Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle reports that Texans HC Bill O’Brien attempted to release QB Ryan Mallett before their Week 7 game against the Dolphins, but O’Brien wound up being overruled by GM Rick Smith, and Mallett remains with the team.
This came after Mallett missed the team’s charter to Miami for their game on Sunday. Mallett did, however, manage to catch a flight and join the team later.
Mallett later told reporters that he was stuck in traffic, which led to him missing the flight.
Had it been up to O’Brien, Mallett would never have joined the team in Miami, but Smith pushed to keep Mallett because he believed they needed a capable backup for the game.
It’s worth mentioning that this wasn’t the first time Mallett had missed a team activity, as he wound up sleeping in after O’Brien elected to go with Brian Hoyer as the team’s starting quarterback at the start of the season.
O’Brien has told reporters in recent days that they plan to handle the situation internally, but it sounds like Mallett is losing support within the team.
Mallett, 27, signed a two-year, $7 million contract with the Texans back in March that included $1.75 million guaranteed. He stands to make base salaries of $2.5 million this year and next.
According to OverTheCap.com, releasing Mallett would free up $3.5 million in cap space for the 2016 season while creating no dead money.
This season, Mallett has appeared in six games and thrown for 770 yards while completing 53.1 percent of his passes to go along with three touchdowns and four interceptions.
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