Dunta Robinson and Texans Fail to Sign Long-Term Deal; What This Means

Texans cornerback Dunta Robinson is the last franchise-tagged player to neither agree on a long-term deal nor sign his tender. Wednesday was the deadline for franchise players to sign long-term deals with their teams. This could get ugly.

So far, both Robinson and the Texans have failed to comment on the deadline passing. Negotiations had been mostly quiet, but the last time Robinson spoke about his contract, he said if a long-term deal couldn't be reached, he wasn't going to be around until sometime during the season.

For every game missed, Robinson would lose $585,705.

At around the same time as Robinson's comments, Gary Kubiak said that the cornerback told him that he "could count on him."

That the Texans and Robinson could not work out a deal isn't surprising. Assigning a value for Robinson is difficult given a 2007 ACL/hamstring injury, and his own assessment that he wasn't playing at 100 percent last year.

Originally, both Houston and Robinson spoke of their desire to get a long-term deal done -- the problem has been value. Leaked information suggested that Robinson was offered "Chris Gamble-type money" in the range of $23 million guaranteed, but that this offer was refused.

Things got ugly in February when Robinson was franchised. He claimed that GM Rick Smith lied to him about franchise tagging him and felt "betrayed." Smith explained that he didn't want to franchise tag him but that it was always a possibility if the sides couldn't agree on terms.

Statistically, Robinson was the worst CB for the Texans last year, though they did go 7-4 when he was in the lineup. Given the inexperienced secondary, Robinson may still be a player that they will want to have on the field. Robinson just needs to sign his franchise tender, like the other tagged players who hope to get a better contract in the future. Sitting out the offseason isn't preparing him to impress for his next contract.

His agent, Jason Chayut on the other hand, may disagree because in the past he has called the franchise tag "exploitation." Put me first in line to receive almost $10 million dollars of exploitation.