I have heard nothing nor can I find anything now that they amended the tag rules. Do you have a link? PFT: I heard Pallilo a couple of days ago saying that it would be about $20 million for Mario. I see his base salary listed at 13.8 million, putting his tag figure at 16.8 million. So I'm not sure where he got his numbers. Either way, Mario's 2011 salary is greater than the LB tag figure which figures to be 11-12 million. Somehow I don't see Arian getting let go, but it's almost cap suicide to give a RB money like Chris Johnson got this offseason. Notice the Vikings made that run when they had a competent QB, but look where they were the year before and now. I'm not arguing that we should let Arian walk, because he is great, but it's awfully hard to justify that much money on any RB.
I was under the impression that resiging Mario would help the cap since he has such a high cap figure now at the end of his deal. Tag him if you have to but resign the man. Pay Arian. This team has made it a point that players who excel get paid ala Demeco, Winston, and AJ. Foster hasn't whined like CJLOL, and he has proven his last season wasn't a fluke. After this I don't see how there is much cap room leftover. Obviously a JJo clone for CB2 would be a godsend but don't see it happening.
I agree it would be cap suicide if Arian got paid anywhere close to Peterson's 13M. And there's always the risk that he could turn it off after the payday, though when comparing what we know of both CJ.7k and Arian it's clear who's more likely to shut it down Fat Al style. But Arian has singlehandedly changed games, turned tides. Compared to both AP and CJ he'd be a lot closer to the worth of that fat contract, in production and most likely, wins. Mario would be paid 16M, 3M higher than the best OLB I can think of, Damarcus Ware. It wouldn't be permanent, still an experimental position (though with exceptional results so far), and most of all just to see if he can play without an injury hampering or sidelining him. So it kind of goes against what I've been saying, but a friend suggested to me tagging Arian and giving Mario the deal. As long as it doesn't piss off Arian, it saves money on both deals. Does the franchise tag count towards the cap?
I was listening to alot of people who were talking about just letting Mario walk away. The worse case IMO for the Texans in that deal would be Mario being Signed by the Colts and then Drafting Luck Impact players on both sides of the ball . . . . makes the relevent again . . .in a hurry I think [along with a coaching change] Rocket River
I love Mario...but... The money we'd spend on him could be spent on a top tier CB. Reed is not the player Mario is, but he is slowly developing into a solid defensive asset. Would you rather have Mario and Kareem...or Reed and DeAngelo Hall? Basically, imagine replacing KJ in this current Texan defense with Hall. That's a nice touch to an already great defense.
If you follow Arian Foster on Twitter, he often posts that he doesn't care much about money. I would guess that the annual salary isn't one of his big negotiating points. The way he talks, you'd think that he would play wherever he wanted, and salary would be one of the last considerations. If he wants to stay in Houston, I would think that if you gave him 5 years with a big percentage guaranteed, he might sign for significantly less than other top running backs.
