We heard back in January that the Texans would try to sign QB Deshaun Watson to an extension this offseason, and indeed, the two sides are in the preliminary stages of contract discussions. And according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, some execs believe Watson will sign his new deal before Chiefs mega-star Patrick Mahomes signs his (Twitter link).
As both Watson and Mahomes were selected in the 2017 draft and have three years of service time under their belts, they are now eligible for extensions. The January report referenced above indicated that Watson wanted to sign his next contract after Mahomes so that he could try to trump it, but if what Fowler’s sources are saying is true, it seems as if the Texans are trying to prevent that from happening.
Per Fowler, Houston has more “urgency” to get something done with Watson, which makes sense if the team wants to avoid having to top a Mahomes deal. But it’s unclear if the Texans should really be worried about that. After all, as good as Watson is, Mahomes is otherworldly, so Watson’s desire to top a Mahomes deal and any Texans’ fears in that regard both seem a little misplaced. Plus, given that the salary cap may go down in the next several years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it would seem that the club has more bargaining power than it may have anticipated.
As it stands, it may make more sense for Mahomes’ camp to wait until his Houston counterpart puts pen to paper. Recent projections for Watson’s contract are in the $40MM-$42MM/year range, which exceeds the initial estimates on Mahomes’ deal. If Watson gets an extension of that size, it may not be too much of a stretch to see Mahomes push for $50MM per year, though the reigning Super Bowl MVP has previously indicated that he wants to keep the Chiefs’ core together.
One way or another, Watson and Mahomes aren’t going anywhere. But when the contracts will get done and how much they will be worth remain up in the air, and with Bill O’Brien involved in the Watson negotiations, those questions are tough to answer.
Carson Wentz sucks and set the bar at $36 million. Wont be long until a quarterback gets $50.
Show me something that backs up your statement that Wentz sucks.
Watson has had way better playmakers than Wentz but Wentz has better success. Watson has missed 10 games in 3 seasons and Wentz has missed 11 games in 4 seasons, including their playoff run.
Wentz is averaging 3500 passing yards a year to Watson’s 3200 passing yards
Wentz also has a better touchdown to interception ratio.
Dak is asking for a ton of money and he has been even less successful than Wentz and Watson. With an arguably better supporting cast.
People love to hate on Wentz because he came from a small school and has been injury prone. But he is a legit quarterback many teams would love to have on their team.
While I agree Wentz receives undeserved criticism, you can’t pretend people hate him because he’s from an FCS school. That’s just a straight-up lie. Also, Watson’s offensive line is far inferior to Philly’s. You can’t deny that
Dak has been less successful than Wentz? How so? Dak hasn’t missed a game. They’ve both won the division twice but Dak has actually won a playoff game (and completed one). The argument that Dak can’t throw is false and stats back it up. Don’t give me Wentz has a ring either. His ring means about as much as Jimmy Gs. Based on their careers so far and earnings, Dak deserves more than Wentz and Goff
I will retract my statement. As a Chiefs fan since 1987 id take Wents over Cassel, Bono and the 48 year old Moon. Just my opinion but I like Foles better. I dont care about small school/ large school. Wentz reminds me of Carr. Gives up on plays too soon. Starting NFl QB? YES .. Deserved of 36 million a year NO.
Why are you skewing Watson’s stats? That doesn’t even help your argument. Average his full year? Do it on a per-game basis, it’s a better argument for paying Watson. He’s overall a slightly better QB than Wentz. And a much better running threat that finds the endzone. And he’s stayed in the game during the playoffs, Wentz not so much. Wentz isn’t trash, he’s just not elite. He had one elite season, but so did David Carr. And I wouldn’t consider him elite, he’s in the same lump of QBs as Wentz. Good, not great or elite.
If average QB salaries become $50M then your going to end up with a flag football league. The NFL needs to backtrack and make the passing game less dominate. I’m not suggesting going back to the run dominated game of the 60s but they need to find a balance so that no position claims 20% or more of the cap space. Taking some of the restrictions off the defense and allowing them to actually cover receivers would be a good starting point.
The game won’t change until it’s forced to. It’s a copycat league, so unless some team revolutionizes the league without an aerial attack like that (and the Ravens might be doing it), things will probably stay the way they are.
The game we have today isn’t the product of a sudden revolution. It was constructed through a series of rule changes to limit defenses and give offenses better opportunities to score which the NFL thought would appeal more to fans. It was a sensible idea late in the 70s but the league has let the pendulum swing too far. If you have a solid QB you can contend but if you don’t you’re cellar bound.
Great QB but can’t stay healthy. Also, Nick Foles ran the system just as well at a fraction of the price.
Watson needs to hold out; until he’s traded. If I could get close to $40m annually elsewhere, and hated my boss, I’d slander him to death.
I understand athletes having a limited time in which to earn their money, but I also feel like once you get to a certain point, like tens of millions of dollars per year, you should be set for life (as should any future offspring). If winning consistently actually does mean anything to the highest paid stars, they might be wise to remember that their team having the money for, say, a good o-line is generally a pretty crucial element of their success. As a player, Brady will be remembered more for the rings he helped to win than for the money he made.
Heck no! Do you see the Google guys stop earning, Bill gates, Tim Cook (Apple), pro team owners, GM’s et al. Earn for as long as you work, not matter your craft.
We all laugh at the Jags for the Foles deal last year or Bears for signing TE Gram this year, but their front offices are still crushing it. And once the GM’s and HC’s get fired from those teams; they’ll be hired by other franchises next year.
