DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Texans are a cluster...

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/3068...rio-sources-say

Had the Houston Texans stayed the course and followed the recommendation of the search firm Korn Ferry, they likely would have hired Pittsburgh Steelers vice president of football and business administration Omar Khan as their next general manager, league sources told ESPN.

Khan and ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Louis Riddick, who are both minority candidates, were the two finalists before Texans owner Cal McNair changed his mind, ignored the recommendation of the search firm he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do weeks of work and hired former New England Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio, sources said.

Multiple people in the Texans organization, including quarterback Deshaun Watson, were upset with how Houston's search took a sudden and unexpected turn, hiring a man that Korn Ferry did not include on its list of candidates.

Watson is said to be furious over the decision, and others are as well, with some saying that there will be employees who wind up leaving the organization during the offseason.

The quarterback is on vacation, and McNair said he expects to speak with Watson once he returns. But how that will go, if it happens, remains uncertain.

Watson had been assured by McNair that he would be involved in the process to hire a new coach and general manager and kept in the loop on the progress in those searches, but that didn't happen.

Some around the league believe that Watson could opt to withhold his services this season. Watson has not commented on that option, but others insist it will be in play.

One person who knows Watson said this week that, after the Texans traded Pro Bowl wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins last offseason, the quarterback's anger level was "a 2. ... This time, it's a 10."

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They are going to have to do some major work to repair the Desahun relationship...

Sounds like what we once were, maybe even worse!!

It would take an awful lot for me to trade Deshaun Watson, but that’s just me

sure feels like it... had a chance to right the ship... not sure Caserio will be the one to do it.. Easterby worries me...

I’m thinking four first round picks plus more.

I seem to remember Korn Ferry being ivolved with researching and recommending a lot of our relatively recent hires, all of which we followed theu=ir recs and all of which turned out to be a cluster.

After that experience I would use Korn Ferry to know who not to hire.

A team will give up three first round picks to move up in the draft to pick a QB that might be good. DeShaun Watson is already a top fiveish QB in the league. Teams will give up the farm to get him. He probably won’t be traded because guys like him don’t get traded.

(He also has a full no trace clause so he can dictate which team he wants to go to.)

Who? The 'Skins for RGIII?? Not exactly a glaring endorsement for flushing draft picks lol. No team will ever trade four first round picks for any player.

People are nothing to celebrate!

They are not trading him - that'd result in 67m in dead cap. NO way do the Texans do that (with the cap expected to be about 175-180m, they'd have 38% wrapped up in their QB).

As well, they're already expected to start the season over the cap by about $21m. This would put them about 73m over the cap (he was expected to be 15m against the cap).

Even cutting\trading JJ Watt and Brandin Cooks they'd still be 44m over the cap. They'd essentially have to cut\trade half their team to make it work - as most players have a significant percentage of dead cap.

They're screwed financially for 2021 and now they have a disgruntled QB. No clue what coach would want to join that situation.

Texans owner Cal Mcnair hired former New England patriots director of player personel, Nick Caserio; as the GM.

Good enough move imo.

And some people got upset.

Hmm. I suppose they could go do just about anything, Anything at all really.

How does that work if he gets waived.

God wouldn't that be something if Casserio turns out to be a disaster and we were THIS close to hiring him and McDaniels.

I don’t think DW is a top-five QB.

They must be a mess if Watson has some say on who gets hired to be the GM and head coach.

maybe he should have some say on who fills the team Dr. role...lol

I love how all these talking heads just keep talking about trading QB's who have contracts that can't be even remotely traded this coming season.

First Wentz, now Watson.

The Texans already are likely to have to cut Roby and McKinney (no big deal). And probably Johnson to free up the space to sign what few rookies they will have.

That Randall Cobb contract is an abomination, lol.

The only guy they could reasonably trade would be JJ Watt and he is an institution for them. For that matter, so is Watson.

j/c - my only take on this is, bar feeling sorry for Texans' fans - please dont trade Watson to Pitt. That is all.

