For a second straight offseason, Danielle Hunter will extend his Houston stay by a 12 months. The Texans are giving the Pro Bowl defensive end a one-year extension, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson reports.
Hunter agreed to a one-year, $40.1MM deal, per Wilson. This comes a 12 months after the Will Anderson Jr. bookend inked a one-year, $35.6MM pact. This agreement, which incorporates a $30.7MM signing bonus (per NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero), pushes Hunter’s Texans tie through the 2027 season.
This marks Hunter’s third Texans agreement. The team gave the longtime Vikings edge rusher a two-year, $49MM deal that got here almost fully guaranteed in 2024. Hunter rewarded the Texans’ investment, as Houston and Minnesota essentially traded edges (with Jonathan Greenard signing with the Vikings), and has since earned two extensions. This deal stands to scale back Hunter’s 2026 cap number — previously at $31.3MM.
The newest Hunter agreement includes a good structure. Hunter will see his 2027 base salary ($30.2MM) come fully guaranteed, with Wilson indicating his money is locked in. This represents a win for Hunter, who has opted to go year-to-year past age 30. The youngest player in NFL history to achieve 50 sacks, Hunter will turn 33 in October.
Constructing a Hall of Fame case since getting back from an injury-plagued stretch within the early 2020s, Hunter has been a key a part of what has develop into a formidable Texans defense. The previous third-round pick has recorded 27 sacks as a Texan, playing in every Houston game since signing. This included a 15-sack 2025 season, a campaign that earned him second-team All-Pro honors. With Anderson landing on the All-Pro first team, Houston has assembled considered one of the highest edge-rushing duos in recent NFL history.
Getting back from a season-nullifying neck injury (2020) and a pectoral malady that limited him (2021), Hunter has tallied between 22 and 23 QB hits each season from 2022-25. He ripped off a career-high 16.5 as a Viking in 2023, providing considerable momentum into free agency. Hunter had been tied to a below-market contract since 2018, and a Vikes rework meant he couldn’t be franchise-tagged in 2024, resulting in a Colts-Texans bidding war. While Indianapolis was believed to have offered extra money in total, Houston won out with a $48MM guarantee at signing. The addition has bolstered DeMeco Ryans‘ defense.
When first signed, it looked just like the Texans would use Hunter’s contract to enhance the rookie deals of Anderson and C.J. Stroud. But Nick Caserio‘s decision to increase him in 2025 turned this right into a longer-term partnership. Although Hunter is approaching his mid-30s, he has been a dominant player in Houston.
Within the sack era (1982-present), only 26 players have more QB drops than Hunter. The Twelfth-year veteran has 114.5 despite missing a full season. Hunter is 24 sacks away from the highest 10 all time. While maintaining that pace could also be a tall order, Hunter has seven double-digit sack seasons on his resume.
Born in Jamaica, Hunter grew up within the Houston area. He replaced Greenard as Anderson’s older sidekick, and the Texans’ defense benefited. Houston ended last season ranked second in scoring defense and first in EPA per play. The unit smothered the Steelers within the wild-card round, rampaging to a 30-6 win, before seeing Stroud struggles within the divisional round bring a defense-powered season to a detailed.
With Caserio and Co. expected to debate an extension with Anderson this offseason, Stroud is on target to stay tied to his rookie deal in 2026. Hunter’s accord is the NFL’s fifth $40MM-per-year defender deal, following Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, Micah Parsons and Aidan Hutchinson. It is a unique pact, nevertheless, as the remaining of those contracts covered not less than three years in length.