CLEVELAND, Ohio — Deshaun Watson made a strong statement on Instagram Tuesday, a day after Jimmy Haslam’s “big swing and a miss” comment went viral on social media.
“Maybe, If I weren’t built for this, I’d let it phase me…” Watson wrote, accompanied by Rod Wave’s Shock Da World.
The post featured 20 photos of Watson — still wearing his right walking boot — working out hard at the Browns facility to come back from his re-ruptured Achilles, which was repaired again in January. While he’ll miss a significant chunk of the season and may never suit up for the Browns again, Watson is determined to return to the game after his second Achilles surgery since November.
His agent, David Mulugheta, responded to Watson’s post: “They hate you, then they love you then they hate you again. That’s why you never live for the applause. Lock in 4!”
The post came a day after Haslam, speaking to a small group of Browns beat writers including cleveland.com at the NFL Annual Meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., admitted that the Watson trade with the Texans was an epic fail.
“Well, I mean let’s address the elephant in the room,” Haslam said. “We took a big swing and miss with Deshaun. We thought we had the quarterback, we didn’t and we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him. So we’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole.”
The Browns surrendered a net of five picks, including three first-rounders for Watson, and then signed him to a five-year extension worth $230 million, the first and only fully-guaranteed contract in the history of the NFL. While the trade wasn’t Haslam’s idea, he came through the with the guaranteed pact that got it done. Still, he shouldered full blame.
“Listen, I’ve said this I think numerous times, the Deshaun Watson was an entire organization decision and it ends with Dee (Haslam) and I, so hold us accountable.”
Dee attributed the disappointing outcome to Watson’s two season ending injuries, the fractured shoulder in 2023 and the ruptured Achilles in 2023. The injuries cut his last two seasons short after six and seven starts, respectively, and the Browns were 1-6 with him at the helm of a dysfunctional new offense last season.
“I mean the player got hurt and so that was an unusual situation,” she said. “I think there was a lot of unusual situations, but really bad injuries when a player has these kind of bad injuries, it’s really unfortunate for him and unfortunate for our organization.”
Is there a world in which he ever takes a snap for the Browns again?
“He’s had three horrific injuries in what, a 15 month period, right?” Jimmy said. “Shoulder, tears his Achilles and re-tears his Achilles. I think the focus now is on getting him healthy and how long does that take and when can he be healthy? So that’s the main thing we’d be focused on.”
Can they salvage anything from the wreckage?
Is there anything that can be salvaged from this failed trade?
“Let’s get him healthy and then we’ll see,” Dee said.
At the rate Watson is going, that could be as soon as October or November.
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