Brandon Dunn staying with Houston Texans is huge step this offseason

The Houston Texans re-signed defensive tackle Brandon Dunn officially on Wednesday, and it was a step in the right direction by the franchise this offseason.

Brandon Dunn has played five of his seven seasons in the NFL with the Houston Texans, and in that seven-year career the defensive tackle has played at a high level, though playing in the interior line, he might have gone a little unnoticed at times throughout his career.

That shouldn’t be the case though, as Dunn in his seven seasons has totaled 88 total tackles (38 solo) and one sack. Even more than that, Dunn makes those around him better, which is just important as his own individual success.

The last three seasons, Dunn has really begun to take strides in his overall play, with no less than 24 combined tackles in a season, and this past season Dunn collected 25 combined tackles (14 solo) and his one career sack, which came in Week 16 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In a brief press release the Texans made the re-signing official — keeping Dunn off the free agent market — with the following sentence:

"“The Houston Texans signed NT Brandon Dunn to a contract extension.”"

This past season, Dunn’s contract was for $2.025 million. Now with the new contract, Dunn is  with the Texans for the next three years with a contract for $12 million, as reported by Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle.

Though the final contract numbers aren’t official, having the 27-year-old Dunn on the roster is a very smart move and gives the Texans a bit of relief this offseason, knowing they have one of their better defensive players under contract to the age of 30.

This past season, Pro Football Focus graded Dunn at 56.3 overall on a scale of 100, which was lower than his 2018 PFF grade of 65.3. In his two postseason games, Dunn was graded at 53.2 with games against the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs.

Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com quoted Texans head coach/general manager Bill O’Brien about Dunn:

"“People don’t talk about Brandon Dunn a lot,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said during the season. “He’s just a grinder [and] plays really tough football.”"

Again, this signing by the Texans is a smart move, and a move by the Texans that was needed because the franchise doesn’t need to fix something that isn’t broken. Dunn is an important part of the Houston defense, and it is smart for the team to keep a veteran who is under 30 years old.

Dunn seems to keep the Texans defense balanced with his play because he clogs up the interior line, he makes tackles when needed, and his teammates are better off when he’s on the field.

This is the first of hopefully many smart signings by the Texans this offseason, and it is great news that Dunn is returning to the team for the next three seasons.