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Free Agency

S

Sarg01

Veteran
Yes, yes, we know. Grab Nate Clements and Lance Briggs, with Asante Samuel and Adalius Thomas as the backup plan. Feel free to get in line with the 31 other teams looking at the same guys.

What players that we might actually get are folks looking at in Free Agency? :shades:

Myself, I'm keeping an eye on:

DT Ian Scott - 25-year old run stopper could replace Payne. Given that he's the rotation guy behind two young guys, Tommie Harris and Tank Johnson, its not hard to see Chicago not willing to pay him what he's worth. Since he's a run-defender and not a sack master, his profile is a little lower and he'd almost certainly going to be interested in a place where he'll be the clear #1 from the start.

OLB Cato June - Some of you who remember me complaining about June being overrated might be surprised to see this. However, the Indy defense has gotten a healthy dose of reality since then to burst much of that bubble. My contention was more about him not being a Pro Bowl caliber player (he got in last year) - but that doesn't mean he's a scrub. Given that we have more beef in our front 7 (he'd be playing behind Mario Williams instead of Dwight Freeney), I don't think we'd have to be as worried about him getting run over. He might have some extra Colt-killing knowledge, too. The Colts are going to be more worried about getting Freeney back, so there's a real possibility he hits the open market. A smart team would get a deal with him done fast, while he's still the 3rd best OLB option (behind Adalius and Lance). He's 27, so he could be around for a while.

FS Deon Grant - Continuing with my theme of raiding division rivals :) - the Jags' 28-year old free safety would be a heck of a lot better than CC Brown. I know a lot of folks want Landry, and that's cool, since Landry could play either safety spot for us. Grant should be able to be signed fairly easily with teams distracted by Ken Hamlin.

CB Roderick Hood - this 25-year old Eagles' nickleback is the closest thing to a possible starting cornerback on the market (apart from Nate and Asante). He's used to playing for almost nothing (on a rookie FA contract) so it shouldn't take much to make him happy, especially if it comes with a reasonable assurance of a starting spot. Since he hasn't played much, he doesn't have the dazzling stats that would guarantee a high price tag. However, a year ago, he started 6 games after Lito Sheppard got knocked out and racked up a respectable 40 tackles, 15 pass defensed and 3 INTs. He's got pretty good speed, and has done some kick returns as a result (career long 53 yards)
 
You are thinking around the right lines. More than the dominate player, the Texans need multiple players at multiple positions as the core of NFL level talent is below average.
 
I like the idea of going after Hood if we fall out of contention for Samuels and Clement. I actually wouldn't mind signing him and going hard after Thomas.

As far as June goes, I don't know that McNair would be interested in pursuing him due to his character issue.

I don't know much about Scott but I do think we need to address the DT position in a big way.

I like your thinking though - our defense is almost there and we definitely need to make some additions this offseason to push it where it should be.
 
What if, just what if the Texans don't get any of these top D players. I don't want to think about that happening. I hope we get Samuel and Thomas or Briggs. June seems a little too soft, but he could help us out.
 
I'd love to see us get a proven cornerback like Clements in FA and address our FS need in the draft or free agency. However, I'm not going to hold my breath because Clements is at the top of Washington's FA wish list, and we all know Snyder is more than willing to spend the $ to get what he wants.
 
CowboysTexansFan said:
I'd love to see us get a proven cornerback like Clements in FA and address our FS need in the draft or free agency. However, I'm not going to hold my breath because Clements is at the top of Washington's FA wish list, and we all know Snyder is more than willing to spend the $ to get what he wants.
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With their offseason last year I wouldn't think they'd have much cap space left. Any idea how much space they have?
 
How much cap space do we have? Cant be that much.

I know the Titans and the 49ers have around 40 million in cap room. I would not be that optimistic about getting these great talents if they are in search of a huge payday. Also it could be a tough sell given our record over the past 5 seasons.

If you were a free agent who wanted money and an up an coming place...would you come to the Texans? We are going to have to build our roster through the draft and add depth through free agency...unless we get lucky.
 
NEROtheZERO said:
With their offseason last year I wouldn't think they'd have much cap space left. Any idea how much space they have?
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The cap increases next year by something like $20 million across the board. I think almost everyone is going to have a pretty good amount of space. The FA's this year are going to get a lot more money than they're worth. There's a limited number of guys in the market and the market is suddenly going to be a lot more lucrative.
 
The Pencil Neck said:
The cap increases next year by something like $20 million across the board. I think almost everyone is going to have a pretty good amount of space. The FA's this year are going to get a lot more money than they're worth. There's a limited number of guys in the market and the market is suddenly going to be a lot more lucrative.
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Yea, I knew that but Washington will still have less money relative to most other teams because the ammount they commited last year, or so I would think.
 
After watching running back after running back run over and bounce off of Cato, Id say NO to signing him.

