A Sad Truth About Deshaun Watson to the Bears
Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson never looked so right for the Bears until now.
At least he never looked so right since draft day of 2017. Of course, then they could have had him simply by announcing his name at the podium.
Watson looks correct now because he's made noise about wanting a trade, and according the Adam Schefter of ESPN the Texans have had internal discussion about what course of action could be necessary.
Watson's disgust with the team revolves around several things, but probably began in earnest when former coach and GM Bill O'Brien dealt DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals. No one in Houston was happy with this.
However, the recent fracture is the result of what Chris Mortensen said was insensitivity to social justice in hiring practices, starting with not giving a head coaching interview to Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy.
Other say he was unhappy with the approach to hiring former Patriots executive Nick Caserio as the new GM.
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle has covered the NFL for 45 years and knows ownership better than some people in ownership. His conclusion was the Texans would never trade Watson, who has a new contract running through 2025.
The Bears look like an obvious location for Watson in a trade because they're in the NFC and Houston wouldn't be reminded of Watson or face him in the playoffs unless they were in the Super Bowl. They wouldn't be strengthening direct competition.
On the other hand, there are far too many factors weighing against the Bears in this entire scenario to expect they' ll even be seriously considered for a deal.
1. Lack of real compensation
The Bears have the 20th pick in the draft this year. What is Houston going to do with the 20th pick this year? The Texans won't be getting a replacement for Watson, that's for sure. The Bears will have trouble finding a quarterback that late in Round 1, according to many mock drafts. It's often suggested the Bears could throw in their most valuable asset, Khalil Mack. What will the Houston Texans do with another 30-something pass rusher? They already have 31-year-old J.J. Watt. Mack turns 30 next month, has fought through a shoulder injury and in 2019 had some other issue the Bears have avoided talking about. He's had only 17 1/2 sacks the last two seasons. Mack's value is way down. Maybe they could throw in Anthony Miller? It's hard to find a second-round draft pick whose catch total dropped while he also did something totally stupid and helped cost your team a chance in the playoffs. Barring first-round picks in future years -- and no one can even be certain what those would be -- there is nothing the Bears have to offer the Texans aside from the face-saving security of dealing him to another conference. They could get the same thing by simply trading him to the Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers or even Jerry Jones and Dallas Cowboys -- all the while getting better draft picks than the Bears can offer.
2. The competition
Even though the Miami Dolphins are in the AFC, at least in these reports they appear to be one of the teams Watson would favor for a trade. Mortenson said "informed speculation" from a source said Watson would favor waiving his no-trade clause to go to the Miami Dolphins, who could trade Tua Tagovailoa in addition to draft picks.
How exactly are the Bears supposed to compete with that? The Texans would be getting the fifth pick in the 2020 draft and more draft picks for Watson. Admittedly, Tagovailoa looked more like Trubisky in his first season than he did like Watson, but he didn't even play a full season and there's so much ahead of him. So it would be at least viable compensation.
The Bears can't compete in terms of potential draft pick compensation unless they wanted to trade away three first-round picks through 2023.
The Dolphins have two first-round picks this year. The New York Jets do, as well. So they'd have to be considered more likely landing places than the Bears.
3. The money
As it stands this year, the Bears are going to be restructuring deals and cutting people in order to pay their own draft picks for 2021 and sign necessary free agents.
And then they're going to take on a $156 million contract?
It's not quite as hopeless as it sounds because so much of the deal was base or guaranteed salary and not bonus. Watson's cap figure for 2021 is only $15.94 million, according to Overthecap.com. It's going to grow greatly after this coming season and the figure would be the third-highest on the Bears for 2021. Kyle Fuller and Mack are the only higher ones.
The reduced overall salary cap in the NFL due to COVID-19's effect on gate receipts from the 2020 season also contributes to making the Bears and Watson an unlikely marriage.
4. The complaining
If this entire ruckus happened because of a quarterback's disgust over a particular coaching candidate or GM candidate, the last thing the Bears or any other NFL team should want is to bring that quarterback to their team. There's no such thing as a quarterback/GM/coaching position. It's his job to play the game not run the front office or coaching staff. Disgust over trading away one of the best wide receivers in the game is one thing. That's a teammate and a person who is targeted on your passes. Being angry because you weren't consulted about bringing in people who rank higher in the organization than you do is quite another. This isn't the NBA, where chaos reigns and the product is immensely inferior to what it was two decades earlier.
Conclusion
While this sounds like a great way for GM Ryan Pace to save face after making the wrong decision on Watson in the 2017 draft, too many factors weigh against it ever happening.
The words of McClain seem to make much more sense. Watson will go nowhere.
After all the uproar dies down and the Texans have their new coach in place under Caserio, it makes little sense for Houston to trade its quarterback. A quarterback isn't a GM or a head coach. He's there to play, and he signed a long-term contract to do it.
He'll need to go about doing it next year for the Texans and the Bears need to find their own way out of this quarterback mess.
If they're up for trading away first-round draft picks for quarterbacks, there are always plenty of other people willing to listen and make you look stupid for dealing away your future.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
