The Houston Texans’ 3rd ranked Deshaun Watson destination: Tampa Bay
Another team that just had their starting quarterback retire in Tom Brady, Tampa Bay still has plenty of pieces to make another Super Bowl push. If there’s anything that Bruce Arians loves to do is gamble uncontrollably (like blitzing instead of covering Cooper Kupp). That’s why Tampa comes in so high on this list.
A lot is going on here when it comes to the cap considerations. This article done by Spotrac details how Brady’s retirement affects Tampa Bay’s cap situation. Sticking to what the article said about Brady’s 2022 cap hit most likely being $8M, a restructuring of Brady’s salary was made to that number.
The Buccaneers also restructure Watson’s salary to have a final cap space of $22M to work with. Houston has `$15M after a pretty good trade package. Mike Evans was not an option as the Buccaneers would most likely want to keep him while trying to re-sign Chris Godwin to make another postseason run.
Ali Marpet would help the interior of the Texans’ offensive line, an area that struggled mightily last year. Keeping Mills from getting as sacked as much as he did in 2021 will be one of the most-watched units in 2022 for Houston.