Doubt we can even afford Robinson. CB's get paid, we have no wiggle room, CB/(S? possibly) isn't a priority, things didn't end well here with him.
How CB is going to look after Joseph and Kareem is definitely a concern. But without knowing what exactly the replacement plan is, I'm more concerned about losing Quin. The thought of having Keo or Demps as a STARTING safety concerns me more than having Harris as a BACKUP corner. That said, should we lose either Quin or McCain, some kind of move has to be made because we can't go in to the season replacing those positions from within the current roster. I wouldn't mind bringing Alan Ball either. He ended up being pretty decent at corner in a backup role and was really good on special teams. Of the 3 players you mentioned, I think Casey is the most expendable. Having your FB be a pass catching threat is a luxury. I'd prefer to get a pure blocking FB like what we had with Leach or Vickers. And the running game may rebound because of it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of the reasons the running game declined is because none of our TE's or FB are "block first" guys. They're pass catching guys and bringing in some blocking options at those positions will help the run game. A bunch of the FB's in the league were undrafted or taken in the late rounds, so you don't necessarily have to spend a lot to get one.
Thats the point I was trying to make, our secondary was awful last season, we need to beef up our secondary with cover guys. Another thing I'd like to see is Allan Ball at safety. Dude has the speed and is best suited to be in zone coverage. Basically we need to fix our secondary
Why should we be so concerned about keeping James Casey? He's a great story, but all he does is get you a couple of 8-yard checkdown catches every game and he can't block (which should be the primary job of a FB). Besides being a great guy with a great story and a hometown boy, I see no reason to even re-sign him, frankly.
I'm in the sesame boat as you. Great story, great guy but he replaceable. I don't see how people can say the secondary needs to be fixed. GQ has to be resigned and having McCain back but assuming all of that, it's pretty hard to improve the talent. The lack of a pass rush hurt the secondary more than the talent of the secondary
Assuming Quin and McCain are back, it's OK. I'd still prefer better backups to Harris, Carmichael, Keo, and Demps, moreso at safety. But Cushing being back will help because a few of the times Keo/Demps got burned was when we were in Dime and Quin was up essentially playing LB. But yeah, at the top, the guys you expect to be starters, it'd be hard to improve on the talent level, especially with what resources we have available.
I prefer to drop Casey completely. Get me a guy that does one thing well at that position not a generalist that blends in.
Agreed, for the most part. The 4 starters are just about as good as it gets if healthy. Depth is a concern, but you can't spend but so much money on bench guys with the cap. The Pass Rush was problem 1a. Problem 1b is the Wade defensive scheme has had secondary flaws forever. It's happened at every single stop. He considers them the clean up guys, and they are always getting roasted when teams go spread or West Coast on them.
Texans interested in Edelman. http://sportige.com/nfl-rumors-houston-texans-interested-in-julian-03-2013/
Profootballtalk.com's Mike Florio says there is "persistent buzz" that the Texans will use the franchise tag on SS Glover Quin. Re-signing Quin has already been deemed Houston's top priority, but there hasn't been a ton of talk about how they'll go about doing it. We haven't heard any updates on how/if long-term talks are going. The franchise tag for Quin carries a $6.916 million price. Houston has until 4PM ET on Monday to make a decision.
I'm fine with tagging Quin if it comes to that. Absolutely can't let him walk or the secondary will be in huge trouble. Barwin can take a small money deal or walk, in my book. Texans supposedly at the $7.4M mark now, but that's not counting Walter's imminent $3M cut or Smith's extension/restructure that should carve up close to the same amount. Hopefully they work out a better deal with Quin, but good DBs have gotten ludicrous paychecks the past decade.
Huh? Casey was a pretty good blocker by all accounts. Much better than Vickers. He's no Leach, but few are. That said, Kubiak didn't use him in the passing game to the full extent of his versatility. If he doesn't think he can involve a fullback that much and Casey gets a fat offer elsewhere, I could see a case for trying to go cheap. But only in that scenario. If you can bring Casey back on a reasonable deal, you do it... solid blocker, knows the scheme and gives you potential elsewhere. Hopefully Gary has plans for how to better use it.
By the way, I'm not 100% sure, but I believe Adam Schefter reported this morning that Shane Lechler (punter) is interested in the Texans. I was groggy and not paying full attention and generally tuned out before hearing "... interested in the Houston Texans". So I missed Schefter's exact phrasing, but the graphic showed four players that were unlikely to be tagged, and one of them was Lechler. Hopefully someone else heard the report and can confirm.
Don't often get excited about a punter who's 36 years old...but he would be a big addition if they could pull that off.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Texans">#Texans</a> did not use the franchise or transition tags on any players. The league deadline to do so was today at 3 pm CT</p>— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/308700648420020225">March 4, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Schefter: Lechler expected to leave Oakland and would like to go kick in Houston, where he's from. The Texans could use a punter but just set the going rate for a punter, 18.75 million over 5 years. That's closer to 4 million a year. If the Texans want the best punter in the league, we start with the Dustin Colquitt contract in all probability. Connor Barwin on SirusXM: Asked about potential teams: Patriots - "That would be nice" Dolphins - "We'll see what happens. That could be on the list." Colts - "Yeah, they would seem to have a lot of interest. We'll see. That will be very interesting. Well, there are a lot of factors that would have to come into play to make me do it. I think that would be hard to go there and play but I'm sure they could change my mind with a couple of different things. ... "For me, it has to be a good team or historically had success. I would like to go to a team with a good QB or established QB." So if a team offers you an extra 5, 6, 7 million and hasn't had a winning season in 7 years, you'll take less to go to a team with a chance to win? Yeah. I don't know about 6 million. It's important to be on a winning team. If you're not winning, it's not that much fun. I want to go to a team where I can win and situation where I play well. So no rebuilding situation?(Asked about the Browns) I don't think I'll be playing for the Cleveland Browns. ... Let's say you go back to Houston, where do you need to be better as a team to get over the hump? You have to look at yourself first. At the end of the year, there was a little bit of a mental lapse. The way we played, how good a team we were, we should have went into the playoffs as the #1 seed with the situation we were in with a month left. We obviously didn't get that done. In the playoffs, we didn't help our offense in New England. We didn't do a good job slowing down Brady. Defensively, there needs to be a little better leadership and not let that mental lapse happen at the end of the year, and in the playoffs, guys need to step up, including myself and make plays.
They better damned well get a deal done then. I'm sure they'd make some other move, but I hate thinking about Keo or Demps starting opposite Manning next season.
