With the loss to the Indianapolis Colts the Houston Texans now look forward to the 2019 offseason agenda. That agenda includes a large cache of available salary cap dollars coupled with a large pending free agent class; followed by the draft where Houston returns to the first round. This offseason will mark the second such offseason for Houston General Manager Brian Gaine. Looking back to the 2018 offseason, Brian Gaine will be working with a similar amount of cap dollars as he did in 2018.

On March 8, 2018, a few days prior to the start of the 2018 league year, Houston was working with ~$65.720 million in available salary cap dollars. With those cap dollars Gaine signed free agents such as: Tyrann Mathieu, Seantrel Henderson, Senio Kelemente, Zach Fulton, Aaron Colvin, Joe Webb, and Johnson Bademosi. Along with the new free agents Gaine also retained pending free agents in Johnathan Joseph, Greg Mancz, Angelo Blackson, Brian Peters, Alfred Blue, and Brandon Weeden. Gaine worked through the offseason through various roster movements working towards the final 53 man roster. Houston entered the 2018 regular season with approximately $25.923 million available cap dollars. 18 weeks and 17 games later Houston is currently scheduled to have $18.867 million available salary cap dollars to roll over into the 2019 league year, while spending $162,850,060 in cash (26th in the league).

At the close of the regular season the NFL teams are required to turn in their scheduled roll-over amounts from the 2018 league year. This generally occurs on the first Tuesday after the last regular season game. Most teams will roll-over 100% of the remaining 2018 cap dollars into 2019. Houston will roll-over $18,867,251 cap dollars into the 2019 league year. This amount will be added to the league determined salary cap figure. This number has not been finalized, and likely won’t be finalized until the first week of March, initial reports from the owners meetings have the 2019 salary cap slated to fall anywhere from $187.0- $191.1 million per team. Additionally the NFL teams will need to submit their year end calculations on earned NLTBE (not likely to be earned) and unearned LTBE incentives from the 2018 season, along with other miscellaneous cap dollars resulting from injury grievances and unclaimed termination pay. For Houston this will likely mean a salary cap credit for the team annual adjustment. This is a result of unearned incentives and unclaimed termination pay from players such as Seantrel Henderson, Kayvon Webster, and Bruce Ellington.

Adding all these figures together provides the team’s Total Adjusted Salary Cap figure: $208,867,251. Until announced TexansCap will use $190.0 million as the NFL salary cap.

*Note the team annual adjustment is currently unknown, the adjusted cap figure will change once that number is known.*

Currently Houston has 52 players under contract for the 2019 league year. This includes the future’s contracts signed on January 7, 2019.

Contracts 52 NFL Salary Cap $190,000,000 Annual Adjustment $0 2018 Carryover $18,867,251 Texans Adjusted Salary Cap $208,867,251 Workout OTA Debt $676,800 Top 51 Rule Spending $139,687,882 Dead Money $1,769,452 Cap Space Remaining $66,733,117

There are still pending items to account for before the 2019 available cap dollars is known:

D.J. Reader has earned a salary raise for 2019 through the Proven Performance Escalator program. Reader’s salary will increase from $720,000 to ~$2,035,000.

Exclusive Rights & Restricted Free Agents (4)

Exclusive Rights Free Agents (ERFA) – players with 2 or less accrued seasons.

DeAndre Carter (WR)

If the team extends the player an ERFA tender, the player has no choice but to sign with the team or not play this season. Both players will be extended a 1 year tender worth $645,000.

Restricted Free Agents (RFA) – players with 3 accrued seasons.

Ka’imi Fairbairn (K)

Joel Heath (DE)

Brennan Scarlett (OLB)

All three scheduled RFA’s were contributors for Houston during the 2018 season. Fairbairn led the league is scoring with 150 points finally giving Houston confidence in the kicking game for years to come. Joel Heath was inactive a number of games this year, however Houston did employ a defensive line with depth sometimes leaving Heath inactive on game day. Brennan Scarlett displayed his ability to play multiple positions this year before being played on Injured Reserve in Week 13. Scarlett is listed as an outside linebacker; but Scarlett was also one of the special teams aces. Scarlett also filled in effectively at inside linebacker on short notice when Zach Cunningham exited due to injury. Scarlett put together a fantastic performance at ILB against Washington in Week 11. All three players were signed as undrafted free agents in 2016 with Houston. All three players will likely receive the low RFA tender. The low tender amount is tentatively scheduled to be $2,035,000.

With the Reader salary raise and the aforementioned 5 player tenders Houston will then have 57 players under contract. The cap space will drop to $60,498 million.

Unrestricted Free Agents (15)

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) – players with 4 or more accrued seasons.

Angelo Blackson (DE)

Alfred Blue (RB)

Jadeveon Clowney (Edge)

Christian Covington (DE)

Brandon Dunn (DT)

Seantrel Henderson (OT)

Kareem Jackson (DB)

Joshua Keyes (ILB)

Kendall Lamm (OT)

Tyrann Mathieu (DB)

Brian Peters (ILB)

Joe Webb (QB/ST/WR/?)

