DE Antonio Smith Signed, 5 yrs $12.5 Million Guaranteed

[Bigtinylittle]

Originally Posted by WMH

Call me clueless....BUT....is $12.5MM guarranteed really all that out of whack? Comparing to some of the other contracts that are getting thrown around right now, I had guessed that it would come in somewhere in the $15MM range in order to land him....

IMO, this doesn't seem all that bad, gives us an LDE to be a more productive option than Weaver, and gives us alot more options come April.

I am very optimistic about this signing. Supposedly he can move inside on passing downs. If he does that, we don't even need to THINK about a tackle with our first day picks. Or a DE. And because we resigned Wilson, we don't need a first day pick there either.

As a result, we now have more freedom to go with BPA in the draft, whether we move down or not.

[dalemurphy]

Originally Posted by Bigtinylittle

I am very optimistic about this signing. Supposedly he can move inside on passing downs. If he does that, we don't even need to THINK about a tackle with our first day picks. Or a DE. And because we resigned Wilson, we don't need a first day pick there either.

As a result, we now have more freedom to go with BPA in the draft, whether we move down or not.

This draft is pretty wild. We're going to go into it without any glaring needs to address and yet we should have at least 8 picks. As a Texan fan, this is a very, very foreign feeling.

I know we need to address safety, Rb, interior Ol at some point- but we have talent in all those players which would allow us the flexibility of addressing it later in the draft. I know a lot of people are gungho about getting a LB with the first pick (which is fine with me) but I actually think we have a strong and deep group: Demeco, Adibi, Diles, Bentley, Thompson, Coley

[barrett]

By the nature of FA, you cannot sign a young starter without overpaying.

[Fonz the Boss]

This signing clears some questions in the draft.... With Antonio Smith getting that ridiculous contract dont expect the Texans to draft Everett Brown, Brian Orakpo, or even Aaron Maybin. Now that they have their pass rusher (even though Im not too optimistic about his future) it makes sense to trade down and get an extra pick. Patriots seem like a good candidate seeing that they own three 2nd round picks. I say the Texans trade their 15th overall pick to the Patriots for the Patriots' 23rd overall pick and the last of their three 2nd round picks..... It makes sense for the Patriots if they want to land Brown, Orakpo or Maybin. One of those three will definitely be there at 15.

[Arky]

Wow, guess Smith will be canceling the visits to the other teams... Just heard about this right now...

I"m optimistic about this, too... avg. of 4.5 sacks/yr over the last two, a young man coming into his prime - I think this will (hopefully) separate him from the older, injury prone busts this team has regrettably signed in the past...