August 19, 2008
More Suckage with MegabuXXX UFAs
by Keith Weiland
Keith@IntheBullseye.com

Jacques Reeves is still pretty new around these parts, but the early returns on the Texans’ biggest signing of unrestricted free agency this offseason have not been impressive. In fact, they have been downright concerning as Reeves has looked inconsistent at best in preseason play as the team’s starting cornerback.

We were warned, of course, by our neighbors to the north that Reeves was toasted often in the Cowboys secondary. A change of scenery (for the better, I might add) would help, at least we hoped, not to mention being under the tutelage of coaches like Jon Hoke, who has contributed to the development of the team’s other starter, Fred Bennett.

Sure, it is early. Way early. Reeves is just two games into the fake season, so really nothing is on record yet, though nightmares of Reeves chasing Santonio Holmes into the endzone in Week 1 are in fact keeping me up at night. Pity me.

Sadly, Reeves is maybe then just beginning to prove to be just the latest example of an unrestricted free agent signed from another team for a nice chunk of change that disappoints once he is wearing a Texans uniform.

This is a trend I think we all thought would die once the Dom Capers/Charley Casserly era had finally passed, a time when the team almost knowingly had to overpay to attract free agent talent to an expansion team.

But then the team signed defensive end Anthony Weaver to a contract with $12 million guaranteed. Weaver, now in his third season as a Texan, still isn’t as healthy as the day he inked his retirement plan.

Then last year’s big foray into unrestricted free agency, running back Ahman Green, failed to remain healthy for most of the season, in spite of even having a weekly roster bonus for just showing up to play. I understand injuries happen, and when you’re hurt, you’re hurt, but signing Green at 30 was as a known injury risk. Boom goes the dynamite.

So now Reeves joins the pantheon of mercenary Texans riding shotgun, armed with $6 million in bonuses but without any bullets.

Someone needs to be held accountable. Given the team has had some success in recent years in the draft, the talent prognosticating woes are more easily identifiable with the pro scouting department, a group helmed by Bobby Grier, the associate director of pro scouting.

And what’s interesting about Grier here is this: he’s been with the team since 2000, more than two years before the inaugural training camp. Grier has been one of the few holdovers from the Capers/Casserly era that has survived three years into Gary Kubiak/Rick Smith regime, and I’m having a hard time figuring out why.

Maybe it’s because Grier is a football man and has been pretty much his whole life. He spent decades with the Patriots, both as a coach and front office executive. While the Patriots did have some success in the ‘90s with Grier heading up their personnel department, the team only achieved their Super Bowl-winning accomplishments once he was shown the door by Bill Belichick in favor of Scott Pioli.

The late Joel Buchsbaum of Pro Football Weekly wasn’t too complimentary of Grier’s expertise as scouting director.

“I think he was a good, hard worker and a loyal soldier who moved up the ranks, but I think at the end he may have gotten promoted one notch too high,” Buchsbaum said. “I think he overemphasized size, speed and athleticism. Didn’t put enough emphasis on competitiveness and how the guys played.”

As a young and still somewhat inexperienced general manager, Rick Smith probably has a lot respect for Grier and might even see him as a role model. Maybe it’s why Grier still has a job, I don’t know. But it seems to me that the time might be soon approaching that Smith asks Grier to respectfully resign from his post so that he may finally fill the vacancy with someone else.

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