One of the storylines that the NFL world is watching this offseason is quarterback Deshaun Watson’s push to be traded from the Texans.
The Jets are one of the teams frequently mentioned as a place Watson could wind up because they have cap space, four first-round picks over the next two drafts, and a need for a clear franchise quarterback to lead their offense. General Manager Joe Douglas can’t comment directly on Watson, but he did field a question about trading draft capital for a veteran player at his Wednesday press conference.
“Obviously we have a lot of different scenarios and a lot of different rabbit holes we can go down,” Douglas said. “Not to get so much into a hypothetical question, but I just go back to the same thing I said before about our philosophy. Ultimately for us to get to where the great teams are, the most consistent teams are, you do that through the draft. It’s the most team friendly market in sports. For us to really be that team that’s consistently competing for Super Bowls, we have to hit on our draft picks.”
As Douglas noted, it was a hypothetical question and the answer is one that most, if not all, General Managers would give when asked about trading high-value picks for players. Watson may be a player that is he exception to Douglas’ general rule, but the Texans will have to start answering calls about the quarterback to know if that’s the case.