Right. Watson is not getting traded, Watson is just rightfully pissed off. As we all are right now. But I would imagine none more than he is.
When have we ever seen any player, let alone a star player, want out of an organization but end up being bullied by the team into sticking around and then doing well? If Watson ultimately wants out, the Texans will be in the same situation as the Rockets. Or the Spurs. Or the Pelicans. Or the Jags with Jalen Ramsey. Or any of the other organizations that tried to assert control before realizing it was futile. They can act like they have leverage, but at the end of the day, the organization will be spinning its wheels until it resolves the problem. If the player doesn't change his mind - and, again, when have we ever seen them do that? - the Texans "leverage" is they can waste several years of their franchise with no direction and no progress towards rebuilding. Each year they wait, the return they can get diminishes. It's basically mutually assured destruction.
My exclusive sources are telling me, Deshaun Watson is mad, Cal McNair is an idiot, Jack Easterby is a charlatan, and John McClain is an incompetent twit. When can I be expecting my press credentials?
difference is this is a Franchise QB these don’t grow on trees you don’t trade them you work it out if that’s the case the packers should have traded Aaron Rodgers last offseason let Nick caserio do his job it takes teams how many years to find a franchise QB took this one 17 years let them hire a coach and see what happens it’s January 2 weeks after a terrible season if anything Watson should have been made when O’Brien made all those doofus moves as GM. Let Nick caserio prove himself
Hakeem was probably the closest to being traded, with a total rift with the organizarion, but ended up being salvaged. Kobe also had a moment where he wanted out. You exhaust all opportunities for the truly special ones. Also, these are all NBA examples. Can you come up with a comparable situation for a NFL player, let alone a franchise QB in his 20’s? we just watched two 40 plus year old franchise QB’s play against each other... they’re that rare and should be signed for life.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/01/18/mmqb-divisional-round-chad-henne-chiefs-bills-packers-buccaneers I’m not ruling anything out on the Deshaun Watson front. Remember, new Texans GM Nick Caserio saw his college teammate—Josh McDaniels—go through a situation like this when he got his shot at a top job, and we know how the Jay Cutler circumstance in Denver played out for everyone involved. The truth is that no one really came out of that a winner (McDaniels probably would’ve been better off sticking with Cutler, and Cutler would’ve been better off in Denver), and I imagine that’s something Caserio would look at and consider. We haven’t gotten much of a tell yet on where this is going, but one could be coming. Where the Texans go with their head coach hire may well foreshadow what comes next. I had a friend of Caserio’s mention this to me this week: Bringing in Eric Bieniemy for an interview, with all the water under the bridge, actually carries some risk for the team. If Houston talks to him, and goes in another direction, Watson could see that as a thinly-veiled attempt to placate him. Bottom line, things are in a very fragile place now. And how Watson feels about the Caserio-run portion of the coaching search will almost certainly impact how Watson looks at the team. All I know is players like Watson don’t grow on trees. And sure, having a high pick to take his replacement, or someone else’s young quarterback, might sound O.K. on paper. But it would be a significant step back for a franchise that’s lacked stability at quarterback, save for a few really good years from Matt Schaub (and Schaub’s obviously no Watson), since its inception.
How is this really news? Media pushes the narrative that a trade is all but guaranteed... but then backs off when pressed when/who requested the trade. Pretty much every team minus the Chiefs and Bills would be “interested” if Watson is made available.
You know how the click driven sports media cycle works these days. The can take one topic, not even actual developments, and ping pong it around all week. Rumors becomes facts, without any actual facts. Then it's all prognostication and hot takes thinly veiled as news. It's honestly embarrassing what sports "journalism" has been reduced to these days, but I've long since gotten used to it.
Franchise players in any sport don't grow on trees - they still end up getting traded. Rodgers was annoyed last year. He never asked to be traded or turned on the organization. He was just a little pouty. There's a big difference there. Again, can you name a single major player in any sport that demanded a trade and then ended up staying on their original team and things working out well?
People said the same things about the Astros and the reporter, about Harden wanting out, about Westbrook wanting about, about Chris Paul being unhappy, about the Astros' cheating scandal, etc. It was always "media speculation" or "media trying to create controversy". And every time, the reporting turned out absolutely true. Much as we don't like to believe things we don't like, the media doesn't just go around making up stories - there is almost always substance there, even if little elements may turn out wrong or change. This whole "fake media" stuff is the same nonsense Trump uses to con all his supporters to think everything is a lie.
I think the point is that Watson hasn't demanded a trade. He's definitely a "little pouty". That and the media speculation that a trade is all but certain, even though it hasn't been demanded, is the crux of the last two posts. There is certainly media driven speculation based on some certainty... but the extent they take it certainly depends on narratives that they feel the country would be more interested in. IN=n this case, and the Astros case, there is absolutely no fear of the Houston market backlash with national reporting.
You say that, yet other cities/franchises aren’t treated with the same vitriol or harsh rhetoric. That in itself says the media is at minimum biased, which isn’t a far cry from being fake. That’s not even mentioning the sensationalized stories that have been found to be untrue.
There's almost always fire. Watson is certainly pissed, I don't think anybody argues that. But they can turn this one nebulous fact into 800 different stories throughout the week. We don't have one piece of actual news beyond that, yet there's a new Watson story every day for the hot take circuit.