Is This The Lowest Point Of The New Browns?
I had a tweet about the Browns do respectable numbers last week. I was mostly taking my weekly shit on Watson but it did spark an internal debate. Is this actually the nadir of the Browns since they came back into existence in 1999? Upon reflection, I think it is. As it stands right now, anyway.
The obvious low point before this current era would be the 2016-2017 era Browns that were helmed by Hue Jackson and went 1-31. One of the absolute worst stretches a franchise has ever gone through, worse than the 2008 Lions and at least on par with the first two years of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 0-26 before winning their first game. That Browns era was deeply depressing and even managed to generate a parade to celebrate their failures. But looking back on that team today, it still felt better than this. That large amount of losing was in fact partly planned, an attempt to game the draft system to load up on high-value picks. It is the most obvious intentional tanking any NFL team has ever done, and even while they still managed to be worse than expected there was this understanding that it was just a tunnel they had to get through. There was always hope underpinning the misery. You had to buckle down and grit through the shit, but the team would be set up to start truly fresh on the other side. Especially once they ditched Hue Jackson. And also Freddie Kitchens, mistakes still got made.
But on the other end of that mess, the Browns did indeed escape. They had a franchise QB, they had a franchise defender, and then they got a franchise head coach. They went to the playoffs and they won a game. They looked brighter than they had in 2 decades. This was it.
Then they stumbled a bit. Baker got hurt but tried to play through it, OBJ got into a stupid public feud with him, it tore the locker room apart. OBJ gets dumped, and Baker finds himself at odds with many of the fans and apparently the front office over his attitude. That prompts the Browns to make that deal with the devil, to push Baker out and sign a “grown up” named Deshaun Watson. A highly sought after QB from Houston, and also a prolific sexual predator. The Browns give him the biggest contract in NFL history, give Houston a ton of picks, and gamble everything that this talented piece of human garbage is finally the piece they need to reach the promised land.
I’d say before the Watson deal, most neutral fans rooted for the Browns. I sure did. I love underdogs and I have some Browns fan ties in my family. Yes, it was a pity-based support for most of us, something that plenty of Browns fans didn’t exactly like, but it was support nonetheless. All of it vanished the instant they signed nasty man. Any sympathy, any understanding, any respect any of us had…it was gone. Instantly. Poof! I think a lot of us hoped that this despicable move would not work, and the Browns would not reap the benefits of their gamble. Many of us hoped this would backfire.
We got our wish. Boy howdy!
Watson fucking stinks. Not even regular NFL stinks, he stinks historically. He stinks historically…FOR THE BROWNS. We are witnessing maybe the greatest Find Out to the worst Fuck Around in NFL history. And the funniest part? There’s basically no way out. The Browns jumped on the Titanic and steered it straight for Watson Iceberg. His first season the excuse for his poor play was rust. He spent two years away from the game embroiled in a major scandal. Last year it was injury. This year? Well, the offensive line has some issues and injuries to teammates are a problem but it is still explicitly clear: Watson is the problem. He’s a fucking disaster. And there is nothing the Browns can do.
This is why I think this might be the nadir of New Browns. Unlike the Hue Tank era, this was a large fall from grace. Unlike the Hue Tank era, this roster is actually talented and playoff-caliber outside the QB. Unlike the Hue Tank era, nobody is rooting for them, and most of us are throwing our heads back and laughing our asses off. Unlike the Hue Tank Era…the light at the end of the tunnel feels so much farther away and filled with less promise than ever. This fucking anvil of a contract will sink this team no matter what (outside the slim chance of suspension) for at least two more years. By the time they get rid of nasty man, the roster and the window they built might be over. No matter what they do, he’s just going to be sitting there, soaking up half the salary cap, damaging this team in so many ways. In the meantime, the team reached the playoffs with Joe Flacco. Baker Mayfield is playing like a star in Tampa. You sit at the bottom of a dumpster.
