If the Houston Texans are going to employ safety Glover Quin then they'll do so by striking a new deal with him. For the 10th time in 11 free agency periods, the Texans have opted not to use the franchise tag, according to Houston Chronicle writer John McClain via Twitter. Of course, John wasn't the first person to get that information out there, but that's neither here nor there.

The hot speculation among the fan base and media folk coming into today was that Quin, a free agent to be, would get the tag because of his value to defensive coordinator Wade Phillips and the relatively-low salary cap hit of a safety. Of course, no one expected anyone else to get the tag, so it was either Quin or nothing.

Quin can still only talk to the Texans until March 8th, so there is still time for general manager Rick Smith to lockdown the valuable defensive back. The speculation now is if Houston and Quin were far apart on deal terms and/or Houston is letting Quin hit the market to see if it's soft so they can bring him back at a lower deal.

Reaction? Is Smith playing with fire by potentially letting Quin hit the market or making the smart play for a cap-strapped franchise?