Sounds like Andre reworked his contract to give Texans 4.5 mil extra cap space this year. Thanks Andre. wonder what's next?
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...eir-contracts/

Supposedly Jabba McLain is disputing this. Not sure whether to believe one over the other since they're both awful. LaCanfora has been wrong on numerous occasions just over the past couple of weeks.

From what I heard on the radio, alot of the restructures done last year in order to sign Joeseph and Manning were pushed into this year.

The team has never been way below the cap, and has usually spent the majority of it. When you rob Peter to pay Paul, it eventually catches up with you. PIT is a perfect case in point, look at all the slashing they had to do. While we will likely do quite a bit again this year, eventually it will catch up with us, unless the cap truly does grow by leaps and bounds, we "might" skate on by.....

did you follow some of those links to Texans player salaries and contacts, so, easy to see how things don't add up, but could be there are hidden bonuses to account for this year.

anyways, we should know a lot more about next Tuesday or shortly thereafter at latest on our highly regarded FA's.

Perhaps, if they had drafted better for defensive secondary, they wouldn't be in this situation?

Mario visiting the Bills tonight.

Bills typically not a team to spend a lot of cash, since they don't have it usually. But I imagine they need to fill some cap space.

Funny I didn't realize the Bills were a big-time playoff contender, because I know Mario wouldn't be talking to them just because of the money.

Bills have a 1:30 presser to announce Mario Williams signing, per sources. -- Chris Mortensen (@mortreport)

Bye Mario.

If I'm in the AFC East, I'm running the ball right at him every play. Heck, I'd even use the wishbone formation a couple of times just to let the GM of the Bills know what a mistake he made.

Over paid...over rated.

Mario Williams deal finally done in Buffalo

The Buffalo Bills have finally landed Mario Williams after three days of talks according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN.

The move will be officially announced at a 12:30PM ET press conference. Contract terms are not yet available, but the Bills are widely expected to make Williams the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history. Bears RE Julius Peppers has held the honor since March 2010, when he signed a six-year, $84 million deal that included $42 million guaranteed. It's a safe bet Williams' deal will dwarf those numbers.

Jay Glazer of FOXSports reports the deal includes a staggering $50 million guaranteed, making it the largest free-agent contract ever signed by an NFL player. It's a six-year deal with a maximum value of $100 million.

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So this guy is better than Julius Peppers? I've watched Peppers get triple teamed. Mediocre tackles can handle Williams by themselves.

Mario Williams may have the BEST agent in NFL history.

I liked Mario, thought he got too much unfair criticism related to being picked ahead of Bush and Young and later for a couple injuries. But I think it says something when a team lets their first round pick hit the open market like this. It doesn't happen often for a player of Mario's caliber, esp one with a #1 overall pick pedigree.

Pass rush wins championships though. It will be interesting to see how the Texans respond. I like Barwin and Reed, too, but that's not enough.

Not an ideal end game, but the right decision at the moment. I have no idea if Mario was open to a more reasonable extension in the last year, but we could not pay what buffalo did.

I think good deal for buffalo though. They have to spend to the cap ceiling and nobody good ever wants to take there money.

I'm still trying to work backwards on this. The team had to know after last year's FA signings that it would be nearly impossible to re-sign Mario this year. They had no idea how Wade's defense would perform, nor did they know whether Barwin and Reed would produce. Of course they didn't yet know about Reed, nor that he would be pressed into action.

It seems pretty clear that they have known for at least a full year that they would not be able to re-sign Mario. I wonder what would have happened if Mario had stayed healthy and put up 16 sacks.

Agree that there is no way the Texans could match what Buffalo put on the table. Like others have said, if there is a complaint, it was that the Texans allowed it to get to this point.

Honestly, I can't believe they didn't renegotiate him 2 years ago because his cap number has been so large the last 2 years. I suspect he would have taken a 6 year deal with about $30 mill guaranteed 2 years ago and this would have locked him up long term and lowered his cap number the last 2 years to boot.

For good or bad, he was probably the best player on our defense for the last 5 years. To see him walk, in his prime, with nothing in return stings. I find it hard to believe it had to come to this. I've seen several comparisons to Reggie White hitting free agency. Now, clearly, Mario is not Reggie White but it does say something when people have to go back 20 years to find an analogous situation. Suggests maybe the Texans dropped the ball.

I think that statement might get you a couple arguments.

If the Texans did know they were not going to resign Mario last year (and by going $20M over for other FAs, that seems pretty evident), hindsight would seem to make them pretty smart. I guess they figured they didn't want to pay top money for an often injured player.

