NOVEMBER 16: Watson will undergo surgery performed by renowned doctor Neal ElAttrache next week, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets. A full recovery is expected, while Cabot adds that a six-month timeline will likely be needed for Watson to receive clearance for a return to football action. Whether or not he undergoes open or arthroscopic surgery will play a role in determining the length of his absence, but the fact Watson will not play again until 2024 represents a major blow to Cleveland’s short-term prospects.
NOVEMBER 15: The Deshaun Watson shoulder saga will bring a pivotal plot twist. Despite making the past two starts, the highly paid Browns quarterback sustained a setback during the team’s win over the Ravens. An MRI has since confirmed an injury that will end Watson’s season.
Watson will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, according to the Browns. The team announced Watson sustained a displaced fracture in the glenoid. Watson had previously missed time because of a micro tear in his rotator cuff. After returning earlier this season and then helping the Browns erase a two-score deficit in Baltimore, he will not make another comeback.
In addition to the shoulder trouble that has defined Cleveland’s season, Watson is battling a high ankle sprain. The shoulder surgery will allow time for that matter to clear up as well, and the 6-3 team will be without its high-profile trade acquisition. The Browns will need to turn back to P.J. Walker, who usurped Week 1 backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson. The team will add a third QB, per GM Andrew Berry, but Walker is expected to be the starter moving forward.
The latest shoulder setback occurred in the second quarter Sunday, Berry said. The fracture was not viewed as a worsening of the torn right rotator cuff, according to cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot. Berry said Wednesday morning (via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero) Watson indeed suffered a “completely new injury.” Watson’s upcoming surgery will not address the rotator cuff matter, Berry said.
While a full recovery is expected, this matter obviously threatens the Browns’ viability as a Super Bowl LVIII contender. Although Cleveland ended San Francisco’s unbeaten run without Watson and prevailed in Indianapolis after he left that game, Walker being asked to move forward as the full-time starter will deal a substantial blow to the rejuvenated team. The Browns are 4-1 in games Watson has finished this season.
After returning prematurely against the Colts in Week 7, Watson wanted to receive pain-killing injections and continue to play through this latest shoulder injury, Cabot reports. While this situation had previously involved the lightning-rod quarterback being cleared and not playing, Cabot notes Watson received information that his shoulder could could fall apart if he sustained another hit in the same spot. Multiple medical opinions led to this shutdown decision.
This is the second season of Watson’s five-year, $230MM fully guaranteed contract. The Browns restructured it in March, moving money into the mid-2020s and creating whopping cap figures post-2023. The team dropped Watson’s 2023 cap hit to $19.1MM, but the restructure inflated the 28-year-old passer’s 2024-26 cap numbers to $63.9MM. The Browns will likely push more money on this unprecedented contract into the future, but 2023 represented a key window — especially now with the team’s Jim Schwartz-run defense dominating — for the franchise.
The Browns, of course, traded Josh Dobbs — their handpicked 2023 backup — to the Cardinals before the season. Viewing Thompson-Robinson as ready to back up Watson, Cleveland sent Dobbs west in a swap that included a fifth-round pick coming back. Thompson-Robinson, a fifth-rounder out of UCLA, did not end up being ready to hold down the fort with Watson out. The Browns benched him after a blowout loss to the Ravens in Week 4. Walker has fared better, but the Browns’ non-Watson QBs carry a 1-to-8 touchdown pass-to-interception ratio this season.
Dobbs has since been moved to the Vikings and has helped the team to two wins since arriving. Dobbs said recently he expected to be traded to the Vikings or back to the Browns, per Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, who adds it not believed Cleveland was a true threat to reacquire the veteran backup. At the time, the Vikings — who had just lost Kirk Cousins to a season-ending Achilles tear — featured a greater need. Watson’s shoulder issue naturally made the Browns’ setup rather tenuous, but the team stood down at the deadline.
Cleveland has now lost Watson, Nick Chubb and right tackle Jack Conklin for the season. The team has managed to persevere without Conklin and Chubb, who were lost for the year in September. Watson has been a major part of that, though he has not recaptured the form he had displayed before the career-altering run of sexual misconduct and/or sexual assault accusations altered his reputation and led him out of Houston. Watson, however, had begun to play better in his latest return effort. He finished the Ravens game 20 of 34 for 213 yards and a touchdown, but the bulk of those incompletions came early. Watson rallied the Browns back from a 24-9 second-half deficit, completing his final 14 passes and leading a game-winning drive that culminated in a Dustin Hopkins field goal.
The Browns, who also recently placed left tackle Jedrick Wills on IR, exited Week 10 with a 63% chance to qualify for the AFC playoffs, according to ESPN’s FPI. They improved their chances in the loaded AFC North with the win in Baltimore, and while this injury may not crush the team’s wild-card hopes, it marks another disappointment for a franchise that absorbed considerable heat for acquiring Watson in the first place. The NFL then handed the embattled QB an 11-game suspension, extending his hiatus — which began when the Texans made him a healthy scratch throughout the 2021 season — well into the 2022 slate.
