Daniel Oyefusi, ESPN
An MRI revealed that Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has a season-ending ruptured proper Achilles, a supply advised ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday.
Coach Kevin Stefanski had stated after his group’s 21-14 loss to the Bengals on Sunday that it appeared Watson had suffered a season-ending damage.
Watson suffered the damage when his leg appeared to get hyperextended on a noncontact play as he tried to hold the ball on the primary snap after the two-minute warning. Watson instantly gave himself up and fell to the bottom.
Shortly thereafter, a cart got here onto the sector and carried off an emotional Watson. The complete Browns sideline got here onto the sector as he was positioned on the cart.
A number of gamers expressed frustration postgame with followers who appeared to cheer after Watson’s damage. Watson was met with boos in pregame introductions, which had been shortly drowned out by cheers for working again Nick Chubb, who made his season debut after final 12 months’s extreme knee damage.
“We do not boo guys which might be injured on the sector, particularly when the cart comes out,” defensive finish Myles Garrett stated after the sport. “We ought to be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as followers to boo anybody and their downfall.”
Stated Stefanski: “I do not assume it is ever OK to cheer when somebody’s injured. I am positive it is not each individual within the constructing doing that, however that is disappointing.”
The Browns had made Jameis Winston inactive because the emergency third quarterback, so second-year participant Dorian Thompson-Robinson entered the sport to interchange Watson and was 11-of-24 passing for 82 yards and two interceptions. He suffered a finger damage within the fourth quarter, nevertheless, and was changed by Winston, who was 5-of-11 passing for 67 yards and a landing to David Njoku.
Stefanski stated he thought-about each Thompson-Robinson and Winston as No. 2 quarterbacks and went with Thompson-Robinson as a result of the group didn’t embody a short-yardage bundle with Winston within the recreation plan. On Sunday, Stefanski didn’t decide to a beginning quarterback for subsequent Sunday’s recreation towards the Baltimore Ravens, saying he wished to see the extent of Thompson-Robinson’s damage.
Watson, in his third season in Cleveland, has struggled this season, posting the bottom QBR of all certified passers. He was 15-of-17 for 128 yards Sunday earlier than the damage.
The damage ends one other disappointing season for Watson, his third for the reason that Browns traded three first-round picks and gave him a totally assured $230 million contract to convey him to Cleveland earlier than the 2022 season.
He suffered a displaced fracture to the glenoid in his proper shoulder that required him to overlook the ultimate eight video games after season-ending surgical procedure final November.
Watson, 29, has a historical past of significant leg accidents in faculty and the NFL. Whereas at Clemson, he performed by a torn ACL in his left knee. As a member of the Houston Texans, he tore the ACL in his proper knee and missed the ultimate 9 video games of his rookie 12 months in 2017.
Watson will end the third 12 months of the five-year deal he signed upon being traded from the Texans to the Browns with simply 19 cumulative begins. He served an 11-game suspension in 2022 after greater than two dozen ladies accused him of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct throughout therapeutic massage periods.
The Browns nonetheless owe Watson $46 million in every of the following two seasons. He has a wage cap hit of $72.9 million for 2025.
