The news came quickly and was rather shocking Wednesday morning. Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson landed on season-ending injured reserve, ending his season just days before a pivotal AFC North battle with the Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
The injury to Watson changes quite a bit for the Browns, who looked like legitimate Super Bowl contenders with a defense that is putting on a display of dominance from a statistical category not seen since the 2008 Steelers’ defense. Now, Cleveland will reportedly turn to rookie fifth-round pick Dorian Thompson-Robinson under center Sunday against the Steelers.
Watson’s injury shakes up quite a bit in the AFC playoff picture and in the AFC North overall. For former NFL defensive end and current ESPN NFL analyst Marcus Spears, the biggest benefactors of Watson’s injury are the Steelers, ironically.
Appearing on ESPN’s First Take Wednesday morning, Spears stated that the Steelers benefit the most because they have a head start on the style of play the Browns will have to utilize moving forward, that being running the football, not turning it over, and leaning heavily on a defense to get you the football and create short fields.
Pittsburgh has been doing it all season the way to a 6-3 record, while Cleveland will have to figure out on the fly.
“Pittsburgh has been doing what Cleveland is going to have to do: stay close enough [in] games and figure out a way to win,” Spears said on First Take Wednesday morning. “You look at Pittsburgh, they just got a head start on the way Cleveland is going to have to play. The fortunate part for Cleveland is, their defense is better than Pittsburgh’s.”
Cleveland’s defense is better than Pittsburgh’s. The Browns are allowing just 242.7 yards per game. They are shutting down opponents consistently, putting together quite a first season under defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. He has unleashed a new level to Cleveland’s defense, which has become an attack-style unit.
That defense, led by Defensive Player of the Year candidate Myles Garrett, will have to do even more down the stretch with Watson out for the season, even if the Watson-led Browns’ offense wasn’t doing all that much to win games. Watson was averaging just 185.8 passing yards per game on the season to go along with seven touchdowns and four interceptions. He had a QB rating of 44.6 on the year before being lost with injury.
For Spears, it will all come down to Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski.
“This is about coaching now for the Cleveland Browns. The defense is good enough to get them to the playoffs. They are that good,” Spears said on First Take. “Not much has changed from the idea of what the Cleveland Browns have been with Deshaun Watson.”
The Browns will have to lean heavily on the run game once again with Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt. Ford has come on strong in recent weeks and ran for 100-plus yards against the Ravens last week, but it will become a heavy lift for the Browns moving forward to play a style of ground-and-pound football and lean on the defense, something the Steelers have done all season.
Cleveland might have a better defense than Pittsburgh currently, but changing styles somewhat in the middle of the season and learning how to play come, low-scoring games and finish consistently in the fourth quarter is a tough task.
