Watson is free to do just that - once the term of his contract expires. Watson knew who owned the team when he signed that contract. Then they had one bad season and he couldn't handle it. Time to bail in his mind. No strength of character to honor his commitments. Good riddance, he doesn't have the fortitude to lead a team to an NFL title. Give me some picks and a fresh start over dealing with this guy any day.
The Texans won't take a stand for the entire league. The NFL would have to step in, and to what point? The Texans won't want to have a QB that the public knows and his teammates know doesn't want to be there. No, I don't think that the Texans are going to trade him to the team he wants and take half of what they can get from another organization. If that is what some are thinking, they will be surprised. I do think that Watson will be traded, and I do think it will be to one of the 5-8 teams he wants to play for, but it will be for what the market will bear. This is a lesson for a lot of reasons, but I don't think this is going to make the Texans organization change... I think they will double down and just be very particular about who they draft.
Since the team’s inception, Texans’ ownership has always gone against the grain when it comes to making obvious and simple decisions. Yes, the Mario Williams pick ended up working out, but, at the time, they had a clear route to unite the fan base by taking a franchise QB in Vince Young, who was a Houston native and revered in the city after winning a state football championship for an inner city high school for the first time in a long time. Not to mention, he was coming off a season where he was the best player in college football and won a national championship at the flagship college in the state. The Texans also needed a QB after David Carr flamed out. The vast majority of NFL teams in that situation take the hometown QB in that situation, if for no other reason than the marketing opportunities alone. Plus, it’s a smart way to galvanize the team’s fan base. Not the Texans. Up until the last three seasons, they had seemed to become smarter as an organization. Then, they gave complete control to Bill O’Brien and let him run the team into the ground by trading away anyone he had a personal beef with.
Deshaun has all the leverage. He can absolutely afford to sit for a few years if Cal is hellbent on not trading him. Deshaun is not short sighted...he isn’t going to risk injury and quite frankly doesn’t need to. Teams will be lining up to sign him in a few years and would honestly prefer Watson with less mileage. Texans are the ones who cannot afford the distraction of him missing games, not Deshaun. Every waning day, HOU risks a worse and worse return package. I may be delirious, but maybe this is Watson’s last pull in trying to oust Easterby. Maybe he sees HOU as salvageable, but a formal trade request is the required means to that end. I don’t know. I’m done with the Texans assuming they do in fact trade Watson. Casario could net 30 first rounders and it wouldn’t move the needle—this organization is incompetent down to its core and cannot draft, develop, and keep players as is necessary to win it all.
Why would any potential draft pick agree to come here? They actually have far more leverage to steer deals.
Dumb ownership in this city aside, when does this crap end? Why as a sports fan do I invest in these teams and players, if every few years players demand trades and want to leave? Free agency is one thing, but demanding trades now because for whatever reason is another. One franchise didn’t get their star player involved enough, and now he wants to leave, another franchise bent over backwards for their star player and basically let him do what he wants and he still wanted to leave! Damned if you do, damned if you don’t! This is truly a black eye on the sports teams in this city, not including what The Astros also did.
This. Tilman would actually be one of the more player friendly owners in the NFL. He may well be a good NFL owner. The problem is that the NBA is a completely different scenario. It is like the difference between a Bernie fan and a Trumplican.
Career or season? I don't know what sacks have to do with anything. Like I said it's debatable and those stats are debatable for saying what QB is better. You have every right to think he is better and with him being younger I would probably take him over Wilson right now if I was starting a team but if I had to win now with a good team I would go Wilson. Personal choice.
Its really sobering/sad to say, but "The jets, of all franchises, are more deserving of an all world qb, than the texans are."
Elite QB's in the draft have far more leverage than any other position. We have seen elite QB's like John Elway, Jim Everett, Eli Manning all demanded out and all got out.
I know he's a star player, yada yada. F that, he signed. At the very least, call his bluff, make him sit a year, get the number one overall, and then trade him for a king's ransom. edit- sorry, wasn't intending to quote Nook.
I have zero faith that the organization who mishandled this situation (as with so many others) will somehow come out with what they should receive in a trade for a QB locked into a 5 year deal who is as good as Watson. I have no reason to believe (or give them the benefit of the doubt) that the same organization who traded Hopkins for that return will somehow do a great job with respect to trading Watson. It is very difficult to get excited about this franchise. The most repeated line I say about them is, "they make everything so difficult."