Less than 24 hours after the city of Houston was celebrating their first World Series championship, they find out their star quarterback has a torn ACL.
Texans QB Deshaun Watson went down in practice on a non-contact drill, first reported by NFL Insider Ian Rapoport. The rookie had an MRI done to confirm the news no one wanted to be true.
Watson has had a stellar season so far and was coming off his best performance of his young career. In the Texans’ 41-38 loss to the Seattle Seahawks last week, he passed for 402 yards and four touchdowns.
His performance helped him earn AFC Offensive Player of the Month – the first rookie quarterback to ever do so. He was also named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Month for October.
In his six career games, Watson has passed for 1,699 yards and 19 touchdowns – tied for the NFL lead. He was even favored for the Rookie of the Year.
Watson has become just the fourth quarterback in history to throw at least three touchdowns in four separate outings during their rookie season, joining Peyton Manning, Marcus Mariota and Dak Prescott. He also surpassed Kurt Warner for the most passing touchdowns in a quarterback’s first seven games at 19.
The former Clemson QB took over for the Texans in Week 2 and has since led the NFL in points per game with 34.7, was sixth in passing yards per game with a 266.2 average, first in passing TDs and fourth in passer rating (108.4), according to NFL.com.
Tom Savage will take over for Watson. The four-year veteran has played in two games this season for the Texans. He has a 53.8 completion percentage, 62 passing yards and a 66.8 passer rating. The Texans have already signed former Raider Matt McGloin as a backup for Savage, according to Rapoport. McGloin previously played for head coach Bill O’Brien at Penn State.
Jaclyn Marr 