Tom Savage tells Deshaun Watson: “I don’t know how you do it”

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Tom Savage was, for some reason, the Texans’ starting quarterback in Week One. But he was benched at halftime for Deshaun Watson, and Watson has been the starter ever since — a move that even Savage seems to realize was the right one.

During Watson’s incredible performance in Seattle on Sunday, Savage was in awe as he watched Watson from the sideline. As shown on Inside the NFL, NFL Films caught Savage’s discussion with Watson after Watson did a 360-degree spin and dodged two Seahawks before throwing a touchdown pass, and Savage acknowledged he never would have made that play.

“That’s incredible, man. I don’t know how you do it. I really don’t,” Savage told Watson. “I would’ve pulled every muscle and both of my groins if I tried to do that.”

Watson has been incredible as a rookie, but he might have been better still if he had been working with the first-string offense all through training camp and the preseason, instead of being behind Savage on the depth chart. Even Savage knows he can’t do what Watson does.

44 responses to “Tom Savage tells Deshaun Watson: “I don’t know how you do it”

  1. Sounds like Savage is earning his backup salary and position. Props to him for staying in his lane for the good of the team. Hang in there, your time will come again one day.

  2. Watson looks pretty good, but hes top ten in interceptions, sacks, and is bottom ten in completion percentage. Everybody saying “oh hes incredible” pump the breaks.
    Also houston arent making the playoffs with that defense or that coach.
    Jacksonville with that insane pass rush, and that young man Leonard Fournette? Yea thats the team im watching in the Nfl’s lamest division.

  3. Tom Savage is a real man. I mean, I bet much of his life (before the NFL) he was better than everyone else at football. But now, faced with this young man and knowing he will never be that good, instead of being bitter he picks the young man up and lets him know he is something special. Hopefully young Watson pays attention and respects the gifts he has. I hope to see the guy play for a long time–he seems pretty special. And Im not even a Texans fan…

  4. Anybody who watched this kid in college fully expected him to be successful. He stood up to mighty Alabama two years in a row.

  5. Very strong start for Watson’s career. He has the arm strength and smarts to run a very complicated O’Brian offense, this is even more impressive when you think about the qb graveyard that Houston has been in recent years.

  6. Stop me if you’ve heard this before – young mobile QB with a cannon arm enters league and in first season does very well and everyone crowns him the next GOAT already, and then in his 2nd/3rd season, once teams have figured him out, his performances drop off and team struggles to .500.

    Guys like Watson, Wilson, Tebow, Kaep, Brissett, Prescott, Newton, Kizer, Manziel etc, etc, get through college by sheer athleticism rather than smarts, but then hit a wall when opponents adapt and only a few of these QBs can become the stragetist they need to be because it was just never previously their game. Only time will tell if Watson can be a Wilson or just a Prescott.

  7. Props to the Texans for drafting him…they brought him along as they saw fit…of course hind sight is 20/20 but maybe his success is a byproduct of him sitting back and taking it slow

  8. ..but Neil Schwartz doesn’t understand why Savage got benched. Looks like the 31 snaps he did get were 31 too many.

  9. Get ready to read something profound- time will tell if a guy is an all time great. (Head explodes with enlightenment).

  10. Well I know exactly how he did it vs. Seattle. Seattle often would twist the defensive line and attempt to have defensive tackles contain Watson. Half the time he defensive tackles couldn’t get outside for whatever reason and Seattle just jammed up the inside and let him do whatever he wanted outside the pocket. No wonder he lit up Seattle.

  11. Savage was starting early on because the league is designed for experienced pocket quarterbacks and Watson was a running, rookie quarterback. It’s not that complicated to understand the coach’s perspective during that period of time. It appears now that Watson *may* turn out to be the exception to the rule but nevertheless, exceptions are always easier to spot in hindsight. I’m not a big fan of O’Brien but you can’t blame him for hoping to bring Watson along at a more reasonable pace.

  12. LOL at all the “Tom Savage is a great guy”…”Hes not bitter” “Hes picking the young guy up” “Playing his role” comments. Did you guys forget just a few weeks ago “his agent” was in the press saying he doesnt know why Savage got benched? Tom Savage is a horrible qb, horrible and has NO CHOICE but to be humble and watch Watson, because he knows if he got in the game that offense would grind to a halt like Fred Flintstone stopping his car with both feet. You guys kill me on this site with your short memories.

