Deshaun Watson of the Houston Texans
It seems as though Twitter has been engaging in some revisionist history, and Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson is having none of it. When Fox Sports’ Doug Gottlieb suggested the Chicago Bears had evaluated all the available quarterbacks in the 2017 NFL Draft before selecting Mitch Trubisky, one of the most accomplished members of that particular draft class took umbrage with that statement.
Former Clemson standout and Heisman Trophy candidate Watson, who was drafted 12th overall by the Texans that year, jumped in and let Gottlieb know that Chicago had zero interest in him at that time. Is that an exaggeration? Not according to Watson, who retweeted Gottlieb, saying only: “The bears NEVER ONCE talked to me..”
Watson had never commented publicly about the Bears’ — or any other team’s — decision to pass him up until now, but there has been reports Bears GM Ryan Pace was extremely negligent when he was searching for a franchise quarterback that year, and Watson’s all caps assertion seems to back that up.
Bears GM Ryan Pace Never Looked Watson’s Way … But Why?
GettyChicago Bears general manager Ryan Pace did not speak to one of the nation’s top quarterbacks once in his search for a franchise QN in 2017. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
In a piece by Dan Wiederer and Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune that was written last November, Pace’s negligence when searching for the most important position in sports that year was highlighted multiple times. Wiederer and Campbell noted then that Pace did not have a sit down dinner with Watson the way he did with Trubisky and Patrick Mahomes. Pace seemed laser-focused on Trubisky almost to a fault, ignoring other far more accomplished quarterbacks, they wrote. Watson just essentially confirmed that via Twitter.
“When you have an opportunity to get a quarterback of this caliber, you can’t pass on it,” Pace said about Mitchell Trubisky after moving up to select him second overall in 2017. Watson won a national championship that year, beating Nick Saban and the ultra-formidable Alabama Crimson Tide. Why wouldn’t Pace want to pick his football brain at the very least? Why in the world would someone who was searching for the best candidate for the quarterback position not interview EVERY possible fit, particularly the Heisman candidate who just won the National Championship?
It may be the one thing that follows Ryan Pace around the rest of his career, and quite frankly, it should, Watson didn’t have to correct Gottlieb, who originally asserted Pace had evaluated “all” the quarterbacks available in 2017 and simply made a bad call by selecting Trubisky. This was more than a bad call. This was a potentially franchise-crippling dereliction of duty by a general manager with little experience who then selected the quarterback with little experience over two play-makers who did nothing but win.
Just last December, Bears fans had to watch Patrick Mahomes, who Pace also infamously passed up, decimate their team. They watched as Mahomes counted to 10 on his fingers after scoring against their formidable defense, a reference to where he was taken in the draft. The Chiefs snagged him 10th overall, and the Texans moved up from 25 to 12 to snag Watson. Now both Kansas City and Houston have franchise quarterbacks, and the Bears just declined Mitch Trubisky’s fifth-year option.
The Texans play the Bears Week 14 of this upcoming season, and Watson will have his first-ever opportunity to show them what they missed out on.
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