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Should The Texans Get Gay?

By Tim

As I was driving home from work last night, I was listening to Charlie Pallilo on 790 (The Sports Animal!) when a caller (I seem to recall his name being "Brock" or something to that effect; we'll stick with Brock for purposes here) called in to chat about the Texans' draft and free agency options.  Draft-wise, Brock was a big fan of taking Rashard Mendenhall at No. 18.  While I certainly wouldn't be opposed to that pick-up, I've repeatedly gone on record that I don't see any way Smithiak takes a RB in Round One.

But this entry isn't about the draft.  Brock made another point that I wholeheartedly agreed with; that is, that the Texans had no real shot at any of the so-called "Tier One" DBs to shore up their secondary (due to the absurd salaries that would be demanded) and should turn their focus to the guys a level below.  But then Brock completely lost me by suggesting your Houston Texans sign Drayton Florence.  That's right--the same Drayton Florence who viciously cheap-shotted and concussed The Schaub back in October.  At the time, I had this to say:

1.  " Did anyone else audibly choke when they saw The Schaub in the huddle before the first play from scrimmage?  No way I was the only one, much like there's no way I was the only one who was praying that the team would sit him against San Diego.  Pure and simple--he shouldn't have been out there.  Even though he (and the rest of the offense, for that matter) looked relatively decent on the first drive of the game (especially considering the travesties that would be visited upon us as the game progressed), I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.  And drop it did, in the form of a vicious cheap shot by Drayton Florence.  Who, by the way, should get sucker-punched the next time a Texans fan sees him..."

Needless to say, I am vehemently against adding Florence to the roster.  Fortunately, I don't think Rick Smith is much of a Florence fan either, judging by these comments (pulled from one of the links above):

"We are disappointed in the sense that we have lost our starting quarterback for at least one game after the player took the crown of his helmet and delivered an illegal blow to Matt's jaw and the fine levied is only a small fraction of the player's weekly pay," Smith said in a statement released by the Texans. "Is that equitable? The punishment doesn't appear to fit the crime when all factors are considered."

Now, that could be more a case of Smith thinking the fine was insufficient as opposed to an indictment of Florence.  But I prefer to think that a team that preaches high-character wouldn't entertain the notion of bringing in someone who injured the franchise QB with a dirty hit.  Perhaps that's naive.

Back to the call:  Pallilo mentioned the possibility of courting Randall Gay.  Now, THAT I can get on board with.  Gay would certainly be more affordable than any of the "Tier One" corners, and he doesn't have the negative history that Florence does (or the surefire franchise tag coming that Marcus Trufant and Nnamdi Asomugha do).  Oh, and the guy is a proven starter at CB in the NFL.  Chris over at Houston Diehards has been on the Gay bandwagon a lot longer than me (serious kudos to first suggesting this back on 01/17/08, Chris).  So what does the learned community of BRB think?  Gay?  Florence?  Someone else?

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