Forcing the disgruntled infant to sit out a season would speed a rebuild because you'd get a tanking season along with the picks when you pawn him off on someone else.....while providing a disincentive for that kind of BS in the future. There's simply no downside to forcing Watson to sacrifice a year of his career over his b****assness. It's a win for everyone but Watson. Or of course, there's always the possibility that he puts his big boy pants on and shows up to work, which would be the best case scenario for everyone
Is it out of spite if no deal really blows them away right now? Watson is an asset that doesn’t depreciate over the next 2 years at least. The fact that the Texans don’t have to pay him (unlike other leagues) and that the contract gets suspended and they hold his full rights without losing any years (also unlike other leagues) allow them to wait for the best possible deal. If anything, this will further highlight the plight of the NFL players association in their dealings with the owners.... its still pretty unbelievable that “this” is the CBA they bargained for.
Its the players' own damn fault. Every time they've tried to do a work stoppage, half the players revolt. The players have sabotaged all of the NFLPAs leverage, and both sides know it.
From what we're hearing, they are just hanging up on people - not even taking offers or making counteroffers. Sure - but he's also an liability that prevents them from moving forward as an organization. You can't get anywhere without a plan at QB, and you can't make a plan at QB without knowing what you're going to do with your $40MM QB. So you're paying a football team $200 million to waste a season, just to be in the exact same position next year. It's like what the Texans did when they hired BoB and refused to make any effort to find a franchise QB the first few years - they just wasted prime years of top tier players and when they finally did get a QB, their other elite talent was old/gone/etc and BoB ran out of time. This is a first time GM and a first time head coach. Is this really how they want to handle an unknown number of seasons? If players hold out in other leagues, they don't get paid either - there's no league that has to pay players if they refuse to play. All Watson has to do is show up in week 10 (I think?) and then his contract will move forward. It's a waste of a Texans' season, but he gets paid millions of dollars. Since Watson can show up at any time, the Texans can't spend on another QB, so they have to find a cheap temporary QB to play at least the first 9 games, and then either bench him for a disinterested Watson who hasn't practiced or ever played for his coach, or pay Watson to sit on the bench. And they repeat the same process every year, all while not being able to build a team. The Texans have no leverage here and gain no benefit by waiting. But they are an extraordinarily stupid organization, so they likely try to play this out and screw themselves over. Why? It's a CBA that gives all the power to the player. Outside of Le'veon Bell - which didn't work out at all for the Steelers given that he walked for nothing - what player has gotten stuck with an organization they don't want to be for even a year? Every player that demands out gets out because they logistically have all the power - that seems like a pretty good set up for the players, no?
Haven't read much of this thread--but I heard DW over the weekend say, "I have no intention of playing for the Texans." I realize this organization is a dumpster fire. And they didn't go in the direction DW suggested when they asked for and received his input. But he signed a contract, not to be a president of football operations or a GM but to play football. You don't honor your contract, you don't honor your word, you don't get paid. Go away, crybaby.
Forget the guy's name but he was on ESPN, former GM, said that he would be holding out on Watson too. Right now, neither side has any reason to change their mind. The woman that they were talking to said that from what she was hearing, there wasn't much sympathy around the league, that he signed a contract and that's that, basically. So I do think we will get this into hold out stage. We can argue if the Texans should trade him or not, there is definitely an argument that they should just cut and run and while it's unlikely they will find another Watson it might be better to just take Tua, Miami's first rounders for the 2 years, and start fresh...I think some of the owners WANT the Texans to force Watson to make that tough decision of sitting out games. The thing here is this isn't Wilson or Rogers or Stafford. Older QBs that put in their time with their franchise and ready to move on. This is a young QB in his very prime deciding it is time to move on. I guarantee you smaller markets (Basically non-NY and LA teams and maybe the stupid Cowboys) are worried about this. This IS the Lebron to Miami move that started that whole movement in the NBA. Lebron bucked the trend that he was supposed to give Cleveland a few more of his prime years and said nope, I'm going to Miami. Watson, it looks like, is set on the same. But this is the NFL. The league operates that players are replaceable, EVEN Watson. The league doesn't kow tow to names, it simply doesn't care. There will always be a young bright QB coming into the NFL and I bet the owners would be more than content to watch Watson sit out a year just to send the message that "If this is what you want to do, these are the risks." Also, as bobby pointed out, it doesn't even really hurt the Texans for him to sit out. They tank, they get what they can from him, all they've done is wasted a year of no one's prime since they have literally nothing right now but Watson. The NFL isn't the NBA, the NFL is bigger than Watson. You guys remember Luck, Tebow, how about Vince young? I know, you'll say well two of those guys sucked and Luck retired...not the point, the point is the NFL doesn't need star players like the NBA does. The Nba NEEDS Lebron and it NEEDS Lebron's successor, just like the NBA NEEDED Kobe, NEEDED Jordan, NEEDED Magic and Bird. The NFL? It has Mahomes, it has Brady, it has Rogers, whoever wins becomes a star. Watson could never play another NFL game and the NFL would lose nothing. The media loves it of course. More speculation and of course they are all excited when glamor markets yank players from other teams.
