Think about it. Bennett and if the preseason press is correct, Molden should be the starters at some point this season. Dunta would only be expected to be a nickle back if his injury has slowed him, other wise he is pushing the two young CBs.

So Reeves is here this season as insurance, if Molden does not progress and/or Dunta does not make it back, only then will Reeves be here next season.

So if Reeves has a resurection, and Moulden is as good as we thought, and Dunta does come back good as new, we will have an embarrasment of CB riches. Ever thought about that?

i have dreamed of it. and it is a very good dream

To me, these two statements seem to be somewhat contradictory. If Dunta comes back as only a shell of his former self, I would think that this would virtually guarantee a spot for Reeves.

Seriously, I wasn't trying to bring anyone down. Dunta's injury is a bad one which causes speed to evaporate. Granted there have been major advances in the medical field so anything's possible. Dunta has heart in my book, it just may take another season of work to get back his speed. But honestly, 4.3 speed is gonna be a memory. 4.40 or 4.45 is more realistic. But that ain't bad considering his ability to jam at the line and run support. Just watch how well his fantastic technique gets even better. Remember Rod Woodson after his injury? Slower but more dangerous.

But on the bright side, our front office has done some positive actions on its own in the drafts. Bennett and Moulden are young and will get tested but if they live up to their tangibles and learn the technicals of the position, we could all be satisfied. I know I for one love the competition at CB.

Reeves will do alright but he has proven one thing...you need a safety behind him. As painekiller brought out, he's insurance, not the answer.

Every day, and as cadams said, it's sweet.

when has running in a straight line really fast with no pads on ever mattered on a football field? it's not even his straight line speed that we should be worried about, it's his quickness from 0 to max speed. if his acceleration is suffering that's when recievers are gonna be able to create a little more space for the catch. if he's able to regain his burst he'll pretty much be the same player....as long as he can still hit like dunta!

bennett...man...i don't know what to say about him. he looks like he's all ready for a 10 int year and bursting onto the scene and all that...but at the same time it's his 2nd year blablabla...just go fred, go!

i hope molden is able to contribute, i know we gave reeves a boatload of money but i would rather see this guy progressing and doing well than reeves trying to prove it was dallas, not him.

If Reeves is just insurance, the team needs to get a different insurance agent, because that is some high priced stuff. IMO, I don't think they see him that way. I look for him to play 3-4 years for us and then probably Mouldon steps in. If Mouldon beats him out that will be great, but expensive.

man, everyone talks about us givign reeves a boatload of money, but i just dont think that is the case. i could be wrong, but the way his contract was structured i remember it looking like a good deal for the texans. if he performs he will get all of that money (and in the market today, 20 million isnt much for a cb who is performing). if he doesnt, the texans can get rid of him after a year or two without much of a cap hit.

Keith, you are the cap guru, does that jive with what you think?

That's kinda the way I understood it as well....we could cut him relatively pain free after one year, or if he plays well he gets his 20 million....again not that outrageous for a CB.

Keith had this to say on 4/26/08

They structured the contract so Reeves could be a one year rental, or a long term answer. This is not Rasputin's team anymore.

For what it's worth --

"Antwaun Molden could also see playing time early. Last season, the coaches eased cornerback Fred Bennett into the defense, but Molden is already ahead of where Bennett was at this time last year. Molden has very good technique and is a bigger cornerback, who will complement Bennett well on the field."

http://ind.scout.com/a.z?s=113&p=2&c=769287

so let me make sure i understand this. reeves is going to make about 3.8 mil, right? what he did to get that much?

so we gave him a boat load of money, we are just bringing it in on 5 different boats?

I think the franchise tag for CB's was something like 9 million....so he's not getting paid like a top five corner. Is he getting more than he deserves? Yep, but so does just about any free agent under thirty with some skill. If he doesn't work out he guts cut after this year. 800k in 2009 and 2.4 in 2010 against the cap....not a big deal in the grand scheme of things for NFL salary cap.

McNair might not like spending six million or so on a guy who was only here one year and didn't play well, but that only affects his pocketbook....not the cap situation down the road.

It is pretty easy to see what he did to get that money. Last year the Texans overpaid Black by quite a bit. That's because they had a desperate need for backup help at LT. They could have gone with someone else at backup LT who was already on the team, such as Frye. They chose to go with someone who had a proven track record of several less than stellar years starting in the NFL, and not go with a total unknown. LT is a position which demands lots of dollars, even for mediocre play. So Black was overpaid by quite a bit. The Texans were buying insurance. Now that they have brown, Black is no longer needed and he was cut.

