PALM BEACH, Fla. — Detroit Lions president Rod Wood said Monday the team never seriously considered pursuing troubled quarterback Deshaun Watson in a trade before he was dealt to the Cleveland Browns earlier this month.
“We have a quarterback, so we were never in the game for that,” Wood said at the NFL’s annual meeting. “I don’t think — I don’t want to get into the off-the-field stuff and what the Browns talked about what they did and the other teams that pursued him, but it just wasn’t part of our plans.”
The Houston Texans traded Watson, 26, to the Browns for five draft picks, including first-round choices in 2022-24.
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Watson is considered one of the top young quarterbacks in the NFL, but sat out all of last season while facing 22 accusations of sexual assault or misconduct.
Two grand juries in Texas declined to indict Watson on criminal charges, but Watson faces 22 civil lawsuits and a possible NFL suspension. He has denied the charges and vowed to fight the cases.
The Lions, coming off a 3-13-1 season, have an uncertain long-term future at the quarterback position after trading Matthew Stafford for two first-round picks, a third-round choice and Jared Goff last winter.
Goff had an up-and-down first season with the Lions in 2021 and returns as starter this fall, but the Lions can get out from his contract with limited financial ramifications after this season.
Wood declined to reveal what discussions the Lions had internally about Watson, other than to say, “We were never serious.”
The Browns, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers made formal trade offers for Watson, who opted to waive his no-trade clause to the Browns — after originally eliminating them from consideration — after Cleveland gave him a fully-guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract.
The Browns have come under intense public scrutiny for their decision both to pursue Brown and reward him financially, with women’s groups calling for a boycott of the franchise and the wife of ex-Cleveland Indians slugger Jim Thome saying they cancelled their season tickets.
Asked what guidelines the Lions have in place about pursuing players with troubled pasts, Wood said every player is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
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“Certainly we’re going to look into everything and we’re going to avoid certain types of behaviors, but I think everybody gets the chance to make the case on what really happened,” Wood said. “We had the situation with Quintez Cephus when we drafted him and he went through the whole process, was found not guilty, proved his innocence, so we got comfortable with that. That’s a real situation. A different situation might have a different result.”
Cephus was found not guilty of two charges of sexual assault in 2019, while playing for Wisconsin. The Lions took Cephus in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL draft.
The organization also stood by former coach Matt Patricia after it was revealed he was accused of sexual assault as an undergrad during a spring break trip to South Padre Island, Texas.
Patricia denied that charge and the case never went to trial.
Wood declined to say what behaviors the organization would avoid when it comes to pursuing players.
“I won’t get into that,” he said.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.