If there’s one situation that nearly everyone around the NFL is going to be watching this offseason, it’s the Texas-sized standoff going on in Houston between Deshaun Watson and the Texans. After spending the first four seasons of his career with the Texans, Watson has made it pretty clear that he doesn’t want to return to Houston for a fifth season. The Texans quarterback is so adamant about leaving that he’s already demanded a trade.
The one wrinkle in this situation is that no one seems to know for sure where he wants to go, which is actually a huge factor, because the quarterback has a no-trade clause, which means he can nix any deal if it involves a team that he doesn’t want to play for.
Although there was a report that Watson wants to play for either the Jets or Dolphins, that information didn’t come from Watson himself. As it turns out though, we might actually have just gotten our first bit of information about who Watson would be willing to play.
During an interview with TMZ this week, Broncos defensive back Kareem Jackson, who spent two seasons with Watson in Houston (2017-18), said he talked to the quarterback recently and that Watson sounded interested in playing for the Broncos.
“I had a couple of conversations with him,” Jackson said. “Just with him saying that Denver is a place that’s he’s interested in landing.”
That’s a very fascinating statement, if only because we really haven’t heard much from Watson about where he might want to land. Also, it seems to be a good thing for the Broncos that Jackson and Watson are friends because the defensive back has definitely been doing his best to recruit Watson to Denver.
The Broncos were reportedly one of the teams that was in the Matthew Stafford sweepstakes, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them try and land Watson and if that happens, Jackson thinks they would become an instant contender.
“I mean, if Deshaun Watson goes anywhere, they are automatically contenders,” Jackson said. “If he has pieces around him, he’s an automatic contender.”
The idea of Watson landing in Denver might not be that crazy. According to Mike Klis of 9News in Denver, who knows the team well, the Broncos are planning to make a play for Watson. Although Texans general manager Nick Caserio has insisted that his team won’t be trading Watson, the fact of the matter is that he might not have a choice and if the Broncos or any other team decides to make a huge offer, he’ll likely take it instead of holding on to a disgruntled Watson.
The Broncos currently have Drew Lock at quarterback, but it sounds like nearly everyone in Denver would be excited to be able to upgrade at the position and Watson would definitely be an upgrade.
If Watson doesn’t end up in Denver, he’s likely going to end up somewhere else that’s not Houston and if you want to check out a list of 13 possible landing spots for the Texans quarterback, be sure to click here.
