BEREA, Ohio — The questions came at Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry from multiple angles. Every one of them, however, came from one starting point.
Deshaun Watson, the once-again-done-for-the-season Browns starting quarterback. Or, as the questions posed to Berry on Wednesday during his annual bye-week media availability tried to answer, will he ever be the Browns starting quarterback again?
“Yeah, I’d say this, our focus again, organizationally, is on making sure that he gets healthy,’ Berry said. ‘Just the reality of it is, with any season-ending injury, there is some uncertainty in terms of the recovery, and so our focus is on making sure that he gets healthy and then we can move from there.”
The Achilles tear, which Watson suffered Oct. 20 against the Cincinnati Bengals and had surgery to correct on Oct. 25, typically takes a minimum of nine months from which to fully recover. Berry said of a potential timeline for that, ‘It’s still very, very early, so it would really be irresponsible for me to speculate or kind of lay out a timeline to be honest.”
Asked directly if Berry thought Watson could come back and play quarterback again for the Browns, he said, ‘Yeah, I think that’s always possible.’
All things Browns: Latest Cleveland Browns news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.
That was the general vibe to most of Berry’s answers regarding where the Browns go with Watson, the player to which the franchise has handcuffed itself since making the ill-fated 2022 trade to acquire him from the Houston Texans. The trade, which cost three first-round draft picks along with a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract, has fast reached the level of one of, if not the, worst trade in league history because of the lack of any major sustained success from Watson.
That contract, and the fully guaranteed nature of it, has become the albatross hanging around the franchise’s neck. Watson’s a nearly $73 million cap hit each of the next two seasons, then nearly $27 million in a cap hit in the first year after the contract expires in 2027.
The Browns sitting at 2-7 at the bye only makes all of the questions about Watson’s long-term viability more glaring due to the other questions around the roster, questions Berry sidestepped as well. There was also the relitigation of who was directly responsible for the trade coming to pass: Berry, coach Kevin Stefanski or owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam?
“I’d say this — like we’ve always said — all of us were on board,’ Berry said. ‘Everyone was on board and, obviously with a big commitment in that regard, that’s always going to be the case.’
Watson’s Achilles tear was just the latest roadblock thrown up preventing the Browns from getting anything close to a full season out of the quarterback. There was an 11-game suspension in 2022 for personal conduct policy violations connected to more than two dozen lawsuits alleging sexual assault and sexual misconduct during massage appointments, 11 games lost last year to shoulder injuries, including a season-ending broken glenoid, and now the rest of this season lost to the Achilles tear.
That’s left 19 games total for the Browns to actually assess Watson the quarterback. It’s been 19 games that have run the gamut between stellar performances, such as the second half of last year’s Week 10 win at the Baltimore Ravens, to most of the seven games he played this season before the injury.
“It is certainly less than ideal,’ Berry said. ‘Availability’s a big part of it for any player but, again, it’s also the NFL. You at times are not going to have all your starters in every phase, and our job is still to produce despite that and at least through the first nine games of the season we have not done that.’
Watson and the Browns offense were linked hand-in-hand to the struggles which made both among the worst in the league before the injury. His own personal struggles — which included a 31st-ranked passer rating (79.0), a 26th-ranked passing yards output (1,148) and a 27th-ranked completion percentage (63.4%) — coincided with an offense that was among the worst and has remained there, even after backup Jameis Winston’s 334-yard performance a week after Watson’s injury.
Winston, who came back down to earth a bit in Sunday’s 27-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers with three interceptions, gave the offense a momentary boost with his performance against the Ravens. That only made the questions louder about why a change at the most important position on the field wasn’t made sooner while the Browns were in a season-defining five-game losing streak.
‘When you’re 2-7 entering the bye, you understand the fans’ frustration, and we have not played consistently on offense and it’s shared ownership,’ Berry said. ‘It really is shared ownership. We’re capable of playing better, we should play better and, like I said, we’re going to make the adjustments necessary to improve our performance throughout the next eight games and then obviously make the adjustments to make sure we’re not feeling this way the first nine games of the year moving forward.’
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