Duane Brown update
 

Yesterday my friend told me that it was almost 100% that Duane would not play for the Texans this year (if ever).

This morning, he said there was "smoke" around Duane and he was pulling back his statement from yesterday.

All of a sudden, the Texans have signed Dorian Johnson off the Arizona practice squad and I get this update:

"G Dorian Johnson signed..

Duane Brown is crazy.. that's all"

Soooo.....yeah.....I'm thinking he's played his last game in a Texans uniform.



Edited to add - there are many inside the Org that are certain his wife is pushing the agenda. He had one foot in the door and now both are out.

Did your buddy elaborate on what the agenda is? That's the weird part. I don't think anyone on either side has ever publicly said what he's after other than "more money."

The only thing he has said is that it is starting to seem like it went from being business to personal (with his wife largely to blame for it).

I dunno, I thought he was at a point in his career where he's made enough money and he could simply take it or leave it. All the work, the previous injuries.......The holdout was simply a ploy to see if he could extract some more cash.

I say good on the Texans for not caving.... Pretty sure if he wants to continue his career, it won't be here...

FYI - Dorian Johnson is someone I wanted to draft in the second or third round last spring out of Pitt. A huge road grader type with RT potential.

Thanks for the update. It's just an all-around bummer of a situation. One thing that would be certain to me is that if Brown were to return, he would need time to get back to top form.

Brown's value going forward would be as trade value, something not to be understated given the Texans are especially light on picks in 2018. Plenty of OL hungry teams out there. Seahawks mentioned most often, but surely they aren't the only ones kicking the tires.

I am all for guys doing everything they can to get paid. I am especially for it at the end of their career. These guys have a short time to get paid, and the way the system works teams can cut and players can holdout. That's the balance of power.

But when holdouts stretch into the season the balance of power shifts. The player starts taking huge fines and passing up game checks. At this point Brown has lost so much money by sitting out, that he could get a raise and still come out behind.

Honestly, how many guys have ever missed games and come out ahead financially? Once you start giving away the money you already had you are letting business get personal and your agent is giving bad advice.

Especially is Brown's de facto agent is his wife... and you know she is taking more than 3%.

Most likely she's going to end up taking 50%.

You are starting to see teams shed their unsigned or untradeable players. The 49ers released Navarro Bowman yesterday who was a stud LB until he was hit with some gruesome injuries.

Now that he's cut, any other team can sign him for the vet minimum if he's willing. Seems like LTs on the market can be traded for a fifth-round pick. Surely the Seahawks or the Broncos might be willing to take the chance on Brown if they can clear the cap space.

I always liked Brown. Hate to see it go this way.

The latest is that Brown's team is still trying to force a trade...but if that doesn't go through, it is expected he will report the Monday after the bye week. Texans are going to request the 3 week roster exemption for him if he returns.

Good info. I'm for the trade, let's get a draft pick. Don't want a player that might half-ass it....

I do hope this gets resolved during the bye week, one way or another.

I guess Texans could use a good LT and Duane has been one of our best LT ever, so why not bring him back.

We have the cap space already.

John McClain on 610 radio reporting this morning that DB is in the house @ NRG.

So glad Brown is back.

I hope Texans treat him well and Duane helps the Texans offense.

Just like I said, holdouts that stretch into the season never help the player. He misses 6 game checks for almost $3 million, but in the end he has to come back for at least 6 games, or he doesn't get credit for the season.

I am all for players using leverage to get paid, but the way the system is setup, as soon as you reach regular season time you lose all leverage.

Congrats to Duane Brown's agent who cost him over $3 million and accomplished nothing.

Not only that, how often have we seen a player end a prolonged holdout, play like crap a couple of weeks and then miss the rest of the season due to injury because their body wasn't in "football shape"?

Duane is gone to Seattle.

The Texans landed cornerback Jeremy Lane, a 2018 fifth-round pick and a 2019 second-round selection, per the report.

For me it's disappointing but somewhat expected after Duane commented on McNair s comment.

I wish Duane well with his new team. Apparently some new deal agreed in principle to fit in Seattle's salary cap space.

Great trade for Houston. A warm body CB who can't be worse than what we have. And a 5th and a 2nd. All for a guy who was going to do nothing but cause trouble and probably hold out again next year.

And I'm happy for Brown. He was very good for a long time and I'm glad I can remember that instead of the next 15 months of whining he would have done.

