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If Deshaun Watson was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, or signed there for a reasonable contract, he probably would have been benched this past Sunday. And he’d probably be benched for this weekend’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and the foreseeable future, too.
The Browns are too pot-committed to do that now. They gave up a ton of draft picks to trade for Watson and then signed him to a $230 million fully guaranteed contract. And the Browns have gotten very little from that investment, other than terrible headlines, including another Monday for a civil lawsuit over an alleged incident of sexual assault in 2020. Watson “strongly denies” the latest allegations, according to a statement by his attorney, Rusty Hardin, and Watson’s own comments during media availability Wednesday.
Have the Browns considered not playing him given the seriousness of the allegations?
“No,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said Wednesday.
OK, then how about the subpar quarterback play?
Watson was terrible in the Browns’ season opener. He had just 169 yards on 45 attempts against the Dallas Cowboys. Watson barely threw it more than a few yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The Browns lost 33-17 and it was actually a lot worse than that. Cleveland scored some meaningless points late to make things look better. Watson padded his stats a bit.
The NFL is a results business and Cleveland is not exempt. There would be some frightening consequences, salary-cap wise, for turning Watson into a massively overpaid backup. But you have to wonder how long the Browns are going to act like everything is OK with Watson if he doesn’t play better. Backup Jameis Winston is flawed of course, but he couldn’t do worse than what Watson showed on Sunday.
Excuses for Watson were ready yet again after Cowboys loss
The Browns gave cover to Watson because that’s what they usually do. On Sunday, it was offensive line issues and not Watson at fault.
“He got hit way too often,” Stefanski said in his postgame news conference….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/how-long-can-browns-stick-with-deshaun-watson-194900552.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-09-11 19:49:00
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