The Browns, like everyone else in the football world, continue to await the outcome of the Deshaun Watson hearing, which recently concluded. They are widely expected to be without their Pro Bowl acquisition for a significant stretch of the 2022 season, something the team prepared for with the way his contract is arranged. 
However, it appears they didn’t foresee a year-long suspension – which the NFL has quite publicly been seeking – as a potential outcome. Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com writes that Cleveland signed Jacoby Brissett working under the assumption that Watson would be suspended for “the first quarter of the season or so.”
Relying on the 29-year-old over the course of an entire campaign, she continues, was a scenario the team “didn’t envision” when they signed him one day after trading for Watson. Brissett has started 37 of his 60 career games, including two different years in Indianapolis as the No. 1 and a handful of contests last season in Miami. His numbers haven’t stood out at any juncture, but he could be reasonably expected to keep the team’s offense afloat for the short- to intermediate-term should Watson receive a suspension which still allows him to see the field in 2022.
If Brissett does end up as the full-time starter for this season, though, he will be insulated by a deep roster around him. The Browns boast arguably the league’s top running back tandem, a receiving corps now led by Amari Cooper, and a strong defense. Still, his track record would lead to understandable questions about the team’s ability to make the postseason in a highly-talented AFC – something Cleveland’s front office didn’t have in mind when making the ‘win-now’ move of trading for Watson.
With the Baker Mayfield situation still unresolved, and plenty of cap space to add another signal-caller such as Jimmy Garoppolo, the Browns do, of course, have alternatives to Brissett for 17 games. Turning to him for that long would, apparently though, be a reaction to unforeseen circumstances on the team’s part.
a quarter of the season??
this team really is clueless. welcome back Brownies. we missed your inept ways
Seeing Baker Mayfield host a charity event for kids on the same day Deshaun Watson is having his legal hearing, only after the Browns said want an “adult” at QB, is the Cleveland Browns we all know and love.
Deshaun hosts kids events too, just to see which moms show up so he can creep on them.
Mayfield is immature. Not saying Watson is a great person or role model but Mayfield is very immature and not well liked by his teammates.
Dude…. lol, You’re such an idiot
Not really. You probably play fantasy football
Like you said the Brownies are clueless. They were so desperate that they signed Watson with 26 criminal complaints pending to a fully guaranteed $230+ million contract. Watson had no desire to play in Cleveland but nobody else’s offer was even close. The Browns owners are as bad as the Commanders owners.
Criminal cases are over. They were over when they acquired him
Who’s running this team; I’m a 62 year old armchair quarterback and even I saw this coming. Someone need help with common sense; please contact me.
This will be settled soon and Watson will play football again. He’ll be as good as ever and the Browns will be one of the most talented teams in the league. Every move is not made for immediate results
With Watson coming back in 2023 and 2/3 of your running backs, all the rest of your qb, and your top RT hitting free agency while already being 20M over the cap next year will make for an interesting team.
They’ll make it work. You do realize that their GM and head coach are Ivy league graduates? They’re not going to be over the cap anyway because they will carryover some from this year. Why do you think they have 42 million left? How do the Rams make it work? Voidable years. Upfront money. There was an article about that in the Cleveland paper (online) and they basically said that the Browns will never be in cap trouble. They will probably let Conklin walk anyway because he’s not been healthy much. Clowney will be gone too because they drafted a defensive end. Hunt won’t be resigned but Johnson will be.
So they’re Ivy League graduates. Ever heard of “educated idiots?”
Yeah. But not Ivy league graduates. This will turn out great for the Browns. Trust me.
LOL ESPECIALLY Ivy League graduates.
Sure.
Your nuts. I question if after all this if the mental drain will impact him. Not to mention the physical part
It’ll be over by the time he plays. He’ll be relieved. Doubt he is bothered by pressure. You’re reaching now
Kind of like DeSean Watson reached with his penis to ensure that his ejaculation landed in the masseuse’s hair.
With this albatross of a contract, the roster is sure to suffer as they watch their best players go elsewhere in the coming years. Giving the farm for this “win now option ” is likely to blow up in their faces since the serial exposer will sit out yet another year. With Mayfield recovered, it’s a lost opportunity that most fans wanted no part of (other than the delusional die-hards).
The NFL doesn’t have a case. Didn’t you see Florio’s tweet? He wouldn’t be surprised if Watson got zero suspension. He said the NFL didn’t prove Violence, threats, force or coercion. Florio used to be a lawyer too. Here we go Brownies here we go. Woof woof
When DeSean Watson goes to jail you should go with him. That’s how complicit you are with your support of him. You’re as guilty now of every crime he’s committed as he is because of your refusal to accept his sexual predatory nature. All you care about is winning football games. That’s going to cause you a lot of pain very soon. No one’s going to feel sorry for you.
