Battle Red Blog
One of the things that old time journalists used to do was something they called a special comment. It was something out of the ordinary that they would do when something was sticking in their craw. As you might imagine, there is always a ton of chatter amongst the masthead in between games and behind the scenes. This week was no different. A topic came up that was so important that I thought I should mention it here.
The Texans came into the offseason with the fifth highest total expenditure on their offensive line. Their 50.3 million ranked behind only the Panthers, Chiefs, Rams, and Falcons. Obviously, we know the results. So, Nick Caserio decided to cut back. According to Spotrac, the Texans have cut that amount to 31.74 million. That amount currently ranks 26th in offensive line expenditures.
It would be simplistic to suggest that the Texans are cheap. It would be simplistic and wrong. According to Spotrac, they are currently 11th in total salary and stand 22nd in available cap room. They rank 12th in dead cap space. All of those figures would indicate that they are not miserly. They aren’t spending money like drunken sailors, but they aren’t pinching pennies either. When you consider the looming contracts for Will Anderson and C.J. Stroud, the spending levels make perfect sense overall.
So, where does this leave the offensive line? Obviously, coming into the offseason it was the biggest question mark and following the first game, it remains the biggest question mark. So, it is fair to take a look back at the general decisions that were made. I generally put these into two categories. There is second guessing. We see a move. We were on board, but suddenly it doesn’t work out and so we pile on. Then, there is first guessing. This is when we were actively scratching our heads at the time and it turns out we were right.
This isn’t to say that this team never spends big money. Danielle Hunter was a huge expenditure and the team paid handsomely for Stefon Diggs last season. Christian Kirk might not have broken the bank, but he is a bigger ticket guy as well. However, when we look at the tenure of Caserio we will see that he makes a number of small moves. Admittedly, sometimes this works out. If you acquire a six pack of bargain bin players then chances are that one of them will work out.
We could point to numerous examples over the years of guys that were brought in with little fanfare, but turned out to be pretty darn good players. However, that hasn’t worked on the offensive line. This is compounded when internal candidates are given deference for dubious reasons. The decision to hand the job to Kenyon Green last season without much competition and no one to be there if it didn’t work out is glaring.
That’s the part of this thing that doesn’t...
