are all motivated as coaches
[20:05] Speaker 3: and players. And you saw just an incredible synergy between
[20:11] Speaker 3: coaches and coaches, players and players, coach to player relationship,
[20:15] Speaker 3: front office. You know, Kevin less Tony obviously integrated with Sean,
[20:23] Speaker 3: and you saw people just work their asses off to
[20:28] Speaker 3: support one another, all with the same common goal and
[20:32] Speaker 3: no egos, and you knew pretty right away you knew
[20:38] Speaker 3: and those it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable.
[20:44] Speaker 1: I think that those Belichick staffs that you were on
[20:48] Speaker 1: were obviously so I mean talk about three hundred four hundred,
[20:53] Speaker 1: five hundred, six hundred level coaching and coursework in how
[20:57] Speaker 1: to do the job, do your job, But also did
[21:02] Speaker 1: you ever think that something could be both, that it
[21:04] Speaker 1: could feel both like you were working maybe harder than
[21:08] Speaker 1: you ever worked in your life, but also you were
[21:12] Speaker 1: joyful while doing it. I'm not saying you weren't when
[21:15] Speaker 1: you were in New England. I know that was a
[21:17] Speaker 1: bond that will always be shared by those staffs and
[21:19] Speaker 1: those coaches, but just the I always felt I moved out,
[21:24] Speaker 1: I moved out to LA to cover the Rams and
[21:26] Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, and I just felt like my brain
[21:29] Speaker 1: just kept opening up and just kept just kept going,
[21:33] Speaker 1: almost like there was this space, the space in football
[21:37] Speaker 1: that I had not even ever considered. And it was
[21:40] Speaker 1: just like feeling like you're opening these doors everywhere you
[21:44] Speaker 1: go and like thinking about things differently when you get there.
[21:46] Speaker 1: I'm wondering if it was similar for you.
[21:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say.
[21:51] Speaker 3: What I realized is, you know, when I was younger,
[21:55] Speaker 3: even going back to my college experience, right, I've had
[21:58] Speaker 3: a fantastic opportunity to work for some unbelievable people.
[22:02] Speaker 2: Every step of the way, I really.
[22:04] Speaker 3: Have and I'm indebted and grateful for all those experiences.
[22:10] Speaker 3: When I went to Los Angeles, I was a little
[22:13] Speaker 3: bit older. We had a third daughter on the way.
[22:17] Speaker 3: She hadn't arrived yet, Quinn. She's definitely a lot in
[22:21] Speaker 3: LA girl three years old, just turned three not too
[22:23] Speaker 3: long ago.
[22:26] Speaker 2: But what I realized is what I realized was balance
[22:31] Speaker 2: is good.
[22:32] Speaker 3: Balance is healthy, and I don't know that I had
[22:35] Speaker 3: a whole lot of balance, and that's not derived it
[22:38] Speaker 3: New England. We caught fire. You catch fire in a
[22:42] Speaker 3: bottle and you put the blinders on and you go.
[22:44] Speaker 3: And there was a lot of growth. But I felt
[22:48] Speaker 3: when I really reflect and when I was in the
[22:50] Speaker 3: moment there being present, totally present when I was in
[22:53] Speaker 3: LA with Sean, and I try to carry it over
[22:55] Speaker 3: today every step of the way.
[22:58] Speaker 2: That when I was able to recharge.
[23:00] Speaker 3: And Sean does that phenomenal job, just like Denico does
[23:03] Speaker 3: here from a schedule standpoint, especially in the off season,
[23:06] Speaker 3: of giving you time to take your your your daughters
[23:09] Speaker 3: to school, you know, having smiles on your face in
[23:13] Speaker 3: the workplace, enjoying keeping it light, but also continuing to
[23:18] Speaker 3: be urgent in terms of, you know, the work we
[23:20] Speaker 3: needed to get done because we worked hard in LA.
[23:22] Speaker 2: We worked really hard in LA.
[23:24] Speaker 3: But there was a balance and there was laughter, and
[23:27] Speaker 3: there was joy and and and then the time you
[23:30] Speaker 3: got to stay you know, away and get away and
[23:33] Speaker 3: go home, it made you help above the neck.
[23:36] Speaker 2: For me, I was I was held.
[23:37] Speaker 3: I was at my best because I was completely My
[23:40] Speaker 3: tank was full every single day. And you know, I
[23:45] Speaker 3: believe that, I'm I'm convicted in that that that's that's
[23:48] Speaker 3: that's part of it. And there's a lot of stresses
[23:51] Speaker 3: in our life. This is a hard job players, I
[23:54] Speaker 3: mean players physically for sure, and every all the stress
[23:57] Speaker 3: that they have, but for coaches too, and you know,
[24:01] Speaker 3: it's it's when you can be joyful, when you can
[24:05] Speaker 3: be in those moments where you're you know, you enjoy
[24:08] Speaker 3: driving in down the one oh one in the morning,
[24:11] Speaker 3: you know, and the sun hasn't come up and you're
[24:14] Speaker 3: excited to go to work. I mean, that's that's that's
[24:18] Speaker 3: what you want, and that's that's what it was there.
[24:22] Speaker 2: That's what it was.
