Thurs @ 8:15 pm – Joseph’s contract numbers just hit the wire… five years, $48.75 million and $23.5 guaranteed, according to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle. Pretty much dead on with what was expected.

7:21 pm – Throughout much of the off-season, the Texans were rumored to be a likely destination for free agent cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and in spite of the salary cap issues posed by the the new CBA, Houston seemingly emerged as the leader for his services as late as today.

All of that went out the window this evening, as the Texans have reportedly reached an agreement with cornerback Johnathan Joseph on a five year contract, making it almost certain that Asomugha will end up in either New York or San Francisco this fall, unless a surprise team swoops in with a deal at the last minute.

Joseph heads to Houston fresh off a 2010 campaign with Cincinnati in which he regressed a bit from his 2009 numbers, but still played well consistently throughout the year, and set himself up for a big payday via free agency.

The final numbers on his deal are not yet available, but it’s pretty much guaranteed that they’ll fall somewhere close to the deal Darrelle Revis signed last season with the Jets, with an annual salary around $10 million or so.