I know that the topics of David Carr's shortcomings and future in H-Town have comprised roughly 94% of our material thus far, but what can we do? He plays the most important position on the field. Despite being here for five years and banking tens of millions of dollars, he hasn't played consistently well. And now, for the second year in a row, there is a real question as to whether he'll be back in a Texans uniform next season. So it's understandable that he might be a hot topic on our blog, even if we might be totally sick of talking about it and would love to spend more time talking about the positives of the squad (and there are definitely some; see Ryans, D.; Williams, M.; Weaver, A.; Greenwood, M.; Johnson, A.; and Daniels, O., just to name a few).
Well, the Chronicle understands our quandary. Or at least John McClain does. His latest article reports that "some" teams have inquired about Carr's availability. While that in itself is promising news for the Texans, the really interesting information is later in the article; Scott and I were pondering this just the other day:
"If the Texans trade or release Carr, who is scheduled to make $5.5 million this year and $6 million next year, the salary cap hit would be only $2 million.
The Texans paid Carr $8 million last March to extend his contract for three years. His base salary in 2006 was $5.25 million.
The Texans made the decision to extend Carr for three years early enough to prorate the $8 million bonus over four years rather than three -- $2 million per year for cap purposes.
Under a new rule, teams can designate two players as June 1 casualties without waiting until June 1 to trade or waive them. If Carr is designated as a June 1 player, he'll cost $2 million this year and $2 million in 2008 against the cap."
So getting rid of D.C. would only cost $2 mil against the cap in each of the next two years. Is getting rid of him worth the hit? Uhhh, yes. Without question. The most telling statistic in McClain's article, and the reason that every Texans fan (all 74 of us) should be ready for a change at QB?
23-53. That's the Texans' record in games in which Bakersfield's Finest has played. If that's not reason enough for him to change addresses, I don't know what is.