Taking a break from all the non-stop action and commotion over on the Chargers board for a moment... Agreed with @beachbum and I made this point a long time ago. Browns were hemmoraging points and yards to top offenses while feasting on the weak ones in 2021. Joe Woods didn't learn than his man-coverage corners were better suited for man coverage until about Week 8 or 9. It wasn't until they started capitalizing on turnovers that the defense really took on a new identity -- and as reminder, that happened against the hapless Lions, the injured Ravens (x2), the underwhelming Raiders, the second-string Bengals, and early on in the season against the rudderless Bears. Chiefs: 33 Chargers: 47 Cardinals: 37 Patriots: 45 Packers: 24 Average Against Top 10 Offenses: 37.2 PPG
Not sure how anyone reads that NYT article and doesn't come away with this exact conclusion. They either (1) didn't do any diligence, or (2) didn't care what it came back with. Per John McClain (who may be trying to shield his hometown Texans from a lot of blame), the Browns and the NFL knew about *all* the new allegations, accusers, and charges.
Anybody proud of our leadership team? I'm with SAS on this point. Now the truth be told, they'll laugh it all off if they get to decorate Berea with a Super Bowl trophy. I'm not sure I will be able to celebrate that achievement under Watson as QB. I can see the NFL taking action now for 2022, and again if the civil suits go south, or more accusers keep showing up, for the 2023 season. I have often been disappointed in my Browns but never ashamed of them until this. Is it possible that by the time Watson plays we'll have first round picks again. Some brain trust. Chief Strategy Officer: DePodesta, did you see this coming? I have to tip my cap to Miami, who insisted they wouldn't move forward unless the cases were resolved. They chose to go with Tua, over the shitstorm that Watson would bring. It seems they may have been right. The cases aside, does anyone else get the feeling our Browns leadership got snookered, by Watson, who after telling them they were out, calls back and says you're back in. Did any of them stop to consider that just maybe Watson wasn't being courted so heavily anymore and that's why the Browns were back in? Did we outbid ourselves, not the other teams? Did we have to offer a fully guaranteed contract? Did we have to make year one, a protective 1 million dollar protective year? Was any other team offering either option, and if so at what price. This has dimmed my view of our leadership considerably. I simply don't believe we had to offer record setting guarantees and money, to land Watson. Of course I may be wrong, but I'm not feeling very generous towards our leadership today.
What if all 66 girls decide to get in on the case? Would the NFL ban him for a few years? Would there be a possibility for the Browns to recoup the rest of the picks that they traded for him? This really seems unfair for the Browns to pay for Houston’s problem.
From reports, there is a clause that would allow them out of the contract, but I would be extremely shocked if there is any recourse that would allow them to get the picks back from Houston. It would be unprecedented. NOW, the league could find the Texans at fault in some of this, especially now that the lawsuits are adding them as defendants. If they ado, they could penalize them by taking away draft picks, which ultimately could be those Browns picks they received in the deal… but I’m fairly certain that the Browns would not get them back if that happened. Pretty sure the league would want to punish the Browns for their part in all of this. If they voided the contract, the only punishment left would be for them to lose the draft picks they gave up in trade.
No I don’t believe so. The fact Atlanta lost Matt Ryan over this tells me they were all in on him as well. It might have been the two teams only all along. If anything I think Watson snookered Atlanta by getting them in the game. If reports are true, they weren’t in at all until he called to tell them he would like to play for his hometown team. He grew up in Gainesville, about 30 minutes from Atlanta. They were snug as a bug in a rug, then the Watson hurricane came through and now they have Marcus Mariota instead of Matt Ryan( but still paying $40M of Ryan’s contract in 2022).
I just thought of something else, this is how bad it could end up getting. Browns are set back several years if they void the contract. No firsts to get a starting QB. Forget about re-signing anymore of their own, no free agent will want any part of a Haslem owned team. Texans are setback a few years, No QB, lose all of the Browns compensation…but at least they would still have their original picks, which will be high picks. Falcons lose a couple of productive years from Ryan, but I think they were going rebuild anyway, so in the long run they aren’t getting hurt terribly. Watson might lose a couple years of paychecks, but as soon as this is over he would become a free agent and similar to Mike Vick, he will get his second chance at some point. In the end, I believe the Browns will sleep in their bed they made and at some point he plays for them. This is going to take a toll on Watson though and it wouldn’t surprise me if all these Browns supporters end up very disappointed in his play when it is all said and done. Mentally, he is going to be drug harder than he is now through the media once the trials begin.. and he doesn’t have any real incentive to play up to expectations since his contract is guaranteed. I had a bad feeling when the rumors came out the Browns were interested and that feeling just keeps getting worse.