Kayvon Webster (DB)

Shareece Wright (DB)

Jadeveon Clowney will be the top priority for a new contract, or at a minimum the team may elect to use the Franchise Tag to extend the negotiating window to July 15. If a new contract is completed with Clowney, expect that contract to make Clowney the highest paid (non QB) player in the league surpassing Khalil Mack and Aaron Donald. An in-depth contract projection will be featured on TexansCap.com in the coming weeks.

Houston will likely need to make a decision between veterans Kareem Jackson and Tyrann Mathieu. At the start of training camp Houston had shifted Jackson to the Safety position to work with Mathieu and rookie Justin Reid. Subsequently due to injuries at cornerback Houston had to move Jackson back to the “star” CB position in the cornerback group along with work on the outside. Jackson finished the season with a PFF grade of 85.7, the 4th highest in the league at the CB position (compared to those with >50% snaps). Mathieu played the most snaps among all Houston defenders with 1,045 snaps (8th highest in the league at Safety) and a PFF grade of 77.9 finishing T-16 at the Safety position in the league. Mathieu will turn 27 this year, and Jackson will turn 32. The safety market will be crowded with popular names in free agency. The safety market was severely depressed last offseason. These two factors could possible lead to Houston retaining either Jackson or Mathieu on a team friendly 3 year contract.

The 2018 talented defensive line has a few players that will need to return. Reportedly the NFL draft is chock full of DL talent this year, Houston may elect the resign one or two DL free agents before the draft. If the draft boards do not work in their favor, the street free agent market should have a few available names to bring back. Worth noting Houston has only three (3) defensive linemen under contract for 2019. Christian Covington was drafted in the 6th round by Houston in 2015. 2017 & 2018 were marred by injuries for Covington limiting his playing time before coming on strong in the final 6 games of 2018. Covington primarily rotated in the d-line as an interior defender, finished the season with 4 sacks, 17 QB pressures, and 7 tackles. Brandon Dunn quietly put together a solid 2018 campaign after many stints on and off Houston’s roster in 2016 & 2017. Angelo Blackson was signed to a one year contract in 2018, rotated with Covington and Dunn while finishing the season with 11 QB pressures and 15 tackles.

One area that Houston will attempt to address through both free agency and the draft is the offensive tackle position. Seantrel Henderson was scheduled to be the starter for the season until his season was cut short after week 1 with a lower leg injury. Brian Gaine with familiar with Henderson’s work from Buffalo, and due to the limited market it would come to no surprise if Henderson was resigned for 2019. If Martinas Rankin moves inboard to guard, that currently leaves Houston with four (4) tackles under contract for 2019, three (3) of those players were undrafted.

Possible Player Releases

Kevin Johnson (DB) – $9.069m cap charge ($0m dead money*)

Johnson spent the majority of the 2018 season on Injured Reserve with a concussion. Johnson’s 2019 salary will become guaranteed on March 13, 2019*. Houston will need to process Johnson’s release prior to this date to avoid a dead money charge. Johnson, if he continues to play football, will undoubtedly have a market with the other 31 teams. Johnson is a former first round draft selection, that alone with garner interest among the other GM’s with a one year “prove it” deal.

Demaryius Thomas (WR) – $14.50m cap charge ($1.20m dead money)

There a few routes Houston could go with Demaryius Thomas for the 2019 season and beyond. Thomas was brought in from Denver via trade, and does not have any guaranteed money remaining for the last year of his player contract. Unfortunately Thomas had an achilles injury late in the 2018 season. Thomas turned 31 in December, and will face a tough road coming back from an achilles injury. There is a very good chance Thomas may not be ready to play until 2020. If Thomas is released Houston could potentially take on a $1.20m cap charge for injury protection. Houston could resign Thomas to a two year contract with a 2019 salary of $1.20m (matching what he would earn through injury protection) and a large roster bonus in March/April of 2020 if Thomas was able to pass a team physical; followed by a tier 3 wide receiver level salary in 2020. This would be similar to how Houston handled the Derek Newton situation. This is the tough side of the business of football.

Lamar Miller (RB) – $7.20m cap charge ($1.0m dead money)

Miller bounced back for the 2018 with 991 rushing yards (1,226 total yards) and 6 touchdowns. Miller will turn 28 during the 2019 season, and will face competition from D’Onta Foreman. Houston could release Miller earn in the offseason; but that is probably unlikely. However given the ample cap dollars available it may be beneficial to retain Miller into training camp to compete for the starting position. At worst Houston could move on from Miller in August with the same salary cap ramifications as a March release.

Houston will be busy this offseason. The war chest of salary cap dollars will disappear quickly. The team will be resigning their core players back to the roster, exploring free agency at multiple positions, followed by the draft where the team has four (4) draft picks in the Top 86 slots. TexansCap will bring articles this offseason covering contract projections for Jadeveon Clowney, how the team may address the safety position, as well as examinations of free agency at Tackle, Cornerback, Wide Receiver, and Runningback position groups.

-TC