Andrew Berry, Kevin Stefanski Need the Texans’ Version of Deshaun Watson

Professional futures could be on the line in Cleveland if the quarterback doesn’t look a lot closer to the version he was in Houston in 2019–20.

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The Browns will be worth watching in Deshaun Watson’s second season with the team. I saw GM Andrew Berry’s comments from the Greenbriar over the weekend, as Cleveland’s staff and players reported to West Virginia to kick off the remote portion of their training camp. And this one jumped out at me: “This is going to be a big year for him professionally and personally.”

I’d say the same goes for the guys who traded for Watson 16 months ago.

The reality is once that deal went down, Berry and Kevin Stefanski tethered their respective professional futures to Watson, particularly because they gave him an unprecedented five-year, fully guaranteed contract (essentially boarding up any escape hatches), and because they knew they’d probably have to throw a season overboard (the year in which he’d serve his suspension, which was last year) to get the best from him in the long run.

Once the Browns traded for Watson, Berry and Stefanski tethered their respective professional futures to the quarterback :: Jeff Lange/USA TODAY NETWORK

Now, a year into this, Watson still has four years left on his contract, the Browns still don’t have a first-round pick again until 2025 and that mulligan year is over. So the team needs to play well now, and, Watson, in particular, will have to be at the forefront of that.

The good news is there were lessons learned last year. The coaches figured out that Stefanski’s Shanahan-style offense isn’t a perfect fit for the quarterback, and they’ve adapted it to make Watson more comfortable. And because Watson is now the guy, and his teammates know he’s going to be the guy, he was able to do more with them in the offseason (such as organizing a passing camp earlier this month at the University of Miami).

So I’d expect Watson to look a lot closer to the one the Texans got in 2019 and ’20 this time around. And if we don’t see that? It’d probably be bad news for a lot of people.