Cleveland Browns offense looking to unlock Deshaun Watson

CLEVELAND BROWNS QUARTERBACK Deshaun Watson stood before a scrum of reporters during a June practice.

Wearing a cutoff hoodie and Browns-themed beanie on his head, he downplayed concerns about the injury to his throwing shoulder that required season-ending surgery last November and the overhauled offensive scheme he had been adjusting to all offseason. But most importantly, he told the gathering about his confidence in getting back to a level of play he hasn’t shown since the 2020 season, when, as a member of the Houston Texans, he led the NFL in passing with 4,823 yards and was named to the Pro Bowl for the third time in four years.

“All it is [is] time, reps getting back,” he said. “You know, I missed a lot of football … so that’s one thing that you can’t ask to get is that time [back]. You know, you got to be available, and I wasn’t available the last two years for whatever circumstances, but, God willing, just take it in one day at a time, and I am available. Those reps will come, and I’ll continue to get better each and every rep.”

The clock is ticking for the Browns, who, when they host the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, FOX), enter the third year of the huge bet they made on Watson. They’ll do so with a revamped scheme, a new offensive coordinator who’s previously helped get the best out of Josh Allen and Cam Newton, and some key new faces they hope can elevate a unit — and by extension a team — with Super Bowl aspirations.

“I think our biggest focus with Deshaun is just making sure that he’s available,” general manager Andrew Berry said. “I think the rest will take care of itself.”

THE BROWNS HAVE adapted their offense to suit Watson’s strengths since acquiring him via trade and then giving him a five-year deal worth a fully guaranteed $230 million in March 2022.

Over Watson’s first two years in Cleveland, coach Kevin Stefanski has eschewed two- and three-tight ends sets for more spread formations with three and four wide receivers. Under-center exchanges have declined in favor of shotgun snaps.

This offseason, Stefanski made his most audacious pivot to date. He fired Alex Van Pelt — the Browns’ offensive coordinator since Stefanski arrived in 2020 — and replaced him with former Buffalo Bills OC Ken Dorsey.

Heading into the 2024 season, any success the Browns have had with Watson on the roster has largely come in spite of him. The Browns are 8-4 in games Watson has started and returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2020. But Watson has been limited to 12 games because of suspension and injuries, and he has posted a 41.9 QBR since making his Browns debut, the sixth-worst mark in that span.

With Joe Flacco, who last season was pulled off the couch in the wake of Watson’s shoulder injury and led an improbable run to the wild-card round, no longer on the team, Cleveland’s focus has returned to getting the 28-year-old Watson back to Pro Bowl form, and they believe Dorsey can help.

Dorsey, a national champion quarterback at the University of Miami who briefly played in the NFL, was fired midway through last year — his second season in the role — but had a strong relationship with quarterback Allen, working as his position coach before being promoted to coordinator.

“I think when [Dorsey] got here three years ago, my career definitely changed in terms of how I viewed the game of football,” Allen said last season. “Just having a guy in the quarterback room that played the game … he’s competitive, he’s smart. He works his a– off. I appreciate what he’s done for me over the course of my career so far.”

In Dorsey, the Browns saw a bright mind with the ability to connect with Watson, not only because of his past as a quarterback, but his experience working with passers with a similar skill set. In addition to helping Allen blossom, Dorsey was Newton’s quarterbacks coach for five years with the Carolina Panthers, which included three Pro Bowl selections and his 2015 MVP season.

“Every one of these guys is very different,” Dorsey said, “but I think there’s things you could take away, whether it’s the run game, the zone read game, the [run-pass option] game, because all those things, a lot of times you can’t necessarily teach them. It’s a natural feel that these guys have. And watching Deshaun, he clearly has a great feel for a lot of different aspects of football. Whether it’s scheme-wise for us, instincts of what he sees on the field in terms of the defense and adjusting things. But I think that’s the exciting part about working with him, is getting back to the elite level of who he is.”

STEFANSKI WILL CONTINUE to call plays in 2024 but Dorsey has helped install a bevy of new concepts to the team’s drop back passing game, particularly the use of RPOs and motion.

Last season, the Browns’ personnel usage aligned more with modern NFL trends, using more formations with three wide receivers. From 2020 to 2022, the Browns used 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers) on 47% of plays, sixth lowest in that span, according to ESPN’s Stats & Information Group. The Browns used 11 personnel on 68% of plays in 2023, their highest in four seasons under Stefanski. Expect that to remain a staple, and potentially increase, with Dorsey’s input.

“We see the game similarly, but then in a lot of ways, we challenge each other and push each other,” Stefanski said of Dorsey. “But we’ve worked in similar systems. Ken’s played in this league as a high-level player, obviously in college at a high level, so he has a unique perspective. He has a unique perspective from the different guys he’s coached. So, there’s plenty that we see similarly, but there’s also plenty that we push each other on, and that’s the fun part of working with anybody that you really trust and you have respect for, but you can push each other.”

