Recent Texans transactions and a clarification on the 80 man roster limit

May 20, 7:45 PMHouston Texans ExaminerAlan Burge

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Boomer Grigsby                    (NFLPA)

The Texans have been busy shuffling players over the past week, signing three and releasing one since we last had a roster talk.

Here's a summary of the latest roster activity from the transactions page of houstontexans.com:

5/19/2009:   Signed RB Clifton Dawson ; Waived G Brandon Walker

5/18/2009:   Signed S John Busing and G Adrian Jones

5/12/2009:   Signed FB Boomer Grigsby

For those (like me) who nerdishly pay attention to things like how many players are on the Texans roster, it may appear that the Texans have gone over the league mandated 80 man roster limit.

What gives, you say?  Are the Texans breaking more rules?

Well it wasn't making sense to me either, and I didn't realize until today that thirteen days ago I erroneously claimed "the Texans roster is now full and any more adds will have to be accompanied by an equal number of deletes."

That's not true and here's why:

• The current NFL roster limit is 80 players. 
• The Texans currently have 84 players listed on the roster (it would appear that the Texans are 4 over the limit)
• But the roster limit is 80 players under contract, so unsigned draft choices and tendered free agents do not count toward the total of 80.
• The Texans have 8 unsigned draft choices and 2 tendered but unsigned free agents (Dunta Robinson and Owen Daniels)
• Doing the math, the Texans have 74 players under contract and are 6 under the league mandated 80 man roster limit. 

Meaning:  Given the current roster makeup, the Texans won't have to release a player due to the 80 man roster limit until 6 of their 10 unsigned players are signed.