Ryans officially extended
 

Per McClain. No details yet.

I think this is a positive step. You reward your own players. IMO, Demeco handled it the right way last year and played his tail off and got rewarded. I think next will be OD who is at the off-season program and in good spirits. There seems to be some underlying negotiations with him. Smith and his agents spoke at the combine, just like they did with Dogra who represented Demeco.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6936629.html

Hell yes! It was crucial to re-sign DeMeco.

Yay! I'm hearing 21 million guaranteed on the radio....

PFT is chiming in:

Demeco Ryans gets paid
Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on March 30, 2010 5:23 PM ET
The Texans didn't believe Dunta Robinson was worth big money, but they clearly feel differently about linebacker DeMeco Ryans.

The Texans signed the fifth-year linebacker to a six-year contract Tuesday, according to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle and ESPN's Adam Schefter. Ryan was a restricted free agent.

The contract totals are staggering. Schefter reports Ryans will get $26.3 million in the first three years of the contract. $21.3 million is guaranteed and he'll earn $48 million if he stays all six years. He gets a signing bonus of $7.5 million.

That's a lot of coin, but Ryans is a 25-year-old two-time Pro Bowler. We've heard criticisms before that Ryans is inconsistent in run support, but he thrived under new coordinator Frank Bush in 2009.

The contract is comparable, although slightly better, to contracts signed by Lofa Tatupu and Brian Urlacher in 2008.

This makes me happy. I wondered if the lack of a CBA would prevent the Texans from re-signing DeMeco this year, but it looks like that was not the case.

I like it, good for DeMeco and good for Texans. That is excellent to show Texans do take care of their own. Looks like Tim Bulman is resigned as well. OD seems to have a great attitude this year. And Pollard is the next RFA I'd like to see signed long term.

With no CBA and no salary cap, the NFL becomes more like MLB where the owners with good business sense and deep pockets can make their team as good as they want with the only danger being overspending on underwhelming talent (see Cubs, Chicago).

Ryans seems like a good investment now but how will we feel a surgery or two from now?

Congrats to DeMeco for a sweet deal. And oh yea, he deserves every penney of it. And good move by Rick Smith for getting this done.

I think almost everyone would agree that this is a good signing. He has earned some good will and faith. With inflation the way it is in Free Agency, we actually got a bargain. :D

It's going to be a pleasure, barring injury, to watch Cushing and Ryans tear it up for multiple years at least.

I'm happy to see this as well. I was afraid the lack of progress on re-signing our own key players was going to be a problem for the team, but I think this move proves that the organization recognizes its cornerstone players and is willing to reward them. Hopefully, this will set an example to other players in a similar position to play it more like Demeco than Dunta (although he ended up getting paid too, just by the Falcons).
Question to the capologists, is the front-loading of the contract (big signing bonus and 1st-year salary) typical for these kind of deals or does it have to do with the lack of a salry cap this year?

IMO the answer is both, it is normal to front load a contract, and it is high this season because of the no-cap year.

Documenting McClain's reported contract details for whenever I get around to making the next cap page update...

http://blogs.chron.com/nfl/2010/03/w...demecos_c.html

No specifics yet on the yearly salaries from the NFLPA.

moonnumack - It is not unusual for teams with ample cap space in the current year, so in that sense, in a year without a cap, it is not unusual.

I suspect the Texans are operating very much under the assumption that the salary cap will be returning in 2011. It is justification for doing a big deal like this now with Ryans (and potentially with Daniels and Pollard) since he was going to have to play for the Texans regardless on the cheap this season without such a contract.

Hopefully DeMeco doesn't trap the Texans. But yeah, give him whatever the hell he wants.