Dawgs By Nature
A lot of chatter is being spent on kicking Deshaun Watson to the curb in Cleveland
The Cleveland Browns traded with the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson in 2020 to solve their quarterback problems. Throughout the years, the franchise had spent a lot of time, effort, scouting, and money on getting a dependable signal caller to lead the team and failed numerous times.
Led by GM Andrew Berry, the club pulled the trigger on the deal that sent Watson to the Browns along with a sixth-round draft pick. Houston was sent three first-round draft selections, a third and two fourth-round picks.
At the time, Watson had just been named to his third straight Pro Bowl, was the NFL passing yards leader tossing for 4,823 yards in 2020, had thrown for 14,539 yards with 104 touchdown passes against 36 interceptions, had a 67.8% completion percentage with a 104.5 QB rating. He also had rushed for 1,677 yards with an additional 17 touchdowns in just four seasons in Houston.
It was a constant when Watson would crank out a 300-yard game with an occasional contest that topped 400 passing yards.
Those numbers spelled an incredible athletic accomplishment. The Browns’ brass wanted him to replicate those feats in Cleveland. And so, the trade was made.
The deal was for five years for the 26-year-old Watson with a $230 million contract which featured all of the money guaranteed. Lots of players were getting guaranteed funds, but this was the largest to be fully assured for a single player. The contract sent shockwaves across the NFL – especially the other club owners. A deal like this could set a dangerous precedent that no owner wanted to address.
The Browns and their fans had to deal with Watson’s legal situation and everyone waited patiently for that to come to a reasonable conclusion, and the subsequent 11-game suspension.
Once Watson hit the field in 2022, his first game back he faced his old team the Texans. Despite a 27-14 victory, Watson’s numbers were just sub-par: 12 completions on 22 attempts for 131 yards, zero touchdowns, one interception, a QB rating of 53.4 with seven carries for 21 yards on zero rushing touchdowns. Cleveland fans wondered out loud why they had waited all that time for that.
The six games he played that season were nothing spectacular: 36 rushes for 176 yards and one score, 99 completions on 170 attempts for 1,102 yards, a 58.2% completion percentage, seven TDs with five picks, and a 79.1 QB rating. That is vanilla with vanilla sprinkles.
The coaching staff preached that Watson had not played in two seasons and all that was needed was a full off-season along with the notion that he would be the starting QB in training camp and get all those first-team reps. So, Browns fans waited some more.
Watson’s 2023 season was more of the same average numbers. In Week 10, he had his first really good game against the powerful Baltimore Ravens with a spectacular...