A bad corner for an All Pro LT. When I say that McNair isn't interested in winning, this is what I'm talking about.

Good for Duane, though, Paul Allen is twenty times the man McNeck is. And as a city Seattle smokes Necktown in every conceivable way.

Chuck, are you ever self aware enough to realize you are exactly what you claim to despise? Spend half your time stereotyping people and saying they are worthless. And best I can tell, you hate about half the population on nothing more than your fevered imagination. A card carrying racist usually only hates about 25% of the population, and that's on a good day. Take that!

Good thing we have you to lead the charge against bias and hate or things could really get ugly.

Who are Arian Foster, Morris, Vonta Leach, Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, Ryan Clady, Logan Mankins, Justin Smith, Vince Wilfork, Aldon Smith, Demarcus Ware, Patrick Willis, Daryl Washington, London Fletcher, Charles Tillman, Tim Jennings, Champ Bailey, David Wilson, Jacoby Jones, and Leodis McKelvin?

Guys who were All-Pros as recently as Duane Brown (2012) but are now retired or out of football.

Nice try using a 5 year old all-pro status to try to knock a deal. You are almost pavlovian. Someone rings the bell by mentioning anything related to the Texans front office and you start slavering and yelling "Necks! Texas! McNair! Smith!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7g0862r2qU

Considerably more than that, I would have thought, but as always I do appreciate your optimism.

Duane Brown was the best offensive lineman on the field yesterday. You guys are fine with trading him for some scrub because he mouthed off about McNeck? Fine, that's your choice. But don't try to argue that McNeck is trying to win because he most certainly is not.

I don't care what he said to McNair.

I care that he doesn't want to be here and just skipped 6 games. I care that he's an above average player these days and 32 years old and has seen his best days. I care that while he can help protect Watson, the timeline of his remaining good days does not match up with when Watson has a chance to win. I care that he has only one year left after this lost season. I care that he has no guaranteed money left and it costs nothing to trade him. I care that we got a 2nd round pick and a 5th round pick back. And I care that this was our last chance to get any value for him.

If this trade was reversed and we sent out a 2nd rounder for a discontented 32 year old LT you would be pouring out the same stream of invective about the same people.

I'll say this again. Duane Brown was the best offensive lineman on the field yesterday, on either team. And it was not close. And he hadn't played in nearly a year.

The Texans have a quarterback who is probably top five in the league TODAY, and they risk getting him permanently disfigured with the cast of rejects and horrible second round picks they masquerade as an offensive line.

Lane is terrible. That's not to say he won't improve the team's secondary. For all I know he'll distinguish himself as the team's best corner. But, as we saw yesterday, he was benched by the Seahawks in favor of an unheralded rookie.

And speaking of second round picks, the one the team garners with this trade won't make an impact for years, and once he does, based on history, it's difficult to say whether that impact will in fact be largely positive.

Of course the team could bundle that pick with others and try to make a move in next year's draft. As usual there are plenty of holes, and I haven't looked at which FA OL and CB/S are poised to be available next year. But for once in our lives as Texans fans the most important position is spoken for, loudly. And I'd sort of like to keep him out of the hospital if at all possible. And swapping Duane Brown for Chris Clark or Kendall Lamm or whoever TF they bring in is not going to cut it.

I see this as punting on this season and, significantly, exposing your best player to unnecessary risk in order to satisfy a blood lust for someone who publicly shamed the organization. As I would have predicted, the necks love it. Good riddance! Harrumph! they cry. But, as I said, this is a shining example of what I have always maintained - the owner is not principally concerned with winning.

I've been saying for weeks we should trade Brown while he had value but I wouldn't have believed they could get a 2nd, even one that's for 2019, and to get a 5th next year and a malcontent corner in the deal too is just gravy.

Our old bud, Julie'N Fries, from the same draft as Watson, got some snaps at LT yesterday so the coaches must think he's getting close to ready. Julie'N is as raw as Kathy Griffin on a bender but Duano was a raw rookie once himself back when Dubya was president. Watson survived six weeks without Duano so here's hoping he can last the next nine without him.

I'd say the odds are 50/50 those two picks we just got will be packaged to replace the Osweiler 2nd we gave to Cleveland.

As for this season, at best would be like the last two-getting stomped in the playoffs with no J.J., no Mercilus and no Cushing (our next major salary dump0

Operative word being "smokes". Great place if you love rain, grunge, $15/hr barristas and potheads. Seattle is like the Mariners - intriguing at first but just depressing after awhile.

