Did the Houston Texans pull a goofy on Free Agency.

So, if he's not responsible for any of the above... and you feel he hasn't mis-managed the cap... what are you basing your evaluation of him on?

Office space voice... "What would you say he does here!"

 

The Texans are just a REALLY boring organization....

Don't worry, we will draft Bortles, and he will turn into Matt Shaub.... and then BOB will be fired, along with Smith.... and Kubiak will be brought back to be HC and Casserly will be brought in to run the organization.... maybe David Carr gets his jersey retired... maybe can retire Carr and Bosselli's jerseys at the same time

 

This.

The Texans also always seem to be behind the times, never ever ahead of the curve. Be it the signing of a running back to huge money (it was criticized at the time). Running Foster into the ground, even when the outcome of the game had been decided. Spending FA money and not emphasizing depth and player development. The Rockets did not need to give the money to Cushing or Shaub when they did.

 

They're even more ruthless when it comes to veterans stepping out of line. I think that's their secret ingredient - they don't let a lot of veterans stick around, grow stale and start to smell. Of course, EVERYTHING is easier when you have not only one of the five greatest QBs of all-time, but one of the five greatest QBs of all-time who completely and totally buys into your culture.

The Patriots have actually been relatively terrible at talent evaluation; but a QB on Brady's level can cover up sooooooo many mistakes.

 

So much knee jerk!

Let's be done with overpaying FA's when our budget is already tight and we still have JJ Watt to sign!

We have a solid coaching staff and hopefully will see an improvement in talent evaluation. We have consistently struck out in rounds 3+ in the draft. I was a proponent of firing Smith because of this. We solve a lot of problems if we start hitting in the later rounds.

 

Pick any of my half dozen, or so, posts in this thread, Nick; start with the very first one

I've repeatedly posted that he has had abysmal drafts. But he hasn't mis-managed the cap; at least, not irresponsibly. There are no financial decisions anyone can pinpoint that are out and out killing the team and were also bad personnel decisions. Foster, Joseph and Manning (etc.) are hurting now... but that's the nature of big contracts. The only way to avoid paying players top dollar is to draft effectively.

There are very few good teams that side-step salary cap issues; it's designed to (eventually) pinch them. Again, Denver is going to be a barren, terrible franchise the minute they have to cash all these checks they're currently writing.

 

It does seem like the Texans are chasing trends when it comes to Organizational Behavior.
2001: Carolina was a successful expansion team, let's go get their coach.
2005: Pat Bowlen is the model NFL owner, let's go get Dan Reeves to be a consultant and hire Gary Kubiak as the head coach and become Denver South.
2013: Robert Kraft is the model NFL owner, let's go get a guy who coached in his organization and become New England South.

All this while teams like San Francisco and Seattle reconstruct their franchise and create new, innovative models along the way.

 

What do you expect from an owner that made his money in fossil fuels?
He's no innovator.

 

While that's not untrue... it, I think, ignores a *much* messier alternative; again, namely the Joe Flacco scenario: you don't extend Schaub and he gets hot at the exact right time for the team, wrong time for your franchise, and you end up way overpaying him ($20MM/year); made even worse if the Flacco-like run proves to be an anomaly.

When they extended him, they basically ensured a relatively cheap two-year window for their QB who was, at the time, very good.

 

And despite this, the ravens are in better shap cap wise, depth wise, record wise, and obviously Super Bowl champion wise.

I don't think the Texans, or their fans, can consider them to be in a "better" position than any other NFL franchise at this point.

They have NOT accomplished enough. I don't care if they "should" have started to be elite in 2009... They weren't. It wasn't till 2011. And the window lasted only 2 years.

And now I forsee an almost wasted year while BOB is being forced to endure Smith's shennanigans andr Schaub... Much like kubiak agreed to do with Carr.

 

I'd rather make a guy earn his money before I pay him; especially a guy who hasn't won big games.

 

I'm only concerned that if guys like Mitchell and Mays and Sharpton are going early in FA, what kind of players are going to be available when we actually do decide to start filling holes (I honestly have no idea who's out there)? Because we can't fill every need through the draft, and with this teams track record, you can't assume getting any immediate production after the 2nd round.

I don't expect them to go out and get a big name or spend big money. I just don't want to see them take a step back in FA by not even getting back the mediocre caliber FA's we're letting go.

 

that's a good point. I think we will be stuck with watching stop gap guys for a year or two...hopefully they can squeeze some life out of some random FA pickups or maybe even practice squad guys. Regardless, for them to be relevant they will have to find some hidden gems out there and nail the draft for a couple years....basically, everything has to go perfectly.

 

The Ravens had to let five key players walk (or were traded) from their SB team, and while they didn't fall nearly as far as the Texans... they were 8-8 last year, their first non-winning season since 2008. And yes, they do have ample cap space this year - but most of it will be used to re-sign their own free agents. They're not in an appreciably good situation. (Of course, they tend to draft well.)

I would agree; they blew their window, no question. It's disappointing...

 

Ravens will likely ADD Steve Smith.

Just saying, they're still in a position to win, and ADD players, despite the horrible contract you cited. They're in a BETTER situation than the 2-14 Texans, and it wouldn't surprise anybody if the Ravens go back to the playoffs this year (whereas the Texans need a bunch of things to go right to get into the dance in a far weaker division).

The Texans cap HAS been mis-managed... when you're not a winning team, and capped out, its mis-management. Sure, some of it could be blamed on "misfortune", but when it's all said and done, in this results-only league, they're a bad capped out team... which = mismanagement.

 

Exactly. People keep citing the Ravens and Flacco as the best example for a negative cap scenario, however this is the same team that landed Elvis Dumervil last year, and are in position to land Steve Smith this year. They ended up losing quite a bit of talent from their Super Bowl year, but they are still competing at a high level, improving their team via free agency, fighting for division championships, and not being an organizational dumpster fire simply because they had to pay Joe Flacco money he doesn't deserve.

 

To Hey Now!

Just answer me this. If the Texans are 2-14 and have no capspace, but other teams all have BETTER records and most have more capspace, does this mean other teams are all geniuses who defy logic? For Christ sakes, the Arizona Cardinals have overall more talent AND capspace than the Texans. Think about that for a second.

There are only 30 teams in the NFL. If one team has no capspace AND sucks, then that team is the very definition of terrible management.

 

Hdrocarbons are not found by drilling multimillion dollar holes in the ground at random. The oil and gas business is based on using innovation and technology to find and extract hydrocarbons in deep, deep water, tight gas formations, etc.

McNair may not be innovative as a owner of an NFL team, but its a mistake to correlate that to his prior business.

 

Rich guys shop at Neiman Marcus because they can. Poor guys shop at The Dollar Store because they have to.

The guys that sign this week will get big money because the market is hot, there will be some hits and some costly busts. The guys that sign next week will cost less, some will outplay their contract and the ones that don't won't be cap draining busts.

Also, good teams can pay their whole cap space for one or two difference makers, bad teams need to look for more value, spreading their money over more holes.

There will be some good players that are not household names signed next week, guys over 30, second teamers behind top starters, fresh start guys, guys that get motivated when they realize this is their last shot at playing the game.

 

They aren't making those moves in a vacuum; five starters walked from their 2012 roster and they have five more who are free agents this summer. If they want to add (a mediocre) Steve Smith, it'll very likely be at the expense of one or more of their FAs.

They were 8-8 last year (which, if you include the playoffs, was 8 fewer wins than 2012) and finished three games behind the Bengals; I think you're grossly overstating their current standing.