Deshaun Watson to miss rest of season
By Jared Smola |
Updated on Wed, 15 Nov 2023, 12:17 PM EST
Browns QB Deshaun Watson suffered a right-shoulder injury in Sunday's win over the Ravens that will end his season. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports that it's a "displaced fracture in his right glenoid." Watson will have surgery, and he's expected to fully recover. That should mean he's ready in plenty of time for the start of 2024. For the rest of 2023, however, this means Browns pass catchers will see decreased efficiency. Watson hasn't been having a terrific season, but he leads P.J. Walker by wide margins in completion rate, TD rate, passer rating, QBR and Pro Football Reference's adjusted net yards per pass attempt. Walker's three games as primary QB so far this year have each included at least 8 targets for lead WR Amari Cooper. The wideout delivered quality receiving lines -- 4-108 and 6-89 -- in two of them but struggled against the Colts in between and has yet to catch a TD from Walker. Cooper caught just 44.4% of his targets over those three contests, compared with 64.4% across the other six. And that number rises further if you remove the Week 4 start for rookie QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson (6 targets, 1 catch). The remaining five games have found Cooper catching 71.8% of his targets. Losing Watson hurts Cooper. TE David Njoku, on the other hand, might be least impacted. He averaged 4.0 receptions and 51.7 yards across those three Walker games vs. 4.3 receptions and 37.0 yards per game in the other six. We have updated our Week 11 rankings and are updating the rest-of-season rankings as well.