[24:22] Speaker 1: Yeah, clearly your drive down the one on one was
[24:25] Speaker 1: before everybody else woke up for the day. Otherwise you'd
[24:28] Speaker 1: be sitting in grid in Gridlocke, that's true.
[24:31] Speaker 2: You hit it a little bit on you hit it
[24:33] Speaker 2: a little bit on Fridays after practice.
[24:35] Speaker 1: Yeah, you would hate. You'd hate your life and everyone
[24:37] Speaker 1: around you at that point. So yeah, it's it's cool
[24:41] Speaker 1: because my we love the Houston Texans on this show.
[24:45] Speaker 1: We talk about them all the time. Uh, they are
[24:48] Speaker 1: big time Super Bowl favorites for us. I'm not trying
[24:51] Speaker 1: to do the thing where you talk to the pitcher
[24:53] Speaker 1: who's throwing heat about aspirations or goals or whatever. So
[24:56] Speaker 1: we're not going to do that, but we we love
[24:59] Speaker 1: that this team on the show. And what I have
[25:01] Speaker 1: always posited, especially in this sort of this new era
[25:04] Speaker 1: Demiko coming over, is that this is a team that's
[25:07] Speaker 1: trying to do that, that's trying to walk that line
[25:10] Speaker 1: between this really really modern and progressive workplace style of
[25:15] Speaker 1: thinking of collaboration, of communication, of building the coaching team
[25:21] Speaker 1: and the front office team just as intentionally as you
[25:24] Speaker 1: would build the team on the field, and doing so
[25:28] Speaker 1: at a high level there too, but then also bringing
[25:32] Speaker 1: still those old school punch you in the mouth, I'm
[25:36] Speaker 1: going to outwork you like kind of qualities as well.
[25:39] Speaker 1: It's possible to do. And that's my theory about Houston,
[25:42] Speaker 1: and I think where you come in on this is
[25:46] Speaker 1: living in both of those worlds and sort of maybe
[25:48] Speaker 1: walking that line the way you have in your career.
[25:51] Speaker 1: And it also means you've been around your carrying in
[25:54] Speaker 1: the experience of the people you work with, including the quarterbacks.
[25:57] Speaker 1: And when I think about CJ. Stroud, I think about
[26:00] Speaker 1: his potential, which oh my gosh, we are so high
[26:02] Speaker 1: on here. It's just he feels like he's that type
[26:06] Speaker 1: of quarterback, that high cerebral but also we'll gut through
[26:11] Speaker 1: and like get stuff done too. What I mean, You've
[26:15] Speaker 1: been around some really really great quarterbacks veterans mostly in
[26:18] Speaker 1: your career, and I'm curious, like meeting him, getting into
[26:23] Speaker 1: his you know, into his mind, collaborating with him being
[26:27] Speaker 1: on this development track. Is he's still so young. What's
[26:30] Speaker 1: that been like for you? What have you sort of
[26:32] Speaker 1: called back to or maybe carried forward.
[26:35] Speaker 2: It's been great. I mean it's been a lot of fun.
[26:38] Speaker 3: I would say the biggest thing too, I mean, over
[26:40] Speaker 3: the course of the last year, uh, the more time
[26:42] Speaker 3: on task we've had to get to be, you know,
[26:45] Speaker 3: around each other and continue to work you know, with
[26:48] Speaker 3: each other.
[26:49] Speaker 2: Just gotten that.
[26:50] Speaker 3: It starts with just the relationship piece of it. And
[26:52] Speaker 3: him and I have a great relationship and there's really
[26:55] Speaker 3: no egos. We both want to we both want to win,
[26:58] Speaker 3: we both want to help each other be at our best.
[26:59] Speaker 3: And I think the emphasis point for for both of
[27:02] Speaker 3: us is, Hey, the more we can talk to each
[27:05] Speaker 3: other and talk about the pros and the cons and
[27:07] Speaker 3: why I like something and what his level of comfort
[27:10] Speaker 3: is with certain things, you know, the better off we
[27:13] Speaker 3: get to understand each other. And everything that we want
[27:16] Speaker 3: to do here is put our players.
[27:18] Speaker 2: In the best position to have success.
[27:20] Speaker 3: And with CJ allowing him to be you know, customize
[27:24] Speaker 3: our game plans and be able to to really work
[27:27] Speaker 3: to allow him to play to his strengths. And he's
[27:30] Speaker 3: done such a fantastic job. He's had a great offseason.
[27:33] Speaker 3: He loves football, he sees the game really well. It's
[27:37] Speaker 3: important to him, and so we have great dialogue and
[27:40] Speaker 3: you know, he'll he'll have ideas, and I'll have ideas,
[27:43] Speaker 3: and we'll talk and he'll ask me, hey, what do
[27:44] Speaker 3: you think about this play kills?
[27:46] Speaker 2: And we'll go back and forth.
[27:47] Speaker 3: And and and you know, in the spring we try,
[27:50] Speaker 3: for example, we tried, you know, to to really get
[27:53] Speaker 3: in a bunch of things that you know, maybe we're different,
[27:56] Speaker 3: that complimented our players that he liked, or that you know,
[27:59] Speaker 3: we did kill elaborated on to see to go out
[28:02] Speaker 3: there and do it and put our guys in position
[28:04] Speaker 3: and you know, especially ones that he might be convicted
[28:06] Speaker 3: in here and there. So you know, he's been awesome
[28:10] Speaker 3: to work with and we have a lot of fun.
