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Saturday, June 26, 2004
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
With negotiations for most high-round draft choices still in the preliminary stages, the Houston Texans have raced ahead of the rest of the NFL field, becoming the first team to reach agreement with a first-round draft choice.
Linebacker Jason Babin of Western Michigan, the 27th prospect selected overall and the latter of the Texans' two choices in the first round, has reached an agreement in principle and signed his first NFL contract on Saturday. Details of the contract were not yet available.
The speedy resolution to Babin's deal came less than two weeks after the Texans opened negotiations with his representatives from Eastern Athletic Services, based in Baltimore. Talks began around June 15 and escalated in surprising fashion.
Ironically, the consensus around the league is that the Texans' other first-round pick, cornerback Dunta Robinson of South Carolina, would be the initial No. 1 choice to reach an agreement. That's because Robinson's agents, from Sportstars in Manhattan, have a track record for being very proactive in negotiations and not waiting for the draft market to establish itself.
With the Babin accord, the Texans now have reached terms with four of their nine picks from the 2004 draft. None of the other agreements, however, is with a prospect taken higher than the sixth round.
Last year's 27th overall pick, Kansas City tailback Larry Johnson, received a seven-year contract that voids to a five-year, $6.7 million deal. It included a $3.31 million signing bonus. It is uncertain how Babin's contract will compare to that, since teams can prorate deals for only six years now, as opposed to seven years in 2003.
It is expected that Babin will sign either a five- or six-year contract.
A defensive end in college, Babin will move to linebacker in the Texans' 3-4 scheme, and general manager Charley Casserly and head coach Dom Capers have already named him a starter at the left outside spot. The former starter there, Kailee Wong, will move to the outside spot on the right side.
Babin, 24, was a two-year starter at Western Michigan and finished his career with 299 tackles, including 75 for losses, and 38 sacks. He registered 15 sacks in each of his last two seasons and his 38 career sacks is a school record. He also had eight forced fumbles, two recoveries, 43 pressures and two pass deflections.
Houston hopes that Babin will help re-energize a pass rush that recorded just 19 sacks in 2003, the second-lowest total in the league.
The Texans snatched Babin, a player they arduously coveted, by acquiring a second choice in the first round. They swapped second-, third- and fourth-round choices to the Tennessee Titans for the 27th overall pick.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
Those werent bad deals if you read into them more.Mistril48 said:In contrast, it must have been terrifying for the Ravens fans to lose a future first round pick to get back in the first round in 2003 to take Boller and terrifying for the Bills fans to give up a future first round pick to get back in the first round in 2004 to take Losman.
I get what you are saying now and I do agree that it is dangerous to deal future 1st round picks.Mistril48 said:Fiddy, I can't disagree with what you say about the Bills and the Ravens trades (at least not yet). I was merely pointing out that it is more terrifying to trade a first round pick in a future year (as Oakland showed, you never really know how high it will be) than to trade later round picks in the present draft. What if the Giants pick is a top five. Yikes!
The Texans had a press conference right after the draft and claimed otherwise. Casserly said that we didn't need any more bodies and wanted a couple of starters at the top of this draft. We need a starting edge rusher. In two years we have gathered a ton of projects but no real real elite talent for this position. From what I gather looking at news and such, Laboy projects to be a situational player just like our other players at OLB. We only gave up one first day pick and it looks like we will get a starter out of it at a position of need. A high need for that matter. We were the last in the league in sacks and sacks come from OLB's in our system. I am not in disagreement with you as much as I am just passing along what I think I know.nunusguy said:I think we're still in the stage of development where we need quantity atleast as much as quality. But if Babin goes to the Pro Bowl in the next 2 or 3 years, his pick will be more than justified.
by GM Charley Casserly
"We thought it was a strong draft early and a strong draft late. There were a lot of players in the middle that we already had here, because we had so many draft picks in our first two years. Other teams didnt have the draft picks like we had. They didnt have the luxury of having a surplus of picks to trade and move up to get a player. The way I viewed the trade is that we had two fourth round picks, one of which came from a fifth round trade last year. When you have extra picks, you get them to move up. It was a throw away pick. In my view we gave up a third round pick to move up. At that point the player on our board was an offensive guard and weve got enough good offensive guards now. That was not a position we wanted to take. We probably would have moved out of the third round."
by GM Charley Casserly
(opening statement) We gave up a two, three, four and swapped fives. Today we will not pick again, and we will not trade up to pick in the third. Tomorrow, well have a four, a fives, two sixes and two sevens. We have players rated and this was a player that we had rated highest at his position. Hes an outside linebacker for us. We had him slated to go late in the first round or early in the second. We got wind, others were trying to trade up to get him. So it became a little bit of a race to go get him. You have to make a decision if you want or dont want the player. We wanted the player and this is the price that we had to pay. When you go into the draft, you have a wish list. Our two top guys were Dunta Robinson and Jason Babin. We accomplished the objective of getting our first two picks of our wish list.
www.houstontexans.comby Dom Capers
From the first time we worked him out, we had a real feel that he fits the bill of what we look for in an outside linebacker. Probably our greatest need looking back at our defense was our inability to pass rush. Hes had 15 sacks in the last two years. He worked out very well at the combine and in individual workouts. Hes a great guy with a strong work ethic and plays with a tremendous motor. What I really feel good about with our first two picks is that we added coverage. Our corner has tremendous speed and now a pass rush. Those are two things you really look for on defense. Being able to upgrade our defense in those two areas was a real target heading into the day. I couldnt feel better about our first two picks. I commend Charley (Casserly) for making the move to go up and get him. This is a guy that we project will be able to upgrade our pass rush, be a three down player for us, play OLB on the first two downs and defensive end on the third.
While I agree with much of your post, I don't believe we needed quantity over quality at this year's draft.nunusguy said:... I think we're still in the stage of development where we need quantity at least as much as quality ...
There are still Texans fans which are questioning the numbers $$$ that were thrown at Babin.
Babin's official numbers have not yet been reported. We're trying to get them -- but we can't find any agents who'll give us their password for the NFLPA computer system.
aj. said:Babin base salaries from NFLPA (it's been out there for several days already):
2004 $456,003
2005 $1,038,503
2006 $432,503
2007 $584,003
2008 $735,503
2009 $887,003
I read where his bonus was around $3.8 million
I don't see too high a price, and I think pft.com is just reacting to the early, early reaction. Babin gave us two first round picks so he is a push with the 2nd round pick we traded. The off-set was really just one first day pick (3rd round) and a couple of second day selections. One of those second day picks started out as a 5th rounder didn't it? Giving away a 3rd round pick for a guy you project to start and build around as an OLB in a 3-4 defense isn't such a grand price to me. That was the reason Casserly was stockpiling picks; to move up when he had the "right guy". It all comes out in the wash soon though.CloakNNNdagger said:To move into Tennessee's No. 27 spot in the first round, the Texans traded second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks to the Titans....................There are still a good number of Texans fans that are questioning the package involved........and this will not be resolved until Babin has proven himself as a diamond or bust.