Lest you think the Smithiak Era has been all home runs, I direct you to March 4, 2007, also known as "The Day The Texans Signed Ahman Green." My post from that dark day is found here, with the hilarious following excerpt immortalized for all eternity:

I think I like this deal; I'm not sure yet. It would seem that Green's best days are behind him, but is he an upgrade over the four-headed monster of '06 that was Ron Dayne, Samkon Gado, Wali Lundy, and Chris Taylor? Probably so. Regardless, you'd have to think that this signing paves the way for the Texans to release Domanick Davis-Williams, right?

Oh, self. You sure are dumb, especially when compared to BFD, who sagely commented as follows:

OK, here goes....

I know I'm in the minority on this one, and that's cool, but I don't like this signing. It reminds me of when the Stros re-signed Bagwell well past his prime, and Bags was unable to fulfill the back-end of his contract. I guess the good news is the amount guaranteed to Green is roughly 1/3 of the total.

OK, Mr. Jerky Jerk, why don't you like this signing? Green is a 30 year old RB with 11,000 total yards on his body. Running backs, especially those with a ton of miles like Green, have a tendency to age poorly. This is little chance he will be a meaningful player by the third year of this contract.

Next, over the last couple of years, Green has averaged below 4 yards/carry. Last year, when he was "healthy" and behind a decent Green Bay o-line? 4.0 avg. Ron Dayne behind the Texans? 4.1. Vernand Morency, who got the bulk of the other GB carries, averaged 4.6/carry. Boy, do I miss Vernand now!

Is Green a real improvement over the four-headed monster from last year? I dunno, but I don't think so. Plus, if the Colts taught us nothing else (and they didn't), wasn't it that having two feature backs is better than one? Alllegedly. Anyway, Green is better at catching the ball out of the backfield, and since we know Carr can't throw the ball more than 10 yards down field, that might be good. But, I can't help but feel like the Texans just signed...Ron Dayne.

So, yeah yeah, I can nay-say and criticize, but what do I suggest? Green was acquired from Seattle by GB for almost nothing. Are we looking to make a deal like that? Especially in Kubiak's system, I strongly believe many RBs could thrive. Next, and we've talked about this before, but spending money on either younger free agents or at positions that need to be addressed more drastically (DBs) would be more helpful.

If the Texans just needed to plug the hole at RB for one year to get us into the playoffs? That's one thing. But there are sooooo many holes to fill, that I don't believe that signing a 30 yo RB helps us either in the short-, or especially, long-term.

*ducks*

To be fair, I nearly immediately developed a case of buyer's remorse (see here) and grew increasingly bitter as the 2007 season progressed (see, e.g., here, here, and here). I was positive that the Ahman Green Era in H-Town would be a one-year nightmare; Ahman and/or his people, to their credit, likely saw the writing on the wall and restructured his deal in August of 2008. That drastically decreased exposure allowed Smithiak to keep Green around in '08; Ahman showed flashes of competence as a relief option for Steve Slaton before his season ended due to...wait for it...injury. Ahman Green's tenure as a Texan finally ended via waiver almost exactly one year ago. At the time, I wrote:

Under any analysis, the Ahman Green Era in H-Town has to be considered a spectactular failure. He was here less than two (2) years and contributed a whopping 709 total yards and 5 TD during his time in Houston. The only thing that makes the bitter pill of abject failure slightly more tolerable is the knowledge that Smithiak wised up and forced him to renegotiate his contract prior to this past season, so the damage was somewhat mitigated. Still, Ahman Green joins such luminaries as Todd Wade and The Corpse Formerly Known As Anthony Weaver on the Council of Freaking Terrible Free Agent Contracts Bestowed by Texans Management.

Any time a Texan can count Todd Wade and Anthony Weaver as brothers-in-arms, it's fair to say things didn't work out as they should have. Enough reminiscing from me. What did you think about the Ahman Green signing? When did you know it wouldn't work out?