Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk caused a little bit of buzz on Thursday morning, reporting that NFL whispers were pointing to Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson potentially requesting a trade, despite having recently signed a new four-year, $156 million extension.
There's a growing buzz in league circles that Deshaun Watson could ask to be traded, and his new contract doesn't make that as difficult as you'd think https://t.co/wvY5BxQZRq
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) January 7, 2021
Florio argues that the haul of draft picks that would come from a trade of Watson would be worth the salary cap hit that the Texans would absorb from such a move. He even names the San Francisco 49ers as one of the obvious teams that might clamor to acquire the quarterback.
That, of course, created a buzz on social media among The Faithful. The 49ers did meet with and work out Watson leading to the 2017 NFL Draft.
Analyst Benjamin Allbright shot down the report (h/t to Patrick Tulini for the find). At least, he shot down the report from Houston's perspective. The Texans are not interested and have not discussed the possibility of trading their star quarterback. Allbright asked what kind of hypothetical offer it would take for the Texans to consider moving on from Watson.
RELATED Rapoport: Watson 'extremely unhappy' with Texans
The response was that three first-round picks and three second-round picks might start the conversation. Start the conversation. In other words, there is almost no chance the Texans would consider trading Watson as it is highly unlikely that any team, especially the 49ers, would be willing to surrender that much draft capital.
Of course, strange things happen in the NFL every year. Such a trade would send shockwaves throughout the league. And it's unknown to whom, specifically, Allbright directed his question. Although, the analyst sounds pretty confident in the response.
Texans aren't trading Watson, nor has that been discussed. I asked for a hypothetical offer that might move him last night.
"Three 1sts, three 2nds and a player might start the conversation"
— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) January 7, 2021
"As the Texans decide on their next coach ... keep an eye on the possibility that Watson will respond by making it known privately, and possibly publicly, that he's ready to move on and move out," wrote Florio.
The problem with trading what it would "hypothetically" take to get Deshaun Watson is that you create an "out of the frying pan, into the fire" scenario where you once again have him having to carry a team with a talent deficit, and with no draft picks to fix it.
— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) January 7, 2021