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Daniel Oyefusi, ESPN
BEREA, Ohio — Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson stood behind a lectern after the worst statistical game of his career. In a 34-7 home loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1, Watson posted an 8.3 total QBR and averaged 2.6 air yards per attempt, both career-low marks. He was indecisive, his downfield targets were erratic, and he was sacked six times as his offensive line struggled.
In the aftermath, Watson was asked if such a performance could shake his confidence.
“Hell no,” Watson answered. “I’ll always be Deshaun Watson, regardless of whoever else says otherwise.”
Watson, at least the Pro Bowl version who the Browns hoped would catapult their roster to Super Bowl contention, has failed to appear since the franchise traded three first-round picks to the Houston Texans and gave him a fully guaranteed $230 million in March 2022. And nine months after Joe Flacco, now with the Indianapolis Colts, helped lead Cleveland to the playoffs while Watson was sidelined by injury, the team has regressed with Watson back as starter.
Watson took a winding path to a season’s worth of starts in Cleveland. He started by serving an 11-game suspension after more than two dozen women accused him of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during massage sessions. (Another lawsuit, filed in Harris County, Texas, in September accusing Watson of sexual assault and battery in October 2020 was resolved, the lawyers for both sides told ESPN on Monday night. The NFL had been investigating the complaint but declined to comment.)
Injuries, including the fracture in Watson’s throwing shoulder that required season-ending surgery last November, have undercut his time on the field, which has included few flashes of his previous brilliance but is littered with frustrating displays.
Watson made his 17th start as a member of the Browns on Sunday in a 34-13 loss to the Washington Commanders, Cleveland’s third straight defeat. The loss was headlined by more struggles from Watson — his five straight games without 200 passing yards is the longest stretch of his career — protection issues and procedural penalties, including a delay of game on fourth down near the goal line that led a frustrated Watson to walk off the field and left coach Kevin Stefanski watching incredulously on the sideline.
The Browns are 9-8 in games Watson has started, but his stats and performance have paled in comparison to his time with the Texans, when he made three Pro Bowls and was regarded as one of the NFL’s premier quarterbacks. His 34.3 total QBR ranks 32nd of 34 qualified passers (his 67.7 QBR in Houston ranked third).
As the Browns continue to push through their 1-4 start with Watson as their starter — Stefanski ruled out a change Sunday — Cleveland is waiting for Watson to return to his previous elite form. Watson hasn’t been able to live up to the expectations that have come with one of the biggest contracts ever. And as his supporting cast has been inconsistent, the 29-year-old has failed to lift the group around him as he did so many times in Houston.
“This is not a one-person issue on offense,” Stefanski said after the Browns’ loss to the Commanders. “We have the guys. We have the coaches. We will get it fixed.”
THE BROWNS FACED third-and-9 toward the end of the first half of their Week 4 game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Watson took a shotgun snap and began to drop back. By the time his feet were set, defensive end Tyree Wilson was barreling down on him. Watson took a hit from Wilson as he launched a downfield pass to wide receiver Amari Cooper, who was sprinting past a flat-footed cornerback in Jack Jones. The attempt, though, fell aimlessly down the sideline as Cooper veered inside.
As Watson got to his feet and the Browns’ offense headed off the field, cameras caught him yelling and clapping his hands at right tackle Dawand Jones, who allowed Wilson to blow right by him. Backup quarterback Jameis Winston was also later seen being held back by teammates on the sideline as he animatedly tried to address Dawand Jones.
Watson would later downplay the heated exchange — “Just trying to be great, that’s it” — and Jones accepted responsibility for the blown block. But the sign of mounting frustration was a microcosm of the Browns’ offense through the first month of the season. Cleveland would go on to lose, 20-16, falling to 1-3 for the first time under Stefanski.
“We need to score more points than we’re scoring right now,” Stefanski said after the game. “So, we need to make sure that we’re giving our guys an opportunity to execute the game plan, whatever it may be, run or pass, and just play a clean football game, take care of the rock, score some points. But that’s our focus, less so outlining what we believe the identity to be. We just have to go play clean football.”
IN THE OFFSEASON, Cleveland fired Alex Van Pelt and brought in Ken Dorsey as offensive coordinator to help shape a revamped, spread offense better suited to Watson’s talents. With Watson returning from shoulder surgery and an active participant throughout spring workouts and training camp — the team held him out of the preseason — there was hope his play would be closer to his time with the Texans.
But through five games, the Browns have fielded one of the worst offenses in the NFL. Cleveland is the only team that has failed to total 300 yards in a game this season. The Browns have scored less than 20 points in all five games, their longest streak to start a season since 1999, according to ESPN Research. And the offense has converted 18% of its third downs, the fourth-worst conversion percentage by any team in its first five games of a season in the past 45 seasons and worst since the expansion Texans in their first season in 2002.
