Watson fuming after being left out of Gm decision
HOUSTON — Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson is upset with the organization because he wanted to have a voice in the team’s hiring process.
Watson met late in the season with chairman and chief operating officer Cal Mcnair and expressed his wishes to be involved, according to multiple league sources not authorized to speak publicly. The conversations led Watson to believe that he would have input, only to be left out in the decision to hire Nick Caserio as GM.
Watson isn’t upset with the choice of Caserio, but sources emphasized that Watson simply wanted to give his opinion on job candidates and wasn’t told the team was hiring Caserio before an agreement in principle was reached Tuesday night.
Caserio has signed a six-year contract worth $6 million annually that includes annual $1 million bonuses and options for a seventh and eighth year, according to sources.
Watson tweeted, “Some things never change” before deleting the post. But he hasn’t requested a trade and the team reportedly doesn’t intend to deal him.
In other Texans news, the released center-guard Greg Mancz from the practice squad, according to a league source. Mancz played in four games this season, seeing all of his action on special teams.
Pioneering coach leaving the 49ers
Offensive assistant Katie Sowers, the first female coach to reach the Super Bowl, is leaving the San Francisco 49ers, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday.
The Bay Area News Group first reported the departure of Sowers, who worked closely with 49ers receivers coach Wes Welker, and said she’s looking for an expanded role on another team.
Sowers posted a message on Instagram on Thursday, writing: “I think it’s important to understand that the path you were meant to take is more often than not … the path that was least expected … but that is the beauty in your story and YOU will always control the narrative.”
Sowers generated a big following after becoming the NFL’S second full-time female assistant coach. She was also the first openly gay coach in the NFL.
She was part of San Francisco’s staff that went to the Super Bowl last season and was featured in a Microsoft ad thanking her for knocking down doors for other women.
Browns’ facility remains closed
For the second straight day, the Cleveland headquarters and training facility stayed closed because of a COVID-19 flare-up that has knocked coach Kevin Stefanski out of Sunday night’s game in Pittsburgh and wreaked havoc on the Browns’ preparations.
There seemed to be a possibility the wild-card game could be moved back after Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s chief medical officer, told NFL Network “there was some spread from one individual to another” among the Browns. But a league spokesman said Thursday there “is no change to the status of the game.”
Odds and ends
The Bills’ two top receivers, Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley, were listed as questionable for Buffalo’s wild-card playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday after practicing on a limited basis Thursday, Diggs with an oblique injury and Beasley with a sore knee. ...
The New York Jets interviewed former Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis about their head coaching vacancy. He’s on former Jets coach Herman Edwards’ staff at Arizona State as the Sun Devils’ co-defensive coordinator. Lewis also has interviewed with the Texans. ...
Regular-season ratings for NFL games declined 7 percent this season after two straight years of increases, but the decrease was less than expected amid the pandemic.