It is…hilarious. Fuck you, Haslam. You deserve it. All the fans who cast their morality aside to defend nasty man because you have to defend every player on your favorite team no matter what deserve this. You threw your weight behind this nasty man, you defended him in comment sections across the web, you are the ones who have to sit there and watch the object of your affection stink it up and ruin the team you love so much.
As for everyone else? They are who I feel sorry for. I feel sorry for the Browns fans who felt conflicted, to the ones who decided to quiet quit the team for a while, and the ones who were just trying to get through it by accepting that the team is more than Watson. I feel bad for the players, who have to work with Watson, who have to go out there and block for him, to catch his passes, to coach him, as he brings negative value to the franchise. They have careers and hopes too, and they are suffering maybe even more than the fans are. I feel bad for the coaches, and the other franchise employees who had no say in the signing who have to go and do their best every day for this. At least Amari Cooper escaped.
If the Browns do the right thing and bench Watson, it is essentially admitting defeat. You won’t get anyone to trade for him. You can’t cut him due to the dead money hit. You sit his ass on the bench (to play another rapist instead!) and you admit to the world that you are a colossal fuckup. Haslam isn’t going to let that happen. Suck cost fallacy. We might be watching weeks of this over and over. I do think Watson will be benched at some point if he stays healthy (and maybe Stefanski is trying to get him hurt, who knows). Even with the other problems on offense, you have to at least see what Jameis can do. This level of QB play is untenable.
My prediction? Once it finally reaches a wildfire level so hot that Haslam has to face the music, Watson will be benched and they will try to play it off as a temporary thing. Maybe they play up a mild injury. Maybe they say “Watson needs a week or so to set himself straight”. They won’t admit it’s because he sucks. They will bench his ass, hope to god Jameis is better, and then “keep going with the hot hand” or keep playing his injury up. Watson won’t give a shit. He’s getting paid either way. I hope it happens sooner rather than later. As fun as it is to watch Watson get wrecked, I’d still rather not watch him at all.
This is a hell of your own making, Browns. I never thought you could find a way to make it worse, and you did.
Part of me will never really understand the whole committing to your mid/bad starting qb when the backup shows much more competence. Do I think Flacco or Devito had more talent than the guys they were replacing? Not necessarily, but both guys gave your team a chance to win, arguably more effectively than the guys in front of them. To just go back on that because of money doesn’t click with me. Isn’t this exactly how Purdy got the starting nod and was rightly given the keys, leading his team straight to the bowl in his first full year starting??? He had/has a good roster around him, but I could comfortably say the Browns would be at least .500 if they had anybody else at qb. But I guess that’s just the difference between well-run organizations and dumpster fire teams
I can’t speak with any intelligence about any team other than the Giants (and even then, I’m questionable), but for the Giants, they seem perpetually torn between the POTENTIAL Daniel Jones has, which is almost perfectly balanced with the TOMF&#@ERY Daniel Jones delivers. It seems like they always think with just a liiiiiiittle more time, and a liiiiiiittle more help, he’ll clear the hump. And sometimes it looks like he’s about to… and then get hurt. I’ll go with Dave’s invented terminology… “SUCK Cost Fallacy”. LOL.
In this case, though, yea. The Browns gave the f@#%er the money. It’s gone, so you need to just decide what is best for the team, empirically. Forget the contract, consider if it’s best whether you sit him, play him, or have him murdered duri… wait, now I’m suddenly curious. What happens if he WERE to die suddenly? Does the money go to his family? Or do the Browns get some of it back? Was it already all paid out, or does he get a new chunk ever year? I’m in the creative field and I don’t follow contracts at all. So what if someone has no wife or kids, and their family has disowned them, like Rodgers? Would it be the same as if the Browns cut him? Wouldn’t surprise me if the NFL put in tiny print to get that money back in case of sudden death. Hmmmmmmmmmm, better keep a tight eye on Haslam.
