@wmj what do you thing of this statement?
I know that a lot of people will disagree with me here, but I cut Watson a lot of slack on this one. I disagree with the premise that he knew how screwed up the organization was when he signed that contract. When he signed that extension the only really dumb thing the Texans had done to that point was make the DeAndre Hopkins trade. After he signed that contract that they totally imploded with giving the former Patriots team chaplain the big position in the organization, promising to keep Watson in the loop on the coaching and GM hires and then not doing so and pretty much self-destructing. Watson now knows what kind of cluster**** the Texans have become, and that is not what he signed up for. If I were him, I would want out too.
And, as food for thought, that exact same meme could have been written about Matthew Stafford. He signed a contract with the Detroit Lions after being there long enough to know how screwed up that organization is. Then this past year he went and asked the Lions to trade him to a contender. I didn’t see many people faulting Stafford for doing that. In fact, from what I saw the responses were mostly sympathetic and understanding.
The one big difference between the two is that Stafford is on the back-end of his career and spent all of it to date with a dysfunctional franchise. Watson, on the other hand, is still on the front end of his career and has many more productive years remaining. Aside from this, I don’t see any difference between what Stafford and Watson did.
And, I would bet that Watson sees how Stafford’s career played out and wants to avoid that at all costs.
Fair enough. I just saw that meme and thought of you
Also, one other point. Even if Watson had not signed that extension the Texans would have put the franchise tag on him. He would not have been a free agent.
Slight tangent, but I don’t get why any player sits out when they are franchise tagged.
One, they are almost always paid more than they are worth for that year.
Two, if they don’t like it, get the union to change the rules behind it.
I do almost feel bad for the guys who get tagged two years in a row.