Texans want him to elevate potential trade value/return… Watson wants to also drum up suitors that may have been partially scared off with the allegations (and avoid fines)…. But not sure how he’s going to play motivated football for a team he doesn’t want to be on or encourage teammates to go all out for him knowing that he doesn’t want to be there. If he somehow ends up playing, he’s probably going to end up hurting himself… you can’t half-ass anything in this game.
If Im the Texans, I make him stay. Remember, than can suspend him without pay for conduct detrimental to the team. He put himself in this mess. He would have already been traded if it wasn't for him butthole adventures.
Watson is going to play hard and do his best while here, while maintaining his firm trade request. That puts the Texans in a bad situation, would have been better off sending him home, it's going to mess with team chemistry if they don't fully intend to use him.
What makes you think that? Genuinely asking. I thought his intangibles were his best attributes at one point, now? I’m not so sure.
If the plan is to trade him, absolutely no way should he take a single snap. I’m not even sure I let him on the practice field to be honest.
Make Watson available to the media, that way John McClain can ask him what his favorite BBQ sauce is, or whatever other hard hitting evocative reporting we have come to expect from General Pancakes from the land of Butterworth.
Whether he settles or not, the "jokes" about his off-the-field preferences will be there. Him settling however, would all but guarantee that there won't be any criminal action (based on them being paid for their silence) as well as it would officially put everything behind him. Even if he doesn't settle, and all the lawsuits get dropped, the damage is done. Everyone will just assume he was guilty, but got off on a technicality (no pun intended....)
I wouldn't worry about Watson's effect on team chemistry... this team will at best win 3-4 games. A Watson trade is key to our future. Let him "tweak" his little finger and put him on IR, until something can be settled with these 20+ cases. Then Cas can make a move.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/07/26/mmqb-what-deshaun-watson-reporting-to-training-camp-means A little before 10 a.m. ET, my old colleague Ian Rapoport reported that Deshaun Watson would be reporting with the rest of the Texans quarterbacks on Sunday, and Watson was indeed in the building for the first time since the end of the 2020 season. That’s pretty significant, given the potential impact of the 22 lawsuits that have been filed against Watson, and the trade request that went in back in January, and has been standing since. So what does it mean? Well, the first thing to look at is the language in the CBA, relating to the commissioner’s exempt list, which Roger Goodell could’ve used to push pause on Watson’s situation. The Texans QB hasn’t been charged with a crime, so the second and third of three listed reasons for players to go on the exempt list in the CBA are the relevant ones here. Here’s the passage … Second, when an investigation leads the commissioner to believe that a player may have violated this policy by committing any of the conduct identified above, he may act where the circumstances and evidence warrant doing so. The decision will not reflect a finding of guilt or innocence and will not be guided by the same legal standards and considerations that would apply in a criminal trial. Third, in cases in which a violation relating to a crime of violence is alleged but further investigation is required, the commissioner may place a player on the commissioner exempt list on a limited and temporary basis to permit the league to conduct a preliminary investigation. Based on the results of the investigation, the player may be returned to duty, be place on the commissioner exempt list for a longer period or subject to discipline. Basically, this shows Goodell would have the discretion to put Watson on the list now—and this is the time of year he’d do it (ex-Giants CB DeAndre Baker went on at the start of camp last summer)—if they had found evidence warranting it, or if the league just needed more time to wrap up the investigation. Which means, implicitly, the league office is telling us it doesn’t have enough evidence and isn’t close enough to closing the investigation to do it. My feeling was that Watson probably would land on the exempt list before camp, just on the principle that it wasn’t good for the league to give the story new daylight, it wasn’t good for the Texans new coaching staff to have to deal with it as David Culley’s group opens its first camp, and Watson had no interest in playing for the team anymore. Yet, we’re here now, and I have to wonder if that’s because there’s some sort of push to expedite a trade. At the very least, this prevents