One major change to the offense this season will be the use of option/choice routes, which allow pass-catchers to break in a given direction based on the defense’s leverage. It requires timing and connectivity between the quarterback and receiver, but is a concept Watson is familiar with.

It was a key component of Bill O’Brien’s offense when he was Watson’s head coach and playcaller with the Texans. O’Brien brought it over from his time with the New England Patriots, where wideouts Wes Welker and Julian Edelman were experts with quarterback Tom Brady (Browns wide receiver Chad O’Shea was the wide receivers coach in New England for 10 years and overlapped with O’Brien).

“It’s a different scheme, a scheme that is very similar to what I did before in Houston,” Watson said. “And [Dorsey has] been around a lot of football, very smart and he’s a very player-led coach just like Stefanski. And he lets his players do what they need to do for their talent to be shown.”

The Browns’ attempts to improve their offense and get the most out of Watson didn’t end with the coaching change. The front office traded with the Denver Broncos for wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, a 2020 first-round pick. Jeudy failed to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards in a season during his time in Denver. But he was a player the Browns coveted during the draft process because of his quickness, deep speed and ability to gain yards after the catch.

The Browns didn’t get much from their wide receiver room beyond Amari Cooper, who recorded a career-high 1,250 yards in 2023. The hope is Jeudy can be a top-three option in the passing game behind Cooper and tight end David Njoku, who was named to his first Pro Bowl in 2023 after a breakout season. The Browns were 21st in percentage of yards that came after the catch in 2023, according to TruMedia. Jeudy ranked ninth among wide receivers in yards after the catch per reception (6.0).

FOR ALL THE optimism the Browns have publicly displayed about the state of their revamped offense, they enter the 2024 season with multiple questions and injury concerns.

Running back Nick Chubb will start the season on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list as he continues to rehab the severe knee injury he sustained last September and that required a pair of surgeries. The Browns expect Chubb, whose career mark of 5.3 yards per rush is second only to Jamaal Charles for the highest in the Super Bowl Era, to play at some point this season but haven’t given a timetable for his return. Jerome Ford, who led the team with 813 rushing yards last season, will once again be the top option in the backfield until Chubb is back.

Cleveland also spent all of training camp without starting offensive tackles Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin, who were rehabbing season-ending knee injuries. Both players were activated from the PUP list ahead of last Tuesday’s cut-down deadline and Conklin returned to practice but Wills remains sidelined. If Wills isn’t ready for Week 1, Conklin could move over from right tackle to left tackle, a position he hasn’t played since college, while Dawand Jones continues to occupy the right tackle position he took over when Conklin went down in the 2023 season opener.

The loss of highly-respected offensive line coach Bill Callahan looms large over the position group, though. Callahan helped lead top offensive lines in Cleveland for multiple years but departed to join the staff of his son, Brian, who became the Tennessee Titans’ head coach this offseason.

The Browns hired Andy Dickerson, the Seattle Seahawks’ former OL coach and a Callahan disciple, to fill the void. Between Dickerson’s past with Callahan and new assistant OL coach Roy Istvan, who has familiarity with RPO blocking concepts from his time with the Philadelphia Eagles, there’s belief in a smooth transition despite the absence of Callahan.

WATSON, HOWEVER, REMAINS the central figure, with his performance this season likely deciding whether the Browns are merely a talented team capable of reaching the playoffs or a true threat to dethrone the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC.

Cleveland started five different quarterbacks in 2023 and posted a cumulative team Total QBR of 37, which ranked 27th. It was also the worst by any team to win 10 or more games in a season since the QBR metric was introduced in 2006.

In June, the Browns’ ownership rewarded Stefanski and Berry with contract extensions, a show of faith in a pairing that has guided the franchise to a 37-30 record in the regular season — the highest winning percentage for the team over a four-year stretch since 1986 to ’89 — two playoff appearances and two AP Coach of the Year awards for Stefanski.

However, the return for the team’s aggressive move for Watson remains the unknown entity on an otherwise strong roster.

Watson’s rapport with his top receivers was stunted by minor injuries that sidelined them for parts of camp. He was a full participant in the summer but didn’t play in the preseason, leaving open speculation on his injury status and form. Watson was expected to play in the finale but Stefanski ultimately held him out, citing the number of offensive teammates sidelined and his contentment with his body of work.

In January, Berry spoke of the Watson trade in a “10-year time horizon” that spans multiple contracts. A renaissance from Watson could palate the pill of the resources that went into acquiring him. Continued struggles to perform or stay healthy would leave the Browns in a similar situation as they were with former quarterback Baker Mayfield, a talented team hamstrung by its QB — and one to which the team remains financially tied through the 2026 season, with exorbitant cap hits for the coming years.

“He’s rehabbed from an injury, but then he’s put himself in position to really do a nice job in practice learning a couple new concepts,” Stefanski said. “He’s grinding in the meeting room to make sure he’s on top of everything. So, he’s a pro and he’s done a really nice job with the work that he’s gotten.”