DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Watson: No Way Out

False or not this will only cement the general publics view on Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns. No smoke without a fire..

Whether or not it comes to fruition, or his contract can be voided, etc ... just add this to the ring of chaos surrounding Watson. Just multiple years of abnormality

One lawyers' (long) perspective. I follow him because he also does FF stuff so take it for what it is worth, just another lawyer's opinion. He's also chimed in on other legal issues in football has normally been correct or in the ballpark.

This is ridiculous. It’s not even week 2 and our season is already ruined. This is the type of distraction that will linger all year. Unbelievable that the powers that be would get us into this mess while we were just starting to get back on track as a franchise.

And all we heard about all offseason was how ownership wants a dome. Get real Jimmy. We’ve waited too long and been through too much as a fanbase to get caught up in this mess. Houston really, really, did a number on us. 3 first rounders and we took this mess off their hands. Un bleeping Real.

The Jane Doe is Dee

at this point it's a lost cause. He's done and there's no hiding it or excuses. His arm is shot, doesn't fit our team, and the other players know it. The fans have turned on him totally. He's got no allies left here.

DW's performance Sunday was beyond putrid...I'd call it pathetic. He can't get off his first read...looks to run...throws short, long and behind. The sooner they go to Winston the better...otherwise they risk getting behind in yet-another "window" season. He looked WORSE than a guy who hadn't played a live snap since mid-last-season. How did that even happen?

I don't recall him making a single play where he dropped back in rhythm and threw the ball. Let alone make a decent throw. He had time to do that on numerous occasions...even my Mom knew that the key to the game was going to be getting the ball out quickly...even if you have to (purposely) throw it away...and what happened instead?

He's a playground QB - always has been - but the playground has passed him by.

I agree it’s a mess right now. However, if he doesn’t play well enough these next couple of games we can use this as an excuse to bench him for JW. From what I read and saw this preseason the players seem to like him and IMO will play for him. Just an idea.

well said willie

Well said!

Beside this. When is it time to start asking serious questions to Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski?

Who was in charge of the due diligence of Watson from a sports perspective?
Watson seem to be a freestyler who rely’s on his instincts instead of follow a designed though process to find his receivers.
From what I can understand his style doesn’t seem to suit Stefanski’s structured West Coast philosophy.

Those of you who know more give me a deeper insight why nobody thought about this before we offered him a record contract.

Secondly. I know his father just passed away and from a personal standpoint he deserves some slack but he looked almost scared or chocked despite nothing worked.

Where were his fighting instincts and his will to defend his pride?

This can’t be something new the our decision makers, didn’t he run away from Houstons organization when things didn’t go they way he wanted?
The alarming signs were already on the wall from what I can see..

where it gets sticky for me in regards to Watson: Berry/Stefanski

I mean, the Watson decision HAD to be a Haslam call, right? Maybe Berry and Stefanski were given an edict to get Watson at all costs

Of course the far fetched idea some have is naturally a conspiracy theory. It's all the rage in the 21st century. Otherwise very level headed people have abandoned Occam's razor which would make the explanation quite simple.

If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.

If Watson has a similar performance next week...........my Browns fandom will have devolved to the point where I'm hoping that some sexual misconduct allegations have merit so we can void our starting qb's contract. How pathetic is that?

The Browns were the first team Watson eliminated as a potential location he wanted to be traded to.

When news leaked out that the Browns were in talks to trade for Watson, Mayfield asked the Browns to trade him.

When Watson named Cleveland as his least desirable location to be traded to and Mayfield asking to be traded, the Browns management left themselves without a starting QB.

The Browns owner decided to pay what ever it took to get Watson to change his mind about playing for Cleveland...so Haslam overpaid Watson.

yes I remember the chain of events ... and we had to outbid Atlanta

I guess my initial point was: did Haslam make the INITIAL edict to pursuit Watson? Or was it Berry's idea

In reality other than people having their own opinion about it, nobody on this board knows the answer to that question. Well, maybe one person does but if they do they aren't talking to this point.

My opinion: How could Haslam not make the edict? I guess there is a slim chance they brought the idea to him first.

I think this was 100% Haslam. I think they met after the season, made the decision as a group that they had to explore beyond Baker because he held the org hostage with his "I'll decide it I'll play" b.s.

Think about it from this perspective... You're the GM, the owner not only signs your check, but would have to rubber-stamp this idea beforehand. Not just Haslam, every owner.

Here's how just about every GM would breach the subject: "You know, it would be great to have a talent like DeShaun Watson, but I don't think we want to deal with all that baggage".

Once the owner says "why not, how bad can it be?" You, as GM, have alleviated a large part of the responsibility.

The owner was on-board from ground zero. The owner had to okay every step taken along the way.

this would all be my assumption too .. there's no way Berry broached the subject, let alone twisted the ower's arm

Until someone I trust tells me otherwise - I will go to my grave believing this was 100% a Berry/DePodesta call.

Watson's analytics when he was with Houston were an analytics wet dream. In all the hubub that surrounded the trade and debates with fans of Watson wo thought he was a top 5 QB - some of the next level stats that people dragged up were off the charts.

My take/opinion ... Berry/DePodesta made the call to go hard for Watson - I believe after Haslam met with Baker and Baker was rude/arrogant/pissy (not sure if it was after Watson had allegedly nixed CLE as a destination or another point) Haslam then dropped his pants and did "whatever" to sign DW, which as we know was a $1/4 Billion gauranteed give or take £20 million.

You could add Stefanski in there as well. They aren't replacing a QB drafted 1st over all that took you to the playoffs and not getting the HC to sign off. Or maybe even KS went to Berry and said I need a new QB.

Agreed.

just constant turmoil

I can’t’ see any other scenario than the Haslam’s asks the organization’s General Manager, the HC of the team and their chief strategist about of the trading for Watson makes sense or not.

