Texans LT Duane Brown told reporters on Monday while assisting with efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey that he’s “definitely playing football this year.”
“I’m not getting into that too much, but I’m definitely playing football this year,” Brown said, via NFL.com. “It’s tough, man. It’s my craft, something I love to do. Those are my brothers. So it’s tough. But like I said I’m not going to get into it too much. We’ll see what happens.”
Texans GM Rick Smith previously said their position in regards to Bronw’s holdout is that he has two years left on his deal and should be with the team.
“Duane’s under contract for two more years. That’s our position,” Smith said. “He’s an important member of our team, and he ought to be here.”
Houston notably signed four players to extensions last week, all of whom took part in training camp, which could be viewed as a message to Brown.
Brown is holding out for a new contract, which has already triggered a de-escalator in his contract that will cost him $250,000 for the 2017 season. Brown previously sat out of voluntary workouts, so he appears to be committed to securing a better contract.
Offensive tackles made out well in free agency this year with the top players walking away with between $12-$13 million per year.
Brown, 31, is a former first-round pick of the Texans back in 2008. He’s currently in the sixth year of his seven-year, $56.2 million contract that includes $22.08 million guaranteed and stands to make base salaries of $9.65 million and $9.75 million over the next two years.
In 2016, Brown appeared in 12 games and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 14 offensive tackle out of 78 qualifying players.
We’ll have more regarding Brown and his holdout as the news is available.
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