[Chron.com] LB Colvin to visit Texans
 

Interesting.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/5817469.html

Stay healthy and it'd be very nice.

i would rather see what we have in zac diles and xavier adibi than signing old players coming off injuries. unless we plan to use him like they were talking about using chaun thompson as a situational pass rusher.

Always love competition if it doesn't put the team in bad cap situation. I doubt the Texans would give him a big signing bonus if they sign him so it shouldn't be bad even if he is only a bandaid.

That's what I thought when I saw it....I can't imagine they would be interested in him for anything other than a situational guy.

well, kubiak and smith have shown a steadfast willingness to build this team up through the draft (and trades i suppose) instead of buying players up. ahman green or chris brown are the two biggest free agents i can think of off the top of my head. i don't think they would ignore two guys who they drafted (diles, adibi) for colvin who is older and coming off a foot injury which is never good. plus i think kubiak has more of a willingness to play talented youth over experienced vets as long as the work ethic is there. plus kubiak already divulged his wish to have played diles more last year. plus we already have chaun thompson who i'm totally fine with as our situational pass rusher. not to mention n.d. kalu doesn't exactly suck at being a situational pass rusher so....plenty of reasons to think this is just blabber.

I know they want a pass rusher on the LDE, but I really figured it was going to be a DE, that could rotate rather than a 3-4 LB that can really only play passing downs. The question then is he a LB or a DE in our def? Who does he beat out, if he gets a chance, Thompson or Bently? I think that he would really have to bring something mroe to the table than pass rusher. He has to be able to backup at least one of the postions.

for info purposes only:
colvin 6'3'' 250 turns 32 during season 9 years played
thompson 6'2'' 250 28 years old 5 years played
weaver 6'3'' 280 27 years old 7 years played
kalu 6'3'' 265 33 years old 10 years played

obviously colvin has the experience and ability to be a situational sacker, but i just don't think he's got the game (or size) at LDE that we don't already have in a weaver/kalu/thompson combo. and since we've already got the combo and don't need to spend money on something we already have.....

i noticed weaver's stats...the denver game he had 8 tackles and a safety? i don't remember the safety but the 8 tackles was about 4 more than he had any other game. so he had a good game and somebody else got 3.5 sacks....related?

KJ3

I think the real question is does Colvin have more ability and talent then Thompson or Kalu. That I dont know.

There are 3 players on the team that I like, which is contrary to what most other people think. Faggins, Greenwood, and Weaver.

Weaver was never advertised as a pass rusher. He is a run stopping DE that is big enough and strong enough to move inside. Weaver and the coaches have both said that he never played close to 100% last year, because he was so behind in conditioning from his two surgeries. I can belive that right now but he better come in and play like a mad man this year since he is supposed to be 100%. Although last year he had 41 tackles, which is a career high.

I dont remember the safety during the Denver game either. I think that the entire DL was lit up that game. Weaver and Amobi played great and MW made me weep in joy the whole night. I dont know if you could contribute their awesomeness to Weaver or Amobi playing better than they had been, or just all three of them really being pumped up.

I do know that just with the indicated improvement from MW and Amobi the line should be better, and wtih a healthy Weaver perhaps even more potent than we may think.

I like Greenwood as well. I don't think he gets enough credit. Overpaid? Yes, but he's been a solid player. I think the timing is right to have a guy like Adibi who can be groomed to replace him though because he is getting older.

I don't really have a problem with Weaver. He never developed into the pass rusher we hoped he would....but those were probably unrealistic expectations anyway. He wasn't healthy last year and it showed. Definitely overpaid though.

I don't get some of the unmitigated hate thrown at Faggins even though we definitely need to improve that spot. I think they tried to force a square peg in a round hole. He's a nickel corner at best and that's it. We were forced into a sitaution where we had nowhere else to turn for a starting corner. He was better than Buchanon, and Fletcher couldn't keep him off of the field either. I think he lost his confidence, and that just made matters worse. By all indications he works as hard or harder than anyone....he has too or he wouldn't have ever made it or still be here. He is spot that we need to upgrade, and with Bennet, Molden, and Reeves we have probably done that. He's the kind of guy who I hope can make it work simply because he's one of those came out of nowhere stories. I know he played very bad last year, but it's interesting how he went from "Petey the Fan favorite" to the worst cornerback in the history of the game...and you get the feeling that nothing he does will ever get some people off of his back.