I refuse to believe that they didn’t have a long conversation where both Berry and Stefanski played the devils advocate so the owners got a clearer picture of what they were signing up to. Anything else and I’m chocked.

Otherwise the suspicion must be that they maybe got a little stressed and didn’t made an professional comprehensive due diligence with a full consequence analyses, a best and worst case scenario and a long term plan how to move forward.

It seems to be more of an “Hi Ski!! here is your new QB, let’s now win the SB ”

I don't believe a team as deep into analytics would do what you are saying. I don't think Haslam had anything to do with it honestly other than approving their request to allow the cap expenditure and draft pick swap. I think he's letting his football people run how they see fit. Because when haslam was meddling, his fingerprints were over everything and I don't see that.. I see a team that relies almost 100% on data and analytics and it has led us to what we are. Watson before the trade was a top 5 QB, since he's come here he's been lightning rod for criticism. Not saying its not all deserved, but as I said, theres more issues than Watson, especially in personnel evaluation. The same people who have seen him at camp all off season, made the determination that he's the best they have. So thats where we are at. It comes down to, are we a better team now with watson than we were with Mayfield, I'd say no, especially not having chubb, it's a resounding no if you consider we'd have mayfield and all of our draft capital. So objectively, this FO and staff have set us back years with this move. This is one of these moves that takes awhile to recover from because you don't have the draft picks to keep adding youth and depth. Now we got guys at the end of contracts/careers and no depth behind them ready to take over. so we have to go overspend in FA to try to fill. What I don't understand is, knowing the questions around Watson and knowing his injury situation and that even by best case scenario, he would be behind come beginning of season. You had a QB that would have cost very little in Flacco, that proved he can make this offense run effectively and knew he wasn't going to get a starting spot somewhere. He even came out saying he loved playing here. I would have rolled the dice on him instead of bringing winston in. Winston has had issues his whole career with turnovers and reading a defense. If he hasn't figured it out yet, chances are slim. I really do believe this Staff consistently believe they are the smartest in the room at all times.

We have chained ourselves to an albatross ..... and we just keep pushing dollars forward so that we'll never be free.

Bummer. Not going on the Commissioner's Exempt List would have alleviated the Browns of having to decide what to do with Watson in the short term.

Instead, they'll keep trotting him out there and rest of the team will suffer from his abysmal attempt at playing the QB position.

Fun times!

I can’t stand DW the person, but y’all better realize DW the QB ain’t going anywhere, he’s our starter until at least the end of game 4. Now if he continues to suck, and he has 4 games under his belt, then I can see them making the switch. But Winston ain’t bringing no titles to Cleveland this year, so I honestly don’t see a way to win consistently this year, at this point.

I don’t need to pile onto DW, with a new charge, and sucking this bad already on him, he either shows up or he doesn’t. I expected to lose yesterday, just not that ugly. I hope it was mostly game speed rust week 1, but I have serious doubts DW can be fixed at this point. We’ll know where we stand by game 4 with DW. Until then, we grin and suffer/struggle through.

This is what trying to win at all costs gets.

Well, Gents. It’ll be a fun year. Go to a few games and have a blast.
However, On to 2025 we go.

In this case…. Winning at all costs costs to much and the wins are few and far between.

To revisit the past Baker and the draft choices was the better alternative, Hell, get us Joe and the team will be dangerous.

They purposely chose to NOT sign Flacco...Flacco was outspoken about his love for all-things Browns. Remember all the "oh no, he'd create a QB controversy" BS that was thrown around?

After 20+ years of asking the question, we threw away the answer and back-filled with an albatross that cost us the future.

They would have to pay me to attend a game. Literally.
I'm not going to hand them any of my money, nor support anything to do with any new stadium or stadium renovations.

j/c...

So is the takeaway here that Watson did not disclose this recent allegation to the Browns or the NFL?

Nope. Nothing in there says that this was a case that he knew of prior to this and would need to disclose. It's just a simple statement denying the allegation, that's all.

This is how I saw it too.

Browns fans are convinced Deshaun Watson set up 'Leroy Bickerstaff' Twitter handle to defend his Week 1 performance
Author Photo
Wendi Oliveros
09-10-2024
•
2 min read
Deshaun Watson
(Getty Images)
Things in Cleveland seem to go from bad to worse. After the Browns' devastating loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1, fans are convinced that Deshaun Watson created a Twitter burner account under pseudonym Leroy Bickerstaff.

If Bickerstaff is not Watson, he is Watson's biggest fan.

Bickerstaff's tweets were picked up by Outkick and detailed as follows:

"4 does nothing but put his blood sweat and tears into this team and this how yall treat him. I see why Bron left twice. 4 gotta get outta town and continue greatness somewhere else."

"No protection. Sorry play calling. Deshaun did all he could today he's the furtherest thing from the problem."

"4 got the respect of his teammates and that's all that matter...nobody care what the fools on the app got to say about a man they don't know."

"Guys in the locker room got 4s back all day long... it's yall that never played the sport and don't know 4 like that coming on here and blaming 4 for not succeeding in a impossible situation."

"And we still gonna sit here and act like 4 don't still got it. Pressured on damn near every drop back and 4 still standing in and delivering dots in the 4th. If that ain't heart ikd what is."

This is not the first time fans have suspected that Watson had a burner account. Last September after the Steelers loss, fans thought he created an account with the handle @Gainsvillesown believed to be named after Watson's home of Gainsville, Georgia.

Burner accounts, another civil suit, and poor play on Sunday have made Browns fans lose their minds, and it's only Week 2 of the 2024 season. It's a long season ahead so hopefully the team can somehow get back on track.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl...-twitter-handle/bd1d426699376078db3631b1