Watson: No hard feelings over snub
When Texans rookie Deshaun Watson got a text message from Browns coach Hue Jackson before the NFL draft, he didn’t take it as a guarantee that he would be picked by Cleveland.
Watson had communicated with Jackson throughout the draft process, building a friendship. NFL coaches regularly text prospects and tell them they might select them.
The Browns passed on Watson twice during the first round, selecting Texas A&M pass rusher Myles Garrett with the first overall pick and traded the 12th pick to the Texans, who moved up to get Watson.
“I didn’t know where I was going to go, but, at the end of the day, God put me here with Houston,” said Watson, who threw three touchdowns against the Browns on Sunday. “Hue texted me that morning and just said, ‘Be ready, anything can happen.’ They took the picks they wanted to take, and I belong in this situation and this organization. But the relationship and the friendship will always continue.”
Watson didn’t interpret the text message as making the Browns a lock to draft him and holds no hard feelings toward them.
“That was a possibility,” Watson said when asked if he thought he would become a Brown. “I know they had two first-round picks and that anything can happen. I just kept an open mind, didn’t want to get my hopes up too big.”
Jackson wasn’t in much of a mood to discuss the Watson text message and said he didn’t remember sending it.
“I did text Deshaun before. I was in conversation with him,” Jackson said. “I know I did not send that text on draft day. I knew who we were taking with the first pick. We took the guy we wanted.
“I don’t remember telling him to be ready for us to draft him or anything like that. I wouldn’t have done that.”