How Spending Big in the Backfield Could Define the Texans’ Offseason

Wednesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler discuss the possibility of the Houston Texans signing Ken Walker III and what a potential deal could mean for the franchise moving forward.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kenneth Walker the third, of course, in their backfield. I
don't want to confuse him with Kenneth Walker the second
or Kenneth Walker, but that is where at least one
NFL dot Com writer analyst Nick Shook thinks he should go,
and he writes the following, Houston should absolutely become one

(00:23):
of those interested parties. Joe Mixon's mysterious foot ailment cost
him all of twenty twenty five, forcing the Texans to
rely on rookie Woody Marks diminish veteran Nick Chubb.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
The results largely forgettable.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Houston's finished twenty second in rushing in the regular season
clearly couldn't balance out the offense in order to help C. J. Stroud,
positioning him for a ghastly showing in the divisional round.
If the Texans are serious about finding a way to
advance to Championship Weekend, you know where the forty nine
ers go.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Sometimes they'll need to upgrade at running back.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
They can clear eight million in cap space by cutting
Mixon with a post June first designation, opening the right
amount of money to immediately hand to Walker in what
might be a backloaded deal in order to fit him
into their cap, what say you.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I like to make people aware of the context under
which this information is written about a headline on this article.
Four free agent fits yep, and two trades that should happen.
Probably not going to get anybody to argue about the
manner in which that was delivered. Is Kenneth Walker the
third a fit in the Texans backfield?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, in a year one way. Absolutely, that would make
a ton of sense.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Now, I do appreciate him kind of walking through how
it could happen and why it could happen, how it
makes sense. I'm shocked, like a backloaded deal. I don't
not too many teams go about it that way for
a running back. But he is a player who's only
going into his fifth year, so I think there's a
little bit, you know, fifth year players that are available
in only their fifth year as productive as him, and

(01:59):
we might have had a second, might have had a
third with at ten and Breese Hall, but it's not
that often you see a player of that caliber, and
I think people are pretty excited about what he can do.
He also hasn't been used a tremendous amount in his
four years, but part of that is because of his
injury history. You clear eight million in cap and we've
talked about that many times since the really during the year,

(02:20):
but certainly since the offseason. If Joe Mixon is not
here and you designate that release properly, but how much
is the what's the ceiling? Is there a ceiling? We
know what the Texans were willing to place pay Saquon
Barkley two off seasons ago. Where do you draw the
line and where does he fit in with the rest
of the running backs. He's not better than Barkley, McCaffrey, Henry,

(02:44):
Jonathan Taylor, James Cook, am I starting to get in
the rank, Kiren Williams, who's the Detroit again.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
He's a split back field there in Detroit. About who's
their start? Jimi Gibs. Jamir g is probably somebody I'd
put ahead of.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Him, right, and he's he's the The Lions are happy
with that because not only is he awesome, he's fresh,
he's working on his first deal.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
He's not been an extended player. He's working off just
the money. He's also fresh.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
But yeah, just kind of running through the list and
every player I mentioned other than Gibbs, they're an eleven
million dollar player on Percy's an average annual, but a
value for their deal. So where where's the line for you?
And where does he fit in? He's not playing here
for eight million a year? Is he playing here for
twelve million a year? Is he playing here for fourteen
million years? I think twelve is probably where you draw

(03:36):
the line. So Josh Jacobs, that's his contract value for
the Jaguar or for the Packers. And again the idea
like the Raiders have recovered from that because clearly they
drafted Ashton genty and some teams that is how you
like to do it. I draft this guy, I play
him for four years, maybe five if he was a
first round pick, pick up his option, and then I'm

(03:56):
not the team to give him his forty two million
dollar extent or is fifty seven million dollars.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
I'll let somebody else do that, and I'll start back
over again.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
I think that's a very cold, calloused and genius way
to handle your running back.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
In twenty twenty six,