Despite never being charged in criminal court, the expectation across the NFL is not if Deshaun Watson will be suspended, but rather when.
Some people in the media, like Miami Herald sports columnist Greg Cote, think the league needs to suspend the former Texans QB for a year. Others would like to see Watson never play another down again.
While the league is still working on how long Watson should be suspended, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, he believes the Browns will learn what the league's decision is before the start of the team's training camp.
During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, McAfee shared that the Browns' odds to win the AFC North have gone down from +200 down to +270 according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
McAfee then asked Rapoport if the sportsbooks or anyone knows when the Watson suspension is coming. Ignoring the sportsbooks as taking guesses over what's going on publically, Rapoport thinks an announcement will be made before the Browns start preparing for the season.
"The idea is that the Browns would know before they start training camp," Rapoport told McAfee on his show Monday. "Before everyone kinda says goodbye for the summer, in early July or late June, the NFL has had a series of fines or suspensions. That would be a perfect time to do it. You could also do it right before training camp."
When asked what he thinks the length of the suspension will be, Rapoport said without having any of the private information that neither he nor the public has access to, he can't make an educated opinion on how long the suspension will last.
"I can't make a real guess because I have the information that's public but I don't have the information that's not. I don't know what he said in the depositions. I would say the many people that are involved are believing, anticipating that it will be sometime off the field. I would be surprised at this point if it's just a fine."
With a 24th accuser being added to the lawsuit, a suspension for Watson is a certainty, the only question that remains is how harsh will Roger Goodell and the league come down on Watson.
In a league that has had public image issues for some time now, history suggests that the NFL will come down hard on the Pro Bowl QB.
After catching a lot of flak for their handling of the Ray Rice situation in 2013, the NFL has handed out lengthy suspensions to players, without them ever needing to be charged in a criminal court.
Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot was suspended in 2017 for six games after his ex-girlfriend accused him of domestic violence, dating back to his college days at Ohio State. Another case that mirrors Watson's situation is Kareem Hunts, who received an eight-game suspension after a video surfaced of the running back shoving a woman to the ground and kicking her.
The woman didn’t press charges, but the video was bad enough for Goodell to drop the hammer.
While Rapoport may not have an idea of the number of games Watson will miss, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio believes that paid or unpaid leave could and should still be on the table for the league.
"I really believe we're looking at a longer suspension whether it's paid leave or unpaid leave," Florio said. "At the end of the day, the personal conduct policy isn't a justice system. It's a device for ensuring that whatever the NFL does to a player who gets in trouble away from work meshes with expectations."
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