Houston Texans 2020 Offseason Primer

The 2019 NFL season is a hangnail. Barely dangling on the edge of a cuticle. Down in Miami, an open toe shoe will be worn and a misplaced step will tear this gasping thing off, marking the end of the 2019 season once a champion is finally crowned.

For the rest of the NFL, the season has been over for weeks or months now. The Cyclops eye is looking ahead to the spring time. Re-signing players. Free agency. The NFL Draft. That long time of nothing in the summer. And then kickoff shortly after Labor Day.

Around these parts, the Super Bowl doesn’t matter all that much. Who cares? My team is dead and gone. Thoughts are already drifting toward offseason investment and changes to the infrastructure. How much will D.J. Reader make? I hate the Whitney Mercilus extension. Can Will Fuller be trusted going forward? Who is available to improve the pass rush, that errant sore, finally popped and pulsating, shooting puss across a Kansas City motel mirror?

Here’s where the Texans are they enter this offseason. Keep it in your thoughts. Hold it in your skull. Or just bookmark it. There...that’s so much easier.

Cap Space: $55,192,118 (9^th).

Dead Money: $3,040,071.

Free Agents: Bradley Roby (CB), Lamar Miller (RB), Johnathan Joseph (CB), Barkevious Mingo (EDGE/ST), Ka’imi Fairbairn (K), A.J. McCarron (QB), Carlos Hyde (RB), Brandon Dunn (NT), Darren Fells (TE), Jahleel Addae (S), Mike Adams (S), Joe Webb (QB), Taiwan Jones (RB/ST), Jon Weeks (LS), D.J. Reader (DT), Chris Clark (LT), Phillip Gaines (CB), Tyrell Adams (LB), DeAndre Carter (WR), Dylan Cole (ILB), Roderick Johnson (OT)

Possible Cuts/Cap Savings: Vernon Hargreaves III ($9,594,000), Zach Fulton ($7,000,000), Angelo Blackson ($3,968,750), Senio Kelemete ($3,250,000)

Possible Restructures/Extensions: J.J. Watt ($15,5 million cap hit), Deshaun Watson (2021 Free Agent), Laremy Tunsil (2021 Free Agent), Zach Cunningham (2021 Free Agent), Will Fuller (2021 Free Agent)

List of NFL Free Agents: Spotrac has a list here.

Texans 2020 NFL Draft Picks: 2^nd round (57^th overall), 4^th round (from MIA—TBD), 4^th round (TBD), 5^th round (TBD), and 6^th round (TBD). Compensatory draft picks will be announced in February; Houston is expected to receive at least a third round pick for Tyrann Mathieu.