BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Deshaun Watson will start Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals after being a full participant in Friday’s practice.
Here’s our top Brownie Bites from Friday.
He’s back – Watson was a full participant Friday at practice and the Browns are confident he is ready to return Sunday against the Cardinals. “Deshaun's been playing this game for a long time. He understands how to protect himself,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “As you can imagine, our offense, our offensive line, you want to protect your quarterback, but you also understand the game. So he knows how to protect himself. He knows when to get out of bounds, when to slide, those type of things. But he's a very competitive player and he makes plays with his feet, so it's all part of the game.” Stefanski said Watson would start. “I think everybody's comfortable and certainly Deshaun's comfortable,” Stefanski said. “I mean it's again, he’s had a really good week of practice.” Watson originally suffered a right rotator cuff strain in the third quarter of a 27-3 win over the Tennessee Titans September 24 and he rushed to return against the Colts on October 22 before suffering an aggravation of the injury in the first quarter of the 39-38 win. The Browns had him rest and rehab last week before returning to practice this week. “It's every day you look at it and you see how the player's feeling and you watch how the player's doing,” Stefanski said. “And I think, again, just going back to this week, felt that he had a really good Wednesday, really good Thursday, really good Friday, and I think he's comfortable and he looks good.” Watson was limited Wednesday and Thursday before getting the full workload to wrap up the week Friday. “I felt like he looked good,” receiver Elijah Moore said. “Of course, his first day, well, he's been back a couple of days now, but now named the starter. He had a couple throws that we a little iffy all at in the beginning, but he's been working. You can't be mad at that.” Watson is completing 61.7% of his passes for 683 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions this season. His best game came against the Titans where he completed 27 of 33 passes for 289 yards and a pair of TDs, and he got hurt.
Just go with it – Without Watson the Browns were able to tread water and keep the season afloat. “I don't think we ever doubted that and we had that kind of talent or that ability in the building,” defensive end Myles Garrett said. “Had a phenomenal start on defense, which we can continue to maintain but also playmakers of offense. And even though we've lost a couple, we have guys who've stepped up and filled big roles and will continue to play well with their new found roles.” Cleveland is 4-3, with two of those wins and losses coming in the four games while Watson was injured. “It's all about adapting,” Moore said. “I feel like that's all we've been doing. The best teams know how to adapt. You can't miss a beat. Whenever someone goes down, you can't worry about what's going to happen next. You got to just keep playing.”
Scoreboard watching – The Steelers just won’t die. They beat Tennessee Thursday night 20-16 to improve to 5-3 and put pressure on the 4-3 Browns to keep pace in the tight AFC North race. “Saw it this morning, but I wasn't really looking at who played last night,” Garrett said. “Working on what we got to work on, focusing on ourselves and how we can get better, how we can win. It's all about the people in this building. If we continue to win, like I said, things will take care of themselves. It won't matter what the other teams in our division are doing.” Opportunity knocks with the 1-7 Cardinals flying into town this weekend. “You could win or lose every week, so I don't pay attention to the record, division rival, whatever,” safety Grant Delpit said. “[We’ve] got to come with that same mentality. If you don't, you might get punched in the mouth. So this is a big, big game for us. It's an opportunity for us to get in front of our home crowd, make a statement win in front of, like I said, our home crowd and going to next week feeling good. The team that we haven't seen a lot of, so it's good for us to go in Sunday and try to take care of business.”
Tune up – Cardinals coach, and Cleveland native, Jonathan Gannon hasn’t named a starting quarterback for Sunday but whoever it is – Clayton Tune or Kyler Murray – it’ll be the debut for either QB. “We study those guys, try to understand all of their strengths. I think they have really good quarterbacks,” Stefanski said. “We’ll see what it is just like everybody else will, but that’s just part of our preparation in a given week. Sometimes there’s uncertainty at a position, and you have to study maybe two or three guys so that you’re prepared on Sunday.” The Browns have tried not focusing on the Cardinals problem. “First of all, we had to clean up our work up. We had to clean up our mistakes, focus on ourself first of all. And then, after we correct that, we could move on to them,” Delpit said. “I've seen some going back and forth to who's going to start for them, but at the end of the day, man, I feel like they got to stop us. We go into every week like that. If we come with our best self, with our best defense, with our mentality, we're trying to be the best, man, and no matter who they put out there, we should take care of business in our minds. So we have a game plan for both of them.” Garrett seemed unbothered by the lack of knowledge of who to prepare for. “It doesn't matter to me who starts,” Garrett said. “Kyler's definitely the money man over there. He is definitely a little bit more talented, at least he's proven to be, I don't want to undersell Tune, we haven't seen him, but Kyler's special. We've seen when he's been able to do through the air and with his feet. But as far as changing how we're going to play or how we're going to attack, we have the same aggressiveness and ferocity no matter who starts.”
Moore ways to score – While looking for a spark in the return game, special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone turned last week to Moore. “He did it in college and I evaluated him when he was coming out of college,” Ventrone said. “He's a natural catcher, he has good judgment, and he obviously has the ability to make you miss. So just I felt like we just needed a little bit of a spark back there.” Moore returned two punts for 23 yards in the 24-20 loss to the Seahawks and the trade of Donovan Peoples-Jones this week leaves Moore as the primary option. “Whatever the coach needs from me, I'm gonna put my best foot forward,” Moore said. “I like it. Another way to score a touchdown.”
New nickel – Cameron Mitchell will handle the nickel role with Greg Newsome II sidelined due to a groin injury. “He’s given us some good reps already, and obviously he’s been ready in a pinch if need be, but very smart player, plays with a savviness,” Stefanski said. “When you play nickel, you have to understand route combinations and run blocking, and I think he’s got a really good feel for that for a young player.” The fifth round pick out of Northwestern has played 85 defensive snaps and over 100 on special teams where he has registered five tackles in seven games.
Injury report – OUT: WR David Bell (knee), CB Greg Newsome II (groin), DE Alex Wright (knee); QUESTIONABLE: Dawand Jones (shoulder); EXPECTED TO PLAY: WR Amari Cooper (rest/knee), DE Myles Garrett (rest/shoulder), David Njoku (ankle), DE Za’Darius Smith (rest/neck), LT Jedrick Wills Jr. (foot/ankle), S Grant Delpit (ankle/shoulder), RB Jerome Ford (ankle), CB Mike Ford Jr. (ankle), LB Sione Takitaki (hamstring), LB Anthony Walker (shoulder), QB Deshaun Watson (shoulder), LB Tony Fields (shoulder), CB Cameron Mitchell (shoulder)
