This Texans-Chiefs Trade Involving Sammy Watkins Actually Makes Sense
By Karl Rasmussen
Houston Texans head coach/GM Bill O'Brien made the mind-boggling decision to offload DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for injury-prone RB David Johnson and a second and fifth round pick. The team then tried to replace Hopkins by signing Randall Cobb.
While Cobb is a talented player, the team still needs to provide Deshaun Watson with more weapons in order to keep him content in Houston. One player who might be available and could likely be acquired at a relatively generous price is Kansas City Chiefs WR Sammy Watkins.
I don't expect the Chiefs to be done today in creating cap space.
— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) March 18, 2020
Converting $5M of Frank Clark's base and declining Cam Erving's option do enough to get under the threshold, but more is needed.
A few players to keep an eye on include Sammy Watkins and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif
Any deal for Watkins would require the Texans to take on his $21 million cap hit, though his contract is due to expire at the end of the season. If O'Brien were willing to take on the wideout at that cost, he could provide Watson with another experienced weapon and possibly work to extend him on a more reasonable deal when his contract expires.
The Chiefs likely won't be asking for much if given the chance to offload Watkins' contract, and we expect the team would require no more than a late pick, such as a fifth or sixth-rounder, to get the deal done, while also potentially taking on an expiring contract from the Texans. Perhaps someone like Kenny Stills, who is due around $7 million and will hit free agency after the season, could be included in order to lessen the financial burden on Houston.
Amazing that the Chiefs were able to get under the cap threshold and we STILL have no read on the futures of Sammy Watkins and Chris Jones.
— Matt Conner (@MattConnerAA) March 18, 2020
Despite Watkins' Super Bowl heroics, the Chiefs have bigger fish to fry when it comes to future contracts, and have long been looking for a way to offload the 26-year-old. With the Texans in need of more weapons for Watson to pair with Cobb and the oft-injured Will Fuller, perhaps O'Brien would be willing to take on Watkins' contract in exchange for minimal draft capital.