Browns QB Deshaun Watson not looking back, still believes he’s ‘no doubt’ one of NFL’s elite passers

BEREA, Ohio (AP) — On the brink of a comeback, Deshaun Watson can’t afford to look back.

“It’s a new year. It’s a new season,” the Browns’ quarterback said Wednesday. “Regardless if you won MVP or if you didn’t play last year, it’s a new year. In this league, if you’re focusing on last year, then you’re going to get left behind.”

Watson heads into arguably the most important season of his career — college or pro — saddled with enormous expectations and external pressure. He’s made just 12 starts in his first two years with Cleveland, his 2023 season ended by a right shoulder injury that required surgery followed by months of arduous rehab.

Watson put in the work and believes he’s prepared. Now comes the real test.

On Sunday, he’ll play for the first time in a game since Nov. 12 as the Browns, who managed to make the playoffs without Watson last season, open against the Dallas Cowboys. For Watson, just being back on the field is a win.

There was no guarantee of when he’d play again after fracturing the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder. But Watson successfully reached all the goals laid out by his doctors and Cleveland’s medical staff to get back behind center.

Watson knew when he made all the necessary throws during mini-camp practices in the spring that he would be a full go for the fall.

“When we first had the surgery back in November, no one knew exactly where it was going to lead to,” he said before practice. “It could have been now as we’re sitting here today or it could have been a whole year, which would’ve been in November.

“So it was very broad, but I challenged myself to get back to this moment right now.”

It’s not that there haven’t been hurdles. Watson didn’t play at all in the preseason, and he was limited during practice two weeks ago with what coach Kevin Stefanski said was “general arm soreness.”

Watson, though, insists he could have kept throwing.

“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 further,” he said. “The key is to play 17-plus games, not finish training camp and try to be a superhero.”

Watson added there have “never been any limitations” on his arm.

The Browns have to hope there are not limits on his game this season. They invested $230 million into Watson and haven’t gotten their money’s worth.

After sitting out 11 games in 2023 due to an NFL suspension, Watson showed flashes of former greatness last season before the shoulder injury, which wasn’t fully known until after he completed 14 of 14 passes in a second-half comeback to beat Baltimore.

But aside from that performance, there have been too many mediocre ones with too many turnovers and too many excuses.

Watson said the injury forced him to go “back to basics” and that he and his personal coach, Quincy Avery, rebuilt his throwing mechanics “from scratch.” He’s improved his diet, and with help from doctors and trainers, remade himself.

“We sat down together, we put out a plan and we followed that plan,” he said. “I feel really, really well, feel very explosive, locked in on my tasks, on the game, endurance, everything. So I’m excited to go out there and show what I got on Sunday and with all the hard work that I put in.”

A three-time Pro Bowler in four seasons with Houston (he sat out 2021 in a contract dispute), Watson hasn’t been the same game-changing QB during his time in Cleveland for obvious reasons. Statistically, he ranks among the lower half of quarterbacks in the AFC.

Inside Cleveland’s rugged division, he ranks no higher than third behind Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, and there are those who doubt he’ll ever get back among the upper echelon.

Watson isn’t one of them.

He didn’t hesitate when asked if he still considers himself one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks.

“Of course,” he said. “No doubt.”