Houston Texans: Three thoughts on team’s underwhelming free agency moves
By Neal Sharma
Thought #1: The biggest surprise in Texans’ free agency
Okay, I’ll admit that the Houston Texans did make a few solid moves. I was relieved to see the return of return specialist — pun intended — DeAndre Carter. I’m all right with the re-signing of Angelo Blackson and Joel Heath but I honestly felt, like many others, that they had bigger problems.
The departure of Tyrann Mathieu will hurt. The secondary has taken a big hit with his departure and his loss of leadership will be nearly impossible to make up for.
But I don’t blame him for leaving.
If I were him, I’d be offended by the Houston Texans if they offered me a $9.5 million, multi-year contract. He wanted to stay here, but at the end of the day, what’s $9.5 million when you can get $14 million per on a team that has been winning a lot more recently? And doesn’t offering $14 million a year prove that they want you a lot more and would like to believe that you are the missing link to one’s team?
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Sure, Kansas City was next to trash at pass defense but doesn’t that show how much they would appreciate bringing him in? I don’t think the Houston Texans felt that way with him.
Just saying.
What surprised me was that the Houston Texans didn’t even bother giving an offer to Kareem Jackson. This was his first season with elite production, so I’m surprised they didn’t at least bother to offer up something like $8 million a year on the table. But at the end of the day, after all of these years, elite production had finally come. Regardless, he had worked hard for the Houston Texans for a long time and deserves nothing but the best.
At first, I was really ticked off these guys left. I was convinced the secondary was going to become the worst in the league and I was disappointed with the front office for screwing it up. They had me fed up with O’Brien and Gaine was ticking me off. But during this emotional spike, I was thinking with a hot head.
However, after the dust settled on the first wave of moves, I thought it over again.