Browns enter make-or-break 3rd season with QB Deshaun Watson following suspension, shoulder injury

CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson was supposed to be the one, the missing piece to return Cleveland’s forlorn franchise to fame.

That was the plan. The Browns did their part to make it happen.

They’re still waiting for Watson to fulfill his end.

On the eve of a make-or-break third season in Cleveland, there are lingering questions and even some doubts about whether Watson, who has only played 12 games in the past four years due to an NFL suspension in 2022 and a season-ending shoulder injury last season, can deliver anything close to the enormous expectations that accompanied his controversial arrival.

To this point, Watson has spent more time standing on the sideline than behind center.

And when he has played, there have only been fleeting flashes of greatness.

The rest has been underwhelming and statistically poor for a three-time Pro Bowler, who passed for a league-high 4,823 yards in 2020 and less than half of that the past two years combined.

Still, he’s sure he can not only return to an elite level, but Watson, who is expected to make his 2024 debut on Saturday against Seattle in Cleveland’s exhibition finale, thinks he will be better than ever. Why?

“Because I’m self-confident,” he said last month.

Others aren’t as convinced.

Caught up in an AFC arms race to find an elite thrower to compete with Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow et al., the Browns, who have started 38 quarterbacks since 1999, mortgaged their future by trading five draft picks — three first-rounders — to Houston in 2022 for Watson.

He only agreed to the deal when Cleveland owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam sweetened the pot by giving him a fully guaranteed $230 million contract.

It hasn’t paid off for anyone — except Watson.

Due to his 11-game ban for violating the league’s personal conduct policy after being accused by two dozen women of sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions in Texas, and following him fracturing a bone in his throwing shoulder in November, the 28-year-old has played just six games in each of the past two seasons.

Year 3 has to be different for Watson and the Browns, who spent two decades in a futile search for a QB before signing him. Otherwise, they might have to start all over again.

The Browns made the playoffs in 2023 anyway without him, rescued by 39-year-old Joe Flacco, who got off his couch in New Jersey and provided the kind of QB play in the final month that the team hasn’t gotten from Watson.

Still, the Browns believe Watson’s best football lies ahead.

“It’s just seeing him every day,” general manager Andrew Berry said during the first days of training camp in West Virginia. “Seeing how he prepares. Seeing how he works in practice. Seeing how he relates to his coaches.

“Our biggest focus with Deshaun is just making sure that he’s available. I think the rest will take care of itself.”

That remains to be seen.

It’s difficult to assess Watson’s ceiling — and potential — given his lack of playing time the past three years. He sat out all of 2021 in a contract dispute with the Texans before his stop-and-start, start-and-stop two seasons in Cleveland.

He has shown that gift for turning a broken play into a brilliant one by escaping pocket pressure and delivering a pinpoint pass on the move. However, there have been as many moments of indecision and incompletions with the Browns.

Now, he’s trying to return from major surgery on a damaged shoulder that he’ll need to protect, starting on Sept. 8 against Dallas.

Watson has thrown virtually every day in training camp, and both he and the Browns have been pleased with his progress.

“Right on track,” he said last week before a joint practice with the Vikings.

While he looks sharp during controlled drills, Watson’s real test won’t come until he’s in a regular-season game facing a defense that has game planned to stop him.

Throughout his tenure with Cleveland, there has always been some excuse for subpar or mediocre play. It’s either been rust, a new offense or new coaches, not enough playmakers, injury.

It all finally seemed to be falling into place for him last season. In Week 3, he completed 27 of 33 passes for 289 yards in a 27-3 win over Tennessee, a performance that seemed to alleviate some pressure.

As it turned out, he damaged his shoulder on a run against the Titans. Watson missed three starts and came out early in a fourth with what the team said then was a rotator cuff injury. It wasn’t until after a comeback win at Baltimore on Nov. 12 — he completed all 14 passes in the second half —- when tests revealed Watson had broken his glenoid (socket) bone.

He spent much of his recovery time away from the Browns, staying in Los Angeles for rehab. It was a chance to heal, reset and prepare for a third season he can only hope goes better than the last two.

The Browns are prepared in case it doesn’t.

After shuffling through starting five QBs in 2023 and getting lucky with Flacco, they signed veteran Jameis Winston to be Watson’s backup and No. 1 cheerleader. The 30-year-old Winston feels Watson is on the cusp of a stirring comeback.

Winston watched from the sideline in Tampa as Watson carried Clemson past Alabama to a national title in 2017, and believes the QB is destined to lift the Browns to similar heights.

“He wants to be and will be a Super Bowl-winning quarterback,” Winston said. “And honestly, that’s why I’m here. Because I guarantee you I’m feeding that into him. I’m making sure that he knows that and he really don’t need my help because he has it.”

The Browns can’t wait much longer to see it.