By Jordan Long
The Houston Texans will start training camp on Wednesday. They have a new Head Coach in David Culley who served as the Assistant Head Coach for the Baltimore Ravens for the past two years. The Texans are looking to improve on their 4-12 record. Rumors are the Texans are still looking to trade quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Watson has been Houston’s quarterback since they drafted him in 2017. In that time, Watson has passed for 14,539 yards, 104 touchdowns, and 36 interceptions. Watson is careful with the football and can read defenses so he won’t force the football down field or into double or triple coverage.
He uses his legs to buy more time outside the pocket or run to gain yards. Watson totaled 1,677 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns. Defenses use a player as a spy so Watson can’t run which usually doesn’t work because Watsons’ speed allows him to run for first downs or longer. It is difficult to bring him down.
Watson has asked for a trade. He would like to be shipped out of Houston to a team that has a chance to win a Super Bowl with him at quarterback. There could be a team interested in Watson because of his age and what he has done in the NFL. Watson is 25 years old and will be 26 in September. He is entering the prime of his career. His record as a starting quarterback is 28-25. Watson helped the Texans earn a playoff spot 2 times. The furthest the Texans advanced with him was the divisional round in 2019, but they were knocked off by the Kansas City Chiefs 51-31.
There are a few problems with Watson. First and the biggest one is his off the field issues. ESPN stated Watson has “20 lawsuits against Watson, alleging behavior from sexual misconduct to sexual assault that occurred since March 2020”. These could end up with him being suspended from the NFL. If these cases are true, who knows how long he would be sitting out. It would be a waste of a trade for a team.
The second issue is his cap hit. Watson’s cap hit this year is reasonable at $15.940 million. The next two years are more expensive and it would be a lot for a team to take on. In 2022 his hit is $40.4 million and in 2023 it goes up to $42.4 million. Franchises will need to talk to Watson to make the cap hit lower. The hit right now wouldn’t allow teams to pick up free agents that easily.
The third is how much the Texans want. Right now, they reportedly want 3 to 5 high draft picks including 3 first-round selections or more plus a few starting players. The high draft picks could be 3 first rounds and 2 second-round picks, way too much. 3 first-round draft picks is great for the Texans. They can build a team with that. For another franchise that kills them. This would mean 3 years where they couldn’t select an athlete in the first round who could be a starter or who knows, maybe an All-Pro in that draft. Teams are most likely going to hang up the phone because it is way too much to give up. It could be the Texans set the bar high and when they don’t receive their asking price, they will negotiate to make that price lower.
The Texans will do what is best for their team moving forward. It seems like trading Watson may not happen right now until his off the field issues are cleared up.
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