Rick Smith [Contract Extension thru 2012]

[Xetuoh1836]

Bob McNair wisely gave a contract extension to Rick Smith thru the 2012 season.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5815984.html

Good move for the franchise and for continuity to our team.

[KJ3]

so....excellent drafts and super bowls until the world ends? i'm good with going out on top! :D:D:D


great move for mcnair, smith, kubiak, the team, the future players of the texans, the fans. this guy is important. i hope he gets a lot of money!

so i posted and then read the clip and found this to be interesting as well:
Smith oversees the personnel department and works closely with coach Gary Kubiak, whose original five-year contract expires after the 2010 season. If the Texans continue to improve this season, Kubiak could be in line for an extension, too.

[Xetuoh1836]

I think the last part is Jabba McClain speculating from the area he sits on. Plus, Kubes has 2 years left on his current contract and Jabba's not doing any "feature" film at the moment..

[Mike]

This had been rumored and is a smart move. Rick deserved the extension based upon his draft and FA work, and cleaning up the salary cap.

I would not be shocked if the Texans try to extend Kubes contract. You can always rip up the current deal, give him a raise and add a few years. I think that also would be a smart move. I think this current regime has demonstrated that they know what the heck they are doing.

I now hope the greedy owners and greedy players can get together to sign a new CBA for the good of the league. I would hate to see plastic face up north or napolean Snyder buy the ring in the uncapped year.

[KJ3]

I think the last part is Jabba McClain speculating from the area he sits on. Plus, Kubes has 2 years left on his current contract and Jabba's not doing any "feature" film at the moment..

....sigh....damnit.....

you know i didn't even look at who was writing this, i figured it was a national article because it was so short...turns out mclyin' just couldn't move his fingers anymore in such a short period of time...looking around there are some video interviews from mcgruff and girl reporter that were interesting to watch but i hate how he has to "play reporter" with this girl...what purpose does she serve?

[Xetuoh1836]

It would be a disaster, if Synder and/or JJ, get loose without a salary cap! There are some safe guards built in to an "un-capped" year but, as alligator face in the "d" has shown (Pacman anyone?), he can change the rules and set the league back for other teams to compete.

[papabear]

I would not be shocked if the Texans try to extend Kubes contract.

Not until after this season. Last time we were close to respectable @7-9.....well bad things happened. I think McNair wants to make sure we keep improving before extending his contract. If we put up a solid year with continued improvement Kubes gets an extension. If not....


No coaches like to be in the last year of a contract becuase of the uncertainty involved. The teams don't like it either, so expect an extension after the season is over.

[Xetuoh1836]

....sigh....damnit.....

you know i didn't even look at who was writing this, i figured it was a national article because it was so short...turns out mclyin' just couldn't move his fingers anymore in such a short period of time...looking around there are some video interviews from mcgruff and girl reporter that were interesting to watch but i hate how he has to "play reporter" with this girl...what purpose does she serve?

That bowling ball, "Ole Three Hole", just massages Jabba's ego and offers nothing to any news she and the local "bird cage liner" it purports to cover.

Sad....

[papabear]

It would be a disaster, if Synder and/or JJ, get loose without a salary cap! There are some safe guards built in to an "un-capped" year but, as alligator face in the "d" has shown (Pacman anyone?), he can change the rules and set the league back for other teams to compete.

Interesting article from John Clayton about which teams are in great shape, and which are in bad shape, if an uncapped year does happen based on how many starters they have signed through that period and their age.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=3415387


Dallas is listed i good shape as far as players under contract through 2010. Washington is listed as being in bad shape. He only talks about the 5 best/worst and the Texans didn't make the list.

[HPF Bob]

Sly must be devastated to hear Agent Smith is getting an extention...

[KJ3]

That bowling ball, "Ole Three Hole", just massages Jabba's ego and offers nothing to any news she and the local "bird cage liner" it purports to cover.

Sad....
hahaha this is without a doubt the funniest single sentence i've ever read burning him and "old three hole" hahahahaha!!!! :D:D:D:D:D

seriously, if i were her father i would have a problem with him. and not just a "oh i like sports but not who's reporting it" problem...like a "m-f'er gonna choke on my foot" problem. it's actually repulsive to me to hear how and how much he does it. especially coming from...something...that can't even sustain enough of a breath to complete a whole sentence much less the staggering thought of how much energy is required to rock that body for the 2 minutes it would take for him to either die or...you know....finish. maybe if he quit gargling with chicken fat.....

