[Keith]

Rick Smith's comments:

“I’m disappointed we didn’t get a deal done because that’s something that's important to me," Smith said about Daniels. "We’re going to build this team through the draft, and that means that we’ve got to get our good players under contract long term. That was a big goal of ours this offseason that we didn’t accomplish.

"He’s under contract this year, and we’re not discussing his contract at this time. But we’ll have another opportunity to sit down and try to get him under contract long term. I'm not putting a timetable on it. He and I had a long conversation last night, and I expressed our feelings to him, and he expressed his feelings to us. We walked out of that meeting with an understanding about where we each sit. I will say again that he is a vital part of our team and our future, and we certainly intend to keep him around here for a long time.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/6556278.html