The Cleveland Browns may or may not be secretly hoping the NFL suspends their starting QB, Deshaun Watson. As it turns out, the man they gave up three first-round picks for isn’t playing very well, yet they owe him a ton of money. He still has three years left on his contract—but Sam Monson doesn’t believe they can wait that long. If he continues to play at his current level, they are going to have to make a move.
“This really is the story of Deshaun Watson with the Browns. We have one good game, [and] you’re straight back to ineptitude”, Monson said on the Check the Mic podcast with Steve Palazzolo. “They genuinely are gonna need to bench him at some point. They’re not getting out of this. The light isn’t going on. Deshaun Watson isn’t gonna start suddenly playing competent football. You might not get that out of Jameis [Winston] either, but at least it’s gonna be fun watching it happen”.
While the Browns’ offensive line has contributed to him taking a beating, already with 16 sacks and three fumbles, Watson has simply not played well. Through three games, he is 67-of-116 for 551 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. That might sound fine on a stat sheet, but the tape is another matter. And averaging 4.8 yards per attempt is atrocious.
Monson’s former co-worker, Austin Gayle, pointed out that the Browns have had their lowest offensive success rate through three games since 2000—since they returned to the league, basically. So Watson is quarterbacking some of the worst football for some of the worst teams in the past 25 years.
“These are some of the worst starting quarterbacks that have been in the NFL in the last 20 years, and he owns two of the bottom three spaces on that list”, Monson said of Watson. “That is staggeringly terrible, for just any quarterback. The contract is the only thing keeping Deshaun Watson in that job right now because his play has been miserable”.
As is always pleasurable to remind people, the Browns still owe Watson $138 million through 2026. In order to get him to agree to a trade to come to Cleveland, they offered him a fully guaranteed contract, which was unprecedented for any non-rookie deal greater than three years. As many have pointed out since, Watson did the owners a great service by making their case against such contracts.
While the Browns still owe Watson a couple buttloads of money, they do not owe him playing time. If his play is harming them more than it is helping, they can and should bench him. This is a team that just lost to the New York Giants. The AFC North behind Pittsburgh isn’t faring well so far this year, but the Browns have the worst quarterback situation. And thus, they have the least amount of optimism for a turnaround that can salvage their season.
