Not elementary, my dear Watson: Scorched earth is complicated
Updated Friday, March 5, 2021
Russell Wilson is weary of being mauled behind a forever patchworked O-line. And he’s rebelling against a coach, Pete Carroll, who’s intent on reducing his role in a ground-hugging, low-tech offense. Wilson says he doesn’t want to be traded and then lists teams he’d like to play for: Dallas, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Chicago.
Chicago? The O-line has even more holes than Seattle’s, but Wilson believes the coach, Matt Nagy, protégé of Andy Reid, might let him be Patrick Mahomes.
Meanwhile in Houston, Deshaun Watson zooms with his new coach, David Culley, and reaffirms his wanderlust. Then comes the not so cryptic tweet: “Loyalty is everything. Don’t you EVER forget it.”
Another franchise quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, echoes that sentiment. Green Bay drafted his eventual replacement instead of a receiver who could help him win a second Super Bowl. This offseason began with the reigning MVP saying his future is “a wonderful mystery.” Not so wonderful to the Cheeseheads.
There’s even less stability in Dallas, where Dak Prescott won’t commit to four more years of working for meddlesome Jerry Jones.
Meanwhile, future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger takes a $5 million pay cut to stay employed in Pittsburgh.
In this Covid-struck time of devalued quarterbacks and everything else, Matt Ryan, Kirk Cousins and Jimmy Garoppolo are told they’re not worth their cap hits. It’s worse for Cam Newton, 31-year-old former MVP, who’s homeless.
Most of the NFL coaches have unwanted quarterbacks. Few people in Las Vegas will bet the over on Derek Carr and Jon Gruden staying together. In the ever-shifting eyes of Gruden, Carr too often comes up lemons.
Carolina has Teddy Bridge-Over-Troubled Water, excuse me, Chris Berman. Alex Smith says he’s unwanted in Washington, is proved correct when the team releases him a few days later.
Carson Wentz looks to Frank Reich as a life raft in Indianapolis, just like Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski was in Cleveland, where an often unfocused Baker Mayfield made Odell Beckham irrelevant. I see the Reich-Wentz remarriage working better than the union of a 2016 Wentz classmate, surfin’ Jared Goff, with kneecappin’ Dan Campbell in Detroit.
Meanwhile, Wentz’s replacement in the City of Brotherly Booing, Jalen Hurts, probably wonders, along with the rest of us, who Nick Sirianni is.
In Arizona, whirling talent Kyler Murray gets coached down by Cliff Kingsbury, who’s 41 and in over his well-coiffed head.
While Vic Fangio in Denver is Locked in, so to speak, to a First-Round Draft Bust. As Tua Tagovailoa in Miami is feared to be.
Speaking of draft busts, Nagy can’t get away from Mitch Trubisky. Nagy’s boss, Ryan Pace, climbed draft rungs to acquire an overall No. 2 who’s become the ultimate albatross.
So, you ask, are there any happy quarterbacks in the National Football League?
Just a few: Mahomes, Tom Brady, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Ryan Tannehill. And Matthew Stafford, now that he’s relocated from Detroit to a team that’s in the playoffs more than 15% of the time. Everywhere else there’s turmoil in the quarterback room.
With Stafford on a good team at last, the most troubling situation is anything but elementary: Watson’s in Houston.
Watson led the NFL with 4,823 passing yards last season and has better aim, short and long, than Mahomes, if not as quick a trigger. The number-crunchers calculate that Watson will lose $20 million this year if he refuses to play for the Texans and they refuse to trade him. Everyone says the team has all the leverage, but if they can’t make peace, Cal McNair will lose many more millions than Watson loses.
As one of Watson’s childhood friends pointed out, he grew up in the poverty of Gainesville, Ga., and he has more money now, at 25, than he ever dreamed he could have. He can afford to act on principle.
His model could be Carson Palmer sitting out a year in Cincinnati — another bastion of dysfunction — and then being traded to the Oakland Raiders. Closer to home: James Harden, late to Rocket camp and fatter than anyone has ever seen him, then insulting teammates and blowing up chemistry.
Scorched earth got Harden out of town, but with lots of love lost. Would Watson go that route?
This is a rare time when it’s really not about the money. It’s about, as Watson tweeted, loyalty. Living up to your word. McNair assured Watson he would seek his input before hiring a coach or general manager. So Watson recommended Eric Bieniemy for coach, and McNair was not one of the five NFL owners to interview Andy Reid’s trusted sidekick. Then, McNair failed to consult Watson before hiring Nick Caserio as general manager.
There’s bad blood here. Two generations of it. This Houston problem began when McNair’s late father, Bob, infamously said in an owners meeting, “We can’t let the inmates run the prison.”
No matter how the Texans’ founder tried to recast it, his players – at least the Black ones — felt their views were not welcome. So in October, 2017, Watson’s rookie season, Pro Bowl tackle Duane Brown demanded freedom from the Texans. Thus the exodus of talent began with Watson’s bodyguard. Black players grumbled about systemic racism, but J.J. Watt also wanted out and signed with Arizona for two years, $31 million – close to what he’d have earned in Houston. Which points to yet another Texans screwup: they could have gotten something for the 3-time Defender of the Year.
The Texans are dumber than I thought they could be. I covered their forerunners, the Houston Oilers, who in 3½ decades of Bud Adams’ bumbling ownership never played in a Super Bowl. When Adams pushed the city for a retractable-roofed football-only arena – in retrospect, not an unreasonable ask – I advocated for Adams moving the team. A city with as many football fans as Houston would not have to wait long for a second chance at an NFL franchise. “Don’t worry,” I said, “the next owner can’t be worse than Bud Adams.”
Oops, I was wrong. Anyone with any sense would take the Adams family over the McNairs. As a Texans fan I’m not mollified by so many other teams not getting right on quarterbacking. It’s painful to see Texans’ ownership squander this singular opportunity. Sad to say, there won’t be another Deshaun Watson.
