Deshaun Watson had a quarter of the NFL eating out of his hand a few years ago. Even while facing sexual assault allegations, numerous teams bid to woo him as he forced his way out of Houston. The Cleveland Browns emerged as the highest bidder, a result of their desperation tactic to fully guarantee his contract. As a result of that 11th-hour counteroffer, they remain shackled to that contract.
It’s still in Watson’s power to make that a good thing or a bad thing, of course. If he plays the way he did in Houston, then the $138 million the Browns still owe him will be a bargain. After all, there are already five quarterbacks averaging over $50 million per season at this point. But right now, sports talk shows are debating whether he is the third- or fourth-best quarterback in the AFC North. And he is clearly familiar with the chatter, as he illustrated yesterday.
“Each and every fan, each and every media person, they want to see me at a level that I’m capable of doing”, Watson said, via the team’s website. “I’ve got to make sure I hold myself to it, so, it’s not a bad thing. It’s not anything like that. I don’t get involved with people trying to rate me places where they think I’m at the bottom of the list, you know, it is what it is. If I was at the bottom, no one would talk about me. So obviously, if anyone is talking about me, continue to talk about me, then I must be pretty damn good”.
That above statement is, of course, nonsense, because there is nothing people like to talk about more than the guy on the bottom. Actually, let me correct that. The only thing they like to talk about more is the guy on the bottom who used to be on the top. And that is Deshaun Watson, or at least it can be by the end of the 2024 season.
The Browns have played 34 games since acquiring Watson via trade. Watson has only been available for 12 of those 24 games, missing 11 in 2023 due to suspension. He missed another 11 games during the 2024 season as a result of injury, but they did go 5-1 when he played.
Still, he is squarely in third place at best when debating the best quarterbacks in the AFC North. The Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackso and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow trade places, and then there is Watson. Some may even think the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Russell Wilson is better; at the least, he has been more available.
Last season, Watson went 105-for-171 passing for 1,115 yards with 7 touchdowns to 5 interceptions. He added a rushing touchdown, but he also managed to fumble five times. One of them is the reason he lost a game when the Steelers’ Alex Highsmith sacked him. Highsmith dislodged the ball, which allowed T.J. Watt to scoop it up and score the game-winning touchdown.
I’m still talking about that, so it must have been pretty damn good.