[28:12] Speaker 2: We enjoyed.
[28:13] Speaker 3: It's he's he's so steady. He's like this every single day.
[28:17] Speaker 3: He's I'm really proud of him. He's put in so
[28:19] Speaker 3: much work and we're just going to keep going. We're
[28:22] Speaker 3: just going to keep going day by day.
[28:24] Speaker 2: Here.
[28:25] Speaker 1: One of the things I was just talking I was
[28:26] Speaker 1: talking to Jordan Love recently, and he was talking about
[28:29] Speaker 1: how part of the development process, especially for a younger
[28:32] Speaker 1: guy who's in this sort of you know, face of
[28:35] Speaker 1: the franchise position at such a young age, and Jordan's
[28:39] Speaker 1: journey obviously is slightly different in that regard being behind
[28:42] Speaker 1: the guy. He was behind for a minute there, but
[28:44] Speaker 1: you know, learning how to speak up and really voice
[28:48] Speaker 1: what what you like, but also understand where maybe it's
[28:52] Speaker 1: not right like that balance and trying things and it's
[28:57] Speaker 1: okay to fail at certain things you try. And you know,
[29:00] Speaker 1: the story that Kyle Shanahan always tells is them letting
[29:04] Speaker 1: RG three run the play he wanted to learn and
[29:06] Speaker 1: install it from the ground up and like letting him
[29:08] Speaker 1: run it in one of their closed like ota sessions
[29:11] Speaker 1: and the play didn't work right, and it's like, no,
[29:15] Speaker 1: it didn't work, but he felt like he had so
[29:18] Speaker 1: much ownership over the process. And I think that's that
[29:21] Speaker 1: comes with like growing up as a quarterback. Right. I'm
[29:25] Speaker 1: curious your thoughts on this part of it, like so
[29:27] Speaker 1: much that happens behind the scenes, that is, have to
[29:31] Speaker 1: be okay with trying stuff and failing first of all,
[29:34] Speaker 1: and using your voice and really understanding where your voice
[29:38] Speaker 1: is and what you truly are and who you truly are.
[29:42] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's a great point what you're talking about,
[29:46] Speaker 3: and I think you just look back, we have, you know,
[29:50] Speaker 3: a core offensive identity, right, we have things that we
[29:53] Speaker 3: systematically do that fit our players. When I got here
[29:57] Speaker 3: as the offensive coordinator, certainly philosophic brought with me a
[30:01] Speaker 3: philosophy that I wanted to instill here core concepts in
[30:06] Speaker 3: the running and the pass game, a way that we're
[30:08] Speaker 3: going to deploy our protection systems, et cetera. But what
[30:11] Speaker 3: we also did was there's some same as between the
[30:13] Speaker 3: previous system and what we were doing in LA and
[30:16] Speaker 3: some of the things that I had background with in
[30:18] Speaker 3: New England, of course, but we adopted some things here
[30:21] Speaker 3: that may have been really really great fits for these guys,
[30:24] Speaker 3: and as coaches, we adapted to those and we evolved
[30:27] Speaker 3: and we tied those in and we tried to do
[30:29] Speaker 3: the best we could with that. And then over the
[30:31] Speaker 3: course of the year you find out a lot about
[30:33] Speaker 3: certain guys that maybe maybe a young guy or a
[30:36] Speaker 3: new acquisition that you had in training camp, you really
[30:38] Speaker 3: just didn't maybe have a whole lot of time to
[30:41] Speaker 3: get to move a guy around or put him in
[30:42] Speaker 3: as many situations as maybe you had hoped.
[30:45] Speaker 2: So then throughout the year things come up and you're.
[30:47] Speaker 3: Like, you know, what, did that pretty damn well, Like
[30:49] Speaker 3: it's pretty good at it, or hey, let's let's shift
[30:51] Speaker 3: this way and let's let's you know, have a variation
[30:54] Speaker 3: of this scheme that we can tailor to this player
[30:57] Speaker 3: or these players.
[30:59] Speaker 2: And then you do a dive in the off season
[31:01] Speaker 2: and it's the same thing.
[31:02] Speaker 3: Then you get, you know, talking with CJ and being
[31:04] Speaker 3: able to look at the things, say, we did these
[31:06] Speaker 3: things really really well. Okay, how do we compliment these,
[31:09] Speaker 3: how do we protect these, how do we add to them?
[31:12] Speaker 3: How do we make these even better? And then you
[31:15] Speaker 3: look at the things that, okay, like this probably didn't
[31:17] Speaker 3: go the way we wanted to. And for for X,
[31:20] Speaker 3: Y and Z reason, what's the reason why?
[31:22] Speaker 2: Right? Is it salvageable? Do we does it fit what
[31:24] Speaker 2: we're trying to do? Yes or no? If it is,
[31:27] Speaker 2: then we can make it better. We're going to make
[31:28] Speaker 2: it better.
