Jay Glazer: Texans Keeping Deshaun Watson 'Separated' From Teammates

Deshaun Watson is still part of the Houston Texans. He requested a trade shortly after the 2020 season concluded and then found himself embroiled in legal issues as two dozen women filed civil suits accusing him of sexual assault. It is now Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season. A conclusion to the situation seems far on the horizon.

Watson is on the active roster and was declared inactive for this week's game, as he probably will be for every game this year as long as he's on the Texans and his off-field issues remain unresolved. As reported by several insiders this morning, Houston still wants an ungodly return in any possible trade involving multiple first-round picks and talented players. Furthermore, Jay Glazer reported on FOX Sports that Houston has been keeping Watson separated from his teammates in order to try and make this Tyrod Taylor's team.

It feels like the Texans could have handled this a million different ways and instead chose one of the hardest paths. As Glazer notes above, they could have traded Watson during the draft and kick-started the rebuild. They could have pled with the NFL to have him placed on some kind of exempt list so they didn't have to carry him on the active roster. They could have just decided to wash their hands of this situation entirely and traded him over the offseason for slightly less than what they will get once this is all said and done, which seems a small sacrifice all things considered.

Instead they carried him on the roster into the regular season and will waste an inactive spot on him every week all year. And are apparently bending over backwards trying to keep him away from everyone else in the building in order to create an environment of normalcy for the guy whose supposed to replace him.

A bad situation for everyone involved right now.