The Texans are bringing back one of their veteran defensive players.
Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, safety M.J. Stewart has agreed to return to Houston on a one-year deal.
Stewart, 30, has been with the Texans since 2022. He appeared in nine games with four starts in 2025 before missing the rest of the season with a torn quad suffered in November.
Stewart recorded 25 total tackles with two passes defensed and one forced fumble in 2025.
A second-round pick in 2018, Stewart has appeared in 99 career games with 14 starts for the Buccaneers, Browns, and Texans.
Another year, another one-year extension for Texans pass rusher Danielle Hunter.
Per multiple reports, the Texans and Hunter have agreed to terms on a one-year extension that will pay him $40.1 million.
Last year, the Texans and Hunter executed a one-year extension worth $35.6 million.
The 2025 extension put Hunter $100,000 per year ahead of Maxx Crosby’s annual average of $35.5 million. At the time, Crosby was the highest-paid player at the position. The latest deal inches Hunter past Myles Garrett, who is making $40 million per year.
The market at the position is currently led by Micah Parsons ($46.5 million), Aidan Hutchinson ($45 million), and T.J. Watt ($41 million).
Hunter, 31, has spent two seasons with the Texans. He had 12.0 sacks in 2024 and 15.0 in 2025. Most recently, he landed on the All-Pro second team.
The Jets will not tender restricted free agent John Metchie, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
That will make Metchie a free agent.
The Texans selected Metchie with the 44th overall pick in 2022, but he missed his rookie season. While working his back back from an ACL tear, Metchie was diagnosed with leukemia.
Metchie, 25, caught 40 passes for 412 yards and a touchdown in 2023-24 in Houston before the Texans traded him to the Eagles for Harrison Bryant and a swap of third-round picks in training camp last summer.
At the trade deadline in 2025, the Eagles shipped him to the Jets in exchange for Michael Carter II and a late-round 2027 swap. He caught 29 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns in nine games for the Jets last season after making four receptions for 18 yards in seven games with the Eagles.
The Texans have announced DeMeco Ryans’s coaching staff for the 2026 season.
Offensive coordinator Nick Caley returns for his second season in Houston. He’ll be working with assistant head coach/running backs coach Danny Barrett, offensive assistant Taylor Embree, tight ends coach James Ferentz, wide receivers coach/offensive passing game coordinator Ben McDaniels, offensive line coach/offensive run game coordinator Cole Popovich, offensive assistant Asauni Rufus, quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski, assistant wide receivers coach Tiquan Underwood, offensive assistant Alex Ward, and offensive assistant Cole Weeks.
Defensive coordinator Matt Burke is in his fourth season with the Texans. He’ll be joined on that side of the ball by safeties coach Stephen Adegoke, defensive/special teams assistant Sean Baker, linebackers coach Bill Davis, senior defensive assistant Bill Lazor, assistant defensive line coach Frank Okam, defensive assistant Mark Sheridan, defensive assistant Jay Simpson, defensive backs coach Dino Vasso, and defensive line coach/defensive run game coordinator Rod Wright.
Special teams coordinator Frank Ross, assistant special teams coach Will Burnham, and assistant to the head coach Jake Olson round out Ryans’s staff.
Trent Brown will be back with Houston in 2026.
According to multiple reports, Brown has agreed to stay with the Texans on a one-year deal worth $7 million.
Brown, 32, signed with Houston as a free agent last March. He was released during roster cuts at the end of August, but was signed to the team’s 53-man roster in October. He then started seven games for the team late in the season and Houston’s wild card victory over the Steelers in the playoffs.
A seventh-round pick in the 2015 draft, Brown has appeared in 110 games with 103 starts for the 49ers, Patriots, Raiders, Bengals, and Texans.
