HOUSTON — Former Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson tweeted his thoughts on the current situation surrounding quarterback Deshaun Watson‘s displeasure with the team, saying, “If I’m [Watson], I will stand my ground.”
“The Texans organization is known for wasting players careers,” the former All-Pro receiver added. “Since Jack Easterby has walk into the building nothing good has happened in/for the organization and for some reason someone can’t seem to see what’s going on. Pathetic!!!”
Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who was traded by former Texans head coach and general manager Bill O’Brien in March, also tweeted, “When Dre speak listen.”
Johnson, the Texans’ franchise leader in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns, played for Houston from 2003 to ’14. His final season was O’Brien’s first with the team. After Johnson retired, he transitioned into a role with the Texans’ coaching staff under O’Brien. In August, Johnson left the Texans’ coaching staff but continued as a Texans ambassador. Johnson and Easterby overlapped with the organization for more than a year.
Easterby, the Texans’ executive vice president of football operations, was hired by O’Brien and team chairman and CEO Cal McNair in 2019. After McNair fired O’Brien in October, he named Romeo Crennel the team’s interim head coach and gave Easterby responsibility over the personnel department.
McNair initially said Easterby would not be involved in the process of hiring the Texans’ next general manager, Nick Caserio, but he said he did ask for Easterby’s feedback “on Nick as a leader” during the decision process.
“Jack and I have had a really special relationship,” Caserio said in his introductory news conference. “It goes back a number of years. … I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for. Any personnel decisions that will be made we’ll make as a group, but ultimately that’s a responsibility that Cal has instilled in me, is to handle the personnel side of the football operations. So that’s the expectation moving forward.
“Jack will have a role and we’ll work in conjunction with each other on a number of things for sure. But as it pertains to football decisions, those will ultimately be my decision in conjunction with the head coach once we get to that point, as well.”
On the day the Texans announced they had hired Caserio, there were several media reports that Watson was unhappy with the hiring process. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Watson found out on social media that the Texans intended to hire Caserio. While there have been several reports about his unhappiness, Watson’s lone reaction about the general manager hire came in the form of a since-deleted tweet that stated, “some things never change …”
On Friday, McNair said he had reached out to Watson, but had not heard back from the quarterback while he was on vacation.