Albert Breer on Harrison to Texans, 49ers Staying Unbeaten and Bills vs. Rams Preview

This is a team that keeps answering questions.

All right.

Welcome in to the Brewer Report presented by State Farm for Monday, October 12th.

Happy Columbus Day, everybody.

My kids are off from school.

I know a lot of people are off from work.

Hopefully, you're catching this somewhere comfortable.

Week 5 is now almost in the books.

We got a big one tonight that we're going to get to, but there's also a lot to recap in an eventful weekend.

And an eventful day of transactions and moves and big decisions, and we are going to start with the Houston Texans who wind up beating the Titans 26 to 3, so they get their first win.

They played really well defensively.

The offense continued to play well.

It's sort of a hidden thing with these Texans.

A lot of people assume the offense is the problem.

It's, it really hasn't been through the first month of the season.

The the Texans defense gave up over 30 points in the opener to Buffalo, they gave up over 30 points last week to the Cowboys, uncharacteristic performances by that Texans defense.

And really last week was a big week for them in a couple of different ways.

For the defense, this was a circle the wagons type of week and that.

They knew that this is really a critical point now.

They were 0 and 4.

When I talked to Will Anderson Jr.

after the game, he said that this whole week, they talked about owning your box.

What does that mean?

Well, that means owning whatever your responsibility is.

Don't play outside the responsibility, don't try to do too much, cause they felt like that's what had happened over the first month of the season.

The guys had sort of gotten out of their gaps, guys have gotten out of their coverage.

Guys had been trying to do a little more to fix everything that was going on.

Um, they wind up going to Damio Ryan's as the play caller.

Anderson told me that that had an energizing effect on the defense, and we certainly saw where there was a difference in the way that they played on Sunday.

Now, again, it's against the Titans and the Titans have really struggled and they came in winless as well, but they were able to really shut the Titans down outside of the first possession of the game and not allow them to, to, to cross even the Houston 43 yard line.

And so, the Texans defense gets its house in order.

The offense continues to perform and it looks like it's continuing to get better.

And then, of course, the other big development of the week was the work on the trade for Marvin Harrison Junior, a trade that was pushed over the, over the goal line on Sunday.

Now, just to give you guys a picture of this and to have you, to give you an idea of how this all happened.

Weeks back, Marvin Harrison wound up hiring agents.

He didn't have an agent before this.

He hires Todd Fran and Tory Dandy from Athletes First, two really experienced guys, and the strategy is put in motion to try to get him out of Arizona.

Now, they had to be quiet about this, and this is something that they had to work behind the scenes because they didn't want Arizona to be in a position where they weren't gonna be able to get full value for him.

Um, but, you know, looking at the, the landscape of where the Cardinals were, they paid Michael Wilson, um, another player at Marvin Harrison's position.

They've obviously now paid Trey McBride.

Um, they have spent the 3rd overall pick on Jeremiah Love.

You see where the resources are on the offensive side of the ball, and it's pretty clear that Harrison probably isn't part of their long-term plan.

So, word gets out that the, the Texans are, or the, the Cardinals are willing to move.

Harrison.

The asking price was a 2nd-round pick and a sweetener, and the the, the, the Cardinals really had to work this to get to their price.

Before the weekend, the Texans were closing in on it.

They had a 2028 second-round pick on the table.

Eventually, they wind up getting to the price that Arizona wanted all along, and that was in the end, a 2027 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick with a seventh-round pick coming back to Houston with Harrison.

So what does this do for the, the Texans?

They've invested so much in the receiver position.

They invested second-round picks.

Jalen Noel and Jaden Higgins in 2025.

They traded for Kayshaw Booty earlier this offseason.

They've now paid Nico Collins twice.

Tank Dell, a former third-round pick, he's coming back off of injury.

Higgins, of course, is now out for the year with a torn ACL.

And so in the short term, Marvin Harrison comes in, he's got a built-in relationship with CJ Stroud.

He should be able to create real matchup problems for other teams with his size, playing opposite Nico Collins.

And then in the long term, the idea of having these towering receivers, Collins, Higgins, when he gets back from the ACL, Harrison, you actually see where this could be problematic for teams that are, that are, that are playing against the Texans in the long term.

Uh, but in the short term, they want to get him up and running, and I think a big piece of this is gonna be getting his confidence back.

The main issue in Arizona is a question of toughness.

He's a bigger receiver.

Typically in the NFL, bigger receivers have to be rugged.

They have to be tough because they don't get away from guys the same way little guys do, and their bodies are big targets.

And so, that's an area where Harrison has to get better.

The Texans are betting that the environment.

that he's going into in Houston with Damio Ryans as the head coach, with Nick Kaley is the offensive coordinator with his college quarterback there, will help him get out of that rut.

I think it will.

Um, he had showed a ton of promise as a rookie.

He wasn't exactly what we all thought he was gonna be as the 4th overall pick.

