Will Duane Brown feel disrespected if Seahawks don’t extend him?

Duane Brown was meant to be the solution to the Seattle Seahawks’ issues along the offensive line, and he was surprisingly available last year only because of a contract dispute he had with the Houston Texans. Brown said this week that he felt “disrespected” by the Texans refusal to give him an extension to the deal he had that expires in 2019.

“I wanted to finish my career there, and I wanted security doing that,” Brown said. “I made it known right at the end of the season. There was no conversation throughout the whole offseason about it, which is why I didn’t show up to anything. There was a conversation around minicamp where they said we can’t do deals with two years left, but they’ve done it before. Basically they were like, ‘We’ve done it before but you’re not worth that.’ So, I’m like, ‘OK, well, I’m not coming to anything then.’”

Brown returned to play in one game for Houston — against the Seahawks — before being dealt to Seattle, where he finished the 2017 season. It appears that the Seahawks fully intend to keep Brown and have him be the left tackle for the whole year, giving them more peace and stability in the position than they’ve had since Russell Okung left two years ago, but the contract has yet to change.

Brown has $9.75 million, non-guaranteed, on his 2018 salary cap hit. He’s 32 and has remained relatively healthy throughout his career, so it would be reasonable to assume that he’s going to be an effective tackle past next season. An extension could lower his 2018 cap hit while also giving him guarantees for this season and next. But does Seattle want to give Brown the commitment that Houston wasn’t ready to? Given the market for tackles, which only seems to get drier every year, they just might have to.

And that won’t necessarily be a bad thing.