The Houston Texans entered the 2024 offseason as one of the teams with the most salary cap space in the NFL. Depending on which website you use for your salary cap information, they were likely among the top six or seven teams in total cap space, with anywhere from $60 million to $75 million in cap space. That was the good news. The great news is they deployed the cap space.
The Texans went shopping and brought in premiere pass rusher Danielle Hunter, solid defensive cogs Azeez Al Shaair and Denico Autry, and then chose to pay Joe Mixon on a contract extension after trading with the Bengals to bring him over. It’s been quite fun! Most experts see this offseason as transformational for the Texans, and they’re on the short list (about ten teams deep) to contend for a Super Bowl.
The most recent bit of Texans offseason news has everyone a little bit antsy, and maybe even a little confused. Courtesy of Field Yates of ESPN.com:
This restructuring of Tytus Howard’s contract, which he signed last summer, now has the Texans with over $30 million in cap space. That’s an ample amount of space at this stage of the offseason game. It would appear that Texans general manager Nick Caserio is cooking up something, but what? These are my guesses, in order of likelihood:
Nico Collins Extension
This is my primary educated guess. Caserio was practically begging for someone in the media to ask him about a Collins extension at the combine in late February. Collins, by almost any measurement, was atop ten receiver in the NFL last season. It likely behooves the Texans to lock him down now, as he is in line for another big season in 2024, and that would put him in top five receiver pay. Paying him now keeps the price, in all likelihood, in the $20 million per year range.
Big time trade
We know the Texans tried to trade for WR Keenan Allen, and his $18 million contract a couple weeks ago, so they are still pursuing all avenues of improvement aggressively, including trades. If a trade is coming, it’s likely for a wide receiver (Tee Higgins, maybe even Justin Jefferson) or a defensive tackle (Derrick Brown, Jonathan Allen). Any of those trades would come with a player either seeking a new, huge deal, or already playing on a huge deal.
Free agency bargain bin binge
The list of available free agents is now largely bereft of big ticket guys that will cost more than a few million bucks a year. There are a few players who will command a slightly more, but the lists are largely bargain guys. Perhaps Caserio has his eye on a few of these players. The Texans could still use help in the secondary and in the wide receiver corps. I don’t know that $30 million in cap space is necessary for this, but a combination of, say, WR Tyler Boyd, safety Justin Simmons, and CB Stephon Gilmore would jazz things up on the depth chart.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
