Texans had 4 first round rated players according to Kiper. http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draf...iper-re-drafts-2009-nfl-draft-class-nfl-draft
Funny, I saw another redraft and Cushing was taken earlier than the Texans took him. Who did Kiper pick for the Texans?
Not really a good way to judge redrafts. You only get 4 years of team control and after that, it doesn’t matter because a team has no advantage in re-signing players unless we’re talking about franchise guys worth of the tag. So the fact that Barwin missed 2 out of 4 seasons makes him a hindsight mediocre pick. Quin, Cushing, and Foster were definitely great picks. Unfortunately, Foster and Cushing were also terrible extensions in hindsight. That, unfortunately, is also on Rick Smith because he couldn’t find cheaper, less injury-prone alternatives to Foster and Quin. While he also tried to replace Quin with the epic fail that became Ed Reed.
Arian Foster has been excellent, and he only missed significant time in one season. The fact that everybody else we put pack there has sucked only serves to reinforce that. He isn't being paid that much relative to his productivity, letting him walk would have been the mistake. The Cushing extension is the one that is looking terrible.
He was most excellent in the one year he didn't have to be paid for big money because he was still under contract. We gave him big money one year before it was necessary. No 351 carries that year. 381 carries the following 2 years.