Deshaun Watson: Jets, Dolphins, and headaches

The Deshaun Watson offseason has taken yet another turn, and things still aren’t looking good for the Houston Texans. Though Watson hasn’t said much of anything publicly about being or not being the starting quarterback of the Texans, everyone else and their brother sure have given their opinion on the situation.

Everyone seems to say they have a “source” who knows someone, who has a friend who once played pickup basketball with Deshaun Watson’s third cousin once in high school that is close to the situation and they know “for a fact” Watson wants out of Houston.

All of the trade speculation and trade rumors are giving most Houston Texans fans a headache, and for good reason, and now there is another report about the Deshaun Watson offseason situation that says the Miami Dolphins aren’t even the top choice for Watson to be traded to.

In a recent column by Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald, he stated that there is a “pecking order” of teams that Deshaun Watson would agree to be traded to, and the Miami Dolphins aren’t the top choice, but the New York Jets are the team that reside on the top of that list.

Here is what Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald wrote in the weekend article:

"“Watson this week told people the Jets are his top preference among the teams he’d like to be traded to because they hired Robert Saleh to be their coach and Watson values Saleh so much he wanted the Texans to interview him for their vacant head coach job.”"

If Deshaun Watson did say this, and if Deshaun Watson wants to leave the Houston Texans before the start of the 2021 season, it is the Texans who still hold the cards as even if Watson does demand a trade, they don’t have to do anything.

If the Texans don’t want to trade him, they can keep him on the roster until the conclusion of his contract, and the two sides can fight and argue for the foreseeable future if that is even the case.

Much of what is important with Watson at the moment — just from various reports throughout this offseason — is who will be the head coach of the Texans. Houston is the last remaining team who hasn’t hired a coach, and one of the supposed favorites of Watson — Robert Saleh, the former defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers  — was hired by the Jets, so maybe that’s the connection many are coming up with between the Jets and Watson.

Deshaun Watson: Why choose the Jets with their QB history?

Even with how the Jets have hired their new head coach, why would any quarterback with the talent of Deshaun Watson want to play for the Jets organization with their track history of changing head coaches as of late and the success of their quarterbacks?

The only great quarterback to ever play for the Jets who won a Super Bowl for them is Joe Namath, and that was back in Super Bowl III. Sure, since then they have made signings of veteran quarterbacks such as Boomer Esiason and Brett Favre, but neither one of them had the same success as they did with their previous team.

Things change, and the same could be said for the two-decade history of the Texans. They have yet to reach a Super Bowl game, much less advance past the Divisional Round of the AFC Playoffs in the history of the franchise.

It is just tough to fathom a franchise like the Houston Texans would trade the best quarterback the franchise has ever had, knowing just how long it took them to finally have a quarterback with his talent level and skill, not to mention his leadership abilities as well.

The Texans would be fools to trade Deshaun Watson to any team in the NFL, and what team would be willing to trade the farm so to speak to have Watson as their quarterback?

The Jets and Dolphins might have the draft picks and players needed to make this hypothetical trade, but would any team want to be the “new Minnesota Vikings” or “new New Orleans Saints” when those franchises made large trades with draft capital for Herschel Walker in 1989 and Ricky Williams in 1999?

This offseson has been full of too many rumors from sources, too much silence from Deshaun Watson and too many poor decisions by the Houston Texans, so many are at fault for what this current situation has become.

There needs to be some sort of final decision made for Deshaun Watson and where he’s going to play football in 2021. For the sake of the Houston Texans, they have the toughest decision to make of all, and they need for it to be the right decision, or the franchise will be set back for many years to come.