I don't know what the new CBA calls for but it would be just our luck if they made it harder to get comp picks just like the Astros got screwed by the new CBA on their draft picks now that they're drafting first overall.

Under the old system, Mario probably would get us a pick at the end of the third round and Meyers might get us a 6th rounder provided we didn't sign valuable FAs from other teams to offset our losses. But I have no idea if any of that is still relevant to the new CBA.

We've probably taken this about as far as it needs to go, but I'll just add that I agree with almost everything you say here, but that it misses the point I was trying to make. The Texans do have a fair amount of talent now and do have a bunch of guys that will expect to get paid in the near future. I also agree that good teams with lots of talent will ultimately get poached by other teams and eventually tough cap decisions will have to be made. I dispute none of this. The question is when this happens. I see no reason why we should be in this situation now, although I acknowledge that if we continue to be successful, it will be a situation that will arise in the coming years.

As you mentioned the Colts and the Patriots, these are teams that maintained ridiculously high levels of success for the better part of a decade. We've had one good year. If this offseason followed our 3rd 12+ win season, then, yeah, hanging onto guys after that type of sustained success is difficult. However, I think that being cap-strapped and unable to retain virtually any of your free agents in the very first offseason after your very first decent season in team history is a little early for that ship to be sailing. Maybe the Colts and the Patriots started hemorrhaging their best offensive linemen and their best pass rushers to free agency because they lacked cap space after their very first winning season, but I doubt it. That's the only point I was trying to make.

isn't ryans' number pretty high this year?

Well, I had his salary at $5.9 million for 2012, but I never completed his new contract in my notes, so I can't verify what his cap figure is for this year offhand. But yes, he slipped my mind when I put together that list, good catch.

Bills press conference at 1:30 EST to announce Mario signing. Not shocking since we knew someone would pay stupid money for him. Guess it's better he goes to the Bills than an AFC-S team. While it's sad to see him go, no way is he worth being the top paid DL or D player in the league and I think the Bills will be disappointed in the long run.

EDIT:
Jason La Canfora ‏ @JasonLaCanfora
Don't have official numbers on Mario Williams in BUF yet, but been hearing $16M a year with $50M guaranteed

No way the Texasn pay that based on production.

Everybody knows I've always liked Mario and I hope he does well in Buffalo when he's not playing against the Texans. But I find it very, very difficult to digest why anyone much less the most sought-after free agent on the market would deliberately go to Buffalo. Buffalo is without a doubt the worst city with a major league professional sports franchise in the United States. That means Buffalo is worse than Columbus, OH, and Oklahoma City. Detroit is a freaking paradise compared with Buffalo.

I would take $45MM guaranteed and go to Atlanta, thank you.

Have you ever been there ? I know what people say about it, the jokes and all, but really personally I don't know about Buffalo because I've not ever been
there.

Well, Mario needs to get used to Buffalo since he accepted their offer.

Wish him well.

Of course I have, otherwise how would I know? You can get Canadian radio up there, they have that going for them. Not sure how much of an impact that would have on Mario. Hey, sweet! Leonard Cohen! He NEVER gets played on the radio in Houston!

And really, there is nothing to joke about when it comes to Buffalo. It is bleak, it is ugly, it is brutal, it has no future. Literally, there is no future for that place.

Well, look at it this way: the cap problem just became not so much of a problem.... I think we sign Myers or Brisiel or both, now..

Very briefly visited Cleveland once which of course is also on the Great Lakes and in the same general area, but know nothing first hand about Buffalo.

Cleveland is not nearly as bad as Buffalo. There are some interesting pockets and there is still a functioning economy to some degree. Ohio's really disappointing city is Columbus which is a total shithole despite having an enormous university. In my experience any city with a university that size, especially when it's not purely a commuter school, that city is interesting. Not Columbus.

If I were being literal I would have to place Green Bay in with Buffalo as tied for worst because Green Bay... Well, imagine moving Lufkin about a thousand miles north. But I arbitrarily credit Green Bay with an association with Milwaukee which is a reasonably pleasant place all things considered.

Now that Mario's fate is decided, I will be really disappointed/surprised if we don't start seeing some activity out of the FO.

Restructures/cuts "should" be coming in order to get Myers and Briesel back in the mix.

Fingers crossed.

We all debated about the cost savings if we let Mario walk but it seems like we're letting everybody walk but Foster and then some.

We've lost Mario, Winston, Vickers, Leinart and are probably losing Dreesen and Meyers.

We might lose Briesel and Rackers.

We kept Foster.

We've added....?

Am I missing something or was all that alleged cap room if we didn't re-sign Mario just a myth?

It was a myth, as I think we assumed we were up against it due to Mario, when in fact, we were screwed without Mario.

Might be able to scratch Myers off the Titans list. They just signed Hutchinson. Just don't see two "large" FA deals on interior OL if they want to stay in Peyton chase.

I read that Hutchinson is a close friend of Manning's even though they have only been teammates at the Pro Bowl so the signing is actually Bud's way of going "all out" to get Peyton. I hope it works.

I'm not a CapO, but I think the cap last year was $121M, and we were $20M over that trying to add enough to get into a playoff spot. So even getting out from under Mario's salary cap figure ($18M) for last year, we are still up against it.

Looks like you don't like cold weather at all and automatically assign a very low-ranking to any city in such a climate ? I've got a nephew in Green Bay who has a really good job at a local nuclear power facility and he and family like the GB area very much.

