BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Deshaun Watson provided little illumination as to the health of his right shoulder and status this week, but he did make an honest admission.
Here’s our top Brownie Bites from Thursday.
Lesson learned – Watson once again looked good throwing the football during the portion of practice open to reporters Thursday afternoon, but his return remains a big unknown. “I'm not even sure,” Watson said in the locker room prior to practice Thursday. Watson, who suffered a right rotator cuff strain September 24 in a win over Tennessee, has been open about pushing himself too hard and coming back too fast against the Colts two weeks ago. He’s taking things slower this time around. “We’ve all got to be on the same page,” Watson said. “I told the guys that I was ready Indianapolis week. That was my decision, and look, I wasn't ready, so I tried to jump the gun a little bit and it didn't go our way. So at the end of the day, you’ve got to listen to the experts.” Last week the Browns quickly ruled Watson out and had him focus on rest and rehab instead of practicing and game preparation. This week, they are trying to get the best of both worlds by having him prepare for the Cardinals. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt liked what he saw Wednesday. “He does look better than he looked last time he threw in a practice. So that's positive,” Van Pelt said. Watson did not want to get into much detail as far as what percentage he is at, odds of his return this week against Arizona or the level of pain he is still in. “We're not allowed to speak on injuries to that detail,” Watson said. He did admit he has a few hurdles to clear before playing again. “There's definitely things in the protocol that we need to clear before we can get back out there on the field,” Watson said. “But we just step by step, day by day, you can't jump in front of that. You just got to continue to take it one step at a time.”
Only one – The Browns have just one receiver with a touchdown catch this season – Amari Cooper. “Obviously as a receiver group, you want guys to be lighting up the scoreboards scoring every game, but again, that's just not the way the cookie crumbles,” Cooper said. “I think we've done a lot of great things on offense. We had a lot of successes, third down conversions, things of that nature. First downs. The job doesn't always end with the receivers scoring unfortunately.” Running back Jerome Ford leads the team with two TD catches while tight ends Harrison Bryant and David Njoku have scored the other two through the air.
Appropriate fear – The Browns aren’t getting caught up in the Cardinals 1-7 record. “There's not a bad team in the NFL, so we can't take anybody lightly,” cornerback Denzel Ward said. “We got to go in and do our job and execute and take care of our business. So regardless of record, it is whoever wins that day.” Four of the Cardinals losses have been by 10 or fewer points. “Generally in those types of situations when a team is playing okay, but their record isn't really showing it, you can kind of pinpoint those sudden failures,” Cooper said. “It usually comes down to a couple plays in the game where they just didn't take advantage of the moment and that's what I'm seeing from them. So they can always just flip that switch on us. So we got to be prepared for that for sure.”
Seeing red – Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz hasn’t been thrilled with the Browns’ red zone defense of late. “I think the biggest thing is we have to stop people from running the ball across our goal line,” Schwartz said. “If we're going to take pride in being a physical defense that starts with run defense and it gets accentuated in the red zone, the field shrinks a little bit, and we have to do a better job of stopping the run. I think that's probably the biggest thing.” Opponents have reached the red zone 18 times and come away with points 16 times – 12 of those touchdowns. Last week against Seattle Cleveland’s defense failed to hold in the final minute of a 24-20 loss. “We're going to do some more stuff in some two-minute situations in practice, and just add to our periods a little bit more, because when the games on the line like that, we have to perform better,” Schwartz said. Slow starts defensively have also been a problem. The Browns have been outscored 52-23 in the opening quarter this season. It is the worst quarter for points allowed defensively. “You can look at a lot of ways. Maybe we make really good adjustments,” Williams said. “We need to start better. We need to start faster and we need to stop the run. In the games that we've stopped the run, we played really well. In games that we've been leaky in the run game, whether it was this last one given up a few big plays, or a game like the Colts where we just gave up a lot of smaller gains, but we didn't control the run game. Baltimore, we didn't control the run game. When we control the run game, good things happen for us on defense, and that's our focus.”
Roster move – The Browns signed offensive tackle Leroy Watson off the San Francisco 49ers practice squad to the active roster. Watson assumes to roster spot opened with the trade of Donovan Peoples-Jones to Detroit earlier this week. Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by Atlanta in 2022, Watson spent his rookie season and all of 2023 on the 49ers’ practice squad.
Injury report – DNP: WR Marquise Goodwin (illness), WR David Bell (knee), CB Greg Newsome (groin), DE Alex Wright (knee); LIMITED: LT Jedrick Wills Jr. (foot/ankle), WR Amari Cooper (rest/ankle), Dawand Jones (shoulder), David Njoku (ankle), DE Za’Darius Smith (rest/neck), S Grant Delpit (ankle/shoulder), RB Jerome Ford (ankle), CB Mike Ford Jr. (ankle), LB Sione Takitaki (hamstring), QB Deshaun Watson (shoulder); FULL: DE Myles Garrett (rest/shoulder), LB Anthony Walker (shoulder), LB Tony Fields (shoulder), CB Cameron Mitchell (shoulder)
