CLEVELAND, Ohio – Faced with a second chance to acquire Deshaun Watson this off-season, now that he wants the Texans to trade him, the Browns are likely to leave Michael Jordan again.
Of course, the first time they overtook him was in the 2017 draft, when they were on the timer in 12th place and were traded for 25th place with the Texans, winning a first round of 2018 in the process.
That was just a few months after cleveland.com asked Clemson coach Dabo Swinney about the possibility of the Browns moving to Watson first overall, and he said it would be like moving Michael Jordan.
The Texans, of course, took the chance to call him 12th and immediately began to reap the benefits. The Browns summoned safety Jabrill Peppers in 25th place and then cornerback Denzel Ward with overall choice # 4 in 2018, a selection that became much more valuable when Watson suffered an ACL break in his sixth start of the season. 2017 after a 3 -3 points and missed out on the final nine games.
The Browns obviously didn’t have Watson highly rated on their recruiting board, but that was when the Browns’ chief of football operations, Sashi Brown, and coach Hue Jackson were at odds over everything, and reaching consensus on a quarterback was impossible.
Watson, 25, still hasn’t quite reached Michael Jordan’s level, but he has been amazing in his first four seasons, reaching the Pro Bowl three times and leading his team into the playoffs twice, including the divisional round last year, where they lost to the Chiefs.
This season, despite the Texans swapping their No. 1 receiver at DeAndre Hopkins, Watson led the NFL with 4,823 passing yards and finished second in the league with a 112.4 rating. He played 33 touchdowns against just seven interceptions and finished third in the league with a completion percentage of 70.2.
The Browns had a big chance against Watson in Week 10 at FirstEnergy Stadium, when Mother Nature contributed ferocious victories to help the Browns defeat him 10-7. Watson was limited to 163 passing yards – his smallest production of the season and only one in the 100s – and a TD. He also scored one of four times this season that he scored less than 100.
In addition, he became the first defender to lead the NFL, with at least 12 defeats since Jeff George did this to the Raiders in 1997. The Texans, who fired coach / GM Bill O’Brien on October 5, won this season, Watson would have been a legitimate MVP candidate and probably an All-Pro. If they hadn’t switched Hopkins, they could have been in the playoffs for the third straight season.
Instead, they hired former Patriots executive Nick Caserio as their new GM, and Watson reportedly asked to be traded. In fact, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported on Sunday that Watson wants to leave, regardless of who the new coach is. The Texans requested an interview with Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy, and a second scheduled appointment with Bills’ defensive coordinator, Leslie Frazier, and Ravens’ assistant coach / receiver coach, David Culley. The Texans also interviewed Jim Caldwell and former Browns quarterback Josh McCown.
Watson would have been furious that the Texans did not immediately request an interview with Bieniemy, who continues to be passed over despite his excellent credentials. If they hire you, they may be able to rescue your relationship with Watson.
Some in the NFL believe that Caserio will do whatever it takes to keep Watson, and that the entire conversation about trade will be debatable.
As far as the Browns are concerned, Browns GM, Andrew Berry, praised Baker Mayfield at his season-ending press conference and indicated that he is the QB of the Browns’ future.
“He did an excellent job this year, ” Berry said on Wednesday. “He took us to the first playoff appearance in ages. We won 12 victories, played winning football all year and developed a very strong relationship with Kevin [Stefanski] and the offensive team and really, as I mentioned last week, it really thrives weekly both on and off the field. We are very, very satisfied with it. We wouldn’t be where we were at the end of the season without your performance. He had a really incredible season. “
Berry declined to reveal his plans for Mayfield’s fifth-year option, which must be exercised until May 3, or his contract extensions, which can be made out of season, but he is not to play publicly. It is the opposite of the Ravens, whose GM Eric DeCosta said on Monday that he will speak with Lamar Jackson, the current NFL MVP and a 2019 All-Pro, for the next 10 days or more, and that an extension is possible in this off-season.
“… He certainly deserves a contract,” ‘DeCosta said through the team’s website. “He has played phenomenal football for the past two years. Our intention, and my intention, is to keep you in Baltimore for many, many more years. ”
Mayfield, who finished 15th in the NFL with a 95.9 rating, doesn’t have Jackson’s credentials yet, and the Browns may decide to postpone his extension this summer and see if he makes another big leap in the second year of Kevin’s scheme Stefanski. But they are speaking as a team that is committed to him, and not as a team that wants to improve this offseason.
In addition, an NFL staff executive told cleveland.com that it could take the equivalent of four or five choices from the first round to get Watson, which could mean something like at least two real choices from the first round, a premier player and a combination of other picks picks.
Another staff executive said the asking price should be out of the ordinary because Watson is 25 years old, is an All-Pro caliber QB and has a reasonable contract, averaging $ 39 million a year.
In the last off-season, he signed a $ 156 million four-year extension to 2025, including a $ 27 million and $ 110.7 million signing bonus guaranteed by the NFL. He has reached a limit of just $ 15.94 million in 2021 and $ 40.4 million and $ 42.4 million in 2022 and 2023.
His average of $ 39 million a year is the second in the NFL just for Patrick Mahomes’ $ 45 million, but it will look even more reasonable when the next wave of QBs sign their extensions. Dak Prescott of Dallas, Josh Allen and Jackson of Buffalo could all receive about $ 40 million a year as of this season, and Mayfield’s market value is currently around $ 35 million a year, according to spotrac .with.
Watson is also a bargain for a new team because the Texans have already kicked him out of the lot with the $ 27 million signing bonus, a large part of the guaranteed $ 110.7 million.
According to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald, Watson has Jets # 1 on his new team wish list because of new coach Robert Saleh, whom he wanted the Texans to interview, and Dolphins # 2. If he ends up with any of these teams, he will remain on the long list of incredible young AFC defenders that the Browns will have to contend with in the next decade as they try to reach the Super Bowl and win a few.
But an NFL decision maker said Caserio would be crazy to switch Watson because QBs of his caliber at their peak are very difficult to find and he would be starting from scratch. With Watson, he said, Texans would have a chance to defeat the Chiefs in the playoffs. Instead, he believes the new GM will hire a coach that Watson will be happy with, and then surround him with talent to put them back in the immediate fray.
Meanwhile, the Browns are excited about Mayfield, who reached 12-5 this year and led the Browns to the AFC divisional round, reaching yet another step in their second year in Stefanski’s scheme.
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