I've considered the possibility of the Browns somehow getting out of the contract, but I didn't think about the draft picks. To lose out 3 first round picks (in three consecutive years), 2 thirds, and a fourth for no reason and then not have a QB would be a monumental fail. Yeah, Cleveland will ride out the Watson thing. Even if it's a full 1 or 2 year suspension, they just have to stick with it
Agreed here -- I don't think there's a way for them to recoup the picks. Houston sure seems like it may have been complicit in Watson's activities, but that would be hard to stick anything to them about somehow sabotaging another franchise. The NFL league office approves the trades and they'd have to be the ones to make that call. The leauge only cares about (1) making money, and (2) too much bad press. Eventually, they'll force the Browns and Watson to settle these lawsuits but I don't see them overturning trades.
I would think that if there is language in the trade with Houston that would allow Cleveland to get out of the deal in the event of previously unreported cases coming to light, that we'd be able to recoup the future picks. But who knows. I seriously doubt any of that happens... It would certainly be in the running for biggest fail ever.., The Browns are rolling with Watson, but I do think the 1 or 2 year suspension talk is just reckless speculation. Nobody knows what the punishment will be.
Everything posted by fans and not someone within the organization or at the very least press with a good contact, is reckless speculation. Without being in the room, you will never have the information needed to make a statement that could be considered viable. However, with each passing day and new light on information coming out, the league has more pressure put on them. The Texans franchise is now being added to the lawsuits, next it is very plausible that the league and possibly the Browns will be as well since the Texans insist both the NFL and Browns knew all the facts before the trade happened. I certainly don't think the Browns can be held liable for any compensation, but it wouldn't surprise me if the victims could get compensation from the Texans and the league, depending on what can be proven about knowledge and at what point that knowledge was used... for instance, has the league AT ANY POINT OF EXISTENCE issued a memo alerting teams to blank non-disclosure agreements? If so, they are now complicit, if the Texans did in fact offer Watson the hotel rooms and give him blank NDAs... This could get even uglier than it already is in a matter of weeks.
I wish we had a crew like that weekly, rather than having to deal with some of the national media on gameday..
It's definitely speculation, but I don't know if it's reckless given the precedent that's been set. Ben got a 6 game suspension off of two allegation. Just 2. Yeah it was appealed and reduced to 4, but the initial suspension was still 6 games. How do they give Watson less than a year at this point with 12 times more allegations, and possibly more coming out? And now the NY times did an investigation that found how he's had 66 different massage therapists in a 17 month period while also writing another article (posted about an hour ago) saying how the Watson case will test the NFL's values. The league will have to save face as best as they can. The longer a suspension takes, the longer the suspension will be. I'd be surprised if it's not at least a year at this point.
Keep in mind the MLB gave Bauer two years. The league is all about its optics and the last thing it will want is to look like it takes this kind of stuff less serious than baseball. I actually thing Josh Gordon's situation is a likely parallel. A one year suspension with a series of requirements to be met and then ending up on the Commissoner's exempt list for the following year and needing to apply for reinstatment. I would think counseling and the settlement of the lawsuits would all be part of the conditions to be met. It would ultimately end up being about a two year suspension just based on where we are in the process.
Each case is going to be different. In the case of Roethlisberger, there were two allegations. One was dropped, the other he wasn't charged for. That is when the NFL suspended him for 6 games, later dropped to 4 games. THEN the civil suit came out, which he settled. The NFL had already suspended him for the same issue, so the only thing I can think of is they felt they couldn't punish him twice for the same thing. In THIS case, it is an ongoing issue that will not be resolved in the court before next year. Unless, all of a sudden there is a change of heart and Watkins side decides to settle this case in the next month or so, the NFL will have to go off of what is currently present. That is where I could see the indefinite suspension take place based on new information coming out, what seems to be monthly.
Watson got a fat contract from the Browns, but I doubt he has enough money right now to settle all these allegations. If you guys have any silver lining in this it would be the cap money available if he is off the team. Players will sign with the Browns because they have the money available to spend.