Kravix-

I don't know what the coaches think, but to me we don't need a LDE, we need a RDE. I think Mario is a perfect LDE. I know most people think the RDE is more valuable, and in general I would agree, but I think Mario is the exception. I don't think he is quite fast enough to beat some right tackles. In other words, he's not a true speed rusher. But the fact that he has enough speed to beat righttackles consistenty at the same time that he can excell against the run makes him a real weapon against any offense.
In other words, we need a true speed rusher at RDE. Maybe we will get one in an early round next year in the draft. At least I'm hoping we will.

But do you want a true speed/pass rusher there every down? Or a beast that locks down the run if it comes and gets sacks on passes?

I think Weaver had his best year to date partly because teams woudl run from MW.

I cant argue that he looks much better against RT's than LT's, but the caveat is LT's are typically better than LT's. I would love to see the stats of how many sacks and pressures came from the RDE vs LDE for MW last year.

The real question for Colvin, other than would he play LB or DE, is what will he demand salary wise? He was making $7.9M this year with the Pats before they cut him loose. Wouldhis sore foot take the pressure? Lots of questions to be answered before we are interested,IMO.

He is barking up the wrong tree if he thinks that this FO is going to pay him close to that as non starter, situational pass rusher.

Looks like the jury is still out:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/5819819.html

if you look at the numbers, there is no question. deal is, do we need a talented pass rusher or do we need a big, quick guy who can come in and explode through every ounce of energy he's got at the moment trying to get to the qb? i say the latter and that we've already got 2 of 'em in kalu and thompson.
32 tackles, 9 assists doesn't sound like a run stopper to me. mario's 43 tackles, 16 assists with 2 forced fumbles and 1 recovery (and a TD hehehe) does though and mario did all that in between 14 sacks. but it's not the numbers that matter, it's his impact. mario can, does, and will dominate...weaver never seems to make plays...but when he did (the denver game) the whole line played out of their minds. probably not totally related but i certainly don't believe it's just coincidence.

Well, they got him.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/5839758.html

No contract details and, I think, that is what determines how good a deal this is. I don't think anybody really knows how much he has left and he's GOT to stay healthy. At the very least, they keep him away from Indy. I just read that both Freeny and Bob Sanders may be PUPed. Trouble in Indy?

This guy brings in a Champion mentality because he is coming from the Patriots.

However, I am on a wait n see mode.

This signing is kinda a Keith Mitchell, Charlie Clemons, Danny Clark.,. I'm not going to get too excited.

By the way, I am serious, Darius Walker.

as long as the money isn't crazy i like the signing. (and i think smith has shown he isn't going to waste money, so i feel pretty good about it). if he can stay healthy it should be a tremendous help to the defense, and mario specifically. given the time of year it is i am going with the glass half full. if you can't be high on the team this time of the year, when can you?

As happy as I am that we drafted Mario, I think at the time we drafted him he really wasn't a perfect fit fo us because we already had a player with a high priced long term contract who also played the position that Mario is in my opinion best suited for. I will stand corrected if the future shows me wrong, but I suspect that Mario is will probably always be most effective at STRONGSIDE end. Yes, he can play either end position effectively, but IMO strongside is where he will shine the most.
My feeling is that he doesn't have the speed off the snap to really dominate the best left tackles in the league, though he has the speed to beat the best right tackles. And at 290 pounds, he obviously can handle the strong side run duties. The tremendous thing about Mario is that he allows a team to have TWO great pass rushing ends. Up until now, we haven't had that. I think that with Colvin we may have it. As least if he can stay healthy.
Weaver is redundant if we get another speed rusher in the draft next year, which I expect will happen. I think this year will most likely be Weaver's last year as a Texan.