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>\nSpeed 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
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
The Texans traded for former New England Patriots linebacker and safety Marte Mapu this offseason.<\/p>\n
The Patriots receive a sixth-round pick and the Texans receive a seventh-round selection as well as Mapu.<\/p>\n
Mapu (6-foot-3, 230 pounds) is a former Patriots third-round draft picks from Sacramento State who had been informed he would be released. Instead, he has a fresh start with the Texans.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarte, what I like about him, he\u2019s a very smart linebacker,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cSmart, he\u2019s long, fast guy. But Marte does a really good job of being where he\u2019s supposed to be in position. He\u2019s communicating. We\u2019re moving him around. He\u2019s taking some reps at the Mike linebacker spot. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe does a really good job of communicating. He\u2019s also taking some spots at the, some reps at the Will linebacker. He\u2019s a smart guy who you\u2019re able to move around at multiple spots. He\u2019s done a really good job on special teams as well. He\u2019s a very versatile athletic linebacker. <\/p>\n
A former Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, Mapu is in the final year of a $5.563 million rookie contract. He\u2019s due a $1.508 million base salary.<\/p>\n
He played in every game last season and recorded 25 tackles, one forced fumble, one interception and five pass deflections. He has also started at safety.<\/p>\n
Mapu played 12 percent of the overall defensive snaps, primarily in sub packages. Twelve of his tackles were on special teams.<\/p>\n
He recorded 89 tackles, three interceptions and a half-sack for New England in 44 games with 10 starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill a young player,\u201d Ryans said. \u201cYoung player who\u2019s played in three or four different schemes already to be so young in his career. Hoping he just settles in to what we\u2019re being able to teach him. Coach Bill Davis has done an outstanding job of working with him this offseason. <\/p>\n
\u201cMarte is the type of guy, he\u2019s always in the building. We have to kick him out. He\u2019s always doing the extras, the film, the recovery, body maintenance. He\u2019s a true worker. I\u2019m proud to see how he transitions and how he looks during training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com<\/a> <\/p>\nCopyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Texans veteran linebacker E.J. Speed is expected to miss the entire regular season after further examination…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[4953,7,221,253,2368,6307,6,222],"class_list":["post-907874","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-marte-mapu","tag-nfl","tag-texans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116679982625396040","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907874","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=907874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}