Houston’s Derek Stingley Jr. is the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL after signing a new contract with the Texans, and he says what that tells him is the team that took him with the third overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft believes in him.
“It means a lot that they allowed me to go out there with my coaches, and they taught me this game and at this level,” Stingley said. “They believe that I can be somebody to teach the younger people that’s on the team. I’m not going to talk in front of everybody, but I know how to be a great teammate. I guess they believe in that and that is what I believe in.”
Stingley said the contract won’t be on his mind going forward, and his only focus is on being the best player he can be.
“I’m not really going to do anything different, just keep being me,” Stingley said. “It’s time to play football. I’m ready to get back into it. That’s really it. I don’t really think about the contract.”
Several veteran wide receivers remain free agents a week into free agency.
One of those, Stefon Diggs, is coming off a knee injury that cut short his 2024 season.
Diggs is in Foxboro visiting with the Patriots, Chad Graff of TheAthletic.com reports.
The Patriots have been in search of a top option at the position as they currently have Kayshon Boutte, Kendrick Bourne, Demario Douglas and Ja’Lynn Polk atop their depth chart.
Diggs, 31, spent last season with the Texans after a trade from the Bills. He played eight games before a torn ACL, catching 47 passes for 496 yards and three touchdowns.
The timing injury puts his availability for the start of the season in doubt.
Diggs ranks 46th on PFT’s top-100 free agents list. Amari Cooper and Keenan Allen also are on the list and remain free agents.
Diggs went to the Vikings in the fifth round in 2015, and he spent five years in Minnesota followed by four years in Buffalo after a trade. The Bills then traded him to Houston. For the first time, he is a free agent.
He is a four-time Pro Bowler, and he made All-Pro in 2020.
Last year, the Texans signed defensive end Danielle Hunter to a two-year contract. With one year done, they’ve added another.
Via Tom Pelissero of NFL Media: “The #Texans and Danielle Hunter have agreed to a one-year, $35.6 million contract extension that makes him the NFL’s second-highest paid defensive end, per sources. Hunter will make $32M this season — a $12.5M raise — and $55.1M ($54.1M fully guaranteed) over the next two seasons. Deal negotiated by @ZekeSandhu
of @KlutchSports.”
.
As we know, it’s not really a one-year extension. It’s a new, two-year contract. Hunter was due to make $19.5 million in 2025. He’ll now make $55.1 million over the next two years, an average of $27.55 million per year.
Calling Hunter the second highest-paid defensive end is technically accurate under the phony-baloney new-money average, but it’s also a tad disingenuous. Maxx Crosby, at $35.5 million in new-money average on his latest deal, will make $64 million over the next two years, nearly $9 million more than what Hunter will make. Crosby also has a practical guarantee of $91.5 million, $37.4 million more than Hunter. Crosby’s deal is objectively superior to Hunter’s.
But, again, the rules of #scooptown are unflinching. Thou shalt hype the new-money average. (Also, thou shalt specifically grease the agent who did the deal — and who provided the information.)
Hunter had 12.0 sacks for the Texans in 2024. He has 99.5 career sacks. The Texans were clearly happy with his performance, and they were willing to adjust his contract.
The Texans have found a new left tackle.
According to multiple reports, they have agreed to terms with Cam Robinson. Robinson will step into the spot on the Houston offensive line that opened up when they traded Laremy Tunsil to the Commanders earlier this month.
Robinson joined the Vikings in a midseason trade with the Jaguars and started 10 regular season games. He also started Minnesota’s postseason loss to the Rams, but had no spot with the team in 2025 with Christian Darrisaw due back from a knee injury.
Robinson was a Jacksonville second-round pick in 2017, so the Texans saw plenty of him before he made the move to the Vikings. Now they’ll be asking him to protect quarterback C.J. Stroud against his former team and the rest of Houston’s 2025 opponents.
The Texans moved quickly to extend the contract of cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., providing a clear example to all other teams (including the other team in Texas) regarding how things should be done.
We’ve gotten our hands on the full details. Here they are, per a source with knowledge of the terms:
1. Signing bonus: $25 million.
2. 2025 base salary: $1.431 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2026 base salary: $21.595 million, fully guaranteed.
4. 2026 per-game roster bonus: $500,000.
5. 2027 base salary: $20 million, guaranteed for injury at signing, and fully guaranteed by March 2026.
6. 2027 per-game roster bonus: $500,000.
7. 2028 base salary: $21 million, guaranteed for injury at signing, and fully guaranteed by March 2027.
8. 2028 per-game roster bonus: $500,000.
9. 2029 offseason roster bonus: $1 million.
10. 2029 base salary: $21 million.
11. 2029 per-game roster bonus: $500,000.
The new-money average is $30 million per year on the three new years, and it’s a five-year, $113 million with an average of $22.6 million from signing.
