Houston Texans: Deshaun Watson needs to be in MVP conversation right now

After showing how he is a leader once again, Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson needs to be in the NFL MVP conversation right now.

Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson had his “statement game” on Sunday as he and his Texans teammates defeated one of the top teams in the NFL — the Kansas City Chiefs — and how he helped lead his team back was impressive enough for not only Texans fans to know his brilliance, but the rest of NFL to know it, too.

The past two games for the Texans have shown just how good the Texans can be in completely opposite ways. When Watson had a career performance against the Atlanta Falcons, he passed for 426 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions with a perfect passer rating.

More from Houston Texans News

• Houston Texans: Can Sean Payton really be the next head coach?
• Houston Texans Draft: Michael Mayer should be a no doubter at pick 12
• Houston Texans already telling fans the Davis Mills era is over
• Houston Texans have hand forced, waste no time in firing Lovie Smith
• Houston Texans: Pros and Cons of keeping Head Coach Lovie Smith

Those big numbers were great, and the Texans scoring 53 points was fun, but this Sunday when the Texans won against the Texans … well, that put Watson in a whole new category of MVP talk because he once again helped bring the Texans to a victory with a a second-half comeback.

Watson — who wasn’t sacked for a second straight week — finished 30-of-42 for 280 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions on Sunday. He also rushed for 42 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.

The former first-round draft choice Watson scored the final two touchdowns by the Texans, with one in the second quarter on a 3-yard run, and the other on a 1-yard rush in the fourth quarter to put his team in the lead at 31-24.

In the first half, Watson was 15-of-24 for 139 yards with one touchdown and one interception, with his longest completion being 23 yards at that point.

Granted, those numbers aren’t as high as others in Week 6, but tell me this: How good would the Texans be if they didn’t have Watson on their roster? Watson, in his third year in the league, has improved each season, and when he was injured in ’17 as a rookie he was 3-3 as a starter, then he tore his ACL. From that point on in the ’17 season, the Texans won one more game and finished 4-12.

As a starter in ’18 — playing in all 16 games — the Texans won the AFC South and won 11 games in a season for the first time in franchise history, and he did all of that while under heavy pressure, and don’t forget he was a season removed from the ACL tear.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1183469995461709824?s=20

That brings us to the 2019 season and how Watson is in the conversation of being the MVP of the league. Watson has his team at 4-2 overall in six starts in ’19, with 12 touchdown passes, three interceptions (201 attempts), 1,644 yards passing and a passer rating of 107.9.

Thus far this season, Watson has a higher completion percentage (69.7) compared to his previous two seasons — 68.3 in ’18 and 61.8 in ’17 — and this season he is averaging 274 yards per game passing, compared to his ’18 season where that number in 16 games was 260.3.

In 16 games last year, Watson passed for 19 touchdowns, and this season he already has the aforementioned 12 TD passes.

Don’t sleep on the rushing numbers of Watson either because in ’19 he has 32 rushes for 164 yards with five touchdown runs. Watson is averaging 5.3 yards per carry, 27.3 yards per game rushing and has rushed for 12 first downs. Watson has already matched his rushing touchdown total from a season ago.

Will Brinson of CBS Sports wrote the following on Watson and being in the MVP race:

"“To be the king, you’ve got to beat the king, and Mahomes is the reigning MVP. Watson went into his house with Mahomes coming off a loss, needing a win to try and keep pace with the Patriots for the top AFC seed, and beat him straight up.”"

The moment the Texans knew they won the game came with under 2:00 left on the clock in the fourth quarter. HoustonTexans.com reporter Drew Daugherty wrote about the exact moment when the game was sealed — oh, and it was off a play involving Watson:

"“Facing a 4th-and-3 at the Kansas City 27-yard line, up seven, coming out of the 2-minute warning, Watson fired a strike to DeAndre Hopkins for a gain of eight.”"

From that moment, the Texans ran the clock to all zeroes, and the Texans had defeated the reigning NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes and a team many believe will be battling for a spot in the Super Bowl in February.

Watson had other plans on Sunday as he put the underdog Texans on his back, helping his team overcome varying miscues by more than a few players, and willed the Texans to the AFC win. The play of Watson in ’19 has been MVP caliber, and the best thing about Watson is we might not have seen Watson at his very best yet.

The rest of the NFL got to see what Texans fans already knew, and that is Watson is the real deal and the very best is yet to come. Hopefully by the end of the regular season, Texans fans will have the excitement to be chanting the following letters at Watson … “M.V.P.”

If that happens, that means the Texans have done something great, and the only way something special occurs is Houston having Watson under center, being the franchise quarterback and continuing to make plays as the leader the Texans need on and off the field.