Browns: Still in the running for top free agent J.J. Watt

Despite earlier reports, John Clayton claims teams like the Browns are still in contention for J.J. Watt at the moment but aren’t in the top three.

There was some confusion earlier today when multiple outlets misreported what John Clayton said about teams like the Browns being out of the  J.J. Watt sweepstakes. The confusion started when people like Andrew Fillipponi tweeted out;

"@JohnClaytonNFLsays JJ Watt won’t be coming to Pittsburgh. Tennessee, Green Bay, and Buffalo are the 3 teams. Raiders as a dark horse."

To be clear, he wasn’t the only one who made the error, as I personally heard WHLK106.5 FM The Lake report the news, flat out saying the Browns were out of the J.J. Watt sweepstakes. So clearly, someone wasn’t clear with the message.

Clayton has since gone on to clarify that no one is truly out of the race and that the Browns are still very much involved in the Watt sweepstakes. Why The Titans, Packers, and Bills are in the top three weren’t mentioned, so it could be any number of reasons or could be just an opinion he got from someone else.

The Browns need Watt on their team in 2021, that isn’t even up for debate. Watt is someone who can still play at an incredibly high level, just look at his advanced stats in 2020. He played a full season and got plenty of depth all year. It was just super easy for opposing offenses to gameplan or the Texans, because like the Texans only have DeShawn Watson on offense, they only had Watt on defense.

When you’re the only guy that teams have to plan for, you know you’re going to deal with plenty of double and triple teams.

Watt was a name that could’ve helped the Browns last season, especially against the Chiefs. Had Cleveland traded for Watt at the deadline, he would’ve added the extra quickness on the edge the team was lacking, especially with Myles Garrett injured.