Fresh off a Week 1 beatdown at the hands of Dak Prescott’s Dallas Cowboys, the Cleveland Browns are now 13 games into the uninspiring Deshaun Watson experience, who once faced more than 20 allegations of sexual misconduct in what the NFL would later characterize as “predatory behavior.”
The Browns have had 13 games to watch a seemingly washed-up Watson play like perhaps the NFL’s worst starting quarterback, bar none. Sunday’s output was particularly awful. Watson failed to generate any meaningful traction against the Dallas defense in an abysmal performance where he averaged a paltry 3.7 yards per pass attempt and threw two interceptions.
Given everything the Browns surrendered to trade for Watson — including his monster, fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract — it’s more than fair to compare his play to that of his main Cleveland predecessor, Baker Mayfield.
Well, that is, unless you ask Cleveland sports radio hosts Ken Carman and Anthony Lima. The first listener call this duo fielded on Monday morning featured a fan seemingly throwing out random numbers, which … turned out to be Mayfield’s stellar Week 1 passer rating and Watson’s awful one.
The hosts did NOT like this reveal, to say the least:
The first call on Cleveland sports talk radio this morning pic.twitter.com/Ef9dln5MjX
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) September 9, 2024
I don’t know why the hosts had such a visceral reaction to what is an extremely fair conversation.
The Browns jettisoned Mayfield, a player they picked at the top of the NFL Draft because they thought they couldn’t win with him. Now, he’s become one of the most efficient passers in the game, but on a different team. Meanwhile, the Browns mortgaged their entire future for Watson, and he just makes them look increasingly stupider with every game.
Yeah, it’s hindsight, but that’s how this business works when you make the wrong guess in such a drastic manager.
Could you imagine this version of Mayfield with the Browns’ talented defense and arsenal of offensive weapons on his side? Would anyone in the AFC beat Cleveland? I find it hard to believe that the Browns wouldn’t at least be amongst the conference’s 3-4 clear best teams.
Things are getting dire for Watson and the Browns. And I know that because local radio hosts are melting down over reasonable discussions in Week 1.