Didn’t you hear? The NFL has no proof. Do you?
Jail? I’m dealing with idiots on here
You really don’t know football do you?
Will you do it for under $240,000,000????
They thought he’d get 4-5 games?
Good thing they did that “thorough” investigation that involved speaking to… let me check my notes… exactly zero of the women who filed suit against him. Really had their fingers on the pulse of this.
You’d think an owner who guarantees a quarter of a billion dollars to one player would consider all possibilities. Unbelievable.
Their owner is a literal fraudster who is an absolute joke of an executive. Haslem is quite possibly the worst and most inept owner in professional sports, worse than Khan, Vivek, Dolan etc by a mile. I’m not sure how the NFL ever allowed him in.
One excuse was The Browns didn’t talk to any of the women because the ongoing investigation. The NFL sure had time to talk to some of them. It was an unbiased report according to Browns sources. How is a one sided report unbiased?
I did! Was called every name in the book by the Browns fans!
What’s a browns fan
There’s one on here… really annoying. The possibility of them not being a browns fan and just a troll exist though.
Nope. I’m a Browns fan. There’s the possibility that Watson will get 8 games. The union has a strong case because of no punishment for the 3 owners that violated the Code of Conduct policy with sexual actions
Interesting that Roethlisberger, who the Browns fan routinely trash here, got 4 games when 2 women accusers, where no charges were presented. This is not in the same universe. A full year should surprise no one.
Roethlisberger was accused of rape I believe. Watson wasn’t. Neither one was charged. Both paid.
Watson was also accused of that. Media is choosing different words to hide it.
This is why the Browns are garbage. Not saying Mayfield was the answer but he got the job done when healthy. Their play calling was atrocious and he played at about 50-60 percent health all season last year. So instead of fixing the issues that could’ve helped get them over the top they trade away their future assets for a guy that can’t be counted on. Welcome back to the cellar for another lengthy period of time.
Mayfield wasn’t good enough to take them to a Super Bowl. He’s an average quarterback. Even though Watson will miss some games this year, he’ll be the quarterback for a long time in Cleveland. Watson led the league in passing his last year playing and he’s only 26. You can hate all you want but you can’t deny he’s a talented quarterback
And R. Kelly is a talented singer, but nobody wants to have that scumbag anywhere near their daughters and the Browns paid a fortune to have this pervert as the face of their franchise.
you don’t say
Do tell, indeed.
How could they not have? Browns gonna Browns.
And when the Browns get Watson…how long it will be til he can’t control himself and does it again with some other masseuse?
That’s a complete lie with how they structured his 2022 salary
I would love for the nfl to give Watson a 15 game ban..last 5 games in each of the next 3 years. Would prevent other teams from thinking they could structure contracts to avoid biggest penalties.
NFL has a weak case. According to Florio, the NFL didn’t prove violence, threat, force or coercion. He’s a former lawyer too. He tweeted that he wouldn’t be surprised if Watson didn’t receive any punishment.
If you believe he won’t receive any punishment you’re are far more dense than everyone here already believes.
Florio is far from a reliable source. But he is perfect for those looking for an easy contrarian light to follow.
Only an idiot doesn’t see this coming. I knew this was going to happen before they traded for him. I said the same thing to all the losers saying the eagles should trade the house for him. Here’s the thing, once Manfred suspended trevor Bauer for two baseball seasons for the same thing, it tied Goodell’s hands. How would it look for him and the NFL if the MLB suspends a star pitcher for 300 something games over one accusation, then he suspends watson for only 6 games for 22 accusations of the same thing? All that happened before the trade so it just makes the browns front office look that much worse. The fact that they guaranteed 220 million and front loaded a large amount to cash bonuses with a minimal salary tells me that they were willing to pay off those women for him. Absolutely disgusting, and people think Ron Rivera is a bad guy, lol.
A gross situation to be sure.. but I don’t think Bauers situation is an accurate precedent.
Bauer was accused of some pretty serious physical abuse as well. Watson (as far as I know) doesn’t have any physical abuse claims from any of his accusers.
Obviously what Watson is accused of is a crime and worthy of some pretty serious punishment…. But I wouldn’t use Bauers punishment as a comparison point.
