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A little more than two weeks ago, your Houston Texans acquired Shaq Lawson from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for Benardrick McKinney. Lawson now has more walking around money in his new home base than he did when he arrived, thanks to the Texans’ decision to restructure their new acquisition’s existing contract.
Texans restructured Shaq Lawson's contract, per NFLPA records, lowering his salary-cap figure to $3.242 million for 2021 from $8.5 million. He's still due $8 million this year, $990K fully guaranteed base salary, plus a $6.91 million bonus.
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 2, 2021
Lawson is far from alone in the Houston Restructure Club; he’s the sixth veteran to have his deal rejiggered in 2021, joining Laremy Tunsil, Brandin Cooks, David Johnson, Whitney Mercilus, and Zach Cunningham.
The Texans previously restructured contracts for Laremy Tunsil ($10.106M savings), Brandin Cooks ($6.53M, David Johnson ($3.7M),Whitney Mercilus ($4M), Zach Cunningham $5.63M. Including Shaq Lawson ($5.285M), Texans created a total $35.251M in salary-cap savings https://t.co/4wQmrTtlMG
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 2, 2021
While some Texans fans wanted the team to essentially take their medicine for the bad contracts handed out by Bill O’Brien and Jack Easterby, consequences on the field in 2021 be damned, Nick Caserio is going the other way, doing everything he can to improve Houston’s current cap situation so he can bring in dozens of new faces to help the team compete immediately. Granted, very few if any of these new faces seem to qualify as impact free agents, but Caserio is trying. A rolling stone gathers no moss, and Nick Caserio is a boulder tumbling down the side of a mountain, baby.