What else would they do to replace Foster and Williams? We have good depth there to the point where we don't need to do something drastic to replace them. As for cap room, I'd see them getting one of the big WR names in FA. They don't need to spend all the cap room if Foster/Williams leave. It'd put them in a vicious cycle of having to always cut and/or restructure contracts every offseason just to resign free agents or sign new ones. We have plenty of people coming up for FA next season that we need to resign like Cushing and Barwin.
The cap will be bigger next year. If you let Williams and Foster walk and replace them with current backups, then do little else to improve the rest of them, this city wont be very happy. And it shouldn't be. Like I said, there has already been evidence that the Texans were interested in Routt so obviously standing pat is not the status quo. Lazy article that rehashes the same old stuff.
Best article I've seen so far on the situation, and is exactly what I would try and do. The Mario situation has to be resolved immediately. If you let it play along, you're handcuffing all the other moves and could lose guys like Myers and STILL see Williams walk away. That's easily the worst case scenario. Rick Smith should have established by now what his best offers are for keeping all FAs vs everyone but Mario vs everyone but Myers (allowing for cap casualties and incoming draft picks). It's a black and white take it or leave it situation. Either Mario will accept a lesser, backloaded deal to stay or he wants to play the market. We won't be in a position to match the offers he's almost certain to see. It's 100% on Williams, and the team needs an answer from him before Foster and Myers become FAs. That's being a bit harsh. How many articles have been better than this one? How do you figure? Don't be so quick to assume that your/our feelings on the matter are shared by the club. Kubiak is a loyalist to a literal fault. As far as Ryans, he'd probably be opposed because no one likes taking a paycut. There were numerous whispers last year that Wade didn't love Ryans as MILB, despite his leadership. I wouldn't be shocked if the team threatened to release him outright, as unpopular as that would be. Lose Mario - draft a rush specialist to work in with Barwin/Reed (~3rd/4th rd) Lose Foster - start Tate and draft a change of pace scatback that catches out of the backfield (3rd/4th rd) Lose Myers - draft Konz in the 1st rd And it wasn't "obvious" we were pursuing Routt. There was a report that got shot down by everyone connected to the team. That we'd drop $5M+ on a DB when we're in a cap crisis was difficult to believe from the get go.
Not me. Good teams cut good players all of the time. Its just part of the process. You have to look at the salary, the amount of PT he's getting, and the impact value of his position in this scheme. He definitely improved game-by-game though. I hope he's back.
I think it's a virtual lock that DeMeco gets re-structured or flat out cut and then re-signed. Nobody is going to give him a huge offer if he hits the market because he still hasn't proven that he's back to 100% after the achilles.
I'm usually not a big fan of Kuharsky, but that was pretty solid analysis. The only thing he left out was what to do about #WR spot. Even if we lose Mario, i think we should draft WR in 1st round and then LB in the 2nd.
And that's why fans don't run teams. We painted ourselves into a corner cap-wise when we signed JJoseph and Manning last year. Awesome signings that couldn't have worked out better but it left us with pretty much no cap room. Good teams make tough decisions about letting useful players go all the time. Sometimes you have to let good players go and hope that your young (cheap) guys can step up and make contributions.
The way that NFL contracts work, I think you have to have a very short term outlook on your cap situation to compete. You pay your important players whatever you can (that is reasonable for there production and position, not necessarily their market value -- see Robinson, Dunta), focusing on the guaranteed money, and eventually when you get strapped you will have a casualty or two. This year, that will probably be DeMeco. But DeMeco is nowhere near the level that he was when he signed this contract, and usually that's how it ends up. You pay the big bucks and at some point you re-work the deal if they aren't performing. That's the way it works in the NFL, as opposed to saving cap space and building flexibility for the future like you do in the NBA. You have to have a top five player to win an NBA title, so you have to save money to be able to find one ... but this isn't the case in the NFL. You build through the draft and pay them when they pan out. You put your best product on the field each year and worry about getting under the cap only when you have to. Look at someone like Tampa Bay -- they have a TON of cap room, but what are they going to do with it? You just end up overpaying for players in free agency. With that said, I pretty much agree with Kuharsky. I would offer Mario $8-10 million a year on a slightly incentive based contract based on games played. He could probably get far more in the market but that is what is reasonable for us based on his production. I would franchise tag foster, then work a deal putting him somewhere in the top 5 of all RBs. But to pay a RB like Chris Johnson got paid is near suicide.
That's what I was going to say. Briesel is an underrated player, and I think the Texans need to hold onto him. I agree with the rest of what he had to say.
