The Deshaun Watson saga has finally come to an end — and it ended as ugly as it started.
During the Cleveland Browns game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Watson suffered a serious injury. It looked like his Achilles’ heel popped from a noncontact play, and Watson knew it was bad immediately. As his teammates surrounded him as he was carted off the field, the Browns fans started cheering at the Watson injury. Truly not the brightest moment from the Cleveland fans, but in their eyes it was a fitting ending to a player who has done more harm than good since his arrival.
Before Watson became a Brown, he was one of the faces of the league. You couldn’t have a quarterback debate without Watson’s name coming up in short order. That’s why the Browns were so elated when the Watson trade was first announced. At long last, the Browns finally found their savior at the quarterback position. No team in the NFL has struggled to find a franchise QB like the Browns have. The Browns have had 38 different starting QBs since they joined the NFL in 1999, and only three of them started every game in that season. So when the Houston Texans announced that Watson was available for trade, it was no surprise that the Browns were first in line. Unfortunately, desperate franchises do desperate things.
Usually, a QB of Watson’s stature would never be on the trading block. Watson led the Texans to back-to-back division titles in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, he led the entire league in passing yards. He was a Pro Bowler in each of his three seasons as Houston’s primary starter. In the 2021 season, while Watson was sitting out the season due to issues with the Texans’ front office, some disturbing news dropped about him. Reports claimed that Watson was being sued by more than two dozen female massage therapists for sexual harassment and sexual assault. Watson denied any wrongdoing but still settled 20 claims of sexual misconduct. Even with this news swirling, the Browns still decided they wanted Watson and completed a trade for him.
After trading for Watson, the Browns signed him to the largest fully guaranteed contract in NFL history at the time, which was $230 million. The NFL suspended Watson for the first 11 games of the 2022 NFL season for conduct detrimental to the league, and then the Watson era in Cleveland was officially underway. And pretty quickly, those inside — and outside — of the sports field knew that the Browns made a terrible decision.
Watson finished the last six games of the season with a 3-3 record as the starter, with 1,102 passing yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions. He posted the worst passer rating of his career, and the Browns missed the NFL playoffs. Year one wasted. Watson started six games in his second season with the Browns, finishing with seven touchdowns, four interceptions, and 1,115 passing yards. Watson suffered an injury in week 10 and underwent season-ending surgery to fix his shoulder. Year two wasted. Then this season he only lasted seven weeks before succumbing to another injury — once again ruining the Browns’ season before it could even take off.
No wonder the fans were cheering at the sight of him being seriously injured; they were given an excuse to move on from Watson. And, more than likely, this will be the last snap that Watson plays in Cleveland. They will cut him at the end of the season and start their search for a new QB once again. For Watson, this injury could be career-ending.
He will definitely miss the rest of this season, and because Achilles injuries take nearly a year to get back from, there is a serious possibility he will miss next season as well. Which NFL team will want a quarterback who is over 30, coming off one of the most serious injuries in sports and with a sexually deplorable background? Even Jerry Jones wouldn’t touch it. We have seen the last of Watson in Cleveland, but will this be the end of him in the NFL?
