When the Houston Texans restructured Tytus Howard’s contract on Wednesday, fans knew that something was up. KPRC 2’s Aaron Wilson reported that the Texans had made some changes to the left tackles contract including lowering his base salary to $1.17 million, converting $14.3 million into a signing bonus and – most notably – slashed his 2025 cap hit in half from $23.05 million to $11.5 million.
A few hours later, the Texans used their newfound cap space to sign offensive tackle Cam Robinson to a one-year contract worth up to $14.5 million with incentives. But there’s still work to be done on the offensive line where Laken Tomlinson will occupy one guard spot and the Texans will reportedly have Juice Scruggs and Ed Ingram battle it out on the other side.
It’s a move that’s going to require more than the approximate $17 million the Texans have in cap space after the Robinson deal and could lead to one more tweak that could create a larger one in the coming days.
Texans Must Extend Danielle Hunter To Make Another Big Splash
The Texans have seemingly made all the salary dumps and restructures they can make this offseason. But they could find some extra money by extending Danielle Hunter.
The Houston native had a strong year recording 46 total tackles, 12 sacks and 74 quarterback pressures after coming over from the Minnesota Vikings last season. Yet he enters the final year of a two-year, $48 million contract he signed last offseason.
According to Over The Cap, Hunter’s contract carries a $23.7 million cap hit for next season. With three void years totaling $12.6 million attached to the deal, the Texans have already established some parameters for an extension.
Eric Eager of SumerSports wrote an explanation of void years in the spring of 2023 and showcased how the void years can lead to an extension. Not only does it allow teams to shove money down the road with the ability to field a competitive team in the present, it allows a player to head back to the negotiating table if they have exceeded their value at any point of the contract.
Hunter falls into that category. The 30-year-old had a blazing start with 54.5 sacks in his first five seasons with the Vikings and became the fastest player in NFL history to record 50 career sacks. But a neck injury sidelined him for the entire 2020 season and he was limited to seven games after tearing a pectoral muscle in 2021.
While he returned to post 27 sacks in his final three seasons, the Vikings never made a long-term commitment past a five-year, $72 million contract extension in 2018 that was restructured on three different occasions before he hit free agency last year. Hunter signed a short-term deal with the Texans and Houston utilized the void years to help smooth out the cap hit over the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
By signing Hunter to an extension, they can tack his new deal’s cap hits to the existing void numbers which amount to $4.2 million from 2026-28. They can also lower Hunter’s cap hit for the upcoming season and give him a raise since he is one year past the original signing date of his contract per rules of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
This can provide another benefit for the Texans. Perhaps an offensive guard such as Teven Jenkins, Brandon Scherff or Will Hernandez could be an addition to let Ingram and Scruggs battle for a roster spot as opposed to a starting job. Or the Texans could find another defensive tackle to solve one of their biggest needs on defense.
Whatever the Texans decide to do with the money, they have to find it first. By extending Hunter, they can keep one of their defensive stars happy while improving the team for this season.