With six games done and 10 to go, the Texans and left tackle Duane Brown are no closer to resolving their contractual differences.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, nothing new has happened between player and team. Brown skipped all of training camp, all of the preseason, and six weeks of the regular season. At a base salary of $9.4 million, he has lost $3.3 million in salary. Coupled with roughly $1.5 million in fines for skipping training camp, the total cost of Brown’s holdout is closing in on $5 million.
If he’s going to show up at all, it needs to happen soon. Under the Joey Galloway precedent, Brown needs to be available for eight games in order to satisfy the 2017 year of his contract, which is due to expire after the 2018 season. This means that he needs to show up before Week 10.
If, however, he shows up any later than this week, he risks the team seeking -- and the league granting -- a roster exemption of up to three weeks. If that happens, and if the team doesn’t move him to the active roster before Week 10, Brown won’t get credit for the contract year.
If Brown doesn’t show up this week, it shows he’s willing to accept the risk of a three-week roster exemption being granted and fully used. While the Texans could do that in order to bump his contract back by a year, they’d have to be willing to pay him not to play for up to three weeks -- and in turn to not have him on the field, helping the team win games and pursue a playoff berth.
The Texans primarily hope to get Brown back on the field. That said, they’d also be willing to consider a trade offer that provides proper value for his services, especially since the Texans previously sent their first- and second-round picks to Cleveland in order to get, and to separately get rid of, a quarterback.