BEREA, Ohio \u2014 Deshaun Watson went through a throwing workout at the Browns facility last week with Kevin Stefanski, Browns GM Andrew Berry and owner Jimmy Haslam all looking on. <\/p>\n
What they saw was a quarterback who\u2019s dropping back with agility and ease, and launching the ball downfield with good velocity.<\/p>\n
He looked good in the workout, and if they didn\u2019t know any better, they never would\u2019ve guessed that he had undergone surgery in January to repair his retorn Achilles. Or that he had surgery the season before to repair his fractured right throwing shoulder. <\/p>\n
Placed Tuesday on the reserve\/Physically Unable to Perform list where he must remain for at least four games, Watson is progressing well in his Achilles rehab, and could be ready to practice in late October or November. Whether or not the Browns activate him this season remains to be seen, but the team brass has been pleased with their $46 million-a-year man both in his rehab and in his engagement with his teammates. <\/p>\n
\u201cDeshaun\u2019s doing awesome, he\u2019s doing great,\u201d Stefanski said Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m excited for him. I get to watch him work out as well. I get to be in the meeting room with him every single day. So, he\u2019s doing great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is it possible that the Browns felt comfortable trading Kenny Pickett to the Raiders on Monday for a fifth-round pick because they have another veteran in Watson on the mend and waiting in the wings? They currently have three quarterbacks on the active roster in starter Joe Flacco, backup Dillon Gabriel and third-teamer Shedeur Sanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t comment to say that,\u201d Stefanski said of Watson possibly factoring in the Pickett trade. <\/p>\n
Again, there\u2019s a long way to go before Watson is ready to play, but Berry referred to him in the spring as a fast healer, and the Browns haven\u2019t ruled him out for the season, An Achilles repair is usually about a nine-month recovery, which could theoretically put Watson back on the practice field in October. <\/p>\n
Whatever the case, the messaging coming from the team about Watson, a three-time Pro Bowler, has been positive for months, with high praise for his work ethic and mentoring of Gabriel and Sanders. In addition, the two rookies have commended Watson during interviews for his help during meetings.<\/p>\n
Despite Haslam\u2019s \u201cswing and a miss\u201d remark<\/a> about the Watson trade during the NFL annual meeting in March, he\u2019s been supportive of the QB and watching his comeback closely. <\/p>\n For his part, Watson, who\u2019s under contract through next season, has chronicled his rehab on his Instagram account, and has vowed to come back better than ever. Whether it\u2019s here or elsewhere, he plans to play again. <\/p>\n Stefanski names Gabriel his No. 2 <\/p>\n Stefanski didn\u2019t hesitate to name Gabriel, the Browns third-round pick, his No. 2 quarterback in the wake of the Pickett trade. When the Browns took the practice field on Tuesday, Gabriel took the second-team reps, and Sanders, the third. <\/p>\n Was it Gabriel\u2019s emergence in preseason that paved the way for the Pickett trade?<\/p>\n \u201cI think you factor in everything, truly,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cYou look at it from a bunch of different angles. So certainly, we made the decision and feel comfortable with Dillon serving that role.\u201d<\/p>\n Gabriel was particularly impressive during the two-minute drive at the end of the first half of Saturday\u2019s 19-17 victory over the Rams in the preseason finale, going 9 of 11 for 86 yards and capping it with a 3-yard TD pass to Gage Larvadain. Granted, he worked mostly against Rams defenders who have been cut since then, but he still showed uncanny poise and decision-making for a rookie in that pressure situation. <\/p>\n Was it that drive that gave them the extra oomph to part with Pickett, whom they talked up all offseason and preseason?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s such an all-encompassing evaluation,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cSo, everything the guys did in the games was important. We also saw a lot of them out here in practice and how they are at their craft. And he\u2019s certainly somebody that we think is getting better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n Larvadain cited the two-minute drive as proof that the moment isn\u2019t too big for Gabriel, a six-year college player drafted out of Oregon. <\/p>\n \u201cGreat teammate, great person,\u201d Larvadain said Tuesday. \u201cAnd then when you go to football, super-poised, super-confident in himself, which is super important. (The two-minute situation) was great execution by him. And anytime in the two-minute situation, quarterback is hard enough, but when you\u2019re working against the clock too, it\u2019s so impressive to just get any points, and for him to go down there and score a touchdown in two minutes is super impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall, Gabriel put 10 points on the board in his two possessions, including a field goal on his opening drive. He went 12 of 19 for 129 yards with one TD and no interceptions en route to a 100.5 rating.<\/p>\n And now, he\u2019ll be one play away from facing the Bengals in Week 1 and the Ravens on the road in Week 2.<\/p>\n Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial<\/a> of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com’s Browns reporters.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEREA, Ohio \u2014 Deshaun Watson went through a throwing workout at the Browns facility last week with Kevin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,58555,2337,7,58556,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-320498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-cleveland-browns-2025","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-los-angeles-rams-2025","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115098283445939005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}