Tom Savage's Agent Says Benching for Deshaun Watson 'Makes No Sense'

Neil Schwartz, the agent for Houston Texans quarterback Tom Savage, said coach Bill O'Brien's decision to bench his client "makes no sense" Wednesday in an interview on PFT Live.

"I'm still trying to figure this out," Schwartz said (h/t Gabrielle McMillen of Sporting News). "Thirty-one plays and you're getting benched? It makes no sense."

Savage, 27, was benched at halftime of the Texans' 29-7 season-opening loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. First-round pick Deshaun Watson came in and played the entire second half.

Watson threw for 102 yards and a touchdown against an interception, adding 16 yards on the ground. O'Brien has not named a starter for Thursday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals, but it's widely expected Watson will start. Ian Rapoport and James Palmer of NFL Network reported Watson has already gotten the nod.

Savage threw for 62 yards on 7-of-13 passing before his benching. He took six sacks behind a porous Texans offensive line.

"I went through every single play and I even went one step further. I asked two different NFL personnel people (or) coaches on two separate teams to evaluate and break down the film to see if I was missing something," Schwartz said. "He went 7 for 13...12 of the 13 balls touched the receiver's hands. The only ball that didn't was the strip-sack fumble that they called incomplete (upon replay). Seven were completions, five were drops."

Watson was eventually going to take over under center, so this isn't really much of a surprise. The only real perplexing part of the situation is O'Brien benching Savage after one-half of play after stridently sticking with him all summer.