The Deshaun Watson Question
The Deshaun Watson Question
Cleveland boasts one of the best rosters in the NFL. It's loaded, 1 through 53. But then there's the quarterback position. Can Ken Dorsey and the Browns help Watson recapture what he once was?
BEREA, Ohio — The distance between the Cleveland Browns and the Super Bowl dais has been an incalculable figure on par with spaceflight. No team in the league has felt as far removed from championship success for, oh, three decades or so. The last time the Browns realistically dreamt of rocketing into such nebula, hopes were crushed with just a few words: Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble.
The quarterback position alone is a graveyard of names. Hype always proves to be a cruel ruse.
Nobody in Northeast Ohio wants to be scorned again — who can blame them?
But there is a starter on this team who has tasted the nectar of sweet Super Bowl success. Twice. Safety Juan Thornhill won it all as a rookie in 2019, then again in 2022. Standing here on the Browns’ practice field, Thornhill thinks back to his Kansas City Chiefs’ run in ’22 that culminated with a title win over Philadelphia. That team finished 17-3. That team had star power. What he says next is not some off-the-cuff remark. He means it.
“My last year with Kansas City — if I’m being completely honest — we won the Super Bowl and the team that we have here is far better talent-wise,” he says. “The only thing that separated Kansas City from a lot of other teams is their work ethic. How they push themselves every single day at practice. No other teams are going as hard as Kansas City. And that’s what I’m here for. I don’t like to talk about me being in Kansas City because I’m here now in Cleveland, but I tell ‘em, ‘Listen, if we want to be great, we’re going to have to push ourselves harder in practice so the games are easy.’”
Andy Reid’s practices are certifiably “brutal,” he confirms.
As summer winds down, he’s confident the Browns are reaching that level of intensity.
He doesn’t back down: these 2024 Browns are more talented than those ’22 Chiefs.
“I could say that confidently. Yes,” he says. “We have talent everywhere here and we just have to come together as a team. We can get there.”
This, of course, leads us to one (fully guaranteed) $230,000,000 Question.
The Chiefs are quarterbacked by Patrick Mahomes, perhaps the greatest player ever whenever he’s done collecting trophies. Meanwhile, the desire to hoist the Lombardi Trophy guided this Browns organization down an unnerving path. For Watson, for a player embroiled in accusations, the Browns surrendered three first-round picks, a third and a fourth from ’22 to ’24. This haul netted the Houston Texans a “Terminator” of an edge rusher and recently prompted the wife of the Texans owner to pour salt in the wound: “Thank a Brown,” Hannah McNair said on a podcast. “Have you thanked a Brown lately? I thank them for all of our players.”
Believe it or not, there was a time Watson’s name was used in the same breath as the Texas Tech quarterback in his same draft class. That happened again when guard Wyatt Teller joined the podcast — he cited his own QB’s “absolute greatness” — but Thornhill is a player who faced Mahomes every day in practice for four seasons. He’s never seen a quarterback like this in his life so Thornhill says he does not want to compare the two quarterbacks… before then doing exactly that.
“If you’re just talking about having the ability to make the same type of throws that Patrick Mahomes makes, Deshaun definitely can do that,” Thornhill says. “I’ve seen it. He’s hit the no-look passes. He’s thrown those bombs on the rope for touchdowns. He’s done it all. And the main thing is just having that confidence. Deshaun has to go out there each and every week, believing and knowing that he’s one of the best quarterbacks that’s out there. If he goes out there each week knowing and bringing the confidence out there, he’s going to shock the world.
“I’m excited to watch our offense play more than our defense. I know that our offense is doubted and I can’t wait until they get out there against Dallas and shock the whole world.”
Say hello to the NFL’s ultimate mystery team this season.