Browns’ Quarterback Deshaun Watson Ruptures Achilles: Season in Jeopardy

An MRI revealed that Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has a season-ending ruptured right Achilles tendon, the crew introduced Monday.

Coach Kevin Stefanski said after his team’s 21-14 loss to the Bengals on Sunday that it seemed Watson had suffered a season-finishing injury.Stefanski said Monday that Watson can have a surgical procedure this week. He was unaware of the precise sort of technique Watson could undergo.

After New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers ruptured his Achilles inside the 2023 season opener, he underwent a SpeedBridge restore that allowed him to go back to exercise 11 weeks later. By the spring, Rodgers turned into cleared to practice without restrictions.

We told everybody, and we feel bad for Deshaun,” Stefanski said. In this case, feel bad to lose him for the season. And we also know, as a football team, that this is the kind of ground where you raise your game. Well, guys have to step up, and that is it.” Stefanski did not rule any particular quarterback in for the next Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens.

He said he was waiting to gather more information on the extent of damage to the finger of his aching throwing hand, Dorian Thompson-Robinson. The Browns did sign a quarterback this week, but Stefanski wasn’t sure if it was going to be added to the active roster or the practice squad. However, Cleveland does not have a quarterback on its practice squad at the moment.

Watson got the injury when his leg seemed to be hyperextended on a noncontact play as he tried to take the ball on the first play from a two-minute warning mark. Watson at once deliberately flung up his hands and sprawled on the ground. Soon thereafter, a cart was brought to the playing field to take off an obviously relieved Watson. The entire Browns sideline joined him onto the cart as he was being wheeled off the field.

Some players complained after the game about what they felt were cheers by fans when Watson was injured. Watson was jeered when introduced before the game, and the booing died down when fans started chanting for running back Nick Chubb, who played for the first time after a knee injury last season.

‘We don’t boo guys that are injured on the field, especially when the cart comes out,’ defensive end Myles Garrett said after the game. We definitely shouldn’t be boing anybody and their downfall, as Browns or residents of Cleveland.” Said Stefanski: There is no way I can support the notion that it is alright to cheer when a player is injured.

It’s never expected that every individual in the building is doing that, but it is still disappointing nonetheless. The Browns had declared Jameis Winston inactive Sunday as the third-string quarterback behind Mayfield and David Blough and entering as a replacement for Watson. Thompson-Robinson was 11 of 24 for 82 yards with two interceptions.He took a hit on his right index finger midway through the fourth quarter, and Winston came in 5-of-11, passing for 67 yards and a touchdown to David Njoku.Despite all this, Watson has not been on par this season with the lowest QBR of all qualified passers. He was 15 of 17 for 128 yards Sunday before the left knee injury. The injury caps off a third season with injuries for Watson since the Browns gave up three first-round selections and signed him to a fully guaranteed $230 million deal before the 2022 season to move to Cleveland.

He dislocated his right shoulder during a game in September and suffered a displaced fracture to the glenoid that ultimately cost him the final eight games of the season when he had surgery in November. Watson, 29, suffered usually serious leg injuries in college and NFL performance. While at Clemson, he played on a torn ACL in his left knee, an injury that still affects him to this day.

While playing for the Houston Texans, he suffered the ACL tear in his right knee that eliminated him for the rest of the season in 2017. Watson will be out for 19 cumulative starts when he completes the third year of the five-year deal he signed when traded from the Texans to the Browns. In 2022, he was suspended for a chance to play for 11 games, mainly after over two and a half dozen women came forward accusing him of sexual assault and other conduct during massages. The Browns still have $46 million in payments due to Watson in each of the next two seasons. He has a cap hit of $72.9 million for 2025.