Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson is openly musing about his future in Houston while skipping the team’s offseason work, creating a little something extra for head coach Bill O’Brien to deal with in his first offseason running the club.
O’Brien isn’t following Johnson’s lead in terms of publicly sharing his feelings. The coach said that he won’t offer any comments about what Johnson said about being unsure that he wants to play for the Texans any longer beyond saying that he has a “tremendous” amount of respect for the the longtime franchise cornerstone.
“The conversations that Andre and I have had have been very positive about what we’re doing here as a team,” O’Brien said, via the Houston Chronicle. “Obviously, offensively, what we’re doing here. We’ve had good communications. But as far as what Andre said, I’ll let him speak for himself.”
The Texans have shown no signs of being ready to move on and Johnson hasn’t made a formal trade request, although Johnson’s ongoing contemplation of the situation suggests that could change. A request might not get the Texans to budge all by itself, which would leave Johnson with little option other than cutting off the good communications and staying away from the team beyond the offseason program in order to force the issue.