I would bring in Dunn only at the right price and use him along with Ahman. If Ahman gets hurt, then you have Dunn to rely on.
I think those two are going to fight it out for the last spot on the depth chart. Walker has an advantage since his body of work is a lot bigger than Taylor's.
Warrick Dunn has missed a total of 10 games in an 11 game career, played in over 94% of the games since he has been in the NFL and has not missed a game since 2003??? Doesn't seem broke down to me, just a little long in the tooth. 4.1 average per carry playing for some pretty crappy teams, including a 5.1 average per carry as recently as two years ago and a respectable 3.2 apc last year on one of the crappiest teams in the NFL. You have to understand something about the Texans front office and the position this franchise is in at the present moment. We are not going to spend major dollars going after some big name free agent until this team is built and we aren't going to reach for players. We are going to take the best players available at the position of the greatest need in the draft. That means we are going to draft a LT and/or a defensive back. Running back is 3rd on the list and the only way we take one early is if a quality player has fallen and we feel like we are getting great value with the pick. Otherwise, it's back to relying on older free agents that do not command major dollars or drafting a rb in later rounds. I'm okay with it. This front office has already proven to me they know what they are doing.
I agree with most of your statement but while it seems that the Texans won't spend major dollars on big name FAs, we've seen a bad trend of grossly overpaying mediocre FAs (Green, Reeves, Weaver). It seems that we are relying on older free agents that aren't commanding major dollars, but unfortunately, we are paying major dollars for them. The new front office has made some decent moves, especially in the draft. But the jury is still out on the moves Kubiak/Smith have made through free agency.
Another thing about Dunn is he's durable. Let's face it, without injuries to key positions last year, we make the playoffs. I'd give him a contract but someone in the RB corp has to go.
Rich Lord just said that we do have interest and that we are not bringing back Ron Dayne. Rich is kind of an assclown though, so take it for what its worth...
Walker is the kid I want to see a little bit more of. He looked pretty explosive towards the end of last year and he had a good career at ND, if I remember right.
Ya...Walker looked pretty good in limited PT at the end of last season. Not sure if he is #1 RB type of material, but he definitely showed some promise. While I would welcome Dunn at the right price, I would really like to see the Texans add some young explosive talent to our backfield.
Under the NFL's agreement with the NFLPA (with a few rare exceptions) the effect on the salary cap of guaranteed payments (such as signing bonuses) are prorated evenly over the term of the contract. In transitions, if a player retires, is traded, or is cut before June 1st, all remaining bonus is applied to the salary cap for the current season. If the payroll change occurs after June 1st, the current cap is unchanged, and the next year's cap must absorb the entire remaining bonus. Ahman Green's leftover bonus for the next 3 years is like 3.75 mil. If they cut ahman green before june 1st, the cap charge will be 3.75 mil. If the cut happens after June 1st, I believe the cap charge for this season will be this year's bonus money (1.25) and the rest of the bonus will be charged next season. (2.5 mil) Probably the texans have this years cap figure of green's probably around 3.8 mil plus 1.25 mil = 5.05 mil. Thats probably why the texans really can't afford to cut green this season and he'll probably save money off the cap next season with approx. 12 million on the cap the next 2 years. The cap figure will highly outweigh the signing bonus money after this upcoming season.
