Most of the reporting done regarding last year’s Deshaun Watson sweepstakes revealed the Atlanta Falcons were set to land the embattled quarterback via trade prior to the Cleveland Browns’ $230M fully-guaranteed contract winning out. Falcons owner Arthur Blank is determined to change that narrative.
Asked about the differences between Watson and Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, Blank said staff conversations led the team to view Watson as a poor fit relatively early in their assessment.
“I think we explored the one last year, which is what our responsibility was,” Blank said, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter. “We didn’t explore it deeply, deeply. We spent some time on it from a legal standpoint, personal standpoint, value standpoint on the player and a variety of things. Soon after we got into exploring, we decided it wasn’t a very good match.
“… I think Lamar’s situation, and I don’t really want to spend a whole lot of time talking about players on other clubs, but Lamar’s situation, I think is very different. A different player. Different time.”
A report published on the day Houston agreed to send Watson to Cleveland indicated that Atlanta was “very close” to acquiring the Georgia native. Watson had narrowed his list to the Falcons and Saints briefly, and the quarterback was believed to be recruiting Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette to Atlanta. That report and others later in the year framed Watson as being Atlanta-bound were it not for Cleveland’s historic offer.
The Texans only permitted the four finalists to meet with Watson had they offered satisfactory trade compensation, pointing to Atlanta being much farther down the Watson road compared to Blank’s recollection.
Watson's historic deal with the Browns has had an immediate impact on Jackson's current stay in limbo, as he has reportedly been seeking guarantees on the level of Cleveland's signal-caller. No other quarterback is tied to a guarantee north of $124M and teams have attempted to make the Watson accord an outlier. Thus far, those efforts have been successful.
The Falcons drafted Cincinnati QB Desmond Ridder a few weeks after missing on Watson and have publicly committed to the third-round pick as their 2023 starter. With Atlanta having not made the playoffs since 2017 and Ridder far from a sure thing, this would seem to be one of the most logical Jackson suitors.
No team has truly emerged as a front-runner for Jackson to this juncture and Blank alluded to the former MVP's run-oriented skillset as one of the reasons for his own team's current stance. Jackson’s recent injury history (11 missed games since 2021) is believed to have affected teams’ interest levels, though his contractual demand has long been viewed as the main impediment.
“Looking at it objectively, there is some concern about whether or not he can play his style of game for … how long can that last,” Blank said. “I’m not sure. He’s only 26. Hopefully a long time for his benefit or anybody that he’s signed with. But he’s missed five to six games each of the last two years. This is not like baseball and basketball where you’re playing 82 or a 182 games, or whatever baseball is now.”
Blank confirmed Arthur Smith, GM Terry Fontenot and Falcons CEO Rich McKay have looked into Jackson. Blank was not involved in the evaluation, though. And while he called Jackson “one of the top quarterbacks in this league,” the team does not appear to have any interest of reentering the would-be sweepstakes. Four-year Bearcats starter Ridder worked as the Falcons’ first-stringer in four games last season. He completed 63.5 percent of his passes, two TD passes and no INTs, but averaged just 6.2 yards per attempt.
“It’s not just the last four games he played,” Blank said. “That’s a piece of the pie. It’s really what he’s shown since the day he started … he showed up on campus as a leader. … He’s matured a lot during the whole time after the draft, OTAs, [pre]season, in camp and what have you and then throughout the season.
“I think the sense was when talking to the coaches and coach Smith declared today, if you will, that we internally knew that he was going to be our starting quarterback next year.”
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