Gap fillers. That is basically it. If they play well, the Texans get to pay the market rate (like everyone else). Regardless the Texans get to sign more gap fillers next year. Gaine says he wants to build through the draft and some of these spots will be filled with players we draft and develop. Either way, the Texans aren’t all in this season.... but Cal has other priorities anyway.
They say "build through the draft" like it is an option. Every team wants to build through the draft. Most build through the draft AND free agency AND trades. The Browns drafted players and then traded for players. Look at the Patriots roster and there is a nice blend of drafted players and free agent acquisitions. It's not like the 22 or so teams ahead of the Texans are all of a sudden not going to be drafting players. They are going to be picking the best of the best to add to the players already on the team. Building through the draft works really well when you have top 10 picks. At 23 you're at the mercy of the teams picking ahead of you.
Building through the draft (and UDFA market) is an option. Most successful organizations build outside of FA and trades as much as possible. Pats utilitize the FA market like everyone else, but the key is that they rarely overpay. GB is another great example. They sustained success across Ted’s lengthy GM tenure largely because of how “in-house” they were. They rarely brought in players from the outside, which is similar to NE. NE, although their recent teams have a good number of FAs/trades, typically aren’t high dollar/famed ones. And I’d bet across that, across the board, NE and the more successful franchises have limited out-of-house acquisitions as much as possible. The market has been terrible so this year isn’t exactly the one to gauge Gaine on. I completely understand not drastically overpaying warm bodies because they’re available. Gaine needs to continue to maximize growing from within like successful organizations do. And hopefully BOB doesn’t screw it up.
Interesting that the two teams you picked have hall-of-fame best in the league QBs. You can be picky and cheap when you have Brady and Rodgers under center. Even with that, they've made some pretty big non-draft acquisitions. Randy Moss, Darell Revis, Rodney Harrison, Albert Haynesworth, Ninkovich, Dion Lewis, Vrabel, Junior Seau, all were free agents. "Overpay" is relative. The market is unpredictable. You can't assume it's going to be better next year. The market value for safeties might go up and not down. What if, hypothetically speaking, the chiefs win the super bowl next year? Do you think anyone will care that they're "overpaying" Honey Badger? Just as no one wins by over spending, no one wins by under spending either. The key is to recognize talent and find a way to bring them to your team. There is a possibility the top 3 tackles are gone by 1-23. Then you're hoping a 2nd tier offensive lineman can hold down one of the most important positions in football. And you still don't have a #1 corner. Edit: Plus there are a good number of free agents who most don't think are overpaid. Colts brought back Pierre Desir on a very good deal. Ty Nsekhe is a 7 mil a year. Adrian Amos did not get overpaid. Tevin Coleman's contract is very affordable.
Well cap space in the NFL rolls over correct so I suppose Gaine is looking towards that 2020 offseason that hopefully finally has OL worth blowing some $ on?
I would like to see the Texans make a run at a Justin Houston. I dont really understand why we didn’t sign another starting corner (or a single offensive lineman), but I do know that we didn’t have much of a pass rush last year outside of JJ. I think adding Houston would absolutely volt our defense to another level. Allows us to move JJ inside more so we get more of that interior push. Clowney and Houston on the edge. Wittney and Zack on the outside. Or when we go 3-4 put Houston at OLB. Or sometimes we’ll want to bring an additional pass rusher and everyone gets in on the party. Point being you can never have too many pass rushers. It’s how the Giants won two Super Bowls. Adding Houston would improve our pass rush and take pressure off our vulnerable secondary.
FA Market: Trent Brown is now the highest paid LT in NFL History! Trent Brown was rated "ABOVE AVERAGE" by PFF. Duane Brown was rated "Good" for context. Brown was rated 37th in Pass Blocking. https://www.profootballfocus.com/ne...iots-lt-trent-brown-but-is-he-worth-the-money Trent Brown didn't make the Top 25 for OL for 2018 season. You really want to make a player not in the top 25 the Highest paid at his position? https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-top-25-offensive-linemen-of-the-2018-nfl-season That is the problem with Free Agency. Most elite players never make it because they are re-signed by their teams.
There’s a middle ground of trying the hardest while Watson is on his rookie contract that’s not signing all the biggest free agents to insane deals. And even if they did sign Trent Brown we can afford the experiment in attempting to maximumize Watson’s window. Risk will always be there. The Packers have won one super bowl in 13 years while having all world Aaron Rodgers at QB partly or mainly because of the slow conservative approach to all other aspects of their roster.
