Houston Texans: Deshaun Watson will elevate to MVP-level in 2020
Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson is on a tear and hasn’t reached his full potential just yet. This will be the season he elevates to MVP-level.
The Houston Texans will start their season in just a couple of months, with training camp starting in just two weeks from now. There have been concerns about the NFL trying to accelerate too quickly into a restart without all of the protocols for how the season will be carried out not fully finalized for 2020.
I don’t think the NFL would intentionally put players in harm’s way but if a hasty restart is made, it could have disastrous results and the league that still remains undefeated in terms of ratings and its uncanny ability to avoid any type of cancellation may have the same fate as the other sports that it competes with who are trying to get things going themselves.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is considered to be the nation’s top public health expert, has said that the NFL should consider a “bubble” concept like the NBA or they should consider canceling the season if that concept cannot be reached.
They said they’re listening to him but right now as it stands, each team will be playing in their home stadiums and weekly travel will still be required by the teams. I would certainly assume that we probably won’t see fans in the stadiums for this season but the outlook remains strong that we will see professional gridiron football for this season.
That will be the largest of narratives as things get started for the season and if that’s not large enough of a story, one will certainly be on how Deshaun Watson will grow from his 2019 campaign?
He gets better with each down that he takes for the Houston Texans and I do believe that 2020 will be his breakout year. Although he knows he’s going to get paid handsomely over the next decade, he’s still in a contract year and I’m positive he wants to prove he’s worth every dime of the massive amount of the salary expenditures that will be earmarked for him.
He’s more careful with his decision-making plus the Houston Texans have invested in talent on the offensive line to protect him after each hike of the ball from Nick Martin over to himself. Laremy Tunsil — who just signed fat contract extension himself — as well as Martin, Tytus Howard, Max Scharping, Zach Fulton and the rest of the supporting cast — will be more than adequate to protect this franchise’s most valuable asset from snap-to-snap.
The amount of progress that he’s made has transmogrified this franchise and he’s truly a player, a leader, a baller and a shot-caller — we saw that against the Bills in the Wild Card Game last season — and he’s one that you can build the foundation of a franchise on.
I never thought that this team would ever take a risk and trade up to get him but here we are, going season after season, not worrying about how we can improve at the quarterback position as in year’s past.
It’s quite a refreshing feeling and it makes me even more confident that this team will win a Super Bowl with this man at the helm. Some people have that “it” factor and Watson has plenty of that.
He’s eyeing what Patrick Mahomes is doing, the Super Bowl trophy he just picked up and wants that just as much as Mahomes wants to maintain his continuity of being the NFL’s best quarterback.
But the tables will turn, Deshaun is going to move the conversation forward and I certainly hope that with Tim Kelly calling the plays this season, it opens up Watson’s repertoire even more than it has since he came on to scene some four years ago.
He’s far from being gun-shy and has a lot of weapons, sans DeAndre Hopkins but can still get the job done with Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb, Kenny Stills and hopefully Keke Coutee.
By the way, his average depth of target was 4th among quarterbacks last season with 16.6 yards per strike. Only Matthew Stafford, Mahomes and Kirk Cousins did better than he did.
The guys at Pro Football Focus do an excellent job of evaluating talent and he’s one of just three
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quarterbacks that have had a passing grade over 70 over the past two seasons through an immense amount of games. Watson has had 20 games during that stretch and he’s tied with Russell Wilson and only trails Mahomes (22).
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the season that DW4 elevates things to a new level for the Houston Texans and although the MVP race will be tough as hell as it is every season, I think Watson will be in the conversation. He will have the best chance to win more than he ever has in his career to win it and his team will be successful because of it.
It’s what keeps him going — the cold sweats at night, the late-night training sessions, the studying of an infinite amount of film because he wants to get better every day and you can’t blame a guy for wanting to do that.
So here’s to Watson having a season of a lifetime because I think the time is now and he’s going to get it done.
Just sit back and watch…
Watson passed for 3,852 yards along with 26 passing touchdowns to 12 interceptions with a 67.3 percent completion rate and 98.0 passer rating through 15 starts in 2019. He also rushed the ball 82 times for 413 yards and seven touchdowns. Wow!