Everyone knew that the Houston Texans were going to trade quarterback Deshaun Watson in the 2022 offseason. The details of how the trade finally went down and to where is what baffled sports fans.
According to Cody Benjamin from CBS Sports the Texans’ trading of Watson to the Cleveland Browns as a replacement for quarterback Baker Mayfield ranks as the sixth-craziest storyline to date of the 2022 offseason.
Yes, Cleveland’s acquisition of Watson, the embattled former Texans star, was a huge deal, giving the Browns a major upgrade on Mayfield, and especially in light of the QB’s reported preference for an NFC South team. But the bigger shock was the price tag, with Cleveland committing a fully guaranteed $230 million to a guy facing 22 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct.
The Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, and Carolina Panthers were heavy favorites to land Watson. The Browns were even reported to have been out of the running. However, the AFC North team swooped in at the last minute on March 18 to pull off the acquisition of the three-time Pro Bowler.
“I think the impetus for getting teams to the table when you have a situation like that was there’s X number of teams that there would have been interest in potentially waiving that clause for, so in order to get those teams to the table we had a certain threshold of what it would take to get to that point for those initial discussions to take place,” general manager Nick Caserio told reporters on March 19. “From there, you have to work through the trade compensation and whatever the compensation is that you feel makes the most sense. I think you have to be thoughtful and you have to take the information, process it and try to make the best decision at that time so that’s why we went ahead and did what we did.”
Houston is hopeful that is the only crazy storyline of the offseason as they seek to quietly complete the rebuild.