If Deshaun Watson was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, or signed there for a reasonable contract, he probably would have been benched this past Sunday. And he’d probably be benched for this weekend’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and the foreseeable future, too.
The Browns are too pot-committed to do that now. They gave up a ton of draft picks to trade for Watson and then signed him to a $230 million fully guaranteed contract. And the Browns have gotten very little from that investment, other than terrible headlines, including another Monday for a civil lawsuit over an alleged incident of sexual assault in 2020. Watson “strongly denies” the latest allegations, according to a statement by his attorney, Rusty Hardin, and Watson’s own comments during media availability Wednesday.
Have the Browns considered not playing him given the seriousness of the allegations?
“No,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday.
OK, then how about the subpar quarterback play?
Watson was terrible in the Browns’ season opener. He had just 169 yards on 45 attempts against the Dallas Cowboys. Watson barely threw it more than a few yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The Browns lost 33-17 and it was actually a lot worse than that. Cleveland scored some meaningless points late to make things look better. Watson padded his stats a bit.
The NFL is a results business and Cleveland is not exempt. There would be some frightening consequences, salary-cap wise, for turning Watson into a massively overpaid backup. But you have to wonder how long the Browns are going to act like everything is OK with Watson if he doesn’t play better. Backup Jameis Winston is flawed of course, but he couldn’t do worse than what Watson showed on Sunday.
Excuses for Watson were ready yet again after Cowboys loss
The Browns gave cover to Watson because that’s what they usually do. On Sunday, it was offensive line issues and not Watson at fault.
“He got hit way too often,” Stefanski said in his postgame news conference. “We can’t let that happen to him. He fought like crazy — listen, the football team fought like crazy until the end — but bottom line is we have to protect our quarterback better.”
Watson had some personal turmoil. 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 at those times.
But the football part hasn’t been good enough for Watson over the past three seasons. The Browns had offensive line injuries and didn’t do a good enough job protecting Watson. But it has been very rare to hear the Browns hold Watson accountable for his play. Maybe it’s time to do that.
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 weren’t many positive reports about his play out of Browns training camp this year. If Watson’s short passing had to do with 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 out of Watson, they aren’t going to win many games. Winston might make a few cringeworthy mistakes each 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 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 for 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 providing him cover for his mediocre play, have an honest assessment and make a switch to Winston.
They can worry about the future implications later, though that won’t be a fun conversation either.
Browns are stuck with Watson
It’s possible that we’ll look back at the Watson trade as the worst in NFL history, and his contract also could be the worst in NFL history. That’s a heck of a daily double.
The trade is done but the contract still looms. He has an unbelievable cap hit of $72.9 million each of the next two seasons. According to OverTheCap.com, cutting Watson next offseason would cause $172.7 million in dead cap space. If you want a reason the Browns seem to keep talking themselves into Watson being an answer for them instead of a problem, that’s it. If they decide to go in any other direction at quarterback, Watson will be carrying around a Microsoft Surface on the sideline with the highest cap number in the NFL by a mile. There are no other options.
That can’t be the only reason he keeps playing for the 2024 Browns. The Browns were a playoff team last season with Joe Flacco getting hot late in the season and have the talent to make it back to the playoffs. If Winston gives the team the best shot to succeed, Watson’s contract shouldn’t preclude a change. We’ll see if Watson’s play improves and the conversation surrounding him goes away.
For now, it’s a miserable situation and it might get worse. Patience in Cleveland can’t be endless for its quarterback, who has done very little with the Browns to earn his spot or his pay, both on the field and off it.