As I had posted earlier, Walter already got his salary reduced to $2M sometimes in Mid March (his cap hit is $3M, I believe.)
Yes, 3 million in savings this year at the very least, but he is on the books for 4.5 million 2013, so that's the savings for 2013 and beyond. None of it is guaranteed, or would have been, had he been cut at the start of free agency in 2012. The point being that there is more money available in the future for salary escalation if necessary, so if the first year is 15.25 million, it's entirely possible to go higher in future years to make the total value higher.
Adding the cap hits of Schaub and Walter together (per Spotrac), we come up with $15.2M.
That's $2.8M short of the $18M.
Ok, that's exactly what I said, and up thread I showed other savings we could have used to go after him. I also said that Manning
may have been interested in taking less money if he thought we were a better situation than Denver, I never said anything about matching the offer dollar for dollar.
What does that mean?
Either:
1. Manning has to agreed to sign for $2.8M less for us to stay at the same cap number (that we must) and Walter is gone while we don't have any one on the roster that can do the things he was asked for besides catching the ball.
The only guy we had at that time was Jean who was on IR for the entire 2011, and therefore had never practiced those blocks and routes that Walter runs.
(I never thought for a moment that they can cut Walter. Next year, they will a possibility, if they've been having Jean and Posey learning to do those things all this time.) Do you think that Peyton would leave $2.8M on the table?
I think 2.8 million is the least of Peyton's worries. I think he's interested in rings, not a couple million here and there. His endorsement deals certainly bring in some significant money, but I would be surprised if that small amount of money was a deal breaker.
2. Keeping Walter and cut several players to make the cap.
Take a look at the cap hits, who and how many players can the Texans cut (replacing them with minimum-salary players) to make it work?
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/houston-texans/cap-hit/
I don't think it's feasible.
I stated other options for saving capspace upthread. Cut Winston and Jacoby, and declare them June 1st cuts. Keeping Demeco would have saved us at least a million or two, and it would have reduced the dead money incurred if he was traded in 2013. He would have taken over for Cushing instead of the hodgepodge of ILBs we have been using. Could have kept Reed at OLB, which may have improved our pass rush this season. Restructure JJo and Antonio Smith for sure. There's always money to be moved around if needed, saying it was not possible is just asinine though. Where there's a will, there's a way, but there was no will with the Texans.
The thing I really don't like about your opinion on this is that it seems you saying you would rather have Schaub+Walter over Peyton Manning (I could interpreting you wrong here). I couldn't care less if Walter was gone in this scenario because anything lost in the run blocking department would be outweighed by everything gained in the passing game with Manning at the helm. If the team is forcing the defense to play nickle and dime sets constantly, then the run game will greatly benefit from the different personnel, and IMO moreso than one WR who occasionally gets a block down field. AJ+OD+Foster as the top 3 receivers is fine with me if I have Manning at QB. All you need is a speedy outside receiver to stretch the defense (could be Martin) and I think you have a recipe for success.