And yeah, make CLEMENTS the #1 Priority along with Steinbach the Guard from Cinncy.

The rest you can get in the draft (Safety and OLB to help Demeco)
 
Clements or Samuals at CB
Briggs at LB
and MAYBE (not sure where we would be cap wise at this point)Steinbach.

Get that done in FA and the defense would be MAJORLY improved and the O-line would have a solid addition.

Then Draft Landry and the Defense is pretty much good to go IMO (could use a penitrating DT, but can only do so much in one year).

Get O-line in the second (OC) and maybe the 3rd (probably not needed though if all the other falls into place) and the O-line should be good to go.

The only thing that would shift this would be if Spencer isn't going to be good to go, then we may have to take a top tackle in the first and the best FS in the second with another O-line guy (OC) in the 3rd.

I know some want to get a RB or possibly even a QB in the 3rd, but we have to finally address the foundation of the team. We have blown it off for 5 years and need to actually do it and not just bandaid it.

We would need to make sure Moulds would be around for another year or or two and I can't remember how long we signed him for and Dayne for another year.
 
Sarg01 said:
Yes, yes, we know. Grab Nate Clements and Lance Briggs, with Asante Samuel and Adalius Thomas as the backup plan. Feel free to get in line with the 31 other teams looking at the same guys.

What players that we might actually get are folks looking at in Free Agency? :shades:

Myself, I'm keeping an eye on:

DT Ian Scott - 25-year old run stopper
OLB Cato June -
FS Deon Grant -
CB Roderick Hood - this 25-year old Eagles' nickleback is the closest thing to a possible starting cornerback on the market
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Really good finds, I want to throw out the name Terdell Sands, another DT. That would be 2 FA DT to go with Weaver and Williams. Could be a great line.

You might be able to get all these guys for what it will cost to get Clements.
 
I would add the FS from Seattle, Hamlin to the list of FA targets that would help the team. He is the starting FS for the Seahawks, was a 2nd round draft choice out of Arkansas. He is big for a FS at 6'2" and 209. Also, he comes from a D that plays a base 4-3 similar to ours and at 25, should have his best years ahead of him.

That said, why can't we score big in the FA market for Samuel (the one that would help the most in my opinion) and/or Briggs from Chicago? Not every team needs as much help as we do, nor will they pay as much for FA's as we have proven we will. Paying a bunch for FA's has not been a problem, getting the value that we were paying for has been (with the exception of Weaver and Moulds this year).

Go Texans....beat the Browns into the ground! :marionaner:
 
humbleone said:
That said, why can't we score big in the FA market for Samuel (the one that would help the most in my opinion) and/or Briggs from Chicago? Not every team needs as much help as we do, nor will they pay as much for FA's as we have proven we will. Paying a bunch for FA's has not been a problem, getting the value that we were paying for has been (with the exception of Weaver and Moulds this year).
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Not saying it can't happen, but the Texans are in the bottom half of CAP space available on the list I saw, for one, plus we are not looking to be real close to the playoffs with the Colts, Jags and now the Titians all playing at high levels. Many guys like Clemmons can choose to go to a good team or a bad one, he's played on a bad one, where would you go?
 
humbleone said:
That said, why can't we score big in the FA market for Samuel (the one that would help the most in my opinion) and/or Briggs from Chicago?
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Free Agency is basically an auction. You have a "winning bidder". The guy that beat out the other competition for rights to the prize. There's a catch to this, though.

Sometimes the "winner" is actually the big loser: paying too much. Sure, McNair's got the money, but bad salary cap decisions generally come back to hurt a team later. The more teams involved in the auction, and the more "exciting" the player, the more likely it is that the winning bidder will overpay. Once one team makes an excessive offer, there's nothing a GM can do to land the player except overpay even more. There's nothing wrong with a GM "failing" to sign a marquee player.

As a result, it makes sense to target "2nd-tier" free agents, because you can quite often sign them BEFORE the budget-busting Lance Briggs type deal.
 
Sarg01 said:
Yes, yes, we know. Grab Nate Clements and Lance Briggs, with Asante Samuel and Adalius Thomas as the backup plan. Feel free to get in line with the 31 other teams looking at the same guys.

What players that we might actually get are folks looking at in Free Agency? :shades:

Myself, I'm keeping an eye on:

DT Ian Scott - 25-year old run stopper could replace Payne. Given that he's the rotation guy behind two young guys, Tommie Harris and Tank Johnson, its not hard to see Chicago not willing to pay him what he's worth. Since he's a run-defender and not a sack master, his profile is a little lower and he'd almost certainly going to be interested in a place where he'll be the clear #1 from the start.