I would argue that in general sexual abuse is worse than physical abuse so I actually would use this as a comparison point. More specifically though, if we were to dig deeper into the accusations we would find that the woman that accused bauer of abuse was revealed to have sent him text messages telling him to slap her and make her feel pain during sex whereas none of the women accusing watson asked for him to grab their arm and make them touch his d*** or coerce them into sexual acts of any kind. Looking at it that way, Watson should actually probably be suspended for longer than bauer.
And the women who are suing Watson continued to see him and 1 actually had sex with him 2 more times after the first “assault” Watson didn’t commit a crime. 2 Grand Juries apparently didn’t believe a crime was committed or at least, they didn’t see enough evidence of a crime. But all the detective sleuths on here have figured it out
Unfortunately for you and your team, that doesn’t matter as the final decision ultimately rests with Roger Goodell. Like I stated in my original post, the standard set by the MLB is why Goodell is going to throw the book at him. I really don’t care whether he committed a crime or not and it doesn’t matter because the NFL disciplinary process isn’t a trial. Goodell in this case is the judge, jury and executioner and he’s already stated he wants an indefinite suspension of at least a year. The browns rolled the dice and lost. That’s all there is to it.
Educate yourself or don’t comment. Goodell is not the person issuing the punishment. Robinson is. If she issues no punishment, Goodell can’t do anything. Do you think maybe that Goodell is just saying he wants a year to appear tough? Watson and the union believe they have a strong case because of the owners getting off, literally. So you don’t care if Watson committed a crime? You just want him suspended for??? You do know that you are hearing only one side. Do you also know that 9 of the women who sued Watson continued to see him after the “assault”? Don’t you find that strange? I think it’ll end up being about 8 games. Even if it’s the whole season, we’ll go get Jimmy G and then have Watson for next year. It’s great being a Browns fan
Goodell handles the appeal if the league does not agree with the punishment handed out by the arbitrator. Odds are if the league doesn’t see close to a year from the arbitrator, they appeal and Goodell throws the book at him.
No fan of the Browns, but the league should have ruled on this a long time ago… total BS
Why, what’s the hurry? He missed last season because he refused to play for Houston. If they would’ve rushed into a decision they’d have done so before the last few accusers came forward. Rushing to hand out discipline is what doomed them in the Ray Rice case, can’t do that again.
In other news, the Browns didn’t foresee the team being moved to Baltimore or a half century gap between titles.
Lots of teams haven’t won a title in a half of century. Probably more than half of the NFL teams
The list of teams that were active back when the Browns won their last title but still lack a championship include the Titans/Oilers hybrid, Chargers, Vikings, Lions and Cardinals.
Bengals haven’t won. Falcons. Panthers. Jaguars. Bills. Jets. And the Browns make 12. That’s why they got Watson because Mayfield won’t win a Super Bowl. He’s made them better but he hasn’t improved
Bengals, Falcons, Panthers and Jaguars did not exist in 1964. Bills won titles in 64 & 65. Jets won championship in 1968.
Oh, so only 46 years and not a half century. Like I’ve posted many times before, I don’t really care about history, I care about present and future. Atlanta and Carolina were in a Super Bowl very recently but I doubt the fans of those teams are excited to be fans right now. The Bengals had a nickname of the Bungles but their future looks bright for awhile if they can keep Burrow. With Watson, the Browns are one of the most talented teams in the league.
The only thing that signing Watson has done for Cleveland so far is make the local massage industry nervous.
It’ll never happen again. On to football now
He doesn’t get a year long nfl a joke. Different sport but dude had one thing wrong and he get over 300 games. This dude had what 24 cases and can’t even get a year ??
Different cases. Not even close. He exposed himself and had consensual sex with a couple of the women.
Browns can’t see too good
They’ll be fine. Don’t worry about the Browns
How funny that the one guy who comes out of this smelling like a rose is going to be Watson – the guy that was accused of sexual misconduct by 66 women, as he still gets all his money regardless of how many games he gets suspended.
Fake news
With all these many many sports ‘writers’ are none deep enough investigators to inquire if Watson exhibited this behavior before he became a ‘pro’ football player, as in during college, and is actually also a ‘pro masseuse molester’ or is this nothing unusual in the masseuse industry?
According to Mike Florio, the NFL presented a very weak case. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if Watson got no suspension at all. Florio is a former lawyer. That’s what I’ve been saying all along, no evidence that he did what he is accused of doing.
You’ve been saying a lot of done shyt all along, but this may be the dumbest. There is absolutely ZERO chance this pervert doesn’t receive disciplinary action.
Six game checks is the ‘bad joke of 2022’.
The process is as bad as a pelosi stock buy