Speculation is increasing with each passing day that a settlement could be reached sooner rather than later in the Deshaun Watson legal dispute.
With the 22 civil suits becoming front page news, Watson’s trade demands have pretty much taken a backseat in the news cycle of late, despite the fact that the Texans have made it pretty clear they are already moving on from the disgruntled quarterback and Watson has been clear about not playing another snap for the franchise.
Once the cases are settled, expect Watson to be moved fairly quickly, and according to a report from Matt Lombardo at Fansided, there are three teams to keep an eye on.
“Three teams that repeatedly came up in conversations with multiple executives were the Washington Football Team and Las Vegas Raiders, and Miami Dolphins as potential destinations for Watson,” Lombardo wrote.
NBC Sports’ Mike Florio pretty much echoed those sentiments last week on the Rich Eisen Show regarding the Dolphins, but also thinks the Eagles are still in play.
“I’d put the Dolphins and Eagles at the top,” Florio said. “The Eagles are one we’ve been saying for weeks now, desperately want a franchise QB and yes they want to give Jalen Hurts an opportunity to show he’s the guy, but if they have an opportunity to get a guy who’s shown he can do it and have him for 10 years, they’ll aggressively try to make it happen.”
Depending on the timing of any settlement, Florio also thinks the Texans can still get plenty in return for Watson, and if they can get some type of bidding war going, who knows what might happen.
“The moment these cases are settled, if it happens, that’s when the land rush begins for the Deshaun Watson contract,” Florio said. “The Texans may still get a decent return. Even though this litigation took a lot of the steam out of the talk of….somebody had told me at one point, three first-round picks; if you get two, three, four teams at the table, then the value gets pumped back into this potential trade.”
