Post Mortem on the Watson Trade (from Albert Breer)

[Mr. Scot]

Breer shares the behind the scenes story of last week's trade discussions from Deshaun Watson's point of view as part of his latest MMQB column

And what you'll likely notice if you choose to dig through the many paragraphs to follow is that the Panthers barely figure into the story...at all.

Why Deshaun Watson chose the Browns

Story below...

Deshaun Watson eliminated the Browns on Wednesday night, and the Panthers on Thursday, and back-and-forth he went Thursday night and Friday morning over whether he should go to his hometown Falcons or a Saints team that had been in the playoffs the last five years in a row and remained loaded for bear.

After a year away from the NFL, he wanted a familiar place that might make his reentry into the sport smoother, according to a source close to the quarterback. He loved the idea of playing in Atlanta in particular, and the South in general, and the thought of being around the people who cheered for him as he grew up. And yet, there was something else he realized, with the two options in front of him, he wanted more.

He wanted to win Super Bowls. And after spending a full season on the sidelines, as much as he liked the long-term plans of every team he met with, he didn’t want to wait to get to work on all of those things.

The best place for that? A place he’d eliminated—because it was far from home, and because he’d only actually been to Cleveland once, for a rain-soaked, wind-swept, 10–7 Texans loss to the Browns in November 2020. So he instructed his agent, David Mulugheta, to call Browns GM Andrew Berry back. That was midday Friday, and by sundown Watson would be Ohio-bound.

This, of course, isn’t an easy story to write about or discuss, and it shouldn’t be. The allegations against Watson are serious and, even with the grand jury in Texas having decided not to move forward with criminal charges on the nine cases they examined, 22 civil cases alleging sexual misconduct remain. There are, of course, two reasons why teams put the level of resources into vetting Watson they did over the last year. One is what sort of player he is. The other is how significant the case against him was.

I don’t know where the 22 civil suits go from here. But a number of teams that sunk seven figures into preparing for the mere possibility they’d trade for Watson were standing at the finish line last week with him. And we’re about to take you through how he crossed it with the Browns.

...

The first thing you need to know about how this went down is, after very little movement over a year, things started to move very fast following the grand-jury ruling.

Watson’s camp started with a list of 13 teams that he and his team, through their research, believed would have an interest once the legal situation gained clarity. Ahead of the grand-jury decision, the embattled quarterback had cut the list down to eight teams that he’d consider going to.

And that’s really where the process of offloading Watson began for the Texans, some 14 months after the quarterback’s initial trade request, and a little less than a year since the first lawsuit against him was filed, and where Watson’s search for a new home would accelerate.

• The Texans opened discussions on trade packages with the teams Watson said he’d consider waiving his no-trade clause to go to, but they didn’t have turnkey deals in place with each of them. Instead, GM Nick Caserio established a threshold of three first-rounders with additional considerations—and teams would need to cross that threshold to get permission to talk to Watson from Houston. The idea was simply to save the Texans and the other teams the time of going down the road with Watson, if a deal wasn’t feasible.

Three teams failed to clear the threshold or withdrew interest, and the Colts were eliminated because, with other viable options, the Texans weren’t trading Watson in-division. From there, Caserio granted the Saints, Falcons, Panthers and Browns permission to meet with Watson.

• Watson’s camp set up meetings with Saints and Falcons for Monday, and the Browns for Tuesday at the office of Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, in Houston—Hardin offered the space because the player and teams simply needed a private, secure place to talk. With plans to work out in Atlanta with his quarterback trainer, Quincy Avery, set for later in the week, the Falcons meeting was arranged for Wednesday in Georgia.

Each team brought its general manager and head coach, and three of the four had their owners at the initial meetings too. Saints owner Gayle Benson was the one who didn’t make it to the first set of meetings, and as New Orleans progressed as a serious contender for Watson, the Saints and Watson’s camp arranged a second meeting for Wednesday night in Atlanta, after the Falcons meeting, so the owner could meet the quarterback.

• The Browns, according to a source close, intrigued Watson from the start. He liked the roster that Berry had built, and that Berry was young, and would be around awhile, appealed to him. When he talked X’s and O’s with coach Kevin Stefanski, Stefanski told Watson what he liked about his game, a detailed plan for how he’d use him in his offense and also where he thought Watson needed to improve as a player. He also liked how Jimmy and Dee Haslam knew the roster. They knew every player, how each contributed to the team, their contracts, age, and how they projected out into the future.

• Still, at that point, Watson was uneasy about going north to Cleveland, and casting his lot in a cold-weather city after playing high school football in Georgia, college football in South Carolina, and pro football in Texas. So on Wednesday, Watson personally called Berry and explained to him why he was eliminating the Browns. Berry wished Watson well, and then called Mulugheta and told him he’d stay in touch and that he’d still be interested if Watson, for some reason, changed his mind.

• According to a Browns source, by then, they had done a lot of the work in vetting Watson, and really ramped up their background research in January as their season ended. They had their security people and their lawyers on it, and also deployed private investigators to dig into the cases against Watson, and also his past, going back to his time in high school and college. They were among the teams that had gone through the depositions of the 22 women alleging misconduct by Watson, as well, though lawyer Tony Buzbee told ESPN on Sunday that none of the teams involved contacted him or the women directly.

• The Panthers were eliminated on Thursday night, which put Watson at the end of his process, hoping to decide between the Falcons (who had geography going for them) and the Saints (who had the aforementioned recent on-field success on their side).

And that’s where the Browns got back into it.

