Texans FA's

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by Keith

So two points... first, who's underpaid? Just the guys still playing their rookie contracts? That's pretty good actually. And second, pity the Texans for having so many of their draft picks live up to and exceed their draft expectations. It's a good problem to have.

So how have they mismanaged the cap? Compared to the latter half of the Casserly years, this administration has done really well. The Texans just have a lot of players on the payroll who are actually earning what they are getting paid. It finally paid off in the win column last season as well.

Just checked, the sky is not falling.

First, I, of course, agree that having your rookies work out is great and I never suggested otherwise (something I pretty sure you understood). However, if all of your best players are your draft picks and you're currently getting them at a discount, this should suggest that you should not be one of the worst cap teams in the league. A healthy cap should be one of the fruits of your labors.

As for who is underpaid, as I said above, I think about half of our top 12 players are underpaid, several vastly so. When half of your best 12 players are underpaid and several other important pieces are set to be free agents shortly and you're up against the cap, I think that suggests a problem. Your mileage may vary.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Joshua

First, I, of course, agree that having your rookies work out is great and I never suggested otherwise (something I pretty sure you understood). However, if all of your best players are your draft picks and you're currently getting them at a discount, this should suggest that you should not be one of the worst cap teams in the league. A healthy cap should be one of the fruits of your labors.

As for who is underpaid, as I said above, I think about half of our top 12 players are underpaid, several vastly so. When half of your best 12 players are underpaid and several other important pieces are set to be free agents shortly and you're up against the cap, I think that suggests a problem. Your mileage may vary.

I think the point missed here is that the Texans now have MORE than a typical number of players that are deserving of what they are paid (or to your point, what they ought to be paid soon).

I mean, have the Texans had such an abundance of talent in which we could easily rattle off their best 12 players before? The Texans have one of the deepest rosters in the entire league now. "Next man up" wasn't just a cool saying last season.

A healthy cap is NOT one of the fruits of your labors. In fact, making difficult cap-related decisions is such a fruit of these labors (or instead maybe a vegetable in this analogy). Good, nay great, teams have had to say goodbye to their talent bearing these fruits.

[chuck]

I think it's pretty clear that the team feels it has a replacement for Winston on the roster yet they do not believe they have a third #2 receiver on the roster. I expect they will look to address that via the draft and once they do we can say goodbye to Jacoby and maybe Walter as well although I expect that at the end of the day they'll keep Walter.

[Nconroe]

If all these FA leave do we get compensatory draft picks like Patriots always did?

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by Nconroe

If all these FA leave do we get compensatory draft picks like Patriots always did?

That depends on how many FAs we sign, and it depends, IIRC, on if the guys replacing the FA that left was from our roster or signed from someone else's roster.

[Warren]

The Texans won't get compensatory picks for the guys they cut -- Winston, Vickers, and Leinart, only (possibly) for the ones whose contracts expired.

[WMH]

Originally Posted by Nconroe

If all these FA leave do we get compensatory draft picks like Patriots always did?

There is some goofy formula they use. No one has ever been able to explain it to me. As point of reference, I think we got a 7th for DRob. Mario "might" be a 4th, but as stated, depends on replacement signings.

[HPF Bob]

I don't know what the new CBA calls for but it would be just our luck if they made it harder to get comp picks just like the Astros got screwed by the new CBA on their draft picks now that they're drafting first overall.

Under the old system, Mario probably would get us a pick at the end of the third round and Meyers might get us a 6th rounder provided we didn't sign valuable FAs from other teams to offset our losses. But I have no idea if any of that is still relevant to the new CBA.

[WMH]

Might be able to scratch Myers off the Titans list. They just signed Hutchinson. Just don't see two "large" FA deals on interior OL if they want to stay in Peyton chase.

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by Keith

I think the point missed here is that the Texans now have MORE than a typical number of players that are deserving of what they are paid (or to your point, what they ought to be paid soon).

I mean, have the Texans had such an abundance of talent in which we could easily rattle off their best 12 players before? The Texans have one of the deepest rosters in the entire league now. "Next man up" wasn't just a cool saying last season.

A healthy cap is NOT one of the fruits of your labors. In fact, making difficult cap-related decisions is such a fruit of these labors (or instead maybe a vegetable in this analogy). Good, nay great, teams have had to say goodbye to their talent bearing these fruits.

We've probably taken this about as far as it needs to go, but I'll just add that I agree with almost everything you say here, but that it misses the point I was trying to make. The Texans do have a fair amount of talent now and do have a bunch of guys that will expect to get paid in the near future. I also agree that good teams with lots of talent will ultimately get poached by other teams and eventually tough cap decisions will have to be made. I dispute none of this. The question is when this happens. I see no reason why we should be in this situation now, although I acknowledge that if we continue to be successful, it will be a situation that will arise in the coming years.

As you mentioned the Colts and the Patriots, these are teams that maintained ridiculously high levels of success for the better part of a decade. We've had one good year. If this offseason followed our 3rd 12+ win season, then, yeah, hanging onto guys after that type of sustained success is difficult. However, I think that being cap-strapped and unable to retain virtually any of your free agents in the very first offseason after your very first decent season in team history is a little early for that ship to be sailing. Maybe the Colts and the Patriots started hemorrhaging their best offensive linemen and their best pass rushers to free agency because they lacked cap space after their very first winning season, but I doubt it. That's the only point I was trying to make.