The Houston Texans have a Super Bowl caliber roster. They’re coming off of their second straight AFC South Division championship, and pushed the New England Patriots in their Divisional Round loss. If the Texans had better quarterback play, from Brock Osweiler, they may have been able to advance past the Patriots and onto the AFC Championship game.
This is why, with being one piece away from a title, they must make a big splash in the upcoming draft by trading their biggest asset on their roster: J.J. Watt.
Yes, that’s right, the Texans should make a call to the Cleveland Browns front office and offer Watt for the Browns first overall pick in the upcoming draft. Houston would take a publicity hit at first. But, if you’re a Texans fan let me ask you this: if moving the cornerstone of your franchise could get you that quarterback that’s keeping you from advancing farther than you’ve ever gone before in the playoffs and possibly your first ever Super Bowl appearance, why wouldn’t you do it?
Watt is a once in a generation type player. He’s put up Hall of Fame worthy stats in his six years while in Houston. He’s been a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and his footprint in the community is great. However, the reality is that he is coming off of two back surgeries in 2016, to go with a number of other injuries.
Watt wrote about this in a Players Tribune piece back in November:
“One broken hand.
One staph infection.
Two torn abs.
Three torn adductor muscles.
One herniated disc. (Twice).
That was my 2015 season. Believe it or not, the scariest was probably the staph infection.”
He continued: “Some people started to wonder if I was done. There was a time when I genuinely wondered, “Am I done?” I didn’t feel like myself. I had never even had one major surgery before, much less three in one year. To have the game taken away from me three times — each time left to wonder if I would ever be the same again — that was hard. That was the first time the word retirement had ever crept into my head.” (Players Tribune)
That is a lot of injuries for anyone to come back from; and perform at their former peak self. However, with Watt’s determination there wouldn’t be any shock when and if he did come back to his All-Pro self.
However, that’s a big if. And, a problem that the Texans shouldn’t have to worry about; especially since they proved they could be the best defense in the league, without Watt. Hoping Watt returns to his former self should be a gamble that the Browns have to worry about. While Houston can take a chance on the projected top pick in the draft, Myles Garrett.
The Texans have been rumored to be the place that Tony Romo would like to go to, if the Dallas Cowboys cut the veteran quarterback. However, there are two looming problems for the Texans if Romo is cut.
One, the Texans have $24.3 million in salary cap room. While that does seem to be a high number; with the upcoming free agency market, and draft, it gives the Texans little room to tighten up their roster.
And two, Romo is slated to be a $24.7 million cap hit to the Cowboys. He more than likely isn’t expecting to make that if he is cut. But, with the Texans being so close to the salary cap ceiling they would need to make some space to fit that missing piece to their roster.
Removing Watt would free up four million in cap room that would enable the Texans to sign Romo at a fair deal, bring in Garrett as the first-overall pick, and still be able to go after free agents. It’s a tough pill to swallow to move someone as iconic as Watt. However, if it gets you the quarterback to put you over the top, a future defensive All-Pro, plus net a veteran free agent or two, then it will be all worth it.
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TJ…. are you actually serious here? There are certain things that you do and certain things that you don’t do. Trading your franchise player away is not one. As only a cap hit for only $4mil, this thought is ludicrous. I am sure that Myles Garrett will be amazing but he doesn’t want to even play for the Texans… he wants to play for the Cowboys. Enough said there. We can get Tony Romo if we makes some other roster moves as he is not expecting to make what he was due in Dallas. Trading Jonathan Joseph, Grimes, and Griffin are some of them. Addressing the QB position first and then the offensive line is second. Newton won’t be playing next year but Martin will be… get in the draft and get a first round o-line guy. Simply put …. we will be just fine. Get Romo and bench Osweiler… How hard is that? We won’t keep Bouye… as he will cost too much. KJ will be back so that hole will be fixed. Again, NEVER TRADE YOUR ONCE IN A LIFETIME FRANCHISE PLAYER.
Once my lifetime player is Tom Brady. If Watt could do it all, he would be full of rings by now.
One of the strange things in this sport is the over-emphasis on sacks now, disrupting and stopping the drive is important, sacks sometimes mean that, but they don’t always. Its why you can have a DL player tear it up for their team, get 20 sacks and not make the playoffs.
10 sacks for 1 million 1st round draft pick = high value
20 sacks for 15 million + = bad value
Going back to the Pats reference, who have resembled the Texans (probably because of the coaching tree) but crushed them every year… who did they have on their line? Flowers, Brown, Valentine, Ninkovich, Long, Sheard
The highest paid guy is getting 6 million per, and he’ll probably be gone. When the best team in the league has used this formula for years.. pay one guy 5-6 million to be a d-line leader everyone else is rushing the QB so they are young, and really don’t change the game all that much. QBs have the ball in their hands, throwing 40+ times, linebackers make 10 tackles a game and lead the defense, read QBs.
So yea…. QBs… then LBs… and probably at the end of the list is DL … highest paid d-line last year? the Bills. dolphins and jets paid more than the pats did too….. see my point?
I agree 4 million in savings is not worth cutting ties with Watt, but his position is clearly not what makes teams win championships… down the road, the texans will need to man up and make a smart and difficult move.