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Originally Posted by Keith
I'll probably write up something here later about key points,
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A couple things, mostly about Mario...
- It's official. Mario Williams is a badass. His performance to date has apparently allowed his contract to trigger a couple key functions, namely his ability to void the final two years (2010 and 2011). Fear not, per the original agreement, the Texans exercised the buyback option, but only at supercharged base salaries of $9.4 million and $13.6 million, respectively.
The buyback bonus is $8.5 million, and per my notes from a year ago, it was supposed to have been payable within two equal installments, the first on 3/15/2010 and the second one year later. Since it appears as though the option has already been bought back, I'm a little unclear as to whether this affects the 2009 cap right now. I don't think it does, which would be good if 2010 remains an uncapped year. Mario's cap figure will be ginormous in 2010 and 2011 if there is a salary cap.
- Chris Brown is still on the roster. I know, I'm surprised, too. He finished the 2008 season on IR, and apparently there was no injury settlement from what I can tell. Maybe he'll take care of the bug problem in the Reliant Stadium basement until the payroll glitch gets fixed.
Even though 2010 is looking like an uncapped year, I still intend to publish a 2010 cap page on the site when I get some time to put one together, hopefully in the next day or two. In spite of Williams' huge cap figure, the available cap space might have grown another $10 million or so. Given the # of teams with literally dozens of millions of cap room this year, I think it is a little easier to see why some owners think the players' piece of the pie is getting harder to stomach. Specific to the Texans... they have very little reason to "make it happen" when it comes to re-signing the UFAs and RFAs they want around (Dunta, Owen) and other key players (DeMeco, Pitts, Walter, K. Brown).