Texans Set Deadline for Johnson

The Houston Texans and wide receiver Andre Johnson have been talking about a new contract but have set a deadline on the talks. Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com reports that deadline will be Week One of the regular season, if no deal is set by then, well he’ll play under the current contract that he signed back in 2007. Normally, I object to players who cry for new contracts after signing one but in this case I kind of agree, Johnson needs a new one.

In three of the past four seasons, Johnson has caught over 100 passes. In the last two seasons, he’s gained over 1500 yards and a combined 17 touchdowns. Those are pretty impressive numbers and over the past couple seasons that hasn’t been matched by anyone.

When it comes to base salary thou he was the third highest paid receiver in the league. When you consider his value based on the CAP (yes, I know the cap is gone for next season but we’re looking at the past seasons $$ figures) he was ranked as the eighth highest paid receiver.

Unfortunately for Johnson I don’t see a contract getting done this off season. He’s under contract through 2014 and with labor uncertainty for 2011, I can’t see the Texans working something out. In my opinion they’re best off waiting to see what the new labor agreement is before agreeing to anything.

The good thing about all of this is that Johnson is a team player, he doesn’t want to create a commotion. He tried to skip OTA’s to express his displeasure but quickly returned once he saw the hoopla it created. That tells me the guy cares more about the game and his teammates. He wants his money but he won’t let it be a distraction.

Hopefully he continues to be that way. If he does I’m sure the Texans will take care of him once the labor issue is taken care of.

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“Our policy’s been that we’ll look at deals and we’ll try to get things done during the offseason,” Smith said. “But once the season starts, our entire focus as an organization goes to football and playing games.

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