Which is why I highly prefer rings of honor... and/or statues. Retiring a number should be considered only for the absolute best of the best... the Texans have the luxury of choosing which direction they want to go, so I do hope they don't get Astros/Rockets-like when it comes to the numbers (in the Rockets defense, it wasn't till Les started retiring guys like Drexler... and apparently Yao... that I thought they were getting a little over-zealous).
They've negotiated pay cuts before. Some were accepted, some were rejected. That is not how this went down. They didn't need to "float" 40 catches. Nothing we have seen of Andre says his ego is that bad that he would storm out mid-meeting. Arian is more likely to do that than Andre. The Texans did talk about him being cut and refused to dismiss Andre's comments. This is a guy who has been a model Texan and just a year previous said he wanted to retire a Texan. I don't think he would make up stories about the meeting and storm off angry because of his ego. I mean, he later on took a full page ad to thank the fans. I don't mind the outcome of cutting him, I'm not a fan boy who is delusional. I could see he was not playing up to his contract and was likely gone. I just think it could have been handled better by the Texans.
Have the Texans negotiated a paycut under Rick Smith actually? My understanding is that they have not. They did cut Daniel Manning and end up signing him for less when another team let him go, but I don't think they've ever actually done a paycut. We do have examples of players who said they weren't offered a paycut, such as Winston.
Did they REALLY take pay cuts, or did they turn some salary into a signing bonus in a restructure in order to save cap space? If so, all that does is give them the same money with more of it up front.
Again, you don't know how it went down. You have the jilted party's version, which, we have to remember, is being filtered through frustration/anger/embarrassment, etc. Let me ask you a question: since it seems likely that they at least broached the idea of Andre Johnson's role being reduced - and now, in hindsight, based on both their season as well as Andre's, we know it wasn't something they randomly pulled out of nowhere - what do you think their end goal was in mentioning it? I believe they were greasing the wheels to justify their asking him to take a pay cut. I can't really wrap my head around any other reason for bringing up 40 catches.
Your "float" suggestion is less believable based on what we know about both parties. You're right that we don't have all the details. What we do have is the history of behavior from both parties and the words of one of the parties not refuted by the other party. Based on Andre's words, there was no "storming out". He actually said he laughed at the idea but they kept on going. I think their end goal was to move on without Andre but they didn't want to do it up front because of what they had promised him in the previous year when he was late to camp. Remember, he came back and said that the organization re-insured him that he was going to be part of the team's future. So instead of just approaching him that he was going to be released, they threw out 40 catches. He knew exactly what they were trying to do. Remember, it wasn't just 40 catches. They told him he would not be starting. This was before Shorts and Nate's signings. Even before the draft. There was nobody on the roster more worthy of starting than him. See his quotes here: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...re-johnson-laughed-at-not-starting-for-texans
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Texans Tracker: Arian Foster Set to Visit Miami this week. <a href="https://t.co/xb0KDheatM" title="http://www.scout.com/nfl/texans/story/1655620-arian-foster-set-to-visit-the-miami-dolphins">scout.com/nfl/texans/sto…</a> <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Texans">#Texans</a> <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Dolphins">#Dolphins</a> <a href="https://t.co/T0erjEqYCB" title="http://twitter.com/PatDStat/status/714296518505734145/photo/1">pic.twitter.com/T0erjEqYCB</a></p>— PDS (@PatDStat) <a href="https://twitter.com/PatDStat/status/714296518505734145" data-datetime="2016-03-28T03:42:15+00:00">March 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I think teams are waiting for him to get closer to the end of his rehab before committing to him. There will definitely be a market for him, just not at this point in his recovery.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Former <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Texans">#Texans</a> RB Arian Foster is working out for the <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Dolphins">#Dolphins</a> tomorrow, source said, then has one for the <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Lions">#Lions</a> later in the week.</p>— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/754834378329653248" data-datetime="2016-07-17T19:25:14+00:00">July 17, 2016</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dolphins are giving Arian Foster a 1-year, $1.5 million deal that includes incentives that could bring max value of deal to $3.5 million.</p>— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/755145879653224449">July 18, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
