Back from the grave? Offseason reports suggest Deshaun Watson is looking like a possibility to open the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback.
Mary Kay Chabot of Cleveland.com is the most highly regarded beat reporter covering that team. She reported Wednesday that Watson “has the inside track to be named QB1”. Hmm.
It would be quite a turnaround. Watson has been a disaster in his four seasons with the team – 9-10 as a starter and an embarrassment off the field, after dozens of women accused him of sexual misconduct. He didn’t play at all in 2025, remaining on the roster only because of his fully guaranteed contract.
But Watson is healthy now, and the Browns apparently are going to give him one last shot to return some value on that five-year contract worth $230 million that they foolishly signed him to four years ago (despite swirling off-field problems).
This may wind up being a nothingburger. I would not roster Watson as a second quarterback today. But if we’re in one of those leagues where a bunch of teams carry a third quarterback for speculative reasons, it makes sense to stick Watson in that kind of role, seeing what happens.
Let’s recall that before everything went sideways, Watson was an elite quarterback, particularly for our silly little game – he’s a willing and capable runner, with a knack for scoring touchdowns on his own. Recall that the Falcons and Panthers were also very interested in trading for Watson back in 2022.
If there’s anything to Watson getting his act back together, we could be looking at a sneaky top-10 quarterback.
Since 2017, 38 quarterbacks have started at least 50 games. When Watson was playing for Houston, he averaged better per-game numbers than all of them. He averaged 304 total yards in his 53 starts there, with 103 touchdown passes and another 16 touchdowns on the ground.
Of course, Watson the last four years in Cleveland has been worse than all of those giuys, averaging only 177 passing yards in 19 starts, with 19 TD passes and 3 TD runs.
Factor in also that the Browns have Todd Monken running their offense now. He did a very good job elevating Lamar Jackson in Baltimore in the 2024 season; Jackson that year was better than in his MVP seasons.
Makes a lot of sense to squat on Watson for the first few weeks of the season, I think. There might be something there.
| QUARTERBACKS SINCE 2017 (per game numbers) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | Pass | TDP | Int | Run | TDR | Pts |
| Deshaun Watson (Hou.) | 53 | 272.4 | 1.94 | .66 | 31.3 | .34 | 32.6 |
| Josh Allen | 127 | 236.4 | 1.73 | .74 | 37.0 | .64 | 32.3 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 126 | 285.2 | 2.12 | .67 | 21.2 | .15 | 31.8 |
| Lamar Jackson | 107 | 210.6 | 1.74 | .52 | 59.7 | .32 | 31.4 |
| Jalen Hurts | 82 | 216.5 | 1.33 | .54 | 42.3 | .77 | 31.0 |
| Joe Burrow | 77 | 270.3 | 2.04 | .66 | 11.0 | .16 | 29.7 |
| Jameis Winston | 57 | 278.8 | 1.75 | 1.30 | 16.3 | .12 | 29.3 |
| Kyler Murray | 87 | 235.2 | 1.39 | .69 | 36.7 | .37 | 29.2 |
| Dak Prescott | 123 | 262.8 | 1.79 | .72 | 14.9 | .21 | 29.1 |
| Tom Brady | 98 | 282.0 | 1.97 | .61 | 1.9 | .11 | 28.8 |
| Justin Herbert | 95 | 261.3 | 1.72 | .61 | 18.1 | .16 | 28.7 |
| Russell Wilson | 122 | 235.4 | 1.85 | .57 | 23.5 | .15 | 28.4 |
| Drew Brees | 54 | 263.8 | 1.96 | .43 | .5 | .17 | 28.1 |
| Cam Newton | 52 | 203.9 | 1.10 | .87 | 39.3 | .52 | 27.6 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 64 | 269.9 | 1.83 | .80 | 2.6 | .06 | 27.4 |
| Jared Goff | 144 | 267.6 | 1.74 | .66 | 4.0 | .08 | 27.3 |
| Kirk Cousins | 126 | 258.0 | 1.79 | .71 | 6.1 | .09 | 27.2 |
| Matt Ryan | 92 | 272.7 | 1.53 | .75 | 7.2 | .10 | 27.1 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 122 | 241.4 | 1.89 | .42 | 8.9 | .09 | 27.0 |
| Carson Wentz | 83 | 237.4 | 1.71 | .70 | 16.0 | .11 | 27.0 |
| Matthew Stafford | 130 | 263.2 | 1.82 | .68 | 3.9 | .01 | 26.9 |
| Trevor Lawrence | 77 | 231.5 | 1.27 | .75 | 18.7 | .30 | 26.3 |
| Philip Rivers | 67 | 270.9 | 1.66 | .84 | .4 | .00 | 26.2 |
| Justin Fields | 53 | 169.2 | .98 | .58 | 52.8 | .42 | 26.2 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 74 | 217.8 | 1.49 | .65 | 14.0 | .30 | 26.0 |
| Baker Mayfield | 120 | 232.8 | 1.62 | .84 | 13.1 | .09 | 26.0 |
| Daniel Jones | 82 | 215.4 | 1.09 | .67 | 28.5 | .24 | 25.4 |
| Geno Smith | 68 | 235.8 | 1.40 | .76 | 13.7 | .07 | 25.2 |
| Tua Tagovailoa | 76 | 236.8 | 1.58 | .78 | 6.2 | .07 | 25.2 |
| Derek Carr | 122 | 246.3 | 1.44 | .66 | 5.4 | .06 | 25.0 |
| Jimmy Garoppolo | 62 | 241.4 | 1.44 | .84 | 4.0 | .10 | 24.8 |
| Sam Darnold | 90 | 223.7 | 1.36 | .90 | 11.8 | .16 | 24.7 |
| Mitchell Trubisky | 57 | 207.0 | 1.19 | .74 | 19.6 | .21 | 24.3 |
| Jacoby Brissett | 63 | 218.2 | 1.16 | .49 | 15.9 | .19 | 24.3 |
| Joe Flacco | 63 | 242.5 | 1.38 | .87 | 3.3 | .03 | 24.2 |
| Andy Dalton | 76 | 225.5 | 1.43 | .92 | 7.4 | .05 | 24.1 |
| Marcus Mariota | 55 | 193.8 | 1.02 | .71 | 26.2 | .22 | 23.7 |
| Mac Jones | 57 | 218.9 | 1.14 | .88 | 8.4 | .04 | 22.6 |
| Deshaun Watson (Clev.) | 19 | 177.1 | 1.00 | .63 | 24.5 | .16 | 22.3 |
—Ian Allan

