Howard Signs with the Eagles

[texasguy346]

Eagles sign former Saints defensive end Howard

Free agent defensive end Darren Howard agreed to a six-year, $30.5 million deal Sunday night with the Philadelphia Eagles. Included in the deal was a $9.5 million signing bonus and a $1 million roster bonus, topping guarantees offered by his team of six years, the New Orleans Saints.

Howard had turned down a $10 million signing bonus to sign a long-term deal from the Saints in 2005, hoping to do better in the next free agency period. His instincts turned out to be right.

Howard will work on the other side of Jevon Kearse, giving the Eagles one of the best one-two defensive end tandems in the NFL.

ESPN

[tulexan]

Could this open up Mario at #2 if they sign Brees?

I believe they will either trade down or take D'Brick, but a Will Smith/Mario Williams DE combo would be pretty nasty.

[MorKnolle]

Yes, if they sign Brees my thought is they will go sign Mario Williams. Brees reportedly prefers to play in Miami but is asking for a ton of money and Miami has Daunte Culpepper as another option at QB, so Miami might pull out of the race for Drew Brees and leave him to New Orleans.

[thunderkyss]

Jevon............ Howard......... oh, this is bad for the Cowboys.....

[Blake]

Must be nice to be an eagles fan. Get javon one year. Darren now. I cant imagine who they will pick up a year or two from now. Maybe Ray Lewis..... But at least we got Cook...

[Trenches]

Originally Posted by THE NFL DRAFT

Must be nice to be an eagles fan. Get javon one year. Darren now. I cant imagine who they will pick up a year or two from now. Maybe Ray Lewis..... But at least we got Cook...

haha. no kidding. how does a team like Philly or Wash that has good veteran talent and star power continue to sign the top guys and we have a team full of below average players with a few could be young stars and can only sign spares? who is our capoligist??? dont tell me its CC

[thunderkyss]

Eagles just gave him a $10.5 million bonus...... & $3.33 million a year.

It's not like were giving an inferior player $13 million garunteed(sp) money......... or is it??

[chuckm]

Originally Posted by thunderkyss

It's not like were giving an inferior player $13 million garunteed(sp) money......... or is it??

please define inferior ....

[hot pickle]

Originally Posted by tulexan

Could this open up Mario at #2 if they sign Brees?

I believe they will either trade down or take D'Brick, but a Will Smith/Mario Williams DE combo would be pretty nasty.

but dont the saints still got charles grant, so i don't think they will draft Mario

[Coach C.]

What they would do is move Grant inside as a one gap Dtackle since he has played it some on passing downs. He would move there permanently giving them Will Smith and Mario as the bookends on defense. That would suck to play against, but my gut says they will take a decent deal and trade down were they could take Hawk to high.

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by chuckm

please define inferior ....

Inferior as in to go along with the context of the post.

[TexanBacker93]

Originally Posted by Trenches

haha. no kidding. how does a team like Philly or Wash that has good veteran talent and star power continue to sign the top guys and we have a team full of below average players with a few could be young stars and can only sign spares? who is our capoligist??? dont tell me its CC

I think it's still that "Unless I get paid a boatload of smack, I'd rather play for a team that's had a good history of winning" mentality. I can't honestly blame them. You'd be hard pressed to find players that want to go to a franchise that hasn't won anything for below market value. Even market value would be nice. I'm sure all of us sit here and believe that if we had the skills to be in the NFL (I do, of course, but I can't work on Sundays so that just messes it all up) that we'd play for a losing team for less than we can get elsewhere just to be part of that rise to the top. We'd be heroes. They'd write songs about us. Brad Pitt would play us in the movie. Angelina Jolie would play the loving wife that sacrificed that extra $2 million so we could be part of the big turnaround. Sadly, though, that won't happen in the real world. Until the Texans start winning something they are going to have to reach to get players. They aren't going to get the best players to come here unless they draft them. They aren't going to get the 2nd tier FA to come here without paying a little bit more. They'll start winning, though, and then all them players that snubbed their noses at our money will come crawling to Reliant 1, begging to be part of this.

Originally Posted by thunderkyss

Eagles just gave him a $10.5 million bonus...... & $3.33 million a year.

It's not like were giving an inferior player $13 million garunteed(sp) money......... or is it??

It comes out to $5 million a year. About the same as we gave Weaver.

[Kaiser Toro]

Originally Posted by TexanBacker93

I think it's still that "Unless I get paid a boatload of smack, I'd rather play for a team that's had a good history of winning" mentality. I can't honestly blame them. You'd be hard pressed to find players that want to go to a franchise that hasn't won anything for below market value. Even market value would be nice. I'm sure all of us sit here and believe that if we had the skills to be in the NFL (I do, of course, but I can't work on Sundays so that just messes it all up) that we'd play for a losing team for less than we can get elsewhere just to be part of that rise to the top. We'd be heroes. They'd write songs about us. Brad Pitt would play us in the movie. Angelina Jolie would play the loving wife that sacrificed that extra $2 million so we could be part of the big turnaround. Sadly, though, that won't happen in the real world. Until the Texans start winning something they are going to have to reach to get players. They aren't going to get the best players to come here unless they draft them. They aren't going to get the 2nd tier FA to come here without paying a little bit more. They'll start winning, though, and then all them players that snubbed their noses at our money will come crawling to Reliant 1, begging to be part of this.

I do not disagree with the take. I just believe that FA's are less likly to come here when they see our business plan. We have a lot of money tied up in Carr and AJ and all signs are pointing to Bush. We will roughly have 23% of our cap tied up into three offensive skill players on. We will have about 78 million to spend on 50 other players. That is not a sound business plan for future success. I would not have my players looking at the Texans unless they ponied up extra cash or one of my clients was not getting as much opportunity from a playing time perspective in the prospective suitors vision of that player.

[TexanBacker93]

Originally Posted by Kaiser Toro

I do not disagree with the take. I just believe that FA's are less likly to come here when they see our business plan. We have a lot of money tied up in Carr and AJ and all signs are pointing to Bush. We will roughly have 23% of our cap tied up into three offensive skill players on. We will have about 78 million to spend on 50 other players. That is not a sound business plan for future success. I would not have my players looking at the Texans unless they ponied up extra cash or one of my clients was not getting as much opportunity from a playing time perspective in the prospective suitors vision of that player.

Very true.

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by TexanBacker93

It comes out to $5 million a year. About the same as we gave Weaver.

If the deal includes the $10.5 mill bonuses, wouldn't that make it $20 million for six years?? The whole deal averages out to $5mil a year, but this way, Howard only costs them $3.3 per year in real money, & ($3.3 mil + $1.7 mill=)$5mill towards the cap.

If we've given Weaver $13 million plus $5mil(which I doubt, but considering recent history......) our man costs us $5 mill real money every year, & $7.6 mill on the cap.

[Rodman91]

Howard will haunt you in game one, guaranteed.