What happens if Deshaun Watson gets traded to the Falcons?

Deshaun Watson is set to meet with the Atlanta Falcons on March 16th. What would happen if Deshaun Watson does get traded to the Falcons?

In what would be a shocking move, the Atlanta Falcons could end up with Deshaun Watson on their team.  The Atlanta Falcons are set to meet with him on Wednesday.

This would be a significant move and a massive shift for the entire NFL.  The Falcons went 7-10 last year under first-year head coach Arthur Smith, who was formerly the offensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans.

Matt Ryan is set to turn 37 this season and is in the final few years of his career.  He is still an effective quarterback and has 367 touchdowns and almost 60,000 passing yards to his name.

Here’s the thing, though; what happens if Deshaun Watson does indeed want to go to the Falcons the most?  He has a no-trade clause, so he would have to approve a destination.  He essentially has the choice of where he wants to go, so long as that team is willing to make a good enough offer for Houston.

Wherever Deshaun Watson ends up, Houston is set to get a giant return to help spark their rebuild.

There might just be one problem here, though.  What the heck happens with Matt Ryan?  Obviously, the Falcons are not going to keep both Ryan and Watson on their roster, and sending Ryan to the Texans makes little sense.

This would then have to become a 3 team trade in order to pull this off.

So, Deshaun Watson goes to the Texans, and the Falcons give something like three first-round picks, Kyle Pitts, and AJ Terrell in return.  I’m not sure what the offer would end up being, but to keep things simple, let’s just put this out there.

Houston then gets their massive return for Deshaun Watson, and very good building blocks to continue their rebuild.

The Falcons would then either have to try and quickly deal Ryan or already have a deal in place with another team to acquire Ryan, before acquiring Watson.

Which team would that be?  The one that makes the most sense to me is the Indianapolis Colts, who just sent Carson Wentz to the Commanders.

I think Indy would be very willing to take Matt Ryan–they have a ton of cap space and a solid team, along with a punishing run game.

However, the cap situation with the Falcons would be interesting.  According to overthecap.com, trading Ryan as a post-June 1 designee would mean the Falcons would have to eat almost $28 million in dead money and save close to $9 million in cap space.

I am not a cap guru, but I would assume that Atlanta would re-work this to make the trade more palpable.  Plus, they’d have to ensure they’d have enough space to fit Watson in their books.

Whose else would Matt Ryan fit with?  Perhaps the Cleveland Browns?  They are apparently open to moving Baker Mayfield, but then who would acquire Mayfield?

Could this trade go something like:

Texans receive: Baker Mayfield  + ATL picks/players for Watson
Falcons receive: Deshaun Watson + CLE picks for Ryan
Browns receive: Matt Ryan + HOU picks for Mayfield

I’m not sure if this is even going to be logistically and financially possible, but I think something like this would need to happen if Deshaun Watson wants to go to the Atlanta Falcons.