Cleveland Browns: Deshaun Watson doesn’t hate the Browns (obviously)
By Damon Kecman
While some Cleveland Browns fans felt dissed by Deshaun Watson’s decision to skip the Senior Bowl, he downplayed any perceived Browns hate.
In today’s world, most of our time is spent trying to decode gestures made by athletes and then draw conclusions based on the gesture. That is what Cleveland Browns fans have been trying to do for weeks.
After Deshaun Watson went on a tear to win the national championship game against Alabama, everyone started the discussion of whether or not the Browns should take Watson with the first overall pick.
Controversy stirred when Deshaun Watson declined his invitation to the Senior Bowl and passed up the chance to work alongside the Browns’ coaching staff. Everyone began to lose their minds and turning it into a conversation about how it’s “a Cleveland thing”.
Earlier today, the NFL Network’s Andrew Siciliano sat down with Deshaun Watson and asked him about his decision to turn down the Senior Bowl invitation and also asked him if it had anything to do with not wanting to be the next quarterback of the Browns.
"“That’s wrong, false information,” Watson said. “I talked to [Browns coach] Hue Jackson, we had a great conversation right after the national championship game and I told him, ‘Hey, this is what I’m thinking about’ and he understood everything. I talked with my family, my agent, my trainer, all the coaches at Clemson, and it was just best for me to go ahead and get started in the draft process. I moved to California, so it was just a lot moving from Georgia to California [to train ahead of the Scouting Combine] and then trying to go back to the Senior Bowl.” Watson also added that he wanted to “..get healthy and get the draft process started”."
Sounds like, as always, us fans ended up making a huge deal about nothing. The Cleveland Browns might not have gotten the chance to work with Deshaun Watson up close and personal at the Senior Bowl, but will get their chance to watch him throw at the Draft Combine towards the end of February with the rest of the NFL teams.
#Clemson QB DeShaun Watson also says on @nflnetwork he’s going to throw at the Combine. Asked what he’d tell his doubters: “Watch the tape.”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 2, 2017
Next: Trading draft picks and the fear of missing out
Now that we know Deshaun Watson doesn’t actually hate the Cleveland Browns, should we give this whole “Watson to Cleveland” thing another go?