Watson Wants Out – Houston Should Call His Bluff

Houston’s star quarterback wants a trade. Their front office should call his bluff.

Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

After weeks of speculation and many reports about his unhappiness in Houston, Texans star quarterback Deshaun Watson officially requested a trade last week.

As a result of the contract extension Watson signed with the Texans last September, he has a full no-trade clause, and thus needs to sign-off on any trade Houston attempts to make. At this writing, Watson is said to prefer a trade to the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets, with moves to the Washington Football Team and Chicago Bears not completely ruled out. In short, Watson is making a huge power play here, and expects that the newly minted front office won’t call his bluff. They should.

While Watson has legitimate concerns about the direction of the franchise, and the deep incompetence around player personnel during former head coach and GM Bill O’Brien’s tenure, his formal request for a trade wreaks of the immaturity we’ve come to see of stars in the NBA, not the NFL. Watson is upset that he wasn’t an intimate part of the Texans search for a new GM, and, at the beginning of the process, wasn’t a big part of the head coaching search either. Houston has since filled both positions, and it seems Watson and his camp aren’t excited about either. To quote one of my favorite movie lines from my adolescence, that’s too damn bad. 

At its most core level, Watson’s recent trade demand should hold about as much weight as the former president claiming the election was stolen. Not much about the direction of the franchise has changed since Watson signed his extension a short five months ago. O’Brien is gone, but having parted with so many first and second day picks prior to that, Watson knew well before then that the team would be limited in the immediate timeframe to improve their roster via the draft. He still signed the extension.

Watson’s cap number in 2021 is roughly $15.9 million. Trading Watson this offseason would lead to a $5.6 million cap charge in dead money. If Houston were to wait to trade Watson until 2022, that number would jump to $40.4 million. It’s now or never.

Houston finds itself in an unenviable situation. Elite franchise quarterbacks don’t grow on trees, and Watson is firmly in the upper echelon of NFL signal callers. Even if you trade him for a top five pick in this draft, you’re still losing that trade, and losing badly. No matter how top tier prospects like Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields or Trey Lance may be, they are still just that – prospects. Watson is a proven commodity in a league where there are no guarantees, no matter what you put on tape in college.

If I were the new GM of the Texans, I would call Watson’s bluff. While he has voiced his unhappiness with the direction of the team, he was under center just one year ago, when they had a 24-point lead in the AFC divisional playoff on the road in Kansas City. There were many monumental moments in that game, including the defense giving up 41 unanswered points en route to a 51-31 loss. Regardless of the defensive performance, however, the Texans had a 93.9% chance of winning that game midway through the second quarter. Surrendering a lead that large has to substantially fall on the shoulders of your “elite” quarterback, even with a shotty defense and questionable coaching decisions. You think Pat Mahomes, Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers are allowing their teams to lose a playoff game after being up 24 points?

Watson committed himself to the organization knowing the next year or so would be relatively bleak. Houston is in cap hell, lacks high draft picks, and is undergoing a reshuffling in ownership and front office personnel in the wake of former owner Bob McNair’s death. Yet none of these cons were unforeseeable when he signed his deal. It’s not as if things have changed materially since Watson ensured that he took care of himself financially. He may have not made the bed, but he sure as hell chose to lay in it, and if Watson refuses to show up for mandatory workouts and training camp, he would be subject to a fine up to $50,000 per day. Drag it out even longer, and the Texans may be able to demand repayment of his signing bonus.

Watson’s tough guy stance is cute for television, but the chances of a young quarterback not even in his prime yet sitting out years of football because he’s mad he didn’t get to pick his head coach are slim to none. Houston is staring at a massive rebuilding project without Watson, and there’s tremendous trust to build between the team and the fan base regardless of the outcome of this saga.

If I were the new Texans general manager, my email response to Watson’s trade request would go something like this:

We received your trade request, Mr. Watson. While I honor and validate your concerns about the future of the franchise, I want to ensure you that we value your contributions to this team, city and organization, and cannot reasonably see a future without you, as evident by the extension offered and signed by you a short six months ago.

We look forward to seeing you at mandatory workouts, and can’t wait to see you wearing Texans red and blue at a sold out NRG stadium this September!