Deshaun Watson reveals why starting vs. the Cowboys wasn’t always a given, and how he can show the world he’s still elite (2024)

BEREA, Ohio — Deshaun Watson revealed on Wednesday that starting Sunday’s opener against the Cowboys wasn’t always a given, which is one reason it means so much to him.

“When we first had the surgery back in November, no one knew exactly where it was going to lead to,” Watson said. “It could have been now as we’re sitting here today or it could have been a whole year, which would’ve been in November. So it was very broad, but I challenged myself to get back to this moment right now and I wanted to make every throw in the spring and I did that.

“I was able to make every throw that Dr. (Neal) ElAttrache put out there on the table for me and I was able to do that before spring broke. Going into training camp, everything else was just building the strength and building the endurance with the shoulder.”

Coming off surgery to repair his fractured right shoulder socket and torn labrum, Watson set his sights on throwing during Organized Teams Activities in May, and once he hit that milestone, there was no turning back. He remained ahead of schedule and can’t wait to run out of the tunnel on Sunday as the starter.

“The emotions are super high,” he said. “Getting back for the first game, the start of the season, getting out there and letting all the hard work that you put in the off-season show on the field. Being back in the locker room, prepping again is one of my biggest wins this off-season, to be able to make it back to Week 1 and be in the position I am to go out there and compete Sunday to help this team win.”

Limited to individual drills and 7-on-7s during OTAs and mandatory minicamp, Watson didn’t begin throwing in 11-on-11s until the first day of training camp July 25th at The Greenbrier. Of the 17 training camp practices, he threw in 16 of them, and only cut one practice short on Aug. 21st because of general arm soreness. The discomfort landed him on the sidelines for the preseason finale in Seattle instead of getting his only taste of live action, but the night off was as much about the Browns using a fourth-string left tackle as it was his arm soreness.

For the most part, the repaired arm, for which there’s no real precedent in the NFL, has healed ahead of schedule and exceeded expectations. Even that day of “general soreness” was no big deal, he said.

“I could’ve finished the practice, but it was a medical decision where they just told me any type of soreness, we’re going to take the high road and not try to push anything,” he said. “The key is to play 17 plus games, not finish training camp and try to be a superhero at the time. So far I’ve been well and just taking it one day at a time.”

As for any arm limitations heading into the game, he quickly said, “No. There’s never been any limitations.”

Watson’s private quarterbacks coach, Quincy Avery, said recently that Watson is more prepared for this season than he’s been in awhile, and Watson agrees.

“We went back to the basics, started from scratch,” Watson said. “The injury definitely helped just because I had to start over, throwing motion mechanics, taking care of my body, eating right … focusing on, ‘OK, what do I need to do to get back to the elite level and feeling good each and every week. We really locked in on that. We sat down together, we put out a plan and we followed that plan and that process and I feel really, really well, feel very explosive, locked in on my tasks, on the game, endurance, everything.

“I’m excited to go out there and show what I got on Sunday and with all the hard work that I put in.”

Watson re-iterated what he’s said so many times before that “of course, no doubt” he’s still among the elite quarterbacks of the NFL.

But the national pundits couldn’t disagree more.

Watson, who went 4-1 last season in games he started and finished, has consistently appeared in the bottom half or bottom third of QB rankings this preseason, with NFL.com ranking him No. 25, and The Ringer ranking him 24th. Earlier in the spring, Pro Football Focus ranked him 23rd, and The 33rd Team ranked him 27th. In Mike Sando’s QB Tiers for The Athletic, as ranked by 50 coaches and personnel execs, Watson dropped to No. 18 in Tier 3, down from his Tier 2 ranking 2023, and the fourth straight year he’s tumbled.

NFL.com’s Nick Shook, in ranking him No. 25 — behind No. 23 Jacoby Brissett, and No. 24 Russell Wilson, wrote “The vibes are eerie in Cleveland right now regarding Watson, who didn’t play in preseason and isn’t fueling many sunny narratives entering Week 1. It doesn’t help that 2024 is yet another season that is dependent on the same question we’ve been asking for some time: What do the Browns have in Watson?

“Frankly, nobody knows. Watson appeared to be turning a corner when he led the Browns to a comeback win over Baltimore in Week 10 last season, then disappeared to injured reserve because of a season-ending shoulder injury, and those typically don’t bode well for quarterbacks. Either Watson will prove doubters wrong, or he’ll put the Browns in an uncomfortable (and, unfortunately, familiar) situation regarding the position entering 2025.

But Watson can begin to prove his critics wrong on the national stage Sunday against the America’s Team, opposing Dak Prescott in front of potentially 30 million viewers, with Tom Brady calling his first game on Fox.

“For me, it’s just going out there and just playing football,” Watson said. “It’s going out there and playing football and focusing on how can I execute against the Dallas defense. The outside noise and outside magnitude stuff, I don’t get into any of that.”

Can he get into a shootout with Prescott if he must? Afterall, the Browns won the previous meeting 49-38 in Dallas.

“I’m up for any challenge, so I’m not afraid of anything,” he said.

He did acknowledge that his friend Brady calling the game is cool. They wouldn’t have sent the G.O.A.T. to Cleveland if something good wasn’t brewing here, right?

“I’ll talk to him Friday, but, of course, I’ve always been a big fan of Tom Brady since I came into the league, before I even came into this league,” Watson said. “But when I came into the league, the relationship that we had through Bill O’Brien and kind of New England field, we used to during training camp have joint practice with those guys. Sent me this book that he wrote, his jersey, all that type of stuff. That’s the pretty cool thing about his first game being our game. That’s pretty dope.”

While reports out of training camp painted a grim picture of Watson’s performance, he knew it would look better when all of his skill players were finally on the field at the same time: Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy, Elijah Moore and David Njoku. On Wednesday, his eyes widened at the thought of the band being back together. The Watson to Jeudy connection alone started to heat up late in camp, and looked promising.

“It’s been good to have all those guys out there,” he said. “Each one does a little bit of something different with their skillset, but all of them are capable of making big plays and just having the whole crew out there is definitely fun. We only have one football so as I tell ‘em, the open guy’s going to get it first and if we can all have that approach of everyone wants to win their route, win their concept and win their matchup, then wherever the ball finds that receiver then it’s your opportunity to make that play.”

The outlook at left tackle is also a lot better now that All-Pro right tackle Jack Conklin is poised to step in, and regular starter Jedrick Wills Jr. returned to practice Wednesday on a limited basis. James Hudson III is also an option, but at this point, Conklin seems to have the inside track, and has the elite talent to help hold off fellow two-time first-team All-Pro Micah Parsons.

“Of course, it can be James, it can be Jack, whoever’s in is going to play at a high level,” Watson said. “I have trust in both of those guys and whoever else is in that rotation.”

Watson, who vowed in camp to block out all the noise, couldn’t care less that the national experts are overlooking him and the team, with many of them picking them to miss the playoffs.

“It’s fine with us,” Watson said. “It’s perfect. We’re just going to go under the radar and work. That’s all we can do. We don’t get into all the power rankings and people opinions. It’s the NFL. Things change, teams change, rankings change. So it’s Week 1. The key is to be the best team in Week 17. Each week you’ve got to get better. The teams that do that, you see them rise to the top and end up in that final game. And that’s why we’ve got to take that approach.”

It’s Cowboys week for the Browns, and a chance for Watson to show the world that he’s still the elite quarterback he’s confident he is.