We heard earlier today that the Dolphins were in serious talks with the Texans about a trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson, but they’re certainly not the only suitor. Jeff Howe and Aaron Reiss of The Athletic report that the Texans have also talked trade with the Eagles and Panthers.
This isn’t the first time these two teams have been connected to Watson. The Panthers were mentioned as a potential landing spot early in the offseason, but it was assumed their interest had cooled following the acquisition of Sam Darnold. Following a hot start to the season, Darnold has thrown six interceptions in three-straight Panthers losses. It’s uncertain when the Panthers spoke with the Texans, but it’d make sense if the front office is starting to (once again) rethink their status at QB.
The Eagles have continually been connected to Watson, even through the start of the season. While heard recently that Philly wasn’t in contention for the QB, it’s been a common theme for the Eagles to alternate interest and non-interest in the Texans signal-caller. Former second-round pick Jalen Hurts continues to start for the Eagles, and he’s tossed eight touchdowns vs. only four interceptions despite a 2-4 start.
Meanwhile, Howe and Reiss have additional details on Miami’s interest in Watson, noting that a deal doesn’t appear to be imminent. A few sources told The Athletic that it’s common for “teams to drum up interest in a player” prior to the deadline, so this could ultimately just be an effort from the Texans.
So far, Texans GM Nick Caserio has warded off suitors with a skyhigh asking price — three first-rounders and two second-round picks (or, two starting-caliber players). He’s also been unwilling to accept conditional choices tied to Watson’s availability, but it’s possible that he’ll bend in order to stock up for the 2022 draft and move on from the Watson mess.
Jalen Hurts has 13 total TDs if you include the rushing ones. Still a rookie too….or has played less than 16 games.
I dunno, you wanna mortgage your future draft capital for Watson when you potentially have a version similar to him? Maybe not as good, but potential is there.
Hurts stinks
The hate against Hurts is unfair. He has only started 11 games in less than two seasons. He accounts for 85% of the team’s offense, and the team is calling plays as if he’s a seasoned vet. He’s set up to fail, but for some reason no one blames the coaching staff, just him.
I agree. Sirianni’s play calling is terrible and they do not try to establish a run game. It also doesn’t help that the OL is crumbling apart. Hopefully with Lane back and Mailata back at LT, they can give him more protection.
Don’t piss away draft capital on Watson when you don’t know when he will be available. He’s talented but then it’s a PR nightmare. Use the potential 3 firsts and the roughly 10 total picks to fill major gaps and rebuild this team. OL, a TALL WR – like when Howie should’ve drafted Jefferson – LBs and DBs. I want to stay posy but Howie has a bad draft track record.
To be fair to Sirianni, he wasn’t hired to coach Hurts. They got him when they thought they could keep Wentz. I agree with most of the rest. The Eagles just aren’t a team that’s built to win today, though. It’s unfortunately going to take a concerted effort over this offseason to at least establish a foundation of what they really want to be before they even start building a team to get there. Right now it seems that they’re caught between their previous regime’s identity and moving on and it’s not working.
Obviously we don’t know what discussions were had during the hiring process of Sirianni. Since there was just a two month gap between Sirianni getting hired and Wentz getting traded, it makes me wonder if Lurie was telling them that Hurts is the guy moving forward. They need to draft better and use their assets going into the 2022 draft to rebuild the team. I definitely agree with the lack of identity comment. They just have too many holes to fill at this point.
Not to mention Hurts doesn’t exactly have much help in the WR room. He has a small rookie in Smith, Goedert is out with Covid, Ertz has stunk for the last few season and is now traded away, Reagor is young and hasn’t lived up to the hype and JJAW sucks.
Personally with the right team and coaching I think Hurts could be an elite dual threat QB. He’s got an excellent running game, he’s got a decent arm and throwing ability just not the right things around him.
He’s similar to Kyler Murray just not the good coach and receivers and a little less talent
Stunk for the last “few” seasons? Not true.
a compelling and well-constructed argument…
Is what regulars here appreciate much more than the words “comments closed”.
Don’t want Watson and his baggage but Hurts is not the answer. The play calling has been subpar but the execution even worse. He makes poor decisions, poor reads, poor throws and he’s too quick to decide to take off and run. I didn’t like what I saw last year but gave him a pass as being a rookie and hoped he showed up this year. Preseason rolls around and he thinks he’s a grizzly old veteran trying to get cute and sit the preseason games out. He needed that live action, instead he took all of 10 total snaps. His midway into his 2nd year now, not a rookie to me and no more free passes on explaining away his poor performance.
You say “midway into his 2nd year”, but that’s very misleading. 11 games isn’t even a full season. I also don’t believe him sitting out the preseason was his call, but that’s neither here nor there. I personally think they need to tone down the play-calling, lessen his progressions and call simpler plays to his strengths, like bootlegs. At least give the guy one season to fully wrap his head around the offense. Maybe he won’t be the guy, but he certainly hasn’t been given a fair chance to prove he can be.
He’s 22 games into his NFL career, he’s no rookie anymore.
That preseason game he was screwing around on the sideline ls and then claimed he was sick and had to get checked out the hospital. He needed and still needs live reps against people not on his own team. Playing those preseason games gives him a better chance to run that offense, but after 10 total plays he checked that box. His decision making abilities are something that can’t really change over night and they’re not good, which is why it’s safe to say he won’t ever be that franchise QB they’re after. With Flacco behind him he has no choice but to play every game, but keep on looking like this and the calls for Minshew will be getting much louder.
