We now know what prevented Deshaun Watson from being traded to the Miami Dolphins in advance of the Nov. 3 trade deadline.
According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Dolphins owner Steven Ross coveted Watson, but felt that before a trade could be completed, the quarterback needed to settle all 22 of the civil lawsuits he's facing that allege that the 26-year-old behaved inappropriately during massage sessions.
Unfortunately for Watson and the Dolphins, four of the 22 were not prepared to settle with the embattled quarterback at that time. It's unclear what prevented the final four plaintiffs from settling with Watson's team, whether it was a dollar figure or something else. We do know, per Florio, though, that an inability to settle all of the civil litigation he's currently facing kept him from joining the Dolphins.
Interestingly, Florio also reports that Watson was uninterested in waiving his no-trade clause to join the Carolina Panthers. David Tepper -- the team's owner -- is so desperate to find a franchise quarterback that he was apparently willing to make a major move to land Watson even without knowing how the civil cases would play out. But Watson initially wanted to leave Houston to find a more stable situation, and evidently he decided that the Panthers couldn't provide him with that.
One line of thinking is that Watson turned down a chance to play during the 2021 season by declining the opportunity to join the Panthers. However, there's a very real chance that he'll face a suspension from the NFL when he resolves all legal matters that he's facing. And without the legal matters having a resolution, Watson may have been placed on the commissioner's exempt list for the remainder of 2021 if he tried to play for the Panthers, and still left to face a suspension down the road.
Even if Watson settles all 22 civil suits, he still has a looming grand jury investigation that he's facing for his alleged conduct in Harris County, Texas. Florio hears that the grand jury looking into criminal complaints regarding Watson is likely to make a decision on whether to charge him with any crimes by the end of January 2022.
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