The Texans are releasing veteran right guard Shaq Mason after a lackluster season in 2024. In The Loop reacts here.
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00:00Some from 3-4, 3-4-6 said Mason wasn't the problem to the O-line and I, I
00:04Oh, he was a big part of it.
00:05Or maybe he wasn't the, if we want to just go with like a single solitary,
00:10but he was absolutely a problem on the offensive line. It was clear. It was clear that there was
00:14a level of decline in his play, even from last year, which you can make the argument that there
00:19had been a beginning of decline in that season as well. And so you have that happen. So now it's
00:25evident that you need to make some moves at least for right guard, but we were already in that place
00:28where we thought there needed to be some moves. And now I turn you to Aaron Wilson. He was talking
00:33actually about the Christian Kirk edition of the Texans. They trade for a Christian Kirk
00:38yesterday, or at least that will be official on Wednesday as well. But at least we get the
00:41news of that yesterday. And while he was talking about that, he talked about some other things,
00:45including this, when it comes to the Texans and their potential appetite for going into
00:50the free Asian market for a guard. I've checked on all the top guards that are available guys,
00:56not named Trey Smith, the chief franchise player. So whether it's like a Will Flies or
01:01James Daniels or Aaron Banks, it doesn't look like they're in that market. So I could see them
01:09looking for a less aging guard. So watch for them to add some kind of depth piece
01:15in free agency and then possibly address it in the draft as well.
01:19Okay. So first and foremost, that was before the release of Shag Mason, or at least the news
01:25of the release of Shag Mason. So first, let me ask you, do you think that that is correct? And
01:30I kind of hate to be like in this place where I'm like, Hey, this particular reporting is,
01:35but like, I mean, especially now, or do you think that holds is probably a better way of saying?
01:40Yeah, that's, that's probably the safer way to say it because, you know, that was the information
01:45that he had. I don't necessarily buy that for a couple of reasons and no disrespect to Aaron
01:52Wilson, but things, first of all, things have changed since then. Secondly, the Texans are
01:57incredibly good at keeping their decision-making in house and not letting it leak. Most of the
02:04reporting that we get on this is from the agent side or the player side. And some agents don't
02:10always know what the Texans are thinking either. They have a good hunch because they're in the
02:14circle of, you know, who's negotiating with whom, who's talking with whom, et cetera, but they don't
02:21necessarily are plugged in. So that's, that's the first thing. Secondly, I could see where the
02:26Texans absolutely do both. And if they get a deal with a higher echelon guard with the extra cap
02:34space, I could absolutely see them changing paths and maybe going for that. Ultimately, I think it
02:40comes down to this. I think there's going to be some major shifts, major changes on the Texans
02:45offensive line. And for, you know, anyone who might have fallen in people, they will shack wasn't,
02:52you know, the biggest problem. He was a problem for this team. He gave up 10 and a half sacks.
02:58That's good. That's unacceptable, completely unacceptable, but he wasn't the only problem.
03:03So here, here you go. Do you, do you not believe, you clearly don't believe that
03:07Shaq Mason is what you want to go forward with. Do you believe that with Laramie Tunsil?
03:12Do you believe that with, uh, uh, in terms of rut, you know, at least, uh,
03:16I know he can pass block. Do you believe that with Titus Howard?
03:20Titus, Titus is going to be a tough sell. Yeah, no, I think there's going to be another change.
03:24And I would have to point, uh, to Titus Howard. Again, none of this is like, you know, you know,
03:30personal, I said, you know, a couple of weeks ago, I thought Shaq Mason might be a victim of a,
03:36of a cut. And, and he was, I think Titus Howard falls in that same, in that same place.
03:41Yeah. Cause the tough thing about this reporting, I'm like, if it's true,
03:46it means that you were putting all your eggs in the basket of the draft and then maybe getting
03:50something on, on the PR like the periphery. I mean, he said depth, he said depth. And I do
03:56wonder when you say depth, cause all right, first and foremost, the guys that he's absolutely
04:00talking about, he mentioned banks. He mentioned, um, he mentioned, what did he mention? The other
04:06guard. Oh, we'll fries. Who is the, probably the best guard out there. He mentioned, uh,
04:11McKay Becton as well. Right. So those are the types of guys that you, he would say that would
04:16be out of the realm of possibility. If this reporting is correct. I'm like, does that,
04:20would that then include someone like a Kevin Zeitler from, from the, um, from the lions who,
04:26you know, he's older at the million dollar deal thereabouts. Yeah. Was he with the Ravens at one
04:33point? Kevin Zeitler. Yeah, I believe so. I mean, he's been around for a little bit,
04:38been around for a little bit and he, I mean, he is solid, but he's a little older, solid,
04:42little bit older, but that feels like something that if, although does that then mirror at all
04:47the Shaq Mason edition, but it does feel like somebody that comes in and brings a certain level
04:52of like, uh, cultural leadership and then also an ability to do the job with some know-how that you
04:58would not be kind of being in the same place as a rookie or what have you. Um, especially for the
05:04people that have concerns about what the, what the culture is in that locker room. But does that
05:07include that? Like, would that be something that we're talking about here as well? Because if
05:11that's not the case, I do start looking at how many of these guys or how many of the, of do you
05:18have, how much do you have available to even go to? And plus like, I'd much rather you then clear
05:22up some space and try and get some of those guys. Yes. Because like what, what does adding depth
05:27really do in terms of what your head coach said? He wants, we got to get better. Does it make you
05:31like immediately? All right, they're better. Or does it do something that you've already done?
