as enticing as it may be, i hope the texans have a bit more respect for him than to send him CLE also seems like a lot to give up for a WR on the downside and a team not ready to contend
No leverage whatsoever. He's at the mercy of the team. They can choose to keep him if they want, they can choose to ship him to one of the worst teams in the league if they want, they can effectively end his career by making him stay at home for 2 years.
What a shame if this is true. Dre sticks with us throughout our mediocrity and in return could potentially be shipped to Cleveland? Over a little bit of frustration? Either let him retire a Texan (my along with most people's choice), or trade him to a contender like Seattle.
The Texans have been more than fair to Johnson. They absolutely shouldn't feel pressured to only "ship him" to contending teams. He's locked up at salary that pays him a crapload of money because he wanted his contract renegotiated a few years back. That being said it doesn't matter a ton to me if it is draft picks. A second rounder is potentially pretty good either way. Could ship him to a Cincy for example, which theoretically would then be a beast of a team... But it's still a tough division and you never know... An injury here or there and they could miss the playoffs too. Similarly, Cleveland could surprise. Hoyer could be healthy and good all year or Manziel could be healthy and good enough.... In any case, if Dre does want to move on seems in the interest of all involved to let him. He's potentially a cap hit cut next year anyway.
I haven't been paying attention to the Watt side discussion, so maybe the point has already been made, but laying down the hammer on Andre here would give the team an element of credibility that would enable them to deal with Watt with a much lighter touch without undermining the team's authority.
They're not going to make him stay at home and still pay him no matter how bad you wan't them too. Dre may would like to go to Cleveland. They have a darn good roster. And the Texans get a #2 pick. Win win.
Again, what he wants is irrelevant, the Texans can do with him whatever they wish. If they think the Browns have ANY chance of being good, they wouldn't send him there because it would make the pick worse. Anyway, this is all a hypothetical, odds are he comes out with a retraction really soon. He knows his balls are in a vice, he won't force the Texans to squeeze. He'll come around and this will all be forgotten.
Don't sleep on Cleveland. They have talent. Because we can relate anything to wrestling, Andre Johnson is the undertaker. The most tenured locker room presence. JJ watt is john Cena. The top babyface of the franchise. Always kissing babies and doing the charity work. Kids and moms love him.
