What are the chances they introduce the offense against the Colts. May have to protect DBrown and introduce the defense.
I don't think we can assume that Duane Brown will be an instant upgrade. He's almost certainly not in shape and he's been away so long that he doesn't have chemistry with the guys that would be next to him on the O line. There's a reason for all of the practice players get in camp and in the preseason, not many people can just show up and play at a high level. That said, if he shows up in shape and is an upgrade....and isn't a cancer in the locker room, then I'm glad he's back. I'm also really happy that his stupidity cost him millions of dollars and will serve as a cautionary tale to other players who might have otherwise considered going down the path he went down.
Duane Brown was lost to a major injury and returned the next season having not played at that point to be one of two tackles to give up one sack or less in the whole NFL. He wants the money. He isn't going to come out this year and look like crap. He probably understands this is basically a contract year while playing for the Texans. All is good if he performs and a welcomed addition to the team.
I don't like athletes under contract that hurt my team for selfish reasons. Team over player all day long. Hurt your agent and yourself for agreeing to the deal, not my team.
Players generally don't choose if they come back playing well or not. For just about every player in the NFL, each season after they turn 30 is like a game of Russian roulette.....making it through another season just makes it less likely that they'll make it through another. Now sure, there are freak players who end up with a 12 shot revolver with the bullet in the last chamber....but there's no way of knowing when that is the case and when it's in the 2nd chamber. I said almost the exact same thing about Matt Schaub during his last productive season when I was arguing for drafting a QB of the future and people were telling me about how he was just turning 32 and that he had 5 more seasons left. I don't know how long Duane Brown has left as a good LT, but it's pretty clear by his actions that he doesn't think he has much left.
At the end of the day, we have zero clue what he is thinking or for what reason. This could all be due to him feeling jaded by the organization by not getting a contract extension sooner like JJ or Andre did. Brown has a reason to feel a certain way about it. He has been one of the best LT in the league for a long time and his agent's nephew got an early extension from the Texans. There is a choice to come out playing well. It is called working really hard and putting in the effort to be ready to play. I have a feeling the guy treated his off season like a contract year.
I would bet the Texans value Deshaun's health more than anything. I would resign Brown for 4 years and not worry about LT if he looks good this year. Our opinions may differ on this matter but O-Line play has been getting worse and worse in the NFL. Might as well lock up a good one.
That's exactly the position the guy took when I was talking about how the Texans needed to look to the future at QB because Schaub might not have much left back when he was turning 32..... Now don't get me wrong, if Duane Brown would take the 9 mil he has left on his contract for next season and turn that into 2 more seasons fully guaranteed for only 1 mil more then I'd do it, but throwing big money at over the hill players is almost never a good idea in a league with a hard cap.
Was it age that dropped Matt Schuab? Or was it Albert Haynesworth and Schaub's mental fortitude? Schaub got hurt and was never the same after that. O-Line is a whole different animal. The good LT's have maintained there level of play in their higher 30's.
Yes. When he starts to decline you can move him over to RT and I assume the Texans will draft a up and coming tackle in the 19 draft.
It was multiple factors, but absolutely age played a part. Funny enough, when I was talking about a 32 year old Schaub as potentially being near the end, I got a response telling me how QB's are completely different and how modern QB's can maintain their high level of play into their late 30's. Everyone always suggests that whatever palyer they are talking about is one of the exceptions, but there's simply no way of knowing that.
