FA to target this off season
 

Some Defenders I might look at.

Channing Crowder
Angelo Crowell if he is cleared by the Dr. {Broken Leg}
Brian Iwuh
Quentin Moses
Pat Thomas
Sam Williams
Jovan Haye (I think he is a FA)
Kenechi Udeze I forgot about his illness
Cortland Finnegan RFA (7th rounder, depends on what he is tendered.)
Rashad Baker
Jarrad Page
George Wilson

And if they become available

Anthony Alridge
JACKIE BATTLE

Our succes in FA under the Kubiak/Smith regime has been dismal if not an abject failure. I'm gonna give the duo the benefit of the doubt here and say its primarily because the Texans organization just doesn't have the appeal other teams do to the more talented FAs because the Houston franchise has yet to establish itself as a winner let alone a team that consistantly appears in the playoffs.

I don't know. With the exception of veterans at the tail end of their careers making one last gasp at a ring, it's my perception that free agents tend to go where they are offered the most money.

Tennessee Titan Courtland Finnegan was a 7th round draft choice but he will command a high price in FA based on his play. I would love to see us get him however.

That's generally true for the big name high price guys, but the guys who are brought in as fillers can be just as important. Demps, Wilson, and Ferguson where all upgrades compared to what we had before IMO. That's still a position that needs attention, but an improvement is better than nothing. Bentley's another good example of a guy who provided great special teams play, good solid depth, and was able to play fairly well when needed to start. We've done a poor job with big ticket items....Weaver and Ahman Green for example. Although I think Green was a calculated risk, and they re-worked his deal to make it a little more cap friendly to lessen that blow now. Some would put Reeves in that category. I'll concede he's over paid, but not the disaster on the field many claim he is.

I don't want Cortland Finnegan. That guy is a punk to the highest degree.

He's a damn good CB though. I don't know enough about him to say if he's a big enough punk that I don't want him on my team. I don't think you will have to worry though...I would expect Tenn to give him the high tender. They don't want to lose him. I don't know what there salary cap situation looks like though.....

I am hoping St. Louis does something stupid and lets OJ Atogwe get away. He'd be a nice ballhawk in the secondary. They might franchise him though.

wouldnt mind trading for Carlos Rodgers (Washington Redskins) if we are unable to bring back Dunta or choose to go elsewhere. He is being made available for draft picks. I would think a 3rd rounder should bring him over.

First, I think the FA signings have been so poor because of the limited amount of money to spend, coupled with mediocre free agent classes. While this FA pool does seem top heavy with talent, the cost is probably higher than we should be willing to concede at this point. IOW, forget Fat Albert, Salt N' Peppers, and Awesome WAAA!

If we resign Dunta, given our track record of recent draft picks, I would be good with signing someone like Bert Berry and drafting a DE. Bert fits the traditional Rick Smith mold of FA signings (old, injured and with Denver connections) and has Houston/Humble connections. He's also pretty damn serviceable as a rotation player. This could also leave enough to sign a complimentary RB to mix with Slaton.

then draft d all the way.

$0.02

or picking up Carlos Rodgers from the skins who is apparently on the trade block.

As far as their needs in free agency, they’re the same as the draft. The Texans need a pass rusher or two, preferably an end. Because Williams is comfortable on the right side, undersized ends don’t fit their needs. They need an end who can play over the tight end and rush from the left side.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6245451.html
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In this Chron article, John McClain comments about Texan FA/Draft priorities. All I can say is I hope this isn't true because it seems such a waste to make weakside and not strongside DE as Marios starting/regular position.
DEs with his size and strength who still have the quicks to rush from the edge and thereby be 3-down players on the strongside are few and far between. On the other hand there's a much larger population of the smaller variety (245-260 range) to choose from who can play the weakside where they don't need the size to contend with double-teams from the TE.

That *has* to be a smokescreen. Keep in mind, McClain is known as a kind of parrot for the organization, so if they want to get some misleading information out there you'd think it'd come from him.

I do like what he has to say about LB though. I think we need to get bigger and more athletic at both OLB spots. If our DL is going to shoot the gaps like we're led to believe, it is going to allow OL to get into the second level unimpeded and really wear down our LB. That being the case, we need a whole lot more size and athleticism back there to counter that.

McClain is either saying what the organization wants him too, or simply taking what he thinks is the safe stance. I have no problem leaving Mario there. It's hard to find a pass rusher as effective as him, and I won't complain about leaving him at a position where he can typically do the most damage. However, I think it's much harder to find a Strongside DE who will be an effective enough rusher to get us the kind of pass rush we want than it is to find an undersized DE with speed to get around the corner.


This could also be a hint that they are just looking to replace Weaver, but still want the speed rusher, maybe later in the draft?, for obvious passing downs but plan on leaving Mario on the right side most of the time.

Keep in mind, McClain doesn't have clue what he is talking about a large percent of the time.

it is likely that nothing truer has ever been posted on this board.

My free agents:

Channing Crowder:

Man, I like Channing Crowder alot, he has great altheticism (I think it was him that chased AJ down from behind in the Miami game), to play or compete at the will.