He’s 22 games into a pro career, that is no longer a rookie.
I don’t buy it for a second a brand new coach didn’t want to run his brand new QB out there with their plays in the preseason. Hurts was screwing around on the sideline and then all of a sudden supposedly had to go to the hospital. He needed more action than 10 plays and certainly needed live action against defenders that weren’t his teammates in practice. You want to give him time but he basically passed on getting real action in 3 games. Luckily for him his #2 is Flacco so he’ll hold the job but if he continues to look how he has been the calls for Minshew are going to pick up.
Why are comments needing to wait for approval? And why are my responses that are strictly on topic being censored and not posted?
My reaction is this is a leaked or planted story by the Texans to drive up Miami’s offer. Apparently they are disagreeing and the Texans think this helps
Several teams originally expressed an interest in Watson and only backed off once they saw how much Caserio was demanding. Texans have thus no reason to plant this story and if the Dolphins are now the lone serious suitor then it will be impossible to drive the price up.
Agreed … but I also think they did the same thing with the Watson accusations
Texans scrambling is a crashing situation. If they don’t trade Watson now – he gets paid rest of this season – handles court cases in off season and suspended next year. He then does not get traded til 2023 season ♂️
Anyone who gives that up for him should be banned from the NFL for life. The Fexans have no leverage here except for an old owner wanting to do whatever because the ship is sinking fast.
An old owner? Sinking?
Tommy Boy ain’t that old and the ship already sank.
Refuse to believe anyone will give anything near that up. Sometimes smoke is just smoke.
…in this case from whatever the Texans FO is tokin’ on.
Eagles have 3 high ones this year plus Hurts
They have a franchise altering decision to make
Anyone trading a package of 1st round picks and a QB for Watson right now with what’s hanging over his head would be setting their franchise up for long term disaster.
As EAGLES FANS.. We do NOT WANT WATSON!! Jalen Hurts is NOT our Franchise QB.. but.. We need to STRENGTHEN our DEFENSE before we get another QB!!
A Houston reporter claims serious trade talks are happening while a Miami reporter says that claim is false. I’m more inclined to believe Miami.
He can go to Philly and live under the learning tree of Bill Cosby
The media-fabricated asking “price” is now accepted as fact?
Until the grand jury decides whether to file criminal charges Watson is untouchable – as each of those 10 counts of sexual assault are a minimum 2 year sentence.
Watson isn’t gonna fix the Eagles. They have issues across the board. I don’t think anyone should trade for Watson given his off field drama. But if he does get dealt, maybe he goes ahead and reaches a settlement with his accusers and we end seeing him on the field later in the season. Who knows.
I would have to believe any league discipline would mean the end of this season which makes trading for him senseless. But then again they gave no discipline to Sherman so you just never know.
‘[Caserio has] also been unwilling to accept conditional choices tied to Watson’s availability’
Well then I hope he enjoys not trading Watson.
None of these “suitors” are just a QB away from winning, so strictly looking at it from a football perspective these matches don’t make any sense.
Add in the mess that comes with Watson and it’s just flat out dumb to even consider trading for him.
What on Earth is Houston thinking, though?! They’re worse than an expansion team, they have a disgraced and disgruntled QB… and if you can move away from that and get a single 1st round pick take the W and run.
I’ve never seen something that makes less sense than all of this.
Carolina pulling the trigger on any QB trade not even a full season after acquiring Darnold is just as crazy as trading high end picks for Deshaun Watson right now. If they didn’t believe in Darnold, they shouldn’t have done the trade and held on to Bridgewater (then, if they insisted on doing so, maybe exploring what would still be a questionable trade for a likely to be suspended QB).
Darnold might not be the answer, but he’s hardly the only reason that the Panthers’ offense is struggling (Anderson has been pretty awful, and McCaffrey being out and the line being inconsistent don’t help). In any case, six games is not a huge sample size. We didn’t expect a deep playoff push from Carolina this season as is. Another big trade for a starting quarterback right now does not make Carolina look aggressive, it makes them look desperate-especially since Watson probably isn’t playing for the foreseeable future.
The Panthers don’t even have the draft capital to pull off this trade so I’m convinced that from the get go it was simply Tepper with his inflated ego trying to convince everyone he was a major player like Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft.
I can definitely agree with that.
Throwing 6 INTs in three consecutive games has got to be an NFL record; or just another example of a “writer” who can’t write.
The Eagles can win with Hurts. Hurts is still developing and should be above average if he is embraced to a system fit for his skills. That offensive scheme is offensive. Hurts has no weapons and I know Wentz was not the answer. You are in a rebuild and need all the draft capital as their drafting has been questioned. The idea of trading for Watson with his baggage should not be entertained and an immediate cause to be fired and out of football…..
Let’s be honest, this story has been, and will continue to be, nothing more than a media created narrative. Welcome to modern day journalism. Watson isn’t getting traded this season. No one is that stupid nor has that level of self unawareness. Can you image the backlash.. P*ssy hats surrounding your stadium. Sponsors would run. Watson is untouchable. If a trade were to happen the GM and owner should be immediately removed from the NFL. I would boycott if my team traded for that pos.
Tua to Washington is the other part of the process.
Toxic. I just can’t see how any team would mortgage there future and take on the PR nightmare by adding him. Makes no sense to me
I heard a rumor of Watson to DC, Tuo to Texas and a load of picks to Miami,
Close, but it’s Watson to Miami, Tua to DC and picks to Houston.