Texans make more moves....

Well the Houston Texans have finally made their big pre-draft move. And what a move it is, they have traded 2 second round picks for Matt Schaub. This trade marks the end of the David Carr experiment by the current coaching staff and at the same time also shows that Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak are serious about changing the direction that this team is going. Granted the true results of this offseason will eventually be played out on the field I like what has been done to change the atmosphere and roster over the past 2 seasons. With the exception of a few of the better performers almost all of the players on this next years roster will be chosen by Kubiak and Smith. Here is a quick rundown of new Houston Texans....

First we start with the new quarterback Matt Schaub, he is 25 years old 6'5" and 235 lbs. He has great upside and has shown that he is a hard working student of the game. He will put in the effort to learn the offense as well as spend the time needed to get a good raport with his teammates. I like the pickup, even if we ended up giving up draft picks, there is not a quarterback in the draft this year, nor last year that would be able to come in and make a big enough of a difference, without other players on both sides of the ball.Now on to those new free agent signings.

The Texans were in Salary Cap Hell this year at the start of the Free Agent period. They had about $13 million in available cap space and over $20 million in dead money sitting on the books. First thing the team did was to dump several players that have not lived up to their cost either because of injury or age or both. Eric Moulds was a good 1 year pickup simply because he was the type of player who could teach Andre Johnson how to take his game to the next level and it showed in J0hnson's season. But Moulds showed he has lost a step and is not the best complimentary player for Johnson now. Also going were Seth Payne and Zach Weigert, both because of injuries and age. Those departures and Andre Johnson redoing his contract gave the Texans the needed space to make the following moves.

First they signed Ahman Green to a 4 year front loaded contract. If anyone thinks Green is going to see the end of that contract then they are crazy. He is a 2 maybe 3 year signing who will allow the Texans to either develop another RB or find one in the draft during that time. Yes he has had injuries before but we still have several functional backups in Ron Dayne, Chris Taylor and Walli Lundy. And before anyone says that these guys are chopped liver they did a fine job over the last 4 weeks of the season running for an average of 150 yards a game which is one reason that the Texans went 6-10.
Next the Texans also have addressed the Offensive line issues in several ways, first they resigned Ephriam Salaam, who can play both tackle positions, and they added Jordan Black who is a young lineman who can play either guard or tackle. This leaves them with several young athletic linemen who will all be competing for spots in the starting lineup. Even if Charles Spencer does not come back this season the offensive line will be better because with Eric Winston, Black, Chester Pitts, and possibly another young linemen drafted in the middle rounds they will be set at the guard and tackle position for several years. Salaam, McKinney and Hogdon, provide depth and flexability that they have not had up to this point. Now I know people are going to say that we don't have any superstars on the O-line but if you look at the best 3 o-lines in the NFL, Indy San Diego, and Pittsburgh none of them have super stars, they have 5 or 6 guys that play hard and play smart, and on any year potential pro bowl performers.

The final moves that the Texans have made and it has all been very quiet, they have improved their depth and tallent level in both the Defensive line and Linebackers. They have signed Jeff Zgonina, Shawn Barber and Danny Clark to contracts that are 1 to 3 years in length for reasonable salaries. All three guys are vets who know what it takes to win as well as have histories of success in the NFL. None of them are world beaters, however you need what I call lunchpail players on your roster to make things work, you cannot have superstars at every position, just look at the Washington Redskins and the New York Yankees. These teams were winners when they had the old school blue collar players on the roster. The heros of those early Yankee teams were a>not the superstars but guys who simply went out every day and busted their backsides and played hard. That is what Zgonina, Barber, Clark bring to the team, and maybe, just maybe they can help some of these young players who do not understand about what it takes to be a success in this league see the light.

So there you have it. The Texans have been blasted by national and local "experts" for not being more of a "player" in the free agent period, but as you see Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak have very quietly done some quality work filling up some of the holes that are on this roster. But they still need to have a good draft to make the off season a success. As of right now their grade is a B- but depening upon the draft it could end up as an A. We will see, the draft is April 28-29.

I'll talk to you after the draft