So yes, Watson, according to a source, liked his interactions with the Browns’ brass, but he liked the Saints, Panthers and Falcons, too. And sure, the owners had impressed him, as had Stefanski’s plans and Berry’s work on putting the team together.

But more than anything else, when it came back to being a football decision for Watson, it was the roster that separated Cleveland. He not only saw the Browns as talented, he loved how young they were in key spots. The line, he figured, would be the best he’d ever played behind. The backs were as good as any in football, and there was depth at tight end too. Amari Cooper was coming in. The defense had Myles Garrett and a loaded secondary. And so many of these guys stood to get better, and stay in Cleveland for a long time to come.

So he told Mulugheta, who called Berry and told him to call Caserio to work out the trade. The agreement, which started roughly as three-first-round-picks-and-thensome, morphed into this final deal on Friday afternoon …

Browns get: QB Deshaun Watson, 2024 fifth-round pick.

Texans get: 2022 first-round pick, 2023 first-round pick, 2023 third-round pick, 2024 first-round pick, 2024 fourth-round pick.

On one side of the deal, Caserio had what he’d been patient in waiting for—the sort of historic haul a 26-year-old franchise quarterback, who happened to be under contract for four more years, should bring. After Watson first requested the trade, before the lawsuits were filed, and at a time when Caserio was unwilling to move him, the Texans had been offered packages of three first-round picks and more. Those sorts of offers, without qualifiers, evaporated once the allegations against Watson surfaced.

And so Caserio was disciplined at the beginning of training camp, and at the trade deadline, in waiting for another market deal to come around, and the grand-jury decision finally brought him those sorts of offers again, off which he can juice his rebuild.

On the other side of the deal, the Browns still had some work to do. It’d become clear that Watson’s camp was looking for new money, and new guarantees as part of a trade. And the Browns, upon learning they were Watson’s pick, pushed the trade over the goal line with an unprecedented, fully-guaranteed five-year offer worth $230 million that offers him protection against a suspension in its structure (His 2022 base is just $1 million, and that’s where the money he’d lose during a suspension would be coming from).

So what does all this say about the NFL and Watson, given that the civil cases are still pending? That’s been discussed over the last few days and will continue to be discussed in the weeks and months to come. To be sure, there are a lot more serious matters at hand here than just football.

But over the last couple weeks, for better or worse, football did come back into the picture. And the result? Watson has his new home, the Texans got their price, and the Browns have their quarterback.

[jb2288]

I just spent 10 min reading all this, and all I can say is I think we dodged a bullet. That’s coming from someone who was all in on Watson trade this time last week 

[CashNewton22]

 

[ThPantherFan]

Thanks for the jest of it in your comment.  I'm so glad Watson didn't come here.

[BrewerHouseBeer]

I'm calling BS on most of this article. He went to the team that threw the most money at him and it's probably just that simple. You want to leave Houston because it's a poorly run franchise, so you decide to go to Cleveland?

[ECHornet]

He thinks he’s going to win a Super Bowl I’m Cleveland. lol

 

Put me in the camp that thinks Watson will have some serious rust early this season. Many QBs have missed nearly a year from injury and returned to play well. There aren’t (m)any to point to that have had the non-football related distractions that likely kept Watson from sharpening his game. 

[Aussie Tank]

It’s all a load of poo he wanted more money and to restructure so he didn’t get fingered through suspension 

[Jon Snow]

I told you that the Panthers were never really in the Watson trade. We were his last resort.  I'm so glad the Panthers didn't trade for that guy 

[jamos14]

Agree with above poster, it was all about the money.  He wanted guaranteed cash.

 

 

[Mr. Scot]

3 minutes ago, jamos14 said:

Agree with above poster, it was all about the money.  He wanted guaranteed cash.

I agree too, but to be clear, the article confirms that.

On the other side of the deal, the Browns still had some work to do. It’d become clear that Watson’s camp was looking for new money, and new guarantees as part of a trade. And the Browns, upon learning they were Watson’s pick, pushed the trade over the goal line with an unprecedented, fully-guaranteed five-year offer worth $230 million that offers him protection against a suspension in its structure (His 2022 base is just $1 million, and that’s where the money he’d lose during a suspension would be coming from).

[frankw]

The twists and turns of that days long process showed what a circus it would be for whichever team traded for him. Surely the Browns will never regret paying him 230 million dollars guaranteed.

[t96]

I don't really buy this sudden change of heart at the very end. I think all along he had certain things he wanted and most teams (including us) had the ability to give them to him and he would've gone to whichever team best met those conditions. Everything along the way was just a part of negotiations. The Browns wound up being the team to give him what he wanted in the end.

[Jackie Lee]

2 minutes ago, t96 said:

I don't really buy this sudden change of heart at the very end. I think all along he had certain things he wanted and most teams (including us) had the ability to give them to him and he would've gone to whichever team best met those conditions. Everything along the way was just a part of negotiations. The Browns wound up being the team to give him what he wanted in the end.

Yeah with the Charlotte Observer guys leaking we were out because of the guaranteed money the day before, I think everyone else was probably getting cold feet. Still funny the Falcons, his hometown team, got burned the worst after all that fluff going around about being a ball boy and Arthur Blanks bff. 

[fjblair]

5 hours ago, Pakmeng said:

It is interesting to see the changes of heart so quickly regarding Watson among Panther fans. We were gung ho one day and relieved the next. As if many had not considered the reality of the situation for over a year in terms of risk until they saw the tangible contract and trade it took to acquire him.

There were many of us who were against the Watson trade. Lots of us.