[31:29] Speaker 3: If not, then we you know, it's like go fishing
[31:31] Speaker 3: or cut bait. You move on with it and then
[31:35] Speaker 3: you try to incorporate some other things. So what I
[31:37] Speaker 3: love about the off season is it, like we had
[31:40] Speaker 3: just kind of talked about, is you get an opportunity
[31:43] Speaker 3: to go through there and just experiment with some things
[31:45] Speaker 3: that have ideas okay that the quarterback might have ideas
[31:49] Speaker 3: on or I have some things that ay I want
[31:51] Speaker 3: to I want to try some of these things. Okay,
[31:53] Speaker 3: we never really got to them in year one, but
[31:55] Speaker 3: here we go. I think we're ready for them, and
[31:57] Speaker 3: we have those conversations and there's no this is the
[32:01] Speaker 3: best that's the best time of the year to experiment
[32:03] Speaker 3: with those things. And that's that's the gold in that.
[32:07] Speaker 3: And then when he he brings things to me, is
[32:09] Speaker 3: you know, there may many times to your point, like
[32:11] Speaker 3: you know, well, does it fit a protection scheme? Can
[32:13] Speaker 3: we can we run this concept with this protection system
[32:17] Speaker 3: versus the front we're about to face. I don't know,
[32:19] Speaker 3: like it's you know, it's an empty protection. I don't
[32:22] Speaker 3: know if we can if we can hold on that
[32:23] Speaker 3: long or yeah we can, let's do it, you know.
[32:26] Speaker 3: And there's a lot of other factors that go into it, situations,
[32:30] Speaker 3: you know, personnel, there's other things. But the great thing
[32:34] Speaker 3: about it, Jordan is when you know, for example, CJ
[32:38] Speaker 3: will bring me a player, We'll have you know, great
[32:40] Speaker 3: dialogue during the spring and he's convicted in it you
[32:44] Speaker 3: give an opportunity to go out there and we'll teach it,
[32:46] Speaker 3: and we'll and we'll go through it and we'll poke
[32:48] Speaker 3: holes in at each other with each other. And then
[32:51] Speaker 3: he has ownership in it and he and he's invested
[32:54] Speaker 3: in it. And my whole thing is, Hey, we bring
[32:56] Speaker 3: this thing to life and it fits what we do,
[32:58] Speaker 3: and he's comfortable with it, and it works and we're
[33:01] Speaker 3: doing well with it.
[33:02] Speaker 2: I'm going to call it. It's a good play.
[33:03] Speaker 3: Then the quarterback and the quarterbacks comfortable and we show
[33:06] Speaker 3: that we can do it on the field in a
[33:07] Speaker 3: successful manner, Well, then let's call it. Maybe I should
[33:10] Speaker 3: call it more, you know, And so there's no ego.
[33:13] Speaker 2: Does it fit?
[33:15] Speaker 3: Is there a level of comfort with the quarterback? That's
[33:17] Speaker 3: important to me? It's very important to me. And you know,
[33:20] Speaker 3: are we making progress there? And that's why I love
[33:24] Speaker 3: the off season program in the early part of training camp.
[33:26] Speaker 3: There's an element of that in training camp as well too.
[33:28] Speaker 1: That's it touches on something that I think is so
[33:31] Speaker 1: important that like gets said a lot, and maybe people
[33:35] Speaker 1: who are never in it or hadn't been in it,
[33:37] Speaker 1: like maybe don't quite know what it means. And it's
[33:40] Speaker 1: evolving something forward, evolving a system forward, you figuring out, honestly,
[33:47] Speaker 1: you're in these two very distinct systems for such a
[33:51] Speaker 1: long time, in so many impactful ways, and figuring out
[33:54] Speaker 1: what that looks like with the guys you have, and
[33:57] Speaker 1: what that looks like in this version of who you
[34:00] Speaker 1: are as a play designer, as a coach, as a
[34:02] Speaker 1: play caller, as a guy who's working with the quarterbacks
[34:05] Speaker 1: and the running backs and the line and over everything,
[34:07] Speaker 1: but also over all the tiny things too. And I'm curious.
[34:11] Speaker 1: You know, you've touched on all of a lot of
[34:13] Speaker 1: the qualities that that takes, that work in the off season,
[34:17] Speaker 1: the trust to do that with each other. But when
[34:22] Speaker 1: we talk about like evolving this offense forward, what does
[34:25] Speaker 1: that mean to you? What does that actually mean versus
[34:29] Speaker 1: you know, us on the outside. We can write it
[34:31] Speaker 1: all we want, right, but what is it actually happening
[34:34] Speaker 1: in that process?
[34:36] Speaker 2: I think the.
[34:36] Speaker 3: Evolution for our offense, I mean, from just a big
[34:39] Speaker 3: picture a starting point, let's say, is just continuing to
[34:43] Speaker 3: refine and be better operationally and everything that we're doing.
[34:47] Speaker 2: Let's start with the basics. Okay, don't ever get bored
[34:49] Speaker 2: with the basics.
