What should be the Texans’ asking price for Deshaun Watson?
Senior NFL Writers Terez Paylor and Charles Robinson discuss what it is going to take for NFL teams to trade for Houston’s star quarterback. Did the recent Matthew Stafford for Jared Goff trade between the Lions and Rams alter the asking price? Hear the full conversation on the Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
TEREZ PAYLOR: If two firsts, a third, and an offensive starter are the price for Stafford, what on earth is the price for Deshaun Watson? Who is not coming off his trade request, man. He wants to go.
CHARLES ROBINSON: If you are really factoring in all these picks and you're like, well, this now affects the Deshaun Watson value, I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding how this trade worked. And you know, I ended up writing about this, about how the Rams, they tapped into the NBA style of selling. You're basically unloading a toxic asset, that being all the guaranteed money that they owed Jared Goff, and you're strapping something nice to it, a first-round pick that somebody comes and takes it off your hands, they take your toxic asset for the first-round pick. There's no toxic asset in Deshaun Watson. He's the asset. There's no-- nobody is going to worry about the money he makes or whatever. I still think it's going to be the same thing it was before. You start with three first-round picks right out of the gate.
And here's the curveball here, though. If they're going to be late picks, if the Texans are sitting there going, this is the Rams offering us three first-round picks-- let's say it had been the Rams. They're going to go, OK. Well, you got picks that are going to be between 25 and 32 for three years. Like, we don't care about that. Those are second-round picks. Every team, when they set up their draft board, really ends up with 16, 17 first-round greats. Well, if you're not getting three picks that you believe are going to be in the 16, 17, or at least one, I think that's a non-starter in terms of--
TEREZ PAYLOR: I think one's got to come this year. I think it's got to be a top--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Top five, yeah. Yeah.
TEREZ PAYLOR: Right, right. Like, I think one's definitely got to come this year. Because remember, they don't have their first. They don't have their second. So ideally, the first and sec-- this is Deshaun Watson, people, come on. I want a first and second this year, I want a first and second next year, maybe another third. And John McClain, who's outstanding for the Houston Chronicle, reported, hey, they also want two defensive starters. His price was two firsts, two seconds, and two defensive starters. I think that's worth it for this guy. This guy's 25! He's special. Pied Piper effect. I'd do that, especially if one of those picks comes early. That means I can potentially replace Deshaun Watson with one of these four young quarterbacks.
So I'm all for it. Look, I don't believe in trading great players, but it doesn't seem like this is a scenario where you really want to-- you really want to go to the mattresses with this guy? The value of Watson, like, this might be the biggest trade we've seen. Ever. It's going to be great. Oh, by the way. A fun hypothetical. What if the Jaguars-- like, if you were the Jaguars, would you offer up the number one overall pick for him?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, I would.
TEREZ PAYLOR: Just call it a day. Would you do it?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah.
TEREZ PAYLOR: And guess what? If I were the Texans, I'd take that!
CHARLES ROBINSON: I'd do that.
TEREZ PAYLOR: Great. I get Trevor Lawrence, I reset. It's great. I'd do that in a heartbeat.
