IT DIDN’T take long for Deshaun Watson to put the United States’ National Football League (NFL) on alert. After leading the Clemson Tigers to their first national championship in the programme’s history, Watson was drafted by the Houston Texans with the 12th overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft — the third quarterback of the board (behind Mitchell Trubisky and Patrick Mahomes). 

His rookie season only lasted six games but Watson made quite the impact. Watson threw for 1,699 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions en route to a 3-3 record before tearing his ACL in practice, the second such tear of his short career. 

There were inescapable questions about his long-term health but for now, they’re on the back burner. Watson has missed only one game in the last three seasons. He’s been ever-present for the Texans, but the organisation has failed him and others. The question is now: How badly does Watson want out of Houston?

The Texans parted ways with then head coach and general manager Bill O’Brien after leading the team to a 0-4 start this season and owner Cal McNair informed Watson that he would be involved in the hiring process for the next HC and GM — only to then go back on his word, with Watson finding out about the hiring of general manager Nick Caserio via Twitter, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. There’s an obvious disconnect between the role Watson wants in the organisation’s future and the one he’s currently in. 

Watson had a career-year this past season. Despite the Texans winning only four games, he was firmly rooted in the MVP conversation thanks to a career-high and franchise record in passing yards (4,823), completion percentage (70.2 per cent), yards per passing attempt (8.9), passing touchdowns (33), and a career-low in interceptions (7). He was simply playing above the plains of reality — now at a point where the game has slowed down to such a degree that he can dissect every facet of the game in a matter of seconds. 

He did all of that with an offensive line that allowed him to be sacked 49 times. All without his star receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, who was traded to the Arizona Cardinals prior to the 2020 NFL season. Any sign of competence in the near future would be down to the will of the players more than any semblance of organisational structure. 

The Texans’ best defender, JJ Watt, is now 31 years old and has made it unequivocally clear that he has no intentions of playing for a team that is rebuilding. Good thing the Texans have no first or second-round picks this year. They traded those picks away to acquire offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil from the Miami Dolphins. 

Tunsil has been good, but no better than Duane Brown, who the team traded away three years ago to the Seattle Seahawks. Brown wanted a new contract but the Texans would not budge. Instead, they traded him for a meagre draft haul and then acquired Tunsil a year later and paid him even more money than they would have paid Brown.

To make matters even worse, a lot of the Texans’ future cap space is tied up. They have the third-highest average age in the NFL right now, and their projected -$21million in cap space is the seventh-lowest. Rebuilding with Watson would be preferred, but is likely out of the question.

As good as Watson is, the Texans are still far from contenders even with their star quarterback — with this past season providing enough evidence. Their roster has been poorly constructed with little top-side talent. Again, a clear indication that the Texans have failed Watson. 

They have a genuine top-five quarterback on their hands and decided to trade away, at the time, the best wide receiver in the NFL for a bloated contract and little value in large part because O’Brien didn’t see eye to eye with Hopkins. That’s pure negligence.

Watson reportedly wanted the Texans to interview Robert Saleh and Eric Bieniemy for their vacant head coaching position. Saleh joined the New York Jets without ever meeting with the Texans, while Bieniemy met the team last Monday, but only after it was clear that Watson was aggrieved that it didn’t happen sooner.

The Texans had the opportunity to appease their franchise quarterback this season and allow him to play a part in building the future and repairing the team. They didn’t even need to do exactly what Watson wanted, they just had to listen. They not only refused, they just blatantly ignored him. What sort of message does that send to a player? 

This is all without mention the Texans’ current executive vice-president of football operations, Jack Easterby, who, as a former team chaplain without any sort of experience in how to run a football team, has weaselled his way into that exact role. He is now the man making all of the decisions in lieu of Watson.

Now, the Texans have to face the repercussions. Watson wants out and seems to be willing to force a trade. A trade seems a foregone conclusion and it’ll send the Texans into a pretty precarious situation. It’s reported that Watson’s preferred destination is the Miami Dolphins, and that could mean they land rookie quarterback Tua Tagovoiloa and a ransom of picks in the deal, but that all depends on Miami and if they feel the need to upgrade at a significant cost.

Whatever the case, the Texans have lost all leverage in a potential deal. If the world knows that Watson will do whatever it takes to get out of the building, then why should they or would they give the Texans whatever they want — seemingly a significant amount.

Even if they do get close to what they want, the chances of any of those picks turning into a player close to the talent of Watson is slim. The Texans messed up, and now it’s biting them in the face.