Adam Schefter Calls Eagles Most "Equipped" Team for Possible Deshaun Watson Trade
Ever since the Eagles cut ties with Carson Wentz as their franchise quarterback, speculation has been rampant that Jalen Hurts may not be capable of taking the team back to Super Bowl contention.
As usual, there aren’t many elite quarterbacks sitting around in free agency or rumored to be on the outs with their current team, so finding a franchise quarterback that way was always going to be fraught for the Eagles.
But there is one elite quarterback out there who desperately wants out of his current situation. Deshaun Watson has made it very public that he has had it with losing in Houston:
Deshaun Watson won't attend Texans OTAs, still wants to be traded (per @TomPelissero)https://t.co/Q97hoM8EBp pic.twitter.com/3xLoaW1akX
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) May 24, 2021
ESPN’s Adam Schefter appeared on John Kincade’s 97.5 The Fanatic morning show earlier today and dropped a minor bombshell:
The Eagles are more equipped to make a run at Deshaun Watson than any team out there.
This observation is, to some degree, just common sense. The Eagles have accumulated draft capital in recent years, and the Houston Texans are probably looking at a full rebuild with (or especially without) Watson.
This potential acquisition for the Eagles gets super dicey, though, given several pending civil lawsuits against Watson alleging sexual assault of multiple women.
Throughout Jeffrey Lurie’s time as the Eagles’ owner, he has stressed how his goal is for the Eagles to be the “gold standard” of NFL franchises. A big part of that goal is finding not only the best players, but also the best people who also happen to be great at football.
On current evidence, it would be difficult to square a trade for Watson with the Eagles’ long-stated desire to be something more than just another win-at-all-costs NFL team.
DeShaun Watson to the Eagles? Adam Schefter said Philly is the most equipped team to get him. We also know there is a lot going on with Watson right now. How would you feel if the Eagles made the move? 610-632-0975
— 97.5 The Fanatic (@975TheFanatic) July 14, 2021
The phrase “there is a lot going on with Watson right now” is doing some very heavy lifting in that tweet.
Soft-pedaling the issue of a powerful man allegedly serially abusing women — some of them possibly women of color — is a very dangerous path to walk in the current sociopolitical climate, not that it was ever the right thing to do. Watson’s off-the-field trouble turns a no-brainer move for a difference-maker, a player who would probably put the Eagles back into the discussion in terms of winning the NFC East this season, into a serious dilemma.
Hopefully you didn’t come to this story looking for a declarative “right answer” here, because given what we know and what we don’t know about Watson’s future, there isn’t one.