LaVar Arrington isn’t brushing off the Deshaun Watson-to-the-Patriots chatter.
Watson recently generated buzz within the football world by firing off a cryptic tweet that seemingly served as an unfavorable reaction to the Texans trading his favorite target, DeAndre Hopkins. This unsurprisingly prompted quite an uproar in New England, especially considering oddsmakers recently tabbed Watson as the favorite to be the Patriots’ starting quarterback for the 2021 season.
Arrington does believe there’s some truth to the rumors, and he even came up with a potential reason why Bill O’Brien might be inclined to ship Watson to Foxboro.
“I think there’s great validity to it,” Arrington said Wednesday on FS1’s “Speak For Yourself.” “We’ve already found out from the way O’Brien is handling things that he doesn’t want something or somebody distracting or taking away from his leadership within that organization. This DeAndre Hopkins situation could’ve spurned or facilitated Deshaun Watson feeling a certain type of way, possibly speaking on levels that may make Bill O’Brien uncomfortable. We know they’re not a quarterback away in New England, but if you get a quarterback like Deshaun Watson, you’re certainly closer to being where you’re trying to be with him there versus trying to figure out who the quarterback of the future is going to be.
“With a tinfoil hat on and sitting here with my conspiracy theory, Bill O’Brien has ultimately placed himself in a situation where he may end up losing his job off of this DeAndre Hopkins situation. He’s going to end up back in New England at some point anyway, right? So why not send your quarterback there before you get kicked out and you go be his offensive coordinator the rest of the way?”
Now that’s a take.
Regardless of whether or not the Patriots are a legitimate potential landing spot for Watson, it does seem fair to wonder whether his days in Houston are numbered. As one NFL analyst explained, the 24-year-old shouldn’t feel at all motivated to sign a new, long-term deal with the Texans.
