3 former Texans we'll be glad are gone, 2 we'll wish stayed in 2023

2. Player the Houston Texans won't miss in 2023: A.J. Cann, OG

The Texans had to fill many holes last offseason but instead of looking for sustainable solutions, they looked for bargains in free agency. Granted, you don't have to pay a premium to every player you acquire but scraping the bottom of the barrel to find talent isn't a smart move either.

Last season, the Texans poached offensive guard A.J. Cann from the Jacksonville Jaguars and gave him a two-year deal worth $10.5 million in hopes of fortifying the trenches. Looking back, signing Cann made sense on paper. After all, the former South Carolina Gamecock had been a mainstay of the Jags' offensive line since they made him a third-round pick in 2015.

Cann made 94 starts in Jacksonville and made 16 more for the Texans last year. The issue was that he often struggled and was a liability upfront. Even though he earned a solid Pro Football Focus overall grade of 66.6 in 2022, he gave up five sacks and 34 total pressures in 1,003 pass-blocking snaps.

Although there were arguably worse players on the Texans' roster last season, moving on from Cann seems to have been the best course of action as releasing him created a bit over $4.2 million in cap room with $ 2 million in dead money. Simply, Cann's 2023 salary wasn't proportional to his on-field performance and other teams might agree when you take into account that he remains unsigned.