RENTON, Wash. -- Veteran left tackle Duane Brown didn't get what he wanted out of his training-camp hold-in -- a new deal that would give him security beyond 2021 -- but the changes the Seattle Seahawks made to his existing contract were enough to get him back on the practice field.
And in Brown's words, they were enough to make him happy.
"I had my expectations for what I wanted, and they had in their minds what they thought they could get done," he said Wednesday. "What we came to wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it's OK. It's a business. We came to a compromise. I'm happy about it. They're happy about it. Now I'm ready to get to work."
Brown returned to practice on Monday and will play in Sunday's regular-season opener against the Indianapolis Colts. That was the plan all along, he said, even if he didn't get the new deal he was seeking.
Instead of extending Brown, the Seahawks moved around money in his current contract by giving him a $7 million signing bonus and dropping his base salary from $10 million to $4 million, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler and Adam Schefter. The adjustment doesn't add any new money in 2021 -- the final year of his deal -- but it essentially guarantees $1 million in per-game roster bonuses that he would have had to stay healthy for in order to earn, and it pays the bulk of his $11 million up front.
"I feel like I'm still playing at a high level and I want to continue to do that here," said Brown, who turned 36 last week. "But it didn't quite work out that way, which is all good. It's never been any bad blood on my end and I just want to make that be known. I love and respect everybody in this organization and the feeling is mutual. It's always been a mutual respect throughout this whole process."
There's no issue with his quarterback, either.
Brown called Russell Wilson "my guy" and said "it meant a lot to me" when Wilson went to bat for him publicly during his contract dispute. But the two had to clear the air after Wilson expressed frustration earlier in the offseason with all the hits and sacks he has taken, some of which he put on his own style of play.
"As an offensive lineman, it's something that I take pride in, is keeping my quarterback clean, so you hated to hear it," Brown said, adding that some of Wilson's frustration stemmed from before his trade to Seattle in 2017. "He feels how he feels. It's a group effort to not have sacks. It's not just on us, and I think we're all aware of that. But I'm the first person to go off whenever I see him get hit. He knows that and everyone knows that. So we're just trying to not make that a thing this year."
Brown said Wilson reached out to him after his February comments. They talked on FaceTime and "had a good conversation."
"I don't want to talk too much about it, but obviously we're on good terms," Brown said. "There's never been any beef or bad blood between me and him. He stood on the table since before I got here, so it's all good."
Wilson moved money around in his contract to facilitate Brown's trade to the Seahawks and was willing to do the same this summer to clear cap space for a possible extension. But the Seahawks' unwillingness to give Brown a new deal this year wasn't about immediate cap space. It was because they preferred to take a year-to-year approach with his contract at this stage of his career.
"I felt like my film didn't show that I was just holding on," Brown said of his play last season. "I thought I was dominant, and I think a lot of people felt that way. A lot of my peers felt that way. I felt that way. So obviously I didn't want to walk away from this game then. I don't want to walk away from it after this year. I feel better this year than I did last year."
Asked if he was given any assurance that the Seahawks will revisit his contract after the season, Brown said it's something they discussed. For now, he's set to become a free agent for the first time since entering the NFL in 2008.
"Obviously, you don't know how that's going to work out," he said. "But that's OK. I'm not worried about after the season right now. Now that the ink's dry, I'm all about this week and this year, just being the best I can be for this team."
Brown said there was never a question in his mind that he would play even if he didn't get a new deal, citing his admiration for Wilson as one reason.
"No," he said. "I work too hard, man. I work too hard to not perform and I love my teammates. I love the game. I love Sundays. You get to be this age and play this long, the Monday through Saturday, it's not quite the fun part, you know what I mean? It's necessary and you enjoy it, but Sundays are when it all comes together. So for me to do everything but that would kill me inside. And I wanted to be out there with my guys. So my whole thought throughout this time was to be available this week."