Hyde: As Deshaun Watson saga again shows, Dolphins keep wandering in wilderness | Commentary
As if 1-6 isn’t bad enough … as if whiffing on draft pick after draft pick isn’t bad enough … as if misspending more tens of millions on free agents isn’t bad enough … as if being worse coming out of the latest rebuild than entering it isn’t bad enough …
There’s the Deshaun Watson serial trade story, too.
It never ends. The Dolphins go from slipping on the banana to stepping on a the rake to crashing through a window to falling down a trap door — and wonder why everyone looks at them funny.
All Dolphins owner Steve Ross had to say at any point from last March when Watson’s mess began to Tuesday at the NFL owner’s meeting was: “We don’t make trades for any player under a legal investigation involving serious allegations until we have clarity of the situation.”
He didn’t even need to say it publicly. He could have had another team official let it be known privately, just to calm the waters, let the world move on and allow this failing team to fail on its own power and without this continuous disturbance.
Instead, Ross saw reporters Tuesday at an NFL owners meeting and said, “I know what it’s about, and I’m not dealing with it.”
Not dealing with it is dealing with it. The Houston Chronicle reported no team will trade for Watson until his legal matters are cleared up. They won’t be cleared up by the trade deadline next Tuesday unless some legal surprise is coming.
But the Dolphins’ situation is clear: No team should trade for a franchise player like Watson, who is facing a criminal investigation involving several sexual assault allegations and a civil suit involving 22 similar allegations.
Another unstated idea is equally clear: Tua Tagovailoa isn’t their future, the Dolphins’ decision makers must believe. Why else let this Watson trade drag uncomfortably on? They’ve seen enough — even as they’re saying, as coach Brian Flores does, “Tua is our quarterback.”
Tagovailoa deserves a measure of understanding here. He’s a young quarterback drafted 18 months ago to be this franchise’s answer. The Dolphins catered to him — a successful offensive coordinator was let go, his quarterback coach was hired to call plays, his Alabama receiver was drafted, his run-pass-option system was installed.
All that just added to the mess. Tua has played well in the two games he returned from broken ribs. But as the Watson saga swirls around this franchise it’s like Tagovailoa is being showcased now.
Does Houston want him back in a trade if he continues playing like this? Could they get a No. 1 pick for him? Or could Tua still play well enough to change thinking about him?
Another question: Isn’t it better for the Dolphins to wait? If Watson is in cahoots to be traded to the Dolphins, his legal situation could be cleared up this winter and Houston will be desperate to trade him. His contract jumps to $40 million. No way can they keep him on the roster.
As usual, the first question around the Dolphins is: What’s the plan? The second one: Can they make it work?
Fan or media anger is irrelevant here. All those waving pitchforks and torches over all this will cheer loudly if Watson arrives and throws touchdowns. There’s no morality on the pro scoreboard. Reference: Kobe Bryant, Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Vick.
Watson will be next. He’s that good on a football field, which is why this remains the story it is. Well, that and the problems around him. Around sports, really. Around all of us.
The Washington Football Team and Chicago Blackhawks had ugly, sexual misconduct investigations involving their workplaces. Their fallout is still falling.
The Watson story is an individual one involving one of the NFL’s top players. It’s not going away quickly, either. The naïve suggestion was the Dolphins could get an answer from the league during the ongoing legal investigation about Watson’s future status.
As if the league had an answer. As if it would step into the mess before its finish. As if that’s how it all works — and two former NFL general managers said it isn’t.
“We don’t feel we have that necessary information at this point,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said when asked if Watson would be suspended if traded. So he could play right now — and maybe just right now.
The league doesn’t have enough information. Not when the legal process continues. It probably won’t have information by the trade deadline next Tuesday. It might not until some point in the offseason.
Three parties have to agree to this trade: The Texans, the Dolphins and Watson, who has a no-trade clause. He has rejected other teams, reports say. The question is why he would want the Dolphins? What does he see that no one else does?
“Organizations make quarterbacks,” Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh said.
They mess them up, too. This organization has messed up this position forever. If they’d drafted Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson or Justin Herbert in recent years they wouldn’t be in this position. Or would they? What would Ryan Tannehill say?
Tua is their quarterback on Sunday — at least until he isn’t. And the dropped bread crumbs say he won’t be when the Watson situation clears. If it ever does. As it stands, it’s the latest exhibit of an organization wandering in the wilderness of dysfunction.