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All contract numbers and tables are from the superb Spotrac.com.
Matt Schaub
| YEAR | BASE | S. BONUS | MISC. | CAP HIT | DEAD |
| 2012 | 4,400,000 | 4,250,000 | 3,050,000 | 11,700,000 | - |
| 2013 | 7,250,000 | 3,500,000 | - | 10,750,000 | 21,250,000 |
| 2014 | 10,000,000 | 3,500,000 | 1,000,000 | 14,500,000 | 10,500,000 |
| 2015 | 12,500,000 | 3,500,000 | 1,000,000 | 17,000,000 | 7,000,000 |
| 2016 | 14,500,000 | 3,500,000 | 1,000,000 | 19,000,000 | 3,500,000 |
| 2017 |
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If he's still on the team, former Pro Bowl MVP Matt "Teh" Schaub will be due a 35% increase in his salary cap number this year. A cool $14.5 million, to be exact. The chances of this actually happening are so astronomically low that they would literally have to be calculated by NASA.
Unfortunately for Schaub, he represents everything that went wrong in the Gary Kubiak Era, and new coach Bill O'Brien will want to divorce himself from that stigma as soon as possible. The salary cap relief is just a bonus.
On that note, according to Spotrac, cutting Schaub will create $10 million in dead money, but a savings of $4.5 million overall. We have heard before that all of Schaub's guaranteed money has already been paid; this might be true, but the salary cap commitment to that money was spread out over the life of his contract. His release would trigger all of that cap hit to this year's total. Someone correct me if I'm wrong there.
It was nice knowing you, Schaub. If only you had grown that sweet beard sooner.
Andre Johnson
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Despite several restructures to his contract, the big lug's salary cap is at a somewhat manageable number. According to Spotrac, he's restructured three times... 2011, 2012 and 2013-- the last of which was a 4 year, $5.5 million deal. A nice little raise in exchange for cap relief.
Barring injury, Andre will age gracefully to the end of his contract and cement himself as a Hall of Fame worthy player. There's no chance the team will ever let him go for salary cap concerns.
Johnathan Joseph
| YEAR | BASE | S. BONUS | MISC. | CAP HIT | DEAD |
| 2011 | 5,500,000 | 2,500,000 | - | 8,000,000 | - |
| 2012 | 2,250,000 | 2,500,000 | 1,250,000 | 6,000,000 | - |
| 2013 | 7,500,000 | 2,500,000 | 1,250,000 | 11,250,000 | 11,250,000 |
| 2014 | 7,500,000 | 2,500,000 | 1,250,000 | 11,250,000 | 7,500,000 |
| 2015 | 8,500,000 | 2,500,000 | 1,250,000 | 12,250,000 | 3,750,000 |
| 2016 | UFA | ||||
As Texans fans, we're all nervous about what version of J-Jo we'll be getting in 2014. He was dominant in 2011, injured and inconsistent in 2012, and somewhere in between in 2013. Have injuries and Father Time eroded his skills? What can we expect from him in a brand new defensive system under a brand new coach?
Either way, the team will be shouldering the same cap hit from Joseph in 2014, so he'll likely be on the roster for at least another year. With the current state of the team's cornerback crew, he should be safe anyway.
Arian Foster
| YEAR | BASE | S. BONUS | MISC. | CAP HIT | DEAD |
| 2012 | 5,000,000 | 2,500,000 | 500,000 | 8,000,000 | - |
| 2013 | 5,250,000 | 2,500,000 | 500,000 | 8,250,000 | 13,250,000 |
| 2014 | 5,750,000 | 2,500,000 | 250,000 | 8,500,000 | 7,500,000 |
| 2015 | 6,000,000 | 2,500,000 | 500,000 | 9,000,000 | 5,000,000 |
| 2016 | 6,500,000 | 2,500,000 | 500,000 | 9,500,000 | 2,500,000 |
| 2017 | UFA | ||||
Another evenly distributed contract, thankfully. It's going to be very interesting to see how Foster performs after his injury-shortened 2013 campaign. It'll also be interesting to see how he bounces back after the very-public babymamadrama he's enduring right now. Hopefully it'll all be wrapped up by draft time.
We all appreciated Ben Tate's efforts in 2013, but there's no doubt that Foster's presence and game-breaking ability was sorely missed.
Duane Brown
| YEAR | BASE | S. BONUS | MISC. | CAP HIT | DEAD |
| 2012 | 1,081,500 | 2,600,000 | 900,750 | 4,582,250 | - |
| 2013 | 2,500,000 | 2,500,000 | - | 5,000,000 | 18,500,000 |
| 2014 | 6,000,000 | 2,500,000 | - | 8,500,000 | 13,500,000 |
| 2015 | 7,000,000 | 2,500,000 | - | 9,500,000 | 5,000,000 |
| 2016 | 7,000,000 | 2,500,000 | - | 9,500,000 | 2,500,000 |
| 2017 | 9,650,000 | - | - | 9,650,000 | - |
| 2018 | 9,750,000 | - | - | 9,750,000 | - |
| 2019 | |||||
Our franchise left tackle is due a nice bump in base salary and an accompanying salary cap hit. Thankfully, it won't rise much more than that throughout the rest of his contract, but he is a prime target for restructuring in the future.
2013 was a less-than-stellar performance for Brown, but he was still solid overall. How much of this can be attributed to the turf toe injury he suffered early in the season? Hard to say; that injury is notoriously hard to get over without constant rest and rehab. A long offseason should put Brown back in prime shape for 2014.
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Those are the top 5 biggest cap hits for the Houston Texans. Honestly, I thought it would be worse, but these are the players you'd expect to be having the biggest financial impact at this point in their careers. Before Schaub's inevitable release, Spotrac projects the team will have $5.6 million cap dollars to spend in 2014, putting the team in decent shape.
They'll need every dollar possible for J.J. Watt's next contract.