OLB Cato June - Some of you who remember me complaining about June being overrated might be surprised to see this. However, the Indy defense has gotten a healthy dose of reality since then to burst much of that bubble. My contention was more about him not being a Pro Bowl caliber player (he got in last year) - but that doesn't mean he's a scrub. Given that we have more beef in our front 7 (he'd be playing behind Mario Williams instead of Dwight Freeney), I don't think we'd have to be as worried about him getting run over. He might have some extra Colt-killing knowledge, too. The Colts are going to be more worried about getting Freeney back, so there's a real possibility he hits the open market. A smart team would get a deal with him done fast, while he's still the 3rd best OLB option (behind Adalius and Lance). He's 27, so he could be around for a while.

FS Deon Grant - Continuing with my theme of raiding division rivals :) - the Jags' 28-year old free safety would be a heck of a lot better than CC Brown. I know a lot of folks want Landry, and that's cool, since Landry could play either safety spot for us. Grant should be able to be signed fairly easily with teams distracted by Ken Hamlin.

CB Roderick Hood - this 25-year old Eagles' nickleback is the closest thing to a possible starting cornerback on the market (apart from Nate and Asante). He's used to playing for almost nothing (on a rookie FA contract) so it shouldn't take much to make him happy, especially if it comes with a reasonable assurance of a starting spot. Since he hasn't played much, he doesn't have the dazzling stats that would guarantee a high price tag. However, a year ago, he started 6 games after Lito Sheppard got knocked out and racked up a respectable 40 tackles, 15 pass defensed and 3 INTs. He's got pretty good speed, and has done some kick returns as a result (career long 53 yards)
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Good finds Sarg! And, if I had to bet, I bet that's just the kinds of players that Kubes and Smith will go after. The only one I'm not sold on getting is June, but you do bring up some interesting points about him.
 
Cato June needs to go back at his regular spot at Saftey............Unless he stays in Indy (we beat em) or goes to a team that runs a lot of zone, like Tampa.
 
I'd rather see the Texans save some $ and draft LaRon Landry fs in the 1st and Josh Wilson cb in the 2nd. We'd have a killer secondary.

In free agency we could try and land Lance Briggs olb and Ian Scott dt.

I'm not saying the Texans should go after a cb in free agency but it could be really expensive to land one. Clements might be influenced by Moulds if they were any kind of buddies back in Buffalo. We'll see.
 
I think we should try and get a speedy WR. Maybe someone almost like Colston in New Orleans. I don't think Moulds would be here for a long time because he is getting up there in age and might retire soon. Another speedy WR could help us out when we run three wide outs. We could get that in the late round, though. I would much rather have Asante Samuels, but if Clements comes here because of Moulds, I am all for it. If we can snag Adalius Thomas from Baltimore, as well as having Clements, and Laundry, we would have one scary defense.
 
At a minimum, the Texans need another DE to bookend MW, and at least one quality DT. Almost as dire are at least two Will and Sam LBs that run a 40 better than 5.0. We need two starting CB's and a decent FS. And that's only to field a quality 11 on the D. That's not counting any depth. I think Kubes will go 3 of first 5 picks on D.

One of the two O picks will be Adrian Peterson (wishful thinking) and hopefully another OL. We may see a QB picked in later rounds. I'd stay away from any FA QB's.
 
Sarg01 said:
Yes, yes, we know. Grab Nate Clements and Lance Briggs, with Asante Samuel and Adalius Thomas as the backup plan. Feel free to get in line with the 31 other teams looking at the same guys.

What players that we might actually get are folks looking at in Free Agency? :shades:

Myself, I'm keeping an eye on:

DT Ian Scott - 25-year old run stopper could replace Payne. Given that he's the rotation guy behind two young guys, Tommie Harris and Tank Johnson, its not hard to see Chicago not willing to pay him what he's worth. Since he's a run-defender and not a sack master, his profile is a little lower and he'd almost certainly going to be interested in a place where he'll be the clear #1 from the start.

OLB Cato June - Some of you who remember me complaining about June being overrated might be surprised to see this. However, the Indy defense has gotten a healthy dose of reality since then to burst much of that bubble. My contention was more about him not being a Pro Bowl caliber player (he got in last year) - but that doesn't mean he's a scrub. Given that we have more beef in our front 7 (he'd be playing behind Mario Williams instead of Dwight Freeney), I don't think we'd have to be as worried about him getting run over. He might have some extra Colt-killing knowledge, too. The Colts are going to be more worried about getting Freeney back, so there's a real possibility he hits the open market. A smart team would get a deal with him done fast, while he's still the 3rd best OLB option (behind Adalius and Lance). He's 27, so he could be around for a while.

FS Deon Grant - Continuing with my theme of raiding division rivals :) - the Jags' 28-year old free safety would be a heck of a lot better than CC Brown. I know a lot of folks want Landry, and that's cool, since Landry could play either safety spot for us. Grant should be able to be signed fairly easily with teams distracted by Ken Hamlin.