Brandin Cooks as well - he's got a contract that would have no dead money and it'd save $12m. That plus Watt combined would be almost 30 million in savings that would not even get them to halfway of the 67 million in dead cap that trading Watson would bring...not to mention they're already expected to be 21m over the cap.

Clearing up space for 21m in cap overage is tough, clearing up space for 88 million in dead cap/cap overage is virtually impossible without almost completely starting all over (for example, cutting or trading Tunsil adds 25m more dead cap, cutting or trading Mercilus adds 15m more dead cap... it goes on and one...)

The players (outside of Watt and Cooks) that are most at risk are the guys that earn more than their dead cap money:
+ David Johnson, RB
+ Nick Martin, C
+ Bernardrick McKinney, MLB
+ Duke Johnson, RB
+ Brandon Dunn, DE

But even with these guys gone, it just saves them 28.5M - even with the 29.5m for Watt and Cooks, that's still only 58 million... not enough to trade Watson

he had an unbelievable year this year.... of course he had to because their defense sucked and they had zero running game... I'm not sure there's many in the league who had a better year...

We all know what can happen when an owner "goes rogue" and gets impulsive. They seem to be going through that right now.

Cal seems to possess the negative traits of a "hereditary" owner.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/01/16/texans-chaos-deshaun-watson-unhappy-how-jack-easterby-kept-his-job

We've had messes but I don't think we've had messes like this.

Honest question: if DW demands a trade, and they Texans find a deal that they like, can DW restructure his deal to save the Texans the dead money to get the deal done?

Great question. I do not for sure, but I believe you cannot take money off the table. They may be able to extend him to spread the money out farther, however, this is a new deal and the issue would be the prorated signing bonus. That is spread only across 5 years (or less if the deal is fewer years) and if the contract is terminated (trade or cut), that all prorates to the current year. I'm not aware of any way to get around that unless maybe he retired - but I haven't read the CBA since it was signed...

Feels nice to no longer be the neighborhood freaks.

Thanks!

I believe the ONLY way that can happen would be if DW gave back actual cash from his signing bonus, and I don't think that is allowed. It's Dead Money because it is cash already paid, but not accounted for, yet.

I agree i don't think he can...

he does have a no trade clause so there's a possibility texans could find a good trade and DW says no way...

If i'm Cal i'd fire Easterby and let Watson sit in on every HC interview.

Saleh and Watson. They could turn it around pretty quickly.

I’d do anything to get Watson in NY if I were the Jets

I feel bad for Houston.

Lost Hopkins, lost harden, and now about to lose Watson and watt.

They'll be OK.

We lost LeBron. The world series. And 16 games in a season. That was a low point. Look at us now.

By all accounts it sounds like the Jets are gonna stick with Darnold for the forseeable future.

They could do more to spend their picks on other glaring holes they have.

While there is some personnel problem on the field.. I honestly believe the Jets's problem is that they're just a poorly coached team. The picks and a change of leadership might make the team look respectable next year... probably 8-8 or so IMO.

Rolling the dice on Darnold is a huge risk.

I watched almost every Jets game. Gase was the worst of the worst. But Darnold showed very little skill or understanding of the game despite Gase. I will be very surprised if this is how it actually goes down.

Darnold just doesn't come across as a QB who has the mental capacity to operate at the NFL level...

watching get up... sounds like Watson

they have trade partners set up
watson per his contract can withold his services
watson can basically choose where he wants to go

... could you imagine if he was able to hook up with Belicheck?

Texans better get at least 3 first rounders if they seriously trade watson... because their fan base is going to revolt....

If I'm Houston, I'd be more than willing to let him pick the team he wants to be traded to, but I better be receiving a comparable return. I'd rather see him sit out a season than trade him to NE for pennies on the dollar when the Jags were offering Trevor + 2 firsts + a 2nd. I'm not accepting crap back, I'm going to get a the best possible return that's similar to a place he doesn't want to go.