CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – As feared, Deshaun Watson’s season is over.
Here’s a few Brownie Bites from Monday’s Zooms.
Confirmed – An MRI Monday confirmed that Watson ruptured his Achilles with less than two minutes to play in the first half of Sunday’s 21-14 loss to the Bengals and his season is over. Watson will require surgery and the team expects him to make a full recovery. Watson completed 15 of 17 passes for 128 yards and a rating of 98.0 prior to being carted off the field with the injury. This marks the second straight year Watson will finish the season on injured reserve. Watson missed the final eight games of the 2023 season after suffering a broken glenoid bone in his throwing shoulder which also required surgery. Watson, who has appeared in just 19 games since being acquired from the Texans in March of 2022, has two years and $92 million fully guaranteed remaining on his contract.
QB 2 problem – In normal situations, a coach would simply turn to his backup quarterback to take over, but these are the Browns, and nothing is normal for them. Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who was elevated above Jameis Winston as the backup Sunday, suffered an injury to the right middle finger on his throwing hand forcing Winston to finish the game. His availability this week is in question. “Just need to hear from a couple other people, but I feel good about him being available this season,” Stefanski said. “Is it this week? Is it next week? I just need more information.” The Browns are expected to add a quarterback to the roster or practice squad. “I think yes, but not exactly sure where that goes just yet,” Stefanski said.
For clarification – Stefanski clarified the decision to elevate Thompson-Robinson to the backup role. “Going into the season, I felt like both guys were worthy of being the backup quarterback,” Stefanski said. “I told those guys that early in the season felt like with not having that short yardage package with Jamison, this last game felt like Dorian had acquitted himself well in practice and in his preparation to make him the backup.” Following Sunday’s loss Stefanski indicated that the decision was based on a special package for Thompson-Robinson, which he walked back on Monday. “We made him the backup quarterback so he would serve in that role if there was an injury, and obviously we were not hoping for that,” Stefanski said. “That was unfortunate how that played out. But it was really, I guess to be clear, Jameis had a short yardage package in the previous weeks where he was going in, so he gets those reps in practice because we didn't have that in and I felt like Dorian had done a nice job throughout practice throughout really the spring and summer. That really was the decision. It wasn't about any sort of package for Dorian.”
Injury report – QB Deshaun Watson (Achilles-will require surgery); QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson (finger-still being evaluated); RT Jack Conklin (undisclosed injury to be updated later in the week)