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DJ Bien-AimeMar 6, 2026, 03:29 PM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>DJ Bien-Aime covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. He joined ESPN in July of 2022 after covering the New York Jets for the New York Daily News. He’s a former athlete who finished his college career at Louisville. You can catch DJ on ESPN Radio on his show “Talkin’ Texans.”<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n HOUSTON — The first of many offseason paydays for the Houston Texans<\/a> defense came Thursday with a one-year, $40 million contract extension for defensive end Danielle Hunter<\/a>, a source confirmed to ESPN.<\/p>\n This is Hunter’s second extension with Houston after signing a two-year, $49 million deal as a free agent in March 2024 following an eight-year stint with the Minnesota Vikings<\/a>.<\/p>\n After he finished with 12 sacks and Pro Bowl honors in 2024, the Texans rewarded him with a one-year, $35.6 million extension to the back end of that original deal. They also gave him a $12 million raise in 2025, bumping his salary to $32 million.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks Hunter’s second year with Houston surpassed his debut season as he finished with 15 sacks (third in the NFL) and 15 tackles for loss (eighth). His production earned him second-team All-Pro honors as the Texans’ defense ranked No. 2 in scoring (17.4 points per game) and total defense (279.1 yards per game).<\/p>\n This is the first of many deals likely to be done on the Texans’ defense. Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair<\/a> earned Pro Bowl honors and is in the last year of a three-year deal worth $34 million that he signed in 2024. League sources said they expect Al-Shaair to get an extension.<\/p>\n The same expectation is in the cards for Will Anderson Jr<\/a>., the No. 3 pick in 2023. The defensive end out of Alabama<\/a> had a career year in 2025, finishing with 20 tackles for loss (fourth) and 12 sacks (tied for eighth). Anderson notched his first career first-team All-Pro selection and his second Pro Bowl honors.<\/p>\n The Texans are trying to get the defensive stalwarts locked up long term after giving cornerback Derek Stingley Jr<\/a>. a three-year, $90 million extension and nickel Jalen Pitre<\/a> a three-year, $39 million contract in 2025.<\/p>\n NFL Network was first to report Hunter’s deal with the Texans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DJ Bien-AimeMar 6, 2026, 03:29 PM CloseDJ Bien-Aime covers the Houston Texans for ESPN. He joined ESPN in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-521882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/r1623993_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
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