Cleveland Browns trade for Deshaun Watson, will pay him $230 million

[True Dough]

12. It's funny you should ask, Auggie

because Andrew Berry gave me a call yesterday and asked whether the organization should pull the trigger on this deal. I gave him the green light.




Seriously, I feel like the 20-1 odds that you cited would be reasonable for this season. I suspect that the league is going to hand Watson a stiff suspension for all of his transgressions -- something in the 8 to 10 game range. So we could be looking at up to 10 games with Case Keenum as the starter (because, let's face it, Mayfield is now going to be traded and hopefully the Browns get something decent in return).

So Watson returns for the latter half of the season and Cleveland may be sitting at 5-5 by that point. It's going to take a while for him to get some chemistry, so we can expect some missed passes, fumbles and broken plays for a while. But they should make the playoffs and maybe even make a deep run if they jell. And, don't forget, they were a top 5 defense last season and that shouldn't fall off. They're very good on that side of the ball already.

Now, I haven't looked up the contract status of their running backs (Chubb, Hunt and D'Ernest Johnson, who was a pleasant surprise in his few starts last season). If they retain two of those three next season and Watson and Amari Cooper light things up and the D remains rock solid, you're looking at a real Super Bowl contender.

They are not that far off! I'm way more optimistic than you are -- but it's easier for me because I haven't been cheering for them through decades of futility and frustration.