Watson Ranks Sixth Among NFL's Best Deep Passers

One of the knocks on Deshaun Watson coming out of Clemson was his accuracy, especially on deep passes.

There was a belief from some scouts and analysts that Watson didn't have the best vision and didn't always have good enough ball placement downfield. It left some pundits heading into the 2017 NFL Draft to downgrade Watson to non-first-round selection.

However, the Houston Texans traded up in that draft and took him at No. 12 overall. Three years into his career, Watson is in the franchise's long-term plans after making the playoffs and the Pro Bowl the last two seasons.

On his way to becoming one of the young bright stars of the NFL, Watson has greatly improved that weakness and was recently ranked by NFL.com as the sixth-best deep passer in the league in 2019.

Based on the metric "completion percentage above expectation, which is the difference between a quarterback's actual completion percentage and expected completion percentage," here's what NFL.com wrote about his ability:

Might we introduce you to Will Fuller? Watson really enjoyed going deep in 2019, so much that he attempted a deep pass on 14 percent of his throws in 2019 (fifth-highest in the NFL). With Fuller on the field, he has attempted a deep pass on 17 percent of his throws since 2017 (as opposed to 11 percent with Fuller off of it). He's also completed 43.2 percent of deep passes with Fuller on the field since 2017 (as opposed to 34.3 percent with Fuller off it). Watson enjoyed playing with DeAndre Hopkins, but he really needed Fuller to blow the top off the defense. Unfortunately, he only had Fuller for 11 games in 2019, meaning his tendency to air it out had to be directed toward someone else. That didn't limit Watson, who still let it fly with more ambition than any other passer on this list, dropping seven DIMES while finishing as the only quarterback in this group to break the average air yards mark of 30 (30.4). It will be interesting to see how Hopkins' departure affects this output in 2020.

Watson completed 41.2 percent of his deep passes, which ranked fifth on the list. His expected completion percentage of 34.6 was third overall, making his differential of +6.6 sixth.

Only Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady and Kyler Murray had a better overall number than Watson.

Right on the money.@deshaunwatson DEEP to @KSTiLLS.#HOUvsIND pic.twitter.com/6HV8FUnevg
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) October 20, 2019

Fuller, as noted by NFL.com, played a huge role in Watson's improvement. When he's on the field and healthy, the Texans are a big-play offense. In 2020, though, they'll have to find a way to be both efficient and explosive without former Clemson receiver Hopkins, who was traded to the Arizona Cardinals in the offseason.

Hopkins has been Watson's favorite target the last three seasons, and his intermediate route-running helped spring others for big plays down the field. Watson completed 67.8 percent of his passes for 3,852 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2019.