CB Roderick Hood - this 25-year old Eagles' nickleback is the closest thing to a possible starting cornerback on the market (apart from Nate and Asante). He's used to playing for almost nothing (on a rookie FA contract) so it shouldn't take much to make him happy, especially if it comes with a reasonable assurance of a starting spot. Since he hasn't played much, he doesn't have the dazzling stats that would guarantee a high price tag. However, a year ago, he started 6 games after Lito Sheppard got knocked out and racked up a respectable 40 tackles, 15 pass defensed and 3 INTs. He's got pretty good speed, and has done some kick returns as a result (career long 53 yards)
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there is a reason that these players are possibly going to be let go in the offseason. []Ian Scott lost his job to a guy who has issues with following public law and advoiding jail time...don't think his talent would be better than pitcock from ohio state which we could get by trading down our picks. []Cato June is apart of the worst rushing defense in the NFL and he isn't hurt either folks. cato is a good cover two linebacker against the pass we do not play a cover two zone very often with our secondary as is...why would we want to bring in a guy who doesn't fit into our defensive game plan and can't stop the run which is in our game plan? []Deon Grant is an okay free safety but he has issues with going back deep into coverage and misses assignments there...not much of an up grade from CC Brown. []Roderick Hood i have seen the kid play...he would be a great up grade from Demarcus Faggins as a Nickelback. He probably would sign cheap which is what we need...badly too. I don't see him filling in as a starter anytime soon tho, he is too old for the still learning gimme and we can't afford secondary issues next year if we want to contend for the playoffs.
 
West Texas Texan said:
At a minimum, the Texans need another DE to bookend MW, and at least one quality DT. Almost as dire are at least two Will and Sam LBs that run a 40 better than 5.0. We need two starting CB's and a decent FS. And that's only to field a quality 11 on the D. That's not counting any depth. I think Kubes will go 3 of first 5 picks on D.

One of the two O picks will be Adrian Peterson (wishful thinking) and hopefully another OL. We may see a QB picked in later rounds. I'd stay away from any FA QB's.
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I agree with you to a large extent. I would love to see Alan Branch AND Gaines Adams both on this line with Mario and Weaver. But, we've spend 3 1st round picks on DL and this plan would mean cutting the ropes on TJ and Babin. 2 more LBs would also mean cutting Wong and Greenwood. You're assessment is pretty much right on, but just reinforces the poor choices we seem to have made in FA and in the draft.
 
skillz24 said:
there is a reason that these players are possibly going to be let go in the offseason.
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Hey, I'd love to have enough 1st round draft picks to fill all our needs with rookies and/or infinite cap room - guaranteed Super Bowl trip in a few years.

However, the league has something to say about that. We have around $13 million in estimated cap room. About 7 million goes to signing draft picks, leaving 6 million - which is enough to sign exactly one premier free agent, or maybe 3 of the guys I listed above.

Going for Clements or similar means fielding:

Mario-TJ-Pitcock-Weaver
Greenwood-Ryans-StephenNichols
Clements-Landry-Earl-Dunta

My way means fielding:

Mario-Branch-Scott-Weaver
June-Ryans-Blades
Hood-Grant-Zbikowski-Dunta

... both assuming 3 defensive draft picks. Even if you prefer Greenwood to June, I still think knocking TJ, Orr (not sure Nichols could start right away) and Earl off the starting line-up is a net positive.
 
I think that Greenwood has become a much more improved player in our defense and has become much more comfortable in it and I don't think he needs to be replaced yet, I'd like to give him one more year under the new defensive scheme and then evaluate him. Orr on the other hand needs to be replaced whether it be by a FA or a rookie. In the secondary I think that we need someone like a Clements or Samuel in it, and if not them then take a look at Hamlin or Lewis at safety. I propose instead of Scott we take a look at Sands the DT from the Raiders, big run stopping player. Keep TJ he made much more progress last season and I think if he didn't get injured we would be talking about him as a bright spot right about now. Get rid of Payne he is too old and isn't really bringing anything to the table anymore. Then use a DT rotation of Maddox, TJ, and Sands. I would like us to take a look at Na'il Diggs and figure we might be able to get him at a reasonably good price. Under my way we would be looking like this:


Williams - TJ (Sands) - Maddox (Sands) - Weaver
Greenwood - Ryans - Diggs
Clements (Samuels) -1st Round Safety - Lewis (Hamlin) - Robinson
 
Michael Lewis, Strong Safety.

Once considered one of the NFL's best young safeties has been relegated to backup in Philly. Set to be a UFA in 07.

Possibly like Carr a change of scenery brings him back to form and a DEFINITE improvement over our current safeties.
 
i can see gary and rick goin after michael and i think michael might wanna come to houston, he is a houston native, but he will go were the money is i think
 
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