NFL strips Texans of fifth-round draft pick for salary cap violation with Deshaun Watson

Posted by Michael David Smith on March 9, 2023, 3:34 PM EST
Wild Card Round - Buffalo Bills v Houston Texans
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The Texans have been fined and stripped of a fifth-round draft pick for a salary cap violation.

The NFL is taking the Texans’ 2023 fifth-round pick and fining the team $175,000 for violating the salary cap by providing Deshaun Watson with “undisclosed compensation in the form of a membership at an alternative athletic facility in 2020,” the league announced.

The violation stems from the Texans paying $26,000 for a local training facility where Watson was training while the Texans’ facility was closed because of COVID-19, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

That was Watson’s final season in Houston. He played for the Texans in 2020 but sat out the entire 2021 season and then was traded to the Browns in 2022.

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37 responses to “NFL strips Texans of fifth-round draft pick for salary cap violation with Deshaun Watson”

  3. While it was “only” a 26k membership… seems like a larger violation than 5th round pick.

  6. Umm, this is a violation? Pathetic “violation”.

    A membership to encourage working out away from the facility, but yet Goodell signs off on his activity at massage facilities with a reward from Cleveland and to continue his career in the NFL?

    How pathetically backwards is the NFL?

  8. Watson, the gift that keeps giving to Houston!

    Speaking of QB follies for the Texans, I wonder how much the Garapolo blabbing/tampering is going to cost them. I’d think it’d be a 2nd or 3rd since it was only a mention to media rather than actual negotiations like Miami did.

  12. The 49ers violated the salary cap to back in the ’80s and they got off easy too!

  13. More like they paid for his “massages” and this is the NFLs’ way of a hush hush fining them with only a 5th round pick. One that has 30% chance of making the team

  14. The Texans are perhaps the worst organization in football and are lucky to be so irrelevant that no one cares.

  15. Why does it take them so long to do these kinds of devastating things to teams! They should have known at the time and acted at the time! I don’t get why everything with the NFL is like a bunch of blind, senile 87 year old men are managing things!

  17. jjfootball says:
    March 9, 2023 at 3:54 pm
    The 49ers violated the salary cap to back in the ’80s and they got off easy too!

    73Rate This

    —————-

    That was the 90s. The Cheating Steeelers did as well as did the Cowboys. But, no one will ever to the Broncos doing it 3 years in a row, hands down the greatest cheating scandal the NFL has ever seen. 3 years in a row. Good grief.

  18. This would have been better described by the league as “aggravated incompetence”. I highly doubt this was an intentional failure to report the expense, risking fine and pick loss over 26k. It was just another instance of the Texans franchise making unforced errors.

  19. billshistorian says:
    March 9, 2023 at 3:40 pm
    Desean Watson. The gift that keeps on giving.

    His nickname should be herpes.

  20. touchback6 says:
    March 9, 2023 at 3:43 pm
    Umm, this is a violation? Pathetic “violation”.

    A membership to encourage working out away from the facility, but yet Goodell signs off on his activity at massage facilities with a reward from Cleveland and to continue his career in the NFL?

    How pathetically backwards is the NFL?
    ——————————————-
    1 – Salary cap violation
    2 – Suspended from the team and the teams facility; meaning, he was exiled from team contact and support
    3 – Almost every profession involves spending a small amount of money on career development. So, Watson could have paid that cost with 0.0005% of his current annual salary.

  21. That’s a team medical expense. The players don’t pay for their own medical treatments. They don’t pay for their own airplane flights and hotels when they have away games. They don’t buy their own cleats and helmets.

  23. 26k for a local training facility? am I the only one wondering what he got out of that deal? Seems kind of excessive.

  24. Funny how about a year ago, he was THE man…guaranteed deal, subject of national (football-related) headlines…so young and talented… and now you hear how stacked the AFC is with QBs, and his name doesnt even come up.
    One question: Why did this surface 3 years after the fact?

  25. I don’t get why everything with the NFL is like a bunch of blind, senile 87 year old men are managing things!
    ==========

    You’re not that far off.

    About half of the owners are trust fund babies that never worked a day in their life.

  26. jjfootball says:
    March 9, 2023 at 3:54 pm
    The 49ers violated the salary cap to back in the ’80s and they got off easy too!
    ————
    No salary cap in the 80s. They got docked in 1996 for a violation

    This Houston thing is ridiculous. They close their facility and give him some money for gym. Lol

  27. jjfootball says:
    March 9, 2023 at 3:54 pm
    The 49ers violated the salary cap to back in the ’80s and they got off easy too!
    **************************

    That was the 90’s.

  28. NathanGau says:
    26k for a local training facility? am I the only one wondering what he got out of that deal? Seems kind of excessive.

    jetsfan12 says:
    One question: Why did this surface 3 years after the fact?

    ——————————————————————

    The Houstonian is a private club. There are initiation fees. It is expensive. $26K is not excessive for The Houstonian.

    This is not surfacing 3 years after the fact. It was widely reported in Houston in the weeks following the initial accusations.

  29. Texans seem snake bit lately. First, they win a meaningless game against the Colts that knocked them out of the first pick and now this.

  31. bobhk says:
    March 9, 2023 at 4:45 pm
    jjfootball says:
    March 9, 2023 at 3:54 pm
    The 49ers violated the salary cap to back in the ’80s and they got off easy too!
    ————
    No salary cap in the 80s. They got docked in 1996 for a violation

    This Houston thing is ridiculous. They close their facility and give him some money for gym. Lol

    22Rate This

    —————-

    Actually, SF and Dallas got docked in 1994, Pitt in 1995 and Denver with their ‘95, ‘96 and ‘97 egregious and arrogant 3 year run of cheating all the other NFL teams with unabashed intentions.

  32. Nick Caserio G.M. resume. a) selects Stingley over Gardner b) uses 8 draft packs, getting absolutely swindled in 2 draft day trades, to select Stingley, Metchie and Collins; Stingley played 1 out of 3 yrs at LSU, misses 50% of 1st season; Metchie had torn ACL in SEC Championship, wasn’t going to play in 2023 c) Collins has played in less than 50% of his games in 2 yrs. 8 draft picks for effectively 1 player on a team in desperate need of players. d) created ~$60M of dead cap space in each of 2 yrs, gives him plausible deniability e) meaning he had one contract of significant value in Brandon Cooks to deal with and he screwed that up…contract was so bad Caserio couldn’t trade him last fall when he wanted to. I could go on. Basically Caserio drafts players that don’t play due to injury and creates no cap space…all designed to give him plausible deniability. He’s a horrible and very dumb GM…which makes him perfect for Owner Cal McNair…the Dumber and Dumber Duo.

  33. mikecrabtreeschain says:
    March 9, 2023 at 4:04 pm
    The Texans are perhaps the worst organization in football and are lucky to be so irrelevant that no one cares.

    Danny Snyder says “hold my beer”

  34. The Texans were aiding and enabling nefarious massages for their star player. Even to go as far as to show a 21 year-old how to use NDAs effectively. The NFL apparently defines this now as ” Salary Cap Violation” … um sure, OK. We’ll go with that one. The public will NEVER catch on.

  35. Thinking that workout the Texans paid for was all bout a lot of hot, steamy, massage therapy – and they got caught. Prove me wrong…

  37. This is super sketch… During COVID when players couldn’t come to the facility, teams were shipping workout equipment to them. How long was this needed, 3 months? You could hire amazing trainers, rent a warehouse that is isolated from COVID and everything else, and buy a ton of workout equipment for well under $20k.

    Additionally, most players who have made over $10M have a workout room in their home.

    This doesn’t add up

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