Getting nothing for Watt joins list of blunders
The Texans released J.J. Watt on Friday, allowing the most popular player in franchise history to simply walk away for free with a full season remaining on his professional contract. Houston froze Monday.
Ice and snow — yes: real, actual, soft, white and fluffy snow — covered the city’s streets, shutting down businesses everywhere. The temperature sank to 16 degrees. The wind chill flirted with a freezing and numbing zero. And if you spent the first day of a new work week with semi-consistent electrical power and warm heat, you were among the lucky ones.
Coincidence?
I think not.
You see, Texans?! This is what happens when you release Watt. And receive nothing in return.
Overall, Friday’s stunner was devoted to honoring the local legacy of super-famous No. 99.
Watt rivals Andre Johnson as the greatest Texan and when the three-time Defensive Player of the Year enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame, every current indication is that The Kid From Pewaukee will proudly represent Houston’s NFL team inside the hallowed walls in Canton, Ohio.
But Friday also was devoted to another day filled with local fans and national critics ripping the ridiculously in-flux Texans. Three days later, the stinging frustration had not subsided.
Two recurring themes connected Friday’s anger with Monday’s fury.
1.) Watt telling the Texans that he didn’t want to play for them anymore was the latest gut punch to a fan base that just suffered through an absurd 4-12 season and has little to no faith that things will significantly improve on Kirby Drive until, at least, 2023.
Watt wanted to play for a real contender. Not the Texans. Ouch.
2.) Shouldn’t the Texans have gotten something — anything — back for losing Watt?
The Texans tried to sell Watt’s sudden departure as a refreshing positive. But the seriously misguided attempt at a little oldfashioned positive PR immediately backfired.
About half of the league reportedly now wants to sign Watt with free agency still a month away.
Which means that if the services of No. 99 are still that valuable in the what-have-you-donefor-me-lately NFL, a well-run organization should have at least netted a third-round pick for a defensive end who totaled 52 combined tackles, five sacks, 14 tackles for loss, seven passes defensed, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and a pick-six interception during his 10th pro season.
But don’t just take my word for it.
Listen to this intelligent reader describe the obvious opportunity that the Cal McNair-Jack Easterby Texans willingly gave away.
“I don't understand why (the) Texans did not try to trade Watt & try to get at least a third round pick,” a regular reader emailed Monday. “Should have tried to trade him before the deadline last year.”
Bingo.
Exactly.
The Texans bragged before the 2020 trade deadline about how much they loved everyone on their roster. They lost their last five games, gradually turned off franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson and still don’t have a first- or second-round pick in the upcoming 2021 draft.
The empty chest puffing now reeks of roster mismanagement.
I wrote before that deadline that the Texans should have had Watt on the trade block.
Less than four months later, the Texans are flailing in their desperate attempt to try and convince Watson to remain in Houston.
How does freely giving away the team’s best defender — and the most-respected veteran leader in the locker room — do anything to change Watson’s mind or reassure him that there’s a clear path forward to a bright, warm future inside NRG Stadium?
If you know anything about the NFL, you already know that allowing Watt to walk with a year left on his deal and not receiving a single draft pick in return screams the exact opposite.
Were the Texans going to pay Watt $17.5 million next season? Nope.
But the general consensus is that the 31-year-old defender still wants to play two to three more years before becoming the mayor of Houston. Even with a hard salary cap, it’s easy to move money around in the modern NFL and restructure a contract so the average annual value makes more financial sense for both sides.
The painful kicker is that the Texans’ big selling point in cutting Watt was doing him right.
“It was … best for him and best for the Texans,” McNair said Friday.
Best for the Texans?
I guess that is the misinformation that McNair recently referred to.
It’s not like Watt had been inspired by Watson and was publicly at war with the Texans. If Watt had demanded a trade? Then the Texans actually could have received legitimate NFL value back in return and he still could have picked his next destination.
It will be fascinating to see where No. 99 goes from here. Pittsburgh? Green Bay? Tennessee? Dallas??!
The Texans freely gave away their best defender and most respected public voice, allowing Watt to hit the open market with no guarantee that he won’t be sacking Watson (or D4’s replacement) in 2021.
I don’t know any other team that would have so warmly cut ties with Watt in a cutthroat league that demands perfection and doesn’t suffer fools.
We all know why Houston was freezing Monday. And why snow was everywhere.
The dysfunctional Texans gave Watt away for free.