Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, reports that no contract talks between the Texans and LT Duane Brown have occurred since his holdout began at the start of training camp.
Florio says that this isn’t all that surprising, given that Texans GM Rick Smith has previously made it clear that this wasn’t going to happen after he didn’t report to the team this summer.
The Texans offensive line played terrible this past weekend, which led to several sacks and Tom Savage eventually being benched in favor of rookie QB Deshaun Watson, who’s a more mobile option.
The terrible showing from the Texans’ offensive line would seemingly shift some leverage to Brown, but it sounds like even the poor performance this past weekend may not be enough to kick start contract talks.
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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