Deshaun Watson is set to go into his fourth game as a healthy scratch for the Texans, but the team is believed to be more open to making a deal. The Texans have softened their asking price for the embattled Pro Bowler.
While the Dolphins are the team most closely connected to Watson, the Eagles have been mentioned as a team monitoring the situation. Philadelphia may be stepping out of the Watson sweepstakes, however, with Fox’s Jay Glazer noting (via Twitter) the team is not currently in the mix for the three-time Pro Bowler.
The legal and civil suits in which Watson is embroiled have torpedoed his trade value, with suitors understandably leery about the quarterback’s availability. The Eagles do have the draft capital to make an interesting offer. Philly has two 2022 first-rounders and would collect a third if Carson Wentz plays 75% of the Colts’ snaps this season. Even if Wentz falls below that threshold, that pick would become a second-rounder in ’22.
Philly also has uncertainty at quarterback. After a strong start, Jalen Hurts‘ audition season has hit an early rough patch. This trend continuing will link the Eagles to the 2022 first-round QB prospects, though that group has not generated the kind of hype the 2020 or 2021 classes did. While the Eagles would make sense as a Watson suitor, the Dolphins may be readier to make a deal before this year’s deadline. Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is believed to be behind a Watson trade, even amid the off-field trouble.
This year’s trade deadline is Nov. 2. The Texans would seemingly benefit by hanging onto Watson throughout this season and committing to trade him in the offseason, when more clarity emerges on his availability. If the Eagles are stepping back on a possible 2021 trade, the Dolphins would be in position to benefit — if they are indeed willing to part with notable capital to acquire Watson without knowing what punishment will come to pass.
One thing is for sure. Hurts isn’t the answer.
Yeah, nothing I’ve seen from Hurts suggests that he is. I really never understood a lot of his hype. I mean, he’s got a ton of natural talent, I just honestly never saw it transitioning well to the pros. Maybe it eventually will, but it doesn’t look like it will be anytime soon.
Think it’s too early on all of it. Watson trade with legal issues looming, too early to tell on young careers of both Tua and Hurts
Hurts has started a grand total of 7 games and through three this year has a 66% completion percentage, 260 yards per game with another 60 on the ground. 5 TDs, 2 INT, 99.2 QB rating. Maybe pump the brakes on totally writing him off.
It’s his arm, not strong enough
Yep the people who just give stats don’t watch games. Hurts stinks
Correct. Even last season they talked about his flashy plays and whined about being yanked in the final game. All 4 games he started with a bang and fizzled and he was horrible in the final game, so bad he would’ve been yanked even if it wasn’t already determined Sudfeld would go in. His 1st 1/2 starts last year to his end were like night and day. His game Monday night was absolutely terrible in every aspect. He is certainly not the answer.
@13Morgs13: I give stats *and* I watch games. Interesting that the naysayers like yourself have absolutely nothing concrete to base your opinions on. Hurts is fine and has literally only started 7 games in his entire career. Pump the brakes, bud.
Lol. He stinks. I don’t need to go back and forth with u(because u gave me his stats). I watch the game. The dude literary crow hops 4 times on a deep ball and it comes up short. Watch the falcons game(everything was short passes). Now watch the 49ers and cowboys(they took the short passes away) and he was awful. The dude has good leadership ability and he is a great teammate but he isn’t nfl QB material. End of story. Go take your BS stats somewhere else.
Against Dallas they were down a ton late and all he was looking for was the 3 yard slant and couldn’t even connect on them when they were giving it to him.
All I can say is Darnold
Yeah, my arm, too. And legs…
– J. Montana
rct, it’s obvious you haven’t actually watched him. He was horrible Monday night against Dallas. The only game he looked good in his NFL games from start to finish was the Atlanta game.
@Polish: Wrong. I’ve watched almost all of his games. So try again. Maybe cite something concrete instead of generic and meaningless platitudes like ‘started with a bang then fizzled’ or ‘he’s not the answer’. It’s obvious you know little about what goes into developing a successful quarterback because 7 games isn’t enough.
Something concrete? Look up his first half stats and compare them to his second half stats. Not a “meaningless platitude” when the numbers are “concrete”.
He under throws every throw. Not just deep balls. Even the ones where guys have come back and caught them for completions, there’s no YAC when you are stopping all forward momentum to catch an under thrown ball.
