The Houston Texans used some variety at inside linebacker, both due to injuries and personnel decisions. Here's a look at how the Texans allocated cap space to their inside linebackers during the 2014 season.
Texans' Adjusted Cap Value: $133,467,230
Cap Value: $110,222,071
Dead Money / Other: $21,865,072
Cap Space: $1,380,087
Inside linebackers: $8,243,545 vs cap, 18.19 percent of defensive cap, 7.48 percent of overall cap
Brian Cushing: $5,662,300 versus cap, 12.5 percent of defensive cap, 5.14 percent of overall cap
Akeem Dent: $725,000 versus cap, 1.6 percent of defensive cap, .66 percent of overall cap
Jeff Tarpinian: $645,000 versus cap, 1.42 percent of defensive cap, .59 percent of overall cap
Mike Mohamed: $570,000 versus cap, 1.26 percent of defensive cap, .52 percent of overall cap
Justin Tuggle: $495,833 versus cap, 1.09 percent of defensive cap, .45 percent of overall cap
Max Bullough: $145,412 versus cap, .32 percent of defensive cap, .13 percent of overall cap
We've done comparisons by percentage of what the Texans spend to what other teams around the league spend. Our system, from ESPN Stats and Info, though, calculates outside and inside linebackers together, but because of the disparity of schemes used in the NFL, it's hard to draw conclusions based on those numbers here. Typically 3-4 defenses see outside linebackers, typically where the best pass-rusher plays, making a lot more than inside linebackers. The Texans felt Cushing was worth it.
