Or how to talk to Dunta!

With training camp only days away and most of the Texans key pieces signed I thought we should look at Dunta Robinson and the contract situation.  By now everyone knows that Dunta is not happy with the franchise tag.

While I agree that Dunta is a big part of our defense, especially the secondary, I do not agree that he is worth the top money for CB’s that he and his agent seem to think he is worth.  Dunta showed that he is a better than average corner last year when he came back from a possibly career ending injury and played very well for the most part.  He brings a lot of attitude to the secondary and is the leader back there however he is not the shutdown corner that he thinks he is.

Here are Dunta’s career stats:  gms 68, total tackles 332, sacks 4, interceptions 13, IntTD 1, FFum 5 and DefTD 1.  If you look at those numbers over his career of 5 years you see that he averages 13.6 games a season with 66.4 tackles, .8 sacks, 2.6 interceptions, 1 FFum and DefTD .2.  How can anyone call him an elite CB with those numbers.

Now if I were Rick Smith here is how I would approach Dunta and his agent.  First, and I am sure that Rick does this, I would have two game tapes made up.  The first tape would be the Dunta Robinson show with all of his best highlights, the second tape would be the worst of Dunta.  I would also have the career stats for the top 4 CB’s in the league along with Dunta’s stats.

I would schedule a meeting with Dunta and his agent and another meeting, to start within two hours of the first meeting, with DeMeco Ryans, Mario Williams, Andre Johnson, Owen Daniels and Matt Schuab.  If anyone missed it, these are the rest of the leaders on the team with Andre being the most admired player on the team.

I would start the meeting with Dunta with the game tapes, showing one good play to one bad play until both tapes are done, then give him and his agent copies of the stat comparisons.   As anyone who has been a leader/supervisor of people knows, you discipline in private and praise in public.  You also show where the person is performing well in the private meetings.

I would talk money with Dunta and agent but the focus of the meeting would not be on the contract but on Dunta and his relative value to the team and value to the league as a whole.  I believe that by showing him how he stacks up against the best corners in the league, Dunta and his agent will come off of the “I am a elite corner and deserve the money” attitude and will get realistic about the contract.

I would then end all talk of contracts and stats and call in the rest of the team leaders to talk about where the Texans are and where we want to go this season.  I believe that with all of the other team leaders there talking to Dunta about where the team is going and what they expect this season, Dunta will get the message that he needs to come to camp and get ready for the season and playoffs or get ready to move to another team.

I really like Dunta and think that he is a very good corner but if he is going to hold out for elite corner money then the Texans need to move on and find someone who wants to play for a up and coming team.  Dunta needs to realize that if we spend the money for him then one of the other key pieces of the team will get short changed on his contract or move on to another team.