The Browns won a trade derby that consisted of the Falcons, Saints and Panthers. After it appeared Watson was set to choose Atlanta, Cleveland upped its extension offer to that $230MM guarantee proposal. Not only did the NFC South teams balk at that point, the ensuing run of big-ticket QB extensions did not follow suit. Lamar Jackson‘s pursuit of a fully guaranteed deal did not prompt the Ravens to match the Browns’ Watson terms, and the other QBs who signed for $50MM-plus per year do not come close in terms of fully guaranteed money. The Browns went 7-10 in Watson’s first year in Ohio, which came after an 8-9 campaign that ended up running Baker Mayfield out of town.
Mayfield playing through an injury to his non-throwing shoulder for most of the 2021 season moved him from a QB on the extension radar to one dealt for a fifth-round 2024 draft choice. The Browns also let Jacoby Brissett, who once again served as a team’s emergency replacement, defect to the Commanders in free agency. They had re-signed Dobbs — Brissett’s 2022 backup — in April but will move forward with Walker, who arrived just before the season. The Bears had released Walker previously, going with Division II-developed rookie Tyson Bagent behind Justin Fields.
Walker, who returned to the NFL in 2020 after a quality run in the abbreviated second XFL incarnation, has piloted the Browns to two wins. But the 28-year-old passer has completed just 49% of his throws this season. Watson ranks only 23rd in QBR and has endured steady hurdles in his road back from his defining midcareer issues, but his latest absence may well derail this year’s promising Browns edition.
Ha ha Browns fans!
I had been diagnosed with that very same shoulder injury. Decided against surgery. Symptoms completely cleared after ‘intense’ massage therapy
I had been diagnosed with that very same shoulder injury. Decided against surgery. Symptoms completely cleared after ‘intense’ massage therapy !
Sounds like a happy ending
hahahahahaaha. hahahahaha.
hahahahah browns stink
So i have got to ask…
Browns fan, was it worth it to sign a serial sexual abuser to the largest deal in NFL history?
How is that going for you guys?
Wasnt like 190 million guaranteed? Or was it the entire contract? Oh boy, this could get very bad, very fast.
230m guaranteed lmaoooo
Like the Browns fans authorized and signed off on this.
If anything, I feel bad for the Browns fans as the FO screwed this up. The injury just makes this stinky deal more stinky.
I’m a Browns fan and you can blame as much of this as you want on the team — and deservedly so — but not on the fans. A lot of the fanbase had and still has mixed opinions on everything that happened, and it’s definitely frustrating to be constantly reminded that this is probably gonna be one of the worst trades of all time. They’re going to be in cap hell whenever they’re done restructuring his deal (and right now it’s their only choice because you might as well push it back as far as you can at this point), so the hope is that you win enough before that happens.
It’s tough because I feel like the fans themselves are blamed for a decision the Browns probably made out of desperation. And I know some people who abandoned the Browns altogether, but truth be told most of us are just in too deep on this team so we’re stuck here lol
I blame the fan base for tolerating that franchise. If you really want them to build a winner, stop going to the games! Stop buying their merchandise. They’ll get the message. But sold out stadiums each week & all they do is ignore you and how awful the team have been my entire 50 years alive.
That goes for all poorly run franchises. Stop funding them if you don’t like it.
I’ve been to a total of one game this year and I could never bring myself to pay for a jersey at a game. I respect your view and there’s probably some accuracy to it, but my money isn’t what’s keeping them afloat lmao
I also don’t think that they’re ignoring the fanbase; I think they’ve just done a terrible job at trying to get it right. If anything, that probably makes it worse but I’d call them inept before I’d accuse them of not caring about the fans. Haslam isn’t the smartest owner but he pumps plenty of money into the team.
I agree that the fan base is a small percent of what they earn, but if they play in front of an empty stadium non-stop, that will make the owners & FO pay attention.
Different organization but perfect example. 2-3 years ago the Jags fan based called the GM a clown and went to the game w/ clown outfits on. My point is don’t go to those games. Franchises rub losing in their fans faces, stop going. Bears, Cards, Jets, DC, Falcons…All come to mind as incompetent franchises year in year out. Yet their stadiums always have fans. What a waste of time and money.
As for Cleveland, like I say I’m 50. When were they ever good? The 1960’s? Certainly not from the ’70’s till today.
Stop going to games in Cleveland and the Browns may move to San Antonio or Portland or any other number of cities wanting an NFL franchise. That’ll show the owners
You’re willing to go to Browns games, or any team that loses non-stop, to keep your team in your city? To me, that makes no sense. Let the losers leave then.
Browns didn’t win (Starting in 1970’s. Please don’t tell me about the 1920’s to 1960’s teams. I don’t know a thing about them.) before they moved to Baltimore & after they were reincarnated years later. You’re gonna drop roughly $400 a game to watch that only to keep them in Cleveland??
