What can Deshaun do and what can he not do? I think he went wrong by trying to earn his position as the highest paid QB in football, by emulating Josh Allen and the vertical passing game of the Buffalo Bills. As a competitive athlete, he didn't want to go down in history as the most overpaid qb ever, but unfortunately, he did not have the skills to be a precision deep ball specialist. It just didn't work.
In Houston, he only had one coach, Bill O'Brien. They came up with the Triple Option offense, which featured a lot of screen passes coming off fake RPO (Run Pass Option) handoffs. It was very effective but also resulted in Deshaun taking a lot of sacks and even more hits. Deshaun is a very tough guy, but I think he may have gotten tired of absorbing so much punishment and that fed into his decision to leave Houston. His sack percentage was very high, 9.05% in Houston, despite having a reasonably good offensive line.
The Vertical offense didn't work in Cleveland. Jacoby Brissett ran it better than Deshaun did. It's gotten worse as the offensive line aged and now has sailed into the sunset. Deshaun's sack percentage is worse in Cleveland than it was in Houston, but it's not from the triple option, it's because he had trouble locating the downfield receivers. Brissett's sack percentage was 6.22%, Watson's was 10.53% in 2022, and 11.16% for his Cleveland career.
Okay, let's admit this is not working. The RPO/Triple option is going to get him killed, and he can't actually run the vertical offense.
Let's forget about Canton and all that BS. Still, he is an NFL quarterback. I think he can run a ball control offense, the traditional bread and butter of the Cleveland Browns. I don't know that the O-Line is there to actually run the ball this season. Quinshon should average 5 yards per carry, but he will probably be around 4 this year. That is still acceptable.
But Deshaun ought to be able to complete a few 7 yard passes. Maybe he can be like Alex Smith if not Josh Allen. The rookie wide receivers, Denzel Boston and K.C. Concepcion look like they want to catch a few balls in the NFL. Jerry Jeudy looked like he wanted to just mail it in last year after a terrific 2024 season. Lord knows what the team can get out of him this season. But we do know that if you throw the ball to Harold Fannin Jr. at tight end or to Quinshon Judkins or Dylan Sampson out of the backfield, they will freaking catch the ball. There is enough talent there that they might win a few ballgames.
