Bobby Wagner helped Texans OT Laremy Tunsil with record-setting deal

After Texans czar Bill O’Brien traded two first-round picks to the Dolphins in exchange for Laremy Tunsil, the left tackle had all the leverage in the world, arriving in Houston at a massive trade cost but with no extension already negotiated.

Whenever Tunsil agreed to an extension with the Texans, it was surely going to reflect the unmatched leverage he held—and it did. Tunsil signed a three-year, $66 million contract with $57.85 million guaranteed. The annual average of Tunsil’s extension is $4 million more than the previous high for tackles, set by Lane Johnson.

Just as Bobby Wagner did last summer with the Seahawks, when he signed a three-year, $54 million extension to stay in Seattle, Tunsil negotiated his market-setting extension without an agent. After Tunsil’s extension was reported, the left tackle told reporters that Wagner provided him with advice in negotiating without an agent.

Wagner, Tunsil, and former Seahawks Richard Sherman and Russell Okung are just some of the players who have gone through contract talks without an agent. After it paid off for them, in the form of rich new deals or extensions, they’re looking to pay the knowledge they gained in the process forward.