[34:50] Speaker 3: So continuing from the ground up, whether it's the way
[34:53] Speaker 3: we break, the way we call the play, to the
[34:55] Speaker 3: way we break the huddle, to our feet getting set
[34:57] Speaker 3: with urgency, to how we move and shift in motion,
[35:00] Speaker 3: to how we communicate crisp clean with you know, volume,
[35:03] Speaker 3: reflex confidence. We're making our declaration, We're echoing any calls
[35:07] Speaker 3: maybe in the run game or from a protection standpoint,
[35:09] Speaker 3: We're you know, signaling when that's applicable from the quarterback
[35:13] Speaker 3: to the skill players and being able to be sharp
[35:16] Speaker 3: on those things and proactive with those things and taking
[35:19] Speaker 3: great pride in those things. That's the first thing. The
[35:22] Speaker 3: second thing I would say is you know our core
[35:25] Speaker 3: you know our core scheme from a run game standpoint,
[35:28] Speaker 3: a past game standpoint, including the protections. You know what,
[35:32] Speaker 3: It's always built around the players. Like I think, like
[35:35] Speaker 3: I'm not a Hey, we have a core identity in
[35:38] Speaker 3: a philosophy. But as players change and you lose players,
[35:42] Speaker 3: or you acquire new players, or you know, you have
[35:44] Speaker 3: certain guys with certain skill sets, you have to be
[35:46] Speaker 3: able to adapt as a coach to put them in
[35:49] Speaker 3: position to be successful. And what we try to do
[35:52] Speaker 3: here is is allow those guys to play to their strengths.
[35:55] Speaker 3: And one of the things that we did all off
[35:58] Speaker 3: season we moved our guys around considerable amount.
[36:01] Speaker 2: Let's not put a guy in a box.
[36:02] Speaker 3: Let's see what they're capable of doing in other situations,
[36:07] Speaker 3: whether it's a receiver getting more inside flex and opening
[36:11] Speaker 3: up his tree or going inside to outside, whether it's
[36:13] Speaker 3: moving some of the tight ends and positions in multiple
[36:16] Speaker 3: groupings that they really haven't had an opportunity to have
[36:19] Speaker 3: a ton of reps in. You know, it's it's experimenting
[36:23] Speaker 3: with compliments at making sure we protect all of our
[36:26] Speaker 3: core plays, okay, so that things can look as consistent
[36:29] Speaker 3: as similar as possible on the initial stem in the
[36:31] Speaker 3: past game or from a formation standpoint, so we protect formations,
[36:35] Speaker 3: we protect concepts, et cetera. And always trying to be
[36:40] Speaker 3: able to ask ourselves, how can we make the things
[36:43] Speaker 3: that we have been doing better, and having no ego
[36:48] Speaker 3: about that, and watching the tape and taking notes and
[36:52] Speaker 3: poking holes in things and just continuing to have dialogue
[36:55] Speaker 3: as a staff and pouring it into our players and
[36:58] Speaker 3: then we you know, sharing that with the players when
[37:00] Speaker 3: they obviously come in the offseason and just continuing to
[37:03] Speaker 3: talk and listening to the players. You know, there's certain
[37:05] Speaker 3: things I've learned. I've learned a lot in my career
[37:11] Speaker 3: from being blessed by being around some exceptional football players.
[37:17] Speaker 3: You know, obviously the coaching piece of it, but when
[37:19] Speaker 3: you talk about the players those I didn't play in
[37:22] Speaker 3: the National Football League, when the bullets are flying and
[37:25] Speaker 3: the heart rates up and it's one on one battles
[37:28] Speaker 3: at the highest level and everything's on the line, and
[37:31] Speaker 3: there's two minutes in the game and they got to
[37:33] Speaker 3: make split second decisions. Is there a clarity of thought
[37:36] Speaker 3: in their mind? Are they playing fast? Do they know
[37:39] Speaker 3: what to do? Are they confident what they do? So
[37:41] Speaker 3: you can allow them to cut it loose, and their
[37:43] Speaker 3: perspective is so critical. I value that we certainly as coaches,
[37:49] Speaker 3: my job is to make a call on what we're
[37:51] Speaker 3: going to ultimately do.
[37:53] Speaker 2: That's my job. I take a lot of pride in that.
[37:55] Speaker 3: But I value the input as you go because a
[37:59] Speaker 3: lot of those guys they're sitting there, they may see
[38:02] Speaker 3: it a different way, or they may be struggling with something,
[38:04] Speaker 3: or they may interpret something a little different. So having
[38:07] Speaker 3: those conversations are healthy, Whether it was, you know, coaching
[38:11] Speaker 3: James Devlin, my fallback in New England, who's one of
[38:13] Speaker 3: the you know, most intelligent, hardworking human beings, was you know,
[38:17] Speaker 3: a Pro Bowl fullback for us, to Gronkowski who who
[38:22] Speaker 3: never came off the field, who was in every spot,
[38:25] Speaker 3: to Hunter Henry and john Us Smith, you know, and
[38:28] Speaker 3: then you know to Tyler Higbee uh In La and
[38:32] Speaker 3: David Sallin and Hunter Long and those guys. There's so
[38:35] Speaker 3: much great insight that those guys have pooka Cooper Edelman,
[38:41] Speaker 3: a mindel like you. You you can learn from so
[38:43] Speaker 3: many people about their perspective and try to help them
[38:46] Speaker 3: navigate some things. And it's a partnership, it really is.