Biggest example for me that made me realize he’s not the answer: Look at the first INT in the Dallas game. That’s a throw EVERY QB should be able to either complete or miss long, making the worst possible outcome an incompletion. Eagles were completely outmatched the whole game so I’m not going to pretend that him making that throw changes the outcome, but it was early on and it killed any potential momentum they could have garnered. That’s not a rookie (or 2nd year) mistake, that’s a guy who doesn’t have a pro-arm.
He’s got plenty of great attributes and I want him to succeed, but unfortunately, you can’t be an NFL starting quarterback when you can’t throw.
Have any of the rookie QBs looked like the “answer” so far?
Yeah….thought so. Gotta give them more than a couple games before really deciding if they’re the real deal or not.
Well, Hurts isn’t a rookie but I get what you mean.
Hurts does have one great quality that is undeniable and that is his leadership and his character. He hasn’t looked great, but I do see the other argument regarding his youth. Maybe he will improve, maybe not, but the Eagles may as well find out this year. Minshew shouldn’t be forgotten as an option here, though. I think Philadelphia would be smarter to give him a chance than to immediately pivot to Watson.
I’d give Trevor Lawrence a better pass than the others, in fairness. We really haven’t seen anything meaningful from Lance, but the others so far have looked really bad. Lawrence has bad stats, but it’s obvious to me that his coaching and scheme are really putting him in a bad position. Unlike the others, he does show professional quarterbacking talent between the dysfunctional playcalling. I get that neither Fields nor Wilson have the luxury of being on great teams either, but both even then have better playcalling and lines than the Jags (even with the understanding that Fields’ coaching is bad and Wilson’s line is putrid).
I was pretty underwhelmed by the Jags last night. It kind of looks like Meyers’ greatest attribute as a coach is convincing boosters to write checks. As for Lawrence, he doesn’t look very comfortable reading defenses or throwing downfield.
welcome to Philly, where if you arent a superstar on day one you’ll be berated until you become one, and even then its not always good enough.
Same thing happens in Chicago.
Except in Chicago, where for decades, they really have sucked. Fields has real potential, but not with Nagy/ Pace.
Headline should read “Eagles not in Playoff Mix”
Any team might win more with Watson if he is allowed to play but at what cost? You are telling your fan base that character and everything else means nothing and how can you expect a majority to support him and your team anymore unless he is exhonerated… just bad public relations move all around unless things change drastically.. I know I would not like it if I couldn’t watch my team play without atleast liking the players I root for
So who are the teams not mentioned that might be in the QB market?
Tampa could let Watson sit and get his stuff straight while Tommy does his thing.
Titans (doubt Houston would go in conference), Vikings, Falcons, Giants, Washington, and Pittsburgh are all teams with QB issues that could be in play…..
Neither the Vikings nor the Titans have QB issues. That’s even with us ignoring the special circumstances surrounding Watson. Pittsburgh would never trade that many picks for a player. I don’t put anything past Tampa-if Watson was released today, they’d probably sign him to a futures contract. I don’t see them doing it right now, of course, especially considering that Brady will likely give them at least two more years. The Giants aren’t doing anything while Gettleman is there, if anything at all. If he manages to stick around after this year, it’ll be because Daniel Jones showed enough to warrant some faith from the higher-ups.
I don’t think Rivera would bring in Watson, I think he’d rather pick his own guy. I lean no with Atlanta, but I have no idea what post-Matt Ryan life will look like with their new staff. I really don’t see many options for a Watson trade outside of Miami and maybe possibly Las Vegas, and those are both long shots (the Raiders being a particularly long shot in my mind-it would require all of the Carr rumors to be true, first off-and I think they realize that Carr is a good QB). I don’t think NO would trade for an expensive QB with baggage, but I suppose they’re a long shot as well.
No one is trading for Watson right now.
thank goodness
Not sure what the Eagles are trying to do, but they need to give the kid some time to prove what he’s about/can do. Jets – move a high draft pick QB for another, only to see the traded kid show what he can do with the right cast of players around him while the other kid is struggling just as the previous QB. Go figure.
The daily non-story about Deshaun Watson.
Okay, I get that we’re all waiting for a trade, but this is a rumors site. This is a rumor. There are more to stories than just “he was traded”. We should all be mature enough to consider this for what it is-unsubstantiated by the key people-but also consider the possibilities it presents if it were true, or the reasons it might have been leaked out if it weren’t. That’s how rumors work in sports.
Gotta hand it to them, they’re in a sticky spot. Really don’t want to say something to the media and jerk around with Hurts psyche.