{"id":7845,"date":"2025-04-28T20:14:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T20:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/7845\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T20:14:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T20:14:18","slug":"houston-texans-sign-tight-end-irv-smith-jr-in-nfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/7845\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Texans sign tight end Irv Smith Jr. in NFL free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"ALSNIP5IJFDNTI7AHBKYS7NYWY\">The Houston Texans have signed free agent tight end <a href=\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/topic\/Irv%20Smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/topic\/Irv%20Smith\/\">Irv Smith Jr.<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstontexans.com\/news\/houston-texans-transactions-4-21-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.houstontexans.com\/news\/houston-texans-transactions-4-21-2025\">NFL team announced<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"SAHV7XB4A5FRBBVXFVB65K77DI\">A former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/alabamafootball\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/alabamafootball\/\">Alabama<\/a> standout, Smith ended the 2024 NFL season with the Texans. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"6Q67FOMYG5FL7DLT5SBYOUZRXQ\">Released at the end of the preseason last year by the Kansas City Chiefs, Smith joined Houston\u2019s practice squad. He played in the final five games of the regular season \u2013 the first two as a practice-squad elevation \u2013 and both postseason games for the Texans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"LB43Z4HW25AFXGKRZXCSYDO6ME\">Smith did not have a reception in the regular season but caught a 2-yard pass in a 23-14 loss to Kansas City in the second round of the AFC playoffs. Smith had 123 offensive snaps and 19 special-teams plays in his seven games with Houston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"WO4VH4TAO5CI5IJAL23MNGZ7EI\">The three tight ends who had regular-season receptions in 2024 for the Texans remain with Houston. For the Texans last season, Dalton Schultz had 53 receptions for 532 yards and two touchdowns, Cade Stover had 15 receptions for 133 yards and one touchdown and Brevin Jordan had two receptions for 7 yards in two games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"ANP6DFUGVVB3PEYIPY4D2LRW7M\">Terms of Smith\u2019s contract were not disclosed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"7CZSHDVVRZHJJBDNBRLPFDOLFU\">A second-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in the 2019 NFL Draft, Smith had 66 receptions for 676 yards and seven touchdowns in 29 games in his first two NFL seasons. Since he missed the 2021 campaign because of a torn meniscus, Smith has 43 receptions for 297 yards and three touchdowns in 27 games. He played for the Vikings in 2022 and the Cincinnati Bengals in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"TSSKV6CXK5CSJOIHBSFL4KJEDQ\">FOR MORE OF AL.COM\u2019S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/nfl\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL PAGE<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"QYQRPGZCS5CLVPFDBKYAMFCHZU\">Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AMarkG1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@AMarkG1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Texans have signed free agent tight end Irv Smith Jr., the NFL team announced on Monday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[7,221,253,2368,6,3846,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-7845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-texans","11":"tag-houstontexans","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nflraw24","14":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114417425853893511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}