Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson is not having the best time of things right now. While I don’t know if he’s laughing or crying all the way to the bank, he still gets a fat paycheck. At times it certainly seems as though he doesn’t care anymore, unsurprising given he claimed such earlier this offseason.
But with the Browns off to a 1-2 start and playing under par himself, Watson is clearly frustrated. You could sense that in his answer to a question about a failed 4th-and-1 conversion while speaking to reporters on Wednesday.
Watson faced a lot of criticism for that play, on which from the All-22 perspective especially it seems quite evident he missed a wide-open target for an easy conversion. Instead, he tucked the ball and ran and fell short of the sticks. His response to the criticism went over about as well as George Pickens’ about his decision not to block.
“Other people are not in the film room, so not everyone knows exactly what the read was. That was a decoy, so, that’s the difference”, Watson told reporters with a smirk on his face. Because, obviously, if a player is a “decoy” on a play, then his hands are lava and he can’t catch.
We can ignore, as Deshaun Watson clearly did, that the “decoy” in question clearly turned and looked for the ball. It almost seems as though this was a one-route play design, which may be less than ideal on fourth down.
Now in his third season with the Browns and his first in which he is likely to play more than six games, Watson receives no grace for either his play or his comments. It’s not a surprise given the numerous allegations following him and the manner in which he has handled them.
He could have helped himself simply by being a much better football player. Even Pittsburgh Steelers fans know well that if Ben Roethlisberger were a worse player, he wouldn’t have lasted his allegations. That’s the world we live in, and Watson knows it.
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons he accepted the Browns’ offer, guaranteeing his entire contract. All he had to do was not do anything else wrong that might result in another suspension, which includes having been upfront two years ago about any other potential allegations that may surface. It now appears that Watson may have failed that baseline expectation.
Deshaun Watson is 67-of-116 passing on the season for 551 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. He has taken a league-high 16 sacks and fumbled three times. While he still has talent, he doesn’t display it often enough. And without RB Nick Chubb, this Browns offense hasn’t looked very formidable.
Maybe because their quarterback thinks you can’t throw the ball to the only open man if that wasn’t the design. Somebody might want to explain to Watson that he has five eligibles on every passing play, by definition. And eligible means you can throw to them.
