HOUSTON – The Texans have signed seventh-round defensive lineman Kyonte Hamilton to a four-year contract, per a league source.
Hamilton gets a slotted $4.81 million contract with a $138,328 signing bonus with base salaries of $840,000, $1.058 million, $1.277 million and $1.495 million.
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A Maryland native, Hamilton was an honorable-mention All-Big Ten Conference selection. He was also an academy All-Big Ten selection.
He played in 51 games with 31 career starts, lining up at both defensive tackle and defensive end. He had 110 career tackles, 11 for losses and six sacks with one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
“He’s an NFL player,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “He’s strong, he’s tough, he’s durable, intelligent. He’s even a better person than he is a football player.”
As a senior, he started every game with nine starts at tackle, four at end.
He had 36 tackles with five for losses and four for sacks.
“Coach Schiano, obviously he has experience in the NFL, but what he’s done with the Rutgers program, I think you understand the profile of the players that they’re bringing in, and there’s certainly a developmental aspect to those programs,” Texans general manager Nick Caserio said when asked about drafting players from Rutgers and the Iowa program led by veteran coach Kirk Ferentz. “They’re coached hard and they prepare hard and they compete. That shows up in their play. There’s a lot of programs that we have a lot of respect for throughout the country, and certainly those coaches deserve that.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com .
