{"id":898435,"date":"2026-05-22T19:48:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/898435\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:48:32","slug":"texans-e-j-speed-partially-tore-quadriceps-tendon-to-have-surgery-expected-back-during-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/898435\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans\u2019 E.J. Speed partially tore quadriceps, tendon, to have surgery, expected back during season"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 Texans veteran linebacker E.J. Speed suffered a partially torn quadriceps and partially torn quadriceps tendon that will require surgery and should allow him to return at some point this season, per league sources.<\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys team doctor Dan Cooper, a widely renowned orthopedic surgeon, is expected to perform the procedure, per sources.<\/p>\n

The medical outlook for Speed is at least a three-month recovery followed by rehab and some hope he can return to play during the season with no exact timetable.<\/p>\n

Speed got injured training in the Texans\u2019 offseason workout program while lifting weights.<\/p>\n

Speed<\/a>, a key linebacker and special-teams contributor, signed a two-year $13 million maximum value contract rather than head to free agency after his original one-year, $5 million contract expired. <\/p>\n

Speed emerged as an important part of the defense, recording 62 tackles, three for losses, two quarterback hits and one pass defensed in 16 games with nine starts for a playoff squad. He played 44 percent of the defensive snaps and 52 percent of the special teams snaps last season.<\/p>\n

With Speed out on a long-term injury, the Texans will lean heavily on Pro Bowl middle linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair and Henry To\u2019oTo\u2019o. They have Jake Hansen, Jamal Hill and Jake Hummel on the roster along with rookie draft picks Wade Woodaz and Aiden Fisher.<\/p>\n

Speed received a $4 million signing bonus and $7.5 million of the deal is guaranteed, with base salaries of $1.75 million (fully guaranteed), another $250,000 total available through per game active roster bonuses and an additional $1.5 million in incentives.<\/p>\n

His total first-year payout has a base value of $5.75 million and a max value of $7.5 million. In the second year, he has a $3.75 million base salary with $1.75 million of that guaranteed and identical playtime per game and incentives as this season.<\/p>\n

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com<\/a> <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Texans veteran linebacker E.J. Speed suffered a partially torn quadriceps and partially torn quadriceps tendon that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[4953,7,221,253,2368,6,222],"class_list":["post-898435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-e-j-speed","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-nfl","tag-texans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116619962157827011","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898435","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=898435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}