What’s more, the league is already roasting the Browns (and the Giants, sorry) so if it’s an ego thing, they’re already screwed on that front. It’d be one thing if there was some light at the end of the tunnel, some sort of incremental improvement, but Deshaun has been BAD ever since coming back. He hasn’t gotten better and he’s showing some serious mental/emotional iniquities too. It’s not getting better, so bench his ass and tell the league that you won’t be made a fool of. Even if he has one good game, how can you trust it? Daniel Jones hasn’t thrown a TD at home in something like 20 months. That’s a problem that even if he throws 3 in the next home game, you still aren’t going to keep him. You need to see a lot more progress than there is time for to make it worth your while. Stop the bleeding….or don’t because the NFL is better when Deshaun Watson is an abject failure.
No need to apologize. I root for the Giants, but it’s impossible to deny they’ve been an absolute laughing stock ever since Coughlin “””retired”””.
I’ve justified/accepted what they did with Daniel Jones on the premise he had awful coach after awful coach in charge of developing him, so the Jints didn’t know how much was truly on him. And he did flash after Daboll’s first season. I wasn’t in love with how much they gave him, but I’m thankful Schoen had the sense to put in an out after two years. At this point I think it’s a given they’ll be taking it, and Jones will be somewhere else next year. It was an educated risk, even if it didn’t pan out, but I’m ok with the result, provided they bench Jones soon so that he can’t risk getting injured and impact the cap after he gets cut or traded. Everyone else can laugh at us, but the cost risk analysis isn’t crazy off the charts here. They gambled, and it didn’t pan out, the equivalent of slipping on a banana pan and tearing the seat of your pants. People will laugh, but you get up and move on.
Now what the Browns did with Watson, to me, is much different. He was a known commodity, he had been out of football for multiple years at that point, and he had a laundry list of behavior showing he was an assclown. To bend over backwards the way they did, completely screwing their own team’s salary cap, their fandom, etc. in the process… they didn’t just come up on the wrong side of a risky gamble. They jumped in front of a moving train with a live wire in their mouths during a rainstorm. So the laughing is more justified, but I also think it calcifies their position. They went out SO FAR on the limb, to come back literally empty handed would make them an even BIGGER laughing stock. I’m not even sure if Donald Trump could take an L that large while insisting it was the most amazing move ever in the history of football.
The Broncos paid a king’s ransom to trade for a guy they are now paying to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers and they still made the better choice that year than the Browns did.
Technically, they’re paying him to *not* play for the Steelers either! Though that might change this week.
Part of me wants to believe that the Browns sending out He-who-must-not-be-massaged to get shamed publicly week after week is to do what the American legal system has failed to do, and punish him.
Also another thought, see how he is banned from getting massages outside of the facility, maybe a finger in his pooper was his secret to success and the Browns need to invest in a game time butt plug.
Not just humiliated, banged up too. The Browns O-Line isn’t great, and Watson’s mobility is shot, so he’s getting beaten up regularly.
Remember, there’s only three ways that they can limit the damage Watson’s hideous contract is doing to the team: The league suspends him again, Watson retires, or if Watson breaches his contract with the team.
Making him start and get humiliated and beaten into the dirt might be the Browns trying to force Watson to retire and give up that remainder of a contract. Or maybe Watson will try to fake an injury and sit out, which could give cause for the Browns to try to void the contract.
KEEP DESAUN ON THE FEILD IT IS TO FUNNY AND IT’S HELP FULL. Sorry about the caps I am just pissing myself over this.
This tweet aptly sums up the whole situation: https://x.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1845882847145361593
It doesn’t matter what Cleveland does at this point. They can bench Watson. They can cut him. They can keep playing him despite his obvious struggles. Regardless, the guy is going to get paid an absurd amount of money and there is absolutely nothing that the Browns can do about it. My guess is that everyone on the coaching staff is praying that he gets hurt again so they have an excuse to make an obvious QB switch, because as long as Watson is healthy enough to play, his bum ass going to play. He is too expensive to put on the bench, even if he is complete and utter dogshit posing as an NFL quarterback.
How many weeks until the Offensive Line just stops blocking for Watson?
