Calls for the Cleveland Browns to bench quarterback Deshaun Watson have intensified in frequency and volume across the team’s 1-4 start, but one NFL expert says none of that actually matters.
Ari Meirov of 33rd Team declared that the only way the franchise ever benches its $230 million QB is if a mutiny forms among his teammates and forces the organization to do it.
“It would have to be a locker room situation where the players revolt and are like, ‘We need somebody else out there,’” Meirov said on Wednesday, October 9. “The problem here is the contract, though. Let’s just say they do bench him. You still need to have him on the team next year and the year after. You can’t get out of it.”
Deshaun Watson Represents Arguably Worst Trade, Contract in NFL History
GettyCleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.
The Browns fully guaranteed Watson’s contract upon trading three first-round picks, plus multiple other draft assets, to the Houston Texans to acquire the quarterback.
“If you bench Deshaun Watson you’re not protecting yourself from anything. If he gets injured he’s getting the money, if he doesn’t get injured he’s getting the money,” Meirov continued. “How do you bench a player like that unless [his teammates] do something and speak to [head coach Kevin] Stefanski?”
However, given Watson’s performance through his first two and a half seasons, one can make a strong argument that the trade on its own was the worst in NFL history, or that the contract by itself is the worst ever in the league. Put them together, and the transaction as a whole is an unmitigated disaster the likes of which the sport has never seen.
Watson is 9-8 as the Browns starter and has already missed 22 regular-season games and the team’s sole playoff contest due to suspensions and injuries. He has completed just 60% of his passes in Cleveland for 3,069 yards, 19 TDs and 12 INTs.
Watson also brought with him to the Browns the negative publicity of more than two dozen allegations of sexual assault, including multiple that came to light after he signed with the franchise in March 2022.
Browns’ Decision Makers Will Protect Themselves in the Case of Deshaun Watson
GettyCleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry (left) and head coach Kevin Stefanski (right) introduce quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2022.
Both Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry, who served primary decision makers in the process of acquiring Watson, must now concern themselves with optics.
As such, Meirov contended that even if the Browns ever decide to sit Watson, they will make the move under false pretenses and never admit that a benching is what’s actually going down.
“I would be stunned if they ever come out and say [they] are benching Deshaun Watson,” Meirov said. “The wording is gonna be different … it’s gonna be a phone call between Deshaun, his agent, the team [discussing], ‘How do we handle this? How do we word this?’ It’s gonna be an injury type of a thing. It will not be, “We are benching him.’ They are not gonna embarrass him like that, and they are not gonna embarrass the organization like that.”
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