Former coach speaks on Deshaun Watson work ethic in Houston

David Culley always had hope Deshaun Watson would return to the Houston Texans and detailed how present he was during the 2021 offseason

Much has been said about Deshaun Watson since he arrived in Berea to be the new quarterback of the Cleveland Browns — but not all of it is accurate.

For example, there are two myths about him as a player that continue to make the rounds. One is the lazy take that he’s not a winner since the team was 4-12 in his last full season. The other is that he “quit” on his team when he asked for a trade out of Houston.

As for the record, quarterback wins being used as the lone stat to judge a player is ridiculous. Watson led the league in passing that season and had a haphazard team around him. Does he get the 4-12 mark because he’s the quarterback? Yes, but they could have easily been 1-15 or even 0-16 that season without his play.

The second is that he “quit” by asking for a trade. This is also a lazy take because so much goes into a player asking to leave. In this instance, the front office had made moves he didn’t agree with, including trading one of the best wideouts in the NFL for a washed-up running back. They then spread the myth that this move happened because of Watson’s contract yet they paid David Johnson nearly as much as Arizona ended up paying DeAndre Hopkins.

Also, it’s hard to say a guy truly “quit” when he continued to show up — which is what former Houston head coach David Culley says Watson did. Culley held out hope that Watson would rescind his trade request and while that didn’t happen, he was still present.

"“He was at every meeting during training camp,” Culley said. “He was at every practice during training camp. There was only a certain amount of things that he was only going to do during practice because of the injury factor, but he was there. He was in every meeting. He wasn’t a distraction.”"

Culley ended up being one-and-done and the new regime wasn’t interested in trying to convince Watson to return —‚ and he surely wasn’t in a hurry to come back.

Now in Cleveland, Watson is trying to put his legal issues behind him and focus on football only once again.

While we don’t know yet how the disciplinary hearing with the league will turn out, we do know that the Browns landed a player who truly loves the game, even if some rumors suggest otherwise.