If Deshaun Watson was written by the The Cleveland Brownsor signed there on a reasonable contract, he probably would have been benched last Sunday. And he probably would be benched for this weekend’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and the foreseeable future too.
The Browns are too deep in the pot to do that right now. They gave up a ton of draft picks to trade Watson and then signed him to a fully guaranteed $230 million contract. And the Browns got very little out of that investment other than terrible headlines, including another one Monday for a civil suit over alleged sexual assault incident in 2020. Watson “firmly denies” the latest allegations, according to a statement from his attorney, Rusty Hardin, and Watson’s own comments at a news conference Wednesday.
Did the Browns consider not playing him given the seriousness of the allegations?
“No,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday.
OK, so what about the quarterback’s poor play?
Watson was terrible in the Browns’ season opener. He had just 169 yards on 45 attempts against the Dallas Cowboys. Watson barely threw the ball more than a few yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The Browns lost 33-17 and it was actually much worse than that. Cleveland scored a few meaningless points late in the game to make things look better. Watson inflated his stats a bit.
The NFL is all about results, and Cleveland is no exception. There would be some scary salary-cap consequences if Watson were to become an overpaid backup. But one has to wonder how long the Browns will pretend everything is fine with Watson if he doesn’t play better. James Winston is of course imperfect, but he couldn’t do any worse than what Watson showed on Sunday.
The apology for Watson was ready again after The cowboys loss
The Browns gave Watson coverage because that’s what they usually do. Sunday, it was offensive line issues, not Watson who was at fault.
“He was hit way too many times,” Stefanski said. during his post-match press conference“We can’t let that happen to him. He fought like crazy – listen, the football team fought like crazy until the end – but the bottom line is we’ve got to protect our quarterback better.”
Watson has experienced personal difficulties. He said his father died last week. After the game he refused to use that as an excuse, but it would be understandable if his game was affected. Football becomes a secondary concern in these moments.
But football hasn’t been Watson’s game over the last three seasons. The Browns have had injuries on the offensive line and haven’t done a good enough job of protecting Watson. But it’s been very rare to hear the Browns hold Watson accountable for his play. Maybe it’s time to do so.
The Browns don’t want to overreact to one game, but it’s more than that. Watson didn’t play well in 2022 and was average at best in 2023. There haven’t been many positive reports about his play The browns training camp this year. If Watson’s short passes were related to his shoulder, which he had surgery on after suffering a season-ending injury last season, then he shouldn’t be playing. If what we saw Sunday is all the Browns are going to get from Watson, they’re not going to win many games. Winston might make a few embarrassing mistakes every game, but he at least gives the Browns a chance.
Maybe a healthier offensive line will help Watson and we’ll see a return to what he was, but he hasn’t been a top-tier quarterback since 2020 with the Houston Texans. Whatever the Browns invested in Watson has to be put aside at some point. He wasn’t an effective quarterback on Sunday and hasn’t been in a long time, and very rarely since he arrived in Cleveland. At some point, if Watson doesn’t play better, the Browns will have to stop covering him for his poor play, do an honest evaluation and go with Winston.
They can worry about the future implications later, although that won’t be a fun conversation either.
Browns are stuck with Watson
Watson’s trade may go down as the worst in NFL history, and his contract may also be the worst in NFL history. That’s one hell of a daily double.
The trade is done, but the contract is still up in the air. He has an incredible salary cap hit of $72.9 million for each of the next two seasons. According to OverTheCap.comCutting Watson next season would result in $172.7 million in dead cap space. If you want a reason why the Browns seem to continue to convince themselves that Watson is a solution for them rather than a problem, this is it. If they decide to go in another direction at quarterback, Watson will be lugging a Microsoft Surface to the sideline with the highest salary cap number in the NFL, by far. There are no other options.
That can’t be the only reason he continues to play for the 2024 Browns. The Browns were a playoff team last season with Joe Flacco The Red Sox have the potential to make the playoffs and have the talent to make a comeback at the end of the season. If Winston gives the team a chance to succeed, Watson’s contract shouldn’t prevent a change. We’ll see if Watson’s play improves and the chatter around him dies down.
Right now, the situation is miserable and it’s likely to get worse. Cleveland’s patience can’t be inexhaustible for its quarterback, who has done very little with the Browns to deserve his spot or his salary, either on or off the field.
