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.
How did Deshaun Watson’s return stack up against other players who missed significant time?
The first name I want to bring in is Kurt Warner. Now, Warner’s story is well known; bagged groceries, played in the Arena League, and then threw his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Yet, he didn’t actually just come straight in from the deli line. Warner was on the 1998 St. Louis Rams team as Trent Green’s backup.
He then came in with about a month of prep time after Green got hurt in 1999. In his first-ever start as QB 1, Warner went 17-25, 275 yards, and three touchdowns. Now, he didn’t miss 700 days, but the concept of needing time to get adjusted to “game speed” is clearly hogwash. Warner made his NFL debut in huge fashion and didn’t need to get acclimated to actual NFL action.
Watson’s been practicing with the Browns for most of the year and only missed six weeks of work before he was allowed back. Keep in mind, he was suspended on Aug. 30, and brought back on Oct. 10. That’s only six weeks of time he missed. So he’s clearly been able to practice and such for most of the year. Not only that, but he was training in Cleveland with his personal coach for those six weeks.
Clearly, Warner did just fine with just practice. Making the claim that players need (emphasis on this word) to get acclimated to “game speed” is really a myth, more used as an excuse.
Who else came back from long hiatus to tear it up?
Let’s dive further though, as we’re not “officially” counting Warner’s time against Watson. We only found a few quarterbacks who missed significant time and came back to play in their first game back. So who is first?
Let’s go with Dan Marino, who after 315 days and major elbow surgery that could’ve ended his career, went 23-42, for 473 yards, with 5 Touchdowns and a rating of 124.3. Granted, that’s not even a full season, I agree.
How about this one?
Tom Brady missed 372 days due to a torn-up ACL. On his first game back after major surgery and missed time, Brady went 39-53, for 378 yards and two touchdowns, and finished with a 129.2 rating.
“But Chad,” you yelp, “that’s only 372 days! Clearly, there is a correlation between the time missed and the time needed to get back!”
Ok, let’s go with Peyton Manning. He missed 607 days, had major, near-career-ending surgery, and came back to go 19-26 for two touchdowns and a 129 rating. Now, I know, we’re still 93 days south of Watson’s absences, and if we want a more honest look at how full of nonsense it is to need “time” to get reacclimated, let’s talk about a dude who blows Watson’s absence out of the water.
Alex Smith and Deshaun Watson are equals…
Alex Smith missed 706 days, had 17 surgeries, nearly had his leg amputated, and in his first game back still outperformed Watson with a stat line of 9-17, with 37 yards and a rating of 52.94. And he had only been back on the practice field for three weeks before that game.
He and Watson missed the same amount of time and put up similar numbers but only one of them nearly lost a leg while he was in between starts. So unless Watson was dealing with a significant injury like that, it’s fair to say he doesn’t get the pass Smith got.
There is no excuse for Watson’s play anymore. All of those men overcame horrific injuries, while Watson’s biggest obstacle in 2022 was traveling to the Bahamas (and settling with the women he abused).
It boggles the mind that a man with a personal coach, Quincy Avery, who claims he worked with Watson during his suspension, would need more than a few weeks of practice to be ready when all of those icons came out of the box ready to throw.
None of this is to say that Watson can’t play well, it’s simply the argument ender for any excuses he has going forward. He is a $40 million quarterback and has to play like it. There are no more excuses.