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Huge Board of Commerce Suitors For Deshaun Watson All the time Shifting

No sport interweaves the storylines of the soap opera better than professional football. Watching shows like NFL Live on ESPN every afternoon is as much about the drama of the league’s top stars as it is about the X and O, things on the field, and whether there is an NFL franchise that has been the Mecca of drama last year is, well by god, it’s the Houston Texans.

The Houston Texans 2021 are a Days of Our Lives disguised as a football team, and Deshaun Watson is the Stefano DiMera of the Texan drama Factory. Watson is such an important character to the NFL soap opera that you can’t watch NFL football on Sundays without wondering if about a dozen teams will try to trade in for him this off-season.

There is of course the not-so-small thing of the 22 civil lawsuits pending against Watson – soap opera, baby! – this must be resolved before a team forfeits Nick Caserio a king’s ransom for the services of the quarterback. However, with the 2021 season coming to an end this weekend, here’s the big squad of teams that should pick up the phone and call Caserio as soon as the season ends, for no other reason than to say, “Call Before you do it “one step!”

The list includes the first round picks as they are currently set and owned by each team as these picks would be the starting point for any Watson trade talks:

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THE FAVORITES

MIAMI DOLPHINS (22nd overall selection)
The Dolphins are the only team Watson has publicly said would approve a trade. (NOTE: Watson has a ‘no trade’ clause that gives him full control over where he lands.) Their seven-game winning streak ended in one fell swoop last weekend and Tua Tagovailoa has been mediocre this season. So yeah, the dolphins are still in the mix. Notably, the first-round pick they own in 2022 is actually San Francisco’s pick from the Trey Lance deal.

CAROLINA PANTHERS (6th overall selection)
The Panthers started the season 3-0, with Sam Darnold playing decently. They’ve only won two games since then, and Sam Darnold turned back into Sam Darnold so he had to go to the bench for a washed up Cam Newton. The owner of the Panthers, Dave Tepper, reportedly wanted to trade for Watson even though his legal issues remained unsolved. The Panthers are the only team that is not from Miami.

A QB WAY

DENVER BRONCOS (11th overall selection)
Denver was reportedly a favorite landing spot for Watson in the past off-season. Your QB situation with Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock is a mess, but the rest of the list is ready to win NOW.

CLEVELAND BROWNS (13th overall selection)
The Cleveland story coming into the season was whether or not Baker Mayfield would get a major contract renewal. Now, after a terrible 2021 season, Mayfield in Cleveland could be on the way out. Like Denver, this is a deep squad with poor QB play.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (15th overall selection)
This would be a great place for Watson from a footballing perspective – top notch head coach, good squad, rabid fan base. I suppose the only downside would be the proliferation of sketchy massage joints near the French Quarter. Temptation is a tough thing.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS (17th overall selection)
Another team that somehow managed to finish around .500 with junk QB games. Would a blue blood franchise like Pittsburgh take on the PR headache like Deshaun’s situation?

Captivating WILD CARD

NEW YORK GIANTS (5th and 8th overall selection)
According to reports, Watson would have approved a deal in the Jets in the past off-season, so we can assume New York is one of the places he would most like to grow his brand. The Giants could have a new GM and head coach after this season. Would a new regime build from scratch or get bubbly with a trade? That is the question.

UNIFORM FACTORS
These are all teams Texans could speak to due to a variety of factors, but a trade cannot come to fruition for equally important mitigating factors:

DETROIT LIONS (2nd and 30th overall selection)
How nice would it be to have the second AND third pick in the draft? Well it would be great, but I doubt Deshaun has visions of Detroit dancing in his head.

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (14th, 18th, 21st overall selection)
This would be an ideal trading partner for the Texans, with THREE first-round picks in THIS upcoming draft as a possible prize. Two problems – firstly, Deshaun Watson allegedly does not want to go to Philadelphia and secondly, the Eagles have just qualified for the playoffs with second grader QB Jalen Hurts. Maybe they want to roll with hurts in the future.

WASHINGTON FOOTBALL TEAM (9th overall selection)
Washington has just had a season where they started with Taylor Heinickie all year, so yeah, they could use Deshaun Watson. The tricky thing here is how an organization fined millions by the league for a toxic job (mostly sexual harassment) would deal with a public relations quarterback charged with sexual misconduct by 22 women.

ATLANTA FALCONS (10th overall selection)
This one fits nicely because Watson is from the Atlanta area, so he’d probably approve a deal with the hawks. The problem for the Falcons is that if they moved on from Matt Ryan, they’d take a dead-money cap hit of $ 40 million, AND pay Watson $ 35 million in the next season. It’s hard math.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays. You can also follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.

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