Browns veterans reported for training camp July 22, the same day they placed Deshaun Watson, among others, on the active/PUP list due to injuries.
BEREA — Four Browns quarterbacks reported to Berea to begin their training camp competition to be the starter when the season opens in a month-and-a-half. A fifth reported to continue the recovery from an injury which is at least partially responsible for the four-way starting competition.
Deshaun Watson was officially placed on the active/physically unable to perform list by the Browns July 22 in advance of the first full-squad workout of training camp. The move was an expected procedural move as the quarterback continues to recover from an Achilles injury.
Watson wasn't the only roster move the Browns made as veterans reported, nor the only one expected. Second-year defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. was placed on active/PUP as he continues to rehab from surgery on the knee he injured in the 2024 season finale in Baltimore, while fourth-year wide receiver David Bell was placed on active/non-football injury as he continues to rehab from a dislocated hip suffered last September in Jacksonville.
The Browns also announced they've waived wide receiver Jaelen Gill. Gill had a non-football injury designation.
Players on the active/PUP or active/non-football injury or illnesss lists are eligible to come off at any point in training camp once they pass their physical. The expectation is that Watson and, likely, Hall will eventually be placed on the reserve/PUP list in order to prevent them from taking a spot on the 53-man roster, which would mean a minimum of four games missed.
Watson initially tore the Achilles with 1:22 remaining in the second quarter of a Week 7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 20, which he had surgery for on Oct. 25. He re-tore it during the initial recovery, requiring a second surgery on Jan. 10.
The veteran quarterbacks — Watson, Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett — all reported Tuesday to training camp. The Browns rookies, including quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, have been in Berea since July 18.
Watson's initial tear was expected to be a seven-to-eight-month recovery before being re-set by the second surgery, and the Browns have refused to get pinned down to a firm timetable for his return. Watson's been out of a walking boot for several months now and has around the team facility throughout his rehab, including some throwing work to wide receivers such as Jerry Jeudy.
"Deshaun’s, as you guys know, not practicing," Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said during minicamp on June 10, "but he’s rehabbing, attacking his rehab and being a resource for young players, which I think is a great message about being a great teammate — being available to all your young players, young and old, being available to your teammates.”
Watson's injury at least partially created the four-way quarterback competition that has been the story of the Browns offseason, and will be the story of the training camp. They traded for Pickett in March, signed Flacco in April and then drafted both Gabriel and Sanders.
Those four quarterbacks are at the center of the on-field competition. However, Watson has been right in the middle of the off-the-field conversations that have gone on in the quarterbacks' meetings.
“He's been a guy I've connected with as well, and he's actually a guy I sit by in our (offensive) line meetings, even in our offensive unit meetings," Gabriel said of Watson at minicamp on June 10. "So just being able to be around him and nudge him and ask a question, whether it's for confirmation or his thought, but also when we're talking through concepts, I think it's super cool that we do have five guys in the room that kind of can speak to their own experience and even Deshaun this morning, talking through a concept and kind of how he sees it in the red area. And I even go back, it can change the play in a big way, just how you think of it. So appreciate him a bunch too. Just sharing all his knowledge.”
Watson still has two years remaining on the fully-guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract he signed when the Browns acquired him on March 18, 2022, from the Houston Texans in exchange for three first-round picks (2022, 2023, 2024), a 2022 fourth round pick, a 2023 third-round pick and 2024 fourth- and fifth-round picks. He's a $35,971,514 cap hit this season, with another $131,163,378 in cap hits spread out between 2026 — which is when the the contract expires — and extra years created by a restructuring done late in 2024.
The return on investment for the Browns has been a grand total of 19 combined starts over three seasons, with the seven starts in 2024 being the most for him in any season in Cleveland. He was suspended 11 games in 2022 for personal conduct policy violations in connection to allegations made by, at the time, 26 women through the judicial system of sexual misconduct or sexual assault during massages, while shoulder injuries cost him 11 games — including the final eight games — in 2023 before the Achilles tear cost him the final 10 games in 2024.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam acknowledged at the NFL owners meetings in March that the Watson trade was a failure, calling it a "big swing and a miss." He also said it was "an entire organization decision and it ends with (wife and Browns co-owner) Dee and I. So hold us accountable."
Chris Easterling can be reached at [email protected]. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Deshaun Watson among Browns players to open training camp on PUP list
Category: General Sports
