Reaction To Rick Smith's MMQB Appearance: Who Are The Twenty Percenters?

In Peter King’s most recent "Monday Morning Quarterback," King takes a look at the Houston Texans and how Rick Smith demonstrates the duties of a modern NFL general manager, spurred on by the team’s decisions this off-season.

In the article, Smith talks about how he’s studied NFL history and business models of different business leaders to impact his own decision-making processes. One in particular that he uses is a business model structure from former General Electric CEO Jack Welch - his 20-70-10 model.

Per the model, the top 20 percent of your employees are the standouts, the pillars, the franchise guys who cannot be replaced. The middle 70 percent are the role players, the working class, and the guys who are dependable and have potential. The bottom 10 percent is the churn and replaced guys. There’s always an influx of new blood for potential, especially in the NFL where no roster can remain stagnant.

Applied to a 53-man roster, that would put, roughly 10 players as the franchise’s core, 37 as the role players and pieces that are valuable enough to move, and 6 as the ever-churning. Granted, we don’t have a full 53-man roster in place, but this allows for some discussion to help burn time off in the summer.

Using Smith’s Welch-derived philosophy, who are those 10 untouchable guys? Given his recent contract, All-Pro running back Arian Foster has to be one of the ten (because of plays like this), but who else is on this list? I would throw in Andre Johnson's name, contract and All-Galaxy status standing, but I know some are trending down on Andre's injury-laden 2011 season and age (31). Is it enough to knock The Unstoppable 'Dreggernaut from the top 20 percent?

What say you, BRBers? Let's see if we can't drum up the top 10 Texans in the comments.