Cleveland’s got a quarterback problem — and they may be getting closer to admitting it.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Browns general manager Andrew Berry was noncommittal on Deshaun Watson’s future, saying, “It’s always possible” he will play for the franchise again.
That’s a far stretch from the steadfast commitment the team has maintained throughout his tenure of mediocre play and off-field controversies that have included accusations of sexual assault.
Considering that there are at least two years remaining on Watson’s contract and that the Achilles injury the signal caller suffered in Week 7 is believed to be season-ending — not career-ending — the GM’s comments don’t exactly inspire confidence.
“Really our focus with Deshaun, I would say for any player with a season-ending injury and a major injury, is first and foremost to make sure that he gets healthy,” Berry said. “Everything else, we’ll deal with at a later moment.”
“Everything else” is shorthand for the many questions that surround Watson after a disastrous first half of the 2024 season.
After a promising 2023 campaign in which the franchise finished with a record of 11-6 (2020 being the only other season since 1994 when they’d finished with more than ten wins), the Browns have only two victories through the first nine weeks of 2024.
While Watson had his moments in 2023, it was veteran Joe Flacco who spearheaded the team’s second-half run to the playoffs after Watson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
Watson, who was acquired in hugely controversial fashion ahead of the 2022 season, played in just one of the Browns’ two wins in 2024 — a Week 2 defeat of the paltry Jacksonville Jaguars.
And now, the 29-year-old is staring down his second season-ending injury in as many years.
All told, across his first three years in Cleveland, Watson has yet to compete in more than seven games in one season. When he has found the field, the results have been lackluster.
Since making his debut for the Browns, his 33.8 Total QBR, ranks second-to-last among qualifying passers, per ESPN.
This season had been historically bad. Before the injury, Watson’s QBR ranked dead last in the league.
He had led the team to a dismal 1-5 record and his Browns had failed to score more than 20 points in any one game.
“We haven’t played well as a team and we haven’t played well as a unit on offense…” Berry said. “When you don’t play well on offense, obviously your starting quarterback and your playcaller will get the most criticism.
“[But] it comes down to organization and synchronization. There’s just a lot of shared ownership across the different position groups in terms of why we didn’t perform.”
On the subject of ownership, Watson signed a fully guaranteed $230 million contract before the 2022 season and is owed $46 million in each of his next two.
Should the franchise and quarterback part ways, the dead cap hits for those seasons will total $271 million.