The Houston Texans knew they wanted quarterback Deshaun Watson in the 2017 NFL Draft, which is why the organization made a trade to get the Clemson Tiger at No. 12 overall.
With three seasons in the books on the 2017 class, what would a redraft look like if all 32 teams could go back in time with this foreknowledge? That is the question Ben Linsey of Pro Football Focus tackled in his 2017 redraft.
Of course, quarterback Patrick Mahomes would have gone No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Browns instead of defensive end Myles Garrett. However, the next player off the board would have been Watson with the Chicago Bears moving up to No. 2 overall to take him.
Where does that leave the Texans?
According to Linsey, the Texans would have stayed put at No. 25 overall and taken cornerback Chidobe Awuzie from Colorado with their first-round pick.
The Texans’ biggest area of need right now is help in the secondary, and Awuzie is the cornerback left on the board with the best track record over a three-year span. He’s been solid in coverage for the Cowboys the past two years, with coverage grades of 65.4 and 70.5 to go along with an allowed completion rate of 62.5%. Those aren’t spectacular numbers, but they also aren’t going to kill your team. Looking at the players left on the board and the sort of value that a player like Awuzie has brought to the table, it makes sense for him to go here to a team that could use him.
The problem with taking Awuzie in the first round is quarterback. Houston dealt away quarterback Brock Osweiler of March 9 that year because they were in search of a franchise quarterback. If in this alternate reality they didn’t address quarterback in free agency, then the organization was most certainly going to look to the draft to fix the issue. Coach Bill O’Brien wasn’t going to lead a team with Tom Savage and T.J. Yates under center.
Other options in the draft were DeShone Kizer, Davis Webb, D.J. Beathard, Joshua Dobbs, Brad Kaaya, and Chad Kelly. New Orleans Saints athlete Taysom Hill was part of the undrafted class in 2017.
Even in a redraft, the Texans weren’t going to sit by and let a franchise quarterback get away.
Houston fans are thankful Linsey’s piece is nothing more than an exercise in alternate realities and not the status quo. Watson has fixed the quarterback issues that have plagued the organization since Matt Schaub fell of the map in 2013. Now, the Texans have other issues to fix.