mannc

How do you square that with the fact that Watson has a no-trade clause in his contract? They can’t just ship him to Detroit or wherever.

You apparently have a lot of inside information...What’s your source?

I hate to break the news to you, but if NFL owners ran the Electoral College, we’d be settling in for Four More Years right about now.

Well, Watson reportedly has a no-trade clause in his contract, so he doesn’t have to accept a trade he doesn’t like. As a lawyer, maybe I’m just cynical about contracts. They aren’t sacred; good upstanding people try to negotiate their way out of or around them all the time. And at any rate, Watson’s not really trying to get out of his contract; he’s trying to convince the Texans to trade their rights under the contract to a different team, where his performance will still be subject to the terms of that same deal. Watson has a long history of being a good guy and a good teammate; the McNairs, not so much. I’m giving Watson the benefit of any doubts in this pissing match.

Watson’s quarrel is with ownership, not with the GM.

Well, I guess we’ll see, won’t we? If Watson. gets traded, will you admit that he had leverage? And why are you backing Texans’ management, anyway? They have burned that franchise to the ground and appear to be terrible people, to boot. Deshaun Watson is one of the bright young stars of the sport who by all accounts is a great guy. So why the hate?

Watson has a ton of leverage. He’s the only valuable asset the franchise has. He’s the unquestioned leader of the team and the face of the franchise. He’s also has built up a ton of goodwill by being a great player from day one, and a model citizen off the field. I don’t know for sure, but I would be willing to bet he’s very popular in the locker room. A franchise that has done everything wrong lately simply can’t afford to have a disgruntled leader like Watson. The only way out for them is to get as much as they can for him and hope the can land another QB.

Yes

Can't see the Pats having enough ammunition to make that deal, but Texans GM has connections with the Evil One, so who knows...

I don't necessarily disagree, but if you look at Brady's numbers this year, and what he's done with a team that missed the playoffs last year, you can certainly make a case for him.

If we're talking right now, maybe Brady? I think I'd actually put Watson ahead of Wilson, but that's just based on how poorly Wilson played the last half of this season. In terms of which QB you'd take over the next 10 years if you were starting from scratch, it's got to be Mahomes, Allen, then Watson, right? Too soon to tell with Herbert or Burrow...

Watson is absolutely top 5 right now.

Good point. It all depends on what they think of Tua. I’m not sure why the Texans would be excited to get him, but who knows?

I say Jets or Niners makes most sense. Jets have four first round picks in the next two drafts, including second overall. They can make the trade for Watson and still have plenty of picks to help rebuild their roster. SF would have to trade two firsts plus a young star player or two... You have absolutely no idea what went on there. He may have been entirely justified. What we do know is that since the day he was drafted, Watson has been a great player and a model citizen. We also know that the Texans are run by morons. So draw your own conclusions.

And that’s to Watson’s advantage; means his new team won’t have to cripple itself to acquire him...

If I'm Houston, I only do that trade if I really like Jimmy G, because those picks after this year are (1) in the future--obviously--and (2) likely to be very late in the first round. I'd hold out for another young impact player, like Deebo Samuel.

That's the fatal flaw in the OP's scenario, along with the fact that I very much doubt Indy gives up two firsts for Matt Stafford. If Indy wants Stafford, and I'm not sure they would, they can just make the trade with Detroit directly and I bet it only costs one first. That may be true, but there are a lot of QB-needy teams this year and a team that thinks they are on the cusp, like Indy, might do it. And Indy's first is pretty late in the round.

Kinda makes you wonder why he was inactive most of the year, doesn’t it? I can only guess that it’s because Buffalo didn’t burn a 3rd round pick on him. And I think he fumbled in a preseason game last year...

The good news is that (1) the Dolphins actually don’t have a QB, and (2) they had three first round picks last year and failed to get a single impact player, at least so far. Maybe they will do better this year...they certainly are a team on the rise and not to be taken lightly.

Good question. Despite the “we can’t run” narrative, the few times we tried to run, it was actually effective. “We won’t run” is more like it. Certainly had a better chance of success than drop back passes from the 5 yard line against a jail-break pass rush.

Good grief. Jefferson just had a great rookie season. I have no idea what kind of stats he's going to put up for the next four years, much less over his entire career. It's possible that this year was a fluke, but it's much more likely that he'll still be a really good NFL receiver when Diggs is in decline or OOF.

Other than Josh Allen, Tyler Bass might be Beane’s best pick...

Those are division rivals. There are quite a few teams that aren't in the same division that still consider themselves rivals. Some examples from the past few years: Pittsburgh and NE, Buffalo and KC, Dallas and SF, Tennessee and Baltimore, maybe even GB and NO. NE and Indy (when they had Peyton Manning).

It might, but there's no way they trade him to SF, IMO. Green Bay considers the Niners a major rival, even though they aren't in the same division.

The typical trajectory is that players get better after their rookie seasons, not worse. The fact that you can name a few guys who got worse after their rookie seasons is not evidence that Jefferson will. FFS, he's 21-years old. Why would he regress? It's far more likely that Diggs, who will be 28 before next season, will never have another season like this one.