There was a point during the Browns’ upset of the 49ers on Sunday when the help Deshaun Watson was giving PJ Walker was about to pay off. Or so Walker thought, after he’d missed a throw to Elijah Moore and retreated to the Cleveland sideline.
“I missed the throw to Elijah, and we were talking about how they, as a defense, play with your eyes,” Walker said postgame, as he was readying to leave Cleveland Browns Stadium. “And he was like, ‘If you just hold your eyes right, you will be able to go back to Dave [Njoku] instead of Elijah.’ That was big. We didn’t get back to it. But I knew what he meant and I knew what he was referring to when he made the point.”
So, no, this story doesn’t end with a big throw for a touchdown, or a key first down late in the game or a piece of growth for Walker as a quarterback.
But it does illustrate two things about Sunday at the position for the short-handed Browns.
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One, Watson was involved. And, two, Walker was ready.
Indeed, just about six weeks after being signed to the Cleveland practice squad, and just two weeks after being elevated to the active roster, the 5'11", 216-pound 28-year-old showed himself to be the same guy he has been in each of the last seven seasons—equal to the task put in front of him. No, Walker wasn’t Superman. But on a wet, windy day that Cleveland’s defense took control of, he was exactly what the Browns needed.
And while Walker did throw two picks, one in the first quarter and one in the fourth, his veteran ability to compartmentalize the mistakes showed up when it mattered most, much as he kicked himself for the throws. And especially the latter, on which he had to “give Coop [Amari Cooper] a better ball, give him a better chance.”
After the interception by Deommodore Lenoir and the eight-yard touchdown run by Jordan Mason on the next play that gave the Niners a 17–13 lead with 10:58 left, Walker commanded a huddle full of guys he, truth be told, still didn’t know all that well, with a single directive.
“Nobody said nothing,” Walker says. “It was our chance; we got the ball back. Let’s go do something with it.”
Tough as the Niners made it, the Browns did do something with it, covering 43 yards in a steady, slow-moving 14 plays that tested the resilience of both sides. Cleveland converted a fourth-and-4 with a six-yard throw to David Bell—the Niners showed man, Walker says, “but then they backed out to Cover 2 and Bell did a great job just making the right decision, and I was able to put the ball on him”—and survived an 11-yard sack from Nick Bosa five plays later along the way, with Dustin Hopkins drilling a 50-yard field goal to cut the Niners’ lead to 17–16.
Then, after the defense forced a three-and-out, the Browns marched 63 yards on nine plays, by hook or by crook, and with a couple of penalties moving the chains, back into range for Hopkins to give Cleveland the lead on a 29-yarder. On that series, as much as anything, the offensive line flexed its muscle in giving Jerome Ford room for 14- and 22-yard bursts that stood among the offense’s biggest plays in a tractor pull of a game.
“Our O-line did a hell of a job moving their guys,” Walker says, “and our backs did a great job finding the lanes.”
You know the rest. The Niners fought back. Jake Moody missed a 41-yard field goal to win it in the final seconds. The Browns are now 3–2.
And if things go to plan, Watson will have his job back soon—something that’s just fine with Walker, because he knows the job he signed to do and he also spent the week seeing what kind of teammate Watson is.
“It was the whole week—every day of the week,” Walker says. “He just continued to tell me what he’s seeing out there, giving me advice and just trying to help me see what he sees out there. I also need eyes out there from the sidelines, just because I’m his eyes on the sideline when he’s out there on the field.”
So, yes, Walker knows the score here, coming out of his eighth NFL start. But he also knows what he’s capable of. In the last six weeks, he showed it again. He’d ask coaches for the next day’s install the night before and come early in the morning to review it with quality control and assistant quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant. He drew on his experience over the past seven seasons, with the Colts and Panthers, and, over this summer, the Bears.
“That played the most into it,” Walker says. “Just me being on different teams and the experiences of going up against other guys, I think that right there helped me understand what I need to do with the offense here.”
And clearly, by the time he was cramming with Watson last week, finding out a little later in the week that he’d be starting (he told me he knew “Thursday or Friday” that he’d be the starter, but said that with a sly laugh), everyone knew a guy who’d been a pro’s pro for Matt Rhule in Carolina the past three years would be ready to roll. Which shouldn’t have been a surprise, because he always had been.
“I knew I would get another chance,” Walker says. “Carolina wasn’t my last place to be. I knew I would start another game in this league. I truly believe I belong in this league. For me, it’s just to go out there and prove everybody else wrong week in and week out. I feel like everybody try to doubt or try to say negative things, but for me as a player, just to go out there and prove myself right week in and week out. I know I belong.”
And showing he did, again, gave him plenty from Cleveland to remember.
“Absolutely, I’m going to remember the whole day because I knew how hard it was out here to battle,” he says. “I knew what we went through this week preparing. I’m gonna just remember every moment about this. You know how hard it is to win on Sundays in this league; it’s not easy. And for us, we battled our ass off today.”
Walker sure did, too.
Of course, that really isn’t anything new.
