Houston Texans Report: Team Agrees To Deals With Novak and Lechler

We’ve passed the mark for free agency; and, so far, the Houston Texans have been relatively quiet.

I’d expect things to heat up as the week progresses and the market will start to shake out itself.

There are many free agents on this roster and the Houston Texans will have to work tremendously to shift things around to remain competitive.

It’s not even prudent to think that the Houston Texans will actually be able to keep everybody on the roster.

This team is in a slight form of cap hell with the Brock Osweiler signing but maneuvers can be made to ensure this team remains in contention mode.

Normally we’d chalk up a quarterback’s contract as the cost of doing business but with as disappointing as his play was last season, this certainly has dead weight to the payroll for this franchise.

Let’s get this straight — Osweiler will not be cut as his dead money is around $25 million.

So yes, you might as well keep him because it’s going to cost more to cut him in 2017.

Now in 2018, if he’s still floundering, he’ll only cost $2 million to cut so that’s a lot more workable.

But any way, enough about things we can control, let’s talk about two guys that will be in a Texans uniform next season.

According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, the team has agreed to deals for place kicker Nick Novak and punter Shane Lechler.

This was an obvious and easy move to make for the Texans as they were some of the most reliable components of the special teams unit.

When things went terribly wrong, those guys stepped in and made the rest of the unit look good.

It’s news that I endorse as these guys still have plenty left in the tank.

Not to mention the fact that we saw these guys on the injury report a lot last season but despite that, they showed up for work and did their respective jobs well.

And for that, I have immense respect for.

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So how much will they cost?

The terms were not immediately disclosed but I’d imagine the deals are similar to 2016 with a slight pay bump.

In contrast, Novak earned $965,000 for last season and Lechler brought in $1.8 million for his services.

These are relatively cheap deals to make as one of their biggest decisions — whether or not to bring back corner back A.J. Bouye or middle linebacker Brian Cushing — are ones that will loom moving forward.

We’ll have to see how this plays out.

Novak, 35, connected on 35-of-41 field goals for 85.4 percent, with 11 of those field goals made from 40 yards and up in 2016, definitely showing he still does have some range if he’s called upon to step up.

There were 23 field goals that he connected that were between 20-39 yards which is his bread and butter.

Lechler, 40, completed 72 punts for 3,423 yards, averaging 47.5 yards per punt which is on track with his career average and indicates he has no signs of slowing down.

He also had 30 of those punts inside the 20-yard line.

Go Texans.

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