Where do things stand with Deshaun Watson? I’m not gonna ask to comment on the legal stuffbecause that’s gonna work itself out. Do you still view Deshaun Watson as the starting QB of the Houston Texans and plan for him to be the starting QB for the Houston Texans week 1?
Like you said, the legal process is a separate entity. That’s a pretty active situation. We’ll leave that to the authorities. As it pertains to the team, we’re kinda day to day with everything, with everybody. From the beginning since I’ve taken the job to now, we’ve had a lot of change and there’s been a lot of activity. I suspect as we work towards the start of training camp and into the regular season, that we’ll continually have changes to the roster. What those look like, what that entails, we’re not sure. We’re just day to day, going through it one day at a time and trying to get ready for the next phase, which we think is the offseason program. That’s what I would say as it pertains to that situation.
You’ve said Deshaun is your QB and plan for Deshaun to be your QB. Do you still feel that way?
We’ll take it one day at a time. Everything is pretty fluid is here. We’ll adjust as we go. We’ll do what we feel is best for the Houston Texans organizationally.
So you’d be open to a trade?
Ultimately we’ll do what we feel is best for the organization.
Have you talked to him?
I don’t want to give any comment about what conversations have taken place with players. I’ve talked to a lot of different players. Those conversations are private and to remain between the respective parties and that’s out of respect to everybody involved.
You’ve had about 3 months in the building to set things up, hire a coach. The other thing that is a big topic of conversation down there is Jack Easterby. You and Jack go way back. You know him really well. Can you give me an idea of how his role flows into your role and kinda how Jack’s role has evolved now maybe that you’re in the building as the guy in charge of football operations?
I’ve known Jack a long time, probably longer than anybody in the building here in Houston. Jack is very gifted. He has a lot of great qualities. I can’t really speak to what happened in the past relative to his role. There’s a lot of people in a building. Everyone has an important job, an important responsibility. The way we’re set up organizationally, the way the McNair’s have granted me the responsibility to oversee all football decisions as it pertains to the roster and that’s working in conjunction with Coach Culley and his staff. The last two to three months have been indicative of that. We’ve had multiple meetings and conversations about our team, about perspective players we’re going to bring in and those conversations have been very beneficial and fruitful.
If you speak to anybody, a lot of players — some pretty good players through the years, Matthew Slater, Tom Brady, James White, David Andrews, the list goes on and on — Jack’s impact on our team and in the building was pretty significant. You’d find to a man how they feel about him. Jack’s an important part of what we’re doing. We should all be grateful he’s here. He has plenty of responsibility that he’s been given but as it pertains to football decision making, football roster building and those types of things, that’s the reason that I was brought in and that’s my responsibility and Jack has his role, just like a lot of other people do within the football department.