05:36You've got depth pieces that you can kind of shuffle around in case someone gets hurt or there's
05:41a lack of production. As we saw last year, you know, I, I wouldn't buy what he's saying in terms
05:46of what the, what the hints are that we've gotten from the head coach. Like we've got to get better.
05:51We've got to improve on what we got out of Shaq Mason, improve on what we've gotten out of Titus
05:57Howard. Adding depth doesn't do that. So I think they could easily go for a big free age, a bigger
06:02free agent target and draft. They could do both. All right. So let's say, let's say
06:10okay. New move where you've absolutely opened right guard. We'll see if left guard is open.
06:15One of the things that you were talking about is Demiko Ryan's, the statement that he believes
06:19the Shaq, or sorry, that Juice Scruggs is better as a center. I don't know if that, I mean, in the
06:25off season, you don't want to be beholden to the idea of, well, we need him at guard. You would
06:29like to be able to put yourself in the best circumstance. So let's go under the assumption
06:32that you need two guards, right? Before we go anywhere else. Let's say that you also, you are
06:38able to free up the space and you go get you a top notch free agent. Is there one that you want in
06:43particular? I know you mentioned Will Hernandez at one point. I know that, you know, show is like,
06:48just go get me the top one. Go get me Will Fries, the guy who had played at the Colts. He seems to
06:52be the best one available. Just go and make that happen because that is a clear point that you need
06:56to get better. I think you need two starters. So I think you need to start with Will Fries. Okay.
07:01The Will Hernandez thing that I talked about, I think he's good value for, for what you could
07:06get. So it also depends on what you want to want to pay. But I think neither one of those things,
07:10if you can get Fries, terrific. And I think that fixes a lot of problems. I also think if you,
07:16if you draft someone like Graze Abel, who has been mocked to the Texans and has been, you know,
07:20really, really shooting up the chart, so to speak. I know they like him. John Harris talked about it.
07:26Well, he likes him a lot. I think if you can do that, well, then it goes back to what do you do
07:33with Titus Howard? Because if you can get Fries, I don't necessarily think it's like, okay, he's
07:37right guard problem solved. You know, I think you still have an issue at guard and center as much
07:42as they like Juice Scruggs. You know, he, he struggled at center. He did, but I did, but also
07:49so one of the center is one being an inexperienced center, having the load of
07:55protections and then two, I get it having a liability at left guard. I think that also
08:00very much communication. Yes. That also in communication was one of the things that it
08:05seems like you moved on from your offensive coordinator and your, your, uh, offensive line
08:09coach in because, because of, right. So hopefully you have those things in a better place and maybe
08:14with a better left guard next to him, you find a little bit more consistency there. But you know,
08:20with that being the case, you are, let's say you get your, your, your managed to pull off
08:24Will Fries first. Um, Titus can't remain without having a contract restructure, like not even a
08:29restructure. Like you, we, we just need to, Hey, we need to redo this straight up. Right. Like,
08:33I don't think he can remain on the contract that he has. So first of all, yeah, absolutely. Right.
08:38Cause he was, he was being paid pretty handsomely for a tackle. So if you move him to guard,
08:42I think it has to come with a change in salary. Is that something you'd be okay with?
08:49Actually? No. Uh, and I think the, the biggest problem with this offensive line last year,
08:54you know, is they were, okay. I'll put it this way. They were not swarm, you know,
09:01they always throw that a swarmy, you know, they were not swarmy kind of guys, specifically,
09:06uh, Shaq Mason and Titus Howard specifically, even more so Titus Howard. Uh, I think Titus
09:11is not necessarily cut from the cloth that they want. Uh, no, I, I, I think, you know,
09:16they're trying to not just find more nimble guys, but that's the other thing. These were big dudes.