[38:51] Speaker 3: And when it's a shared vision and there's there's a
[38:55] Speaker 3: level of accountability and a commitment with with you know,
[38:58] Speaker 3: to that process, that's where you know, the best teams
[39:01] Speaker 3: I've been a part of. You see coaching players, coaching
[39:07] Speaker 3: staff players, they work together and and that's that's I
[39:11] Speaker 3: believe when it's at its best, when when everybody's porn
[39:14] Speaker 3: in the same direction and you're all on the same page.
[39:17] Speaker 1: More on that in a second. We're going to take
[39:19] Speaker 1: a quick break and get back to it. On the
[39:20] Speaker 1: other side, I think I'm a little jealous, honestly, And
[39:24] Speaker 1: you're kind of in the catbird seat because you also
[39:26] Speaker 1: get to coach against one of the games best in
[39:29] Speaker 1: Demiico and Matt Burke and Diino Vaso on that side
[39:31] Speaker 1: of the ball, and you are you're competing against them
[39:35] Speaker 1: in these spring and summer practices which are also functionally
[39:38] Speaker 1: you know, installing and doing all those things. But you
[39:41] Speaker 1: guys get to share those perspectives and working with Demiko.
[39:44] Speaker 1: But I know you you talk to the defensive players
[39:47] Speaker 1: a lot, ziz Al Shaier and yourself, I know, have
[39:50] Speaker 1: a really special relationship and and to to pick their
[39:54] Speaker 1: brains too, to have I mean, it's it's like one
[39:58] Speaker 1: of the best defenses we've ever seen. And I mean,
[40:00] Speaker 1: and I'm you know, I'm only thirty five, so I
[40:01] Speaker 1: guess I can't really say that, but it's an incredible,
[40:04] Speaker 1: incredible defense, one of the best we've seen recently for sure,
[40:08] Speaker 1: And and the people on it, the players on it,
[40:11] Speaker 1: are so authentically themselves, and it strikes me that they
[40:16] Speaker 1: are very open in speaking what they think and what's
[40:20] Speaker 1: working and what's not working. So I'm curious. You mentioned
[40:23] Speaker 1: that collaboration and picking people's brains and getting things in
[40:27] Speaker 1: an egoist way, and what is that like with with
[40:30] Speaker 1: this defense that I think the only thing I wouldn't
[40:32] Speaker 1: be jealous of is going against them in practice. But
[40:35] Speaker 1: what is that like for you?
[40:37] Speaker 2: It's awesome, you know.
[40:39] Speaker 3: They we have great coaches that that are a joy
[40:43] Speaker 3: to be around, that are really really good at what
[40:46] Speaker 3: they do. And we have great, great players, uh you
[40:50] Speaker 3: know obviously on that side of the ball, with elite
[40:52] Speaker 3: football character. And what you see is the thing that's
[40:55] Speaker 3: so impressive is you know, there's there's a lot of
[40:58] Speaker 3: talent in this league, right there's a lot of team
[41:00] Speaker 3: that play really really hard.
[41:01] Speaker 2: And have success.
[41:04] Speaker 3: The guys on our defense, they are they're they're all connected.
[41:09] Speaker 3: They play relentlessly for sixty plus minutes until the final whistle,
[41:16] Speaker 3: and they do it with a spirit and an energy
[41:19] Speaker 3: that is infectious. And you could just close your eyes
[41:22] Speaker 3: at practice and you can hear the communication. You can
[41:25] Speaker 3: you can hear the hitting, you can hear them swarm
[41:28] Speaker 3: into the football and that's such a testament to that's
[41:32] Speaker 3: the defensive staff, the coaches, the players, they're they're just
[41:36] Speaker 3: they're all in it together, and uh, it's awesome and
[41:39] Speaker 3: and you get you know, and it's it's a joy
[41:41] Speaker 3: talking to Jalen Pea Trees and Disease and Will and those,
[41:45] Speaker 3: I mean, all those guys. I mean, they're they're fun
[41:47] Speaker 3: to be around, and they make us better every seman.
[41:49] Speaker 2: We we we get.
[41:50] Speaker 3: We're buckling up every single day. I mean, it's every
[41:52] Speaker 3: day is so competitive. And Demiko does such a great
[41:55] Speaker 3: job with that. But it's awesome. It's it's on and
[42:00] Speaker 3: you know, and and and you know, to Piggy Vick too,
[42:02] Speaker 3: Like the guys talked about players like you've got guys
[42:05] Speaker 3: like Dalton Schultz here who's a highly intelligent player. And
[42:08] Speaker 3: see and like there's great David Montgomery. There's great collaboration
[42:12] Speaker 3: and you just see both sides of the ball. It's
[42:14] Speaker 3: it's really a connected team. And and you know, we'll
[42:17] Speaker 3: get one on ones or we'll have a competitive team
[42:20] Speaker 3: period and you'll see you know, the dbs and the
[42:22] Speaker 3: receivers talking and you know, A Z's talking to the
[42:26] Speaker 3: backs about a route that they just ran in a
[42:28] Speaker 3: seven on seven period or whatnot.
[42:30] Speaker 2: And we're all trying to grow.
[42:32] Speaker 3: And you know, to be always talked about an iron
[42:35] Speaker 3: sharpening iron like, that's that's what it is. Every single day,
[42:37] Speaker 3: I mean every single day. That's what we're trying to
[42:39] Speaker 3: do in our defense. They bring it, they bring it.
