When the whole idea of Deshaun Watson’s sweepstakes started in early January, the start was modest.
In Watson’s seemingly unlikely case of forcing him out of Houston, the logic was dictated by which teams would have the right payload ammunition and pay cap space. The Miami Dolphins fit perfectly. The same happened with the New York Jets, who had lost their dream of landing on Trevor Lawrence. And if you were willing to get out of the box, you could imagine a team like the San Francisco 49ers, which seems determined to improve its quarterback position and can create a good cap surplus by unloading Jimmy Garoppolo. These were sensible destinations. Over the weeks, we started to float towards the fantasy trade island.
Now that January is coming to an end, we are officially stranded under a coconut tree – with half of the NFL being announced as a Hey maybe landing site. The formula has been simple: if there is slight discontent at the quarterback point, this franchise has now entered the qualifying race of Deshaun Watson. Hell, even the Arizona Cardinals (“Kyler Murray is from Texas!”) And Green Bay Packers (“Aaron Rodgers is not happy!”) Are entering the increasingly crowded field of Wild West speculation.
And why not? If you are an NFL team without a top 10 defender or a rising star, you should probably be interested in Watson. Whether you have the ability to make it happen is another story. The vast majority of speculated teams do not. And to emerge from the field of the dispossessed, you really need to explode an offer in the stratosphere.
There is a team in the crowd of highly unlikely competitors who should consider blasting the obvious destinations with an overwhelming offer. Regardless of whether the change is inadequate for this particular team or if it is more expensive than the head coach is usually comfortable, it is worth a franchise really moving forward and trying to take it all down.
The New England Patriots. It is a team that has much greater chances than Las Vegas would likely put in any pursuit of Watson.
It is not difficult to understand why this would never work. The team’s 15th overall choice in the 2021 draft is not even remotely close to what several other competitors can offer. And from the point of view of overcoming, the Patriots are the type of team that will probably always be selecting players in the bottom half of the calls, totally driven by the training and culture that Bill Belichick instilled. This does not bode well when a team is evaluating New England choices in an offer. And the compensation project also doesn’t take into account that Belichick may not love the idea of paying any quarterback a steep business – even Watson’s five-year post-trade average of $ 29.3 million a year, which is very economical for his considerable skills.
If it all ended there, the Patriots would already be in bad shape in Watson’s trade negotiations. But it doesn’t. There is a backstage feud between the Patriots’ property and the All-Pro NFL Svengali Jack Easterby, who has become an infamous Texan executive and seems to be lurking under the nails of just about everything team owner Cal McNair seeks. Even with former Patriots official Nick Caserio, potentially inclined to work on a deal with the Patriots, it is highly unlikely that Easterby would not work to eliminate the possibility. Nor can we ignore that Watson did not seem to enjoy his time under former coach Bill O’Brien, leaving the possibility that he would never play for O’Brien’s close friend Belichick, even though Belichick had immense respect for Watson’s talent.
Overall, this is not just a formidable bucket of cold water thrown in a Watson chase by the Patriots – it is a tsunami of icebergs taking the fantasy trade island away. This does not mean that Belichick should not make the call.
Trading with Garoppolo will undoubtedly be cheaper. Mac Jones’ draft will be less successful. And perhaps fishing for some other unforeseen option will produce a surprise. But Belichick turns 69 in April. The Nantucket complex and relaxing afternoons on your fishing boat cannot be limited to summer holidays forever. And if we don’t learn in 2020, we’ll never learn: you can’t compete or even rebuild with average defenders. Another hopeful veteran recovery is asking for another disappointment from Cam Newton, scored this season when the elite QBs dominated the conference title games.
And, lest we forget, Tom Brady’s week is coming. If there was ever a week to feel motivated to resolve the quarterback spot in New England, this is it. Oh, and probably next season too, as it looks like Brady and his new Tampa Bay Buccaneers family are committed to 2021 as well.
While it was not Belichick’s style to be led to make a personal movement based on Brady’s post-Patriots success, it would be absolutely his style to recognize Watson for what he is. And this is a kind of special that makes him one of the top five defenders. Belichick himself said this in the past, making comments similar to those that made him dear to Newton when Newton was at his best.
“Deshaun is a very talented player – certainly one of the best players in the league in the position we face,” said Belchick in a conference call with Houston before taking on Watson and the Texans in 2019. “[He] he does a great job with the deep ball, has very good touch and accuracy, is a good decision maker – obviously a very athletic boy who can do a lot. … He is an excellent passer. [He] you can extend your moves and bid out of pocket, bid in your pocket. And if he has to run the ball to convert a third down, he is certainly able to do that. “
Belichick’s praise for Watson does not mean everything, of course. He praises good players all the time, which he would never try to acquire in a frantic market. And Watson doesn’t fit the bargain that Belichick likes to make. But every now and then, if a player is special, Belichick leaves his usual structure and looks for a talent that makes a difference. He did it for Stephon Gilmore, when the price at the free agency was as high as possible. He did it for Antonio Brown, when chemical risk was at an all-time high. And he did it for Darrelle Revis when it was a rental situation that made sense inside the championship window. All of this shows that there are acquisitions for all seasons, even with those who tend to bet more on the vest than most.
The business history received from Belichick is that of producing quite good results for very reasonable draft compensation. Guys like Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Aqib Talib were basically bargains in terms of draft choices delivered. If anything, Belichick showed a much more significant propensity to send players away for good choices than to bring them in. But with someone like Watson on the board, that could be an exception.
It would be remiss to forget that the Patriots spent some serious draft choices on someone special. He just wasn’t a player. It was Belichick himself – for a choice stimulated by the league in the first, fourth and seventh round, which is probably one of the biggest deals in NFL history, not to mention the Patriots franchise. Twenty-one years later this month, there is an opportunity on the table to at least make the call to what would immediately qualify as the second largest deal in the history of the Patriots. Perhaps an explosive deal was needed, including a plethora of choices in the first round and perhaps some young players polling. Perhaps it would be necessary to call Watson himself, in the hope that he would waive the no-trade clause to play for another coach who has some O’Brien characteristics when it comes to making football more of a job than a fun career.
It may be a low percentage shot that requires more than New England is willing or able to surrender. But if 2020 taught the franchise anything, it is that the special only appears once in a long, long time as a defender. Letting go can be as expensive as watching it blossom in the Super Bowl just a year later. And there is no better way to respond to this new information than to take a photo that can define the future of the franchise long enough to move it beyond Tom Brady, rather than groping for years under the shadow that it will cast for years to come .
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Originally published