Will Deshaun Watson be traded prior to the NFL trade deadline? | You Pod to Win the Game

Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Al Toby discuss what it will take for the Texans quarterback to be traded to Miami. With all the bad publicity surrounding Watson and on several other NFL fronts, why has the league not placed on the Commissioner’s exempt list? And if and when a decision is made on Watson’s legal issues, what could a possible suspension look like? Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

CHARLES ROBINSON: What I think would be the hammerlock to getting a trade done with the Miami Dolphins, which I believe if he were able to settle-- reach a global settlement in all of his civil suits, I think the Miami Dolphins would-- would do this deal right away. Like, I think it would be an easy-- not easy, but I think it would be something that makes them feel much more comfortable getting this done--

AL TOBY: Well, the question-- the question I have on that, is with all this stuff, we're just talking about the league. All this bad PR, all these ticking time bombs swirling. Why doesn't the NFL be proactive in all this to stop this spectacle from happening and put Deshaun Watson on the commissioner exempt list? He would still get paid. He's still getting paid now not playing, so what's the difference between putting him on the list and then kicking it down-- kicking the can down the road until the legal situation settles itself.

CHARLES ROBINSON: I don't-- I can't speak to this with, in terms of, like, direct knowledge of, like, the specifics of why they have not done it, because there's-- and any other reporters are really-- they're nibbling around the edges of this. There is a direct reason why the NFL has not done this. We do not know what that is. I can speculate here and tell you, knowing how the NFL has gone about this in the past, what Deshaun Watson's defense team and lead defense attorney Rusty Hardin are going to be saying to the league is, these-- this is a he said, she said, accusation.

There are no criminal charges whatsoever brought by this. Here's all of the Civil suits that have been filed, and note that there has not been any activity in any of these suits in months, which never happens given the multitude. Like, there's no motions, there's no-- there's not, like, motion, counter motion, all these things. They're literally dead, like, nothing is occurring the last several months. And-- and then Rusty Hardin is going to say to Roger Goodell and Lisa Friel, if this is he said, she said, you-- you are not even close to completing your process without getting what he has to say.

So let's either do that now, or you have to step back and wait for whatever you need to wait for. Now, Lisa Friel being a former prosecutor who now, is essentially the NFL czar of-- of investigations, particularly anything involving potential assault or domestic violence, she has made it clear, being a former prosecutor, she does not want to step on the toes of anybody criminally. She doesn't want to trip up other investigations. And has said to Roger Goodell, we need to just let the criminal end of it, if there's going to be a grand jury indictment or whatever, we need to let that play out. And once that's done and we know there's no criminal element-- she's not even talking about the Civil stuff.

Once that's done, we immediately called Deshaun Watson to New York and say it's time for us to sit with you, ask you the questions we have to ask, and then, we can act on, you know, whatever we-- we feel like has-- has happened. Now, we have both sides of the story here, and it gives us an ability to act on it. Now, I know some people are saying, well, the league has enough to put them on the commissioner's exempt list. They don't need to do that to put them on the commissioner's exempt list. That's true, but the league is also always said about the commissioner's exempt list, we take that on a case by case basis. It's complicated.

As I said in the monologue, I think, you know, if he were able to-- to reach a global settlement, the thought process from what I have been told is there would be a suspension on the other side of that global settlement, but that would be the end of it up until the point something-- if something came down the pipeline criminally, if he were indicted, and had to plead to charges, that could potentially add at later date. However, as I said, I've been told that if there was a global settlement, the high likelihood is that Deshaun Watson would face a suspension from the league, a finite number of games, that would then be told to-- if he's on the Texans roster, he's suspended for X number of games. If he's traded to the Miami Dolphins, OK, he's settled X number of games. And then we're moving on unless something criminally develops.

AL TOBY: Would that suspension-- could that balloon up to a season long suspension?

CHARLES ROBINSON: I don't-- you know, based on the league's own rules, the precedent in past cases that has been set is-- is a six game suspension. So initially-- now, a 6 game suspension at a times, you know, people have pushed to get it reduced from 6 to 4, or, you know, if it was 4-- 4 to 2, whatever. But at least the initial, I think, thrust of this would be 6 games. But the league system being what it is, it allows things to either inflate or mitigate suspension.

Could they go beyond six? Absolutely. The league can do whatever they want. I think people have to understand that the league, because it's the arbiter of these cases, ultimately can make a decision. And even if it's challenged, they become the-- the arbitrator after the fact again, and it's an unwinnable situation for players. So could it be a season? Yeah, it could be. I'm just saying based on past precedent, it's-- it's been six games. And--

AL TOBY: Which-- which would factor in the trade value. If you're-- because you would, kind of, watch this season, and then if it's next season, then you're like OK, well, is this worth it? Particularly the amount of draft capital and as well as the amount of civic heat that that organization would have to bear.