Clemson Tigers Football Legend Sees Latest NFL Season End With Injury

The national championship-winning quarterback and Clemson Tigers superstar will miss the rest of this NFL season.

Oct 20, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) runs from Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins (98) during the first half at Huntington Bank Field. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Browns will be without quarterback Deshaun Watson for the remainder of the season after he tore an Achilles during Sunday's game. MRI results revealed the tear and were reported by outlets including ESPN.

This is the same injury that New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered at the start of last season and he missed the entire campaign. Rodgers returned this season.

It also brings to an end the latest controversial campaign for the embattled Clemson Tigers legend, who helped the program win a national title and was the Houston Texans’ first-round pick in 2017.

The Texans traded Watson to Cleveland before the 2022 season and the Browns signed Watson to a fully-guaranteed five-year $230 million deal which at the time was the largest contract and most guaranteed money in NFL history.

Since then Watson played just six games in 2022, played half of the 2023 season before he underwent season-ending surgery for a broken bone in his throwing shoulder and has played in barely half of the Browns games the last three seasons.

This season the 29-year-old had become a lightning rod to Cleveland fans for his play, which included 1,148 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions.

He’s lost respect after a series of allegations and lawsuits emerged in 2021 that accused Watson of sexual assault by several Houston area women, some of which were massage therapists that had been hired by Watson to help him recover from the physical toll of playing football.

At one point more than 30 lawsuits had been levied against Watson, many of which were eventually settled. Watson was never officially suspended by the league but he was declared out by the Texans for every game of the 2021 season, and the league then suspended him for 11 regular season games to start the 2022 season.

Some of the lawsuits re-emerged in court earlier this year and at least one suit from a new accuser was filed in Houston in September.

There was no hint of that early in his NFL career as he led the Texans to an 11-5 record in 2018 and a 10-5 record the following season. Houston thought they had drafted a quarterback they could build their franchise around. His last great statistical season was in 2020 when he threw for 4,823 yards as the Texans went 4-12. After that season, Watson asked for a trade.

He played three seasons for Clemson including the 2016 campaign in which he threw for 4,593 yards along with 41 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He also rushed for 629 yards and scored nine touchdowns. At the end of that season, he led Clemson to its second overall national championship and first under coach Dabo Swinney as the Tigers beat the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff national championship game.