The Bank of Tunsil: Houston’s path to more cap space

Laremy Tunsil has made a career out of earning paydays from the McNair family.

His dominance as a four-time Pro Bowl left tackle for the Houston Texans has, at times, been overshadowed by the massive trade package that brought him to Houston and the subsequent contracts he signed.

Tunsil was traded to Houston in 2019 for two first-round picks and a second-round selection. He played through the 2019 playoff campaign before signing a market-setting three-year, $66 million extension in the summer of 2020 under then-general manager and head coach Bill O’Brien. He became the highest-paid left tackle in NFL history.

The Ole Miss product, despite overall team failure by the Texans, was able to turn an impressive 2022 campaign into yet another market-setting contract – this time with general manager Nick Caserio. Tunsil signed for three years, $75 million last summer to once again take the crown as the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history.

Writing about this at length tomorrow, but if the Houston Texans wanted to generate more cap or finance a move like Saquon independent of their current space…

The Bank of Tunsil is technically open.

Team could create up to $11.5M in savings with a restructure #WeAreTexans

— John Crumpler (@JohnHCrumpler) February 6, 2024

In short, Tunsil has done very well in Houston.

This topic is set to come up yet again this spring as the Texans prepare to make a potential Super Bowl push. Under rookie head coach DeMeco Ryans and rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, the team is well ahead of schedule and won the AFC South in 2023 while advancing to the AFC divisional round. A humbling loss to Baltimore exposed that their overall talent level is not yet where it needs to be to truly compete with the top of the conference.

The Texans have plenty of cap space to pursue free agents and upgrades this offseason but if they want to pursue more, they have a very obvious in-house option with their franchise left tackle. The Bank of Tunsil, per se, could return salary cap space in exchange for more immediate money from the Texans by restructuring his contract.