Houston Texans: Four unrestricted free agents the team must re-sign

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Houston Texans outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

Free Agent #4: Jadeveon Clowney

We’ve come a long way from a section of the naysayers indicating that Jadeveon Clowney was a bust. After some struggles with staying healthy early in his career and many questioning his heart/hustle, Clowney has eked out a nice campaign with the Houston Texans.

Surely we’d like for him to be better but he’s those type of players that come by once in a generation, googolplex, blue moon, whatever you want to call it. The byproduct of the Houston Texans’ largely-forgettable 2013 season being the No. 1 pick of the 2014 Draft, he has helped make this defense unit become a household name along with the likes of J.J. Watt.

Outside of this season, it was rare that we saw Clowney and Watt play alongside each other. It

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turned out to be fruitful, especially when we’d they both go in create a “tackle sandwich” of sorts on any given defender.

There’s no question that Clowney is the future face of this defensive unit as Watt will likely be riding off into the sunset within the next couple of seasons.

Clowney exerted a total of 63 pressures — including nine sacks, 12 QB hits and 42 QB hurries — along with 39 tackles (four assisted) with 41 run stops in 2018.

PFF has Clowney graded as: 87.6 overall, 91.2 run defense, 61.2 tackling, 78.3 pass rush, and 87.2 in coverage through 967 snaps. Clowney was ranked 4th among edge rushers with at least 818 snaps.

There’s no question on if Clowney will be re-signed but the length of the contract is key. If they decide to award him the franchise tag, he’ll earn about $15 million next season on a one-year deal. If they sign him for multi-years for a deal that will eclipse nine figures or more, this obviously show that the franchise is committed into ensuring he succeeds and has rewarded him as such.

I’m concerned about the future in regard to potential injuries so I’d like to franchise tag him just to take one more look under the hood but it’s likely the team will offer him a long-term pact.

It’ll be interesting to see where the Houston Texans decide to go with Clowney but I have no doubt that this isn’t the last time we’ve seen No. 90 suit up in a Texans’ uniform.

Chances that the Texans re-sign Clowney: 99.9 percent (unless Brian Gaine loses his mind)

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So here are my four unrestricted free agents that the Texans must re-sign. Do you agree? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below.

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