Tag: Deshaun Watson

Report: Browns QB Deshaun Watson set to resume throwing in March

The quarterback continues to work his way back from surgery

Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was shut down in November with a shoulder injury that required the veteran to have surgery. The team has said publicly that he is progressing well in his rehab and Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot says he will begin throwing in March.

Despite not having Watson the Browns finished with 11 wins and another playoff birth, Kevin Stefanski won his second Coach of the Year award in four years. Now the team is committed to taking the next step and molding their offense to fit Watson bringing in several different voices on the offensive coaching staff.

Having Watson throwing before the offseason program will go a long way in working with the new staff to shape the new-look offense in 2024. A lot is riding on how Watson plays this season, and being able to begin throwing soon is a major win for the Browns.

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Clemson offensive stars we’d love to see in EA Sports’ College Football

A list of Clemson football offensive stars fans and gamers would love to play with on EA’s new college football series.

College football fans and gamers have been waiting a long time for a new video game to play NCAA football on Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox consoles. After more than 10 years, that wait appears to be almost over.

EA Sports announced last week that it was officially relaunching its heralded college football franchise, previously known as ‘NCAA Football,’ sometime this summer. The game will be titled ‘EA Sports College Football 25.’

Who will be on the cover and other details have yet to be finalized, but various reports state that a release date for the video game is expected to be sometime this summer, likely in either July or August.

The last college football game that was released by EA Sports was NCAA Football 14. That game featured former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson on the cover. The ‘NCAA’ series was discontinued in 2013 after a wave of lawsuits over name, image and likeness.

For Clemson fans that didn’t hold on to PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 consoles and use downloaded rosters from other online gamers, that means they missed out on playing with a lot of Tiger legends from the Dabo Swinney era.

With that in mind, we decided to put together a list of Clemson football stars from the past 10 years that we’re sure fans and gamers alike would love to play with on EA’s new college football series if the makers of the game decide to allow users to access past players.

Mike Tannenbaum proposes ridiculous Daniel Jones-DeShaun Watson trade

Former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum proposes the New York Giants make a ridiculous Daniel Jones for DeShaun Watson trade.

Deshaun Watson a New York Giant?

Don’t laugh. Former New York Jets general manager and current ESPN NFL analyst, Mike Tannenbaum, is suggesting the Giants trade for the troubled Cleveland Browns quarterback in a deal that would include Daniel Jones.

Speaking on the ESPN show Get Up this week, Tannenbaum outlined a deal that would send Jones to Cleveland in exchange for Watson and a second-round pick.

“Hear me out: If you’re the Cleveland Browns, you have Dorian Thompson-Robinson, you have Joe Flacco and now, a 27-year-old Daniel Jones who has one year left of guaranteed money for $36 million and an enormous amount of flexibility moving forward,” Tannebaum said, via the New York Post.

“If you’re the Giants, you’re getting Deshaun Watson, who’s 29, who’s making $46 million a year for the next three years and a second-round pick. To me, you need a front-line, difference-making quarterback. Right now, if you’re the Giants, how in the world do you win the NFC if you have to beat San Francisco, Green Bay, Dallas, Philly, and Detroit with Daniel Jones?”

The Giants, of course, would never even entertain such a trade, especially for Watson, whose troubled past would surely bring even more negative light on the team.

Jones may have been inconsistent and unavailable due to injuries during his five-year Giants career, but he is a model citizen. General manager Joe Schoen knows the Giants’ ownership wouldn’t go for it, either, so he’s not even thinking about Watson right now.

With the sixth pick in the upcoming NFL draft, the Giants — if they are serious about moving on from Jones — would use that pick to do it.

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Former Jets GM throws out outlandish trade idea for Browns

Would this trade make any sense?

As we wait for the new league year, a former general manager of the New York Jets suggests a rare no-win trade that would see the Cleveland Browns sending quarterback Deshaun Watson to the New York Giants for Daniel Jones. Oh yeah, and in this scenario, the Browns are the ones kicking in an extra second round pick.

The NFL off-season is off and running and that means it’s time for some of the wildest takes to try and stay relevant in this downtime. ESPN’s Mike Tannenbaum kicked off this time of year on Get Up Friday when he suggested this trade between the Browns and Giants.

Not that Watson has been great with the Browns, but to suggest Daniel Jones, whose injury history is adding up is close to him talent-wise and that Cleveland would be interested in this swap is just silly.

Not to mention the contract for Watson being virtually unmovable due to the amount of dead money against the cap. To give up an additional premium draft pick is downright laughable. The season of off-the-wall takes is officially here with free agency kicking off next month.

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Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes embraces villain role ahead of Super Bowl LVIII vs. 49ers

#Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is embracing his role as the villain ahead of Kansas City’s Super Bowl LVIII matchup against the #49ers.

A torch has been passed from the New England Patriots to the Kansas City Chiefs, who have emerged as the NFL’s newest dynasty.

For years, fans around the league despised the Patriots, and specifically quarterback Tom Brady, for their constant success.

Brady led the Patriots to six Super Bowl victories in nine appearances, acting as a roadblock to Hall-of-Fame caliber signal callers like Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Philip Rivers.

Reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes has achieved a similar degree of dominance, taking down his contemporaries (Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Deshaun Watson, Andrew Luck, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence, and Tua Tagovailoa) on his path to four Super Bowl berths through his first six years as the Kansas City’s starting quarterback.

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ESPN’s Jeff Darlington recently sat down with Mahomes and discussed how the 28-year-old quarterback feels about being disliked by other teams and fanbases.

“I can definitely sense it,” Mahomes explained. “I never felt like that because I’ve never been like that in my entire life. But it’s become a little bit funny. I don’t want to say you enjoy it. I know the Patriots had that for a while. I’m hoping we do it in a different way with a little more fun and personality with it.

“But as long as you keep winning, teams start to not like you, and I want to keep winning. So, if that means some of the other teams and other fan bases aren’t going to like me, I’ll try to still have a smile on my face and not be a bad example, but I can be that villain for them if they need me to be.”

The Chiefs quarterback seems happy to inherit this villain role in the NFL if it means Kansas City can continue to compete for Super Bowls every year.

Mahomes has led Kansas City to the AFC title game in each of his six seasons as the starting quarterback. With a victory on Sunday against the 49ers, the Chiefs would be the first team since the 2003-04 Patriots to win back-to-back Super Bowls, further establishing Kansas City as a dynasty and cementing Mahomes’ role as the NFL’s preeminent star.

4 moves the Browns can make to create more cap space in 2024

No, the contract of Deshaun Watson is not going to hinder Cleveland’s offseason options. Yes, the Browns will have plenty of money to spend this offseason… again.

It is a common misconception that the contract of quarterback Deshaun Watson will be detrimental to the spending capabilities of the Cleveland Browns. However, there are moves to make with him, wide receiver Amari Cooper, and more that will give the Browns plenty of flexibility to throw money around again this offseason.

General manager Andrew Berry has been pegged as one of the NFL’s most aggressive general managers. From trading for wide receiver Elijah Moore and defensive end Za’Darius Smith to landing defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson, and more in free agency, the Browns had a productive offseason a year ago.

That will not be any different this year despite currently sitting $19 million in the hole in cap space. The cap is easily manipulatable, and Berry has proven to be one of the best at working the system.

Here are four moves the Browns could make to clear a significant amount of cap space to spend this offseason.

All 32 NFL QBs (including Panthers’ Bryce Young) ranked by passer rating for the 2023 regular season

32 starting QBs ranked by their 2023 passer ratings

Well, let’s just look back at this like a “Started from the bottom, now we here” meme by next year, shall we?

Here are all 32 NFL quarterbacks, including Bryce Young of the Carolina Panthers, ranked by passer rating from the 2023 season:

12 possible free agent backup quarterbacks to Deshaun Watson for Browns to target

The Browns need to upgrade their plan at backup quarterback in 2024.

Could Joe Flacco or Jacoby Brissett return to the Cleveland Browns to backup Deshaun Watson in 2024?

This past year, the Browns started five different quarterbacks. Due to the shoulder injury of Watson, the Browns thrust rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson into action just four weeks into his NFL career against an AFC North foe. They then turned to P.J. Walker, who played in three significant games for them.

We all know what happened when they turned the ball over to Flacco as well, as the offense finally found a great deal of success through the air. As they enter another offseason, the Browns may be skeptical of turning the backup quarterback role back over to the youngster in Thompson-Robinson.

There are, however, plenty of quarterbacks who are set to hit free agency with an abundance of starting experience in the NFL. And a handful of them have worn a Browns uniform before.

Here are 12 potential backup quarterbacks the Browns could target in free agency if they are not ready to hand the reigns back over to Thompson-Robinson.

Bengals fans laugh off Deshaun Watson’s attempt to recruit Tee Higgins

Bengals fans had fun with this one.

Cincinnati Bengals fans had some fun this weekend with the idea of Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson attempting to recruit Tee Higgins.

Normally, fans might not enjoy the idea of another team’s star player attempting to recruit Higgins. While the team figures to hit the star wide receiver with a tag this offseason if the two sides can’t agree to a long-term deal, there’s always the threat of him leaving the year after — like Jessie Bates.

But with the Browns and Watson, it merely struck fans as funny because of the tag situation, the fact the Bengals would never trade a star to an AFC North rival and Cleveland’s poor cap state. Some, understandably, even poked fun at Watson’s play from last season.

As such, here’s a quick roundup of the reactions to one of the offseason’s early, silliest slow-month stories.

Deshaun Watson isn’t only NFL star who wants to see Tee Higgins leave Bengals

Another star wants to see Tee Higgins leave the Bengals.

It turns out Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson isn’t the only superstar NFL player trying to recruit Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins in free agency this offseason.

New York Jets star cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, the former Cincinnati Bearcat and fourth-overall pick, has openly said he’d like Higgins on his team, too.

It was a small, passing comment from Gardner on social media, but it speaks to the respect Higgins commands around the league from his fellow players. The Jets are one of many teams that would project to be big bidders for Higgins if he actually makes it to the open market, alongside Watson’s Browns.

Of course, it’s highly unlikely the Bengals let it get to that point. The team will likely apply a franchise tag if a long-term deal doesn’t happen, giving it one more year before this becomes a conversation again.

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