Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, middle, poses for a portrait with common supervisor Andrew Berry, left, and coach Kevin Stefanski throughout Watson’s introductory information convention on March 26, 2022, on the Browns coaching facility in Berea. Deshaun Watson would possibly miss half or the entire 2025 season and hears the whispers of his demise as doubts multiply about his skill to rediscover the shape that tempted the Cleveland Browns into buying him from the Houston Texans three years in the past.
Watson is recovering from a pair of Achilles tendon surgical procedures in a span of lower than 4 months. He performed in 19 of a potential 51 video games with the Browns since being acquired from the Texans in March 2022, a deal Cleveland made regardless of the quarterback being accused of committing sexual improprieties by greater than two dozen therapeutic massage therapists within the Houston space.
Even Browns proprietor Jimmy Haslam went on the report final month to label the commerce a “swing and miss,” a significant revelation contemplating it got here from the person approving Watson’s checks.
Watson posted a short video addressing the doubters on Thursday.
“Everyone seems to be doubting me. Everybody do not consider in me,” Watson mentioned in a video posted to Instagram. “Everybody do not assume I can get again to the place I used to be. However I do know, and I consider the work that I put in, that I consider in myself. … I do know, I am gonna be manner higher than earlier than.”
The Browns acquired Watson in alternate for first-round draft picks in 2022, 2023 and 2024, together with a 2023 third-round choose, and fourth-round picks in 2022 and 2024. In return, they obtained Watson — 9-10 as a starter with the Browns — and a 2024 sixth-round choose.
The Browns lastly are again within the first spherical of the draft and maintain the No. 2 general choose within the April 24 draft. With solely Watson and just lately acquired Kenny Pickett on the roster, Cleveland has a gap to dig out of, in line with Haslam.
Earlier than he performed a sport for the Browns, the franchise signed Watson, who then had three Professional Bowl alternatives to his credit score, to a completely assured five-year, $230 million contract. He’s nonetheless owed $92 million.
“We took an enormous swing and miss with Deshaun,” Haslam mentioned final month. “We thought we had the quarterback, we did not, and we gave up numerous draft picks to get him. So we have got to dig ourselves out of that gap. (It) was a whole group determination and it ends with Dee (Haslam, Jimmy’s spouse and franchise co-owner) and I, so maintain us accountable.”
–Discipline Stage Media
