Mr. Scot

Yeah, word has been that the Raiders have moved away from dealing Carr but are open to trading Mariota. Theres been speculation that the Patriots might look into that deal. Judy Batista also mentioned that this trade likely lowers the asking price for other quarterbacks like Sam Darnold.

Darin Gantt has said the same or similar things. Nobody wants to hear that another year with Bridgewater as the starter is a real possibility. Unfortunately, it appears to be. Sounds like Voth considers it the most likely possibility at the moment.

The number of potential bidders might. In that scenario though, and even accepting the premise that his value could drop, that wouldn't necessarily mean that the Texans would lower their demands.

I remember thinking it was outside of Colbert's usual MO. There's been a lot of chatter over the last few years that Colbert was losing influence to Tomlin. May very well be something to that.

The NFL has never had a shortage of people with small brains and large egos. When such people get involved in decision making, things go wrong.

Tepper at least seems to now understand that was a mistake. I'm still iffy on whether or not he turns out to be a good owner. Seeing if he backs off and lets his football people do their jobs will be a big part of answering that question in the years to come.

I'd lay pretty good odds that the bags and the booing are gonna happen anyway. I can't imagine being a Texans fan right now.

Well, remember who Roaring Riot said was the prime mover on that deal. Factoring that in makes it a whole lot easier to understand how it happened.

A scenario where the Texans hold on to Watson long enough for most or all of the potential suitors to go in other directions, then decide they want to trade him, isn't really that hard to imagine.

Looking at Newton last year, I think most of us agreed letting him go was the right call. Whether it was done for the right reasons is a separate question though. That we whiffed on our first attempt to replace him is probably not something that would get a lot of argument.

Update on the conditions that would elevate next year's second round pick to a first rounder...

Jourdan Rodrigue told us a long time back that both Ron Rivera and Marty Hurney were prepared to offer Newton an extension but Tepper said no.

I'm not completely sold on any scenario that assumes the Texans are going to do what makes sense. They've repeatedly demonstrated a very strong ability to do things that make no sense whatsoever.

That has been the weirdest frigging situation to watch. After firing Pederson, the Eagles stated they were commited to Wentz. Then they went out and hired a head coach with a secondary connection to him through Frank Reich, the idea of being that maybe they could fix him. Then Matt Stafford got traded, and all of a sudden it was like the Eagles thought "hey, we could do that". (clearly, they couldn't) And now he's traded. Oy...

Unless he's completely out of touch (which I grant is a real possibility) you have to think McNair knows the majority of people want Easterby gone. And even if McNair doesn't know, I have zero doubt Nick Caserio does. But given their prior connection with the Patriots, will he do anything about it?

LaCanfora's speculation made it sound like Tepper wanted to replace Newton regardless, basically so he could have "his guy" in there. Valid? Don't know, but other things I've read do make me wonder.

Don't know if you're an Athletic subscriber but their article chronicling how it got to this point is a great read.

I know some people question whether he was sincere in his expressed desire to work with him. For my part I believe he was, but that's a sore spot for some folks.

Sure there has, and it wasn't that long ago. Earl Thomas demanded to be traded and the Seahawks said no. Also remember a receiver (Chad Johnson maybe) asking to be traded the Cowboys and not getting it. Go back a few years further, and there was Lance Briggs who was headed for a messy divorce with the Bears. Nobody believed that situation would resolve itself, yet it did. Whether the Texans would be wise to give in on this is worthy of debate, but at least for the moment they're pretty well dug in.

If I wasn't worried about his durability, I'd probably be all in based on his skill set. Can't discount those concerns though...

General belief is the Texans want defense though, or a starting quality quarterback in return (which obviously we can't offer)

I would probably take Howell over any of the three prospects behind Lawrence in this draft.

To be fair, believing that something probably isn't going to happen is not the same thing as being against it happening. I haven't really seen anybody be against the idea of having Deshaun Watson. There is some legitimate questioning of whether what we might have to give up to get him would be too much. For my part, I just don't think the Texans are going to trade him. It's also possible that if they do, it might be far enough in the future that we'll have already gone down a different path.

Had a brain freeze for a fraction of a second and thought "Greg" meant Greg Little. "Solid blocks" didn't compute

Yeah, saw this morning that the Bears had backed out. Makes sense things got moving after that. I think the people primary people who believed that were in the Eagles front office.