He's regressed since then, and we'll see if he's gonna be able to turn it around.

But now you start to look at the Texans and the team is starting to take shape.

And so, big game in Jackson, big, big game against Jacksonville this week in London.

And if they can get that one, now you're 2 and 4, and you've got the Giants, the buy, the Chargers, the Browns, maybe then you're 500 again.

You got the Colts on November 19th on a Thursday night, get a chance to get them back.

The Texans could dig out of this one.

All right.

And our second topic for this Monday is also my personal plan presented by State Farm for the week.

And my personal plan is to keep pushing chips into the middle of the table on this 49ers team.

They are now 5-0.

They are 3-0 in the NFC West .

They only have one road game left in in the NFC West, and that is in Arizona.

Gives them a good chance to run the table in the division.

And this is a team that keeps answering questions.

And Brock Purdy's been playing at an MVP level.

He was really good against a really tough Seattle defense.

Down the stretch of this game, we saw the competitive level of the Niners and the way that they ran the ball on their final possession to set up the game-winning field goal, which Eddie Pinheiro hit from 44 yards.

The defense competed their ass off on the possession after that.

They get the stop on Cooper Cupp right at the sticks.

And in talking to Christian McCaffrey after the game, he talked about how this team's experience and his age, which has been seen as a negative, is actually a big positive.

What he said to me was, we feel like in these situations where the momentum flips, and where it feels like the, the, that the world is closing in on you.

Those, those walls are coming down on you.

It feels like everything is against you.

We're able to keep our composure, we're able to keep our cool, and you saw it in this game.

The Niners went into the half with a 21 to 13 lead.

They, by the end of the third quarter, have blown that lead.

The Seahawks were up 26-21.

Lumanfield was alive.

Lumanfield was raucous.

And the Niners were able to put their foot in the ground and own the 4th quarter in a way that I don't think a younger team could have.

Now, are the questions there?

Of course, they are.

Can Mike Evans stay healthy?

He is now in his, I believe it's his 13th year, 14th year as a pro.

So whether or not he can, you know, stay at the level that he's been competing at, this is his 13th year.

Um, whether he can stay at the level.

He's been playing at.

It's a fair question to ask, but he's been great.

He was outstanding in this game.

George Kittle, Nick Bosa coming back off the injury, Fred Warner, Christian McCaffrey, yes, there are older players that are in important roles for that Niners team.

But man, if they can stay healthy, this is a very, very difficult team to go against.

And I'm pushing my chips into the middle of the table, get my personal plan for the week, keep betting on the Niners because they're well-coached, they're smart, they got a quarterback who's playing at a really high level.

They're physical, they can go into these environments and win.

Bet on the Niners.

The Niners are gonna be there in the end.

Um, I don't know if they're gonna be a Super Bowl team.

But when we're talking about, you know, there being 8 teams left, maybe when there, there are 4 teams left, I think the 49ers will be one of them.

All right.

Finally, our third topic for today, what to expect tonight with the Buffalo Bills going into Soi Stadium and facing the Los Angeles Rams.

And here you have a 2 and 2 team coming off an emotional win in Philadelphia, and you have a 3-1 team coming off an emotional loss to the New England Patriots.

So, for the Rams, this is a chance to build on some of the momentum that they were able to gather and beating the Eagles the way that they did.

That was a gut check win for them, and we saw a lot of elements of that team, um, and, and, and a lot of strengths of that team come alive on our television screens, and Matthew Stafford was outstanding down the stretch of that game.

Kyron Williams and the run game were a real factor.

You know, the defense is starting to play better.

So what does this look like against Buffalo?

And for Buffalo, look, I'm guilty of after week 3 thinking that game against the Chargers actually had a lot of good signs, and I still think it did, but like, I, I looked at it, 5 turnovers, 10 penalties, they were, that's the type of game the Bills have typically lost, and they were able to scratch out a win.

And, you know, you're thinking to yourself, OK, like this, that that that that this is a team now that got all these great lessons, they didn't even have to sustain a loss to get them, and then they were sloppy again against New England.

So to me, it's not even about the Bills winning this game, so much as it is how tight is the operation.

What is Josh Allen look like ?

Are they putting the ball in peril, defensively, are there busts down the field?

All that stuff.

Like, let's see what that looks like against a really good Rams team at Sofi.

I can't wait for that one.

This is the game that I was looking forward to most.

Uh, this weekend.

Now, Seahawks 49ers, that was a heavyweight bout.

That was high-level football out there.

I think we're gonna get that again tonight with another NFC West team taking on one of the titans of the AFC.

Appreciate you guys coming out as always, you can leave your questions down below, your comments too, here on the YouTube page, or you can get to me on my social media at Albert Breyer on Twitter, at Albert Breyer on TikTok, at Albert R Breer on Facebook, and at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

We got a mailbag coming for you in a couple of days.

We'll see you guys then.