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McClain: Texans will play waiting game with Deshaun Watson
John McClain, Staff writer
The Texans and CEO Cal McNair don't want to say goodbye to Deshaun Watson.
Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
Deshaun Watson and the Texans have two options each when it comes to the quarterback's trade demand.
Watson can continue to let agent David Mulugheta work behind the scenes to pressure general manager Nick Caserio to trade his client, including leaking to the national media how miserable his client is and how determined he is to get out of Houston because his relationship with the team is irreparable.
If the Texans refuse to trade Watson, he can tell them he's willing to sit out or retire, which few would take seriously because he's a great quarterback in the prime of his career with a $156 million contract that's set up him and his family for a lifetime of luxury.
As for the Texans, they can call Watson's bluff and remind him and Mulugheta they negotiated in good faith the four-year extension that averages $39 million a year. They can reiterate how much they love and value Watson and that he'll continue to be their quarterback as long as he's under contract through the 2025 season.
Or Caserio can field a multitude of offers from quarterback-desperate teams, listen carefully to their proposals right up until April 29 — the first day of the draft — and engineer what could be the biggest trade in NFL history.
Based on what we know now, there's no way this controversy ends well unless time can heal this gaping wound or new coach David Culley can meet with Watson and persuade the quarterback to change his mind. At this point, that seems unlikely. The bad blood just gets increasingly bitter.
The Texans have known Watson wants out since Caserio was hired. It became official Thursday when the trade request was leaked to the national media, and the Texans knew it was coming.
Their response is and will be that Watson is their quarterback, he's under contract, and they have no intention of trading him. That's what they're telling teams that inquire about Watson's availability. That will be their response until somebody makes them an offer they can't refuse.
This isn't going to end soon. There's no hurry. The draft is three months away. Training camp is six months away.
Culley's hiring is getting a lot of praise from people who know him and criticism from those who don't know him. The Watson controversy takes away from what should be the most exciting week of Culley's 27-year career, and it will continue to dog him once he starts to work because there's no simple solution.
Caserio and Culley have a combined 47 years of NFL scouting and coaching experience. At some point, they'll start to feel better or worse about Watson's predicament.
If they reach a point where they believe it's in the Texans' best interests to trade Watson, Caserio will have to persuade chairman and CEO Cal McNair to let him pull the trigger on what should be an unprecedented deal.
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Because Watson has a no-trade clause, he can reject any deal, but, if he wants to play for new coach Robert Saleh, then Caserio should open a line of communication with the Jets.
For a team to get a quarterback as exceptional as Watson, who's only 25, a team leader, respected in the community and is under contract through 2025, it's going to hurt. No way Caserio can give him away no matter how disgruntled Watson is.
With fans — including sponsors, suite holders and those buying club seats and season tickets — understanding there's no other option but to trade Watson, it's got to be the kind of deal where everyone believes the Texans came out on top or came close to it.
The Jets have the second overall pick in this year's draft behind Jacksonville. The Jets could solve their quarterback problem for the next 10 to 15 years, but they'd have to pay the steepest price in NFL history for Watson.
For instance, the Jets could surrender first- and second-round picks in the next two drafts, and throw in quarterback Sam Darnold if the Texans want him. Whether they include Darnold or not, the Texans should use the second overall pick to select the second-best quarterback prospect behind Trevor Lawrence, who's going to Jacksonville to play for new coach Urban Meyer.
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Caserio also should demand defensive starters such as end Quinnen Williams and safety Marcus Maye. Williams was the third overall pick in 2019. Maye was a second-round selection in 2017.
That would be a heavy price, but it's easier to replace draft choices and defensive starters than finding a magnificent quarterback like Watson.
If not the Jets, then possibly Miami, which has the third overall pick, courtesy of the Texans in the Laremy Tunsil-Kenny Stills trade.
If Caserio liked quarterback Tua Tagovailoa coming out of Alabama, he could swap quarterbacks and make the Dolphins include multiple first- and second-round picks. They'd have to pay a stiffer price than the Jets because the Dolphins' picks figure to be lower now that coach Brian Flores has turned around his franchise.
For now, at least, the Texans are content to play a waiting game with Watson. Culley needs to hire a staff and adjust to his new surroundings. The personnel staff Caserio inherited has been working on free agency and the draft for a year.
A lot of difficult decisions have to be made by the new regime, including what to do about J.J. Watt's situation.
But no decision will be more difficult than what to do about an extraordinary young quarterback destined for a career of greatness and perhaps a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — most likely with another team.
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John McClain
John McClain, a Waco native who graduated from Baylor in 1975, has covered the NFL, including the Oilers and Texans, for four-plus decades at the Houston Chronicle. He worked for the Waco Tribune Herald from 1973-76, when he accepted a job with the Chronicle. to cover the original Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association.
McClain has a plaque in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio as the 2006 winner of the Dick McCann Memorial Award (now the Bill Nunn Memorial Award) presented annually by the Pro Football Writers of America to a writer for his long and distinguished coverage of the NFL. He is past president of the Pro Football Writers of America. In 2019, he was voted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame's second class of media inductees and also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Baylor Line Foundation.
He's a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Seniors Committee and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Selection Committee.
In 2015, he was named as a Gridiron Legend in Texas, becoming the third member of the media behind Dave Campbell and Mickey Herskowitz. In 2019, he was voted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame's second class of media honorees.
McClain can be heard six times a week on the Texans' flagship station Sports Radio 610 in Houston. He also appears on numerous sports talk shows around the country.
McClain also has appeared in eight movies: The Rookie, The Longest Yard, Spring Breakers, Secretariat, Invincible, Cook County, The Game Plan and Make It Rain.
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