Contrary to rep it doesn't really rain that much in Seattle, but it's just overcast and misty much of the time where it's common to go weeks or even months with very little sunshine. There's good reasons why many folks in Seattle are afflicted with SAD (seasonal effective diorder), but the scenery of the PAC-NW is spectacular, just go in the summer.
But I don't know what to make of this trade yet ? Anyway if Brown wasn't gone, but once he assumed the role of the Texans' players club house lawyer with his comments about the owners faux pas you had to know he was history very soon.
If Jimmy Garoppolo brings the Pats only a single second-round pic, how to handicap this deal ?

Brown was our best OL Sunday. He'd be our best OL the rest of the year. That's not up for debate.

Brown was the 14th rated OT last year. There is no way he was going to be better as he got older. He'll play at most 10 games this year after playing 12 last year and 14 the year before. None of those things are up for debate.

I will not pretend the comments this week were not a part of him getting dealt. I think Brown made those comments to get out (I'm not saying he doesn't believe them, but I think he knew it was a get out of jail free card). I am amazed that with McNair's comment and Brown's comments swirling we got a 2nd and a 5th.

I have no problem with punting on this season. This season was lost as soon as Watt and Mercilous got hurt. I'm also not overly worried this exposes Watson. The odds that he gets hurt on the 2-3 extra sacks and 10-15 extra hits (maximum) that Watson takes with Clark vs Brown are very small. The odds that whatever injury he might take because of Clark playing being an injury that affects him going forward after this season are even smaller. I think the odds those picks help us more than Duane Brown in 2018 and beyond are way higher than the odds Watson is hurt in 2018 and beyond because Duane Brown wasn't here in 2017.

And again, I say you'd complain just as loudly with the same complaints if we traded a 2nd round pick for a mostly used up guy on the back end of his career.

How loudly do you suppose I'd complain if the Texans, oh, I don't know, gave away a second round pick to get rid of a 70 million dollar albatross who put up historically terrible numbers and could not even make the team in Cleveland?

This basically says what I've been trying to say but with more stats and fewer gratuitous insults:

https://www.battleredblog.com/2017/1...de-an-analysis

I don't think anyone alive (and certainly anyone on this board) has complained louder or longer about the Texans handling of the QB position. It was embarrassing when we signed Osweiller, and it was embarrassing we had to pay to get rid of him 12 months later.

That doesn't impact whether a 2nd and 5th is a good return for Duane Brown.

Lots of stats to show Brown is better than not-Brown.

Anyone who was debating that is an idiot.

The better question to me is what helps you more in an effort to win a championship. 25 or less games of Duane Brown, or a 5th and 2nd round pick? Because we aren't winning any titles this year even with 5 Browns. Next year is a real possibility as good as Watson is (assuming Mercilous comes back). But next year will also have JJ Watt's shell taking up 1/5 of our cap. Of course the way we run things, we'll keep paying JJ until 2025 because the locals love him. We will at least pretend he comes back next year and will keep paying him until at least 2020.

Some have been making the case that keeping Brown around was not worth the headache.... YMMV

The schedule really lightens up a bit.

Sun, Nov 5 vs Indianapolis 1:00 PM CBS
Sun, Nov 12 @ Los Angeles 4:05 PM CBS
Sun, Nov 19 vs Arizona 1:00 PM FOX
Mon, Nov 27 @ Baltimore 8:30 PM ESPN/WatchESPN
Sun, Dec 3 @ Tennessee 1:00 PM CBS
Sun, Dec 10 vs San Francisco 1:00 PM FOX

Can't see the Texans being large dogs in any of these - LAR and Baltimore on the road being the likely candidates for the small underdog role....

I see what you did there...

Wow.

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I don't think the trade was any sort of revenge for Brown speaking out on Inmategate. He wanted out. There was some speculation, before McNair's comments became public, that Brown returning when he did (a week earlier than necessary to get credit for the season) and the Texans getting him immediately into the lineup (although he was also the best option, even if rusty) was part of an understanding that it was necessary to show the Seahawks and whatever other teams might've been interested that Brown was healthy, in shape, and ready to go after the holdout.

That's huge. I wouldn't have minded a warm body for our secondary, but it had no real value. A 3rd round pick does. And I love that he failed his physical because he got hurt against us 2 days ago.