Cleveland Browns: 3 players to watch in Week 17 against Washington

Despite the fact that the Cleveland Browns won’t have a chance at going to the playoffs, they do have several players to watch as they face Washington

The Cleveland Browns will take on the Washington Commanders on Sunday — just one week after being eliminated from playoff contention. As for the Commanders, they’re still in line for a postseason berth if they win out.

So, with a game that doesn’t mean very much to Cleveland, what should we be concerned with? Let’s discuss that with these three players who are worth a look at on Sunday.

Cleveland Browns player No. 3 to watch: Deshaun Watson, QB

For the past four games, much of the attention in Cleveland has been on quarterback Deshaun Watson, and again that will be the case in Week 17. Watson has been progressing but still has a lot of room for improvement. He’s been highly regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and has been brought to Cleveland to try to win a Super Bowl,

Watson discussed that very point recently when he was interviewed by the local media this week. Things have been rather shaky the last few weeks as he’s gone 2-2 as the team’s starter.

He’s looking forward to the future, but there’s a lot of pressure on Watson to perform well and make sure the team moves forward in 2023.

So, we will all look to watch and see what Watson can do on Sunday. Can he throw for more than one touchdown in the game? When you look back at Watson’s career one of the highlights of that time has been his ability to rack up yardage and touchdowns — which hasn’t happened much to this point.

It will be interesting to watch if he can get into a better groove with star wide receiver Amari Cooper and his second go-to receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones. In last week’s loss to the New Orleans Saints, Watson watched as there were several dropped passes, including potential touchdown passes to Cooper and Peoples-Jones. Watching that progression to see how they work together on Sunday will be important to monitor.

Cleveland Browns player No. 2 to watch: Donovon Peoples-Jones, WR

In last week’s game against the Saints, it was a bit of a surprise that Donovon Peoples-Jones had such a poor outing. The weather was a factor, but DPJ has usually been a reliable receiver for the Browns this season. He’s already had the best campaign of his career with 58 catches for 784 yards and two touchdowns.

In the Week 16 loss, he was targeted five times and missed out on four of those passes. There were none bigger than the drop he had in the back corner of the endzone in the closing seconds when his team needed him to catch the ball to give them a tie at the moment against New Orleans.

With warmer weather on the horizon for the game in Washington on Sunday, I’d expect to see DPJ and Watson try to work together a few times in this one. He’s had 10 games of catching four passes or more this season and he’s put together 11 games with more than 30 yards.

Despite the poor outing against New Orleans, he’s got an outside chance to reach 1,000 yards on the season and that would be a rare thing for two Browns receivers to reach — Cooper has already crossed that mark this year.

Cleveland Browns player No. 1 to watch: Nick Chubb, RB

Nick Chubb makes this watch list many weeks because he is “must-see tv” on nearly every Sunday. You never know when he might take the next handoff to the house for a touchdown.

There’s been speculation this week if we’d see Chubb at all in this game or for that matter the rest of the season because the Browns don’t have much to play for. However, Chubb has said he wants to play so we’ll grab our bowl of popcorn again and prepare to be dazzled by the hardest-working player on the team.

He’s closing in on his career-best 1,494 yards in a season that he gained in 2019 so there could be some personal motivation to reach the milestone. He’s sitting at 1,344 yards with 12 touchdowns. If he can gain one more touchdown, that too would be a career-best.

The other topic of discussion amongst Cleveland fans is that Chubb is now halfway to the team’s legendary running back Jim Brown’s rushing totals. At 6,160 yards to date, he needs another 6,153 to surpass the frqanchise record.

Chubb is in year five and is signed in Cleveland through the 2024 season. He just turned 27 years old this week and if the Browns sign him again to a three or four-year deal he might have the opportunity to catch Jim Brown.

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