When you are a sick fan of a sports team, the team itself becomes intertwined with your own life. I remember what year something happened because of the Houston Texans. 2016 was [NAME REDACTED], 2011 was when the Texans finally won the AFC South, 2014 was when Bill O’Brien saw a dead cat talent bounce with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and 2017 was when Houston drafted Deshaun Watson.
I’ll always remember where I was. I was driving across I-10 out to the desert to devour the springtime. The golden disk was curving down below the edge of the Earth, and the sky was pinks, and blues the color of the Robin’s egg, and oranges, and yellows, and I had five more hours to go. Everything was beautiful, beautiful and perfect. My phone began to blow up. Deshaun Watson? WATSON. YES. WATSON. The quarterback carousel had come to an end. Rick Smith traded up to land a franchise quarterback.
Then Watson lost a camp battle to Tom Savage #justBillO’Brienthings, took over after Savage was sacked six times in a half, and set the league on fire behind a jet sweep play action offense. Perfect deep passes, electric scrambles, absurd touchdown rate, the Texans finally had a quarterback, after not having one for the last four seasons.
In 2018, Watson was bogged down by a mismanaged offensive line. I’ll never forget Seantrel Henderson starting at right tackle, after never being good at tackle to begin with, and being injury prone, to snap his ankle week one, and then watch Houston move Martinas Rankin to left tackle, after missing the entire training camp to an injury, and moving Juli’en Davenport to right tackle, after never playing right tackle. The Texans went on a tear because their all-time great run defense devoured teams with terrible quarterback play, and ran the ball, not because they were good at it, but because they had to. It all ended, at home, against Indianapolis, where Houston’s entire gameplan was to play jackpot with DeAndre Hopkins. Their inability to defend the pass did them in, and O’Brien’s offense spent the rest of the game wallowing down 21-0.
In 2019, Watson had his best season in Houston. O’Brien crafted a couple of great game plans, Yankee crossing Atlanta’s cover three defense, controlling the ball against Kansas City’s linebackers by running the drag flat read-pass option. Houston continued to beat their division, walloped the AFC South, and made it back to the postseason. This year brought a mystical experience against Buffalo, as Watson carried a broken offense to comeback against the Bills. And in Kansas City, 24-0, became 51-31, after O’Brien didn’t have a play call on 4th and 2. We all waited for it to happen, and it finally happen. The dam burst.
In 2020, the Texans were supposed to try and make their jump to Super Bowl contender. O’Brien and Jack Easterby went to work. They turned DeAndre Hopkins into David Johnson, Brandin Cooks, and Ross Blacklock. They added Randall Cobb to spread out the entire offense, and Eric Murray to an abysmal pass defense. That’s it. Hamstrung by Laremy Tunsil, the Texans spent the summer becoming actively worse. Tim Kelly’s super-cool-kill-them-all offense that would transpire because Watson wouldn’t throw it to Hopkins all the time never happened. The Texans fell apart, starting 0-4, finishing 4-12, and the O’Brien era came to an end.
A year after signing a contract extension, and saying, I love that man, Watson’s head coach was gone. Owner Cal McNair told Watson he’d have a say in the head coach and general manager search. These were empty appeasements. As the story was told, Houston hired an outside search firm, and the Texans were set to hire Omar Khan as their general manager. Jack Easterby wriggled McNair to New England, changed his mind, and the Texans hired Nick Caserio instead.
Shortly after this, Watson requested a trade, which seemed fake at the time, which then became serious. Shortly after this, David Culley was hired, which did nothing to change Watson’s mind despite him being quarterback of the Houston Texans. And, shortly after this, Watson has accused of sexually assaulting 20+ women.
Important organizations dislike the unknown. With Watson facing these charges, and settling not within sight, the trade market was closed. Houston spent the season paying Watson not to play football, and buried this until 2022.
Last Friday Watson was told he wouldn’t face criminal charges after facing a grand jury, and this opened the trade market once again. Watson was allowed to speak to Carolina, New Orleans, and Cleveland, to see if he would rescind his no trade clause. He did. Watson was traded to the Cleveland Browns for three first round selections, a third round pick, and a pick swap that will turn a fifth into a fourth.
Sources: The #Browns and #Texans are in agreement on a trade for Deshaun Watson. It’s three first-round picks, a third-rounder and late-round pick swap, a fourth for a fifth.
It’s done. He’s a member of the #Browns.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 18, 2022
The end has arrived. All those feelings we felt against New England in 2017, Buffalo in 2019, Seattle in 2017, and New York in 2018, are all gone. The past has finally past. Watson’s future is now someone else’s. Cleveland receives a franchise quarterback, and the Texans finally refurbished their assets lost under O’Brien’s regime.
In 2022 I was sitting in front of my computer, working from home, listening to the birds chirp, thinking of my own personal future and what I’m going to do next, dreaming of the weekend, when Watson was traded. A picture much less beautiful than the one from 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment