Texans tackle Duane Brown prepared to keep holding out at least another month Texans left tackle Duane Brown, the top player on what has been a shaky offensive line, is willing to hold out to the midpoint of the season, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, and will not report to the team until after its Week 7 bye at the earliest. Brown is seeking alterations to the two remaining years left on his contract and skipped the entire offseason and the first two weeks of the regular season. The Texans have been unwilling to renegotiate, noting their standing team policy on not negotiating contracts in-season, and there is no end-game in sight. Brown, 32, will report sometime after Houston's Oct. 15 game, at the earliest, barring movement on the contract front. He is set to earn $9.4 million this season and $9.75 million next season -- a bargain by current left tackle standards. While he has battled injuries in recent seasons, he has the best pedigree of any lineman on the team, and the Texans' pass protection -- for both Week 1 starter Tom Savage and Week 2 rookie starter Deshaun Watson -- has been poor through two weeks. If the Texans were to guarantee Brown's 2018 salary, sources said that would begin fostering a resolution, but there has been no progress as of late. The Texans' offense has produced just two touchdowns through two games, one a wild 50-yard scramble from Watson Thursday night. Brown will take his holdout as far as he can without losing an accrued season, sources said, which, per a 2000 ruling regarding receiver Joey Galloway's holdout at the time, asserted that a player must be on the active roster for eight weeks to ensure that his contract does not "toll" until the following season (a season tolling would essentially roll over and not count toward free agency). Given the fact that teams can place players returning from an absence due to a holdout or suspension on an exempt list for up to three weeks -- which does not count toward being on the active roster -- Brown will report to the Texans prior to their Week 8 game at Seattle. The Texans have displayed no willingness to deal Brown to this point, and perhaps that won't change given how contentious this has become, but there would be no shortage of contending teams in need of offensive line help who would covet him if he was shopped (Seattle being one to immediately spring to mind). Houston is without a pick in the top two rounds of the 2018 draft after the Brock Osweiler deal (which cost them their second-rounder) and moving up for Deshaun Watson in this year's draft (which cost them next year's first). One could make the case that the prudent move for the Texans would be to get Brown back on the field as soon as possible once he reported (Aaron Donald missed just one game after recently ending his holdout with the Rams, for instance), but given the acrimony built up during this impasse, it's unlikely Brown's camp would risk it, thus the return date in mid-October. In the interim, the Texans, who won 13-9 Thursday at Cincinnati, face a daunting task, going to New England before hosting the Titans and Chiefs (and Browns) leading into their Week 7 bye.
No one is going to trade a 1st round pick for a 32 year old LT. The best they will get is a 4th or 5th round pick.
S pro bowler still. Worse tackles for way overpaid. If the Texans had moved earlier, they could have gotten a 3rd.
I'm curious to see if Allen at LG, Davenport at LT, Martin at C, Reid at RT and Mancz at RG could hold up, Brown ain't coming back. I also wouldn't mind bringing Cecil Shorts back
Neither is 8-year veteran Chris Clark & 10-year veteran Breno Giacomini & 4th-year veteran Xavier Su'a-Filo.
Doubt it. His technique needs a lot of work. Too raw. What they really need to do is call Duane Brown and work it out with him.
Trade him for a pick because you dont want to guarantee a 32 yo coming off biggest injuries of their career. I'm sure you could get a 4th, maybe 3rd.
They need to trade him. No one will pay him more than he's presently contracted to earn much less guarantee 9.7 mil to a 32 yr old injury prone lineman. He's got maybe two years of productivity and that may be collectively speaking, its time to move on. Brown, Cush and J. Jo should not be on this roster at the start of camp next season. Davenport is the future at LT, Watson is getting killed regardless so I'm going to say what I told that dumb **** John Lopez after Asswieler's first preseason game, if I'm going to have to watch a subpar performance I'd rather it be a rookie going through growing pains than a journeyman with no future trying to memorize this season's plays
You forget how much lineman got paid this off season. Even over 30 year olds. You put Watson behind a LT that isn't ready and that future will be pretty bleak. Joseph is the best cornerback on the team now and Brown is the best lineman, you just want them gone regardless of who replaces them? Not a good idea. Before KJo's injury I was with you but now I'm not sure. I need to see a new on point CB on the roster that is ready to go. Kareem cannot be the top CB on the roster.