the Texans from keeping the Watson story on the backburner anymore. Watson is in-house, and it’s going to be awkward for everyone with it having been made clear that the trade request hasn’t been rescinded. Also, with other teams knowing that, you can bet that GM Nick Caserio’s phone will ring. Bottom line, the heat is about to get turned up, which makes it worth looking at a couple of elements in play. 1) The relationship between Watson and owner Cal McNair is in a really bad place. If it’s not irreparable, it’s bordering on that, and as a smart coach once told me, “the one thing I can’t change is the owner.” The communication breakdown during the coaching search was the root of it, and nothing has changed to fix it since. In fact, it may be worse now than it was then. 2) I’ve heard that Caserio is determined not to take any sort of discount for Watson. And I think that’s totally understandable, for a guy who inherited this problem—he has a 25-year-old franchise quarterback under contract for the next half-decade. The best thing for the organization is to either convince him to stay (not likely) or get a king’s ransom for him. Absent clarity from the league or legal system, it might be hard to land one. 3) Would the Texans try to wait to trade Watson, regardless of his wishes? It’s a good question. One problem with trading him now is—if he’s available to play—he’d immediately make the team he’s going to better, and devalue the pick coming back. If you trade him in January, you’ll know where at least any 2021 pick (or picks) coming back will fall. 4) For what it’s worth, the sense other teams got over the summer break is that the Texans weren’t in a rush to move Watson. Add it up and the remedy would seem to be someone swooping in and offering the moon for Watson, even with the ongoing legal situation. I’ve got four teams marked down as ones to watch—Carolina, Denver, Miami and Philadelphia—and I believe all four are monitoring all this. The Dolphins have three first-rounders the next two years, and the Eagles will likely have three next year alone (so long as Carson Wentz stays healthy in Indy), and Carolina and Denver have interesting young players they could throw into trades. But again, the question is whether you’d fork over an historic haul, given the uncertainty here. And, of course, it probably wouldn’t make sense for Caserio to trade the best quarterback in team history, locked up contractually and in his mid-20s, without getting that kind of return. The Texans, by the way, practice Wednesday. Culley, by the accounts of pretty much everyone who’s worked with him, is the kind of coach that’s incredibly equipped to handle a situation like this one. That’s good. Because he’s got his work cut out for him.
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/07/25/buffalo-cleveland-nfl-vaccines-fmia-peter-king/ On Deshaun Watson. Multiple reports Sunday said Watson will report to Texans camp, evading the $50,000-a-day fine. The Texans would have the distraction-avoiding option of not having Watson on the practice field or in the public view. Welcome to head-coaching, David Culley. For the legal cases involving 22 accusations of sexual impropriety to not be adjudicated or settled by now, it figures that Watson and the accusers must both think they’ve got good cases. Gut feeling here: It makes no sense for GM Nick Caserio to trade Watson when his value is diminished today; he needs to wait till whatever happens legally with Watson, and when the likely NFL sanction of Watson is meted out. When Watson’s fate is known, that’s when a team should trade for him. Which is why I’d guess (and that’s all it is) that Watson gets moved early in 2022, when presumably his legal issues are finished, and league discipline will be done too. I’m sure Watson doesn’t see it this way, but this year is looking more and more like a washout for him. If it is, what would a team be trading for next winter? A quarterback who will turn 27 at the start of the ’22 season, chastened and tarnished, but coming off a 70-percent season in 2020 with a league-leading 4,823 passing yards. Philadelphia’s the most logical target—and I’d argue that acquiring their next quarterback would be smarter next March than it is now. Maybe Jalen Hurts has a stunningly great year and the Eagles think they’ve got their quarterback of the future. Maybe the Eagles will be in position with three first-round picks to sit and take their next quarterback in the draft or trade up for him. Or maybe they’re in the best position of any team in the league to deal for Watson. So the best thing for Philadelphia here is to play the long game—and hope that Carson Wentz plays three-quarters of the snaps in Indianapolis this year, ensuring that third first-round pick 2022.
Texans still want 3 first rounders? If you can't have him here, you're going to have to cut the asking price.
