It was reported last week by Randy Lange, of
the Bergen Record, that the Texans may be interested in the Jets DE John Abraham. Abraham was given the franchise tag by the Jets on February 22, 2006.
Does this mean that the Texans may have a new Defensive End to be added to the
lineup?
John Abraham (6’ 4”, 258 lbs) has 6 years of
NFL experience. He attended college at South Carolina before being added to the
Jets in 2000.
During his 2005 season with the Jets, Abraham
played 16 games and brought a total of 58 tackles, 44 of them solo. He also put
up a career high total of 10.5 sacks. His career tackles total is 276 (212
solo) and 53.5 sacks. He has forced 19 fumbles and recovered 5 of them.
In 2003 he was only able to play 7
games due to injury and 12 games during the 2004 season. He came back strong
for the 2005 season and put up some decent numbers. Of course, if brought on to
the Texans organization he would most likely be placed at LDE opposite of the
Texans current RDE Robaire Smith. Looking at the Texans depth chart it is
obvious that the Texans could use some work on the left side where Gary Walker
and Travis Johnson have been holding ground.
Johnson is reportedly looking for
a $20 million dollar, multi-year deal wherever he goes. He originally was
seeking the same from the Jets, but was unable to procure such a deal. "He's
not unhappy with the money he'd make," Rich Rosa, Abraham’s agent, told Mr.
Lange via a telephone interview. "What he's unhappy with is the commitment level
from the Jets for one of their quote-unquote best players. He stood out last
year. He's done the necessary things on and off the field."
There were certain words exchanged
before last season by then-general manager Terry Bradway, who said that the Jets
would work towards getting Abraham his multi-year contract if he could stay
healthy and play all 16 games during the 2005 season. He did so, but is now
slapped with a franchise tag instead of the contract he was looking for.
Abraham is just one of the many
possibilities the Texans have to look at during the rebuilding they have to do
before next season. No official word has been released by the Texans at this
time, who are most certainly hard at work figuring the priorities for what needs
to be done before draft time.