The Cleveland Browns were dealt some bad news on Wednesday morning. It was revealed that starting quarterback Deshaun Watson re-injured his right throwing shoulder in Week 10 against the Baltimore Ravens. The injury is bad enough that he has to undergo season-ending surgery.
Watson was pushing to stay in the lineup and keep playing, just as he did against the Ravens, but after gathering as much information as possible, surgery was the decided route. Had Watson tried to play through the injury, one more hit could have resulted in his shoulder falling apart.
It was certainly an unexpected turn of events as all of the focus earlier this week was on the ankle injury that he sustained in the second quarter. He only missed one play because of that but was seen in a walking boot after the game.
Watson was adamant he was going to be in the lineup in Week 11 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but it turns out the ankle was not his biggest issue. With their starter unavailable, the Browns are going to have to turn to someone else to run their offense.
In a surprising decision, they will be going with rookie fifth-round pick Dorian Thompson-Robinson. According to Jordan Schultz of Bleacher Report, the UCLA product will make his second start of the season barring any last-minute changes. Veteran P.J. Walker, who has started the last two games Watson has missed and made appearances in six games total, will be the backup.
Thompson-Robinson made the first start of his career in Week 4 against the Ravens. The Browns lost that game 28-3 as he completed 19-of-36 passes for 121 yards with three interceptions. Baltimore’s defense got to him for four sacks as well.
There will be a lot of pressure on Thompson-Robinson as Week 11 is the biggest game of the season for the Browns to date. They are tied with the Steelers at 6-3 and if they lose, they will have been swept in the season series by their AFC North rivals.
That would be detrimental to their aspirations of making a run to the postseason, essentially giving Pittsburgh a two-game when accounting for tiebreakers. While the Browns couldn’t have foreseen this occurring, they have to be kicking themselves for trading Joshua Dobbs after training camp, who has thrived with the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings.
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