The football reason that the Cleveland Browns were willing to trade six draft picks -- including three first rounders -- for Deshaun Watson and give him a fully-guaranteed $230 million contract is pretty simple. When he's on the field, he can be one of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL.
But with Watson now facing 23 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions, it's hard to know when he will be back on the field. He didn't play at all during his final season in the Houston Texans organization. Some sort of suspension would seem to be looming from the NFL, and it's hard to know if that suspension will be it for Watson. What if these cases go to trial and more disturbing information comes out? What if Watson loses some or all of the cases if they go to trial?
All the uncertainty about his playing status is why, despite his immense talent, Watson only checked in at No. 13 on Chris Simms' 2022 quarterback rankings.
"I don't know what to make of Deshaun Watson. I know what Deshaun Watson is when playing and hitting on all cylinders, it's [a] superstar. I know he's a superstar. But still, like I discuss with people all the time, I think people think like 'Well he's Deshaun Watson, he's just gonna come back and in Week 1, he'll be one the five best quarterbacks in football.'
"That's where I wanna go like, people don't hear what comes out of their mouths sometimes. We see great quarterbacks miss two or three games and come back and not be good for two or three weeks. He didn't get to practice for a year. He didn't play for a year."
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And while two separate grand juries elected not to move forward with criminal proceedings against Watson, he still has 23 active civil lawsuits that he's facing. More than a year into this process, it doesn't feel like there's an end in sight for Watson. And Simms believes that one way or another, the 26-year-old may end up not playing football for the second consecutive season.
"In my heart of hearts, I don't think that's gonna be this year. I don't think that he's gonna play football this year when it's really all said and done. And it's not helping that there's another lawsuit. The salon where he was paying $5,000 for the person to set up massages for him ... it's getting worse."
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