The situation at CB is almost identical. They are buying insurance. That's the way they operate If they could have bought somebody they thought was better for less money, they would have. Is Reeves being overpaid by a lot? I imagine he is, though time will tell. Could the Texans have gone with the untried Molden and saved a lot of money? Yes, but that's not the way Kubiak operates. Will Molden beat out Reeves early in the season and show that we had unnecessary insurance? Perhaps.

But ask yourself this question: are the Texans sorry they bought insurance at LT last year? I doubt it. And if Molden turns out to be a stud, I doubt that the Texans will be sorry they gave Reeves the contract they gave him. It's an insurance policy.

as crazy as this sounds, 3.8 million for an average starting cb isnt really overpain in the nfl these days

I can tell you guys that I'm not upset at all for the signing of Reeves. But we better have some responsible safeties on the field. Not just for him but for Bennett and Moulden as well.

Go back to Koobs history with the 49er's and the Broncos. You can name the safeties. I look forward to the safeties presence being felt in games soon. He knows and understands their role so count on that position sending someone to the PB this year or next...imo.

if the moves work out that we made this year, i fully expect we will go after a quality safety in next year's draft or free agency

Here's is my early guy to watch. William Moore #1 Mizzou. FS speed and range with SS size and hitting ability. What a piece to add to our defense. Oh dreams....

6'1'' 225 4.47 speed. that's pretty good tangibles for a safety to go with the couple of devastating hits (and int ability) on that video! dreams indeed!

i'm not trying to get down on the signing and beat up on reeves but you know a signing could've been better when the two ways it can turn out for the better are 1) if the guy actually plays well or 2) a rookie beats him out.

If Smith and Kubiak are as good at judging talent as I am thinking and hoping they are, then signings like Reeves will probably become rarer. But remember this: They took over a team two years ago that was almost completely depleted of talent, especially good second-team talent. It's rally amazing how far Casserly ran the Texans into the ground.

So you have to see the Reeves deal for what it is. Kubes/Smith can only build up the roster so much at a time. After the first five draft picks each year, a team is probably operating on luck more than anything. Sixth and seventh round picks usually don't contribute much in the NFL, even as backups.

So Kubes and Smith only have 5 draftees a year to add. Significantly, almost every one of those choices has contributed so far. That's what makes me so optimistic about the Texans. If the guys running the organization are astute judges of talent, then a consistent winning program is almost inevitable.

The key is, it is probably going to take some time. We still have a lot of holes to fill. And losing players like Spencer and possibly Robinson doesn't make it any easier.

If we don't need or want Reeves next year, the dead money after one year for his contract, as I understand it, is only 3 million or so. That is cheap considering he is a cornerback.

In evaluating whether it was a bad deal, the only thing to consider is whether we could have gotten Reeves for a lot less, or whether we could have gotten a better deal by going with another cornerback. Whether Reeves is being overpaid for the production he will give us is really irrelevant to the situation. The only thing worth considering is what were the alternatives. We were very thin at CB without Dunta, and Smith/Kubiak did something about it.

At this point, I'm thinking CB probably won't be one of our very weakest positions. Considering that it is one of the most critical positions on the field, that makes me happy with the deal.

it's about 1 a year for them. it's not terrible but it's not like the "meh" contracts are non-existant.
i think you should probably look at what we are saying before you go on another 7 paragraph schtick. i don't think anyone here is out-of-the-know on this. reeves was plan b in case plan a fell through. maybe it was "insurance", maybe it was a little bit of overplanning.
how is contract not a factor in this? because there were alternatives to reeves? wouldn't alternatives make variables like contract terms more relevant? if reeves was considered by a majority of people to be a below average corner in the wrong system who has some workable skills, am i misrepresenting him with that statement? we gave him a deal for an average starting corner...because he deserved it? because that's what they needed him to be? or because the better corners wanted more money? i'm guessing it was the latter. smithiak knew it was taking a corner, upper round of the draft too. my guess is they were down to charles godfrey or molden, regardless they knew the hole was going to be covered with a decent prospect. so why overpay for a guy you expect to be a spot starter/dime corner (if molden turns out well and dunta returns on time)? filling the 4th hole down isn't near as important or pressing as filling one of the two starting holes.
man why don't me and you just have a big disagreeing session? haha...

considering our best CB won't be around for a while, our 2nd best CB has a ton of potential to prove, our 3rd CB is widely known as a piece of toast, and our 4th is a rookie who also has potential the only other group i would put lower on the totem pole is RB.

