Joe Kinsey
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It has been five months since Deshaun Watson fired up his social media channels to announce how thankful he was to Houston and the Texans ownership who had just given him the second-highest contract guarantee in NFL history. The McNair family had just given their franchise quarterback $111 million in guarantees and a total contract value of $177.54 million over four years.
“As a child growing up in Georgia, it was always my dream to play in the NFL. Today, I couldn’t be more honored and humbled to sign a long-term deal in Houston, the city that I’ve grown to love so much and now call my home,” Watson (or his PR team) wrote.
Nearly six months before Watson signed his massive contract extension, Texans general manager/head coach Bill O’Brien traded away DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals in exchange for running back David Johnson.
More Glory! 🙏🏾 HOUSTON!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/u2D2o1ttIQ
— Deshaun Watson (@deshaunwatson) September 5, 2020
Still, in his new contract ‘thank you’, Watson had high praise for his bosses: “Thanks to Cal (McNair), Janice (McNair), the entire McNair family, Coach O’Brien, Jack Easterby (Texans executive vice president of football operations) and the whole Texans’ organization for helping to make my dream a reality.”
Fast forward to January 2021. Watson now wants out of what many considered to already be a dumpster fire of an organization. Bill O’Brien had been bashed all summer for the Hopkins trade. The McNairs have taken a beating from the media for years. The Undefeateds of the world destroyed the late Bob McNair for saying in 2017, “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.”
Deshaun Watson was a member of that 2017 team. He started six games. He knew Bob McNair, had done business with Bob McNair and had likely been told by his agent about McNair.
Now Watson’s acting like he’s stuck in this terrible situation with a terrible franchise run by terrible people.
So what changed over the last five months that triggered the trade request? Was it the fact that the Texans were a disaster on the field? Was it the fact that the Texans didn’t hire the general manager that Watson wanted, as some have reported?
“I’ve come to understand that it’s been reported that Deshaun feels left out of the process, but he and I had several visits and I understood his point of view before meeting with candidates,” McNair said in early January. “I’ve reached out to Deshaun about Nick’s hire, and I look forward to him getting back to me when he returns from his vacation.”
Texans’ GM Nick Caserio: "Before we take a few questions: Organizationally, we want to reiterate our commitment to Deshaun Watson. We have zero interest in trading the player."
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 29, 2021
Now Watson wants to be traded, and it appears he’s crossed over the point of no return. He has a no-trade clause that will allow him to determine where he’d be traded.
How does this end? Denver. Mark it down. Broncos ownership is watching the Chiefs pull away with a quarterback who is going to dominate for the next 20 years. If you’re going to lose, you might as well go down with your guns blazing. Watch for Denver to get desperate.
The Texans, who’ll be way over the salary cap (projected to be $17 million over in 2021 even if they don’t trade their QB) after trading Watson, will go into a full suck mode and be stuck there for the next decade.
No sympathy for him…he signed on the line that is dotted. If you knew it was a big ball of suck beforehand (I mean when it came to O’Brien there was already rumblings about how bad he was before that trade) and had some knowledge about the owner. Even if the team itself is terrible they are compensating his talent and leadership pretty well for his trauma I would say.
Besides how do we know playing for Elway and co. will make him happy?
Or he’s really fed it he could just retire and be a 9-5 working stiff turning on the lights, taking out the garbage, and constructing the buildings like the rest of us.
I guess $12 million (in contract year 1 with another $20 million to come no matter what) for a job you hate is better than minimum wage.
Seems like a good kid but what a dramatic turn in just 5 months. At least he is picking the right year, year 2, to sit out given that is the next lowest compensation year in the contract with a big increase in years 3 & 4.
Hes a fucking cry baby
The Texans emboldened him when they got him involved in the HC and GM search.
Peak Millennial.
Too fucking bad. Does this simpleton know how many people would give anything to have 1/10th of the money he is making to sling a football? I think Watson is getting too much bad advice from people. The Texans have been a joke ever since O’Brien was the coach. What changed? Watson is not the GM that is not why he was hired. He was hired out of Clemson as a quarterback, not for his GM sports management credentials. I don’t believe Watson graduated from Clemson, so what makes him qualified? Finance degree? Sports Management Masters degree? MBA? JD? Nah none of that just athletic talent. Typical, 21st century pampered athlete too worried about Twitter and the Gram clout.