Deshaun Watson is throwing and not experiencing pain in his right shoulder, but doesn't know when he'll be 100 percent after surgery in November. He expects to be ready for the regular season. (TheLandOnDemand)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Takeaways from Deshaun Watson’s interview on second day of offseason program …
1. Watson update: The glenoid bone is healed. Deshaun Watson is on a conservative pitch count and sometimes throws up to 60 balls a day, but he hasn’t let it loose for, say, 50 yards. He hasn’t changed his throwing mechanics. The plan is for Watson to throw to receivers in OTAs, which is five weeks away. “I think we got to see how these next couple of weeks go,” Watson said. He expects to be “full go” in training camp, but doesn’t know if he’ll see any action in preseason. Doctors are tapping the breaks on Watson overdoing his rehab to avoid any setbacks. If he follows their plan, they believe he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season. Watson said there’s no timeline for when he’ll be 100 percent. “It’s just kind of how the process [goes],” he said. “It can be sooner than later, it can be later than sooner. I think it just really depends on how each landmark we hit and how fast we can get it and how my shoulder is reacting.”
2. Optimism: “I feel really good, very confident in myself in the process that’s going,” Watson said. “My shoulder’s been really well, so just making sure that I don’t do anything extra that’s going to harm it or anything like that. So I think that’s the biggest thing. That’s exactly what Dr. [Neal] El’Attrache and the guys told me is don’t try to do anything extra and rush back. So just follow the script and the plan, and you’ll be exactly where you want to be -- even better than before.”
3. When did it happen?: Five months after his last game in Baltimore on November 12, nobody can pinpoint precisely when and where the dislocated fracture of the glenoid bone in his right shoulder occurred. Watson indicated it may have happened earlier than the Baltimore game, perhaps in the Tennessee game six weeks earlier when Watson suffered a micro-tear of his right rotator cuff on a hit to his shoulder by Titans safety Amani Hooker in the third quarter of a 27-3 win. Watson missed the next two games and three quarters of a third game before playing full games against Arizona and Baltimore. He said Dr. El’Attrache, who performed his surgery, was “super surprised … amazed” how Watson was able to play through the pain he should have been experiencing in the Arizona and Baltimore games as a result of his first shoulder injury. (At the time, the Browns said the injuries were separate and not related.) “No one knows when it actually happened or when that bone actually came apart,” Watson said. “I knew for sure in Baltimore, though, because I heard some clicking sounds and that’s one of the indicators that something is wrong with that joint. But that’s probably a question for Dr. El’Attrache and why he pretty much said that. I just know that he was just very amazed at how I finished both of those games.”
4. What was repaired?: In addition to the glenoid bone, Dr. El’Attrache repaired damage to the labrum in Watson’s right shoulder. “So the bone that chipped off in my joint is called, of course, the glenoid, which is attached to the labrum,” Watson said. “So when the glenoid came off the bone, the labrum was the one that was hanging the bone. So he had to pretty much repair that and put that together. So he just pretty much made sure the labrum was good. But it wasn’t a full labrum [repair]. It was just a partial [repair] of the labrum that was connected to the glenoid.”
5. On and on: Watson’s ongoing recovery will be the dominant storyline of the team from now until the season opener. How much will he practice? Will he play in preseason? How will he acquire chemistry with new receiver Jerry Jeudy and everyone else? I asked Watson if Dr. El’Attrache was opposed to having him play in preseason. He answered, “We haven’t even talked about the preseason, honestly, other than training camp and what we’re doing throughout, you know, practice and stuff. But as far as preseason games, I’m not.” As for managing reps with Watson and newcomers Jameis Winston and Tyler Huntley, coach Kevin Stefanski said,” We’ll try to do whatever is appropriate, and for me, that’s leaning on the medical staff and Deshaun and making sure that we have a plan. And we’ll stick to it, obviously, with constant communication between all parties. If there’s days where, you know, it’s next man up Jameis will get some more throws, which I think is great for him as well. But we’ll really work all of that out as we get into those days.”
6. The new Ken Dorsey offense: Watson offered the most insight yet on what to expect from the Dorsey offense. “Yeah, it’s really good,” he said. “I mean, a lot of opportunities for the receivers to be able to really showcase their skills. A lot of guys moving around, a lot of guys being able to play different spots and then myself to just be free and not really kind of controlled, in a sense. It’s really just gotta go out there and be able to, you know, showcase, spread offense, throw it around, run around and make some plays happen. So that’s very exciting for myself.”
7. So who’s calling plays?: “We’re not there yet,” Stefanski said. Has any offensive player asked who’s calling plays? “No,” the coach said. Does it matter to Watson who calls plays? “No,” he said. “Because they [Stefanski and Dorsey] both work together, so they both have the same mindset. They both have the headsets and communicate. So for me, whoever calls the plays is, you know, going to call the plays. We as an offense and as a quarterback, we still got to go execute and go out there and perform.”
8. Is Year 3 a crucial one for Watson?: He doesn’t see it that way. “For me, it’s another opportunity for myself to just get on the field,” he said. “I’m not making it bigger than what it naturally is. If I would have played the full year and we would have won the Super Bowl, it would have been the same idea and vice versa. So for me, it’s just taking it one day at a time, building a relationship that we built and carried over from last year and getting this team exactly where we need to get to and get ready to play each and every week.”