Barring a change of heart before Monday afternoon’s expansion draft, Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Gary Walker will be one of the several high-profile players selected by the Houston Texans, league sources confirmed to ESPN.com.

Walker, 28, was in Houston earlier this week for a physical examination, passed easily and has been targeted by coach Dom Capers as one of the veteran building blocks for his defense. Capers was the defensive coordinator in Jacksonville for two years of Walker’s tenure there, and those were two of the most productive seasons of the defensive tackle’s career.

Houston officials indicated to Walker during his visit that he will be chosen in the draft. A source close to Walker said Thursday night his selection by the Texans is "all but in the bag."

Miffed at Jaguars management for allegedly reneging on a promise to upgrade his contract, Walker has said he will welcome the opportunity to play for the first-year Texans and for Capers in particular.

“He made me a better player, he knows my strengths and how to design things around them,” said Walker. “He’ll bring out the best in me, I know that, and so does he.”

Walker carries a salary cap charge of $5.25 million for 2002 and has a base salary of $3.4 million. But Texans general manager Charley Casserly reiterated this week the team will select some veterans with big cap numbers.

For the 2003 season, Walker has a cap charge of $6.3 million and it rises to $6.49 million for 2004. But the team probably will renegotiate the contract before those higher cap charges kick in.

The former Auburn star will be one of at least two veterans selected from the list of five exposed players presented by the Jacksonville organization. In fact, the cap-strapped Jaguars could well lose three players from their list.

Expansion draft rules permit a team to pull back a player from its original list once it loses one to the Texans. But it is not mandatory a player be pulled back and Jacksonville officials, facing a salary cap overage of more than $27 million at present, may opt to keep all its players available to the Texans throughout the expansion draft.

The Texans likely will choose offensive left tackle Tony Boselli and, if he is not pulled back, defensive tackle Seth Payne as well.

It is believed the New York Jets, about $19.5 million over the projected 2002 spending limit, will allow Houston to select three of its players. The likely candidates are cornerbacks Aaron Glenn and Marcus Coleman and offensive right tackle Ryan Young.

Walker signed with the Jaguars as an unrestricted free agent in 1999, the year Capers arrived in Jacksonville, and posted a career-best 10 sacks that year. For his career, he has appeared in 109 games and started 102 of them, and has 308 tackles, 38½ sacks, six forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and 15 pass deflections.

In his two seasons playing under Capers' direction, he totaled 15 sacks and showed the kind of quickness into the gaps that is key to the 3-4 front in which the Texans coach likely will align. Walker had 7½ sacks in 2001 and made his first Pro Bowl appearance.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.