Is it a valid argument to say that Deshaun Watson needs time to adjust?

Have the media given the Cleveland Browns and Deshaun Watson a pass they don’t deserve?

By now, everyone knows about the heinous things Deshaun Watson has done. It earned him an 11-game suspension. Due to that, it would largely be about 700 days exactly between Watson’s last game in Houston in 2021, and his first game back with the Cleveland Browns in 2022. Due to that large layoff, many, myself included, believed it’d be unfair to judge Watson on his first game back. After all, 700 days off with only practices and limited preseason action? No way he can just dominate after coming back, right?

Well, then Baker Mayfield showed up in LA on two days’ notice and with the most difficult playbook in the league and dunked on the Oakland Raiders. This made me re-think Watson’s struggles. Mayfield may play well come his next outing, he may not. That’s not the point. The point is that Mayfield did the impossible, and he’s constantly lambasted for his inconsistencies.

So, if Watson is the “better” quarterback and we all agree he is, why are we giving Watson a pass? Well, many people will say, “he hadn’t played an actual NFL game in 700 days. You need time to get your rhythm back.”

And I generally accepted that. Until I didn’t. I believed you couldn’t learn a playbook in two days, what other NFL misconceptions exist? So it got me thinking, “Who has missed at least a season of action, and returned in his first game to have a big day?” There aren’t many names, granted. Most NFL players who miss time were back in less than a calendar year. Michael Vick missed a chunk of time due to a broken leg in 2003, but he didn’t miss a full season. Drew Brees had career-altering surgery, that could’ve ended his career, but he didn’t even miss a start in between. So there aren’t a lot of guys.

So we’re going to look at some names that were out for more than a full year, and how they did in their first game back. And yes, I acknowledge there aren’t a lot of examples, and it’s very hard to find guys who have been out for more than a year, and then returned right away to the field.

There may be more, but these were the ones I found.

For context purposes, Watson’s stat line for the Texans game, his first in literally 700 days, was 12-22, 131 yards, and a rating of 54.5. So we’re going to look at every statistic, but most notably the rating.

So let’s get started.