Sly must be devastated to hear Agent Smith is getting an extention...
i don't get this at all

[KJ3]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QkIzNGyerAs&feature=related

this is what i (choose to) see and hear whenever i realize big-o is blathering on about something....

[papabear]

.


i don't get this at all


You would have had to have been around on the houstonprofootball.com board. One of the posters, Sly, was convinced that Smith was ruining this franchise, Casserly was a much better GM, and never quit believing that Carr was a great QB.

[Mike]

Sly must be devastated to hear Agent Smith is getting an extention...


I was hoping nobody would bring up that name. Watch him turn up now like a bad penny.

[KJ3]

fair enough. sounds like a winner to me!

seriously though, david carr was a pretty good qb for a glove model.

[Keith]

This had been rumored and is a smart move. Rick deserved the extension based upon his draft and FA work, and cleaning up the salary cap. Like you, I was happy to hear this when I first heard of the extension talks and again yesterday when the agreement was announced.

I got to thinking though, and posted a new article on the ItB.com front page (http://www.inthebullseye.com/archive/2008/20080604.html) on it... Not to go all "agent" here, but exactly what has Smith done that has been so stellar?

I think he deserves a lot of the credit for finding a few street FAs (Demps tops that list), but what about everything else? He had nothing to do with the outstanding 2006 draft, and his biggest moves since (like the Schaub trade in particular) haven't completely paid off, at least not yet.

He's been a part of 'cleaning up' the cap, but he's done so mostly by biding time while dead money expires and limiting his big spending gaffes to Ahman Green.

I'm still on board with the direction of the team, like I said, the news made me happy, but just somethin to chew on in June. I think Smith's greatest quality to Texans fans so far is simply that he is not Charley Casserly.

[papabear]

All valid points Keith and I have had some of the same thoughts. I think there are a couple of other things to consider as well. I don't know the numbers, but I would guess with Smith's relative lack of experience he probably was on the low end of the wage scale for NFL GM's. Now that he has proven that he can handle the job at least well enough to not screw anything up he probably deserved a raise....at least a little one to bring him in line with what other GM's are making.


I think the biggest reason is that it's not good for the organization to have someone in power in the last year of their contract. It puts additional stress on everyone. He may not have done much, but he's done enough that there's no reason to run him out of town either...especially since he has had only one draft with one year to evaluate it. It's worth it just to have that appearance of stability. I say appearance because we all know smith could get run out of town well before his contract is up.

[KJ3]

Not to go all "agent" here, but exactly what has Smith done that has been so stellar?

sometimes it's the things you don't do.

if he made the cap situation better by simply taking a step back, waiting, and not continue doing the things that made it bad in the first place then he did his job in my view. simple and easy are just words but you can't argue with the result and the result is our cap is far better because we've had a GM with his head located outside of his anus.

[Keith]

Good points in the last two posts... just playing devil's advocate here to the otherwise unchecked love for Smith. I do agree that extending Smith a year early ought to help him avoid making too many short-term/win now decisions, so that's an especially good point imo.

Smith was hired at a cut rate, and who knows, maybe Denver or someone else could have hired him. I haven't seen any word on what the terms are of his extension.

I know that sometimes doing nothing is the best thing to do (in fact, I've written on more than one occasion how I wanted the Texans to do nothing in unrestricted free agency the last 2-3 years), but really, the evaluation of Smith is very much incomplete since he will be judged in large part based upon the success of his early picks (Okoye and Brown so far) and big trades (Schaub). Too early to tell on any of them.

[Mike]

Maybe part of the man crush on Smith is that he is not Casserly. He could have tried to band-aid the problems the past couple of years, and make things worse, and as you point out Keith, sometimes doing nothing is actually doing something.

I still have high hopes for Schaub. I'm thinking of him staying healthy and the offense looking like it did against KC and Carolina last year.

I think the other large part of the GM job is to oversee the scouting and drafting of players, and the last two years I think there has been less head scratching (Dave Ragone, Seth Wand, Charles Hill) as well as making as many minor moves to make the overall 53 man roster better (Bentley, Thompson, Demps).

I see and agree with your points, they are valid, but I think overall we are in better shape than before. Do you think they would take Smith back in Denver after all the bonehead moves "The Rat" has made? I do.

[kravix]

I wouldnt say Smith has done nothing.

He has managed a very cap stressed team, and been able to bring in quality players. I tend to give Kubiak more credit for the drafts, but ultilately it is up to Smith to oversee all of the data that is brought to Kubiak pre draft and FA wise.

