With offseason workouts and minicamps in the rearview mirror and training camps just a few weeks away, we assess the Houston Texans' offseason moves and assign a letter grade in the video above.
Best move: Signing nose tackle Vince Wilfork. This 11-year veteran is in the twilight of his career, but he'll be a big help to the Texans on the field and in the meeting room. They signed the defensive lineman to a two-year deal worth $9 million, reuniting him with the defensive coordinator with whom he began his NFL career. Romeo Crennel's last year in New England was the year the Patriots drafted Wilfork. Signing him enables somewhat of a transitional period for the Texans. He won't play 11 years with them, naturally, but while they look for the guy who will, they'll have one of the best ever to do it as part of their team.
Riskiest move: Cutting Andre Johnson before having a clear plan to replace his production. The Texans feel confident they can replace Johnson's production with the players they have on their roster, and I'm not saying that won't be the case. But the decision to move on from Johnson came before the free-agent signings of Nate Washington and Cecil Shorts III, and long before the draft. It left a hole in the roster that became a significant and pressing need for the Texans, and there was an air of desperation to Houston's actions in the third round of this year's draft. The Texans absolutely had to select a receiver with that pick, and everyone knew it. It was a risky position, and one completely of their own doing.
Shoring up the cornerback position: The Texans committed a little more than $41.5 million in guaranteed money to the cornerback position this offseason, giving Kareem Jackson $20 million guaranteed on his four-year, free-agent deal, Johnathan Joseph $11.5 million guaranteed on his two-year extension that will take him through the 2017 season, and Kevin Johnson a fully guaranteed rookie contract worth slightly more than $10 million. It's an important position in this passing league, and the focus on defensive backs makes sense. The one question many have posed -- and it's a fair one -- is whether it was wise for the Texans to address that position in the first round of this year's draft while having other, more pressing needs.
Training camp outlook: While the Texans focused a lot of their personnel efforts on the defensive side of the ball, there's still a lot we don't know about their offense and how it will perform. Until it's settled, the main event at Texans training camp will be the quarterback decision. Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer have shown the coaches how much they know in meetings, they've displayed their work ethics, they've shown what they can do in no-contact, no-pads practices. Coach Bill O'Brien might wait to make a decision until after he's seen the quarterbacks against an opponent. And if he does, we'll all get a look at it through the lens of HBO's "Hard Knocks."