Offseason Priorities

wow, I never realized that. just ridiculous...

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/houston-texans/mario-williams/

 

That would sound better if true, and appreciate your effort btw. I am so undecided to be honest...At first, I was so thinking along the lines with MadMax such as using avail. funds by releasing Mario to address weakness big-time (#2 wr, or #2 corner). But what DonnyMost stated makes sense about flexibility to reinforce DE injury/rotation rest (as well as giving a full year to see what you got ...It will be a deep WR after all, and while we may not end up with Blackmon, a nice WR could be had . . .
But I also want Foster to be locked up, so he doesn't go another year with a 1yr. deal...He has been calm, quiet, and nice about it, but right about now, if I was Foster I would start being antsy about a guarantee-incentive multi yr. deal for long term security - Being in your mid-20's for a RB is time for the money

 

Balloon payments .. . .never do it - smh

 

well one solution would be to do the same thing all over again and worry about it in 6 years...:grin:

 

I don't know if Mario's contract was initially built that way. Remember that we had to do a lot of re-structuring to land Joseph and Manning last year (insert Pancakes restructure joke here).

EDIT: Nevermind, I guess they couldn't have restructured him with only one year left.

 

[rquoter]Linebackers
Projected Franchise Tender: $8.843M - $9.183M
Projected Transition Tender: $7.869M - $8.171M
Five linebackers received the franchise tag in 2011, and all five signed long-term deals that contained nearly $150 million in contractual guarantees. This year's crop of potential linebacker free agents include Texans outside linebacker Mario Williams, who was off to a blistering start in his adjustment to Wade Phillips' 3-4 defense, posting five quarterback sacks in five games before suffering a season-ending pectoral injury. Williams earned $13.8 million in base salary in 2011, but had a cap number north of $18 million. That high cap number gives Williams' agent (Ben Dogra of CAA Football) considerable leverage, as it would not be financially prudent for the Texans to hold $22 million in cap space to place the franchise tag on Williams this offseason[/rquoter]

[rquoter]Williams is eligible for free agency in 2012. The Texans will obviously want to bring Williams back, but at what cost? Charlie Casserly on CBS pregame on Sunday suggested if the Texans can’t come to terms with Williams on a long term deal, a franchise tag on Williams could cost as much as $22 million for 2012. [/rquoter]

[rquoter]The Mario question

He is an unrestricted free agent, and how the team handles him this offseason could be franchise-altering. General manager Rick Smith, who has built a 2-14 embarrassment of a team with little talent and less depth into a 10-6 power that could withstand a slew of major injuries, will be put to the test on this one.

Will he negotiate a new long-term contract for Williams? Will he use a franchise tag (unlikely because it would mean Williams would be guaranteed between $21 million and $22 million for next season, eating up substantial cap space)? Or will he find a trade partner, which could give the Texans a quality player or valuable draft picks?[/rquoter]

[rquoter] Fear the Texans next year. That is a talented football team. Who knows how good they could have been if Matt Schaub didn't go down? That defense can be special. They do have to decide what to do with Mario Williams? Do they tag him? That would cost $22 million. That's way too high, considering they played without him for most of the season and finished second in total defense. Rookie Brooks Reed and Connor Barwin are both good players at outside linebacker. If Williams hits the market, he will be by far the highest-paid free agent out there.[/rquoter]

AdamSchefter Adam Schefter
[rquoter]RT @TylerSmith80: Would Texans ship Mario Williams out this offseason? ... He's a free agent. Could be tagged, but Houston wants him back[/rquoter]

 

So devote over 10% of our cap number to one guy that will join the defense and make a top 3 defense remain a top 3 defense. Genius.

Literally Kubiak's stated reasoning for giving Jacoby 3 yrs/$10M this past summer.

Mario's great, he'd absolutely help and make our front 7 even more frightening....but it seems that the vast majority of you look at the franchise tag as a Bird resigning.

Smith is the guy with real numbers in front of him. If he can keep Foster and Myers and still retain Mario, than go for it. My understanding is that the 2012 cap figure won't be much higher than this year's, but that it will balloon in 2013. Hopefully that can be used to our advantage.

But you can't retain Mario at all costs. If he's looking to cash in (SD supposedly already lining up), then you need to look to negotiate a Franchise Tag trade and get back a first for him.

It's a bottom line business. Screw up the cap in this league and you'll regret it quick.

OLB depth can easily be addressed for a whole lot cheaper than $17M

 

well it appears that bonus $$ is counted against the cap. so there would have to be a $5.5MM bonus available on top of his base salary to make up the difference (to $22MM).

although if Charlie Casserley is the one who quoted the $22MM figure...I give it no credence...

 

Guys, we're making waaaaaay too many presumptions about his cost; we have no idea what he'll ask for and/or is willing to sign for (especially to avoid the franchise tag). Kubiak said he wants him back and that every indication he's gotten is that Mario wants to be back.

If we could, in a bubble, add a top 5 DE who is 26 years old, everyone and their grandmother and their grandmother's f-buddy would jump all over the chance to do so. And that's pretty much what they'll be doing.

You don't get *better* subtracting topline players from your roster and gutting depth. If Mario is commanding so much money, you'd have to maintain status quo and lose Myers and/or Foster - then, no - you don't do that.

But I don't think we should assume he'll be cost-prohibitive.

 

I am just trying to back into the $22MM. If you back out his projected base salary of $16.56 that leaves another $5.5MM unaccounted for.

 

I know the franchise # is determined differently this year; it's tied to the cap; it's no longer purely the average salary of the top 5 players at your position.

I don't believe they've set next year's cap and, therefore, I don't think we know what the # will be. FYI, the $22MM figure came from, yep, you guessed it: Frank Stallone. I mean, Charley Casserly.

I mean, come on.....

 

Mario's hit on the cap this year is around $14M this year. That number will go down a few million next year if he gets a long term contract. Plus, cutting Jacoby and Leinart would save about six million, which can be used towards Foster. If the Eagles can find a way to get under the cap, then the Texans can too to resign Myers and a FA WR. Then draft some another WR, OL depth, and a nose.

 

Plus the salary cap will be increase the year after by tens of millions (players get 55% of the tv contract revenue).

 

He needs an extremely serious uptick to have any chance of Hall consideration.