Are the Draft Dudes right about the Browns 2023 roster?

Breaking down the Incomplete Evaluations

Three players were given the Incomplete Evaluation tag by the Draft Dudes: Deshaun Watson, Martin Emerson, and Elijah Moore. Of the three players given an Incomplete Evaluation, Moore is the easiest to agree with given his usage and the quarterback situation during his time in New York. It would be jumping the gun to categorize Moore at this given time, by this time next year we will have a much better understanding of his upper-bound limits as a player.

The placing of Watson in that bucket might sound odd at first, given that he has 59 starts under his belt and has thrown for 15,641 yards, and 111 touchdowns to 41 interceptions, with a career completion percentage of 67%. But even with that information, I believe that placing him in the Incomplete Evaluation bucket is not just the right move, it is the only move that makes sense at this time.

Yes, Watson has been a rock-solid Roster Cornerstone at one point in his career already. But it is also impossible to ignore the substantial rust that Watson accumulated as a result of his 700-day self-inflicted hiatus as a starting quarterback. Even with his recent performance at minicamp, it would be preposterous to claim that anyone knows without a shadow of a doubt what version of Watson will take the field in 2023.

The only player that I would push the Dudes back on is Martin Emerson. The physical cornerback played in all 17 games and made six starts. Emerson logged 782 snaps as a rookie and recorded 63 total tackles with 15 passes defended.

But even those numbers fail to exemplify Emerson’s level of play in high-leverage moments. On two separate occasions with the game in the balance in the fourth quarter, Emerson was targeted on fourth downs, and in both instances, Emerson defended the pass and gave the ball back to the Browns offense. On both plays, Emerson was covering the opposition's number one wide receiver.

Given his overall body of work as a rookie and how he performed in high pressure situations, I feel completely comfortable placing Emerson in the Adequate Starter bucket as a second-year player. Depending on how his next two seasons play out, the upward trajectory exists for Emerson to wind up as an eventual Roster Cornerstone.