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On Tua, I think the reasoned take is to lower expectations, but not trash them. I think in my mind, I still see his floor being something like... maybe young/prime Andy Dalton, a competent and careful QB who can steer a good team pretty far. And I still think the original upside is there, it's just more hidden than it seemed before. The 2020 season, with an OC who didn't trust the young QB to use the whole playbook, is a weird data point, but not the only one.
With that in mind, I am open (more than many fans) to a trade for Watson. I'm actually more in love with the 1.3 pick than I am with Tua at this point, but that's human nature I guess. But if they could land Watson for Tua, 1.3, and another 1st... I think I would do it. Watson is pretty young and performing right around the upside you might hope for from Tua, and they have the cap framework to absorb Watson's contract. So, I'd do that, more or less. If the price tag is way higher, maybe not, but I am sellable there.
I would love to have a hero on the team, a guy I could root for for a decade, a face of the franchise. It's been quite a while. However, I would also be pretty happy to have a team built "fundamentally sound" and able to contend every year based on a sharp front office, including one that senses when its name players are not worth the huge contracts.
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