“The offense is going to go as far as I go,” Watson said after the Commanders game. “So, at the end of the day, we’re not doing enough offensively. As a quarterback, you take all the pressure. You take all the heat. You take all the blame. I’ve got to find ways to bring everybody else along with each other, [find out] how we can go out here on Sundays and eliminate all the mistakes that are going to cause us to get behind the 8-ball.”
Watson’s 21.0 total QBR this season is the worst of all qualified passers. His 20.7% off-target rate is third worst. And while Watson has been sacked a league-high 26 times, he has invited pressure at times by holding the ball — his 2.95 seconds on average before throwing is the sixth highest in the league.
Since trading for Watson, the Browns have tried to bridge Stefanski’s system with Watson’s talents. But so far this season, it has resulted in the worst iteration of the signal-caller. Of 386 quarterbacks to record at least 175 passes in their first five games of a season, Watson ranks last in yards per attempt (4.8), according to ESPN Research.
“I actually think he’s still got a lot of the arm, talent and ability, maybe not quite as mobile as it used to be,” an NFC coach told ESPN. “It just looks like he’s disjointed, and the entire offense is disjointed. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of trust in what’s going on around him and that can lead to bad play really fast. People underestimate how important that is. I don’t think it’s talent or scheme, they just aren’t on the same page.”
Injuries and inconsistencies around Watson haven’t helped. The offensive line has regressed and been in flux since training camp, as starting tackles Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin made their way back from severe knee injuries that ended their 2023 seasons early. Wills has played in two games. Conklin has yet to make his season debut. Right guard Wyatt Teller was put on injured reserve after Week 3 because of a knee sprain.
Running back Nick Chubb just returned to practice last week as he rehabbed last year’s severe knee injury. And Pro Bowl tight end David Njoku sat out three straight games because of a right ankle sprain. Njoku returned Sunday but suffered a knee injury.
“To begin the season, Kevin and Ken tried to incorporate more spread-type formations that Deshaun had got comfortable with during the [2019-2020] seasons in Houston,” an AFC coach told ESPN. “Allows him to make quick decisions and make some unscripted first downs with his legs. The injuries to the Browns’ offensive line and [Njoku] have caused them to adjust.”
WATSON HAS SAID returning to Pro Bowl form is a matter of time and getting more reps on the field. During the first week of training camp, general manager Andrew Berry said the team’s biggest focus was making sure Watson stayed healthy.
“I think the rest will take care of itself,” Berry said.
The Raiders game, albeit a loss, seemed like a possible turning point for Watson, who completed 24 of 32 passes for 176 yards, one touchdown and an interception. His 40.2 QBR was a season high.
A perfectly placed pass to Cooper bounced off his chest and was intercepted by Las Vegas, helping put Cleveland in a 10-point hole. Later in the fourth quarter, Watson evaded a cornerback blitz and delivered a pass while being hit to Cooper for an 82-yard, go-ahead touchdown that was negated by a holding penalty. It was the type of play Browns fans have seen in highlights of his Houston days — “Vintage Watson” as many on social media have called it — and had been yearning for more consistently in Cleveland.
On the offense’s final play of the game, a fourth-and-3 from the 9-yard line, Watson was sacked before releasing a pass (Cooper later said he was the first read on the play and could have run a better route).
What could have been a defining moment in Watson’s Cleveland tenure instead was another frustrating loss. Then came the offense’s latest flop Sunday. Watson finished the Commanders game with an 8.5 QBR, his third start with a total QBR under 10 since joining the Browns, tied with Zach Wilson and Mac Jones for the most by any starting quarterback in that span.
As Watson has faced criticism for the Browns’ offensive struggles, Cooper has come to Watson’s defense and did so again after the loss to the Commanders.
“To be honest, I don’t think Deshaun is the problem at all,” he said. “I think we can all just play better for him.”
A WEEK BEFORE the start of the 2024 season, the Browns restructured Watson’s contract to create cap space, converting $44.79 million of his $46 million base salary into a signing bonus. Cleveland is already projected to be $52 million over the cap for the 2025 season, according to the Roster Management System. The Browns are expected to carry over the majority of the additional space to remain cap compliant ahead of the 2025 offseason, a team source told ESPN. The move, though, created $172 million and $99 million dead cap hits in 2025 and 2026 if Cleveland were to part ways with Watson.
Last offseason, the Denver Broncos took on a league-record $85 million dead cap charge to release quarterback Russell Wilson in what is considered one of the worst trades in NFL history. Cleveland would double that dead cap hit to get rid of Watson.
Stefanski has said Watson will remain the Browns’ starting quarterback — and Berry has spoken about keeping Watson around for multiple contracts — but Cleveland’s high-risk gamble becomes more glaring as his poor play worsens.
“We’ve just got to catch a rhythm,” Watson said Sunday. “I think that’s the biggest thing. We’ve just got to find what are we great at, what are we good at … [we’re] trying to figure out what type of offense and identity we want to be at. But the time is ticking and we’ve got to figure that out quickly.”
ESPN senior NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler contributed to this report.