Panthers wouldn’t give Deshaun Watson the contract he wanted. Let’s explore why not
As negotiations for the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes came to the bitter end, his team called the Panthers with a request on Thursday.
They asked Carolina if it could guarantee him money on the third and fourth year on his four-year, $156 million deal as part of what would’ve been a blockbuster trade agreement. Those years are not guaranteed as it’s structured now, and the team could move on without much penalty.
Representatives for the Panthers declined the unprecedented proposal. Later that night, around 9:10 p.m., they called back. Watson informed the team that he would not waive his no-trade clause for them.
It was the final straw in an all-out blitz the Panthers made for the 26-year-old quarterback this month. In a stunning turn of events, Watson decided to waive his no-trade clause for the Cleveland Browns, who were earlier told they were no longer under consternation. Watson changed his mind when Cleveland agreed to give him a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract, the highest guarantee in NFL history.
While Watson was enamored by Carolina’s skill position players — Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore and Robby Anderson —he preferred the Saints and Falcons, a league source said, and for different reasons. Atlanta was a late addition to the sweepstakes. When they emerged, they became an ideal landing spot. Watson likes the idea of playing for Atlanta because its close to his hometown of Gainesville, Georgia, which is an hour away.
As for New Orleans, the feeling was that the Saints nearly made the playoffs last season and featured a more Super Bowl-caliber roster. The Panthers did not.
According to Football Outsiders DOVA metric, New Orleans’s defense finished second in efficiency last season. The Panthers ranked 15th. The Saints also feature the NFL’s seventh-best pass-blocking offensive line, according to ESPN’s pass-block win rate metric.
Then why did Carolina back away from perhaps its strongest bargaining chip? No one will say. But the answer likely lies in why Watson and Texans were at this point in the first place, one year after he initially made his request to be traded.
Watson is still facing 22 civil lawsuits from different massage therapists alleging sexual assault and sexual misconduct. The Panthers felt comfortable enough with his current contract after conducting their own research.
The civil lawsuits could take a year or more to resolve, unless he were to settle them out of court. And the NFL is known for taking a while in its investigations.
But guaranteeing him two more years before the NFL, which is conducting its own investigation and could suspend him, could be an enormous risk. Let alone the trouble they’d be in if another woman were to accuse him.
Watson has asserted his innocence from the beginning. His attorney, Rusty Hardin, told The Observer in an interview that, “He’s a really, really neat human being. And he probably showed bad judgment, maybe by getting involved with all these women, but he didn’t do anything wrong.”
It’s also reasonable to ask ‘if the Panthers were comfortable with the first two years, then why not the last two?’ Perhaps the risk on his last two could be too great.
Now Carolina will move on and search for another quarterback. They’ll spend the $5 million they saved on Robby Anderson’s restructured contract, as well as the other players they restructured, and spend it elsewhere, without the risk.
This story was originally published March 18, 2022 at 2:11 PM with the headline "Panthers wouldn’t give Deshaun Watson the contract he wanted. Let’s explore why not."
