Source: Texans restructured tight end Dalton Schultz’s contract for salary-cap purposes, to be paid same amount

HOUSTON – The Texans have restructured veteran tight end Dalton Schultz’s $36 million contract for salary-cap reasons, according to a league source.

Schultz will still make the same $11.508 million in 2025 through a simple conversion of his $11 million base salary into a signing bonus that lowered his salary-cap figure. He is still due $11 million in 2026 under the three-year extension he signed a year ago.

The Texans are under the NFL salary cap limit now, but they may restructure other deals to create more financial flexibility. Other existing deals that are candidates for potential restructures: defensive end Danielle Hunter ($11.5 million base salary) and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson ($7.75 million).

Schultz had a resurgent training camp and preseason after a tough ending to the season for the team during an AFC divisional round playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He caught four passes for 63 yards, but there were some pass protection breakdowns for the entire offense.

“My performance is always second to the team,” Schultz said. “I’ve never made it past the divisional round in my career, and so, for me, I’ve been trying to get past that round since the first time that I made it. So, for me, it’s just not good enough. As a personal [assessment], obviously, I didn’t do enough in that game to win it.

“So, I think it always goes back to how did we all do, ‘Great, we all did well.’ Then, let me look at me, did I do enough to have us play well? Then same thing in the opposite way. Did we lose? Yeah, we lost. Nobody did well. How am I critiquing myself? Obviously, I didn’t do enough. I always look at it through, how did we do. Because, ultimately, that’s all I care about. That’s what we care about.”

Schultz has displayed a hunger to improve on last season when the former Dallas Cowboys starter caught 53 passes for 532 yards and two touchdowns on 85 targets. After signing a new deal following a five-touchdown, 59-catch first season in Houston, Schultz’s numbers declined.

Schultz delivered some impressive catches and displayed sound blocking technique at camp and appears to be in a good place in this offense. It has been encouraging enough to see that Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said it hearkens back to how he looked during his time with the Cowboys.

“Dalton has continued to improve throughout camp, he’s come out with a phenomenal attitude, urgency to get better in the running game also in the passing game,” Ryans said. “People that have been here, you’ve seen him make some tremendous catches in the passing game and looking like the old Dalton and the guy we thought we would get coming from Dallas.

“A guy who made a ton of plays in the passing game. That’s who I’m seeing showing up this camp. So, it’s good to see him. He’s looking fresh, playing fast, making plays, great catch radius and making big plays in the passing game. I expect to see more of that.”

If Schultz regains the form that made him one of the most dangerous pass-catching tight ends in the game, the Texans’ offense could take off. Having Schultz as an increased passing option to go with Nico Collins, Christian Kirk and rookies Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel is an impressive group of downfield threats.

Schultz, who missed some time during the spring with a soft-tissue leg injury, is healthy and looked sharp at camp. He appears to be energized in many ways.

“I feel like there’s a good burst of energy around the building,” Schultz said. “Additions and the draft class and the changes from last year, I think that’s definitely given the whole room, the whole place, the whole facility a new energy.

“I feel good. I had a couple of things in the offseason that I was kind of working through and now, finally getting back on the field, finally getting back to football I feel really good.”

Schultz, 29, was a part of an offense that took a step backward last season under former offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, who was dismissed and replaced by new offensive coordinator Nick Caley.

Caley has an extensive background as a tight ends coach with the Los Angeles Rams coaching Tyler Higbee and with the New England Patriots as the position coach for Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett.

“It’s good, especially in these installs,” Schultz said. “Tight end you’ve got a lot on your plate: run game, pass game, pass protection, everything. You have to know everything. So, having a guy that’s installing that knowing that there’s a few quirks on certain things that’s like, ‘Hey, on this you can treat it like X, Y and Z.’

“He’s able to give you that on the front end before you go out for yourself and run it and have to learn it for yourself. So, he’s able to get you almost ahead of the curve in some of these installs.”

In Schultz’s first season with the Texans two years ago, he caught 59 passes for 635 yards and five touchdowns to earn a lucrative contract extension.

He only had a few drops, but any dropped passes are uncharacteristic for Schultz. Schultz has 323 career catches for 3,289 yards and 24 touchdowns as one of the most productive tight ends in the NFL in every category over the past four seasons.

Schultz took issue with a suggestion that his health affected his season last year.

“No,” Schultz said. “That’s hard, everybody’s hurt. I went through some rehabs and some deficiencies that I had. Everybody’s hurt. Nobody’s fresh, especially in the playoffs. You aren’t playing somebody at 100%, that’s the beauty of the game.

" It’s to try to find a way to give everything you have into whatever percentage that you want to call your health at that point. Everybody’s fighting through that. So, that’s just the battle. That’s the war of attrition that we play and I was happy to get an offseason under my belt where I could just refocus on getting my body to a really nice baseline.”

From a philosophical standpoint, Schultz has taken on something of a minimalist approach. He’s keeping the main thing the main thing.

“I didn’t do anything drastic, but I’d say this is the first year where I’ve kind of accepted the fact that sometimes less is more,” Schultz said. “I’ve always been, ‘I’m working. I’m here to work. I’m here to do reps. I’m here to take it all. Let me work.’

“The older you get, sometimes you’ve got to pull the reins back a little bit. I would say that this year I’ve listened to them. I don’t know. My younger years, I’ll always be like, ‘Screw you I’m taking my reps.’ But, this is the first year where I’ve been able to back off and seen and felt improvements from that. Sometimes, being able to listen to when the reins are being pulled in a little bit, it’s helped.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com