Non stop? They are 5 games over .500 in the last 4 years. 1-1 in the playoffs. Teams like the Lions,Jets, Cardinals, Bears, Panthers and others have all been worse. Maybe let the fans of those teams to spend their money like they want to and you can spend your money the way you like to. Maybe you should get out of the house more often instead of spending all day and night commenting on every article on this site. You probably don’t like being told what to do, do you?
Browns, Rams, Raiders (x3 times), Titans & Chargers all recently moved despite their loyal fan bases. Like I say, the Franchises don’t care about their fan base or know they’ll be suckers and still support them elsewhere.
Another ridiculous move in a series of them by the Browns FO. Signing him to a guaranteed contract. As bad as Watsons been, not having him in there isn’t as devastating as it appears. The Browns are a defense first team anyway.
Defense wins championships.
Still need a competent QB (and the Browns cupboard is bare)
Waiting for him to blame the league for depriving him of his coerced, inappropriate rub downs. The Browns deserve this.
Before this latest injury was announced, my 85 year old mother summed him up succinctly: “He’s such a diva”. Mom is always right.
good thing the browns didnt trade 3frp’s and give this guy 230m… they would be soooooooo fuc*ed if they had.
Ugh. The injury just makes this bad deal even worse.
Christmas came early for Houston fans.
Cue the rehab/massage comments.
But on a serious notes, the Browns have a legit D and OL and if Watson and Chubb were healthy they could’ve competed with the best of them.
Iffffffffffffffffffff……….
Sonny Weaver Jr. wouldn’t have done this deal in the first place.
Seriously, I feel bad for the Browns fans. FO seemingly F-up.
And yet, I won’t be surprised if they beat the Steelers this week. Even Walker is a better QB than Pickett
You spoke too soon..they are playing DTR.
Karma Police arrest this man…
The ignorance of the Peanut Gallery shows no bounds.
OK, then. Thanks for letting us know.
Now he’ll grope the surgeon, nurses, etc.
A fool and his money are soon parted. Said My Dad and some other guy.
Good thing he’ll be under during surgery so he can’t inappropriately touch the surgeon or nurses.
That all happens during “physical rehabilitation”. It’ll be a year before we hear about that. One nurse will come out & share her story, then a second, a third, a fourth, & a fifth. The Browns owner will be pleading with the NFL to create a rule allowing teams to get out of guaranteed contracts if they do something to make the team look bad, but the league will deny him since he started this mess by giving him the first fully guaranteed contract.
The NFL seems to have quite a few $40+ million cheerleaders this season.
When is a contract a contract?
Today’s NFL contracts appear to be an outline where teams can sign a player to a league-altering guaranteed contract and then every year they create signing bonuses or other ways to re-allocate the remaining money.
Player contracts should be iron-clad.
The contract that was originally signed should stay as originally written through the number of years it was designed to run.
They signed Watson to a guaranteed contract that ruined the contract structure for the future for all teams.
A contract should be a contract, not a re-negotiation process for everytime the team needs cap money.
Browns have now paid $90+ million to a serial sexual predator for two seasons of play totaling 12 starts just to get a 81.7 passer rating in return. Well done Browns!
But I’m sure the contract will age nicely. LOL
The Jets got one series from Rodgers and his cast of buddies that he wanted the Jets to sign
The issue here is not Watson, the issue is team’s betting the ranch on a single player. Clearly this is not a good plan. Surprised the players’ association likes these uncapped single player contracts – there are thousands of members and only a couple of dozen will get these insane contracts and the other thousands get the short end of the stick as a consequence (teams’ overall salary cap remains the same, share of revenue remains the same, all that is different is distribution of the revenue).
Collective bargaining is now what it used to be.
The team salary cap has ben going up every year. Went up 16 million for 2023. In 2024 and 2025 expected huge increases. Tieing up all the ones in single players is tough I agree. Limits your team moves.
Salary cap increases, salary cap increases, salary cap increases – every year the same plaint. Salary cap increases do not cover single player $50 million (QB) and $30 million (WR, DE and CB) salaries. The league has to get the top end salaries under control. It’s not fair to teams, makes even the best teams subject to single injury and season is over (i.e. a lottery) and it’s not fair to players as only twenty or thirty of them are running off with a third of all the money.
Guaranteed money, that’s all everybody’s gonna see from this. Good riddance, honestly.
I had a feeling the Gods were somehow never going to let this thing show success. His story sucks. It’s not how things evolve. You can’t just pay for success in the NFL. Many have tried. He will be back, but I honestly think this will be status quo for Watson.
He will stay in the papers, and that’s what we’ll get.
Guess he really did need those massages
Front office and ownership should be proud of themselves….who the hell could put that much confidence in “such a great human being”?????
He was a pile of dung to anyone with a pinch of she-ite for brains. Would 60 accusations have made it more clear??? Cuz the 20/30 must not of been enough.