Rick Smith: “No contract dispute” with Duane Brown
It doesn’t look like Rick Smith and the Texans are ready to back down from Duane Brown.
Without any surprise at all, Houston Texans left tackle Duane Brown didn’t report to training camp in West Virginia on Tuesday.
Brown of course isn’t happy with his contract and wants more money.
Texans’ general manager Rick Smith spoke with the media on Tuesday and said that he doesn’t believe there is a contract dispute with Brown since he’s under contract for the next two years.
"“There’s no contract dispute,” Smith said. “Duane’s under contract for two more years. That’s our position. We’re here to get our football team ready for the season, and he should be a part of it. … Here’s an important member of our team, and he ought to be here,” said Smith, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN."
It sounds like Brown is wasting his time since because the Texans know they have all of the leverage in this situation.
Brown has already been fined over $80K for skipping out on this offseason’s minicamp and will lose out on $40K for every day of training camp that he misses.
While it may not seem fair to Brown that he hasn’t been rewarded for playing great football for the Texans, he has two years left on his contract and he’ll be 33 years-old when it expires.
There isn’t a good reason for the Texans to give Brown more money since he’s on the backend of his career.
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Yes, it would be nice of the Texans to show some appreciation for Brown, but he is scheduled to make over $9 million in 2017. That’s not bad at all.
It’s also not like Houston is bursting at the seams with cap room. They still need to take care of wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins by giving him a new contract as he heads into the final year of his current deal.
Comment below and give us your thoughts on Brown;s hold out.