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.