When you look at the moves this offseason so far, it's hard to envision them getting better this year (as compared to the team before Schaub went down), unless they have a perfect draft. The moves should really help them to keep the core of the team together for a while, but as a fan, it's hard to watch your team make what appears to be a conscious decision to take a step back for a year, especially when you see the Steelers do this to keep their team together.
Just off the top of my head... every team that made the playoffs last year has gotten better in the offseason. Except us. Smart moves or not, we haven't done anything positive to impact the team THIS year. Which you'd think we would have looked to do being on the cusp and all...
Steelers? Ravens? Those right there are our biggest competition, in all likelihood. What have they done? http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/transactions/_/name/bal/baltimore-ravens http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/transactions/_/name/pit/pittsburgh-steelers
of course. not suggesting they should. just saying that the reactions are understandable....MOST people will see this as a downgrade and that impacts perception going into next season.
How can you "do something" when you have nothing to do it with? We're fans, we have the attention span of a goldfish and the foresight of a fruitfly. Now that we're in the moment and realizing that a big FA splash was not possible, I'm fine with the team retooling to remain competitive in the PM era (post-Manning, har har), even if it means we're dialing back our competitiveness a bit for 2013. The window for this team should be 5-6 years, not 1-2. And these moves coincide with that thinking. Everybody bagging on Rick and Company for being cap-stupid are talking out of their butts.
I ,for one, am excited to see how the loss of Jason Allen might positively impact our defense.... Assuming that you agree that Wade's selection of Watt and Reed worked out pretty well, how can you not be excited to see what a full offseason will do for Wade''s next 2 selections in that draft, Harris and Carmichael. With a spot opened up by Allen's departure and a full offseason of training, I think we are going to see just how good these guys are......Harris especially.
i just find it funny that people are freaking out over how the texans are "doing nothing" when, thus far, only top tier FAs have been signed to big deals. Who really thought that the texans were in that market to begin with? If you did, then that's your own fault for not understanding their situation. Like someone else mentioned, 95% of FA still havent signed and that won't change too much until after the draft.
You only listed the negatives. You didn't mention, All Pro, Team Captain, team leader, etc. If he is so flawed, why is he starting for the Eagles? Seems like they could have gotten more.
Better deal than we got for Winston, Breisil, or Mario. Plus, getting compensation for a cap casualty is not easy to pull off in this league. Teams rarely give up anything for a guy that will end up on the waiver wire. I'd counter by saying: 1a. I still HATE that we're losing a true leader and captain - he was organizing the offseason workouts last year and this. 1b. I keep saying folks recycle that line that McClain was given to put into his writeup, but have yet to hear anyone defend it. IMO, it's a gross exaggeration in the very least. 2. We still have to replace Allen 3. Not terribly concerned here - shouldn't be tough to find a backup OLB rush specialist to give Barwin/Reed breathers 4. Caldwell didn't exactly step in easily last season 5. Again, it's presumptuous to assume Butler will "step in easily" 6. True Dressen and Vickers weren't mentioned, but they're gone. Casey can pull double duty, and I do like swiss army knife players - we can change formation quickly with him shifting between the two spots like Walter does from the slot. But Casey's blocking is still iffy. Dressen was a tank. Foster's amazing, but we've soften both at FB and on the OL... I do think the defense will fill in gaps adequately...but I think Wade is greatly underestimating Ryans' worth as captain. Sharpton and Alexander should do well, I wouldn't be stunned if Wade opts to bring in someone new, since DC's want to have "their guys" Allen does need to be replaced, and I'll be disturbed if they stay in denial about Kareem Jackson and/or rely on in-house options. I do not think Harris or Carmichael are ready for prime time, and they can't keep striking out in the draft on DBs (Shiloh Keo!) - they will not do it, but if I were running things, I'd put Quin back at CB2 and Nolan at S. Much more balanced. The upside on the OL losses is that in-house developed guys are crucial for the ZBS. Supposedly they're high on Newton. My concerns: WR - every day Jacoby stays on the roster worries me more. I pray Kubiak isn't assuming that Schaub's absence is the only thing that held down the offense last year. The receiving corps flat out STUNK when Johnson was hampered. It is alarming how poor our guys are at creating separation when teams aren't stretched out in zone. OL - if only depth - we can fill in for two starters and remain competitive...but we can no longer take an injury. I'd honestly want 3 decent lineman brought in. Not against drafting them in the 1st and 2nd, and looking for WR in the 3rd. DL - for all the talk about nose, Cody/Mitchell are getting the job done. I'm terrified of the notion of Smith or Watt getting injured and missing time. Even if he stayed, Bulman isn't enough. CB - mentioned it already, but Nolan is our only reserve that I have real faith in. McCain made nice plays off bad throws, but he's still a marginal NB. Jackson is decidedly below average and can be picked on, especially if we face more West Coast passers that are good at beating the rush.
exactly. we all know that these moves were made so that brown doesn't go on dinner dates with owner jerry richardson next off season and it's the right call. but as fans of some of the players, we need a little time to let it sink in. Four days should be good enough. If I had no attachments, I would say hey get rid of schaub too..he is getting up there in age, only god knows if he'll ever gain back his blazing speed and he is going to cost us more than the original 6 year/48 mill. But obviously i love schaubie.
