Texans news: Houston joins list of bad promises with Deshaun Watson

Deshaun Watson wants a trade, but the Houston Texans say they're not trading him. That surely won't backfire in the near future.

As their season neared its end, one rumor surrounding the Houston Texans that persisted was that quarterback Deshaun Watson wanted to leave the team. After starting as a rumor, recent reports state that Watson has officially requested a trade from the Texans, and even the recent hire of new head coach Dave Culley will reportedly not change his mind.

Culley, however, doesn’t seem to be bothered by the trade rumors surrounding the 25-year-old signal-caller, believing that he will stay with the team by the time the new season starts and stating that he wants Watson to remain a Houston Texan:

New Texans head coach David Culley on Deshaun Watson: "He is a Houston Texan. I want him to be a Houston Texan. The reason I'm in this position today is because I know he's going to be a Houston Texan."

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 29, 2021

This echoes a sentiment by general manager Nick Caserio, who also stated that the team has no intention of dealing away Watson despite his trade request:

Texans’ GM Nick Caserio: "Before we take a few questions: Organizationally, we want to reiterate our commitment to Deshaun Watson. We have zero interest in trading the player."

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 29, 2021

However, this is hardly the first time that a coach or team executive made a bold statement about one of their players, only to be proven wrong later on. Two years ago, New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman denied rumors that the team would be trading wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., only to deal him to the Cleveland Browns later that year:

Gettleman: We didn’t sign Odell to trade him.

— New York Giants (@Giants) January 2, 2019

Another instance would be Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury stating that the team would stick with quarterback Josh Rosen:

same energy pic.twitter.com/fQrzbXzHH9

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) January 29, 2021

But armed with the first overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, the Cardinals used the pick to select Kyler Murray out of Oklahoma and then traded Rosen to the Miami Dolphins.

The question now is whether these latest statements regarding Watson remaining in Houston will join proclamations made by other teams regarding the status of their players that later turned out to be false.