Deshaun Watson is under contract with the Houston Texans through the 2025 season. Good luck with that holdout.
The three-time Pro Bowler reportedly told new coach David Culley that he has no intentions to play for the Texans ever again; he wants out.
Given the Texans have Watson’s playing rights until the middle of this decade, it appears Watson doesn’t have any choice but to come back to Houston and play ball for his original draft team that he now loathes.
However, a pathway to victory exists for Watson, if he is willing to undergo the same hardships as Le’Veon Bell and sit out the entire season.
If Watson were to never report to the Texans in 2021, he would risk losing $20 million due to fines from the team and missing out on his salary. That is quite the buy-in for Watson in order to dictate where he is going to start the next chapter of his NFL career. It appears that Watson would be cutting off his nose to spite his face.
However, the Texans would be the ones suffering the most in the scenario. Because of their insistence on keeping Watson, they will have gone through significant roster upgrading portions of the offseason not having addressed the quarterback position. Houston will have gotten to September believing Watson will be their quarterback only to discover he isn’t. While comparable to losing a starter to a season-ending injury in preseason, this is even worse because the Texans could have addressed it at any point in the offseason.
The Texans will have also gone beyond a point where Watson’s trade value does nothing but diminish. If the Texans don’t trade Watson before April’s draft, his trade value will drop. The next possible window would be the end of preseason if, God forbid, a Teddy Bridgewater situation hits a team and their starting quarterback is lost for the year, or a contender realizes what a weak link they have under center.
It will take time, but if Watson is serious about leaving Houston, he will gain that inevitable triumph. If the Texans hoard his playing rights in the process, they won’t get nearly enough in return to even attempt to replace the cost of losing a franchise quarterback.
The Texans have more to gain from trading Watson than calling his bluff.
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