Laremy Tunsil spoke with the Houston Texans news media about his recent contract extension, and how the Texans can “get it done.”
On thing about any offensive left tackle in the NFL that all teams want to see is confidence, and this week while Laremy Tunsil was speaking with the Houston Texans news media, the confidence he has in the 2020 Texans was known.
Tunsil recently signed a three-year contract extension with Houston, and the Texans news following the deal was he was going to make roughly $66 million over those three seasons, but more important for the Texans is they were keeping their franchise left tackle.
We all know the Texans news story of how Tunsil arrived in Houston — Bill O’Brien traded two first round picks for him — but even with the large price tag it took to get Tunsil from the Miami Dolphins, the deal is done, and now at least for the next three seasons Tunsil is with the Texans.
The left tackle is coming off a 2019 season where In 14 games played he was not only a member of the team that won the AFC South championship, but his numbers for the offensive line included 15 penalties, and within those calls 12 were false starts and there was just one holding penalty. Tunsil allowed only three sacks in the regular season, but in the two games in the playoffs Tunsil didn’t commit a single penalty or allow a sack.
Moving forward what Tunsil and the rest of his teammates most likely want the Texans news to be is how they are preparing for the upcoming 2020 season. It is a season that is seeing the Texans entering a big battle to defend their division title for a chance to win three in a row, though it won’t be easy because the rest of the division is improved as a whole.
Preparing for the ’20 schedule includes Tunsil working out with his quarterback Deshaun Watson, and those two have been all over the Texans news cycle this offseason with both working on contract extensions.
Tunsil talked about how he is working out with Watson this offseason, and how they see and speak with each other on a near daily basis with transcripts provided by HoustonTexans.com:
"“We basically just tell each other, ‘Man, let’s go get it, let’s get it done. We have the tools right in front of us on this team and we can get it done, it just starts with us.’ We pretty much voice our opinions every day about the team we have.”"
The deal made by Tunsil is a great contract for the offensive tackle, and for the Texans the deal is a lot of money to spend, but they aren’t locked into a long-term deal if things don’t go their their liking either.
Tunsil also talked about the deal he made on his own with O’Brien and the Texans, and how he’s able to get back into the free agent market after three seasons, still being in his late 20s when that happens:
"“Just to give me another opportunity to get into the market. I just felt like three years was better than four, just to give me another opportunity to get in the free market and just to go from there. I’ll get to free agency around 28, 29, so I feel like that was the best opportunity for me.”"
Tunsil has reset the market for offensive linemen as a whole in the NFL with this deal, but after all the draft capital spent on the left tackle a deal had to be made to keep Tunsil for longer than a couple seasons, and keeping Watson safe from opposing defenders is priceless.
Though the deal might not be long-term, and the Texans news was they spent a lot of money they needed to spend. Having Tunsil on the roster for the next three seasons to protect Watson is a sound investment in itself, and both parties are happy with the outcome, and maybe most of all Watson will be the happiest the next three seasons.