Deshaun Watson has disappointed in Cleveland thus far … can he flip the script? | Inside Coverage
Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson, Jason Fitz and Jori Epstein discuss all the aspects of Deshaun Watson’s game that aren’t clicking in Cleveland, and what, if anything, can be done to change the quarterback’s trajectory with the Browns. Hear the full conversation on Zero Blitz. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
JASON FITZ: Deshaun Watson doesn't look right.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, Watson, there's some concern. There's definitely some concern. And I actually spent some time talking, I'm here in Houston, talking to people here in Houston who are familiar with his game. I was texting with people during Monday Night Football and the takeaway was, something looks wrong with him.
He does not look, he's not playing in a similar fashion to where he did when he was at his peak with the Houston Texans. There's a few different things that play into this. I think there's a lot of play action in this offense. He ran a lot of shotgun offense in Houston, whereas in Stefanski's offense there's a lot of play action, he's got to turn his back on the defense at times.
He's not always catching up to everything the second he turns around. But that's not all on him. The offensive line is a problem right now. I will agree with Kevin Stefanski in the sense that there are a lot of things going on right now that are leaning into this and Watson's going to catch hell for most of it.
But he is definitely a piece of it right now. He is not the player, yet, that he was with the Houston Texans and I think that is the frustration on that is starting to catch up to the situation, is that people are like, if he's still out of sync, if there's still rust there, how long does this timeline go? How many more seasons do we have to wait for him to click back into that player and will that actually ever happen?
JORI EPSTEIN: How do they change this?
JASON FITZ: I think also, remember, Deshaun Watson the football player we're talking about here with the Texans was a top five quarterback at one point in the NFL and that was very clear. Now, as he tries to come out of whatever this is, he's got to deal with the pressure that comes with it, the eyeballs that come with it, the opinions that come with it, all while he puts this on himself, all while he doesn't get a ton of benefit of the doubt for obvious reasons from a lot of people.
And that's just talking about the football player. I don't know how you fix the mentals that come with that. And there's certainly an argument to be made that whatever world he's living in is a world that he created. But if you're asking how he gets out of that world, I don't know, because I think right now he looks lost.
