If there’s no Deshaun Watson trade, what will the Texans do?

The Houston Texans need to have a backup plan for Deshaun Watson.

With Deshaun Watson now being able to be questioned under oath for his 22 lawsuits of sexual misconduct and assault, there would be no better time for Houston to have a plan in case things don’t go as planned.

That includes Watson being convicted of any or all of the accusations or no team willing to take Watson in a trade deal given his cap number. As Mike Florio pointed out in the article linked above, the Houston Texans are set to pay Watson $35M this year.

That number increases to $42M in 2023, which doesn’t make it any easier if Houston doesn’t get a desirable result or takes forever to find a team to deal him to. Recently, Watson has begun doing his homework on the Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in case they genuinely emerge as trade candidates.

There’s also the reported chance that one of the New York teams (Jets, Giants) could be the middle team in a rare three-team trade in the NFL. While the Giants have taken themselves out of the Watson sweepstakes, the Jets potentially being involved in a trade would undoubtedly make this all the more interesting.

However, Watson still has to waive his no-trade clause. That was only waived for the Miami Dolphins during the season. So there’s still a long way to go with this, and a deeper look at what happens to Houston if they’re forced to keep him or cut him will be analyzed.