Deshaun Watson's season-ending ACL injury sent shockwaves across the football world on Thursday night. Players, from Houston and elsewhere, sent the Texans quarterback their sympathies over social media.
On TNF Gameday, three veterans with injury histories offered their insights into Watson's devastating blow, including one former quarterback who could have been a Texan this season, Tony Romo.
"He's playing as well as anybody in the NFL right now. For a guy to come in, not with as much talent around him as some other quarterbacks, he actually came into a situation where they weren't playing good offensive football and he completely turned that around," Romo explained on TNF Gameday on NFL Network. "Him being inserted, all of a sudden now they're one of the better offenses you see, week in and week out. It's going to be interesting to see how they can evolve and change it back a little bit now, but they're not going to be the same."
NFL Network analyst Michael Irvin reminded us that, while the future is bright with Watson under center for hopefully a decade, the Texans will have to rewrite their 2017 campaign and start from scratch on offense.
"It's back to the drawing board for the rest of this season," Irvin said. "Not back to the drawing board because you have your future. You have your future. You know he's your future. He was so good in the sample size that he gave us that you know you're in great hands for the next 10, 15 years. But this is just sad news."
Romo emphasized that Watson's play was even more special, more so than his young counterparts in Philadelphia and Dallas, because his supporting cast left more to be desired.
"I think what Deshaun was doing in Houston was rare," the acclaimed CBS color commentator explained. "As a rookie, you come in and you play and you really don't have this special group in front of you. It's really the line. As a rookie, you need time. Things are just so fast and everything. If you have time, you can use your skill-set. If you don't, you better know the game at another level. For him to do what he did, that was unique."
Tom Savage will replace Watson under center. Savage started Houston's Week 1 loss to the Jaguars but was replaced at halftime by Watson. NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that the Texans are signing former Raiders quarterback Matt McGloin, who played under Texans coach Bill O'Brien at Penn State.Â
Now without their starting quarterback, their two best defensive players (J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus) and their starting left tackle (Duane Brown, who returned from a holdout last week only to be promptly traded to the Seahawks), Houston is in a massive hole in the AFC South. Just one game under .500, the Texans suddenly feel far behind in the division as they attempt to remake the league's leading scoring offense on the fly.Â
Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk summed up the shame of the whole situation.
"It's devastating on all accounts," Faulk said. "When you think about just what he had embarked on, the things that he began to do and how he started to make his mark on this league, the comparisons that people were talking about. I mean, just think about the game that he just had, he and Russell Wilson, and what we were saying about this kid being the future of our league, it's just devastating for him."
