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Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson undoubtedly had the best individual campaign of his young career so far. In his fourth NFL season, the 3-time Pro-Bowler tallied 4,823 passing yards and averaged 8.9 yards per attempt – both of which led the league. He also had 33 passing touchdowns, while only committing seven interceptions through the whole 2020 campaign.
With these numbers, Watson joined an elite group of quarterbacks that includes Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Matt Ryan with these insane single-season stats, per Michael David Smith of NBC Sports. However, despite this major accomplishment for the 25-year old, he is the only one to do so in a losing campaign.
Article Continues BelowOnly four quarterbacks in NFL history have finished a season with more than 4,500 passing yards, more than 30 touchdowns, fewer than 10 interceptions and an average of more than 8.5 yards per pass. Those quarterbacks were:
Peyton Manning in 2004, when the Colts went 12-4.
Aaron Rodgers in 2011, when the Packers went 15-1.
Matt Ryan in 2016, when the Falcons went 11-5.
And Deshaun Watson in 2020, when the Texans went 4-12.
Watson’s performance this season was unprecedented, because ordinarily when a quarterback is playing at an MVP level, his team is winning. Watson had his great season on one of the worst teams in the NFL.
Those numbers certainly would have pushed the fourth-year quarterback into the MVP conversation this season. Unfortunately, his elite play just wasn't enough to power a slumping Texans squad into the playoffs, let alone, a winning campaign. As noted above, Houston finished with just a 4-12 mark, after winning 10 games and the AFC South last year.
It must have been frustrating for Watson to have such a terrific campaign and see it end without even reaching the postseason. Houston will now put its focus on building this team around the team's star quarterback, though, it doesn't have too many avenues at its disposal to significantly improve its roster. The Texans do not own a first or second-round pick this upcoming draft and they don't have much cap space to make a franchise-altering move. The front office will need to get creative in order to prevent back-to-back disappointing campaigns for Watson.