Honestly if I'm the Texans I do these following things: 1) Sign Mario or Franchise and trade him immediately for anything 2) Restructure D.Ryans, J.Joseph, A.Johnson, K.Walter, D.Manning in ways that would hopefully benefit our cap and them fiscally 3) Cut Jacoby Jones, Matt Leinart, and as sad as it is to say D.Ward though he is a tremendous leader of the RB's 4) I would probably not resign (or request their services to be had at a number that was good for me, which I'm sure they probably wouldn't do) DT Shaun Cody, TE Joel, and DB J.Allen though I believe they are good players 5) MOST IMPORTANT figure out what you wanna do with Matt Schaub. If it's keep then re-sign and restructure so its backloaded. (If it's not I've said this in a post I started earlier Matt Schaub needs to be traded now so we get value for him and not end up in a Mario type situation again) 6) Sign C.Myers and M.Brisel as doing so shouldn't be as arduous any longer 7) Keep Arian restricted and just sign him to whatever the best offer ends up being and backload that Draft Needs would then be: WR (#2 type prospect) OLB (based on if we keep or trade Mario) DT (for depth) DB (just in case B.Harris doesn't develop) PR (preferably plays WR so he could be WR4 too) RB (to be our 3rd RB) S (for depth) At the end of the day cap numbers should go up if not this year then by next and keeping this roster in tact should be do-able. I just really really really hope we're able to get it done and keep all our pieces (that we have worked so long and hard for) of the puzzle in place
Thursday March 01, 2012 - 4:20 PM Williams will be expensive, but here's a plan that could work for Texans By Pat Kirwan | NFL Insider Antonio Smith and a few other veterans could help the Texans keep Mario Williams. There is less than a week until the deadline for teams to use the franchise tag on players. For some teams, it's a no brainer. For others it is a difficult decision. The latter group includes the Houston Texans. For most of the offseason it has been assumed that Houston simply can't tag Mario Williams because of the cap expense. Tagging him would be close to impossible but getting him signed to a deal could be attainable. Williams made $18.326 million last year and whether he is viewed as a defensive end (franchise tag price of $10.6 million) or outside linebacker (franchise tag $8.8 million) it doesn't matter because he qualifies for 120 percent of his 2011 salary because it is higher than the franchise tag. That requires $22 million of salary cap space. As soon as Williams signs the franchise offer it is guaranteed. The Texans have $4.77 million of cap space as of Feb. 29. Tagging him is impossible unless they dump a considerable number of high-priced players, weakening the team. Signing him to a long-term deal is possible and I will show you a few options Houston could consider to keep the 27-year-old Williams in a Texans uniform. The team also has to find a way to re-sign center Chris Myers and restricted free-agent running back Arian Foster. It is no easy task but it can be done. It will take a lot of cash, somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million, but if the Texans believe they are close to a Super Bowl this isn't the time to go backward in the personnel department. A team in a rebuilding situation or with an aging squad should not consider this method. First, you can forget going to Matt Schaub for cap relief because he is in the last year of his deal and there is no way to spread a bonus out. Asking him to do a contract extension might be too much with the price of quarterbacks still going up so ignore him for the time being. Before the Texans cut any players to make this work they could talk to four veterans -- Andre Johnson, Johnathan Joseph, Owen Daniels, Antonio Smith -- about converting salary to signing bonus without adding any years to their existing contracts. I would assume that all four would be willing to take cash now instead of during the season. All have multiple years left on their contracts and all four should be in the Texans' plans at least for the length of their present contracts. • Johnson is scheduled to make $6.5 million this season and has five years left on his deal. Convert $5 million of his 2012 salary to signing bonus and for cap purposes spread the bonus out over the five years remaining and it gives the Texans $4 million of salary-cap space right now. • Joseph is scheduled to make $7.25 million this season and has four years left on his deal. Convert $6 million of his 2012 salary into signing bonus and spread it out over the four years and it gives the Texans another $4.5 million of cap space. • Daniels is scheduled to make $3.5 million this year and has three years left on his deal. Convert $2.5 million of his salary to signing bonus and spread it out over the three years and it gives the Texans $1.66 million of cap space. • Smith is scheduled to make $5.5 million this year and has two years left on his contract. Convert $4 million of it to signing bonus and spread it over the two seasons and it gives the Texans $2 million of salary cap space. Those four contract maneuvers create a total of $12.16 million of cap space. Add that to the $4.77 million of existing space and the Texans have $16.93 million of space to work with to keep their players. First stop: Mario Williams. Since Williams knows the team can't afford the franchise tag and if he gets to free agency he should get a contract close to Julius Peppers' deal that averages $14 million a year, the Texans have to get to the real numbers. The right deal might be six years for $90 million with a $30 million signing bonus and a $1 million salary in the first year. That means Williams sees $31 million the first year. The cap charge for that deal is only $6 million in 2012: Divide the number of years (6) into the bonus ($30 million) to get a yearly proration of $5 million plus a $1 million salary. The second-year salary could be $3 million, which means he sees $34 million in the first two years. That is a $17 million average and a second-year cap charge of $8 million, which is tolerable. A third season at a $7 million salary means a three-year average of $13.6 million, or slightly above Peppers' three-year average. The cap charge for the third year would be $12 million. That deal leaves $10.66 million of cap space in 2012, enough to sign Myers, Foster and draft picks. The salary cap is low right now but there will be growth in the next few years and the Texans will be able to absorb the contract growth. There's always a risk when handing out big bonuses instead of unguaranteed salaries but the Texans are close to the top and could be legitimate Super Bowl contenders. The Colts are rebuilding, the Jaguars are starting a second-year quarterback and the Titans may be doing the same. The time is now for the Houston Texas. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/...t-heres-a-plan-that-could-work-for-texans/rss
They can apply this same scenario to Myers and Foster - pay the upfront bonuses to spread out the numbers. The cap is supposed to be larger in 2013 I heard so they just need to get do what they have to get through this year, maybe combine a minimum number of back-ended deals along with the front end bonus deals to get by. I see them keeping Mario, Foster and Myers, letting some players go that they can replace.
I agree. I do think the Texans will reach out to Ryands to restructure his deal, but outside not overpaying for Mario... our cap space is fine. We can't go out and sign big-names, but we don't need big names. Cutting Leinart and Jacoby will give us just enough cap space to work out Cody and Myers.
