Battle Red Blog, a Houston Texans community

If passed, we could be looking at some teams reporting to training camp as early as Wednesday, with free agency starting next Saturday.

With a little help from his sources, Chron.com's Lance Zierlein suggests that this salary cap may not have a ceiling at all, at least in its first few years. I tend to agree with him. What do you think? Could the cap be soft/non-existent? Do the big team owners have another agenda here?

Mike Jones of the Washington Post is reporting that the sides are willing to make a deal, and it's looking increasingly optimistic. When you add the sense of urgency to get a deal done so we have a full season, I think the good news we've been waiting for is just around the corner.

The news from Pro Football Weekly isn't much of a shock, but it looks like the Texans will attempt to retain their two key free agents on the offensive side of the ball. Whether they'll receive more lucrative offers from other teams is another story altogether. A little throwaway line at the end also foreshadows the uphill battle Trindon Holliday could face to make the team if there is a preseason and training camp. I'm going to place my bet on practice squad at best.

You may have recently read, at a few different places, that the optimism about quickly reaching agreement on a new CBA has faded in the last day or two. This article does a great job explaining why.

That's from Nick Scurfeld's twitterati account, quoting (paraphrasing?) Gary Kubiak. Click the link for the whole thing. This shouldn't be considered a surprise. With the short training off-season and even smaller likely free agent window, teams will put a premium on bringing back players. Obviously, keeping Jakespeare around will be a key part of our team running jokes going forward.

Agreement on a revenue sharing scheme is a huge step in the negotiation process, and the NFLPA and owners might be there. In a strange twist on an old saying: new news is good news. h/t DisplacedTexan. Link goes to espn.com.

Mike Freeman at CBSSports.com seems to think so, and to be honest, even I'm starting to feel a bit optimistic with all the news coming out of negotiations. It's far too early to start counting chickens - maybe a new slew of fan-driven petitions will help? - but it might be time to start stocking up on bleach before demand drives up the price. h/t me, because I rock, that's why.

Timely leak or legitimate contingency plan?

Unlike most years, undrafted free agents are still, well, free agents. The link above takes you to the list of 2011 undrafted players. Until the lockout is resolved, no one can sign, and some suggest that these guys may look at the CFL, UFL, and Arena League as serious options depending on how long this drags out. Still, the lockout won't stop us from speculating. I have seen some comments here and there about who to go after, so I thought there was some interest in a thread dedicated for this purpose. Some names I wouldn't mind seeing in Houston: All-American P Chas Henry (Florida), WR Dane Sanzenbacher (Ohio State), FS Deunta Williams (North Carolina), NT Ian Williams (Notre Dame), LB Mark Herzlich (Boston College), QB Pat Devlin (Delaware), and C/G Zane Taylor (Utah). Anyone catch your attention?