NBC Sports analyst Chris Simms says Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson throws the best deep ball in the game, much like Oilers QB Warren Moon.
The Texans’ Deshaun Watson may be the best quarterback for a Houston NFL team since Warren Moon with the Oilers.
If nothing else, the two-time Pro Bowler throws the best deep ball in the game comparable to the Pro Football Hall of Fame field general.
According to NBC Sports’ Chris Simms, the best deep ball thrower of all-time was Moon.
“It was like poetry in motion when he threw the deep ball,” Simms said on the May 13 edition of “Pro Football Talk” on the NBC Sports Network. “It was always an absolute, perfect spiral. I don’t know if I ever saw ball that Warren ever threw have any wobble to it whatsoever.”
In 1990, Moon led the NFL with 4,689 passing yards and 33 passing touchdowns. The following year, while he failed to match his touchdown total, Moon bested his passing yards total by one yard.
According to Simms, the best deep ball thrower in the NFL today is Watson.
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And, again, of course, yes, he could throw it deep, but he could also — but regardless. He could do it any way he wants, but he was one of the purest throwers of the football I’ve ever seen in my life. I can remember going to one of my dad’s games and it just looked different. It looked pretty cutting through the wind. I think he might be the guy that I think might be the best at it.”
“Deshaun Watson’s the guy right now that would be the Chris Simms title holder for ‘good’ in the deep ball department,” said Simms. “When I watch him, a little like Warren Moon who I talked about, just so effortless, can do it anyway you want, can throw it high and far at 70 yards, can throw it line drive and hit it bullseye 50 yards down field.
“Doesn’t need to be in perfect position. And then, to me, a great deep ball is that pretty spiral.”
Watson surpassed the 4,000-yard mark just once in his career: 2018 when he threw for 4,165.
If Watson is the best deep ball thrower in the NFL, then he has a speedy receiving corps that should take advantage of this strength in Will Fuller, Brandin Cooks, Kenny Stills, and Randall Cobb.
It’s one of the biggest questions the Tennessee Titans face this offseason, and the answer isn’t necessarily a simple on.
Tannehill re-energized the offense after the team got off to 2-4 start this season, and was officially named the starter of Marcus Mariota in Week 7.
The quarterback saw a lot of success in one of the best seasons of his career after years of struggling with inconsistency issues in Miami, finishing out the season with the best passer rating in the NFL (117.5).
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But has he shown enough to justify a more expensive, multi-year deal or a franchise tag?
Former quarterback Warren Moon has some thoughts on that.
“My biggest concern is if Derrick Henry doesn’t sign back there, then is Ryan Tannehill the quarterback you think can carry your football team to that same place in the playoffs or even further?,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s a guy who can carry a team with his arm, so there has to be a lot of things in place for him to be successful. But he is in the right situation for him right now if Derrick Henry is back and they are committed to running the football like they have been.”
In Moon’s eyes, the Titans should keep Tannehill as long as the move is cost-effective.
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“… My thinking is as long as they don’t have to break the bank to keep Ryan Tannehill. … You know you are going to have to pay Derrick Henry top dollar, but the top dollar for a running back isn’t anywhere near what it is for a quarterback,” he said. “So if Ryan is willing to take a good contract but not up there with what the market is right now, about $30 million or whatever, they will have money to even add some more pieces that could get them over the top.”
Given that this year’s free agency is loaded at the quarterback position, it will be interesting to see who the Titans have taking snaps at the start of the 2020 NFL season.
The Chiefs had 29 starting quarterbacks between Len Dawson and Patrick Mahomes, none taking them to the Super Bowl.
Len Dawson got the Kansas City Chiefs to Super Bowls I and IV. Patrick Mahomes has them with a return engagement — finally — at Super Bowl LIV. So, who were all the other starting QBs who failed to get Kansas City back to the NFL championship game? Going to start with the 1976 season, the year after Dawson retired following his Hall of Fame career.
Mike Livington
AP Photo/William Straeter
Mike Livingston was a Kansas City Chief from 1968 through his entire career that ended after 1979. He backed up Len Dawson and took over after the Hall of Famer retired. Livingston was 31-43-1 overall as a starter. His mark after Dawson’s exit was 11-32.
If you think this postseason meltdown was bad, Houston pro football fans — well, there was one worse in history.
