Texans DE Shaq Lawson & S Lonnie Johnson Being Discussed As Trade Candidates

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that Texans DE Shaq Lawson and S Lonnie Johnson are being “heavily discussed” as possible trade candidates before the start of the regular season. 

Fowler explains that both Lawson and Johnson have seen a lot of playing time in recent years, but are currently working with the second-team unit in Houston, which is why they could be available for trade.

The Texans have been very active in trade talks the past month, so it would not be a surprise to see more deals coming in the next week or so. 

Lawson, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Bills back in 2016. He played out his four-year, $10.27 million rookie contract that included $9.82 million guaranteed and made a base salary of $1.85 million in the final year of the agreement.

The Dolphins signed Lawson to a three-year, $30 million deal in free agency in 2020. He’s set to make base salaries of $7.9 million and $8.9 million in the final two years of the deal.

Miami traded Lawson to the Texans as part of the trade for LB Benardrick McKinney back in March before later reworking his contract and converting his salary into a workout bonus and adding two voidable years to the agreement. 

In 2020, Lawson appeared in 14 games for the Dolphins and recorded 33 tackles, four sacks, one forced fumble and one recovery returned for a touchdown and one pass defense. Pro Football Focus rated Lawson as the No. 28 edge defender out of 109 qualifying players. 

Johnson, 24, was selected in the second round of the 2019 draft by the Texans. He’s currently in the third year of his four-year, $5,204,652 contract that included $2,536,775 guaranteed.

Johnson stands to make a base salary of $968,150 for the 2021 season.

In 2020, Johnson appeared in all 16 games for the Texans and recorded 76 tackles and no interceptions.

We’ll have more regarding the Texans as the news is available.