I like cold weather fine. I lived in the north for many years. I like snow and I like to ski. Buffalo is a barren city with no future and Green Bay is a desolate pit that would be a sad place to live if it were in Florida or any other warm weather state. Imagine Ocala, FL, just not as glamorous.

i think joshua's point is more about mismanaging the cap than losign good players because they are living up to expectations. particularly, how do you let you best defensive player over the past 5 years go into his final season under his contract without getting him extended when you have some leverage? especially when his cap number last year was 18 million dollars. you could have extended him last year without having to get anywhere close to 50 million guarenteed, and could have significantly lowered his cap number (especially if you had done it 2 years ago).

also, how do you let your starting center make it all the way through his contract. before this past season he could have been signed for a respectable, and probably cap friendly number.

finally, i am happy they resigned foster, and i think the contract is valued about right, but why would you give him a 5.5 million dollar salary the first year of the contract when you could have put that into the signing bonus and lowered his cap number by 4 + million this year? maybe there is a reason,i originally thought it may be about next year, but in reality doing that would have only added about 800k to his cap hit next year as well.

like i said, maybe there are reasons for all of these issues, but it seems like last year's offseason may have been more about luck and desperation than about rick smith actually growing in his role.

I've not been to GB either, but specifically what makes you describe it as a "desolate pit" ?
What I've seen of Wisconsin is some very attractive country, and I mentioned my nephews job in GB, so there's an example of employment opportunties there and they are very satisfied with their home, neighbors, etc. and they've become big Packers fans. What's not to like about that ? Now it is a pretty square-area in the sense that it's all about family, so if you want the night life and dollys, the whole single scene and all then you might find the area very uninteresting ?

With Mario I am guessing it had to do with the switch to the 34. We had no idea if it would work out, and signing him without knowing would have been foolish.

I'm glad your nephew likes it there and is doing well for himself and his family. Green Bay is like most any other small city of 50,000 people or so that is not a college town. It has nothing but chain restaurants and Ross Dress for Less and no charm or culture whatsoever. Ten days a year the Packers play and the area becomes a madhouse. But I couldn't be happy in a place where going out to eat came down to a choice between Chicago Style Pizza and Hooters.

Milwaukee is a vastly more interesting place, and Chicago is far better still. I could live in Chicago quite happily I think but I would get tired of having so much cold weather and so little to do with it.

OK, you're a big-city guy where you've got lots and lots of choices culturaly speaking that a person only has in a large urban area. Got it.

There is some incredibly beautiful scenery along Lake Michigan further north, lots of wonderful canoeing and camping and so on. But the summers are very, very short.

On NFL network they said Texans were 9 mil under cap currently.

Better.

For record, I should have said the cap took a big sigh of relief instead of "not as big a problem". By not having to pay Mario, that's what, $15-18 million not being used? So, it helps the cap in that way but sounds like they are still fighting for wiggle room....

I drove through Buffalo once one fall on a gloomy day - it's one of those "lake cities"..... lots of weather around those lakes up there....

;)

Green Bay is a very nice Beaver Cleaver type of town with tree lined streets. More middle class than most towns would be is my guess. Great hunting and fishing all over the place. Very little crime, in fact I know as little as ten years ago folks didn't even lock their front doors. It's the kind of place that it takes 2-3 years to get into the "Circle" so to speak, but once you do, folks really have your back. Pretty much a blue collar type town where a "Boilermaker" is the drink of choice and not always a job title, probably to stay warm in the winter which is a real BITCH.. Very, very proud of the Packers. I wouldn't recommend saying anything too far out of a positive line regarding them. A meat and potatoes type place with a couple of very good steakhouses. Great place to raise a family.

This article says we're $11-13MM under, but who knows for sure. Keep in mind, we still have to fit rookies in the cap.

http://www.foxsportshouston.com/03/1...16&feedID=3716

Sure would be nice if the NFL would publish realtime cap numbers. So much misinformation out there.

Alan Burge mentioned on his blog the Texans contracted Shawntee Spencer shortly after being waived by the 49ers. Our DB coach coached him when he was in SF.

Besides Houston I've lived and worked in ATL, Denver, Albuquerque, and the Seattle-Puget sound metro area and while I've liked them all in varying degrees I've liked none as much as Boise, ID. Now some of us just favor a not so giant community with "a couple of very good steakhouses" that's a good place to raise a family with lots of outdoor recreational opportunities.

After seeing our cuts and other teams' additions, I'm looking at what's left. Hopefully, we can get some 'value bargains' to fill holes, if we can't resign some players. Along the O-Line I would like to see us target Evan Mathis, Guy Whimper, Mike Pollak, and Travelle Wharton. Then perhaps a WR. Apparently, the WRs across the league are getting paid well and a guy like Mike Wallace might be more than we can afford. So, I'm keeping an eye on Devin Aromashodu, Andre Caldwell, Jericho Cotchery, Early Doucet, Courtney Roby, or Mike Sims-Walker.

Does anyone else have any '2nd tier' FAs that they would like us to sign?

Not sure about those WRs. I don't think they touch Caldwell. Cotchery and Doucet are worth a look for sure. I'm also interested to see what the skins do with Santana Moss. I think there's a good chance he gets cut.

Radio 610 AM now reporting Mike Brisiel is an Oakland Raider.
Congrats Mike, glad you finally got paid !

And now the Bengals also have signed Jason Allen. -- Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter)
Wow.......
Jason Allen's new contract is 2 yrs $8.2M w the Bengals #freeagency -- Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora)

Also, Winston to the Chiefs
Haven't seen the actual numbers, but it looks like 4 yrs. $22MM for Winston.

Wow! No way he's worth 4+ per year

Looks like he is to somebody.

So, are Texans done with FA now, till after the draft anyways?

Indeed...good for Jason

Likely so. They "might" re-sign Dresden, but can't believe there will be much more than that. After the draft, they will prolly bring in some vet min type guys.