You didn't address TC's key point - how does any of this reflect a disconnect between Smith and McNair?
The things I have read about Rick Smith...he doesn't seem like the guy who would pay Dunta Robinson $10 million for one season, coming off a nasty leg injury AND the absence from camp & preseason games shenangians. I think they wanted to try and get compensation for Dunta, just as they tried to trade David Carr and found out that David wasn't going to play that game with them. At the end of the day, guys, I think Bob McNair has a few players he wants to make sure get treated royally so that it reflects well on the image and brand of the Texans. Smithiak? They are trying to win games and get good value while not giving up much.
From the way things "appear," since we really don't know the 100% straight-scoop on how the Texans Trio (McNair, Smith, Kubiak) go about the decision-making process, it "appears" to me that Kubiak and Smith think fairly similar, with Smith doing the dirty work on keeping contracts as cheap and team-friendly as possible.
I think Kubiak wanted Benson, but Smith's contract budget (possibly set by Bob, but who really knows? LOL) didn't like the terms and conditions--Benson said he wanted a chance to get signifcant snaps, IIRC. Couple that with the ability of the Bengals to outdo the Texans in the salary area, and well...not able to seal the deal on a guy I think Kubiak wanted.
We got Antonio Smith for what is considered to be a pretty good value, at least in terms of it being team-friendly as far as free agent contracts are concerned.
So it just appears that Smithiak played hardball with Dunta, using the tag and maybe even considering tagging him again to get compensation for him. I think, honestly, that Smithiak was ready to unload Dunta and tried to tag him last off-season to maybe get something for him (remember: Smith was there with Kubiak during the We-Got-Schaub-From-Atlanta presser, saying they were trying to find a place to TRADE David Carr to). Smithiak wants to pay as little as they can, and yet get all that they can for THEIR price.
Carr and Dunta are clearly Bob's little pet "spending project," IMO. At the end of the day, McNair overrides Smithiak and chooses to bless those whom he wants to bless...regardless of merit.
I don't know how I can spell out, any more clearly, my stance on this. Do I have proof? No. I have observations from watching how things went down in the past, how things go down now, and how all of us know things are going to go down tomorrow and every day afterward.
Smithiak plays hardball (i.e. OD and Ryans contract talks, as well as tagging Dunta) and McNair is the big softy who writes the checks and will intervene if he wants to, for whatever subjective reason he deems to be logical. For him.