Dude.
Why the yelling?
The Texans do have some control. They can simply say no, we won't trade you and he'll not get paid and instead will fine him.
The Texans, if they are smart (which again at this point....ehh), they will trade him to the highest bidder. If Deshaun doesn't sign off on it...tough noogies. He can go the retirement option.
WFT tried that with Trent Williams. They came off as assholes. He still left which they said they didn’t want. They got much less for him than if they’d just traded him...AND they came off like assholes across the league where you know some guys are like “yeah, never going there”.
Could the Texans do that? Yes.
However, as much as I don’t put doing something so galactically stupid past them, they’ve already put a price on Watson...3 1st rounders as the starting point.
Reminds me of that joke (it’s a bit mysogynistic, but bear with me):
Guy in a bar asks this beautiful woman sitting next to him, “will you sleep with me for $1 million?” She looks at him and says “okay.” He takes a drink and says, “will you sleep with me for $1?” She recoils. “What do think I am?”
He says, “we know what you are. Now we’re just negotiating price.”
We know he’s leaving. We’re just negotiating price. And Snead has a penchant for paying very large prices.