Earlier this month, Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson said that he wanted to play 15 years in the NFL before retiring and that he wanted to play all 15 of those years with the Texans.
It was a change from the offseason, when Johnson was asking to be traded because he wasn’t sure about the direction of the franchise with a new head coach coming aboard. The Texans still lack a quarterback, but Bill O’Brien’s done well to give the Texans a shot at a 9-7 record heading into the final week of the season and it’s easy to understand being more convinced of the path that the team is on at this point.
Complicating Johnson’s ability to stick around for his entire career is the $10.5 million he’s supposed to make in 2015 while counting a little more than $16 million against the cap. That doesn’t fit with a player whose production has slowed this season or with a team that has DeAndre Hopkins ready to be their No. 1 receiver. Johnson’s uncle and advisor Andre Melton, who served as Johnson’s de facto agent early in his career, said that Johnson is willing to take less to remain in Houston.
“We understand it’s a business and we’re willing to deal with that. And Andre doesn’t mind having a pay cut,” Melton said, via the Houston Chronicle. “They’re going to come in the offseason and say, ‘Hey, Andre: This is what we need to do,’ If we can come to some type of common ground with everybody where everybody can be happy, then we’ll work on that, that’ll be fine. And if we can’t, it will be sad to say. ... But we’ll see who can give [us] a shot at a ring.”
Agreement on pay cuts can sometimes be tough to find, but it would appear there’s a way to work out a continued stay in Houston if Johnson’s motivations have been accurately represented.