  13. Leader for Offensive Rookie of the Year, Also in the MVP Race but Carson Wentz is leading that right now because his team is 7-1 (BEST RECORD IN NFC AND BEST RECORD IN THE NFL)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  14. Not thrilled they got rid of his left tackle. Even if Clark is over his calf injury, he isn’t very good. Rookie QB could surely use a good LT.

  15. There’s an intangible that comes with a guy like Watson, where everyone else on the team believes they have a chance – everyone. You can’t overstate how important that is to a team’s success.

  16. @87hollywoodhord…yea watson is also first in td passes, 2nd in yards per attempt, 5th in qb rating an has houtson leading the nfl on points per game, all the while getting 2nd team reps since he was drafted..basically the same team last year minus watson averaged 17.4 points per game, sounds like sour grapes if you not impressed

  17. I really like Tom Savage, but unfortunately he is not a good match to be a Watson backup. The entire office has to change when Savage is in. He is in the last year of his contract and will probably not be in HOU next year.

  18. These multi-talented football players are the quarterbacks of the future. As a Titans fan, I used to say that Cam Newton is who we were promised Vince Young would be. Even with Cam’s maturity issues, I’d say that’s still true. Well, I’d dare say that Deshaun Watson is who Panthers fans were promised Cam Newton would be. Watson is the complete package and then some! Thankfully, we Titans fans have a multi-dimensional QB of our own. Yes, I fear Deshaun Watson being in our division, but having Mariota makes it a whole lot easier to take.

  19. 87hollywoodhorn says:
    November 1, 2017 at 9:26 am
    Watson looks pretty good, but hes top ten in interceptions, sacks, and is bottom ten in completion percentage.
    ________________________________

    He’s also #1 in TDs, top 5 in Passer rating, and leads the league’s highest scoring offense. So while I agree that we need to pump the brakes on the GOAT talk… Houston has a TON to be excited about.

  20. Savage can handle the heat and keep his chin up.

    Good for him.

    A fine example to all athletes to keep working and someday your number will come up…again…..maybe.

  21. Even now, there is this moaning and groaning about the acute shortage of top level NFL QBs, but the owners chose to terminate NFL Europe that left only the CFL and Arena Football as the remaining options where QB hopefuls can work to develop their skills.

    When you throw in the 97% failure rate by the NFL to accurately assess and develop college QBs, we can see why there are very few real NFL franchise QBs.

  22. The only thing that troubled me was that scene at the end when RW threw the game-winner – they showed DW on the sidelines with the towel covering the bottom half of his face. First thought was “I hope he’s not another pouter like Cam.”

  23. 8to80texansblog says:
    November 1, 2017 at 10:58 am

    He’s also #1 in TDs, top 5 in Passer rating, and leads the league’s highest scoring offense. So while I agree that we need to pump the brakes on the GOAT talk… Houston has a TON to be excited about.
    ——————–

    Alex Smith leads the league’s highest scoring offense.

  24. TheDPR says:
    November 1, 2017 at 10:04 am
    Savage was starting early on because the league is designed for experienced pocket quarterbacks and Watson was a running, rookie quarterback. It’s not that complicated to understand the coach’s perspective during that period of time. It appears now that Watson *may* turn out to be the exception to the rule but nevertheless, exceptions are always easier to spot in hindsight. I’m not a big fan of O’Brien but you can’t blame him for hoping to bring Watson along at a more reasonable pace.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Overall, I agree with you here. However, I did see Savage and Watson play in the pre-season and from what I saw Watson was by far the better QB. Maybe he didn’t look much better in practice but If a guy that is new and doesn’t know the system still plays better in the games than the guy that does…you start the new kid and let him learn as he goes. This coach has been terrible when it comes to his QBs and this decision was no different.

  25. Ain’t gonna lie… Watson is throwing into a lot of coverage sometimes and his Receiver makes a play… Constantly throwing into double or triple coverage will eventually catch up to him…

  26. Hey, Tom Brady was a backup until he wasn’t! Sometimes you don’t know what you have until the guy gets a chance to play. And, I don’t hear anyone calling Belechick dumb for not playing Tom sooner.

  27. dualprime says:
    November 1, 2017 at 3:44 pm
    Highest scoring offenses are:
    1. Texans 30.7
    2. Rams 30.3
    3. Chiefs 29.5

    Not bad for a rookie!
    ———————————————-
    Somebody posted the Chiefs had the highest scoring offense. Which is it?

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