Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, middle, poses for a portrait with basic 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 means 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 doable 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 document 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 quick 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 suppose 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 method higher than earlier than.”
The Browns acquired Watson in trade 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 acquired 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 lately acquired Kenny Pickett on the roster, Cleveland has a gap to dig out of, in accordance with Haslam.
Earlier than he performed a recreation for the Browns, the franchise signed Watson, who then had three Professional Bowl picks 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 Degree Media
