The Trade Package the 49ers Should Offer for Deshaun Watson

The 49ers can get Watson after June 1 by trading only a few assets.

It seems the 49ers can get Deshaun Watson if they make the right offer.

Peter King's hypothetical seven-for-one trade is not the right offer. It's never smart to trade seven assets for one in a salary-capped football league. King should know that. But the 49ers can get Watson after June 1 by trading only a few assets.

A couple of the 49ers' best players become tradeable after June 1 -- George Kittle and Arik Armstead. If the 49ers trade those two BEFORE June 1, they would take on more than $38 million in dead cap space. But if they trade those two AFTER June 1, they'd take on only $9 million in dead cap space.

But the Texans probably don't want Kittle or Armstead. The Texans currently have only $6 million in cap space, and those two players are expensive. The Texans probably would prefer players who still are on their rookie contracts.

Which means they almost certainly don't want Jimmy Garoppolo and his $25 million salary-cap figure in 2021. No idea why King included him in his wacky seven-for-one hypothetical. The Texans would be much better off with a cheap veteran such as Andy Dalton, Ryan Fitzpatrick or Cam Newton.

The 49ers could trade Fred Warner to Houston, but the Texans already have a young stud inside linebacker -- Zach Cunningham. They don't need Warner.

What the Texans need is a pass rusher to replace J.J. Watt. Which means they should want Nick Bosa, the 49ers' most valuable trade asset. And if the 49ers trade Bosa after June 1, they'd take on only $5.6 million in dead cap and save $3.6 million in cap space.

So here's what the 49ers should offer the Texans for Watson:

1. Nick Bosa, as is. This deal would not be contingent on Bosa passing a physical, because he won't pass one until August or September.

2. The 49ers 2022 first-round pick.

3. A conditional 2023 pick. It starts as a fourth-rounder, but becomes a second-rounder if the 49ers make the playoffs in 2021 or 2022 and becomes a first-rounder if the Niners reach the Super Bowl in 2021 or 2022.

If the Texans can find a better deal, God love them. But I'm not sure they will. This is a terrific offer for them, and the absolute most the 49ers should hand over for Watson.

Make it happen.


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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.