With Patrick Mahomes’ contract extension out of the way and Dak Prescott playing out the year under the franchise tag, Deshaun Watson is at the head of the class when it comes to quarterbacks who could sign long-term deals at some point this year.
That subject came up when head coach Bill O’Brien met the media from Texans training camp on Friday. Watson is heading into his fourth season and the Texans have exercised their fifth-year option on his contract, but O’Brien said they’ve been “working hard” on securing Watson’s services for a longer run.
Beyond that, though, O’Brien wasn’t sharing much about where things stand.
‘We’re not going to talk about contracts in the media,” O’Brien said, via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. “We’d love to have Deshaun here for a long time. He’s here, he’s excited and we’re excited about the season.”
The existence of the franchise tag means the Texans will have the ability to extend Watson’s stay beyond 2021 even if they can’t strike an agreement on a longer contract, but there’s a lot of time to work something out between now and the point that they’d need to make such a decision.