The Texans ended the season with a bang, beating the once mighty Patriots 34-27 for their first winning season in team history.  Unfortunately they missed the playoffs.

With that being said the post season maneuvers started almost as soon as the game was over.  When the Redskins fired their head coach and brought in Mike Shanahan, Houston lost their Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan.  Kyle left to join his dad in Washington, which everyone knew would happen.

It also appears that Offensive Line Coach Alex Gibbs is going to Seattle.  This leaves Houston in search of two coaches.  Head Coach Kubiak has already interviewed several available coaches for the OC job and the front runner seems to be Rick Dennison from Denver, where he is (was) the offensive line coach.

The question now is: if Rick Dennison does take the OC job will he also take over as offensive line coach or will Kubiak find someone to take that job.

The other news out of  Houston is about the free agents on the team.  I guess “news” isn’t really the right word since there really isn’t anything the team can do at this point.  That being said, here is a list of Texans free agents and my thoughts on what the Texans should or should not do with them.

The most important free agents are:    MLB DeMeco Ryans (RFA), TE Owen Daniels (RFA), S Bernard Pollard (RFA), WR Kevin Walter (UFA), P Matt Turk (UFA).

I believe that Ryans deserves pretty much whatever he ask for within reason.

Owen Daniels is recovering from a torn ACL but was having a pro bowl year until that injury.  I would offer Daniels a 20% raise with built in incentives so that if he comes back at full speed and plays like that again next year he can make elite TE pay with a option to change his contract after next season.  That seems fair to him and the team and gives him incentive to go for it.

Bernard Pollard played like a man on a mission last season and deserves a decent contract, say 10% increase.  He is by no means an elite safety (yet) but is better than most.

Walters is one of the best WR2 in the game.  He is not an elite WR2 but is better than most of them out there.  A 15% pay increase with incentives should be enough to keep him in Houston and give him something to play hard for.

The punter is something different.  There are plenty of decent punters out there and while Turk has been consistent for the team he hasn’t been elite.  I would offer him the same money with perhaps a cost of living increase but nothing more.  We can get a good punter pretty much at will.  I would try to get him locked up early so that the GM can concentrate on the play makers.

Among the other players who are either restricted or unrestricted free agents this year are:  Chester Pitts, Ephraim Salaam, Jeff Zgonina, Tim Bulman, and Rashad Butler.

Chester Pitts, Ephraim Salaam and Rashad Butler should be re-signed at current levels if possible.  Of these three, Pitts is the one I would try the hardest to keep on the team.  While he is getting on in years, he is a leader on the offensive line and can help the younger guys mature faster and he is still a good lineman when he is healthy.

Jeff Zgonina and Tim Bulman should be re-signed on the practice squad or released.

Also on the free agent list are:  Rex Grossman, Chris Brown, Tutan Reyes, Chuan Thompson, Khary Campbell, Brian Russell, Ryan Moats, John Busing, and Bryan Pittman.

The only ones on this list I would worry about are Pittman and Busing.  Pittman is our long snapper and Busing is one of the DB’s.  If they will re-sign with little fuss and at a reasonable rate, fine.  If either one of them wants a lot more money then let them try their luck with the rest of the league.

Of the others on that part of the list, do we really need two backup QB’s?  and Chris Brown should have been released a long time ago.  The others are all replaceable.

There is one last free agent to talk about.  CB Dunta Robinson.  As everyone in Houston and most of the rest of the league all knows, the Texans slapped the franchise tag on Dunta last year after the team and he could not arrive at a meeting of the minds on his contract.  Dunta held out of training camp and raised all kinds of noise in the press over the supposed breach of trust over the use of the tag.

The reason for all of this, of course, is that he considered himself to be an “elite” CB and deserving of top two or three pay.  Let’s look at his numbers this year and see what kind of “elite” CB he was.  In 16 games this year he had 55 solo tackles and 10 assists with 0, read them 0, interceptions.  Now I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound like an “elite” CB to me.

To compare the no. 3 CB in the league this year had 70 tackles and 8 assists, 1 sack for -5 yards, 1 forced fumble, and 10 passes defended.  Robinson had 1 forced fumble and 9 passes defended.  I guess you could make a case for Dunta matching up here but look at the #2 CB in the league and you see: 70 tackles with 10 assists, 1 sack for -9 yards, 5 interceptions for 87 yards and 1 TD (where are yours Dunta?) 1 forced fumble and 13 passes defended.

The numbers also don’t show how many time Dunta got burned by a WR for a long gain.  If  it was me, he would be shown the door if he doesn’t accept a contract on the first pass.  I would offer him some incentives to play harder and better (i.e. extra money for stats in the top 5 of the league or for X number of interceptions)  but do not let it drag out.  Make a decent offer and that is it.  For Dunta it should be put up or shut up time.

By now we all know that Matt Schuab’s contract option has been picked up so it is time to get the rest of the offensive weapons signed as soon as possible so that they have all of the training camp and preseason to hone themselves into a AFC South dragon slaying machine.

It appears to me that the biggest needs for this team is on defense.  As I look back at this past season it seems that of the 7 games we lost, 6 of them came down to less than a touchdown.  Of these 6 games, one defensive stop in the 4th quarter and the Texans would have won.  As we saw in the last game, the offense can score almost at will against almost anyone in the league.  What we seem to have been missing is a defense that can stop a 4th quarter comeback by the opponent.

It was my observation that most of the problem on defense is in the secondary.  Pollard helped a lot but he can not cover everyone, he needs help.  Another good Safety and a couple of good Corners and I think we will have a defense to scare the heck out of people like Brady, Brees or “gasp” Payton Manning!

So that is where your Houston Texans are at this time.  The players are all off relaxing and recovering from a brutal season.  Coach Kubiak is busy interviewing people for coaching positions and hoping to get a few days off himself.  More news and opinion as more information becomes available.