The Texans recently gave receiver Andre Johnson permission to seek a trade. Johnson won’t be doing that.
Johnson’s agent, Kennard McGuire, tells PFT that he has asked the Texans to release Johnson.
The impasse arose when the Texans recently informed Johnson he’d have a reduced role in 2015. Johnson responded by saying that he won’t be happy with a reduced role, so it would be better for him to be elsewhere.
The Texans responded by granting him permission to seek a trade. McGuire believes deliberately leaked to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle the notion that Johnson asked for a trade in an effort to minimize local criticism of the franchise for its treatment of a player who has been with the Texans for all but one year of the team’s existence.
“After 12 years of being a model citizen, an ambassador, and the face of this franchise, he deserves more than a mishandled P.R. campaign that showcases only one side of the story,” McGuire told PFT on Wednesday morning. “After 12 years, he deserves to be sent off in a better way.”
Indeed he does. The Texans know that no one will pay $11.5 million to a receiver who’ll turn 34 in July. At most, a trade would have happened with Johnson doing a new deal. So instead of doing a new deal elsewhere as part of a trade, he should have been cut and given the chance to do that new deal elsewhere.
The ball is now back in the team’s court. The only right thing to do at this point is to thank Johnson for his 12 years of loyal service and release him, giving him a six-day head start on the unrestricted free agency market.