Over the weekend, the campaign to push Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson for the NFL‘s annual Comeback Player of the Year Award appeared to get underway. Watson is a sensible candidate, a guy who is coming off two torn Achilles tendon surgeries, had not played since October 2024 when this season started and was looking at an NFL career on the brink of extinction. The Browns pushed their quarterback competition between Watson and Shedeur Sanders all the way through August, and if Sanders had managed to win the job, it likely would have meant the end of Watson in the league.
Instead, Watson won the job and though he is not anywhere near the Pro Bowl level he had been at when he was in Houston–Pro Football Focus rates his overall performance as No. 29 among 36 NFL quarterbacks–Watson has his team at 5-2 and has led fourth-quarter, game-winning drives in all five wins.
His 1,482 yards and seven touchdowns with three interceptions is not stellar through seven weeks, but his story is undeniably a good comeback tale.
Deshaun Watson Needs More Browns Wins
The problem, though, as Watson sees it, is that the NFL does not hand out awards after seven weeks. Watson’s comeback player award bid rests on the Browns somehow continuing to win games the way they’ve gone here in the first seven weeks, and even the most diehard Dawg Pounder would admit, the Browns’ current model is not so sustainable. If they can’t be more consistent from week to week, and more consistent within the 60 minutes of each game, they’re not going to keep winning.
And Watson said as much. Asked about potentially winning the award, he deferred.
Said Watson: “I mean, it’s always cool. You always acknowledge it a little bit. You build confidence off of it. But like you said, it’s a long season, we’ve got to continue to, week in, week out, continue to perform and play. But I just always wanted to be the guy I’ve always been. To just play football, be free, have fun, enjoy it. And this is definitely a year that I’m able to be free, have fun and enjoy the position I’m in. So, it’s definitely a blessing and just taking it one day at a time.”
He could move himself a long way toward establishing that consistency when the Browns go to Pittsburgh and play the 5-2 Steelers on Sunday.
Browns’ Deshaun Watson Delivers Reality Check on NFL Award