[42:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I was really excited to hear I
[42:45] Speaker 1: saw some some you know, chatter about this version of
[42:49] Speaker 1: the offensive line you guys have and some of the
[42:51] Speaker 1: guys really trying to take it to the really trying
[42:54] Speaker 1: to take it to that that defensive line is formidable, right, so, really,
[43:00] Speaker 1: really really good, really good. Yeah, it's an amazing problem
[43:04] Speaker 1: to have, right, So I think if you're the offensive guy,
[43:07] Speaker 1: at least, Nick, I wanted to ask you one more
[43:09] Speaker 1: thing before we let you go the front office. I mean,
[43:14] Speaker 1: I think to me, I've been following this team build
[43:16] Speaker 1: for years, right, and the way that this Nick Caserio
[43:20] Speaker 1: and his group, you know, Liftfort Blanco, Debik, all these
[43:23] Speaker 1: guys have have taken this team from being a real
[43:27] Speaker 1: question mark a few years ago into I think one
[43:31] Speaker 1: of the most complete rosters in the NFL and certainly
[43:35] Speaker 1: helpful as well, when when the quarterback is still on
[43:38] Speaker 1: his rookie contract. And I think that for me, if
[43:41] Speaker 1: I'm a coach there. I'm looking at this and really
[43:44] Speaker 1: learning from that as well. What do you sort of
[43:47] Speaker 1: look at when you take a very sky high view
[43:50] Speaker 1: of what the Houston Texans are and how they are built,
[43:53] Speaker 1: and how do you communicate with those guys in the
[43:56] Speaker 1: front office. How do you guys as coaches work with
[43:58] Speaker 1: them to community traits and skill sets and things that
[44:02] Speaker 1: will fit the totality of what they're creating.
[44:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I mean they first of all, Nick
[44:08] Speaker 3: and Dimiko do an incredible job.
[44:10] Speaker 2: Nick the scouting department in the front office. Uh.
[44:14] Speaker 3: The one thing I would say is they're aligned. Okay,
[44:17] Speaker 3: there's a complete alignment with those guys and with our team.
[44:22] Speaker 3: And you know the players you know that that Nick
[44:26] Speaker 3: and his staff are looking for, you know, their players
[44:29] Speaker 3: that that we want in this building as Houston Texans.
[44:33] Speaker 3: And and they they have great football character, and they
[44:36] Speaker 3: play relentlessly regardless of position, and and we you know,
[44:41] Speaker 3: I would say like throughout the year, they're very detailed,
[44:44] Speaker 3: They're very thorough.
[44:47] Speaker 2: It's just it's.
[44:47] Speaker 3: Such an efficient process. They're great at communicating throughout the year,
[44:52] Speaker 3: whether that's you know, right when the season ends, uh,
[44:56] Speaker 3: you know, when we're in the pre draft or the
[44:57] Speaker 3: free agent period of just being able to to dive
[45:00] Speaker 3: into you know, who are the players out there that
[45:02] Speaker 3: are possible people that we might want to on board
[45:05] Speaker 3: here and bring bring into be a Texan and being
[45:08] Speaker 3: able to really have good discussions and and and really
[45:10] Speaker 3: spend time watching the tape and how what is their fit,
[45:14] Speaker 3: you know, what is their fit here, what's their role
[45:16] Speaker 3: going to be?
[45:17] Speaker 2: How can they help us?
[45:19] Speaker 3: And then being able to pour that, you know, bleed
[45:22] Speaker 3: into the the UH draft process. Rather it's the same thing,
[45:27] Speaker 3: very detailed, very systematic, very thorough, but really trying to
[45:32] Speaker 3: to you know, leave no stone unturned, and there's a
[45:34] Speaker 3: there's such a level of detail, but also an efficiency
[45:37] Speaker 3: in the process not not not not a point of
[45:39] Speaker 3: detail where it slows you down and its paralysis by analysis.
[45:42] Speaker 3: It's the it's really the opposite. They do so much
[45:45] Speaker 3: work on the on the front end of it, and
[45:47] Speaker 3: from a coaching staff standpoint, you really appreciate how hard
[45:50] Speaker 3: they work because they they allow us to to basically
[45:53] Speaker 3: make an evaluation, you know, be able to speak you know,
[45:57] Speaker 3: our opinion and what our evaluation is on a player,
[46:00] Speaker 3: and then ultimately, you know, they make decisions on those guys,
[46:03] Speaker 3: and we.
[46:04] Speaker 2: Brought in really really good people.
[46:06] Speaker 3: I haven't been here certainly, this is only one on
[46:08] Speaker 3: my second year, but high character football, people that play
[46:11] Speaker 3: really really hard, that are unselfish, that want to help
[46:15] Speaker 3: our team have success, and you know, it's it's a
[46:18] Speaker 3: roster full of them.
