Texans Draft: Houston paying more to rookies than any other team
The Texans came away from the 2023 NFL Draft with a haul, but it won't come cheap. After drafting CJ Stroud at No. 2, general manager Nick Caserio used his surplus draft capital to trade up to No. 3 and select Will Anderson Jr. As one would expect, selecting two players inside of the top […]
The Texans came away from the 2023 NFL Draft with a haul, but it won't come cheap.
After drafting CJ Stroud at No. 2, general manager Nick Caserio used his surplus draft capital to trade up to No. 3 and select Will Anderson Jr. As one would expect, selecting two players inside of the top five is quite pricey.
According to Over The Cap, the Texans will spend more money on their 2023 draft class than any other team will.
The Texans will pay just over $20M to rookies in 2023, which is significantly more than any other team will spend to sign its class. The Seahawks have the next-most expensive class, coming in at just under $17M.
NFL Network's Tom Pelissero pointed out that the total rookie allocation for this class in Houston is a whopping $105,910,734. Essentially, this number is what will be spent in total over the life of the contracts for this rookie class.
The Seahawks' class is once again a distant second, with a total allocation of $90,369,206.
The class will cost the Texans $13,193,547 against the salary cap in 2023.
Why is that number different than the $20M number mentioned above?
This is where the NFL salary cap rules get confusing. The rookie class will count for less against the cap than they cost to sign due to the top-51 rule. Until final cuts, only the top-51 salaries count against the salary cap. If a new player gets added to the roster and his salary is less than the 51st-ranked salary, then he won't count against the cap. Hence why only about $13M counts toward the cap in 2023.
As far as future cap space, the Texans will still have plenty. Houston is currently projected to lead the league with a whopping $147,455,973 in cap space in 2024.
Loaded with high-impact rookies and tons of cap space, things are looking up in Houston.
