What would it take for the Vikings to acquire Deshaun Watson?
By Adam Patrick
Is there even a chance that the Minnesota Vikings could acquire Deshaun Watson this offseason?
It hasn’t even been a week into the 2021 offseason for the Minnesota Vikings yet and rumors about their plans for the next few months are already getting out of control.
ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio reported on Thursday that he’s heard rumors of Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson wanting to be traded this year. Watson, who just signed a massive extension with the Texans, is coming off a 2020 season in which he threw for 4,823 yards, 33 touchdowns, and seven interceptions.
This intriguing rumor now has some Vikings fans thinking that there’s an actual possibility of their favorite team acquiring the Houston quarterback in a trade this year.
Don’t bet on Deshaun Watson landing with the Minnesota Vikings
Based on the fact that he’s still only 25-years-old and he’s already one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, a team will need to give up a tremendous amount of assets to acquire Watson in a trade.
According to NFL insider Benjamin Albright on Thursday, the Texans are not interested in dealing Watson this offseason and he’s been told that a return package including three first-round draft picks, three second-round selections, and a player is something that “might start the conversation,” about a possible trade.
Based on Minnesota’s current roster and salary cap situation, giving up a huge amount of assets to land Watson would pretty much defeat the whole purpose of acquiring the quarterback.
Since they aren’t expected to have a ton of salary-cap space in 2021, the Vikings’ best route of upgrading their roster this offseason will be through the draft. If Minnesota gives up six draft picks to acquire Watson, then how would they improve the rest of their roster to get back to the playoffs next season?
Houston already proved in 2020 that having Watson on their roster wasn’t enough since they only managed to win four games. It probably wouldn’t be much different for the quarterback if he ended up with the Vikings.
We haven’t even talked about the fact that Minnesota doesn’t even have a 2021 second-round draft pick to offer. Plus, what are the Vikings going to do with Kirk Cousins? It’s highly unlikely that the Texans would take Cousins as part of a trade for Watson.
Minnesota could potentially send Cousins to another team this offseason and create a need for a new starting quarterback. But then we are back to the Vikings not being able to make an offer for Watson without significantly weakening other parts of their roster.
Crazy trades happen every year during the NFL offseason, but Houston sending their star quarterback to Minnesota isn’t one that people should be considering as something that is realistic.