Texans Insider Sean Pendergast talks CJ Stroud, Stefon Diggs & gives high praise to Tank Dell | TMBS

here we go it's the Michael Batson show on YouTube and Tik Tok thanks for joining us please like And subscribe wherever you get your podcast everything and anything helps we have a friend of the show we'll call him now he's been on four or five times Texans Insider Houston radio host Sean Pendergast stops by Sean how are you doing we haven't spoke in a few months I'm doing great Michael yeah that's that that's kind of the barometer like friend of the show yeah say three I would say three times three you're on a show once you're on a show three times within a certain period of time you're a friend of the show so I am a friend of this show yes yeah yeah we don't have many friend of the shows we have a few but I think you're the biggest friend of the show so far you know we're kind of getting this thing running so yeah I like it so uh so CJ strad comes into year two now and I think he's you know I said this a few weeks ago I said if this was three years ago and stra came into NFL you'd have Josh Allen Lamar Jackson Patrick Mahomes now all the great quarterbacks are 28 29 30 Stout is probably the best younger quarterback so how could he build on year one and what's the ne Next Step because he's not Josh Allen right now he's not Patrick Mahomes right now but what's the next step for him to becoming that guy yeah I think well look he's he's not those guys yet but he's in the neighborhood you know after his first year he's he he's in the neighborhood so um I think I think there's a few things I think CJ probably needs to improve upon in year two keeping keeping in mind that he did some historic things in his rookie year but I think he would even say that there's a next level of quarterbacking like from a an from a a processing and a chess game standpoint that he needs to get to like last year was QB 101 and now it's QB 201 and and I think I think he would look at probably making sure that he's getting the team into the right plays you know the team didn't run the football very well last year some of that may have had to do with the fact that they had a rookie quarterback who didn't you know was was was going through his first year of trying to diagnose what a defense is doing and planning for I think the one one of the games he missed CJ in his rookie year with the concussion was at Tennessee game where Case Keenum came in and got a win for the Texans in his place in that game they ran the ball really well and after the game several people on the Texans said a lot of it had to do with the fact that case has been in the league for a decade and he he he was getting the Texans into the right plays getting him into the right running play specifically so I think that's one area for CJ that he himself has said throughout this offseason that he's just looking to get smarter you know he's looking and he's already really smart but he's looking to to be able to diagnose defenses at the line of scrimmage and even if it's not a wow passing play he's checking into he wants to check into the right play so that's number one I would say number two and this isn't just CJ this is more of a team thing but they've got to be better in the Red Zone yeah they've got to score more points they make it to the Red Zone a lot um um but they they were middle of the pack in terms of converting the trips into the Red Zone into touchdown so when you consider their schedule this year and the huge step up in competition that they're playing they're playing against way more top quarterbacks this year they're going to find themselves in way more games where they're going to need 30 points to win a game um I think those are the two biggest things so the Texans add Stefon Diggs we're talking off the Record maybe a month ago I was in Europe uh and we were talking about Stefon Diggs and how his whole perception of how he's a diva and how there was a Fallout in Buffalo that's not true and you're saying there's a really good connection there in Houston already between him and stout yeah huge really good connection not just with CJ but I would say with the other receivers in that room and his teammates in general um gigs that that was one of the things that kind of I was taken aback by in Camp even though you had hurt people in Buffalo say that early on you know Diggs was great it was just really the last year so where things kind of sard um but he was going out of his way to to work with some of the other receivers he was going out of his way to work with defensive backs after practice giving them little tips on things I mean you can't separate tank Dell from Stephon di he's practically attached to his hip he follows him around like a little brother um so that's good so I Diggs has shown extreme leadership qualities demo Ryan loves him like absolutely loves him um and he's got a real connection with CJ they've been working out out in California together prior to training Camp um so and and and on top of all that it's not just the leadership stuff he was their best offensive player throughout training camp Stefon Diggs was he was open all the time yeah against some pretty good defensive backs the Texans you know he he he he had one-on-one that he was winning against Derrik Stingley Jr who had an awesome Camp himself he was probably their best defensive player in Camp Stingley Jr so those digs versus Stingley reps in one-on ones were musty TV so um digs has been great you know that's I don't think that's looking at it through Texans colored glasses um I've been at every single practice other than the three practices they had in Ohio and I was at all the you know the preseason games and things like that all the press conferences so far the digs trade now they haven't played a single game in the regular season yet but so far so good what is the next step for tank Dell he now has a mentor of sorts coming in to another year with Stout what's the next step he could take I would say well first you got to stay healthy that's number one you know he broke his leg last year because he decided that he was instead of being 58 160 or whatever he is he thought he was 6'4 yeah 220 and he ran into a crowd to block on a goal line Run play that's Nico's job yeah right Nico you're right anybody anybody but tank job you know so um so he's got to stay healthy for one uh he is he is really um he's a freak tank Dell is like if you watch his highlight but like his his ability to get open his wiggle his twitch whatever word it is you want to use for it tank Dell can be a Pro Bowl wide receiver there's no question about it when he got hurt last year he was on Pace to have the same season that Nico Collins wound up having if not better you know tank only played in tank only played in I think you know like nine games maybe total like I think I think on paper he played in 11 games but he got knocked out early in the game he broke his leg he got knocked out early in a game where he was concussed and then missed another game so he had 700 yards and seven touchdowns in basically half a season last year um he's he is he's just he's remarkable so I think I think health and and I think what all these especially the top three receivers are going to need to realize is that just because of all the mouths to feed none of them are probably going to have the maximum season that they're capable of having statistically if they were the number one guy on a team you know it's probably more where the three of them all settle in if they're all healthy settle in around 1100 yards or so each with maybe six or seven touchdowns rather than you know for example Nico last year played 14 games and he had 1300 yards and 80 catches you know I don't know that he's going to do that again this year