Many people had thought the big news of a Texans player's release on Monday would have to do with the quarterback position.

Instead, tight end Owen Daniels' release became yesterday's biggest piece of Texans news. As expected they didn't dive into the free-agent market, though they are hosting the second visit for former Bears quarterback Josh McCown (if he gets away from Tampa Bay). We also tracked the defensive linemen who hit the market, with Antonio Smith headed to Washington on a visit and Earl Mitchell headed to Miami for one. Smith might still return to the Texans, but Mitchell is expected to be a Dolphin by tomorrow.

The one player whose status didn't make news yesterday was quarterback Matt Schaub. He wasn't released by the end of the first day of the league year, which led to some questions from Texans fans about the timing of his release and how that would impact the Texans' cap situation.

There will be a cap hit from dead money that will come from releasing Schaub. He's got prorated amounts of $3.5 million on his cap figures for the next three years. If his contract is terminated before June, all $10.5 million of that money would count against this year's salary cap. That would mean a savings of only $4 million off Schaub's $14.5 million cap figure. If his contract is terminated in June or later, the dead-money cap hit can be spread over two years.

That doesn't mean the Texans can't release Schaub right now. They can do that and designate him as a June release, which would allow them to take advantage of those cap savings. They'd technically have to carry his contract until then, but could move on in every other tangible way.

But there's no reason to rush into that. The quarterback market isn't especially deep this year, and the Texans have plenty of time to figure out what they want to do with it.