Deshaun Watson ultimately landed with the Cleveland Browns, but there were moments when it seemed like the Atlanta Falcons had a real chance to acquire the quarterback.
Watson, after a grand jury decided not to pursue criminal charges, fielded meetings with a few teams as he forced a trade from the Houston Texans.
The Falcons made their presentation over Zoom, and owner Arthur Blank shared insight into their Watson pursuit on 92.9 The Game’s “Dukes and Bell” on Tuesday.
"No, I certainly wasn’t (the driving force to pursue him),” Blank said. “That was really driven by our football folks, but I’m certainly aware of it, certainly part of the process and when we did the interview with Deshaun which was about an hour and 15 minutes I was part of the group. We did the amount of work, which was somewhat extensive but not totally extensive, to match at least an hour and 15 minute interview. That was as far as we went. Obviously the criminal charges have all been dropped against him, but these civil allegations are serious and we have great sympathy for those individuals that were affected. What shakes out from it I don’t know, he’ll go through a process.
“As you both know and our fans know, Deshaun was with us for four years as a ballboy, developed a great relationship with Matt (Ryan) during those four years and his fellow ballboys, but really the whole staff at Flowery Branch. Our experience with him was good, Coach (Dabo) Swinney at Clemson had nothing but great things to say about him, he left there with a very clean record. What’s happened since then I can’t really comment on because I don’t really know, but it’s certainly serious and we certainly understand the significance of the allegations.
“No, it wasn’t me (who backed out),” Blank later added. “I think collectively we had our discussion with them, and then really it was up to the Texans at that point whether they wanted to pursue it with one team, multiple teams, and up to the player. Deshaun, as our fans probably know, had a no-trade clause in his contract, which simply means that he had the option of declining to go to a certain place if he didn’t feel comfortable. … He had that option, but which teams he approved and which ones he didn’t I really don’t know. The only thing I know is that we were granted the opportunity to have a visit with him by Zoom, which is what we did.”
Blank insisting that he wasn’t the one who backed out nor led the charge to go after Watson is interesting. In an interview with NFL Network on Tuesday, Blank said he was among the people who led their Watson pursuit.
“It was driven by a group of us, myself, our President and CEO Rich McKay, our head coach Arthur Smith, Terry Fontenot, our general manager, so it was a group decision.”
Either way, Watson decided he didn’t want to go to Atlanta. The Falcons and Saints reportedly were skeptical of giving him the new contract he was seeking, and the Browns evidently weren’t. How much more there is to the story is something only Watson and a few others know for certain.
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