The nightmare 2024 season for Deshaun Watson is over. The Cleveland Browns (1-6 straight up, 2-5 against the spread) quarterback ruptured his Achilles in Sunday’s 21-14 home loss to Cincinnati and will miss the rest of the year.
If Cleveland fans are lucky, the injury will end Watson’s unmitigated disaster of a tenure with the club.
“We feel bad for Deshaun,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said Monday after an MRI revealed the injury. “In this case, feel bad to lose him for the season. And we also know as a football team, this is where you have to step up. Guys have to step up, and that’s just how it goes.”
In seven starts, Watson has completed 137-of-216 passes (63.4%) for 1,148 yards with a 5/3 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He has 148 rushing yards, one TD and a 4.8 yards-per-carry average.
The Clemson product has the NFL’s lowest QBR (23.4) for all qualified passers.
Watson hasn’t played well since the 2020 campaign, his fourth in the NFL and last with the Houton Texans. He connected on a career-high 70.2 percent of his passes for an NFL-best 4,823 yards with a 33/7 TD-INT. Watson also had 444 rushing yards, three TDs and a 4.9 YPC average.
But during the offseason ahead of the 2021 campaign, more than two dozen women filed lawsuits against Watson, accusing him of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during massage sessions. He sat out the 2021 season as the Texans wanted to keep him healthy before trading him to another team.
The NFL suspended Watson for 11 games in 2022. On March 22, the Browns sent six total draft picks, including first-round selections in 2022, 2023 and 2024, to Houston for Watson, who signed a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract that was the largest in NFL history at the time.
Watson went 3-3 as a starter in the Browns’ final six games. He completed 58.2 percent of his passes for 1,102 yards with a 7/5 TD-INT ratio. Watson added 175 rushing yards, one TD and a 4.9 YPC average.
In 2023, Watson went 5-1 as a starter before going down with a season-ending shoulder injury that forced him to miss the Browns’ final eight games. He connected on 61.4 percent of his throws for 1,115 yards with a 7/4 TD-INT ratio. Watson also contributed 142 rushing yards, one TD and a 5.5 YPC average.
After Watson went down yesterday, Cleveland turned to Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who completed 11-of-24 passes for 82 yards and zero TDs compared to two interceptions. DTR sustained a finger injury on his throwing hand that forced him out of the loss to the Bengals.
Veteran Jameis Winston replaced DTR, completing 5-of-11 throws for 67 yards and one TD without a pick.
Stefanski was non-committal on a starter for Sunday’s home game vs. Baltimore. He was waiting on more injury information for DTR.
As of early Monday evening, most books had the Ravens installed as 9.5 or 10-point road favorites with a total of 42.