Getty Melvin Gordon should get a good number of carries in Week 5.
Melvin Gordon may not end up with the Chargers this season, but you can cross one more name off his landing spots. The Houston Texans reportedly will not try to trade for the Los Angeles running back, writes Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
This is based off a tweet by John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, who states that the Texans are looking for a backup to Lamar Miller. Gordon is looking for a starting situation that pays more than his current salary of $5,605,000 for the 2019 season.
Florio adds that Miller is a touch less expensive than Gordon, and that there may not be any team that wants to shell what Gordon is asking for.
Miller enters the final year of his contract in Houston, at a salary of $5.5 million. That’s more than $100,000 less than the salary that Gordon is due to earn — and he’s sufficiently unhappy with that number to refuse to show up. It would take a lot more to get Gordon signed, surely a lot more than the Texans, and quite possibly anyone else, would pay.
Over four seasons, he has rushed for 3,628 yards and 28 touchdowns through four seasons. He has crossed the 1,000-yard mark just once back in 2017. Meanwhile, Miller has put up comparable numbers during the same timeframe, including 973 yards in 2018.
By the way, the Texans won’t be trading for Melvin Gordon. They’re looking for an RB to be the primary backup to Lamar Miller.
According to CBS Sports, while Gordon’s asking price isn’t clear, the Chargers haven’t come anywhere close to matching it thus far.
Damarius Bilbo, one of Gordon’s other agents, told NFL.com this week that Gordon has felt “disrespected” by the Chargers’ offers.
“If we’d gotten a respectable offer, we wouldn’t be here,” Bilbo said. “But he felt disrespected. He’s very serious.”
Gordon is coming off a highly efficient season where he ranked fifth in the NFL in total touchdowns with 14, despite missing four games. Gordon, who finished the season 885 rushing yards, averaged 5.1 yards per carry in 2018, which was more than any of the NFL’s top three leaders in rushing yards: Ezekiel Elliott (4.7), Saquon Barkley (5.0) and Todd Gurley (4.9).
“I know my value,” Gordon said in June. “I know what I bring to this team, and I’m sticking with that. Todd (Gurley)’s paid, so Todd don’t care what anybody says right now — him or David Johnson — they can say what they want to say. They signed the dotted line. But unfortunately I haven’t yet, so I’ve got to take the heat for some of the stuff that they’re going through. But I’m not them, and like I said, I know my value.”
Gurley received a four-year, $60 million deal in July 2018 while Johnson inked a three-year, $39 million contract in September.
Gurley entered the league the same year as Gordon and has racked up 4,547 yards and 46 scores for the other team in Los Angeles. On the other hand, Johnson has produced less than both with 2,783 yards (but 31 touchdowns). However, Johnson did miss the 2017 season with a dislocated wrist.
Sporting News has previously pointed out that the Texans and Bucs are the only two fits that make sense for Gordon. With Houston out, will Tampa Bay bolster a thin backfield to take some weight off Jameis Winston’s back?
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Melvin Gordon Update: Texans ‘Won’t Try to Trade’ for Chargers RB