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Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson is coming off of a very impressive second season in the NFL, leading his team to 11 wins and an AFC South division title.
Of course, the Texans bowed out to the Indianapolis Colts in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, but this is a very good football team that should be a contender in the AFC this coming season.
Just like with any other team in the league, Houston's hopes largely hinge on the right arm of its signal-caller, and based on what we have seen from Watson in each of his first two seasons, he is more than up for the challenge.
Here are a few predictions for Watson going into 2019.
3. He Will Throw for Around 4,500 Yards
Watson does not have the arm strength of a Patrick Mahomes, so he will likely never be able to throw for 5,000 yards in a single season. However, he threw for a very solid 4,165 yards this past year with the Texans, so there is every reason to believe he can approach 4,500.
With weapons like DeAndre Hopkins, Will Fuller, and Keke Coutee, Watson has an arsenal of targets of whom to throw the football, so as long as he makes accurate throws, he should be able to pile up the yards.
In 2018, Watson completed 68.3 percent of his passes, so he is certainly capable of being an accurate quarterback.
He may need his wide outs to run intermediate routes due to his inability to consistently through the ball deep, but Tom Brady has made an all-time great career out of hitting receivers on short slant routes while racking up yardage in the process.
2. He Will Throw for 30 or More Touchdowns
Watson threw 26 touchdown passes this past season, and keep this in mind: he totaled 19 touchdowns through just seven games before tearing his ACL during his rookie campaign.
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Had Watson remained healthy during his first year, he almost certainly would have ended up with over 30 touchdown tosses and may have even finished with around 35.
With the 23-year-old becoming a more precise passer in 2018, it actually seems hard to imagine him not throwing at least 30 touchdowns next season. Plus, it looks like Watson will have a healthy Fuller in 2019, and Coutee is likely to improve after a solid rookie campaign.
Think about this for a minute: through 23 career NFL games, Watson has amassed 45 touchdown passes. That is 1.96 touchdowns per game, which would put him at 31 over the course of a full 16-game season.
1. He Will Be an MVP Candidate
While the AFC should be really, really good this coming year, we know that the Texans will, at the very least, be in the playoff hunt, but if Watson can get this team to 11 or 12 wins and capture a division title in a tough AFC South, he might end up being an MVP candidate.
This past season, Mahomes was the breakout quarterback. Could it be Watson's turn in 2019?
What we know about Watson is that he can hurt you both with his arm and his legs, as he also rushed for 551 yards and five scores in 2018 on top of his passing stats.
So, if the Clemson product is able to send opposing defenses scrambling with his versatility, posts bigger numbers than he did in 2018 and leads the Texans to another division crown, he should be one of the finalists for the MVP award.
