2010 Salary Cap

[Keith]

I've gone through an update of the 2009 cap page (yes, finally). I think I'm within a half million or so, who knows, maybe less, as the team closed out with around $4 million in leftover cap space from what I can tell.

So, moving onto 2010... I don't expect a CBA extension before the dawn of the new league year, so saying the Texans have $x million of space available is probably meaningless.

And it's kinda too bad really, since 2010 might have been the team's best ever in terms of cap readiness for the new season, though granted they have quite a few young players owed new long-term deals.

http://www.inthebullseye.com/cap2010.html

As always, please let me know if you spot any errors.

[nunusguy]

Hey Keith, do you think the Texans will make out better or worse without a CBA extenstion and no cap this year compared to other teams, or do you think it will make little if any difference to them ?

[Keith]

I don't think it will really alter much for them.

It will help teams with a lot of bad contracts since teams can cut and trade with no penalty. The Texans are not one of those teams.

It will help teams that try to fix themselves by throwing cash at their problems (assuming the cash lands on the right players). The Texans are not one of those teams, either.

The CBA sitch only helps McNair and the team from having to commit big money deals before they have to with players like Owen Daniels and DeMeco Ryans. And as much as we all like and appreciate what Daniels can do, imagine if he signed that huge contract a year ago with his big injury now?

So the Texans win in the absence of a CBA extension in the sense that all owners probably win. And while the team enjoys an excellent revenue base (so long as the stadium naming rights don't default) and they have a smart cap guy on their payroll, I don't think the uncapped year necessarily favors them all that much relative to the average team.

[cland]

I agree that having 2010 uncapped doesn't do too much for the Texans, but if the NFL business starts looking more like the MLB business over several years, with less revenue sharing.....we'll be the Boston Red Sox, where the poor Bills will be the Florida Marlins.

Now I'm a little embarrassed to say it out loud, because I think parity is a huge benefit for the NFL league, BUT...more money, more revenue, bigger payroll = the opportunity to be a year in, year out playoff contender. I blame the 8 years of season ticket bills to see the Texans never making the playoffs, for my current opinion:

"In free agency the 2017 Texans have signed Ndamukung Suh, Richard Okung, and Eric Berry..."--(cause nobody busts ;p )--"while the Jaguars have went big this year and signed "Zoltan 'the above average punter' Mesko."

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Keith

And as much as we all like and appreciate what Daniels can do, imagine if he signed that huge contract a year ago with his big injury now?

OD and his agent are big boys and knew this "no CBA extension" scenario could materialize for him and I think OD also blew out a knee once before in his career (back in HS maybe ?) and they also knew OD benefited from the Texans small-athletic-TE-friendly system which few other NFL teams operated and still they decided to roll the dice and go for an even bigger payday in the 2009-2010 offseason (aka as as shooting for 2 in the bush when perhaps "a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush"), so I say let them live with their decision even though its looking real dumb about now.

[NBT]

You are right in a way, but I really think OD and his agent were listening too much to the NFLP last year, instead of taking care of their own business. Whatever, I don't want to piss OD off this year, like we did dRob last year. We need OD a lot more than we did dRob. After OD hurt his knee we weren't really the same team for about 3-4 games. Although we did finally pick up the pace again.

[Nconroe]

I guess DelJuan Robinson, Bryan Pittman, and Ephraim Salaam are also unrestricted free agents at this time.

It will be interesting which of their own UFA and RFA they sign in the next month or is there a date to sign by this year?