Yes…Houston is underestimating their own opportunity cost in not being able to move on. They‘ve assessed the market for six months. Every team has talked about what they’d trade, if anything, for Watson. They could have just said “highest bidder - all sales final” and gotten a lower return or included some type of conditional.
Now, they apparently think that going into 2022 the market will heat up. I don’t see that happening. They’ll have a guy who just got paid all this money to sit on the bench, hasn’t played for a year, still hasn’t served an imminent suspension, and could potentially have even more problems. A year on the bench, maybe another half season suspended…will be 27 which isn’t old but isn’t 24 either.
If I’m a team, I’m sure thinking even more about whether I want to give up multiple picks for this guy. The draft suddenly has some appeal for QBs and other teams might be willing to consider trading Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, etc for multiple first round picks. Teams in October, with fans demanding success and coaches/GMs desperate, are a lot more likely to make a move like this than in March when the possibilities are endless.
If I were Houston, I would have considered trading Watson for virtually zero draft compensation, just as long as someone would take that mega contract he just signed. If they’re actually turning down multiple first round picks, Caserio/Easterby and those team of morons are even dumber than I thought, which was a high bar to clear.