Who's the best/worst free agent we've ever signed?

[Nconroe]

Oh, from the FA acquisitions which Keith gave a nice list-

my first vote for worst would be Todd Wade
and
my vote for best would be (several good ones) Kris Brown

go ahead and comment , Haiku is 5-7 - 5 syllables , right?

I am so happy no one talking abour BF

[painekiller]

I would say Todd Wade was the worst. IMO he was signed to be a OLT by Casserly. He was paid OLT money, and he never had the skills to be a OLT. Not before we signed him and certainly not after. In fact his skill set was so bad, they made him a ORT when they already had Zach Wiegert to play the slow footed ORT.

As for the good, either Kris Brown or Kevin Walter have to be near the top.

[Bigtinylittle]

I hate to say it because I favored the pickup at the time, but the clear answer for worst is Green.

It would be interesting to calculate the amount of money Green cost us for every run he had over 3 yards. I'll bet the number is substantial.

[cadams]

for best i would go with Walter, just barely over brown, just because he is a kicker, though i don't suppose that really should factor into my evaluation

[Keith]

I thought this would be easier to pick out, but it's kinda hard because you're not sure how to place value on certain aspects of each signing. For instance, Kailee Wong was actually a great signing for the expansion team. He started all 16 games for the first three years of the franchise, but then he re-upped and only started five more times in two seasons before he became dead weight on the salary cap.

So I tend to sorta gloss over the re-signings a bit and just weigh the initial ones, but then that does an injustice to someone like Kris Brown, who has made several clutch kicks as Texan dating all the way back to 2002, but really he has only been truly stellar stats-wise the past two seasons (yes, with the help of a more competent offense to put him in scoring range).

Hmmm. Tough to rank then.

Of the best...
1. Kevin Walter. Maybe the best bang for the buck at a non-special teams position.
2. Kris Brown. He doesn't keep re-signing unless he signs here the first time. A true Texan.
3. Andre Davis. An expensive re-signing, but how critical was he in 2007 both as a kick returner and as a fill-in for Andre Johnson?
4. Zach Wiegert. Underrated signing, maybe because he couldn't stay healthy. But he was plucked from a division rival and became arguably the best OL during his stay (Chester might say no) when he wasn't sidelined, and should maybe be even higher on this list.
5. Sage/Kailee/Leach/McKinney - Too close to call imo. Good cases could be made for all to be even higher than #5 on this list.

Of the worst...
1. Anthony Weaver. Big swing and a miss here. Out of position, hurt, and completely, utterly, entirely ineffective (1 sack in 44 "starts"? Yeesh.)
2. Ahman Green. Six starts in two years. Never rushed more than 73 yards in a game (the total in his first game as a Texan, btw). Bad gamble.
3. Todd Wade. 22 starts in two years. Could easily be tops on this list, but blocking for David Carr makes me grade a bit on a curve.
4. Robaire Smith. Actually, Weaver makes this guy look good. Smith was rumored to be a poor lockerroom influence, too.
5. Rosevelt Colvin. I understand what the Texans were trying to do here and give them some credit for trying, but to not even make the team out of camp makes this list-worthy.

Just hoping and praying that Antonio Smith stays the hell away from this second list.

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by painekiller

I would say Todd Wade was the worst. IMO he was signed to be a OLT by Casserly. He was paid OLT money, and he never had the skills to be a OLT. Not before we signed him and certainly not after. In fact his skill set was so bad, they made him a ORT when they already had Zach Wiegert to play the slow footed ORT.

As for the good, either Kris Brown or Kevin Walter have to be near the top.

This was pretty much going to be my answer. To me, Wade is worse than Green because it was such a scouting failure. They paid him top tier money and there was nothing to justify it. With Green, at least we all knew we were getting an over-30 RB with an injury history and it was a risky signing. In short, they rolled the dice that he could stay healthy and he didn't. Now, the price tag for this dice roll was clearly too high, but I think even the Texans knew this was the risk they were taking and decided to take it nevertheless. You win some, you lose some. However, with Wade, it was simply a colossal failure of evaluating talent. He wasn't injured; he just wasn't any good and they paid him like he was.

I also agree that Brown or Walter are the top signings.