We all know Kubiak basically hand picked Smith as the GM, and in two years the two of them have not only completly turned over the roster they made the team better than it has ever been. Smith is not the type of GM that says "Caoch, here is a player that I think is awesome and would be a great DT.. Now go!" and the coach says "But GM!!! He is a WR???"

You cannot dismiss the chemistry that Kubes and Smith have. That is stability. That is also the family like atmosphere that McNair wants to promote with his team.

Also dont just look at the players he has brought in, look at the FO support staff he has created. Such as our salary cap/contract guru, and the new scouting department. There are behind the football stuff that he is supposedly doing very well also.

[Keith]

I wouldnt say Smith has done nothing.
Don't extend my meaning... the nothing refers to spending big in free agency, not something broader than that.

Anyway, for many of the good things that can be said for Smith so far, I think that Kubiak is the kingpin here. I'm not trying to take away from Smith, he has done well learning on the job for the sorts of things we can evaluate, but his grade is still very much an incomplete in my book, especially until we see how Schaub and his first day picks progress.

Safe to say most of us including me are very optimistic here, I just don't want to jump the gun.

[kravix]

Don't extend my meaning... the nothing refers to spending big in free agency, not something broader than that.

Anyway, for many of the good things that can be said for Smith so far, I think that Kubiak is the kingpin here. I'm not trying to take away from Smith, he has done well learning on the job for the sorts of things we can evaluate, but his grade is still very much an incomplete in my book, especially until we see how Schaub and his first day picks progress.

Safe to say most of us including me are very optimistic here, I just don't want to jump the gun.

Kieth, after rereading your post i got what you meant. Maybe I should slow down. Im not a big fan of big money free agents.. so to me that is a plus.

I think Schaub was way more of a Kubiak pick than a Smith pick though, moreso than even any draft picks we have picked up save maybe Studdard. The picks we gave up were steep but if Kubiak wanted him then whats Smith to do?

Draft picks will reflect on him, but I think only to the point of how well him and his team evaluate talent. Not just talent but talent that fits the coaching scheme and team needs. Mostly because Kubiak is "kingpin" like you said Keith. The vibe I get is that Smith evaluates and says here is what you are asking for, which one do you want? And the coaches single out the players.

To me the easiest factors to evaluate now are the mid season FA signings, trades, and contracts. Talent gets pretty thin once things start up.

Typically it takes 3-5 years to really grade a draft class. Some are better up front, and others pay more over time. Smith has had 1 draft class which played 1 season... Amobi and Bennet gave us quality play. Diles looks to be a starter this year. Three quality startes out of 6 picks is not bad.

I agree that we have no way of knowing if Smith is great or not, but at this point, with the body of work we can evalute, it should be easy to say Smith doesnt suck as a GM. I am not saying he is the greatest GM ever. He may be signed through 2012 but we will know by 2010 if he will really be around that long.

[NBT]

Don't extend my meaning... the nothing refers to spending big in free agency, not something broader than that.

Anyway, for many of the good things that can be said for Smith so far, I think that Kubiak is the kingpin here. I'm not trying to take away from Smith, he has done well learning on the job for the sorts of things we can evaluate, but his grade is still very much an incomplete in my book, especially until we see how Schaub and his first day picks progress.

Safe to say most of us including me are very optimistic here, I just don't want to jump the gun.

I still have doubts about Schaub too (which I hope will be alleviated after this season), but I think you will have to eat your words this year on last years draft, and next year when this years Draft has a year under its belt, we will have become a much better, and a playoff team.

[Keith]

I still have doubts about Schaub too (which I hope will be alleviated after this season), but I think you will have to eat your words this year on last years draft, and next year when this years Draft has a year under its belt, we will have become a much better, and a playoff team.
Well, let me state (again?) for the record that I am optimistic on both Schaub and the picks; the point originally was that almost in unison Texans fans here and elsewhere were praising the move to extend Smith a year early based on his performance. I was simply asking that we take a closer look at what Smith has accomplished, and more specifically, how much of what he has done can really be measured now versus a year from now.

[painekiller]

Well, let me state (again?) for the record that I am optimistic on both Schaub and the picks; the point originally was that almost in unison Texans fans here and elsewhere were praising the move to extend Smith a year early based on his performance. I was simply asking that we take a closer look at what Smith has accomplished, and more specifically, how much of what he has done can really be measured now versus a year from now.

A lot of the reason for Smith's extension, IMO, have to do with the way he has systematized the college and pro scouting departments and modernized the front office. Casserly did not even use email.

Our scouts now have a central data base that tracks a prospect from the day he hit the team radar to the day the player is no longer n the league. There is no need to go find the guy and ask him to review the notes, they are available for everyone with access to see.