Deshaun Watson is unquestionably the future for the Houston Texans. The closer the season comes, the more likely for the Texans and their fans to see that future come to fruition on the NFL’s Opening Day in 2017.
It starts as rumblings right around this time of year, as it always does. A team selects a quarterback high with the pledge that some other guy on the roster, a veteran, is slated in as the starter and the new guy, the first rounder, is going to sit and learn. But the rumblings don’t lie, and the more you hear about how quick the young quarterback is catching on, the kind of leader he is, the pinpoint passes he’s completing, the clearer the picture gets.
Deshaun Watson is progressing with the arrow pointing up. Every practice he has come out and gotten better. Today was clearly his best day.
— patrick (@PatDStat) June 6, 2017
If you had to bet, and, hey, we like to lay a wager around here, the safe bet for the Texans is that Deshaun Watson is their starting quarterback when they face off against the Jacksonville Jaguars at home on Sept. 10.
I’ve said all through the last college football season and all through the draft process that Watson was the best quarterback coming out in the this year’s draft class. By my grading, he’s the third best quarterback overall to come out in the last three drafts (No. 1 is Marcus Mariota, No. 2 is Dak Prescott).
While every other scout, general manager and coach in the league in need of a quarterback bent over backwards to talk themselves out of what they were seeing, Texans GM Rick Smith made the crazy decision to believe his own lying eyes. He was at Raymond James Stadium during the national title game when Watson led the Clemson Tigers to a fourth-quarter victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide and their defense laden with first-round NFL talent.
"He's gotten better every day."#Texans QB Deshaun Watson is making progress.
📰: https://t.co/WOLtP0vLZC pic.twitter.com/b9J6m5geT1
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) June 2, 2017
“It’s in the heat of the moment, the enormity of the moment, they have to go down and score,” Smith told Sports Illustrated. “And just his presence, his confidence, his poise, the way that he handled himself in that situation, in that moment, it was very impressive. … That’s why I go to those games, you can see how they respond to adversity, how they react to their teammates, how they react to their coaches, different situations during the game. I saw just tremendous poise and confidence in him. And obviously he went and performed in one of the all-time great games you’ll ever see. He functioned in a very competitive and highly charged environment with a lot of poise and execution.”
Yeah. That’s what I saw too. That’s what anyone who actually scouts for NFL teams should have seen, but they didn’t. Instead, both Mitchell Trubisky and Patrick Mahomes were picked over Watson and you know what you aren’t hearing from the Chicago Bears or Kansas City Chiefs’ OTAs?
Rumblings.
"@DeshaunWatson has come in and been impressive…
He's really gotten better every day." pic.twitter.com/E2f4sCDdDe
— NFL (@NFL) June 2, 2017
Now, Watson has a completely different situation in front of him in Houston. Trubisky is behind Mike Glennon in Chicago. That’s not an insurmountable task, but there’s little doubt Glennon is more prepared to lead the Bears into battle on Sept. 10 than Trubisky.
Mahomes has no hope of getting a starting nod barring some catastrophic injury to Alex Smith. Smith is on of the fables #22Legit NFL starters I speak of every so often and should be solidly entrenched there. All he’s done is win games since he’s joined the team and drag the Chiefs to the playoffs.
Tom Savage, in Houston, is a much easier gazelle to bring down. Savage has all of two NFL starts under his belt with a 1-1 record. In those two starts he completed a total of 46-of-73 passes (63 percent) for 461 yards, no touchdowns and no picks. He certainly did not light the Houston skies ablaze.
Caught up with @DeionSanders today and he gives his take on @deshaunwatson and his future with the #Texans @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/epKJN9z6fz
— Michael Tartt, Jr (@Tartt_WVTM13) June 9, 2017
Meanwhile Watson just keeps improving with every practice.
“He (Watson) is doing good,” Texans head coach Bill O’Brien said. “For a rookie coming in here, he’s spent a lot of time. He’s studying hard. He has great questions. He has good answers to the questions when we kind of quiz them every morning. I’ve been impressed with all three guys It’s a good room and he’s working hard.”
Watson’s shone so bright early he’s even got the defensive players bragging on him.
“I think any time you come in as a rookie at this level, it’s going to be hard on you,” cornerback Johnathan Joseph said. “Obviously, the spotlight is going to be on you. But I think overall he’s come in, been quiet, all ears, been learning, paying attention, and I think this is a great veteran team so guys are definitely trying to help him out as much as we can.”
Is there pressure to start Watson early? The team did trade next year’s first-round pick in order to move up to get him. There doesn’t seem to be a fire under O’Brien from ownership and, usually, when you start a rookie quarterback, you expect to have a down year anyway. What a rookie like Watson brings is hope for the future. He already has the hottest selling rookie jersey in the NFL.
The real pressure to start Watson will just come from Watson himself. His continued improvement and performance on the practice field will likely catapult him atop the depth chart regardless of any outside reasons.
With the talent around Watson, I see no reason this team can’t pull a “Prescott/Cowboys/2016” type season. Especially once you consider that the Texans have a far superior defense than anything Dallas put on the field last season. Even if that doesn’t happen, drafting Watson was a franchise-saving move for the Texans. The AFC South is on pace to be a much more competitive division than its recent history shows.
With the emergence of Marcus Mariota and the Titans along with Andrew Luck continuing his ascent into the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks, this was the time to make the move. Those two teams aren’t going anywhere and a coaching change with the Jacksonville Jaguars alone makes that team, and its elite level of talent, one to be reckoned with.
Watson will be the man for the job sooner rather than later.
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