Expecting someone to stop earning because they are set for life is like expecting Ron Jeremy to stop having sex because he laid a lot of pipe when he was younger.
So y’all don’t see a difference between “not earning” and “taking a little less in order to be protected and win?”
You can say that about every star athlete. The problem with your logic is it goes against the very nature of our country. Capitalism is not about winning, it’s about making the most amount possible. Watson doesn’t have to answer to the oline or anyone else for that matter. He has earned the right to get paid as much as he wants. Why can’t the oline suffer. Why can’t they sign for 10 million instead of 20? He’s set for life with his tens of millions of dollars. What you are suggesting is that the top earners be taxed more to the benefit of all. SOCIALISM is the devil, haven’t you heard?
The problem is the cap. Get rid of it and pay people what they are worth. The cap is the socialist limit on the free market.
Watson is a QB not a CPA. It’s not his job to balance the budget, it’s the front office. His job is to win games, sell seats & merchandise.
Having watched him for 5 years, including at Clemson, he’s a stud, pay the man. Clemson was PAID during his time.
There’s also the dicey problem that if you start granting favors to the owners then the other players on the team feel that they are now under pressure to do the same.
If you think the players earn a lot of money, wait til you see how much the owners make.
Exactly. Same for the coaching staff and rest of the front office. All milking 6-7 figures.
Incredibly misleading. Owners of sports teams don’t always make a profit. It’s a very recent phenomenon that teams are making huge sums of money. A lot of years teams don’t make money, they lose money. The initial capital it requires to facilitate the teams and league is astounding. I’m not sure why you think that when something takes off and is popular that the people who invested in it aren’t paid back and profit. The labour always gets paid and doesn’t have to worry about anything but doing a task. Ignorant communist.
So all I have to do to get myself a $250M yacht like Jerry Jones is figure out a way to lose money. Thanks for the tip.
I think this topic has been broached before, but why not try to negotiate a contract that directly correlates to the salary cap? Saves both the team and player in case of drastic shifts in either direction. If you think he is worth $40 million today and the cap is $200 million, let’s sign a deal that is for 20% of the salary cap. If it goes down, the team is protected. If it goes up drastically, the player benefits. I think you would see a lot less hold outs and contract squabbles. If Nuk say agreed to 10% when he signed his extension, instead of getting lapped by scrubs he would probably still be in elite wr money territory. With qb salaries flirting with the stratosphere it won’t be long before your qb is taking up way too much of the cap for lackluster performance
Its not the QB’s job, or any player, to mange the salary cap.
Never said it was. This is just a hypothetical solution to the problem of determining value with an uncertain cap moving forward. It was more for discussion than directing any individual to make it happen. The qbs camps job is to get him as much money as possible, it’s the owners camps job to get him to sign for as little as possible, that is all that is known
Allocating even 15% of cap space to a single individual when the roster includes 52 other players should alert anyone that a better operating model needs to be found. The league created a situation where success relies too heavily on a good QB and passing game. That can be fixed.
which is more likely: Watson leaving Texans or Watson getting in Hall of fame
Ummm neither? I’d say they are both equally unlikely. Not to say Watson isn’t a star talent, but HOF qbs don’t grow on trees. Way to early to project his future. And as far as him leaving, high quality qbs rarely leave their teams. He will be tagged and eventually signed unless he is adamant about not wanting to be there. Texans would be smart to lock him up before Dak and the next round of qbs. The bar only gets higher and they already blew it out of the water for tunsil. No point in not doing the same for the Star qb
Lot of guys were “locks for the HOF” until they weren’t. Injuries, regression, jail (Vick). It happens
Antonio Brown is another guy that some people thought was a lock for the Hall of Fame, but he probably won’t make it now.
Houston will overpay a QB that hasn’t accomplished a whole hellava lot, but that is the norm nowadays. What would make absolutely no sense is if they try and pay him more than Mahomes. At least Mahomes won a SB, almost went back to back appearances and balled out bigtime
MAHOMES WILL TAKE LESS MONEY TO MAKE SURE THAT HE AND THE CHIEFS HAVE THE BEST CHANCE POSSIBLE TO HAVE THE THE OVERALL BEST TEAM POSSIBLE/WIN AS MANY SUPER BOWLS AS POSSIBLE…… THE SAME THING THAT TOM BRADY DID!! HE TOOK LESS MONEY PER YEAR THAN HE COULD OF GOTTEN (BY FAR) TO HAVE A GREAT PATRIOTS TEAM EVERY SINGLE YEAR….AND LOOK AT HOW MANY SUPER BOWLS HE HAS!!!!!
I love how the decency bias clouds everyone’s view of Tawmy Terrific. The dude signed the highest guaranteed deal in NFL history at the time in 2010. He was responsible for moving the qb market further. He took less in his twilight years to try to help the team, but in his prime he did what every player does, maximize his earnings. It wasn’t until he had well over $100 million in career earnings that he started taking “discounts”
*recency bias
The idea that giving the owner a discount is beneficial to the team is pretty silly. Brady actually undermined the negotiating leverage of teammates by doing that. Robert Kraft would simply say to players: “Well Tom was willing to play for less than his market value…so why can’t you?”.
Look at Tom Brady’s career football earnings and look at Tom Brady’s sponsorship earnings… Winning gets you significantly more money than being the top paid player at your position in the league with a sub par team around you.
Dak didn’t sign an extension with Dallas last year specifically citing that he makes multiples above his salary in endorsements.