Can the Texans afford to re-sign A.J. Bouye?
The Houston Texans may have a hard time re-signing cornerback A.J. Bouye given his current market value.
ESPN’s John Clayton told Patrick Starr of State of the Texans that Bouye will command a salary in the range of $12-12.5 million a year.
ESPNs John Clayton mentioned to me that A.J. Bouye is looking at minimum $12-12.5 million APY on the open market. #Texans
— patrick (@PatDStat) February 1, 2017
The question is, can the Texans afford to re-sign Abouye?
Houston general manager Rick Smith made it clear on Thursday that they want Bouye back and want to sign him to a long-term deal.
“I certainly couldn’t be any more proud of any of our players than I am of A.J. with the way he improved his play and his confidence,” said, Smith, per the Houston Chronicle. “I think he had an outstanding year. I’ve said many, many times you can’t have too many corners. We’ve talked about that a lot.
“I think he’s a fine young man. He fits our profile and we certainly would like to have him back and we’re going to do everything we can to get that done.”
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If the Texans decide to give in and hand Bouye a contract that will pay him around $12 million a season, they would be investing $25 million in the cornerback position alone in 2017 since both Jonathan Joseph and Kareem Jackson are scheduled to make $6.5 million each, but plus over $3 million in bonus’.
Houston is only expected to have around $25 million in cap space. If they’re going to re-sign Bouye and make other moves in free agency, they may have to get creative when it comes to giving him a new contract.