The Texans and linebacker Zach Cunningham have agreed to a four-year, $58MM extension, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. The new portion of the deal gives Cunningham an average annual salary of $14.5MM per year and keeps him under club control through 2024.
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When the Texans moved up from No. 25 to land Deshaun Watson in the 2017 draft, they figured that Cunningham would land elsewhere. The Giants were particularly interested in the Vanderbilt product but, luckily for Houston, they chose Ole Miss tight end Evan Engram instead at No. 23 and passed on Cunningham again at No. 55, allowing them to grab the ‘backer at No. 57 overall.
Since then, Cunningham has been a fixture in the Texans’ front seven. He took another giant leap forward last year, logging 142 stops, two sacks, and two passes defensed in 16 games (all starts). Cunningham led the league in run stops, posted a career-best run-defense grade of 84.8 (per Pro Football Focus), and routinely flustered quarterbacks with his 82-inch wingspan.
Cunningham has been knocked for his inconsistent coverage, but he’s one of the league’s better inside linebackers on the whole. Meanwhile, he’s still shy of his 26th birthday in December. The contract positions Cunningham as the league’s tenth highest-paid ILB, sandwiched between Shaquil Barrett of the Buccaneers and Deion Jones of the Falcons.
What figures were agreed to by:
Chuck Cunningham,
Ritchie Cunningham and
Howard Cunningham??
This is a bit of an overpay, but it’s good to retain some defensive chemistry in this shortened offseason. Houston will need Cunningham to stop Baltimore and Buffalo’s rushing attacks, but they’ll remain uncompetitive against Kansas City. Simply put, Eric Murray is too incompetent and Gareon Conley too inconsistent to halt Patrick Mahomes. We saw it in the postseason and it doesn’t appear they’ve made enough of an effort to resolve this issue
They will need him even more to stop the Titans rushing attack.
Good point, as the Colts and Titans are divisional rivals with a potent offensive line and beast at runningback respectively. That was an oversight of mine
Must be nice to be a player on the Texans. You know O’Brien is going to overpay on an extension. At this rate Watson will get 50 mil per haha