As of Wednesday, teams are allowed to use the franchise tag until March 1 and that will put attention on teams with key players heading for free agency in the next couple of weeks.
One team in that position is the Texans, who have cornerback A.J. Bouye on track to hit the open market after a strong 2016 season. As of now, though, it doesn’t look like they’ll be using it.
Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reports that the Texans are unlikely to use their tag on Bouye or anyone else from the team. Doing so would set Bouye up to make over $14 million for the 2017 season and the Texans are projected to have in the neighborhood of $25 million of cap space to work with this offseason.
Bouye played in 15 games and made 11 starts for the Texans last year and led the team with 16 passes defensed. He had one regular season interception, added two more in the playoffs and will likely draw plenty of interest on the open market after showing well in coverage throughout the season.