Texans’ DL Angelo Blackson Takes Pay Cut

Texans’ DL Angelo Blackson has agreed to a pay cut, as Mark Berman of Fox 26 reports (via Twitter). Blackson was set to earn nearly $4MM this year, but that number will now drop to $2.5MM.

Blackson was selected by the Titans in the fourth round of the 2015 draft and spent the first two years of his career with Tennessee but was waived prior to the start of the 2017 season. He quickly hooked on with the Patriots’ taxi squad and was signed by Houston a few weeks later.

In 2018, his first full year in Houston, the Auburn product saw the most playing time of his career, appearing in all 16 games and 40% of the team’s defensive snaps. Although Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics ranked him near the bottom of the league’s interior defenders that season, Houston re-signed him to a three-year, $12MM pact last March.

In 2019, Blackson again appeared in 40% of the Texans’ defensive snaps, recording 20 tackles in the process. But his overall game was still a bit lackluster, and if he did not accept a pay cut, he may have been released.

As Berman writes, the Texans have saved about $8MM of cap space between Blackson’s pay cut, Senio Kelemete‘s extension, and Zach Fulton‘s restructure. The team now has about $20MM of room, and due to the expected cap reduction in 2021, any rollover money will be valuable. Plus, the team also needs to stash some funds for the inevitable Deshaun Watson extension.

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