By Marvin Moore September 12, 2023
Deshaun Watson returned to the NFL last winter after 700 days away from the league. And it showed. Watson was a shell of the player who earned three Pro Bowl nods in four seasons with the Houston Texans. He wasn’t just bad. The 28-year-old was statistically the worst quarterback in the league.
Watson missed the entire 2021 season and was suspended for the first 11 games last year. Besides getting reacclimated to the speed of professional football, he also had to learn a new offense. In six starts, the Browns averaged just 12.8 offensive points per game – the worst mark of any quarterback with at least five starts.
The former Clemson standout averaged 4,280 passing yards over his final three seasons with the Texans. Three years ago, he led the league with 8.9 yards per completion while tossing 33 touchdowns. But his deep ball was missing in action last season. Shockingly, his longest completion in 170 pass attempts was only 21 yards.
In his first four NFL seasons, 12 percent of Watson’s passes traveled 21-plus air yards. He was also one of the league’s top-ranked passers in completions and touchdowns on those deep throws. But last year, he ranked 25th with just six percent of his passes traveling over 20 yards downfield.
During his short time in Cleveland, Watson has also been hampered by bad weather. In his debut at Cleveland Browns Stadium, Watson earned his first victory as a Brown despite frigid conditions with scattered snow showers and wind gusts of over 35 mph.
The weather was even worse seven days later when the Browns and Saints played in one of the coldest games in league history. The two teams battled with the temperature hovering at 6 degrees and a wind chill of minus 30 degrees.
Mother Nature reared her ugly head again Sunday in the Brown’s season opener against the Bengals. Watson completed 16 of 29 passes for 154 yards and a touchdown in a rain-soaked contest that featured weird sheets of water coming down without raindrops.
Despite the nearly two-year layoff and challenging weather conditions, Watson has posted four wins in seven games. More importantly, he is 2-1 at home and could easily be undefeated if Amari Cooper did not drop a sure touchdown pass in the loss to New Orleans. Winning games in harsh Ohio weather conditions is a must for Cleveland quarterbacks, and Watson has already passed the test.
All signs point to Watson performing at a higher level this season with an upgraded group of pass-catchers. The Browns traded for former New York Jets receiver Elijah Moore and drafted Tennessee wideout Cedric Tillman in the third round to pair with Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones.
Although the wet conditions impacted the passing game in Week 1, Watson displayed several positive signs that should have the Dawg Pound excited this season. The dual-threat quarterback’s eyes were consistently in the right spot against the Bengals, which enabled him to find open receivers. Watson averaged 339 completions in his final two seasons in Houston and seems primed to pick apart opposing secondaries this year.
Watson also tallied 45 rushing yards and a touchdown on five carries last weekend. He averaged 469 yards on the ground and ran for 15 scores from 2018-20. Not bad for a quarterback who tallied 12,840 passing yards and 85 touchdowns during the same period.
There is a reason Cleveland sent shockwaves through the NFL when the franchise signed Watson to a fully guaranteed $230 million deal last year. He won a college national championship at the age of 21. He led the league in passing yards at the age of 25. It’s possible he leads the Browns to a Super Bowl win at 28.
Watson is poised to reclaim his spot as one of the league’s dynamic franchise quarterbacks. You can call it a bounce-back season. But it’s also a season of redemption.
