Whether or not this comes to fruition remains to be seen, but it sure seems like Deshaun Watson’s time as a member of the Houston Texans could come to an end sometime soon. Watson’s reported displeasure with the franchise for a number of reasons has led to plenty of speculation about a potential breakup, with one report indicating that teammates would support him no matter what his next move ends up being.
There might be four or five teams in the league that would not benefit from acquiring Watson, so should he become available, it’s hard to imagine that there wouldn’t be a gigantic market for his services. As for where he would go, a report by Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald indicates that his eyes are on the AFC East, with the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins being his preferred landing spots.
Watson this week told people the Jets are his top preference among the teams he’d like to be traded to because they hired Robert Saleh to be their coach and Watson values Saleh so much he wanted the Texans to interview him for their vacant head coach job.
Watson confirmed reports, circulated for several weeks in national media, he’d also welcome playing for the Dolphins but said that is his second choice at this time.
Both of these franchises have been mentioned pretty frequently whenever Watson’s potential availability has come up — the Jets could use a quarterback if they decide that Sam Darnold is not the future, and they could theoretically put together a number of picks to bring Watson to New York while keeping their copious amounts of cap space free to add talent around him. The Dolphins, meanwhile, were nearly a playoff team in 2020 and can offer up a package that revolves around last year’s first round pick Tua Tagovailoa and the No. 3 pick in this year’s Draft, which originally belonged to the Texans.
It’s important to mention that there’s no guarantee that Watson would head to either of these places, just like there’s no guarantee that the Texans opt to move on from him. If he they do, though, and Watson has his way, the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, and one of the Dolphins or Jets might end up having one heck of a problem on their hands twice a year.