Unless you’ve lived under a rock the past month, you have seen the drama between the Houston Texans and Deshaun Watson. It all started when the Texans publicly stated they would include Watson on their next GM hire, but then did just the opposite hiring Nick Caserio. Things have spiraled down very fast, and it now seems to be very obvious he wants out. While I personally do not believe he will end up on another team, we like to have fun here.
Pretty much 75% of NFL franchises would be interested in acquiring his talents but only a few could actually pull it off. Watson also has a no-trade clause in his contract so he can control where he goes. I have a few teams I would love to see Watson go to, and lay out each of those scenerios below.
San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco has to be my favorite landing spot for Deshaun Watson. Pairing him up with Kyle Shanahan is enough for the 49ers to be an offensive dynamo. Assuming they can keep that elite defense together and either Deebo Samuel or Brandon Aiyuk, this offense will be ready to shred.
San Francisco would be giving up a lot of their future draft picks to get this done. If they could at least get a 3rd rounder back for Jimmy G to a team like the Bears or Colts that would ease the process. Maybe Houston would take him as part of the trade in general, who knows. I do know this would be a trade that could make or break the 49ers for years to come though.
New York Jets
New York probably will be able to give the Texans the best offer in terms of draft capital. They have four first round picks in 2021 and 2022, as well as three 3rds and four 5ths. That is without trading Sam Darnold yet either.
They would have to find him weapons immediately but Denzel Mims is a good start. A shrinking cap situation is also going to leave a rather full list of free agents on the board. With Watson and a new head coach, the Jets suddenly become a lot more attractive in free agency. I never thought I would say this but the New York Jets could actually be very good in a few seasons.
Carolina Panthers
It looks like Joe Brady will be remaining the offensive coordinator for Carolina for at least one more season. If they could bring in Deshaun Watson, they could probably convince him to stay longer than that. The idea of combining Watson’s talent and Brady’s brain is extremely intriguing. Houston would be sending him across divisions too.
Christian McCaffrey, D.J. Moore, and Robby Anderson are more than enough talent to surround Watson with. The defense would need some work, but has promising pieces as well. Brees and Brady will be leaving the NFC East wide open, and this trade would allow the Panthers to really push themselves ahead of everyone else there.
Indianapolis Colts
This one is an obvious long shot. Even if they weren’t division rivals, the Colts would have to move major pieces in order to grab Watson. They do have an elite defense that they could possibly sacrifice, plus draft capital.
With that being said though Indianapolis has the cap space to hold his contract. They also have a great offensive line led by Quenton Nelson. Deshaun Watson was able to lead the NFL in passing yards while running for his life with an extremely inconsistent line up. Even if the Colts have to give up some offensive pieces, the situation will still mostly likely be more stable than Houston.
