To kick off their offseason, the Texans made it clear that they weren't content with last season's safety situation, releasing Eugene Wilson and not tendering Bernard Pollard a contract. Clearly the Texans secondary as a whole had problems last year, and while Kareem Jackson was certainly to blame for a lot of it, that safety duo did him no favors over the top.
↵Free Agency hasn't started yet, but one of the league's best safeties, Oshiomogho Atogwe (O.J.), was released before the lockout started, as the Rams declined to pay him an enormous bonus that was built into his contract. While we have no knowledge of what went on behind the scenes, the fact that the Texans had a gaping hole at the position and money to throw at Atogwe was painfully clear. Atogwe wound up signing with the Redskins today on a five-year, $26 million deal. The Texans just finished giving Owen Daniels and Shaun Cody almost the exact same amount of total money to upgrade a stacked position and be roster filler, respectively. They never showed a single hint of interest in Atogwe.
↵Through John McClain, the Texans have been pushing the idea that Wade Phillips can turn this defense around all on scheme pretty hard. While that may be the case to an extent, it's clear that his hiring has had zero effect on how the money is spent in Houston thus far. It's not hard to suss out the plan at this point if you read between the lines, I'm sure it includes Glover Quin moving to free safety, with Kareem Jackson and FA cornerback A (lets call him I. Taylor, no, too obvious, Ike T.) taking up the corners. Troy Nolan takes Bernard Pollard's job at strong safety.
↵That's it. That's how I think the plan works out here. Hypothetically, we'll trade a decent cornerback, a strong safety who does one thing right, and two zeros in for a decent cornerback, and three players who have shown absolutely nothing at the NFL level at their positions yet. I realize this may come off as a little pessimistic, and that real change may still be coming, but I fail to see why the Texans wouldn't have had any interest in Atogwe if Quin moving to free safety wasn't the plan all along.
↵And the Texans will, as they always do, address just a few needs and call it an offseason, relying on question marks in other key areas. Because answering questions with other questions, especially when it comes to safeties, is the Texans way.
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