In recent years, the Cleveland Browns team has resembled a circus due to years of being the subject of punchlines. Since further troubling off-field claims have been made against recently signed starting quarterback Deshaun Watson, they are now the laughingstock of the league for completely different reasons than their dreadful on-field performance.
The Deshaun Watson Situation
Prior to his departure from Houston, Watson made headlines for all the wrong reasons. These included allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse that led to 25 women bringing a civil complaint against him. The women allege that Watson harassed them sexually during a planned massage treatment appointment. While with the Texans through the 2020 NFL season, Watson had 68 different female massage therapists during his playing career.
That should raise a warning signal for everyone in the league. Watson’s apparent motivation in this case appears to be to prey and take full advantage of vulnerable female professionals who wrongly believed they were there to aid in his NFL recovery. The accusations made against Watson are not only distressing in nature, but also quite serious. There is a very good chance that Watson will go to jail for the alleged offenses.
Watson has maintained his innocence throughout the controversy that has once again cast a dark cloud over the Browns organization. Oddly enough the man Watson is replacing, Baker Mayfield, has been steadily flying under the radar of late following the Watson drama that has unfolded in bunches. Mayfield did voice his displeasure with the Browns front office. He requested to be released by the team as all signs point to Mayfield getting a fresh start with another coach and franchise.
The Baker Mayfield Situation
Mayfield recently was traded to the Carolina Panthers and will compete against Sam Darnold for the starting job. However, Mayfield’s best option to regain a starting spot on an NFL roster would be with the Seattle Seahawks after Russell Wilsons departure to Denver. Mayfield is an upgrade and would provide a better option than their current three quarterbacks on their roster set to battle this pre-season in Drew Lock, Geno Smith, and Jacob Eason.
The waiting game is now somewhat officially over with both QBs in and out of limbo on what seemed to be a daily basis on when, where and if they will start a game again. Since the year 2000 the Browns have had Doug Pederson, Tim Couch, Kelly Holcomb, Jeff Garcia, Luke McCown, Trent Dilfer, Charlie Fry, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Colt McCoy, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace, Brandon Weeden, Thad Lewis, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer, Johnny Manziel, Connor Shaw, Austin Davis, Cody Kessler, Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown, DeShone Kizer, Kevin Hogan, Baker Mayfield, Tyrod Taylor, Case Keenum, Nick Mullens, and Watson as a question mark.
That would make 29 quarterbacks to start a game for Cleveland in the last 22 seasons. Teams like the Packers have had Favre and Rodgers in that span. That laundry list of Browns starting quarterbacks can hopefully be a thing of the past. Each revolving door of quarterbacks brought a whole offensive change. This made it difficult to establish any form of consistency. The success never translated on the field of play with no quarterback truly taking the reins and becoming their franchise starting quarterback in the long term.
Conclusion
With the controversial acquisition of Watson, the Dawg Pound will hopefully and mercifully have someone they can rely on for the priceable future. As young starting quarterbacks are emerging each year like Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Kyler Murray, the league is only getting more competitive at the most important position in all of sports. With these elite young quarterbacks only trending up, the Browns need to get out from under their two-decade rebuilding stage.
2 Comments
What was on the mind of the Browns front office picking up Watson with all these off the field issues.
Find another QB fast to replace Watson