Although Watson is undoubtably talented this price tag may just be a little too high.
Written by Chaim Cohen
March 15, 2022
As of right now Vegas' favorite to land Deshaun Watson is the Carolina Panthers. Although everyone can agree Watson is an elite quarterback, the price might be too high for a team like Carolina. The Panthers haven't been great in recent years and they clearly haven't found their franchise guy at quarterback but Watson is not the answer to their problems. According to NFL insiders the Texans price for Watson is at three first round picks and two young players. While the Panthers do technically have enough, it would be by virtually selling their souls. They are not in a position to just give up all their future picks and then valuable assets like Jeremy Chinn and or Jaycee Horn. Let's say best case scenario the Texans overvalue a player like Christian McCaffrey. The trade would end up being two to three first rounders, McCaffrey, and maybe more. At this point it's just Deshaun Watson on an extremely mediocre roster who doesn't have any first round picks for the next three years. Although Watson is great he isn't some magician who can flip organizations around. If we really think about it the last time we saw him out on the field playing football he led his team to a 4-12 record. What's pointing to him changing that on the Panthers?
We have to acknowledge that not everyone is in the position that the Broncos were in before they traded for Wilson. For the Broncos they were actually just a quarterback away so at that point it's worth risking it all for the right guy. Same with a Stafford situation in Los Angeles. The Rams were already a second round playoff team and were pretty much set at every position before they went all in on Stafford. Due to them being set they won the Super Bowl in their first year with Stafford. Another example would be the Super Bowl 55 champions, the Buccaneers, with Tom Brady. Although they weren't a playoff team they still had lots of talent all over the roster so that once they got their quarterback they would be set. Now imagine if the Panthers try and follow these footsteps it's almost laughable. They would be giving up the largest package in recent NFL history for a 8-9 season. An interesting situation would be if he goes to the Falcons. Although they have a bad roster right now, insiders are saying that notable players like Allen Robinson and Will Fuller IV would join him on the Falcons. Even with adding all three of those players the Falcons would still probably not be that good. The main thing going for them that other teams can't replace is that Watson grew up in the area. For that reason it looks like they could be the favorites but personally I'm not the biggest fan of the move. Although the Texans will get a ton for Deshaun Watson, it should only be from a team whose roster is already polished.
Personally I think the team that should go for him is the Cleveland Browns. They are the only team that he has been rumored to that I actually support. Although there has been some recent drama surrounding the Odell situation they are still a very viable team. After making the playoffs in 2020 and seeing how talented the roster really was the people wanted more in 2021 and did not get that. It was clear that the root of all their problems has been former first overall pick, Baker Mayfield. Even with how bad Baker Mayfield was the Browns still had a great run in 2020 losing to the Chiefs in the divisional round in one of the best games of recent memory. The fact that Baker went that far with this team just shows that if they got someone as talented as Watson they would be instant contenders. Also the timeline for the Browns is now. They are a run heavy team with both their star running backs currently in their athletic prime. As we know running backs have short primes they shouldn't let Chubb and Hunt's primes go to waste. Lastly, many teams have been shying away from Watson because of legal issues. The Browns have shown that they aren't too concerned with players getting in trouble with the law as we see through their past signing of Kareem Hunt who was fresh off brutally assaulting a woman in a hotel lobby. While Watson won't face charges he still isn't considered fully innocent and may face a suspension next season depending how things play out in next few months. Taking all this in, unless your just a quarterback away like the Browns, Deshaun Watson will not be worth it.
what r u even saying the panthers r literally the same thing as the other teams good defense w a solid o what r. u even saying