^ What he said. Basically all full guaranteed money will be accounted for by next year presumably. Since it is an extensions, the deal will initially start next year, but with his signing bonus of this year, He'll roughly make $5mil/year after the 2015 season. And only an additional $5.55mil is guaranteed after the 2015 season. So between this year and next, everything he's due is paid to him and what he earns after that is non-guaranteed pay based off of his yearly performances. Good deal for both parts. Flexable figures that can be easily cut, and signing of a starter that hasn't reached his "1st round" ceiling yet. If he does, it will be considered a steal, and if not, its a slight over payment that you can handle.
Timing is interesting. I bet this wouldn't have happened if the Texans were able to find a good OLB they felt they could plug in.
He's actually improving each year, and made a big jump last year. It's expected of him to continue to do so. He was garbage against the run his first two season, and last year? He was the 5th best OLB against the run. I don't think he'll be an all pro, but I do believe he's going to surprise people from here on out.
Disagree. Timing is just such that it was the next thing on the to do list of the off season. You think we're going to negotiate a contract in the middle of draft season? Lol. Nobody ever considered the possibility that *gasp* the Texans are okay with what they have. Maybe this shows they're truly serious about Clowney's recovery expectations. John Simon played well last year, as well. The glaring need was on the inside, and it's been addressed. We have some question marks with the starters. Namely Cushing and Clowney. But if Cushing is a tad better than last year, which he will be, and Clowney is average, and McKinney is even started quality, our unit is fine.
And the timing of it is due to the 5th year option. It would have given him a $7+ mil salary last year, and would have garnered him more chips for a larger salary than he is currently worth. Get him signed now, at a slightly above value rate, and you got a potentially cheap deal if he improves that doesn't break the bank. He earns more money in his next two seasons than he would have anyway, and you get control over him longer, with no big salary strangles holding your roster back. I'm down for it.
Agree 100%. People don't get extended the day after the freaking draft, unless the team was font playing scenarios where those players become redundant. If they we're sure they wanted to keep him at price, they'd have done it a month ago to lock him in entering the draft.
i don't know rick said he viewed him as part of the future prior to draft day and again days before draft day. It could be they didn't draft an Olb because they like what they have. also as much as I love the potential of Clowney, Merciless, Cushing and Mckinney none of them are good at covering, cushing even during the holy phenom years was bad. No way I want to see clowney in coverage with those knees early on =(. That's one phase we will miss Brooks Reed.
well I guess I'd say it a little different than Nimo did. It's not that they couldn't find an OLB (as if they were hoping to find someone to replace Mercilus with)...I think they really weren't sure what direction rounds 1 and 2 would go based on BPA. If they ended up with a high value OLB based on circumstance, they probably would have gone a different direction with Mercilus.
I agree with this.. As much as we were annoyed at brooks reed. He made up in pass coverage for a linebacker... Just couldn't get to the QB or make enough flashy plays
I said GOOD OLB, not just any OLB. I think they intentionally waited to see if a replacement (one of the really good OLBs in the draft) would drop in the draft and into their lap. Obviously I don't know for a fact, just a thought. We are both saying the same thing now.
But then you're still banking on the fact that said linebacker won't be a bust. Say you get the kid, and he looks like any other rookie, but was highly touted. So now you either let Mercilus walk, and are stuck with said "just a guy" for the span of his rookie contract, and/or are still drafting OLBs in the first round every year, or you just sign Mercilus, who showed improvement last year, and looks like he's on the good side of his career arc - at a fair deal.
They would have had a year to evaluate the draft pick. If the draft pick was a bust then they just resign Whitney at the end of the season. Or if it is obvious during training camp, they resign Whitney right before the season starts. Even if the draft pick ends up playing very well, they could still have kept Whitney but his price might have been cheaper. Just imagine Fowler and Clowney, for instance, Mercilus becomes very dispensable.
Good signing. Mercilus will continue to get better. I am glad they see value in him and locked him up with a team friendly deal.
Seems most are higher on Mercilus than I am. I understand it isn't a killer deal from a cap perspective, but I've been pretty underwhelmed by Whitney to this point. Maybe there was improvement that I didn't see last season, so I'll hold out hope this turns into a good contract for the Texans. But as it stands right now I feel like we overpaid.
This is how I interpret it: deals like this don't just get negotiated immediately after the draft. They had the parameters agreed upon already even before the draft started, but held back on making it official because that would have clued other teams into the fact that OLB was no longer a need for us. As much smokescreening as can be done in the period running up to the draft is now necessary. We see that firsthand every year as teams try to jump in front of us--be it for a LB (Arthur Brown) or a QB (Bridgewater, Garopallo) or a WR (Lockett)--when they have a good idea what our immediate needs are. Maybe this is just a sign that Rick Smith (with O'Brien's help) is wisening up to the intricacies of the draft?
Reed got a contract worth around $23 million and $7 million guaranteed so that's about right. This seems more like a "we're not sure about Clowney" move in my opinion.
Clooney and Merciless play the same position. Both were lineman that converted to OLBs when they moved to the Texans 3-4. You shouldn't ever see them on the field at the same time. It's reasonable to say that they would have let him walk if Clowney delivered but who knows what is going to happen there.
I don't think anyone should be basing anything they do on what Reed got. Atlanta had a total brain fart on that one, I think.
