The Cleveland Browns are likely to be more productive on offense due to one key change to Deshaun Watson’s preparation in 2023, Albert Breer believes.
The Cleveland Browns are a team that had their plans to move forward last year disrupted, although that disruption wasn’t unexpected. When they traded for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson they did so to bring in a quarterback who has been very promising on the field.
However, his off-field issues and suspension for sexual misconduct meant that he wasn’t part of the team’s roster during the regular season until Week 14, although he was part of the team’s preseason plans as they wanted to give him some work whilst the suspension was being sorted out, whilst also giving time to Jacoby Brissett, who ended up starting whilst he was away.
That inconsistent preparation time and ‘rust’ from being inactive for so long meant that when he came back for the end of the regular season, his numbers didn’t quite match up to what he was producing with his former team, and gave you a sense that maybe the Browns’ gamble to bring him in, and give up so much in order to do so, had backfired.
However, Albert Breer believes that this season might well be different.
Cleveland Browns banking on big change to help Deshaun Watson
Writing in a mailbag column for SI.com, Breer pointed out that this year would be different, as the Browns essentially had to stretch their work last year because of the quarterback situation, whereas now, with all attention focused on Watson being #1, that should allow them to create something to get the best out of Watson and Watson alone:
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski had to build an offense that worked for Watson, but also for Jacoby Brissett and the other 10 guys in the huddle, while simultaneously preparing both to play last summer. What resulted was a very weird year, which ended with Watson playing in a scheme that proved to be imperfect for him.
The lessons the coaches will take from that, I think, really count for a lot. My expectation is Stefanski and his offensive staff will unveil something, in a few months, that’s a lot more geared to what Watson does well—O’Brien did the same thing for the quarterback in Houston, borrowing some offensive concepts from Clemson to get Watson going early in his career. And that, with the talent on hand, should be enough to get Watson back to where he was in Houston, where, at one point, he was seen as toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes as a player.
For that reason, while I’m not sure I’d pick Cleveland to make the playoffs right now, I sure wouldn’t be shocked if the Browns are one of the seven teams standing from the AFC come January.
The Browns’ plans are certainly going to be a lot easier knowing that they have Watson for the full year this time around, and as Breer points out, hopefully they will be able to come up with a system that gets the best out of him, and then the players as a result.
At least for their sake you hope that is the case, because if Watson doesn’t come good, then you might have to think that it’s simply an organisation problem, and given the issues they’ve had in the past, an organisation where quarterbacks come to die.