Texans FA's

[Mike]

I would have liked to have kept Dreesen. Briesel really cashed in. Now Rick Smith has to earn his salary and hit on some lower level inexpensive free agents to fill in the holes, and we need to hit on our draft. This offseason has been a bummer. I am dissapointed that Mario all of a sudden becomes a twitter freak, even though I figured he was gone with the amount of $ he cashed in with. I liked Winston, be he was alot of sizzle and no steak, the defense I think has leaders in Cush, Manning, Antonio and JJ.

Darn, I need some Texans sunshine. Good teams find good inexpensive players. We picked up Dreeses and Briesel for nothing. Time to do it again.

[Warren]

The Texans will miss Dreessen's blocking the most since there's not another TE on the roster who looks like he can fill that hole. Graham has a chance to step up but I don't think blocking is considered his strong suit. Like Mike alluded to, though, finding a blocking TE doesn't necessarily require investing a high draft pick or big free agent money.

FWIW, the Broncos also signed TE Jacob Tamme today.

[Nconroe]

I heard Dreesen was a good blocker, but I guess Casey and Graham should be able to block as well. I think those two are ready to play and play well.

[HPF Bob]

I see the Texans as losing depth but not really in areas where it will be that tough to replace. We were going into the draft with a WR2 as our greatest priority and now we have several others but they aren't major holes, consider:

We lost Mario but we still have Barwin and Reed.
We traded Ryans but we have Sharpton behind him.
We lost Winston but we have Butler behind him.
We lost Briesel but we have Caldwell behind him.
We lost Leinart but we have Yates behind him.
We lost Vickers and Dreesen but we wanted a bigger role for Casey and now he'll get it.

I don't know if we kept or lost Rackers but that's another position we can easily replace. (PK thinks we should draft the A&M kicker late which suits me just fine).

So I think we can draft BPA now and rebuild our depth. We re-signed the two guys we absolutely had to sign (Foster and Meyers), cleared up cap space next year for extensions and we haven't lost anybody that's not replaceable. And if we had to go to war today with only the players we still have, we are still hands-down the best team in our division. And it only gets better once we start filling in the depth with FAs and the draft.

[bckey]

I don't think Sharpton is the answer at ILB. He is 5' 11" and 230 lbs and not nearly as good as Meco was. Plus he is coming back from a quad tear. ILB should be a high priority in the upcoming draft.

Caldwell isn't the answer at guard either. He isn't very good and has been a disappointment for the Texans.

So I believe the Texans will be drafting WR, ILB and OL in the first 4 rounds. Probaly throw OLB and DT in there if bpa for the other priority positions isn't as good.

[NBT]

WR is going to be an absolute need (at least one, if not two). So it doesn't seem we can afford to go BPA this year. Problem: the big 4 of WRs will be gone, so what now? Do we reach for a WR anyway?

[NBT]

Originally Posted by bckey

Caldwell isn't the answer at guard either. He isn't very good and has been a disappointment for the Texans.

Bleacher Report (for what it's worth) claims Arian Foster said Caldwell was playing all during 2010, when Arian had his best year.

[Arky]

The skinny on Donnie Jones:

OK, this is more like a tinkle than a splash, but it’s something.

And some of you were worried that the Texans weren’t going to field a team in 2012.

Welcome in Donnie Jones, who is likely to be the punter for at least the first three games while Brett Hartmann serves a suspension for performance-enhancing drug use.

Jones was 22nd in the league in average at 44.3, just slightly behind Hartmann (44.4), but thanks to poor coverage by the Rams (or poor hang time), his net was nearly a full yard shorter than Hartmann’s. Neither one was particularly good, as Hartmann was 28th in the league net, with Jones 31st.

The Texans appear to have gotten Jones on the decline, with his average falling for three consecutive years since he was Shane Lechler-like with a 50.0-yard average in 2008, when he was second-team All-NFL.

Jones had a 46.8-yard average in 2009 and a 45.5-yard average in 2010 before the aforementioned 44.3.

The salary-cap constrained Texans’ first veteran free-agent acquisition in 2012, he received a one-year contract worth $890,000, including a $65,000 signing bonus. Of the total, $540,000 counts against the cap.

Matt Turk, the NFL’s oldest player, returned to the Texans after Hartmann was hurt covering a punt and averaged 42.7 in the last four regular-season games, then 41.8 in the two playoff games. He’s currently an unsigned free agent.

After punting for Miami as a rookie in 2004, Jones spent two seasons with Seattle before joining the Rams. His career average is 45.3.

Texans in free agency

Re-signed – Arian Foster, RB; Chris Myers, C; Jonathan Weeks, C.
Signed – Donnie Jones, P, from St. Louis.
Lost – Mario Williams, DE, to Buffalo; Mike Briesel, OG, to Oakland; Joel Dreessen, TE, to Denver; Jason Allen, CB, to Cincinnati.
Released/unsigned – Eric Winston, OT, signed with Kansas City; Lawrence Vickers, FB, signed with Dallas; Matt Leinart, QB; Neil Rackers, K; Derrick Ward, RB; Bryant Johnson, WR; Matt Turk, P; Damione Lewis, DT; Dominique Barber, S; Quintin Demps, S.

Hmmm, part-time till Hartmann comes back or bye bye Hartmann?

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by NBT

Bleacher Report (for what it's worth) claims Arian Foster said Caldwell was playing all during 2010, when Arian had his best year.

And he lost his job in 2011 to Breisel because of an ankle issue from what I've read ? Maybe if he remains healthy this year we won't lose anything aferall at RG with Breisel's departure ?