In the National Football League, their version of the salary cap has some flexibility built into it to where it's a hard cap with a tad bit of softness. That's if owners are willing to spend heavy on cash in the short term, with the ability to shove the cap hits into "dummy" years on those contracts in the future. Without boring the hell out of my readership, there are some "credit card" type mechanisms available to teams to make massive deals easier to swallow.
I bring this up because the Houston Texans are entering an era of roster construction with their current group where, if they want to maintain their young core, they're going to have to pay top dollar in Average Annual Value (from this point forward in this article, to be known as "AAV") at various positions to do so. C.J. Stroud obviously qualifies, but Derek Stingley (cornerback) and Will Anderson, Jr. (defensive end) are guys who could reset the market at their positions.
For now, let's focus in on Anderson's defensive end market, because that is the chic position this offseason. The last couple years, we've seen wide receiver markets go crazy. Two years ago, it was quarterbacks. However, starting with Raiders DE Maxx Crosby's new deal ($35.5 million in AAV) on Wednesday, the market to sack passers is the slot machine of 2025.
Crosby's deal, at the time, four days ago, was the highest AAV for any non-quarterback in NFL history. You would think that high water might stick for a few days, and if it were to get broken in just a few days, it would be by a couple hundred thousand dollars, at most.
However, the other 31 NFL teams and their fans exist in an ecosystem where the Cleveland Browns exist. You remember the Browns, right? The team who had to shatter the "total guaranteed money" ceiling by roughly $80 million to convince Deshaun Watson to join them in football hell. Incompetent, trash organization. THOSE Browns, right?
Well, they've done it again! Within the last month, their franchise icon, DE Myles Garrett, has been seeking a trade, because the organization is so irretrievably broken. They went 3-14 last season. The Browns have dug in and said "We have a contract, and we aren't trading you," which is the only thing for which I'll credit them here. I hate guys demanding trades when they are under deals THEY agreed to.
Now, the crediting of the Browns is over. In order to keep Garrett, they had to money whip him this weekend, and not just exceed Crosby's deal, but smash through it by $4.5 million per year! Here you go:
From trade to truce and beyond: the Browns and Myles Garrett reached agreement today on a record contract extension that averages $40 million per year and includes $123.5 million in guaranteed money and now makes him the highest-paid non-QB in NFL history, sources tell ESPN.… pic.twitter.com/scNWJH2vFX
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 9, 2025
So, once again, the complete dumpster fire that the Browns have become forces the market way higher, way faster than 31 other teams want it to. To give credit to those other teams, and the agents of the subsequent post-Watson QB extensions, everyone else realized "Yeah, that's the Browns. Back here in a sane world, let's keep the normalcy in the market intact and let Deshaun wither away in hell on a pile of cash." And that's exactly what happened.
It will be interesting to see how the Garrett contract affects the next wave of pass rushers looking for deals — Trey Hendrickson, Micah Parson, Aidan Hutchinson, AND the Texans' two stud edge rushers, Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson. Let's examine both:
**What does this mean for Danielle Hunter?**Hunter is in the second and final year of a two year, $48 million deal he signed in free agency last spring. Hunter turned 30 during the 2024 season, and finished the year with 12 sacks. Quietly, he has averaged over 11 sacks per season, in the nine seasons in which he's actually played. (Hunter missed the entire 2020 season.) He was ferocious pressuring the pocket last season, with 72 pressures. In short, he is one of the best at creating havoc in the pocket. I'm guessing the Texans would like to keep him around, and perhaps even extend him this week, so they can open up some short term cap space. This Garrett deal, though, would have me pumping the brakes on an extension, if I were Hunter. Another 12 sack season, and he could easily find a short term deal in free agency in the $30 million to $35 million range.
**What does this mean for Will Anderson?**In short, it probably means a whole lot more money to Anderson than it does to Hunter. Hunter is north of 30, and still productive. Anderson is in a whole different category. On the list of edge rushers above, the two to really watch are Parson and Hutchinson, who like Anderson, are still on their rookie contracts. Parsons has been extension eligible for over a year now, Hutchinson becomes eligible soon, and Anderson still has one more season before he can cash in big. I think it's a safe bet now, that if Anderson makes another jump in 2025 like he did in 2024, a leap that would put him in perennial Defensive Player of the Year conversations, he will be in the $40 million AAV club, and the Texans would gladly put him there. He is the beacon of light they drafted for the defense in 2023, opposite C.J. Stroud, the offense's beacon of light.
Why did the Browns and Garrett ultimately decide to remain in this marriage?
Cleveland people can obviously speak to this better than I can. I’m just guessing here, because thankfully I don't have to follow that donkey of a franchise on a daily basis, but here goes — Garrett is their best player since the 1999 reboot of the team, after the first iteration left for Baltimore. It's Garrett and Joe Thomas. Like Thomas, the Browns would like to see Garrett’s career be a wire-to-wire journey with the Browns. From there, like Thomas, it's off to Canton for Garrett. This is all the Browns have, the celebration of the rare "great player amidst sludge" about which they can boast. I get it that the Texans are not exactly the Chiefs of the last seven years, but at least they've won a few divisions and playoff games. The Browns are an unmitigated mess.
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