Walker Down with Injury
 

This is kinda scary...I'd hate to see one of the strong 3 go down...even when we are hoping Seth is ready to go on September 12th.
Article from the HoustonChronicle.com

At least we are breaking in the rookies. This look is close to last year. There is no doubt that we draft more DL next year.

31 years old - about the time for a 300 lb DL to start showing signs of breaking down, maybe?

But then there's the minor detail of the 11 million signing bonus and 6 year, 37 million deal he was signed to in March.

This may turn out to be minor (hopefully it is) but a lot of people thought they overpaid Wade. I thought they overpaid Walker.

Cha-ching

I thought we overpaid for both of them. And if we hadn't traded our 2, 3, &
4 we could have picked up Randy Starks with the 3. He might come in handy
right about now.

...and we wouldn't have Babin and we wouldn't be looking so good at OLB either.

Me no comprende hindsight. No one knows if Starks is going to amount to anything special either.

I'm glad as hell we got G-Funk but all my point is that they paid top dollar (with a lot of future risk) to keep a 31 year old who missed most of last season. There was no reason to believe he wouldn't be healthy this year but he's getting to that age where the big dudes start breaking down. They will need at least 2-3 high performance years out of Gary to get the value back out of that contract.

Gary Walker's value is not just based on physical presence. He has leadership ability and experience. Not to mention he was pro-bowl player. I am sure he wants to healthy. :twocents:

We don't need this right now. Please God!!

I'm sure he wants to be healthy too, just like everyone wants him to be. You are also correct that he was a Pro Bowl player in 2002. This is 2004 and I'm talking about 2004, 2005, and 2006...

Being an experienced leader only goes so far when you can't get on the field. They don't pay guys top NFL salaries to stand on the sideline and clap and offer encouragement to younger players. They need 2 or 3 high quality years out of the guy (on the field -- 30 to 40 games worth) to get the value out of that contract.

You're saying that in essence the Texans signed Walker to a 3 year, $18 million contract. If you think it's a bad deal, who else would you prefer the Texans had signed? They had to have a starting LDE, right?

Citing the $37 million 6 year deal doesn't make sense when you know that Gary will never see the $19 million in salary in the final 3 years of the contract. If not Walker, then who & how much?

I'm saying that if he can give us three years it WON'T be a bad deal. That way we'd only have to eat $5.5 million in dead money when he can't answer the bell in '07 when he's 34 years old and even more beat up. It's a mental cost-benefit analysis - nothing more complicated than that.

It's also not a "I wish we would have gone for this-guy or that-guy point" which I thought I had made clear earlier but I guess not.

Another groin injury? Does it seem like we are suffering too many of these injuries? I stated once before I'm beginning to wonder if our training program is some how the cause of some of these problems. Gary, by all accounts, is a very hard worker who pushes himself. Maybe we need to take a look at what we are doing in the weight room. Sometimes you can wind up tearing things down rather than building them up. Just a passing comment. Remember, Glenn who also is a hard worker suffered from the same problem last year and showed signs of it again this year. I'm really quite concerned about the numbers of our best players showing up with this problem. This might also be a sign of inadequate streching.

would rather have Gary Walker on our sidelines then going to another team like Titans who need D-line and playing us

Any news about G-Funk today? Is he going to be ok?

This is the latest:

Posted on Tue, Aug. 24, 2004

Texans' Walker suffers strained groin

Associated Press

HOUSTON - Houston Texans defensive end Gary Walker will rest for a week to 10 days to allow his strained groin to heal, general manager Charley Casserly said Tuesday.

Walker, the Texans' two-time Pro Bowl lineman, tweaked the muscle during practice Monday and had to be helped off the field. The team was worried enough about the injury to call for an MRI examination, which revealed a mild strain.

"He should be ready for the opener," Casserly said.

Walker, in his 10th NFL season, earned his second Pro Bowl trip in the Texans' inaugural 2002 season. He never was healthy last season as he suffered a variety of ailments, most notably a dislocated right toe that eventually landed him on injured reserve.

Walker, an expansion draft selection off Jacksonville's roster, almost left the Texans in the offseason because of a massive salary cap drain his old contract would have placed on Houston this season. However, he signed a new six-year deal to stay put

It's not clear, because you stated that you thought the Texans overpaid for Walker. That pretty much implies that you felt:

a) the Texans should have signed another player at that price for the position.

b) the Texans should have looked at cheaper alternatives for that position.

c) the Texans should have kept Walker, they just did a lousy job of negotiating.

How many teams play the 34 now that could use a guy like Gary? Not to mention that Walker is a proven 43 DT, as well. If the Texans wanted Walker, I'm pretty sure they paid him what they needed to keep him.

These groin injuries can be very tricky. I hope Gary Walker will be 100% come opening day but that thing can pop anytime anywhere. Remember how Roy Oswalt suffered? I'll keep my fingers crossed that Walker will be fine.

I look around the league and older 2-gap lineman are not real uncommon. Ted Washington, Keith Traylor, Sam Adams and a host of others have played well deep into their careers. They rely on quick first steps, brute strength, leverage and hand-fighting. These traits do not diminish as say a linebackers speed or a running backs cutting abilities do as they age. I would even contend that 2-gap players are at their peak value late in their career since it is so hard for young linemen to come into this league and take on double teams. It really is a position that needs experience.

I hope Walker is back for the season opener because if he's not...Ladanian will abuse that side of the line.

Whats sucks is that its a groin injury this early in the season. Those really never go away and chances are they'll get much worse.

At least our backups have more experience and we've added Robaire.

I have an additional comment on the topic of signing Gary Walker.

I think that one of most difficult positions to draft for is defensive line. There have been a lot of first round picks who just don't pan out (it's so prevalent, I don't think I need to list them all), which also creates a lot of dead, or underutilized cap money. Some may come around after a few years, but still, drafting D-lineman in the first round represents risk.

I think the Texans can still be considered to be a franchise that is building it's base. Signing young lineman like The Baire and re-signing Walker so they can use their highest picks for QB, WR and CB makes sense. It also provided the chance for immediate improvement over last year. I hope they can pick off another 4 year d-lineman next year to deepen the position.