Getty Images
As quarterback Deshaun Watson continues to want an exchange and Texans continue to pretend not to, an important question remains.
How did you get to this point?
A new article on TheAthletic.com takes a closer look at how Watson lost faith in the team. The story points to a handful of incidents that caused Watson to lose confidence in the team, arousing his desire to leave.
First, Watson heard about DeAndre Hopkins’ trade on social media. This became the “first big crack” in the relationship.
This did not prevent Watson from signing an extension to a long-term contract with the team. According to the report, these negotiations included O’Brien telling Watson’s representatives “that the defender would be more involved in the team building process going forward”.
It quickly became obvious, however, that the off-season efforts to improve the team resulted in a greater, not less, gap between the Texans and the bosses. Then came three more defeats and the abrupt dismissal of coach / GM Bill O’Brien. As a result of the decision to get rid of O’Brien, “Watson questioned the Texans’ plan – if they had any.”
The plan, it seems, appears to involve executive vice president of football operations Jack Easterby, maintaining and expanding his power and influence. In that case, that plan was extremely successful. The team, however, was not.
Apparently, Watson doesn’t like Easterby’s approach. According to the report, Watson’s public plea for “a complete cultural change” was a “direct message to Cal McNair” that the team should get rid of Easterby. McNair, obviously, does not – and will not – drop Easterby.
The situation got worse after the season, when the Texans created the impression that Watson would have participated in the big signings, but he didn’t. The external decision to make Nick Caserio the new GM (TheAthletic.com report echoes our previous report that McNair was led to believe that Caserio was proposed to join the Panthers, even if he was not) became the most recent development that Watson learned through social media. So his recommendation that the team interview Eric Bieniemy and Robert Saleh for the position of chief coach was ignored.
Given the recent obsession with “culture” in Houston, the team’s resistance to changing a player who doesn’t want to be part of that culture becomes even more confusing. Watson wants Easterby to leave; why would Easterby want to keep Watson around?
Perhaps they hope that he will finally go back. Or maybe they just don’t want to let you do what you want. After all, this is the franchise that gave the world that follows football a phrase of regrettable effect: “We cannot allow prisoners to run the prison”.
If the son of the man who spoke those words in 2017 believes them to be true, this tug of war with Watson may, in essence, be an effort not to let Watson show that he can get what he wants. If so, it would represent a gross failure by Texans to make decisions in the team’s true and real best interest.