Everyone knows that a large barter offer will be needed to keep three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans.
If the 49ers are going to be the team that will get Watson, General Manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan are aware that they will have to give up a ton to close the deal.
The question is, how many assets can they tolerate giving up? Choosing a draft is one thing, but breaking up with a young star would be a hard pill to swallow.
NFL NBC Sports analyst Peter King has made offers that he believes every team that needs a quarterback should present to the Texans, and the package he sent the 49ers to Houston is a doozy.
Here’s what King wrote in his last Football Morning in America column:
“Seven for 1. [Jimmy] Garoppolo, linebacker Fred Warner (who really hurts), face Mike McGlinchey, first round choices in 2021 (12th overall) and 2022, plus a second round choice in 2021 and a third round choice in 2022 for Watson “, wrote King. “It is too much for the Niners to pay; of all the players in all the deals I’m proposing, Warner would be the most coveted in my book. But he is here because he is entering the last year of his newbie contract and would like a new one. (McGlinchey is also in exactly the same position.) Houston could see them as a foundation for reconstruction. “
WOW.
This is too much. Three players, all new to the current roster of the 49ers, plus four choices in the draft, including their first two choices in this year’s draft.
But it can make sense. If Lynch and Shanahan believe they won’t be able to re-sign Warner and / or McGlinchey at the free agency, then it would be wise to use them to get the quarterback they want.
Last week, King wrote that Texas owner Cal McNair and GM’s first year Nick Caserio shouldn’t switch Watson “until I had a really good to great quarterback plus three first-round choices or a Sam Darnold type plus four. in exchange.”
If the price of seven for one is too high for Lynch and Shanahan, King proposed an exchange of three teams involving 49ers, Texans and Minnesota Vikings. In this scenario, the 49ers would end up with Kirk Cousins, not Watson. All they would have to resign would be Garoppolo and the choice of this year’s first round.
“Vikings send quarterback Kirk Cousins to San Francisco,” wrote King. “The Niners sent Garoppolo to Houston, if, of course, he waived the ban on trading. The Texans sent Watson to Minnesota. In return: the Niners sent their choice of the first round in 2021 (12th overall) to Houston, and they (So San Francisco would trade Garoppolo and one for Houston and pick up Cousins with two years left on his contract.) The Vikings would send linebacker Anthony Barr and running back Alexander Mattison plus their choices in the first round in 2021 (14th in general) and 2023, and second round choices in 2022 and 2023 in exchange for Watson. Houston purchases: Garoppolo, two this year, one in 2023 and two choices in the second round. “
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The 49ers-Texans-Vikings proposal is more palatable in terms of assigned assets. But is Cousins an update big enough compared to Garoppolo to make a real difference in San Francisco? Most would say no, but that is debatable.
Watson is the prize and quarterback that 49ers need, not Cousins. The cost for Watson will be high. Again, everyone knows this. King’s proposal is gigantic. But that’s the price of doing business to acquire one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL.
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