[Chron.com] Texans' Daniels considered skipping offseason program

Smith has his work cut out for him.

 

Yeah, it sucks that Dunta didn't take the deal that was on the table for him before he was franchised. I have a feeling one of Dunta/DeMeco/OD will be gone, and Dunta is the most questionable and will demand the most money based on his position. As important as all three of those guys are, you just can't afford to tie up money and stay successful.

I hope it works out, but if we end up with a CB in the first round, the writing might be on the wall for Dunta.

 

Trade him for Matt Cassell immediately.

 

If O.D. has another season like he did in 08 you can bet he will want more than the 36 mil Winslow received.

 

If that's the case, I'd let him walk. But I don't think he'll be asking to be the highest paid TE in NFL history.

 

DeMeco Ryans has imo regressed for two straight seasons, and I think is so highly regarded based on his play his rookie year. He should be working on his tackling and not worried so much about the contract. Again, imo.

And O.D. is a good receiving tight end, but he's not worth 36 mil.

 

I don't know if I'd say he's regressed. Maybe he hasn't progressed much, but he hasn't regressed. Two years ago he was hurt for half of the season and playing on a bad knee when he should've sat out. I think it was still bothering him at the beginning of last year, then he finally came around. Remember, Zac Diles led the team in tackles until he got hurt, taking a lot of them away from DeMeco.

It's really tough to tell in the NFL how effective a guy is based on stats, especially defensively. You'd have to look at game-film from last year to really tell how he looked.

I agree on not over-paying OD. He's good, but he's also a product to a certain degree of a proficient offense and defenses keying on Andre Johnson. Funny how his numbers exploded the year we had a good running game and Andre has a phenomenal year.

 

Another year like 08? If thats the case, then about 4-5 tight ends should be higher paid than him.

No way he deserves the most money out of all the tight ends.

I think a 5 year, 22.5 million dollar deal with ~12 million in guarantees is fair.

 

Well, I watched most of the games last season and I wasn't that impressed with his work. And I'm not sure how he loses tackles to Zac Diles - either he's there to make the play or he's not.

I think the MLB has a primary run-stopping responsibility, along with the DTs. And the Texans were 23rd in the league last season in preventing rushing yards, 24th in terms of yards per rush. They were just a bad run-stopping team, and that falls in part on the MLB.

I'm not saying that Ryans is bad, certainly there are other factors at work. But I don't think he's played at an elite level the last 2 years.

 

Being #23 in rush defense falls on the entire defense, not just the MLB. I know you said "in part," but when your DTs are getting absolutely blown up, it frees up the blockers to take out your LBs. Our defense as a whole was pretty bad, but I think a lot of it had to do with a horrible scheme.

Also, I don't see how losing tackles to Diles is a bad thing. Diles played very well last season before getting hurt and I'm hoping the tackle numbers are spread across the board between Diles/DeMeco/June, that just means we're getting good production out of LB core rather than just one guy.

 

That's what I'm saying though, it's not always easy to tell how effective a defensive player is without actual game film. I watched all the games too...TV doesn't show what every player is doing on every play.

He lost tackles to Diles because Diles was on the strong side, and he moves very well laterally. He was making tackles on the strong side of the field that DeMeco used to make. That has nothing to do with DeMeco's ability.

I think the run-stopping has a lot more to do with our DT's than LB's. I will agree that DeMeco hasn't been quite the player the last 1.5 years as he was the first 1.5 years, and there are a lot of factors that go into that, but I just wouldn't say he has regressed.

 

I'd like to have atleast ONE winning season before all these guys start pulling this crap, is that so out of line, what's with this sense of entitlement already?

 

I dont think any TE is worth 36mil Im saying if he catches 75+ balls and close to 1,000yds receiving he will want to be one of the highest paid in the game.Im pretty sure he feels he is better than Winslow already.

 

Owen Daniels is a good tight end, but he is expendable/replaceable IMO.

Dunta, well, I already voiced my opinion on him. The Texans made him a generous offer and he balked at it. He rightfully got tagged as a result. Lesson learned.

And Demeco, I think, was the beneficiary of being on a god awful Texans defense in 06-07. He was basically the only guy we had that could tackle, so naturally he got almost ALL of them. Our DL was swiss cheese then, and our LBs were scrubs... now we actually have some players instead of an entire defense of walking stiffs so Demeco isn't getting in on every play.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

It has nothing to do with a sense of entitlement. NFL contracts are not guaranteed, so players really have to look out for themselves. It's a business, like management always likes to say.