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Houston is adamant they don’t want to get rid of quarterback Deshaun Watson, but the Texans’ star has made it clear that he wants out and several NFL fans are waiting around to see if he’ll end up on their team or not.
On Wednesday, NFL Media’s Mike Silver gave an update and thoroughly believes that a trade will go down.
“I’m still saying it: He’s getting traded,” Silver said on the NFL Network.
Silver threw out a list of potential trade destinations for Watson, including the Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers, and the New England Patriots. He also responded on Twitter that a trade to the San Francisco 49ers “could happen” and that he “should have mentioned them.”
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Former NFL GM Says Watson Wants Broncos or Niners
Silver isn’t alone when it comes to believing where Watson will end up. Former NFL GM and current NFL Insider with The Athletic, Michael Lombardi, says Watson wants to play for either the Denver Broncos or Niners.
“(Watson) controls where he wants to go,” Lombardi said on The Rich Eisen Show. “The rumor is he doesn’t want to play in New York, he doesn’t want to play in Miami. He wants to play in Denver and San Francisco.”
Watson signed a four-year deal worth $156 million for 2021. His cap hit is just a whopping $15.9 million for next season and then bumps to $40 million in 2022.
Lombardi also notes that if Watson’s choice comes down to just wanting to play for the Niners then they would hold the leverage.
“Say (Watson) says, ‘I only want to go to San Francisco,’” Lombardi says. ”Well now, San Francisco has all the leverage in the trade.”
The Niners currently hold the No. 12 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft and could make it a package deal by throwing Jimmy Garoppolo in the mix along with a few more draft picks.
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What Is Taking the Texans So Long?
Aside from the fact that the Texans are trying to get Watson to stay another reason could be that they are not making calls right now because they would take a cap hit of $21.6 million in dead money if they were to trade him now.
And keeping him would mean that they would be set to pay him $15.94 million next season. Therefore, it wouldn’t make any sense to trade him at the moment since it would actually cost them $6 million bucks more.
However, things change once June 1st rolls around.
Trading Watson after that date would cost the Texans just $5.4 million in dead cap space. That would save them $10 million right there. The downside or, maybe, the upside is that the NFL draft will be complete, so whichever team he would be traded to would have to reply on future picks or current star players. The Niners could work with that.
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