Aug 18, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (23) and offensive tackle Duane Brown (76) on the sidelines against the San Francisco 49ers in the third quarter at Reliant Stadium. The Texans defeated the 49ers 20-9. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-US PRESSWIRE
Good teams tend to have problems favorable to the problems that bad teams have.
The biggest problem the Texans have is the fact that the front office has backed themselves into a corner in the form of large contracts for a small number of players.
Matt Schaub- 4 years $62 million
Andre Johnson- 7 years $73.5 million
Johnathan Joseph- 5 years $48.75 million
Duane Brown- 6 years $53.4 million
Arian Foster- 5 years $43.5 million
Chris Myers- 4 years $25 million
Danieal Manning- 4 years $20 million
Johnson’s contract has been restructured several times which has created short-term cap relief but it just made the cap numbers for the later years of the contract inflate. The same can be said for Joseph’s contract which was restructured this summer to so the Texans could afford to extend Schaub’s lucrative deal.
These players have earned every dollar that they are making, however, the front office’s shortsightedness has hurt the team long term due to the fact that they will almost assuredly not have enough to re-sign Connor Barwin, and if they tag him it will only put them further in the hole.
The Texans do have young talent. In Major League Baseball this team would be the team to beat for 10 years, however in a salary cap league it is impossible to re-sign all of your talent which means the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.