For what must have felt like minutes — not seconds — to anxious Texans fans on Monday night, Deshaun Watson was suspended in mid-air after taking a punishing hit as he tried to dive over the end zone pylon at the Superdome.

As he hurtled through the air, horrible visions of 2017 must have flashed before the Texans’ collective eyes, particularly as Watson was initially unable to immediately pop back up to his feet and celebrate with his teammates after he had just scored a touchdown to give Houston a 7-0 lead over the Saints.

Watson’s 2017 season, along with the Texans’ playoff chances, were wrecked when he tore the ACL in his right knee in Week 7. He had looked dynamic in his rookie season, with 19 TD passes, and the Texans were 3-3 at the time.

With Watson out for the season, the Texans lost eight of their final nine games to finish 4-12.

In 2018, with Watson healthy and starting all 16 games, Houston went 11-5 and made the playoffs.

You see the pattern here, which is not a lot unlike the pattern with every NFL team that has a true and talented franchise quarterback.

It is, understandably, a fine line here for Watson and the Texans, who don’t want to suppress what is one of their quarterback’s best gifts — his ability to be elusive and hurt opponents with his running ability. But at the same time, the Texans can only live to compete another week if they keep Watson from major injury.

Watson was hit 11 times and sacked a league-high six times Monday. As it is, though, Watson lasted the entire 2018 season, Houston toyed with disaster in its protection of him, as he was sacked an NFL-high 62 times. More of that will mean less of a chance that Watson survives 16 games this season.

Sure, he played all 16 games last season, but he had to play through several serious injuries. Texans fans will remember Watson having to take a bus from Houston to Jacksonville last season because injuries to his lungs and ribs sustained the week before prevented him from flying.

The Texans did make a preseason move to help protect Watson when they traded with Miami for left tackle Laremy Tunsil — who struggled at times in New Orleans, but it was his first game with the Texans.

Twice during the Saints game, Watson was forced off the field to spend time in the sideline medical tent for evaluation. He hurt his back on that diving touchdown and seemed to aggravate it as the game progressed, though he continued to play right to the end of what turned out to be a dramatic, last-second, 30-28 loss.

On a 38-yard TD pass Watson threw to Kenny Stills to give the Texans a 28-27 lead with 50 seconds remaining, Watson was hit hard and ended up on his back.

“He’s going to take those types of hits sometimes just because of the way he plays,’’ Texans coach Bill O’Brien told reporters during the week. “That’s his playing style. He has a way of making plays work that you really wouldn’t think the play would work, but he keeps the play alive and sometimes that means he takes a hit. We have to try to find that fine line where maybe the ball can come out a little bit quicker [or] we can design a better play.’’