Pros and cons from Deshaun Watson not choosing NOLA Saints

The Deshaun Watson rumors are over. He didn’t pick the NOLA Saints or the Atlanta Falcons, instead deciding to follow the money to Cleveland where the Browns decided to give him $230 million guaranteed. If that’s what it was going to take to get him, the Browns can have Watson.

New Orleans appeared to be beaten out by Atlanta down the stretch but when push came to shove, Watson went for the absurd $230 million in guarantees. The Saints dodged a major bullet.

With this story behind us, let’s take a look at some pros and cons from the Saints not getting Watson in a trade.

Pros from NOLA Saints not trading for Deshaun Watson

There are more pros than cons here when it comes to “missing out” on Watson. The biggest is that the organization doesn’t have to deal with the PR nightmare that is Watson. The fanbase, especially the female fanbase, also won’t have to feel betrayed by the Saints organization for trading the farm for a guy with 22 sexual assault cases attached to his name.

Another pro is that the Saints save whatever draft capital and players they’d have to ship over to Houston to get the former first-round pick. C.J. Gardner-Johnson won’t be going to Houston nor will Marcus Davenport, Ryan Ramczyk, or whoever else was up for debate. They’re all staying in the Big Easy for at least one more year.

If the Saints had traded for Watson, they wouldn’t have had a first-round pick for the next three years and likely would have had to part ways with several other picks as well. That’d have made it hard to find more receivers for this team but now they can use their first-round pick on one if that’s the route they choose to take.

Cons from NOLA Saints not trading for Deshaun Watson

The only one I can really think of is that the Saints are right back where they were before this situation started, which is that they still desperately need a quarterback. Watson could have given them a potential franchise quarterback for the next decade but there’s a good chance he would have been suspended in 2022 anyway.

With Watson not coming to New Orleans, the Saints are expected to turn their attention to Jameis Winston, who felt like the original Plan A but then became Plan B once Watson strongly considered joining the black and gold.

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At the end of the day, Watson followed the money and it feels like the New Orleans Saints might have dodged a major bullet.