Aug 28th 2008 11:30AM by Stephanie Stradley (author feed)
Filed under: Texans, AFC South, NFL Injuries
By coaches’ accounts, Ahman Green had a great camp. Then he hurt his groin during his first touch of his first preseason game and hasn’t played since. He says he will be ready to go by the Pittsburgh game, and by restructuring his contract to one incentivized for game play, he is putting his money where his mouth is. According to the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain:
Green’s base salary will be 1.8 million, which frees up 2 million in salary-cap dollars.
To get Green to agree to redo his deal, the Texans are giving him $200,000 for every game in which he’s active this season, starting with the second game of the year. That means Green can make three million if he stays healthy for every game. In other words, Green was at risk of getting cut and being forced to retire. Green played on and off last season with a knee bone bruise and was eventually put on IR. The Texans didn’t want to put him on the roster to risk more of the same. So they shifted some of his salary base he would receive if he just limped onto the 53 man roster, to paying him for individual games if he is activated for them.
The running backs who look to be on the 53 man roster for sure are Ahman Green, Steve Slaton and Chris Taylor. Taylor has also been taking reps as backup fullback. Free agent acquisition Chris Brown has been struggling with various ailments throughout camp and preseason, (non-surprise!), so the Texans are probably relieved that they could restructure Green’s contract to keep an experienced RB on the roster … at least for the time being.
