Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson seems like he will be ready to go in Week 1 after undergoing shoulder surgery last November, but there could be a lot of pressure on him.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Browns are not going to be too patient with Watson heading into 2024.
“If for some reason Deshaun Watson isn’t the quarterback they expect him to be, if he’s not that guy, then they will try Jameis Winston and turn it over to him,” Cabot said in a recent episode of the Orange and Browns Talk podcast. “Because the bottom line is they’re trying to win games. They’re not going to let down the rest of the football team to have a long leash on someone.”
Cleveland signed Winston in free agency back in March to serve as insurance for Watson, but Browns fans are obviously hoping it won’t come to that.
But if it does? Cleveland evidently won’t be too shy about pulling the plug on Watson.
Cabot adds that the Browns are not going to allow Watson’s $230 million guaranteed contract to influence them one way or the other.
Essentially, if Watson comes out and falls flat in 2024, Cleveland will just treat him as a sunk cost and turn to Winston.
Based on the fact that the Browns just made the playoffs with 39-year-old Joe Flacco under center, this does not come as too much of a surprise.
Cleveland traded for Watson in March 2022. The club was expecting him to transform the franchise. Of course, the Browns were also hoping he would be the same Deshaun Watson who led the league in passing yards and threw 33 touchdowns to just seven interceptions while with the Houston Texans in 2020.
So far, they have gotten a very different version of that quarterback.
To be fair to Watson, he hasn’t gotten much of a chance to showcase his ability.
He served an 11-game suspension for sexual misconduct allegations during his debut campaign in Cleveland, and this past year, he was only able to play in six games before the shoulder injury.
Now, during the time he has actually been on the field, Watson has not looked good. He has shown flashes of his old self here and there, but for the most part, he has been subpar.
It’s also important to note that Watson sat out all of 2021, so there may be some rust that he still needs to shake off.
The question is, how much longer will he need to return to form? Or, perhaps a more appropriate question would be, will he ever return to form?
The Browns had the No. 1-ranked defense in the NFL this past season and won 11 games. They did that mostly without Watson, although he did go 5-1 in his six starts.
It seems pretty clear that patience is running thin in Cleveland, regardless of how much money Watson is making.
We’ll see if Deshaun Watson can dig deep and turn back the clock in 2024. If not, we may see a whole lot of Jameis Winston next season.
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