Cushing already took over as the leader. He was vocal, never came off the field, and was the signal caller for the defense. I'm worried how this affects Cush though. Demeco was his boy and his play was always elevated whenever Demeco was in uniform.
Demeco's cap hit was going to be $7.1MIL this year and $8.4MIL next year. How in the world can the Eagles of all teams fit him under the cap after assembling the "all star" team they did last season? Anyway, I love Demeco's leadership, but it's not worth $7-$8 MIL for average play. If that loss helps us lock up Barwin and Brown long term, I am all for it.
So looks like these are our needs: #2 WR WR depth G depth DE depth OLB depth ILB depth I think we can fill most of this with the draft and hopefully have enough left to cut Rackets and Jacoby to ensure we have plenty of room to sign Brown/Barwin.
Arian Foster, Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, Owen Daniels, Antonio Smith, Johnathan Joseph, Danieal Manning, Chris Myers... there are big-salaried players all over the place. They are in a win now mode. They're up against the salary cap and couldn't justify paying $6 mil to a player that only plays 50% of the time in this scheme. They can replace him with someone who can actually be a more regular player. The vast majority of those coming off Achilles tears never regain prior form - EVER. Nowhere near as significant of a cap hit as Ryans. You want to sign/trade for a WR2 or CB2? You can't do that if you have a part-time LB getting paid the money Demeco was/is. Part of the value - and the reason NFL veterans don't command a ton of picks via trade, relative to their production - is the cap space. Now the Texans can go out and sign a competent receiver. I'd expect that to happen in the next couple of weeks.
No problem with the trade, I would like to point out however that the Eagles an example of a team that always is able to add to their team despite a salary cap.
I was under the impression that they gained wiggle room after all the cuts, andres restructuring and FA losses. If this is the first move of a chain of reactions, I'm all for it as long as we fill a need that contribute now. What type of space does this create for us? What tier of WR can we look at? An Andre successor, or a Meachem type?
Meachem already signed with San Diego I believe. I don't think there are any competent WR out there now other than Ginn. I would look at Ginn to see if he'd sign cheaper than Jacoby. If he would I'd do that and cut Jones.
Next offseason is going to be rough also, especially if the cap doesn't go up. FAs after 2012 Duane Brown C. Barwin S. Cody J. Casey G. Quin R. Butler A. Caldwell
Closer to 8 million actually. 2012 5,900,000 1,500,000 - 7,400,000 2013 6,600,000 1,500,000 - 8,100,000 2014 6,800,000 1,500,000 - 8,300,000 2015 6,800,000 - - 6,800,000
You can draft a replacement for everyone on that list after the first round except for Duane Brown and Barwin. They have to keep Brown in my mind. If they can rework a cap friendly deal with him that doesn't kill them in year one, they should be fine.
Quin played really well at safety this past year. Probably the best safety play I have ever seen out of a Texans player.
I will only say this ... None of this better be used as an excuse for poor Results next year. Rocket River 8-8 is not an option
