Deshaun Watson had a favorite play: “Go route to Hop for six.”
Of course, the Houston Texans quarterback won’t have that option in 2020 as the club traded the three-time All-Pro receiver to the Arizona Cardinals two days before the official start of free agency in March.
However, Watson has multiple options in mind that he would love to try out Week 1 versus the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Go routes to 15 (Will Fuller), go routes to 12 (Kenny Stills), go routes to 13 (Brandin Cooks), crossing routes to 18 (Randall Cobb), 16 (Keke Coutee), the boys, the Johnson boys (Duke Johnson and David Johnson) coming out of the backfield and spreading the ball around,” Watson said. “Being able to find the open man and take my game to another level and just spread the wealth.”
The Texans will be forced to spread the wealth out of necessity. With the Texans lacking a classic No. 1 wideout, at least in the archetypal sense, Houston will rely on Watson to find the open target. Additionally, the receiving targets will have to carry their weight and win their matchups, which will create opportunities for teammates.
“Now we have depth and we have a lot of experience and a lot of veteran guys,” said Watson. “We’ll be able to spread it around. Guys are going to do their part to be able to get touchdowns.”
If the Texans can excel at divvying up the targets, and taking advantage of them, defensive coordinators will have a challenging time keying on any particular target to slow down the offense.
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