Despite losing defensive end Mario Williams to the Buffalo Bills in free agency, Houston Texans GM Rick Smith has been able to accomplish part of his goal of retaining most of his team’s own free agents, led by new deals for center Chris Myers and running back Arian Foster.
Myers, a Pro Bowler in 2011, was brought back on a four-year, $25 million deal, while Foster was re-signed for five years, with a maximum contract value of $43.5 million.
Smith, who played a central role in each transaction, offered high praise for his two veterans.
On Myers: “He’s been a tremendous leader. To get him back in the fold and to have him anchor our line for years to come, it’s an exciting day for us. We want to be a balanced offensive football team, and this gives us the ability, we hope, to continue to have an outstanding running game. Chris really is the beginning of everything that we do up front with respect to making line calls, to making sure that everybody’s coordinated, and so this is a very important piece to what we do.”
On Foster: "[with] Arian’s ability to make plays with the football in his hand, it was important for us to get that deal done. I can’t speak more highly of how he has handled himself, and obviously the production that he has on the football field and what he means to our team.
And while there’s been a flurry of league-wide activity in the first week of free agency, the Texans and Smith remain focused on building the roster through the draft “We’ve talked many, many times about the fact that we build through the draft and we supplement through free agency … we primarily want to build through the draft and then take care of our players like an Arian, like a Chris Myers, and so that’s the way that we’re building this thing.”
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