Deshaun Watson looking like he’s auditioning to be next Russell Wilson at OTAs

To say the Deshaun Watson trade has been a disaster since he arrived with the Cleveland Browns would be a vast understatement regarding the situation. There are plenty of stats that back up that argument but perhaps the best identifier is that Joe Flacco led the Browns to the playoffs last year while Watson was out injured and looked better at quarterback despite coming in off the street than Watson has at any point in Cleveland.

But Watson is now on track to return for the 2024 season and the hope is that he'll somehow live up to the massive fully guaranteed contract that the Browns gave him after the much-maligned trade with the Houston Texans. On Thursday, we got a look at the quarterback throwing passes and getting an idea for where he's at.

Spoiler: It wasn't pretty right out of the gate.

Deshaun Watson doesn't look any different to start Browns OTAs

One of the first throws Watson made at OTAs on Thursday was a deep pass to Elijah Moore. To put it as bluntly as possible, it wasn't even close, especially considering that the Browns signal-caller was throwing against air.

To be clear and fair to Watson as a player, he did look better later on at OTAs as videos surfaced of him completing throws to the likes of Moore and Cedric Tillman. But my word was that a bad first impression to be making on the deep pass to Moore that you can see above.

Watson has played only 12 total games since joining the Browns, completing only 59.8% of his passes with a 17-game pace of only 3,141 yards with 20 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. It's been middling at best and awful at worst. And this throw at OTAs brings up all of the worst kinds of feelings about the situation.

Things could change but, if this throw is a premonition for this season more than an outlier, the Browns are going to have tough decisions to make. And in a world wherein we just saw the Denver Broncos eat $85 million in dead cap by cutting Russell Wilson, perhaps Cleveland and Watson could be the next foray into just moving on no matter the price if things don't change for the QB.

Cutting Watson in the 2025 offseason would incur a $72 million dead cap hit for the Browns because it's a fully guaranteed contract. However, if spaced out properly, it could still work out in the team's favor long-term, especially if they could quickly find the next answer at quarterback.

There is absolutely a world in where we see Watson return to the player we saw in Houston. We know what the football player is capable of on the field. However, this throw at OTAs doesn't inspire much hope, even if it's just a single rep, and the Browns may be forced to take drastic measures if things don't turn around this year.