Matt Loede
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The Houston Texans are still hopeful that they can find a way to keep franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson on their team.
For Watson, his mind is reportedly made up, and he wants out of Houston and to be with another franchise in 2021 and beyond.
Many teams have reportedly kicked the tires on Watson, and Peter King reports that a couple teams have actually called the Texans to ask what it would take but that Houston didn’t even call those teams back.
The Texans have yet to tell anyone what they want in return for Watson, and a lot of that is reportedly due to the fact they still think they can find a way to keep him.
That could all change once offseason camps and practices start and Watson stays away, still refusing to talk with the franchise about what has him so upset.
Houston might not have a choice, and if they don’t, they have got to figure out a fair and equal value for Watson so that when a team comes calling, they have some idea about what they want.
With that, there are reportedly three teams that Watson himself has said he will go to in 2021, and those three teams were part of a Monday tweet from ESPN Upstate.
BREAKING:
It's been confirmed by sources that Deshaun Watson would approve trades to the Jets, Dolphins, and Panthers.
— ESPNUpstate (@ESPNUpstate) February 22, 2021
Those three teams are interesting, as it was reported earlier that Watson didn’t have interest in going to New York to play for Robert Saleh and the Jets.
Miami has been on the short list since it was announced that Watson wanted out of Houston, and there has been plenty of speculation that the Dolphins would give the Texans last year’s first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa, who could slide right in and be a starter, in return.
Finally there’s the Panthers, who have reportedly been looking closely at making cuts on their roster to free up money so that they can make a serious run at Watson.
Watson and his camp have yet to respond to the tweet about these three teams, so it remains to be seen if this is just speculation, or if Watson or someone in his camp has leaked the name of those teams.
Jets are dumpster fire. Have been for decade plus.
Change the name to the Carolina Black Panthers and it’s a wrap! Decision made! Easy.
Deshaun just played a full year, had great numbers with no talent around……and won 4 games.
The Jets have no talent, would forgo draft picks, would be limited in signing players with DW’s contract of 40M in year 2. They’ll be winning…..oh…..about 4 games.
The Panthers won 5 games because McCaffrey played just 3 games. So they’re going to trade McCaffrey and more picks for DW. They’ll be winning….oh…..about 5 games.
Not sure what the Dolphins have to give. Tua is only about 1/6 of that package. Plus they’d have to shed cap space to fit in the $40M DW.
Bottom line, the only teams with enough draft capital to get DW are awful teams. And you can not rebuild a bad team starting with a $40M QB.
Stay far, far away from the Jets. Panthers don’t have a black head coach, which seems to be an important part of Watson’s decision making. Dolphins are the logical choice, hopefully they don’t have to give up anyone other than Tua and picks. Keep the defense intact, go after some WR/RB help, could be a good team right away, barely missed the playoffs last year with rotating QBs.
Yea the Panthers owner and head coach and offensive coordinator are all white (smells like white supremacy no?). *rolls eyes*
Revise the list down to 2!
He should be lucky his three options aren’t down to McDonalds, Wendy’s, or Burger King.
LOL epic
Or State Department of Corrections or Bureau of Prisons…
Am I the only fan who wishes that he would just make a decision and put us out of our misery? This is like a bad soap opera.
He doesn’t want to make a public statement because it makes him look bad when he signed up for this and knew what he was getting into. He also signed a no trade clause.
I used to like Watson. Now I hope he goes to the Jets and they go 4-12 the rest of his career and the Texans make many deep playoff runs. You signed your contract, figure out a way to make your team better. The end.