Judge Sue L. Robinson's decision to suspend Deshaun Watson for six games is viewed by many as a loss for the NFL and a relative win for the embattled quarterback's camp.
However, Josina Anderson of CBS Sports says that "Watson's counsel and reps are currently displeased with the ruling. Watson's side still firmly maintains it should have been zero games."
The question is whether we believe that Watson's camp is actually frustrated with the ruling, given that it falls significantly short of the one-year indefinite suspension that the league was said to be seeking.
On one hand, obviously zero games would have been the best-case scenario for Watson's camp. Not only would it have been seen as an exoneration by some -- even though that's not what such a ruling would have meant -- but the NFL wouldn't have been able to appeal if Robinson had ruled that no violation of the personnel conduct policy had occurred.
Since Robinson did believe some punishment was in order, the NFL now has a three-day window to appeal the ruling. Any appeal would be heard by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or a person of his choosing, a set-up that would be suboptimal for Watson's camp.
On the other hand, Watson's camp had to know that the most likely outcome here was that he was going to face some sort of suspension. In this case, the 26-year-old walks away with no fine and the money he will lose from six games is a drop in the bucket considering he signed a five-year/$230 million deal, which is fully guaranteed, upon being traded to the Browns. The 2022 season also won't be completely lost; Watson will be eligible to play 11 of 17 games after not playing at all last season.
In terms of what was realistic, this decision was a win for Watson's camp. And the feeling here is that they are trying not to celebrate too much in hopes that the NFL will accept the decision and not appeal it to a body much less likely to give them a relatively favorable verdict.
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