09:21Shaq Mason is a big, big dude, not exactly prototypical of, of the type of offense that,
09:30that Bobby Sloan, Marguerite, Nick Caley as well. I don't know if Titus Howard is that
09:35Howard is a big dude that maybe not always, you know, gets you, uh, the attitude that you want
09:40the swarmy type stuff. So I think, you know, I, I, I think Titus Howard, if he's back this year,
09:46I think we're going to see more of the same. And I don't think that's what they want.
09:49No, I, I, I mean, that is very clearly not what they want. They've made it abundantly clear on
09:53various occasions that they're neat. It needs to be significantly better. D'Amico Ryan said it
09:58clearly that the, the number one objective is protecting for a CJ Stroud. So, okay. You move
10:03on from Titus Howard. Is that basically where we're putting that's where I would be. Okay. Yeah.
10:07If that's the case that necessitates drafting probably in the first round, your offense
10:12alignment. Like I understand that getting the addition of a Christian Kirk and we'll talk more
10:16about this as well. Probably frees you up to, you know, move around and they'll kind of some
10:19of the ways that you're going about it, but it feels like you probably need to get a starter
10:24caliber offense alignment. Yes. You could maybe get that in the second round, but I feel like
10:30the first round, when you draft the first round and you want a guy who, you know,
10:32can be an impact player and that feels like the level of urgency that they have on the offense.
10:36Yeah, no, I, I totally agree. I mean, you know, first round pick would be much more,
10:40there would be much more urgency to get an interior offensive lineman. Now you could still
10:46argue a second round if they do bring in a big time free agent, which is why I think they should
10:51aim higher anyway, because if they, even if they, if they bring in, when we've done the Wolf rise,
10:56you think that they can get away with doing a second round guard, maybe to play left or
11:02left or right. I mean, we'll, you know, it depends on how they do it simply because I think
11:10you could maybe hear that are going to be back. You know, whether, you know, Shaq Mason, Jared
11:15Patterson played center, you know, so you could, it would be a little bit more wiggle room to maybe
11:20take that chance on a second rounder, but, but absent of that I think it's a first round guard.
11:25All right. So that, that is the idea of like a, a draft and a sign. Is there any way in your mind
11:30that you get to in free agency, like two offensive linemen in free agency?
11:35Yeah, I think that could happen. I absolutely think that could happen. Maybe the upper echelon
11:41guy and then the value guy that I was talking about that you could take a chance on, you know,
11:45have that, have that, have that, get that like, like Aaron Wilson said there, that depth kind of
11:51guy. I don't, I'm not a big fan of it, but there would be better competition. It would be a lot of,
11:56a lot of investment money into that, that space. And, but, and what do you do with Tunsil?
12:02It's, it's a tough question. Somebody was asking earlier, like, what do you think you could get
12:06for Tunsil in a trade? And I don't really have a good answer for you in that regard. Like he is
12:11still, as you mentioned, a very highly rated and regarded pass blocker, but the run blocking,
12:17it can be a little susceptible. It got better over the course of the season. And, you know,
12:21sometimes you have some, some penalty things that pop up. So I don't know exactly.
12:25You don't want to, you know, read Structure's contract and extend him.
12:30I don't know. And that they, yeah, that might be out the question. You can't do that. But as
12:34they're trying to find space, that might be one of the places where you can do it. And so that
12:38gets a little uncomfortable. I, I personally, I'm, I'm with you. I would not want to do that,
12:42but I also don't know that you want to trade him and then also try and find more opportunities
12:48or an offensive line even more. Like it feels like that might be the bridge too far, but they've
12:55already taken the first step in announcing or, you know, designating that they're going to
12:59release Shaq Mason at the start of league year. We're, you know, waiting to see what else that
13:04they get going free agency, other legal tampering period, I should say, starts on Monday. And it
13:09feels like they're well in, well in place to be active in that. I'm just interested to see what
13:15level, what level, if, are they going to go at the high level and get someone like Will Fries,
13:19or is this going to be, or is the reporting on a whole true that they're not actually in
13:23on the, on those high end guys, or maybe they had one high end guy. Maybe they hadn't been in
13:29before. And now this puts them in a place once they've made officially made the decision to
13:32reach out to those types of reach out to those guys, or at least legally reach out to maybe
13:38that's also the thing they have reached out to them because remember Nick Casario, when he was
13:41on with Pan and Pendergast, he was like, this is the illegal tampering period. And that may,
13:46that would never do anything like that. It gives you the impression that they do this above board.
13:49They're like, no, we will wait. We will wait until the time period at which this designate
13:54us for us to be able to talk to free agents and no moment sooner. We'll see what that looks like
14:00come next week, but you're in the loop right here on sports radio.