KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Veteran right offensive guard Shaq Mason returns to the starting lineup Saturday for an AFC divisional round playoff game against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, according to league sources.
Mason has recovered from a Grade 2 sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee sustained one month ago against the Chiefs, returning to practice this week and participating fully with no injury designation. During his absence, the Texans started Juice Scruggs at right guard for the past two games after Kendrick Green started one game against the Baltimore Ravens after Mason got hurt against Kansas City.
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Scruggs has an ankle injury that sidelined him for one of the three practices this week heading into the rematch against Kansas City and is still working his way back to full strength.
Mason, 31, (6-foot-1, 310 pounds), has significant playoff experience. He earned two Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots and has played in 16 career playoff games He started the first 15 games of the season before injuring his knee against the Chiefs and causing the Texans to shuffle their offensive line again. He has started 147 of 152 career games since being drafted in the fourth round out of Georgia Tech in 2015.
#Texans guard Shaq Mason returns to practice for first time since suffering Grade 2 sprained MCL against #Chiefs in regular season @KPRC2 https://t.co/LNKkJlxbIy pic.twitter.com/n5TP8kPGH2
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) January 15, 2025
One of the biggest challenges for the Texans against the Chiefs is blocking defensive lineman Chris Jones, a six-time Pro Bowl selection who has five sacks this season with 20 quarterback hits and nine tackles for losses and 80 1/2 career sacks.
“It starts with Chris Jones,” Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik said. “He is a really unbelievable football player. When we were playing him and we were out there he obviously presents a lot of problems. He presents a lot of problem to a lot of defenses. He makes you do adjustments to the run game and the pass game. They have a lot of schematic things to counter how you feel that you may have to handle Chris Jones. That is really where it all starts and beyond that they are a really well-coached defense.”
The Texans restructured Mason’s contract during the offseason with a simple conversion of his salary into a signing bonus creating $6i.4 million in salary cap space.
The Texans converted $8.04 million of Mason’s original $9.25 million base salary into a signing bonus, lowering his new base salary to the minimum $1.125 million, which is fully guaranteed for skill, injury and salary cap.
The deal has $22 million in total guarantees and Mason is one of the highest paid guards in the NFL.
His new salary cap figure for 2024 is $5.68 million, down from an original $12.3 million.
The Texans added voidable years of $25 million each in 2027 and 2028 for accounting purposes.
In 2025 and 2026, Mason has salaries of $10 million ($1.025 million fully guaranteed in 2025) and $10.4 million with salary cap figures of $14.658 million and $15.058 million. He has annual up to $500,000 in per game active roster bonuses at a $29,411 per game rate, a $250,000 Pro Bowl incentive and a $50,000 workout bonus.
Mason joined the Texans last season via a trade from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, gaining his services and a seventh-round draft pick in exchange for a sixth-round selection.
The Texans signed Mason last year to a three-year, $36 million contract extension in new money, with an average of $12 million annually, a $10 million signing bonus, $22 million guaranteed of that with 61% of the total guaranteed.
Mason, a Tennessee native, was a big part of an AFC South championship team last season under head coach DeMeco Ryans.
Mason played for New England when Texans general manager Nick Caserio was an executive in their personnel department.
Mason signed a five-year, $50 million extension with the Patriots then was traded to the Buccaneers for a fifth-round draft pick.
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com
