Browns' Deshaun Watson ready to prove a point this season

Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns understands why some no longer rate him among the NFL's elite quarterbacks heading into the 2023 season. 

"You can't focus on that because that ranking is always changing," Watson told reporters on Wednesday, per Jake Trotter of ESPN. "And for me, I missed two years of football, so I shouldn't be in those rankings, to be honest. If you're asking me, I haven't played ball, I haven't played enough football the last few years to even be up there. So I got to go out there and prove and show what I got to do to get back in those conversations."

Watson earned Pro Bowl nods each season from 2018 through 2020 while with the Houston Texans but didn't take a meaningful snap during the 2021 campaign following an offseason trade request. While Houston shipped Watson to the Browns in March 2022, the 27-year-old ultimately missed the first 11 games of the subsequent season while serving a suspension related to allegations of sexual misconduct during massage sessions.

In his six contests, all starts, with the Browns last season, Watson went 3-3 and completed 58.2% of 170 pass attempts for 1,102 yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions. According to ESPN stats, he would've ended the campaign ranked 27th in the NFL with a 38.3 adjusted QBR if he was among eligible players for that stat. 

For a piece published on July 31, Mike Sando of The Athletic ranked Watson the league's 11th-best quarterback. Last month, "league executives, coaches, scouts and players" left Watson out of an ESPN list of the NFL's top 10 players at the position. 

"For me, I just lock in on what I need to lock in on and just focus on my tasks," Watson continued during his comments. "Everything else will take care of itself."

As of Wednesday afternoon, OddsChecker listed the Browns third among the betting favorites at +400 odds to claim the AFC North title beneath both the Cincinnati Bengals (+160) and Baltimore Ravens (+235). It sounds like the polarizing Watson has all the bulletin board material he could need as he prepares to serve as Cleveland's Week 1 starter for the first time. 

The Browns open the regular season with a home game against the Bengals on Sept. 10.