Glover Quin - "Okay but not worth 5 million" Reed - "Too old, living on his name, not worth the money he's probably seeking" Rookie safety - "You're expecting a rookie to come in and start?!" Keo & Demps are your co-starters: "Why didn't you upgrade the position?! Fire Rick!" Charles Woodson? "See: Reed, Ed" Nnamdi? "Yeah! Just sign Nnamdi and move him or Kareem to safety!" Heh Yeah, maybe they should have re-signed Quin. Too rich for their blood.
My friend told me that he was told by a member within the organization that its 2 yrs for $14 million
That's my issue right there. This team AS IT WAS COMPOSED AT THE END OF THE SEASON had some real holes that very clearly needed to be addressed. Losing players through offseason has opened up new holes that will have to be addressed. There's limited ways to go about this...I think they're stuck, whether it's bad luck or bad management. Barwin wasn't great...but he was depth with Mercilus. That's gone now. Have to address that, and pass rushers don't come cheap (just ask Philly). So I suppose you're doing that in the draft.... But you also need help on the OL and a legit offensive playmaker...oh, and if you sign Reed you likely need to draft his replacement, because you're looking at 2 years of him max.
The problem is that the team at the end of the year had more holes than fans realize. Most fans were going into the offseason thinking "fix the oline and get a WR2 and we're set!" That's just ridiculous. Good teams had no problem with our defense. For all the attacks the offense got, our defense got lit up like a Christmas tree by New England. Then the offseason comes and you lose your 3rd best CB, your starting S, your starting OLB, your starting DT (cody is a FA)... there is a lot to fix. There's no reason to criticize them for signing Ed Reed. If they make no other moves, they deserve criticism for that.
Cushing coming back helps the defense more than any other move they could make this off-season. They had zero replacement for him at ILB last season... in fact, they had a bunch of guys who probably don't start for any other team.
Cushing is obviously a big help, no doubt. But Peyton moved the ball pretty easily once he got his mojo going and Cushing was on the field for that. The Packers lit us easily as well. The Broncos have added to their offense this offseason. The 49ers have added to their offense. The Patriots are about to add to their offense. Our defense needs BIG improvements. I seriously think they have the following holes (just for next season, forget future safety) Safety Nickel CB Fourth DB, either CB or an extra safety DT Pass rushing OLB WR2 RT ILB2 You need starters at 5 of the 7 positions I listed above.
This, this, this. Cushing is one of the best pass and closing speed ILBs in the league. Period, end of story. Losing him last year completely changed our fates and allowed short passes over the middle from slot receivers, running backs and tight ends to tear our defense up. Cushing is one of the few players on our team that makes it feast or famine. Others being Brown, Myers, Watt, Foster, AJ and Daniels.
safety (Reed) Nickel CB (draft 4th rd pick or if we get a compensatory 3rd rd pick for losing Mario) Fourth DB (draft 3rd rd pick or hope Brandon Harris drastically improves...and I mean drastically) DT (draft 3rd or 4th rd) Pass rushing OLB (draft 2nd rd pick) WR2 (draft--1st rd pick) RT (Free agency--hopefully Winston or someone cheaper) ILB2 (FA or 5th/6th rd pick)
The only ones that would really make any difference are: Safety (signing Reed alleviates that) WR2 ILB2 ------ DT - Mitchell is no worse than Cody. If we dont sign anyone here, then we arent losing ground from last season's team. Nickel CB - Same as above....whoever takes this spot will be no worse than last season. 4th DB - Same as above...whoever is in this spot will be no worse than last season. I would also guess that the majority of teams have a hole at this spot. RT - Same as above...we wont be downgraded at this position in comparison to last season. Pass Rushing OLB - My guess is that anyone we have replacing Barwin will be a more effective pass rusher than Barwin was last season. Many are forgetting just how worthless Connor was for this team. He didnt show up. There are "holes" on this team...but as long as we have stop gaps in some areas and improvements in other areas, then you cant ask for much more than that. There is no reason to think the Texans will be worse off this upcoming season in comparison to last season. In fact, Im pretty confident we will be better, since the only real loss we've had is Glover (who's getting replaced by someone who is at least just as good).
If Reed comes in at a bigger annual cap number than Quin, I'll be less than impressed. justtxyank called it perfectly - lots of areas they need to patch up. Blowing all of their cap space on Reed would be a good way to help us sag to the 9-win level again.
Lol at the Reed fan club blasting me for saying the same thing Cook & Lance said and now y'all getting nervous when you hear the same thing coming from their mouths.
He'll most definitely come in at a higher cap number...that should be expected since he's a better player. Quin will never play at the level that Reed, aged 34, played last season.
Reed will be 35 once season starts. I don't care about past performance. Will reed be better than GQ next season? How about the next two seasons?
Our current holes as starters are at Saftey, NT, WR, and ILB. Nickel corner is not and should not be considered a "starting" position. Brice McCain was not a "starter". Our starting LBs are Mercilus, Cushing, and Reed. We need a starter at ILB. I don't think the Texans are putting a priority on OLine. I think they're fine with letting the right side develop. Their priority there is re-signing Harris to be the "swing" tackle. That doesn't mean that we don't need to address those other positions, they just shouldn't be considered "starters". If we can re-sign McCain, I'm fine with Harris being the 4th CB. Not the best solution, but not the worst thing either. A 3rd safety should be a bigger priority because Keo is terrible. Harris as a 4th CB is better than Keo as the 3rd safety. Aside from needing a starter at ILB, we just need better depth there. I'm not even sure what reserve LBs we still have under contract. Braman? Sharpton?
We got a sneak preview of this when Cody got hurt last year and Mitchell took his spot. What we got were the worst defensive performances of the year. Mitchell sneaks through for an occasional sack, but most of the time he's getting pancaked or tossed to the side. He's nowhere near strong enough to hold down the nose. I know they won't do it, but I would personally be all over some of the DT/NT types at the end of the first round. Wade's love of midgets at nose baffles me - penetration up the middle doesn't help as much as gap sealing and pocket collapsing.
Yes, he will be. GQ has a definite ceiling to his game. Reed wont drop off that much in such a short period of time. I'd rather have Reed at 2 years, rather than Quin for 5 years.
You don't need to draft Reed's replacement. Plenty of 1st round safetys start immediately. You can at *least* wait until next year to draft him--if not the year after--and sign/draft (late) a better backup than Keo. Barwin signing here, given the money he got, would have depleted our cap space and pissed everyone off. So they did the right thing. Why are we bringing it up if they made a great decision? If Reed signs for $1 mil more than Quin, then (depending on how it's structured) you're essentially in the same place at worst--and in my mind you're a better football team that more than justifies any additional spending on him. So we're right back where we started. Same $$ left to address holes that were already holes. Address maybe 1 through FA and the rest through the draft. I just don't see the issue..