Gibril Wilson:

He has always seemed pretty solid to me, not a great coverage defender but from what i have seen he has been a playmaker.

Micheal Boley:

Super athletic, always like him.

Seems to me that there is a lot of value in the midrange guys, not so much the super free agents (Haynerworth etc.)

After listening to Kubiak on the official site talking about the combine and FA, I am starting to wonder if the Texans are planning on making a much bigger splash than we think. And for it to truly be a big splash only Albert Haynesworth is big enough to be a difference maker.

Imagine Ayers, Albert, Okoye, Mario (Could be anyone new at the other DE) together. Make even more fun, Ayers might still be considered a 2nd rounder, take Maybin in the 1st to play Will.

How shocked would you be if the Texans made a huge splash in FA?

Here's one snippet from Kubiak (available from the official):
The offseason training wheels are off for Rick Smith. He must be feeling more confident in himself now and willing to make a splash for the right player.

I'm sure Kubiak is asking for the best he can get on defense... this is year 4 for him. He needs a winner. He got Casserly and Ferens to sign Weaver to a big money deal in 2006. I doubt Kubiak would be the one pulling in the reins on any huge defensive signing.

Cap guru Chris Olsen has shown he knows what he's doing. He is fair and creative, plus no scent that he doesn't play within the rules.

The team has cap room this year to make the moves they want.

All together, I think the right ingredients are there for the team to make a splash next Friday, especially on defense, if someone they want is still available. The only way I think I would be truly surprised would be if the team spent megabuxxx on an offensive free agent.

That was the quote that caught my eye.

Don't get my hopes up, fellas. ;)

I'm curious to see how much Canty will demand in FA . . .He'd be the perfect bookend to Mario and would solve a need for us right away.

You think so? I just don't see him providing much of a pass rush in a 4-3.

I see him being similar to Weaver.

....And I agree with you, PK.

If we get Sean Jones from the Browns I'll be so freakin' happy.

This is the quote that noticed.


(on Texas A&M QB Stephen McGee) “He was in the East-West game, which was right in our backyard, which gave me a chance to watch him practice every day. I think Stephen is a very athletic young man that had some problems this year injury-wise that held him back. But he has the athletic ability, the arm, the brain, the competitive nature to play in this league. A lot of times, you see guys who go through rough spots like that in college and all of a sudden they blossom when they get to our levels. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was able to do that. He’s a fine young man. I think he has a chance to be a very good player.”

Which in my experience means, I am not drafting him so I will talk him up. I hope I am wrong, I think I was the 1st or 2nd one on his bandwagon after the Shrine game.

I saw Kubiak's video and did not hear the question, so was not aware of who he was talking about. I guess I need to go back and read the quotes now.

Maybe he knows that you know that he knows that you know that. It could be some reverse psychology on Kube's part.

Seriously, McGee is such a low round pick, it would be difficult to game plan the draft that deeply to throw the dogs off the scent. Perhaps he's the best player available in the 7th round and the Texans won't have a choice but to draft him. Conversely, some other team might take a gamble and select him in the 4th round before we might even consider him.

I would guess that Kubiak would have been able to get a decent draft report on him even if he hadn't played in the Shrine Game. I hear that Kubiak knows the Head Coach at A&M pretty well. ;)

Scratch Channing Crowder from that list.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3934941

But unfortunately, I think that's the same coach who told Kubiak that Ahman Green would make a valuable contribution to our offense.:(

I don't think Sherman was a huge fan of McGee, so I'm not sure that will help McGee chances of getting drafted by us.

A couple veteran RBs to keep an eye on Warrick Dunn who played for Gibbs in Atl, and Michael Pittman who Kubiak has chased in the passed. As much as I want to go with 2 young guys in the draft, I only see Kubiak adding one young guy per year.

When it was announced that Dunn was cut I almost started a thread about him as a possibility. I didnt feel like reading post after post of why we dont need to go down that road again. Anyway Dunn migh be a nice complementary back to Slaton. Im sure he will be cheap and is a well respected veteran who still has enough left in the tank to handle a part time role. Not saying we should sign him just I could see Kubiack going for it.

If you're of the mind that we'll sign a verteran to pair with a mid-round rookie I think Dunn is the perfect candidate for that; he's presumably cheap, he has a history with Gibbs, he's of high character, and he's a veteran. He rushed for nearly 800 yards last season and caught nearly 50 passes, so he has something left in the tank.

I really think he's the perfect 3rd down/back-up back for us next season.

Dunn the player isn't the problem. I would be concerned about his age of course, but if the contract was cheap enough I wouldn't mind. It all comes down to the contract.

I had to double check, but Chris Brown is still on the roster so my guess is that Kubiak is going to give him one more shot in training camp. I would think they will add at least one back in the draft. Moats contributed enough last year to deserve a solid chance to compete for a roster spot as well. I'm not sure how many RB's Kubes usually brings to camp, but I could see him going either way...a vet like Dunn or a youngster.