This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Mario was as good as gone anyway. I'mm hoping he goes to Denver and John Fox gets his "julius Peppers 2.0".Him and Doom and Von Miller out there moving around. I'm not even a Broncos fan but that would be nice. Really glad for Foster. The guy has just done it all the past two seasons.Not bad for a guy a lot of people were trying to say was pedestrian compared to Ben Tate. Maybe this FINALLY illustrates to people what the real NFL people see as important.
I think it seems like a mistake as well, but to play the devil's advocate, the guys that replaced him last year put up fantastic numbers. Perhaps the Texans believe it's their system or that they managed to get some other guys that can continue the same production at a fraction of the price.As a Bills fan, I hope that they go after Mario HARD if he does make it to FA. Buddy Nix did say that the Bills would be major players and be very aggressive if they felt a game changer was out there in FA. And signing someone like Mario would open up their draft to fill a lot more needs as well.
Yes, they can use the tag on him now but its basically the Julius Peppers problem all over again. it is just simply not "doable" to tag him at the rate. He is gone.
Don't worry. I think the Bills are going to draft Whitney Mercilus
Ya know, I like watching the Texans and I am a Mario fan, but I think he will be better somewhere else and I think the Texans will be just fine. I do not think it is going to hurt them. They have some reckless kids down there in Barwin, Reed, Watt, Cushing, a greatly improved secondary that helps them do their job better...and that's without even mentioning DeMeco or Sharpton. For the money it will cost for Mario, i think all parties are better served to let him go.
Since he only played 5 games in the new scheme, that question is still somewhat open. Keep in mind that he had 5 sacks in 5 games. However he had fast starts in 2008 and 2010 (6 sacks in 5 games and 5 sacks in 4 games, respectively) and he did not keep that up for the whole season.The fact is whether the Texans want to keep Mario, they can't do it by franchising him because his cap number would be too high. Even if they had the cap room to franchise him, I think it would be a mistake to pay him that much with how successful you were without him.If the Texans want to keep Mario, they will have to compete in free agency with everyone else. It just remains to be seen whether they can pay close enough to market value to satisfy Mario, while giving the Texans a cap number in the current year that they can live with.I predict Mario plays somewhere else in 2012, and while not dominant, the Texans defense will be just fine.
Same here, guy was heavily abused by everyone and their mother when Houston drafted him. I've been a Mario fan since day one and still have my jersey I bought for peanuts after the Texans drafted him. It's vindicating that its pretty obvious now in hindsight he was the much better pick than Bush or Vince Young were. Letting him go now when he's hitting his prime would be very :( I'm not as big a believer in the defense not missing a beat without him, the 2012 schedule will be much harder than the last 11 games of 2011. Plus it's likely that Wade Phillips will get another shot at a head coaching job after the 2012 season if the defense continues to play well so arguments about what fits Wade Phillips system go out the window.Foster is excellent, but in the end he's just a RB. Ron Dayne, Steve Slaton, Ryan Moats, Derrick Ward, Ben Tate: all of those guys aren't as good as Foster obviously, but they still put up solid to great numbers at times in Kubiak's system. I see a lot of people argue that with Wade Phillips defensive system, you don't need Mario. Why can't I say the same for Foster?
What would help the Texans team more? Having Ben Tate and Mario,Or Ben Tate and Foster?Foster is a great RB, but the offense did not miss a beat with Tate in there. The defense without Mario will suffer.
That's the great debate, both guys are elite at their positions, you are downgrading one way or the other. Sucks as a Texans fan that it's either/or. Unfortunately they couldn't agree to a new contract with Mario last year as the move to OLB was seen as a gamble for the team and as a paycut by Mario & his agent.
Looks like they're gearing up for next year when they are going to have to deal with Duane Brown, Connor Barwin, Matt Schaub, and Glover Quin all hitting FA.
They played 11 of 16 games without Mario in 2012, 6 of those without Schaub as well, and the defense finished ranked 2nd in the league. How much did they suffer in 2011?They will play better QB's in 2012, but they will also know the system better, and their rookies from last year now have experience. I expect this defense, with or without Mario, will be better in 2012.
The staying healthy part is a big factor for me in wanting the Texans not to overpay for Mario.
Foster is excellent and better than Tate, I won't argue that because I agree with it. But even taking into account his injuries, you are seriously underrating Mario Williams. Here are some highlights from that article:-Elite pass rushers prime years are around 26-28 and don't start dropping off in production until they hit their mid 30s. Mario is only 27.
wasnt the texans defense pretty damn good without mario? i think that "the offense did not miss a beat" is inaccurate too.also your options arent accurate. its not tate+williams vs tate+foster. its tate+williams vs foster+brooks reed+some extra cash.
Larry Johnson is a deewchhe, Arian Foster is not. BTW, there's a matter of 22M that HOU would have to pay to tag M Williams.
22M for Mario Williams, where does that come from?
For a "non-exclusive" tag it's the average salary of the top 5 players at his position the previous season or 120% of his salary last year, whichever number is greater
Franchise tag price.
I got that, domvin was stating that M Williams is a better positional value than Foster and my response was that Williams' 22M hit made that a moot point. In that specific team, they have several pressing short and long team needs and 22M simply does not fit.
Agreed. Like I said, looks like they're focusing on some of the guys for next year like Brown, Barwin, Quin, and Cushing in '14.
I agree $22m doesn't fit. But then again they wouldn't have been signing him at $22m via tagging him, they'd have worked out a contract with him before free agency starts that would have more manageable cap numbers.It's still possible that when he hits free agency, he could come back to the Texans to let them match an offer. But I wouldn't count on it. His 2011 cap figure was a little over $18m. Which just goes to show that giving a player a big cap number the last year of his contract can give him leverage in terms of not being able to use the tag on him.
According to Jason laCanforna, Foster is due $18M this year. That's not totally clear on if it means the money he gets with some of it prorated, but it sounds to me as if his cap number is actually $18M.If it's the latter, then they absolutely decided to keep Foster over Williams and could have managed to keep Williams at $22M.http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/05/arian-fosters-guarantee-reported-at-20-75-million/
Foster gets 18 million this year in the following way: $12.5 million signing bonus, $5 million dollar base salary, $500,000 for playing all 16 games. His cap hit would be $5 million from his base, $2.5 from his signing bonus ($12.5 bonus/5 years of contract), and the $500,000 playing time bonus would also probably count against the cap. So the cap hit would be $8 million (I misspoke before when I said $7.5 million).'GroveDiesel said:
Not to mention that Jared Allen was a beer away from a year-long suspension.
Yep.
I have a whole new respect for Foster. Admittedly, I din't know that much about him but am certainly a fan now. Kudos for him for having his head screwed on right.