You think they've planned for this? It took them 20 years to find an elite QB. You expect them to move on and find another magical unicorn in one off-season? I asked this question back then, but which magical unicorn QB did they refuse to make any effort on, or miss out on, in between Matt Schaub and Deshaun Watson? E.J. Manuel, Geno Smith, Derek Carr, Jimmy G, Blake Bortles, Teddy B, A.J. McCarron, Zack Mettenberger, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Trevor Simien, Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Paxton Lynch? Even within Watson's own draft, you have almost complete busts in Trubisky and Kizer. While that list looks even worse in hindsight, the point is that its far more likely their next franchise QB is not in this, or next, or the next next's draft... and they should attempt to explore every option possible to a player they have under contract who may command even more attention in a years time than he is now. The plan should be to acquire as much asset capital as possible. I know everybody (the media) wanted him to be traded the second he demanded it... but what exactly do you think is fair value for a 25 year old franchise QB? Exactly... there is no fair value. There is no precedence for this despite your comparisons to what happens in other sports... and even then, those players did not recently agree to an extension just one off season ago.
In a league with large roster sizes and expected longevity that is far less than other sports... its not that surprising. The vast majority of NFL players cannot afford to hold out. They know their careers and elite earning potential time is extremely limited. Unlike baseball, where the highest paid are able to influence the entire union to ensure that the middle to low (prospect) class won't have much negotiating power, the NFL will never be that top heavy. There's slightly more of a balance in the NBA, which still favors the players, but they also have a league where every team knows that just one star player can tip the scale.
That (hit?) piece on DeMaurice Smith put out by ESPN last week is worth a read, especially for people that aren't in the weeds regarding NFLPA matters like me.
And this is why it won't be changing anytime soon. The fact is, most guys are in the league 1-3 years and that's it. 2.5 years, to be exact...and unlike Basketball and Baseball, there is NOWHERE else for them to go (RIP XFL). Basketball, you get cut, go play in Spain for still tons of money, or Australia or the entire world plays the sport. MLB, there's the minor leagues and there are other international leagues. There are other American Football leagues around the world but they may as well be amateur leagues. NFL is all you have. So I doubt the NFLPA will have many victories moving forward.
Oh Lord, First Take took Pancakes piece and are asking “have the Texans blinked”. They don’t realize this guy is full of manure?
It sucks for them, but they don't really have any other options. Understanding leverage is important here. And remember, the Texans created this problem themselves by having a charlatan character coach run their organization. The issue is not who they picked - it's that they didn't even try. They could have picked any of those guys - maybe they work out in a different system, maybe not and they end up sucking and Watson 4 years later again. But the point is that they spun their wheels for 4 years in a situation that gave them a 0% chance to go anywhere. There's a reason that every team except the Texans is always trying to solve their QB problem. Only the Texans were stupid enough to think "we'll worry about QB down the line sometime". Completely unsurprisingly, It got the front office and BoB fired. Absolutely. And one key to doing that is to accept calls and field trade offers - something they aren't doing. They don't need to trade him immediately, but his value will be highest pre-draft. They get less between the draft and pre-season. And get even less if they pull a Carson Palmer and finally trade him midseason. You really should stop making these statements like "other leagues have to pay players holding out" or "there's no precedence for this". It's just not true. Paul George signed a max contract in OKC and then wanted out the next year and was traded exactly where he wanted to go. That wasn't even because the team sucked or the organization betrayed him or anything like that - he just changed his mind and wanted to play elsewhere.
He can get a normal job like the rest of us if he doesn't want to honor his contract. I hope the Texans do nothing whatsoever until next year. Let DW waste a year of his prime by not coming to work if he wants to. Or, he can bring his ass to work like the rest of his, work hard, and still ask to be traded, all the while upping his value by playing his ass off and being a good teammate. Otherwise, screw him and everyone else who believes their otherworldly talent gives them rights the rest of us don't have. I can't believe I'm defending the dumpster fire that is the Houston Texans on this. Speaking of the Texans, I can't believe an organization has made me miss the freaking Oilers. Congratulations, losers.
It's patently obvious at this point that Deshaun is going to be traded at the draft. Everything coming out of the media until then is just masturbation
