Houston Texans Roster News

Earlier this week Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reported the Texans had been assigned a $6.436 million rookie pool.

This money will come out of the team’s cap space for this season. The Texans currently have $41 million in cap space via Over The Cap. After the 2019 NFL Draft class is signed they will have at least $34.5 million to play with, to extend players, and sign free agent scraps.

This is important. Since Tuesday, teams no longer gain/lose precious compensatory picks when signing free agents now. From NFL.com:

The passing of the league-wide deadline signals current veteran players on the open market no longer count in the NFL’s method of calculations for determining compensatory draft picks.

”If teams sign players, they are not counted against the compensatory pick formula,” NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport explained Monday night on Total Access. “In other words, they do not hurt future draft choices. So, you have some players that are simply in a waiting game.”

Brian Gaine can keep all those third and fourth round picks he loves so dearly if he chooses to dip back into the free agent market. The Texans still have holes to fill. They could use another running back, veteran wide receiver, the cornerback room can always use talent, and they never added another interior pass rusher.

Here is Rotoworld’s free agent tracker, showing the players still available. Jay Ajayi, Jacquizz Rodgers, Spencer Ware, Rishard Matthews, De’Anthony Thomas, Stefen Wisniewski, Nick Perry, and Morris Claiborne examples of intriguing veterans that are out there.

Although the draft is over, roster building isn’t. This is the set of cards the Brian Gaine has as he tweaks and tinkers with the Texans’ roster as they progress closer and closer to training camp.