Houston is bringing back one of its pending free agents.
Agent Mike McCartney announced on Sunday night that defensive tackle Naquan Jones has agreed to a one-year deal to re-sign with the Texans.
Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Jones’ contract is worth $2 million with a maximum of $2.5 million with incentives.
Jones, 28, was claimed off waivers by Houston late in the 2025 season after being released by the Chargers. He appeared in four regular-season games for Houston, plus the club’s two postseason games.
Jones entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2021 and has appeared in 60 career games for the Titans, Cardinals, Chargers, and Texans. He’s tallied 6.5 sacks with 12 tackles for loss and 10 quarterback hits in his career.
Texans Clips
The Texans have agreed to terms with linebacker E.J. Speed, a core special teams player.
Aaron Wilson of KPRC reports that Speed will sign a two-year deal with a maximum value of $13 million, including $7.5 million guaranteed, rather than hit free agency. He had signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Texans last offseason.
Speed totaled 62 tackles, two quarterback hits and a pass defensed in 16 games with nine starts last season. He played 44 percent of the defensive snaps and 52 percent of the special teams snaps in the games he played.
The Colts made Speed a fifth-round pick in 2019, and he spent six years in Indianapolis.
Speed, 30, has recorded 416 tackles, 30 tackles for losses, two sacks, six forced fumbles, one interception and 13 passes defensed in his career.
The Texans have gone the contract restructure route with a couple of their defensive backs as they get their cap in shape ahead of free agency.
According to multiple reports, the Texans have restructured the deals of cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and safety Jalen Pitre by converting portions of their base salaries into signing bonuses. The two moves have opened up more than $22 million in space for the Texans while increasing the cap hits for both players in the coming years.
Stingley is signed through 2029 and has salaries of $20 million, $21 million, and $21 million over the contract’s final three seasons. The cap hits for those years are in the $29-31 million range.
Pitre has salaries of $9.5 million in 2027 and 2028 with cap hits of $14.557 million both years.
The Texans have agreed to terms with tight end Dalton Schultz on a contract extension. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that it’s a one-year, $12.6 million deal, guaranteeing him $17.6M through 2027.
Schultz signed a one-year, $6.25 million contract with the Texans in free agency in 2023 before re-signing on a three-year, $36 million deal in 2024.
He has made 194 receptions for 1,944 yards and 10 touchdowns in his three seasons in Houston.
Schultz, who turns 30 this summer, entered the NFL as a fourth-round pick of the Cowboys in 2018. He spent five seasons in Dallas, catching 211 passes for 2,122 yards and 17 touchdowns.
The Texans reached agreement on a one-year extension with edge rusher Danielle Hunter on Thursday.
Joe Mixon’s future with the Texans was never in doubt, but his future in the NFL remains in question.
The team made it official on Friday, releasing the running back a day after he asked for the move.
The Texans traded for their RB1 this week, a move that will become official next week, when they worked out a deal with the Lions for David Montgomery.
Mixon, meanwhile, becomes a free agent. The question is: Will he play again?
Mixon did not play last season, because of an off-field foot injury that remains a mystery. Texans General Manager Nick Caserio revealed at the Scouting Combine that Mixon underwent surgery for his injury this offseason but would not elaborate.
The Texans save $8.5 million by parting ways.
Mixon, who turns 30 this summer, made the Pro Bowl in his first season with the Texans, rushing for 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2024.
He has 7,428 rushing yards and 60 rushing touchdowns since the Bengals made him a second-round pick in 2017.
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.
