And Cleveland’s Super Bowl hopes are now officially dead. The Cleveland Browns have lost Deshaun Watson for the rest of the season due to his shoulder injury as the QB needs to undergo surgery to prevent serious damage.
Browns fans really will never catch a break.
Despite having a very good performance that saw his Browns beat the Ravens 33-31, Deshaun Watson needs to undergo immediate shoulder surgery that will not only force him out for the remainder of the season but will also all but destroy the Browns Super Bowl hopes. And, to be honest, I’m not even sure the Browns have enough to make the playoffs!
Okay, I know this article is going to piss off a lot of Browns fans as some of them are already a little pissed off with me for saying that this team wasn’t good enough to make the playoffs coming into the season. And, I take for accountability when I say that I was completely wrong. 100%.
The Browns are MOST DEFINITELY a playoff-caliber team, and have more than enough depth and firepower on defense AND offense to make a serious Super Bowl charge…if they have a somewhat healthy and competent quarterback on the roster.
It’s true that Deshaun Watson is nothing like the QB he was with the Texans four years ago (and this shoulder injury might have a part to play in his dramatic regression), but even a 55% Deshaun Watson is 1 trillion times better than anything the Browns currently have as their backup QBs.
Sure, PJ Walker and Dorian Thompson-Robinson aren’t anywhere near the worst backup tandem in the NFL (that would definitely go to the Giants and Pats backups), but does anyone really think these two can lead this Browns team to the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl, in the AFC North?
Walker barley beat the Colts (who were 3-4 at the time), he was beaten 24-20 by a decent Seahawks team two weeks ago, and he was lucky that Jake Moody missed what would have been a game-winning field goal for the 49ers to seal the Browns 19-17 victory when he was given the starting reigns during Watson’s first injury spell on the sidelines. And, in each one of these games, Walker threw at least one pick (he threw 5 in total during that span), he didn’t reach the 300+ passing yards threshold once, and he only completed 50% or more of his passes once.
And, with Dorian Thompson-Robinson, he’s just a completely unknown entity that hasn’t seen a minute of NFL football under center. Now, that’s good for him as he could be the next Otto Graham for all we know and that’s probably why Kevin Stefanski has been rumored to already give him the nod as the starting QB vs. the Steelers this upcoming weekend over Walker, but I highly doubt we’re going to see Otto Graham reborn on that field this weekend.
There’s a reason both Watson AND Walker started off the year ahead of Thompson-Robinson in the QB depth chart, and we’re going to see why this Sunday. Nevertheless, as for the Browns playoff hopes, I just don’t see how they’re going to be able to contend with Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, Justin Herbert and the Chargers, Joe Burrow and the Bengals, TJ Watt and the Steelers, AND CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans for one of the three Wild Card spots.
Despite having one of the league’s best defenses and a really good receiving core, the Browns just don’t have the QB talent to make a serious playoff run…let alone a dark horse Super Bowl challenge. Well, that is, so long as they don’t pull off a miracle and convince Tom Brady to come out of retirement…
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