Mario Williams: Lost Season Won't Prevent Texans Sack Master from Getting Paid

Mario Williams has been fighting to get respect from the time the Houston Texans made him the No. 1 pick in the 2006 NFL draft. That is why it makes perfect sense that he would enter his free agent season following a year in which he played in just five games before suffering a torn pectoral muscle. 

However, if you think that is going to prevent him from getting a big payday this offseason from a team that needs help at the defensive line and/or outside linebacker positions, you have lost your mind. 

In fact, Williams will likely end up being one of the most sought after free agents if the Texans decide to let him test the market. 

There were a mountain of expectations heaped upon Williams' broad shoulders when he was taken ahead of Reggie Bush.

John Lopez of Sports Illustrated put it best nearly two years ago, when he wrote about the backlash that Williams first dealt with when he was first drafted by the Texans. 

"

When Williams was drafted No. 1 overall in 2006 out of North Carolina State, much of Houston and the NFL considered his selection an unfathomable mistake. He was jeered in his home stadium, loathed not for what he was, but for what he was not --Reggie Bush or Vince Young.

"

Yet here we are, and Williams is by far the best player in that group. He validated the Texans' pick nearly six years ago, and he is entering free agency in the peak of his career. 

Williams is just 26 years old—he turns 27 at the end of the month—and amassed 53 sacks in his first six seasons. He is a premier pass-rusher in a league that has become so pass-happy you wonder if teams even remember they have the right to run the ball. 

The surgery that Williams had is one worth monitoring, but there is no reason to think that he won't make a full recovery and get back to being the player that he was before it happened. 

Teams have all of this information, and they will be able to work him out to see his progress first hand. The odds of Williams being a cheap-injury signee this offseason appear to be low. 

If Williams was so inclined, he could go to a team that plays a 4-3 defense that will allow him to stay at his natural position of defensive end. He made a nice adjustment to linebacker in the 3-4 this year before he got hurt, but you have to assume he is most comfortable with coming off the line. 

Regardless of how he gets to attack opposing quarterbacks, Williams is going to get paid handsomely by someone this offseason because of his track record of success and the likelihood that he will come right back from the adversity that he dealt with in 2011. 

Follow @adamwells1985