January 25th, 2012 
Matt Loede 
Posted in 
The Texans have a big task ahead of them before the start of free agency, and that will be to try and get OLB Mario Williams inked to a long-term deal.
The team will also do what they can to get running back Arian Foster inked, but he will be a restricted free agent, so there’s some time to spare in a deal with him.
The Texans can’t afford to carry Williams at $22.9 million for one year. They can’t trade him because you can’t trade a player who’s not under contract.
One likely move would be to franchise him. That way they could still work with him on a long-term deal. But, Williams will be in the cat bird seat, since he knows the team cannot afford to keep him at $22.9 mil.
It seems like an easy solution, Williams wants to stay, and it sounds like the Texans want him to stay. But, make no mistake, if he hits the open market, teams are going to throw a lot of money at him.
The Texans have to think this through, it may come down to Williams or Foster, and the team really doesn’t want to lose either one, but in the end may have to.
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They could try to franchise him and then trade him. The Chiefs did it with Jared Allen to the Vikes and got a first round and 2 third round picks. Always an option to get something for him and keep Foster. Of course the team he is traded to will most likely want to make their own contract with him, so no team will trade for him unless he is willing to sign a new deal.
Houston Z; I totally agree with trying to get something in return for Mario by franchising him. Compensation similar to what KC got for Allen would ease the pain of losing a talent like Mario. With his injury history, that might be difficult to pull off, though.