A look at how the Houston Texans allocated cap space to their outside linebackers.
Texans' adjusted cap value: $133,467,230
Cap value: $110,222,071
Dead money / Other: $21,865,072
Cap space: $1,380,087
Linebackers: $8,051,207 vs. cap, 17.77 percent of defensive cap, 7.3 percent of overall cap
Jadeveon Clowney: $4,049,636 vs. cap, 8.94 percent of defensive cap, 3.67 percent of overall cap
Whitney Mercilus: $2,082,026 vs. cap, 4.6 percent of defensive cap, 1.89 percent of overall cap
Brooks Reed: $1,496,015 vs. cap, 3.3 percent of defensive cap, 1.36 percent of overall cap
John Simon: $349,412 vs. cap, .77 percent of defensive cap, .32 percent of overall cap
Jason Ankrah: $74,118 vs. cap, .16 percent of defensive cap, .07 percent of overall cap
The Texans have mostly built this position through the draft -- their top three outside linebackers were all draft picks. Mercilus and Clowney were taken in the first round, and Reed was taken in the second round in 2011. That explains why the cap values at this position are relatively reasonable. The three of them still count for more than the average linebacker, but as we discussed when reviewing inside linebackers, the average includes both outside and inside linebackers, which can vary immensely depending on the defensive scheme.
