'I think the emotions is super high': Deshaun Watson ready for latest return in opener

BEREA — Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson is not even trying to play it coy. He acknowledges the feelings are going to bubbling up when he goes out on the field Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys .

“Yeah, I think the emotions is super high," Watson said Wednesday. "Just like everyone else, just getting back for the first game, the start of the season, getting out there and just letting all the hard work that you put in the offseason show on the field. And I think just being back in the locker room, just be prepping again is one of my biggest wins this offseason. Just to be able to make it back to Week 1 and be in a position I am to go out there and compete Sunday to help this team win.”

It will have been just under 10 months — 301 days, to be exact — since the last time Watson played in a game when he goes out against the Cowboys. The details are already well-told, but here they are once again.

It was during a Week 10 game at the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 12, when the Browns came back to win 33-31, that Watson suffered a broken glenoid in his throwing shoulder. He was placed on the injured reserve list three days later, and had surgery on the shoulder on Nov. 20.

Watson was a full participant throughout training camp, save for about a day and a half. However, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski elected to keep him on the sidelines through the three preseason games, including a reversal of course in the final one at the Seattle Seahawks.

That leaves Sunday's season opener as Watson's return to actual live game action.

"We just have to just adjust the schedule, but the plan is still the same — just continue," Watson said. "At this point growing into the season, yes, nine, 10 months, whatever it is, I'm feeling really good. But that's the time where you really build that strength and you continue to work at it and then you get it back even better than it was before. And I think that's the key to it.

"And me being disciplined to stand on top of that rehab and that process and each and every day, I’m doing something to make it better."

If there was a hang-up to emerge during the return, it happened the week of the preseason finale. That's when Watson stopped throwing during the final training camp practice due to what Stefanski called "general arm soreness."

Watson did come back the next day to throw, and has been a full participant in every practice since then. The time off that day, which Stefanski said was his decision, was understood to be a possibility as he returned to action.

"I could have finished the practice, but it was a medical decision where they just told me any type of soreness or anything you're feeling, we're going to take the high road and not try to push anything to make anything further," Watson said. "The key is to play 17-plus games, not finish training camp and try to be a superhero at the time. So that was pretty much it. But so far I've been well and just taking it one day at a time."

Getting Watson to play 17 games has been the ultimate challenge the last three seasons. He's started just 12 games in that time, all of them since the Browns acquired him from the Houston Texans in 2022.

There were just six games played that season as Watson served an 11-game personal conduct policy suspension for the more than two dozen allegations made against him of sexual assault and sexual misconduct during massage appointments in the Greater Houston area. He was limited to just six games a year ago by, first, a rotator cuff sprain in October before the season-ending broken glenoid in November.

Watson completed 61.4% of his passes for 1,115 yards and seven touchdowns with four interceptions last year. Those stats, however, don't register much as he tries to come back this season.

“Honestly, man, I don't even look at those six starts," Watson said. "It's a new year. It's a new season. Regardless if you won MVP or if you didn't play last year, it's a new year. Every year is different in the NFL, so you can't go out there focusing on what happened last year, Week 2, Week 4. You got to focus on Week 1.

"In this system in this league, if you’re focusing on last year, then you're going to get left behind. So our main focus, especially mine, is focusing on Dallas and what I can do on Sunday to help this team win.”

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'I think the emotions is super high': Deshaun Watson ready for latest return in opener