They’ve been blocking for him?
everything you claimed is true here:
9ers fan
always kinda liked the browns, because they had been historically so bad
was genuinely happy when they seemed to have something going with bake-show
At home with baker mayfield commercials were pretty good (for sports commercials)
immediate drop all the way to #1 on the “eff those guys list”
genuinely happy they are @$$ and watson gets sacked every 3rd play. I imagine that’s tough on his body and he could really use a massage after the game. I hope no one is willing to give him one
Watson being actively awful absent obvious physical issues has been wild to see. I’m not sure I’ve seen a player get this bad this fast without some part of their body exploding. I’m sure his head remains in the wrong place for obvious reasons, but at this point I am starting to wonder if he’s even trying to play well.
Great schadenfreude for sure.
I honestly doubt he’s motivated at all. He got the bag guaranteed no matter what and from his perspective he’s the #1 hated player in the league no matter what so why try? Why put that effort in? He clearly thinks he did nothing wrong and is hated for it so he doesn’t feel the need to try and redeem his image.
In some ways it reminds me of what happened with Russ. He was a phenomal, fringe-HOF player that just dematerialized. Completely inexplicably. It always felt bad to make fun of him because his worst sin was just being really lame and cringe. I still don’t feel totally comfortable with making fun of him. Watson, though…..dude deserves every bit of hate and I’m glad he’s biting it live every week.
It was a third or fourth rooting interest, but I’m learning that I was more of a Baker fan than a Browns fan.
This and all the other watson comics need a schaedenfreude tag, so we can relive this glorious saga whenever we need a pick-me-up
Honestly, playing him probably is their best chance. He will either improve, or play them onto a draft pick where they can get a qb. And he will eventually burn up enough contract money they can cut him.
They literally can’t cut him and field a team so he has to stay on the roster.
I agree. If they put Jameis in right now, they’d end up with a lower draft pick. Just ride with Deshaun and he’ll secure you a Top 5 pick.
The worst part of all of this to me is that Nasty Man has already won. He got his money, fully guaranteed, and nobody can take it from him. It doesn’t matter how badly he plays. It doesn’t matter if they bench him or cut him, he gets paid no matter what and nobody can do anything about it because he demanded a fully guaranteed contract as well as a “You can’t take away my money because I raped people” clause and the Browns were dumb enough to agree to both of those things. He’ll never see a day of jail time for his crimes. He has utterly destroyed a Browns team that was seeing success for the first time in decades, and it doesn’t matter. He gets to live happily ever after with his mountain of money while everyone else suffers for his success.
I’m conflicted because on one hand, fuck nasty man, but on the other hand, I want this to be a bigger disaster than the Herschel Walker trade so the Vikings can finally point to a worse outcome.
I feel like the Browns got rid of Flacco because he was having success with the team. He’s showing it on the Colts and did it with the Jets; with a decent team he can win.
Tanking only exists to people who can’t understand that a team can genuinely be that bad. I don’t care about what the Owners do. That doesn’t matter. Nobody tanks. Lose games? Less money. Lose games as a coach? Heat from the fans. Heat from the media. Lose enough games? You’re out of a job. There’re no guarantees you’ll land another coaching gig. Great so he lands another gig. Now he has to move his family across country. Coaches don’t tank. Players don’t tank for the same reasons. Why would they tank? For the sake of an untested player who might bust and leave them in the same position that they just found themselves in? The whole notion of tanking is stupid because we have -decades- of the Browns showing us why tanking as a concept just does not work. Do you genuinely think the players wanted to go 1-31? Do you genuinely think Hue Jackson was having a killer time losing game after game? I apologize for the rant but I despise the idea that anyone on the field putting in hours and their bodies on the line, would purposely lose games. It’s dumb and it makes zero realistic sense.
I’m glad that people understand. I threw 16 years of browns fandom into the drain because of this stupid organization. This stupid owner. And this stupid fucking rapist at QB. Sell the team Haslam. I hope you find your way into prison while you’re at it.