Clearly opinions may vary, although I don't know who, other than maybe Demeco, that people would argue was a bigger part of our defense over the last 5 years. And, in my defense, I think Mario's deal today supports me, since nobody else on our defense, if released today, would be getting a $100 million dollar contract. :p

I think it's fair to say that Mario was certainly the defense's best player over the last five years. I can't think of anyone else who comes close. I would also expect that there are several Texans defenders who will make a larger overall impact than will Mario over the next five years.

Sad to see Mario go, but it's foolish for anyone to grab him at that price.

We'll roll with our boys.

Loved Mario when he was on and hate to see him go, but for the club this is the right thing. My ONLY real concern on the front 7 is depth and quality of the rotation. If we lose Meyers also, that puts major strain on the draft to be a home run. I would take the Koch (sp) kid out of Wisconsin with the first pick and then best convertable or already an OLB with the 2nd. Not the way I would have wanted to play the 1st two picks, but ya have to play the cards as they are delt to you.

Couldn't agree more, it is sad to see him leave but the going-price was ridiculous and I would have been upset with the Texans had the price they paid been anything like because he's just not worth it to us.
When Winston was cut I was for sure stunned, but it didn't occur to me that it was anything but an isolated situation. Then came Myers and Breisel, neither of whom were resigned and allowed to seek work else where, and that's when I became convinced that Smith and his cap guy Olsen have failed to understand and/or mismanaged the new CBA as it relates to player compensation.
This is a major breakdown and one of the few things that could sabotage Texans momentum going into the 2012 season.

OH NO. When did Breisel and Meyers leave? How did I miss that?

Look, it's obviously a huge gamble letting these guys hit the market, but it could actually payoff in that these guys dont get offered the $$ they thought they would. It's kind of hard to complain about being in cap hell and then on the other hand say we should have offered Myers/Brisiel contracts before allowing the market determine their value. What if we renegotiated, overpaid, and thus went even deeper into cap hell? What's worse? Maybe we end up re-signing these guy far cheaper than we originally thought? The Texans obliviously feel it's a gamble worth taking so I guess we need to trust their judgement for now.

OK that's fair, but you know as well as I do when these guys get the opportunity to go shopping it's often sayonara. Not always, but often they get sat down in another teams office and don't leave until they've inked a new deal.
I bet we lose Myers, and if I'm mistaken I'll acknowledge that I initially overreacted to his situation. I hope I get that chance to do so ?

Guys who sign early in FA get overpaid. Guys who sign a week in are paid about right. Guys who sign late get veteran minimum or little more. It is a good sign that Meyers and Breisel are still out there. We may still lose one or both, but the more time goes by the better our chances. I have to believe both know they are better here than they would be elsewhere. So if we can come close on the money we should have a good chance.

But either way I would not overpay for Meyers, Breisel, Winston, or Smith. Brown is the only guy with real talent. Meyers was looking at being replaced and hated by our fans 3 years ago before we got Foster. I remember him being placed into Slaton's lap by the opposing DT numerous times that year. I think he has improved, but even so, I won't declare the sky is falling if we lose him. Especially not until I see how we replace him if he goes.

We should get Breisel back cheap and we shouldn't lose much at RT with Butler (who filled in admirably for a better player at a tougher position). If we find a credible replacement in the draft/FA for Meyers or we bring him back, then I won't be concerned about our OL.

To me bringing back Foster was far more important than anything else this offseason.

The problem with letting the market determine their value is that all it take is one of the other 31 clubs to overvalue your player and you've lost him.

I do know this - there's no way in hell we're taking a WR now in the first round. We have too many other needs and we kept Jacoby and Walter which means Smith valued them more than he did the o-linemen and FB he released or didn't re-sign.

To all of you who whine about Jacoby and Walter (including me) , the Texans obviously don't agree with you.

I think jacoby still gets replaced in the end. It doesn't take a first rounder to catch punts properly and be within 3 yards of where the QB expects you to be.

I bet Walter survives for continuity's sake (especially if JJ goes). He lines up at all the wr spots and they love touse him as a blocker. He's honestly as big a part of the run game as OD. I'd dump him if he didn't take a pay cut, but Kubs has always loved him.

Or it could be a case of one will be replaced but they won't know which one until after the draft.

The Bills also signed Mark Anderson. Since they're apparently trying to reassemble the 2010 Texan defense, I wonder what they'd be willing to give up for Kareem?