The Browns may need to lean heavily on their run game with Deshaun Watson out for the remainder of the season
• 1 min read
In yesterday’s newsletter, I said there were a number of injuries we needed updates on before waivers ran, and unfortunately, we really didn’t get updates on any of the ones we were waiting on. But we did get one significant injury update we weren’t expecting Wednesday morning.
Deshaun Watson’s season is officially coming to an end, the Browns announced, after he suffered yet another shoulder injury in the first half of last week’s game. Watson will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a fracture in his shoulder and will be placed on injured reserve. Watson also suffered a high-ankle sprain during the game, so he likely would have missed time even without the shoulder injury.
This is an unexpected blow for the Browns offense, and one that will leave either P.J. Walker or Dorian Thompson-Robinson to start the rest of the way. Watson hasn’t been perfect by any means this season, but what we’ve seen from the Walker-DTR combo has been much worse — they’ve combined to complete 50.4% of their passes for 5.54 yards per attempt, with one touchdown on 135 attempts. In three starts between them, the Browns are averaging just 14.0 points per game.
It’s an immediate downgrade for the entire offense, making Amari Cooper more of a boom-or-bust WR3 and David Njoku more like a TE2, while limiting scoring opportunities for the Browns’ running backs. Jerome Ford is an RB3 moving forward, while Kareem Hunt is more like an RB4, and you’re probably not in a great spot if you need to trust either moving forward.
It looks like we’re going to be dealing with at least seven backups leading the 28 NFL offenses in action in Week 11, as backup QBs have been playing a much bigger role than we ever would’ve hoped for this season. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality of the situation, and we’ve still gotta try to figure out how to win our Fantasy leagues.
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We covered the Watson news in today’s newsletter which was sent to subscribers in inboxes prior to this post. Today’s edition also featured four targets buy-low trade targets and three sell-high trade option plus more trade advice as well as a breakdown of Heath Cummings’ positional previews. Sign up above to get the daily Fantasy Football experience in your inbox.