I'm not quite sure what you are saying. You seem to think Kubiak made the wrong move. Do you think we should have gotten an elite corner? You say getting Reeves might be overplanning. What is it exactly that you would have done?

From what I have been able to gather about Reeves, he is fast with good hip turn, it is just that he likes to free lance too much and doesn't stay within the defense called. That may not be exact, but that is the inference I get from all the Dallas negativism. Of course I think our defensive secondary coaches are better than those of Dallas, so I think they will be able to get Reeves to buy in to the plan better than Dallas did. Having said that, I am going to be a little nervous about Reeves until he seems to prove himself in our system. It is good that we have a youngster like Moulden waiting in the wings.

I didn't watch the Cowboys enough last year to give a learned opinion on Reeves (not sure that's even possible from watching a TV broadcast, even if I had the expertise/inclination). However, one point which might bear considering is the fact that Reeves was the obvious #2 corner across from Newman. Thus, teams are likely going to go at him more often. Throw in Roy Williams as your over-the-top help (and the fact that the rules and officiating favors the offensive player) and he was made to look bad simply by the volume of plays he was in.

I guess what I'm saying is that, because of the rules currently in place, I think most corners (with the exception of the truly elite) can look pretty bad if teams target them. If you have one corner who is generally considered to be good and teams shy away from him, the other corner is almost always going to get burned from time to time, unless he's truly special. It's one of those cases where preception becomes reality. I think most corners in the league could be exposed if teams made a concerted effort to go after them. Thus, playing with a good corner who teams avoid can make you look worse than you are (in comparison to other corners) for no other reason than you're the one in the cross-hairs.

Joshua; I agree 100% with what you are saying. It's probably best to keep a bit of an open mind about Reeves. We should be able to tell how good he is after the first few games. If he's no better than Faggins, then the Texans made a big mistake and will probably throw in Molden right away.

nah, i won't call it a wrong move but i do think it was overplanning. we basically went after a mid to low level cb, gave him a pretty decent contract (that is fair for both sides, i didn't realize before this thread how favorable the texans made it for themselves) when we all knew that CB or LT was going to be one of the 1st 2 picks in the draft. and look, we got a guy i'm positive they had a huge target on with our 2nd pick and he's turning a few heads already.

so, what would i have done? maybe go after a guy who immediately starts without question (probably spend a little extra to get it) and target someone else with the 3rd round pick spent on molden? maybe a DE or a Safety? i don't know, i'm not upset or anything about reeves but if he proves to be unnecessary or just plain bad then keith will have part of an answer to his question of months past: what exactly has smith done as GM? not given out stupid contracts, for one.

i still think the CB group is among the worst on our team though. dunta's return will help, an actual defensive system will help, new coaches will help, better and more consistent pass rush will help but i'm not going to count on them to change games much. that way i won't be disappointed in mediocrity and will be pleasantly surprised with any break-out performances cough::fred::cough

That's my major problem with your logic. We all thought the Texans were going LT or CB in the first (the Texans probably were planning on it too) but you can't ever count on anything in the draft. Even if you get the player you want there's no guarantee that he will work out. Taking that a step further and assuming that a player or players will be there when your pick comes up is a crap shoot at best.

I think the Texans treated it perfectly. They set themselves up so that they didn't HAVE to take any position on draft day. All the holes might not have been filled the way we would like, but there wasn't any position that was a must in terms of finding an opening day starter. Waiting until draft day to find a starter is how you end up giving up too much to trade up for a player like Jason Babin.

if we all, including the texans, thought along those lines then you have a problem with my, the texans, and your own logic.

molden may have been on the short list, maybe he works out maybe he doesn't we don't know-the draft is a crapshoot-yadayada-i get that...but how can you say that knowing that reeves has a pretty not-so glimmering history to rewrite? how is he to be more counted on as a known, sub-par quantity than a guy who hasn't had a chance to prove anything good or bad?
i can't say anything to that, it's a great point. like i said, i'm not upset about having reeves especially after realizing the texans ability to get out from under the big number on the contract but he's got a few things to prove just to be useful to our team. that doesn't exactly spell confidence to me, for a guy who is most likely starting in pittsburgh.

hell, if nothing else he gets petey out of the mix...not quite worth 3 mil but it's a start.