The total guarantee is $89 million, with $48 million fully guaranteed at signing, $68 million fully guaranteed by 2026, and the $89 million vesting by 2027.
The NFL released the list of team-proposed changes to playing rules and bylaws on Wednesday and they include a proposal made by several clubs to change procedures used for footballs used in the kicking game.
Current rules call for those balls — known as K-Balls — to be prepared by teams during a 60-minute window on the day of games with three such balls being delivered to officials for use that day.
In the proposal, the Ravens, Browns, Texans, Eagles, Raiders, Vikings, and Commanders argue that the process “continues to put stress on NFL equipment staffs during the critical pregame period on game days” and calls for a change that would allow the balls to be prepared ahead of time.
NFL rules currently allow for balls used outside of the kicking game to be prepared in advance. The proposal adds that the same pregame inspection process would be applied to both sets of footballs in order to assure that no team is manipulating the balls to their advantage.
Any changes would need to be approved in a vote of all 32 teams with 24 votes needed to pass.
In Houston, Laremy Tunsil became part of the problem. In Washington, he vows to be part of the solution.
And he hopes to solve his personal problem of having too many penalties. In 2024, he led the league with nineteen fouls.
“It’s really just me versus me at the end of the day,” Tunsil told reporters during his first media session as a member of the Commanders, via Bryan Manning of USA Today. “There’s a lot of things I want to work on. Those 19 penalties I had last season are unacceptable. That’s something I want to address for sure, getting that number down or even having none. I want to keep growing as a player, as a pass blocker, a run blocker; it doesn’t matter. I’m always trying to improve in each of those fields.”
For the year, Tunsil had 12 false starts, three illegal formation fouls, two holding calls, an ineligible man downfield violation, and an unnecessary roughness penalty.
Of the 19 penalties, 12 happened in the first four weeks of the 2024 season — with six in a Week 3 loss to the Vikings.
It’s not officially signed yet, but it will be soon. And when it’s done, Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. will have a five-year, $113 million deal.
What’s that? Every report you’ve seen said it’s three years and $90 million? That’s one of the basic realities of the new “insider” game, where only part of the story is told. (Basically, the best part for the player and his agent.)
The deal adds three new years and $90 million in new money. But it’s still a five-year deal. Stingley was due to make $5.431 million in 2025, the fourth year of his rookie contract. He would have made $17.6 million in 2026, under the fifth-year option.
To calculate the full value of the deal, add the old money with the new money. And there’s the $113 million.
The situation has sparked plenty of misconceptions. Some believe Stingley will still make $5.431 million this year and $17.6 million next year before the three-year extension kicks in. That NEVER happens with NFL contracts. The old deal will be torn up, and it will be replaced with the new contract at a new structure.
We’ll get the full breakdown as soon as the deal is official. Until then, remember three things. One, the existing two years will disappear, with a new five-year contract replacing them. Two, the “new-money” average will $30 million per year. Three, the average from signing for the five-year, $113 million contract will be $22.6 million per year.
For drafted players, the window for a new contract opens after the conclusion of his third regular season. Some teams kick the can on a new deal until after the fourth year. Some swoop in and get the second contract done quickly.
The Texans have moved very quickly with cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.
It’s an example of what can happen when team and agent don’t play games. When there’s mutual trust. When they can reach an agreement without needing a real deadline like the start of the regular season.
There’s nothing currently happening, as it relates to the 2025 NFL on-field calendar. The offseason program doesn’t begin until April. Training camp doesn’t open until late July. And yet the Texans and Stingley found a way to do what would have been done anyway, at a later date.
As plenty of teams have learned the hard way, waiting until a later date makes the deal more expensive. It never, ever gets cheaper.
Last year, the Broncos extended 2024 defensive player of the year Patrick Surtain II before the season began. He got $24 million per year in new money, a record at the time for cornerbacks. If they’d waited, they’d now be looking at more than $30 million per year, since that’s the new bar set by Stingley.
Now, the Texans have locked in at $30 million annually for Stingley. In so doing, they’ve sent a clear message to the locker room. If you perform at a high level and otherwise cause no problems, you will be rewarded handsomely and on a timely basis.
It’s another reason to believe the Texans are on the rise. And that they could be preparing to crash the hammerlock that the Chiefs, Bills, and Ravens have on the top of the conference.
The Texans have agreed to terms with cornerback Ronald Darby on a one-year, $2.5 million deal, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
The Jaguars released Darby last week.
Darby joined the Jaguars last March on a two-year deal worth up to $10 million. He started 12 games and totaled 46 tackles, three tackles for loss and nine pass breakups.
Darby, 31, entered the NFL as a second-round pick of the Bills in 2015. He played two seasons in Buffalo, two in Philadelphia, one in Washington, two in Denver and one in Baltimore before joining the Jaguars.
In his 10-year career, Darby has totaled 447 tackles, eight interceptions, 106 pass breakups, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He has played 6,222 defensive snaps.
