J.J. Watt Chooses the Cardinals, a QB's Playbook for Leaving Town, Forecasting Franchise Tags | The Weak-Side Podcast

classybuzzMarch 3, 2021

27 3 minutes read

J.J. Watt’s path of clues finally led to the desert, and his free-agent choice gave us some meaty information on a Monday in March. This week on The Weak-Side Podcast, Conor and Jenny talk about:

*The response to Watt’s choice to go to Arizona, and what it says that two one-time faces of the Texans are actually enjoying collectively on one other group.

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*Will the Seahawks truly commerce Russell Wilson, or is a quarterback exerting his affect on this method the new regular?

*The prime candidates for franchise tags this 12 months, and whether or not there can be fewer gamers enjoying on the tag this season as a results of the pandemic-depleted cap.

*The newest in Conor Orr’s How-To Sequence: A Quarterback’s Information to Forcing Their Approach Out of City.

*One telling hiring metric in the NFL’s 2021 teaching demographics report.

The following transcript is an excerpt from The Weak-Side Podcast. Hearken to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.

Jenny Vrentas: Regardless of a multitude of rumors linking J.J. Watt to some rustic Midwestern outposts, the defensive finish signed with the Cardinals Monday, marking the second time in as a few years that Arizona bought a nice Texans participant for subsequent to nothing. Let’s talk about.

Conor Orr: It’s attention-grabbing to me that for those who’re the Cardinals, you favored J.J. Watt sufficient to … You didn’t wait to see who else was getting on the market; you didn’t wait to see what different GMs had been going to pay sure guys what, you realize, perhaps the market actually is depressed this offseason and also you’re going to have the ability to get a whole lot. You narrow the line and you bought J.J. Watt since you thought he was that good. And for those who’re in Houston, now all of a sudden you removed DeAndre Hopkins for subsequent to nothing. After which due to all the poor goodwill or unwell will you created, you nearly needed to launch J.J. Watt to avoid wasting face. However clearly, it appears such as you missed out on a good commerce alternative as a result of the Cardinals favored him sufficient to leap the line and signal him at a time when no person is signing gamers as a result of they don’t know what the market’s going to seem like. I’d assume that they might have been in a position to commerce him as effectively.

Jenny Vrentas: Yeah, it looks as if there ought to have been some type of commerce market for Watt. He clearly had a dialog with the group the place they got here to a choice to launch him. Clearly, there’s been a lot occurring with the Texans. It will be attention-grabbing to see if a a part of that dialog was, let’s have a peaceable divorce; we are able to’t deal with any extra noise circulating round the Texans—of their very own making I’d say. However maybe that was a part of the dialog: We are going to launch you and make it a joyful divorce, so to talk. And now he’s on to his subsequent vacation spot. That type of situation wouldn’t shock me. I believe there have been some surprises. Folks had been considering, effectively if he’s leaving the Texans, he desires to go to a group the place you might have a likelihood to win a Tremendous Bowl instantly. And the Cardinals don’t actually seem like that. That they had a very up-and-down, rollercoaster season. They definitely don’t seem like a group the place including J.J. Watt would instantly make them a prime contender at the prime of their convention. Nevertheless it’s most likely honest to anticipate that Watt had a lot of causes for wanting to go away Houston. And you’ll say you wish to go to a winner, however perhaps you simply need a contemporary begin someplace else, too.

Conor Orr: Yeah, it’ll be good. He’ll get to play the Texans as sooner or later this 12 months, the Texans and the Cardinals do face off. However I’m questioning if it’s a kind of issues the place for those who’re J.J. Watt, do you see this as an ascending franchise? And do you may have some type of assurance that, sure, they’re not going to do something humorous with Chandler Jones, that perhaps they’ll carry Haason Reddick again, that they’re going to encompass you with these varieties of men with the intention to proceed to imagine that type of Swiss-army-knife function, the place you get to hunt out advantageous matchups, you get to hurry from totally different locations. I ponder how a lot negotiation there was backwards and forwards right here. And perhaps a few of the actually deep, finite causes for this, as a result of it will seem to be there was some curiosity and such as you stated, perhaps some a clear path to a championship elsewhere.