Atleast for now, I think you try hard to keep your good players if possible, it is so hard to find the good ones as we've seen over the past 7 to 8 years.

I know CBA's, economy, injuries all play into it, but I'd hate to see any of the three guys OD, Demeco, or Dunta go. Seems they are all performing at a pretty high level. The player agreement expiring could make it tricky, especially if there is lockout or mass holdouts.

Even the teams record this year likely plays into it. Are we 10-8 or just average again?

I do not think 5 big ones(millions) a year is much for any of these guys in current pay scales as compare to what other teams paying similar guys. Maybe more. The guarantee part is the tough part.

And if they can work it out now, before all those questions arise, that would be a good thing as well for Texans.

With no CBA, Owen Daniels would be a RFA again as the wait for free agency lengthens with the prospect of a future uncapped year. With a CBA, he would be an unrestricted free agent. Dunta is completely unaffected by the CBA, barring a change to franchise player rules in a new CBA.

That sounds contradictory to me. With no collective bargaining agreement to heed, seems like any player could do whatever seemed to be best for himself. Same thing for the various teams.

I can understand how it would sound contradictory when you put it that way. And I'm not sure whether I can make it any clearer (I'm operating with a fuzzy, flu-ridden brain right now), but I am quite sure all of the following is true and information backing it up can be found all over the place on the web because I've read many articles on what's coming up if they don't reach a new agreement.

When the owners voted to opt out of the current CBA (which happened last fall), it set up a timeline for a post-agreement world, i.e. the uncapped years. The rules for uncapped years, ironically enough for those who think it'll be a player windfall, are much more strictly regulated. It takes players longer to hit free agency, teams gain more tags to restrict movement, and teams that hit the playoffs have their ability to sign free agents severely limited.

Ok, see...... I didn't know that. And like you say, I thought it would be the reverse. Thanks for correcting me.

I wonder how this injury affects OD's potential cash in?

He'll be likely to have to play under another one year deal to prove that he's back from the injury much like Dunta. The Texans aren't going to offer him a big money long term deal to a guy with history of knee problems until he has proven he's healthy on the field....especially if they still control him so to speak.....and Like Dadmg said, assuming there is no new CBA OD will be a RFA again. Under the current deal he would have been a unrestricted free agent after this year, but part of the last CBA included some rules if the CBA expired without a new deal in place making it harder for players to make it to Free Agency and limiting what playoff teams are able to do in free agency. Same thing applies to Demeco as well....I think.

I'm sure some guys are going to get ridiculous money if there's no cap....but I think there will also be some teams slashing payroll under where the cap floor would have been. Prime candidates IMO....KC, St. Louis, Jacksonville, Detroit, Cleveland, and possibly Tenn?

OD would very likely have been playing under a RFA contract in 2010 whether he was hurt or not. Might have gotten a contract done before the end of the year and then would likely have cashed in pretty big in the guaranteed money arena, but most likely would have been in the RFA situation.

We'll see now if it was the system or if OD is really worth the big bucks. Love the guy and hope he gets well and gets paid someday, but if Dressen and Casey produce, I don't think he'll ever see the big bucks from the Texans.

The word is (FWIW ?), that OD could have got paid in recent months to the tune of 'bout 15 M guaranteed money but he passed on that because he was holding out for the kind of money other TEs like Winslow at TB were collecting ? Anyway, he's a big boy and he's blown out knees before so he knew such things do happen, knew the risks. In addition he and his agent knew we were entering the upcoming offseason with additional uncertainty because we may not get a new contract between owners & player-union ?
I don't think the Dressen/Casey combo will fully repalce OD Day 1, but in time I think we could be back very close to where we were with OD.

As good as OD was doing, he is no Winslow. OK for him to regard himself in that way, but he needs to understand how the NFL works on things like this. Now he is in the same boat that DRob was/is in.

I was one of the few that said OD was a product of the offense. I will stick to what i said and hopefully Casey gets healthy because I want him in there instead of Dreesen.