If there’s one small bit of comfort we can extend to Houston’s professional football fans… well, at least you’ve seen this before if you’re old enough. The Texans’ seeming victory after throwing up a 24-0 lead on the Chiefs in the divisional round turned quickly into an absolute disaster as Patrick Mahomes and his crew scored touchdowns on seven straight drives, Houston defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel kept calling man coverage even when it clearly wasn’t working, and head coach Bill O’Brien — who will be answering questions about his in-game strategy as long as he’s a head coach (take your bets now) saw his team wind up on the wrong end of a 51-31 debacle.
Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien during the third quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs in a AFC Divisional Round playoff football game at Arrowhead Stadium. (Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)
Not that it was the biggest debacle in Houston pro football history, at least if you go by what happened after what was the most famous postseason collapse in NFL annals.
The Houston Oilers of the early 1990s were one of the most explosive offensive teams of the era. With Warren Moon at quarterback, receivers Haywood Jeffires, Ernest Givins, and Drew Hill, a pack of effective running backs, and the first full iteration of the run-and-shoot offense in the NFL, the Oilers were tough for any defense to stop. From 1998 through 1993, they never ranked lower than seventh in points scored, and Moon — who signed with the Oilers following five straight Grey Cup titles in the Canadian Football League because the NFL wasn’t ready for a black quarterback — was on a path to the Hall of Fame. The 1992 Oilers ranked sixth in points, first in passing yards, third in passing touchdowns, and beat the Buffalo Bills, 27-3, in their regular-season finale. Facing the Bills again in the wild-card round, it seemed that the Oilers were going to start a nice postseason run.
It seemed that way for a while, at least. Moon threw four touchdown passes in the first half alone as the Oilers passed their way to a 28-3 halftime lead, and a 35-3 third-quarter lead… and then, everything fell apart. Jim Kelly was injured, and backup Frank Reich added his name to the Pantheon of benchwarmers everywhere when he matched Moon, the future Hall-of-Famer, with four second-half touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Bills head coach Marv Levy made the second-half decision to move from a defense with five and six defensive backs to a more conventional 3-4 front, stymieing the Oilers and their pass-first philosophy. The Bills crowded Houston’s smaller receivers with press coverage, splayed their linebackers out in a series of wider zones, and blitzed off the edge with aplomb. The Oilers scored just three more points as the Bills were playing pinball in the fourth quarter, and they saw the game slip away, 41-38, in overtime.
Defensive coordinator Jim Eddy was the man blamed for the collapse, and was summarily dismissed. He was replaced by Buddy Ryan on January 30, 1993, and that’s when things got really interesting. Ryan, as detailed in the 1980s chapter regarding the 46 defense, was a man with no filter. When he came in to coach a defense, he wanted no other coach telling him how to do it. He was no fan of quarterbacks, either — in the 1993 Oilers defensive playbook, he wrote that “QBs are over-paid, over-rated pompous bastards and must be punished.” He had no patience at all for the run-and-shoot (or, for that matter, any offense that got in the way of the conversation about his defense), and he and Gilbride were on a collision course from the start.
Warren Moon’s last start came when he was 44 years and eight days old. The former Washington star went to the CFL and was fantastic north of the border before signing with the Oilers and starring for them for many years.(Photo by Brian Masck/Getty Images)
The 1993 Oilers started out 1-4. Moon was benched for a time in favor of Cody Carlson, a hilarious decision in retrospect. Ryan’s 46 defense took time to stick as he matched scheme to personnel, and he would take his defense off the practice field if he didn’t like the way things were going. Head coach Jack Pardee was more and more of a lame duck, even as the team turned things around and won their last 11 regular-season games.
But no amount of winning would solve what was going on behind the scenes — a schism between Gilbride and Ryan that came to a head in the regular-season finale against the New York Jets. Ryan took a swing at Gilbride on the sideline during a game the Oilers won, 24-0, to end their regular season with a 12-4 mark. But after the playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, everything went out the window. Gilbride and Pardee were fired. Ryan went off to coach the Arizona Cardinals. Moon was traded to Minnesota after a decade in Houston as owner Bud Adams decided to blow up the roster, the 1994 Oilers went 2-14 with Carlson, Billy Joe Tolliver, and some guy named Bucky Richardson as their quarterbacks, and by 1997, the franchise had moved to Tennessee to be replaced, of course, by the Texans in 2002.
So, Texans fans, as unhappy as you may be now, take heart that you still have a franchise, Billy Joe Tolliver isn’t replacing Deshaun Watson, your coaches aren’t sparring on the sideline, and there is still next year. Perhaps not for your coaching staff, but for your team.
Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson says that it is ‘a great honor’ for Warren Moon to say that he has Hall of Fame potential.
If Warren Moon is going to keep giving Deshaun Watson compliments, the Houston Texans quarterback is going to humbly accept them.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback, who played for the Houston Oilers from 1984-93, says that Watson has the same potential to end up in Canton, Ohio, himself when his career is over.
“It’s definitely a great honor and recognition from a guy that’s done a lot for this league and a guy that’s done a lot for this community,” Watson told reporters Wednesday. “Just being able to be recognized for that and — it’s definitely a long ways away.”
The Texans drafted Watson with the 12th overall pick in Round 1 of the 2017 NFL draft. At 24 years old and on the verge of completing his third NFL season, the expectation is that the former Clemson Tiger’s career still has a full decade of high level performance before discussions of retirement and legacy are a subject of regular discussion.
In between now and when Watson is ready to hang them up, the two-time Pro Bowler knows he can’t rest on his laurels.
“I have a lot more to improve on and I know that he knows that,” said Watson. “But it’s pretty cool to have guys to encourage me. Can definitely use it as motivation.”
Moon has been an encouraging figure from the Houston sports community that has publicly and privately helped Watson. Ahead of the Texans’ wild-card playoff game with the Buffalo Bills on Jan. 4, which the Texans won 22-19 in overtime, Moon sent a supportive message to Watson. If Watson is able to capitalize on such encouragement, as he did against the Bills, then putting together a Hall of Fame resume shouldn’t be too big of a task for Watson when it is time for Hall of Fame consideration years from now.
Former Houston Oilers QB Warren Moon gave Texans QB Deshaun Watson some encouragement on the eve of the AFC wild-card versus the Buffalo Bills.
The night before the Houston Texans took on the Buffalo Bills in the AFC wild-card Saturday at NRG Stadium, Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon sent quarterback Deshaun Watson some encouraging words.
Who knows what Moon told Watson specifically? Aside from both being franchise quarterbacks of their respective NFL teams in Houston, the two have shared a bond since Watson entering the league as a first-round pick in 2017.
“For him to take time out of his day, to take time out of his life and his career and his family to be able to just give me advice, to hit me up randomly and call me and whatever, whenever we see each other in the offseason, he always come up to me and talk to me,” Watson told reporters after the 22-19 overtime win against the Bills. “I mean, it’s special.”
Unlike Moon, who was subject to the Bills coming back against his Houston team, now known as the Tennessee Titans, in the 1992 AFC wild-card, Watson executed a comeback with the Texans, a totally separate franchise, to at least help Houston sports fans exorcise the demons of having Buffalo spoil their postseason dreams.
Watson couldn’t have had the opportunity if not for what Moon accomplished in his Hall of Fame career.
Said Watson: “For me to be able to look up to someone like that, and for him to pave the way for a lot of us young quarterbacks coming up, it’s special. So I definitely don’t take that for granted, and I appreciate him for sure.”
The city of Houston appreciates Watson, too, and his efforts to propel the Texans to the divisional round of the playoffs. Now, the Texans will take on another franchise that bested Moon in his last game in Houston: the Kansas City Chiefs. The Texans travel to Arrowhead Stadium for a 2:05 p.m. CT kickoff on Jan. 12, and Watson could use more encouraging words from Moon.
The Falcons defeated the Panthers in Week 11, thanks in part to quarterback Matt Ryan’s 311 passing yards.
The Falcons defeated the Panthers in Week 11, thanks in part to quarterback Matt Ryan’s 311 passing yards. It was a typical day at the office for Ryan, who’s routinely thrown for big numbers during his twelve NFL seasons.
The former MVP QB has now moved into the top ten in terms of career passing yardage, passing Warren Moon on Sunday.
At 34 years old, Ryan could potentially play for another five seasons, which would likely put him into the top five or higher if he keeps up his current level of production.
Ryan has 49,383 passing yards, which puts him just 2,092 yards behind Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway, who is ninth on the list with 51,475 career passing yards.
Statistically, it’s clear that Ryan is one of the most prolific quarterbacks in NFL history, however, he needs to win a Super Bowl to really cement his legacy.
Ryan should have at least a few more cracks at redeeming the Falcons’ 2016 Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots. However, this season may have already gone to waste with the team starting 3-7.
