Houston Texans: Deshaun Watson’s pathway is similar to Michael Jordan

Deshaun Watson will enter his fourth season with the Houston Texans. But is he on pace to follow the same path as Michael Jordan? Only one way to find out.

As the Houston Texans wait in vain to see when and if their season will begin, a familiar pattern is taking place with Deshaun Watson and a certain athlete. How similar is it? When you go back to the night Watson was drafted, he was compared to that athlete.

Houston Texans fans, we still have no clear conclusion of if and when the COVID-19 situation will come to an end. We still wait for the day when the Houston Texans will field a team to try and prove the skeptics, including us wrong, just weeks after the infamous trade of DeAndre Hopkins. We’re still dealing with the chaos and the confusion of what it is that our management is doing.

But there have been some positive signs over the past few weeks. The Houston Texans did pretty well in the draft. Even with what they had, they were able to pick up a couple of needs on defense. Looking at the players they drafted, I like the picks.  Now, the question becomes will these players produce because every single season, the Houston Texans follow the same pattern of drafting guys that were talented in college but have underperformed their expectations.

In what has been a nightmarish offseason, which has added to the level of frustration among this great city we call Houston, the Houston Texans are probably getting the most heat right now. Was the draft a way to save face? Maybe! But if the players can perform, then it might have been for a reason. So once again, general Bill O’Brien, who also has a double life as the head coach of the Houston Texans, seems to have picked up some picks. But what is on the field will remain to be seen.

In other news, the Texans recently signed offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil to an extension. This does do good for the Houston Texans as far as protecting Watson although more help might be needed offensively.

Speaking of which, the Houston Texans made a curious move by releasing safety Tashaun Gipson. Gipson seemed to be one of our top defensive backs, who unfortunately wasn’t 100 percent healthy when the Texans collapsed against the Chiefs. Chances were if he had been, Travis Kelce wouldn’t have had the game for Kansas City when it mattered most.

But while the move is mixed with reactions on both sides, there is a reason why. The Texans are trying to save up space in order to sign an extension with Watson. This would be huge because Watson has made the Texans a team to watch out for in the near future. Since his drafting, #4 has been the go-to guy in carrying the team. The highlights are there. The scamper vs. Cincinnati, clutch touchdown passes against the Saints, the trickery vs. New England, and recently, surviving a sack to make a clutch throw against the Bills in the playoffs setting up the winning field goal.

Yet, Watson is dealing with the reality of losing his best receiver as far as Hopkins, who got traded to Arizona with a future Hall-of-Famer and another rookie quarterback. Hopkins has also admitted he and Coach O’Brien had no relationship for the six seasons there. So right now, Watson is on a team with a general manager and coach that, while trying to build a team, is definitely putting himself in the hot seat among former players, the media, and us as fans.

A correlation between the two

Sound familiar? Well, there is a documentary going on right now on ESPN called the Last Dance. I talked about that in my previous entry. But it refers to the Chicago Bulls dynasty. After four episodes, we know and learned that Michael Jordan and his general manager, Jerry Krause, didn’t get along. Krause built the Bulls teams but ran into conflict with Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Bulls head coach Phil Jackson. Krause, who has been credited with building the Bulls’ dynasty, is also responsible for breaking up the dynasty when chances were the Bulls had another run left.

But during one episode, Krause made a trade with the Knicks to get rid of Charles Oakley in exchange for Bill Cartwright. That trade was just one of the key trades, which guided the Bulls to their first three-part of 1991-93. However, it didn’t sit well with Jordan because he and Oakley were tight. Oakley was often MJ’s protector when they were on the court. Even when Cartwright was helping the Bulls, MJ didn’t seem to acknowledge Cartwright’s play.

Now, why do I bring up a basketball saga when we’re talking football? You may remember when Watson was drafted, his college head coach Dabo Swinney had said passing up on Watson was like passing up on Michael Jordan. That did draw some stir amongst the public and maybe it was the wrong thing to say. However, what Swinney was saying was that Watson was a competitor and a winner like Jordan was. Even Raiders head coach Jon Gruden seemed to buy into Swinney’s claim. 

The comparison

But while it is still early in Watson’s career, there are some similarities.

• Both Watson and Jordan won a national championship in college.
• Both encounter injuries that made them miss most of the season.
• Both have an iconic moment in their young seasons of the playoffs. Jordan scored 63 against the champs while Watson led a comeback over the Bills.

If this thing continues, a few things need to happen.

• Watson and Texans encounter years of losing in the playoffs to tough teams like Jordan to the Pistons. Maybe the Chiefs or Ravens become the roadblock to success.
• Watson has to win a Super Bowl with the Texans in his seventh season because MJ won his first championship in his seventh season.
• Watson needs to win an MVP.
• The Texans need to find a Scottie Pippen, Bill Cartwright, John Paxson, Horace Grant, BJ Armstrong, and others to help them win.
• Watson needs to endure some struggles with the head coach and general manager Bill O’Brien.

What else could happen?

A coaching change? The Bulls fired

Doug Collins

despite coaching Jordan to great individual

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success. The man they hired took Jordan and the team to six titles in eight seasons.

A three-peat? That’s a stretch to say, but it did happen to MJ.

So we enter Watson’s fourth season with the Texans. What happened to MJ then with the Bulls?

• All-Star Game MVP?
• League MVP?
• Led team in scoring?
• Lost in the semifinals to Detroit.

Is there a trend going on here? Only Watson and the Texans can determine that. But if Houston signs an extension with Watson and if the Clemson prodigy wants to win, this could be the path he might take to get there.

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