As the Cleveland Browns went back and forth with the Denver Broncos on “Monday Night Football,” Deshaun Watson caught strays throughout the night, not only from fans on social media but from Troy Aikman while calling the game.
“I get it, this year hasn’t been what people thought coming in, but the albatross is Deshaun Watson,” Aikman said. “If you go to Jameis Winston earlier in the year, does this look different? Because I would say the defensive struggles, in at least a small part, have had to do with how inept the offense has been moving the football.”
What’s remarkable is that Aikman said this after Winston had already thrown the first of his two pick-sixes of the night. Jameis was in the process of going full Jameis, and a Hall of Fame quarterback still looked at the situation and said, “Yeah, this is better than what the Browns had before.”
If you didn’t stay up late, the Browns were in it till the very end, when Winston’s second pick-six with less than two minutes to go gave Denver a 41-32 victory. But the journeyman was also responsible for a career-high 497 passing yards and four touchdowns, getting monster games from former Bronco Jerry Jeudy (235 yards!), Elijah Moore and David Njoku.
The Browns had all this plus Amari Cooper when the season began. Yet Watson was the man in charge of running the unit, and frankly he continued to play like the worst quarterback in the NFL. The Browns went 1-6 when he started, scored 18 in their lone win, and never had more than 17 in each of their losses; four of those losses came by just seven or fewer points.
It’s completely fair for Browns fans to wonder how the season might have played out differently had Watson been benched sooner.
In mid-October an ESPN insider lent credence to the theory that Browns ownership stubbornly stood in the way of a benching, writing, “Any decision to bench Watson would inevitably involve team owner Jimmy Haslam and general manager Andrew Berry, and they need to give Watson superfluous chances to rediscover even a semblance of his old game, due to the contract.”
The very next game, Watson ruptured his Achilles. It was his second straight year with a season-ending injury, which feels like the football gods serving retribution to the Cleveland front office for mortgaging the future to acquire a quarterback who had settled a bevy of sexual assault allegations and handing him a fully guaranteed $230 million.
I say retribution to the front office specifically, because Browns fans, of all people, don’t deserve these what-ifs and teases of success. Cleveland lost Nick Chubb in Week 2 of last year, started five different quarterbacks, and still grabbed a wild card for the second time in four seasons. In five games without Watson this year, the Browns have beaten division rivals Baltimore and Pittsburgh and averaged 21.8 points after Watson had them farting out 15.6 ppg.
I don’t need to recite fancy stats for you to know the Browns have looked their best the past two years when Joe Flacco or Winston was under center, and they’ve been abominable to watch when Watson has been in control.
Am I advocating for Winston to be named QB1 of the Browns in 2025? Hell no. Monday’s opponent, 8-5 Denver, should show that good things come from drafting the right quarterback (after years and years of trying) makes all the difference. Bo Nix is giving the Broncos exactly what they need at the position, and though already 24, he’ll be on a rookie deal for the foreseeable future.
A QB on a rookie deal: That’s probably the Browns’ best path to build a 2025 contender while managing the “albatross” that is Deshaun Watson.
