New Orleans Saints: Asking price for Deshaun Watson has “softened”
The New Orleans Saints have been grouped in with potential contenders to land Deshaun Watson in a trade and it appears the asking price to land the current Texans quarterback has “softened”, per Jay Glazer.
Watson was a phenomenal quarterback at Clemson and ended up going No. 12 overall to the Texans in the 2017 NFL Draft, 10 picks behind Mitchell Trubisky (now the backup quarterback in Buffalo) and two picks behind Patrick Mahomes (a Super Bowl champion with the Chiefs). Watson played well in Houston but after last season wrapped up, he made it clear he didn’t want to be a part of the Texans organization anymore.
Watson’s plans had a wrench thrown in them when he was accused by 22 different women of sexual assault.
The #Texans stance on the asking price for franchise QB Deshaun Watson has "soften" this week, according to @JayGlazer
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 26, 2021
The Texans were previously offered three 1st round picks and three 2nd round picks and they declined it.
As Dov Kleiman tweeted earlier in the week, the asking price for Watson used to be way more expensive and why wouldn’t it be? He led the league in passing yards last season and prior to the assault allegations, three first-round picks and three second-round picks didn’t seem like enough. Now, the Texans are probably kicking themselves for not taking that deal.
New Orleans Saints might be able to afford Deshaun Watson now
NOLA is going to find themselves in the same situation they were in earlier this year when it comes to the quarterback position. They re-signed Jameis Winston and we still don’t know enough about him to know if he’ll be the long-term answer in the Big Easy, plus he’s only signed to a one-year deal so it’d be just as easy for him to sign elsewhere if he finishes this year with impressive numbers.
Trading for Watson could be risky with his legal troubles but if he does manage to get cleared from them, he’ll play in the NFL again. He’d make the Saints a Super Bowl contender for the next decade but a lot of other teams will also be wanting to trade for him (most notably, the Dolphins) so he still won’t come cheap even if the Texans aren’t asking for as much now.
3 Saints Holding Back the Offense. dark. Next
We haven’t seen Watson play for the Texans this year due to his legal issues and not wanting to be a member of the team but this is definitely something that we’ll be hearing about throughout the season.