No, that impacts perception going into the draft and the rest of free agency (which is barely under way). I have a feeling that after the draft, very few people will be talking about any of these moves.
There's over-reaction and there's being overly defensive too Here's a list of guys I don't necessarily think are top tier that have been signed already: Samson Satele Aaron Ross David Garrard Mike Tolbert Jason Allen Cedric Griffin Eric Winston Travelle Wharton Kendall Langford Mike Brisiel Matt Birk Nate Livings Mackenzy Bernadeau Steve Gregory ok i quit, because there's a lot of others...there's a fair amount of players being signed by other teams as backup for depth. you can find a list of all free agent signings so far right here: http://walterfootball.com/freeagents2012recap.php i'm not condemning the Texans for not signing one of these guys or anyone else...but it's not correct to say that only the top tier free agents have been signed so far.
We do not really know what we have in Harris or Carmichael other than that they were selection's of Wade. They may not be ready for primetime but they certainly are ready to compete for time on the field. We shouldn't consider these "strikeouts" until we see what they do with meaningful PT....IMO.
All-Pro? Really? The things I listed were from last year. Ryans was an All-Pro in 2007, five years ago and well before the torn Achilles that's likely to zap his burst for the remainder of his career. By comparison, 2007 was the year Marcus Camby was NBA Defensive Player of the Year. While Camby is still a solid defensive big man, things change over time and he's certainly not that player for the Rockets right now. Ryans is a solid leader, yes. There are lot of good leaders. Brian Cushing is one, for example. Antonio Smith is another. Both are captains. Moreover, you don't sign a player merely for "leadership". Bernard Pollard was known for his "leadership" qualities and was made a captain in 2010. His sub-par play then contributed to the Texans having the worst defense in the league and ended up leading to his release. Pollard wasn't exactly missed in 2011. DeMeco is starting for the Eagles because he's a much better fit as a 4-3 MLB than a 3-4 weak-side ILB, and they can better justify having his contract. The Texans are cap-strapped and can't afford a decent (but not great) part-time player taking up that much salary cap room. As far as the value, I asked you for an example because it really seems like you're unfamiliar with the way NFL trades work. Outside of quarterbacks, veterans don't fetch a lot of value. Marshall Faulk was traded at the prime of his career for 2nd and 5th round draft picks. He won MVP two of the next three years and was widely considered the best player in the game. Is a fourth-round pick (and a 3rd round swap) likely to be as good as DeMeco Ryans on the field in 2012? Probably not. But they won't take up anywhere near the cap figure, which allows your franchise to do other things. That's the point of veteran trades.
I defend it by saying look at the stats. He's had over 100 tackles every (injury free) year since being drafted but only had 64 last year and he started every game. I mean, I LOVE the guy and I feel dirty even typing anything negative about him, but the fact is that last year was the least effective year of his career. The same year Wade came in and changed to the 3-4. I don't think that's a coincidence.
Exactly. Ryans was a goner; I think a large majority of us recognized this. To turn him into an upgraded 3rd round pick and an additional 4th is pretty savvy. solid, you cannot jump into a vacuum and consider only talent (which has unquestionably diminished). He has a big contract and they had to find a team with a need that was able to absorb the big contract. That limited their pool to a select few. I think they did pretty well. The alternative was, like Winston, releasing him outright for nothing this time next year. For someone dubious of the Texan/McClain talking points, I can't believe you're falling for an otherwise meaningless piece of information. So what? Brian Cushing doesn't own a cell phone? I prefer football players, not event coordinators. Way, way, way overblown, IMO. Per LZ, Caldwell had two high-ankle sprains last year. Butler did very good replacing Duane Brown in '10 and got paid for it. He's fine. Unless it happened this morning, Dressen isn't gone. I suspect he'll be back. Every team he's visited has a younger, better guy entrenched already. If no one is offering him a chance to start, and if no one gets crazy with a contract offer, his best option is to return as a pseudo-starter here. Everyone they've jettisoned so far has a capable back-up already on the roster (or was a back-up). If they cut Jacoby, they'd have 2 WRs left and no punt returner. I just don't think they necessarily want to allocate their limited resources right now to replacing jettisoned players. Plus, I believe Jacoby's cap hit is much less if he's a June 1 casualty. I will be shocked if he's on the final roster.
The Achilles takes more than an offseason to recover from - he lost pop from the injury, but his range wasn't terrible, and he improved as the year went on. Cushing and OD both looked off the year they came back from injury, and were much better last season. So the idea that Ryans is finished is overblown. He was still third on the team in tackles last year, we aren't talking about Jamie Sharper or Eugene Wilson here. The biggest factor behind his production drop off wasn't the Achilles - it was Wade pulling him for such a large percentage of downs. Antonio Smith's numbers went down too - 30% down from his other two years. And he played great. The system shifts opportunities. Wade put Cushing in the limelight. There were whispers most of the year that he wasn't a fan of Ryans for whatever reason. I can't believe I just saw Ryans get compared to Bernard ****ing Pollard. The reactions of the Texan players speaks volumes here. You didn't see half of that when Mario walked.
I think you just perfectly described 99% of Houston Texans fans. Congrats on giving me my first sig in many years.
