Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry says it’s possible quarterback Deshaun Watson will return for the club after a ruptured Achilles tendon brought his latest disappointing NFL season to a premature close.
“That’s always possible,” Berry told reporters in a press conference during the team’s bye week on Wednesday.
“Really our focus with Deshaun, I would say for any player with a season-ending injury and a major injury, is first and foremost to make sure that he gets healthy from the Achilles injury,” Berry said. “Everything else we’ll deal with at a later moment.”
The injury on October 20 in a game against Cincinnati was just the latest setback for Watson, who through the first six weeks of the season had thrown for just over 1,000 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions.
Berry said the 2-7 Browns’ offensive struggles couldn’t all be put down to Watson.
“I think often times when you don’t play well on offense, obviously your starting quarterback and your play caller will get the most criticism,” he said. “But the reality of it is, offenses, it comes down to organization and synchronization.
“There’s a lot of shared ownership across the different position groups in terms of why we didn’t perform.”
Watson, 29, is in the third season of a five-year contract worth $230 million that he signed with the Browns after being obtained in a March 2022 trade from the Houston Texans.
Watson sat out the 2021 season after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct in massage sessions and was suspended for the first 11 games of the 2022 campaign and fined $5 million for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
He started just six games in 2023 and had season-ending shoulder surgery in November of last year.
bb/nf
