Browns won't make big Deshaun Watson change after injury

It appears the Cleveland Browns replacing offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt with Ken Dorsey won't result in Deshaun Watson making fewer plays with his legs next season despite the injury that cost him over half of the 2023 campaign. 

"Deshaun has always been very mobile," Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters at the NFL scouting combine on Wednesday, per Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland. "He will always continue to be very mobile." 

Grossi added that Stefanski acknowledged "they will try to coach up Watson on being smart to avoid injury" but also realizes that "the threat of Watson running is what makes him effective at his best." 

Watson joined the Browns from the Houston Texans in March 2022 and then signed a fully guaranteed five-year, $230M contract with Cleveland. The 28-year-old missed the first 11 games of the subsequent season while serving a suspension related to accusations of sexual misconduct during massage sessions, and he first hurt his throwing shoulder in Week 3 this past September. In total, Watson made just six starts for the 2023 Browns before he was shut down. 

Grossi and fellow Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that Stefanski and company hope Dorsey can better maximize "the skills of a modern dual-threat quarterback" than Van Pelt. Considering Watson has yet to play a full season's worth of games with Cleveland, it's largely unknown what he will and won't be as a member of the organization. 

"We don’t even think about it in terms of necessarily living up to a contract," Browns general manager Andrew Berry said about Watson, as shared by Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. "We just want him to be available. If he’s available, we know that he can play at a high level. We were pleased with how he was playing before he injured his shoulder."

It was reported even before the league's salary-cap explosion for 2024 went public that the Browns technically could afford to trade Watson this spring. Such takes suggest that individuals in the front office and/or team ownership could consider moving on from Watson next winter if he either fails to impress or suffers yet another significant physical setback.