[46:20] Speaker 1: Oh man, that's great to hear. And I mean I
[46:22] Speaker 1: just to speak. I mean I only was there covering
[46:24] Speaker 1: you guys for a brief moment there in the post
[46:26] Speaker 1: right before the postseason. And that locker room, I mean,
[46:29] Speaker 1: it was a weird game, but that locker room was
[46:32] Speaker 1: so was so connected still and so like the vibes
[46:36] Speaker 1: were very good, don't I don't know what I expected
[46:39] Speaker 1: going in there, but it was like everybody was with
[46:42] Speaker 1: each other. It wasn't offense or defense. Everybody was around
[46:45] Speaker 1: each other still. And it was a road game for
[46:47] Speaker 1: you guys, but it still was like not nobody was
[46:50] Speaker 1: rushing each other. You know, it was like very I
[46:53] Speaker 1: don't know, it was very It felt very familiar to me,
[46:57] Speaker 1: and that to me seems like whenever I feel that
[46:59] Speaker 1: around to team, I think there's some real speciality, some
[47:03] Speaker 1: real potential there. So thank you for sharing a little
[47:06] Speaker 1: bit more about that. You know, I kind of warned
[47:10] Speaker 1: you about this. I can't. I cannot let you leave
[47:14] Speaker 1: this set or this like virtual set without giving me
[47:17] Speaker 1: a couple of music Rex or band Rex Eric, our producer,
[47:21] Speaker 1: and I have a very similar taste in music as well.
[47:24] Speaker 1: You know, we're kind of the warped to our kids
[47:26] Speaker 1: here at NFL Daily. So I'm curious anything good you
[47:30] Speaker 1: want to recommend to the listeners, anything you're listening to.
[47:33] Speaker 1: I know you're a big music guy.
[47:36] Speaker 3: I love music, yep. I mean you know, I would say,
[47:39] Speaker 3: you know, I love Dave Matthews. I could listen to
[47:42] Speaker 3: Dave Matthews about it from sun up to sundown.
[47:44] Speaker 2: Dave Matthews band just went to the Woodlands.
[47:46] Speaker 1: I pranked you on that pretty good one time with
[47:49] Speaker 1: Kevin Dummoff too.
[47:50] Speaker 2: You did, he did? He got me really good. I got.
[47:53] Speaker 3: I got Jerry Schapplinskier quarterback coach, to you know, come
[47:56] Speaker 3: out to the Dave Matthews. He was like, ah, Dave Matthews,
[47:59] Speaker 3: you know what, I'm like, Jerry, just just we have
[48:01] Speaker 3: we're off tomorrow. Man, Like, what are you gonna sit
[48:02] Speaker 3: on your what are you gonna sit on your couch.
[48:04] Speaker 3: We can go to Dave Matthews man actually with berg
[48:07] Speaker 3: Uh came in town and so we ended up going
[48:12] Speaker 3: and I go afterwards, I saw him.
[48:13] Speaker 2: I looked over.
[48:14] Speaker 3: I said, I saw him singing to himself, because Dave
[48:17] Speaker 3: blends and will do all the interludes where he brings it,
[48:19] Speaker 3: you know, different different songs and stuff and intertwines him.
[48:23] Speaker 2: And I look over and he's singing. Afterwards, I say, man,
[48:25] Speaker 2: how was he goes? It wasn't bad, I.
[48:28] Speaker 3: Said, yeah, I told you you just gotta be over minded.
[48:30] Speaker 3: But I would say, you know, Dave Matthews, the ones
[48:34] Speaker 3: I've been listening to recently, O A R.
[48:37] Speaker 2: I'm always going to rock out with O R. The
[48:40] Speaker 2: early two thousands of State jam band.
[48:42] Speaker 3: I mean they they they're always good to to listen
[48:45] Speaker 3: to and dispatch I could. I I can crank dispatch
[48:51] Speaker 3: from just about any time.
[48:53] Speaker 1: And smiling really big behind the glass, right nice Paul.
[48:59] Speaker 2: Yeah. I like being a little bit more of a
[49:00] Speaker 2: calming mood sometimes.
[49:02] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[49:03] Speaker 2: And I listened to I listened to everything awesome.
[49:06] Speaker 3: And my two little ones, my two little ones are
[49:08] Speaker 3: going to be Jordan, They're gonna be out probably listening
[49:11] Speaker 3: to be out in LA you know, probably hitting some
[49:13] Speaker 3: concerts in about another fifteen sixteen years there.
[49:16] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I love you.
[49:17] Speaker 1: Tell them to I'll give them the good spots. I'll
[49:19] Speaker 1: get them the good, the good, the good venues to
[49:21] Speaker 1: get to and and kind of go under the radar
[49:23] Speaker 1: a little bit. So I got I got him, I
[49:25] Speaker 1: got them covered here, Nick, don't worry about that.
[49:27] Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
[49:28] Speaker 1: Hey, I'm so glad that you joined us today. Uh Nick,
[49:32] Speaker 1: This is Nick Kaylee. For those listening, Offensive coordinator of
[49:36] Speaker 1: the Houston Texans. I'm coming up later this week on
[49:40] Speaker 1: NFL Daily. We are back in your feeds. It's training camp.
[49:43] Speaker 1: We've got practice reports, we've got news updates. We're continuing
[49:46] Speaker 1: to go in granular detail to every single team in
[49:50] Speaker 1: the league as training camp continues. Stay tuned in your
[49:53] Speaker 1: feeds and thanks for listening.

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