Browns' Loss to Steelers Confirms One Undeniable Truth About Deshaun Watson

As the Cleveland Browns came crashing back to Earth, courtesy of a 27-6 spanking by the Pittsburgh Steelers at Accrisure Stadium on Sunday, a few things became crystal clear regarding the club and its now 5-3 record start to the regular season.

The reasons for the team’s second loss in four weeks can be traced to many things. Among them, a multitude of flags iuncluding two taunting penalties while trailing by 21 points, a mesmerizing incapability to establish the run game, and a general lack of pressure on Pittsburgh's offense.

However, one thing really stood out above all else as the Browns now attempt to gather themselves for a third road trip in as many weeks: Deshaun Watson cannot be the team’s quarterback in 2027 and beyond.

Listen, everyone can reasonably accept that Cleveland’s latest rebuild endeavour might take more than one year after the club replaced head coach Kevin Stefanski with Todd Monken, even if the Browns have hit multiple home runs on two straight draft classes.

But one thing has become evident after Week 8’s disappointing outing, one that included eight sacks on Watson: the Browns will need another quarterback to complete this comeback.

Now, the offensive line was going to be a work in progress throughout the year. Watson wasn’t. At least that’s what the team has been telling us repeatedly since he was inserted into a two-way competition for the starting job, and then again when he was designated winner of said competition over Shedeur Sanders.

Watson’s experience would help mitigate some of the issues that naturally arise on a budding young team. And an offensive line with five new starters, including two rookies playing out of their most recent college spots was going to need all the help it could get.

It’s getting zilch out of Watson.

Because Watson plays the position in a similar way as he does his pressers, he lacks general awareness of what’s going on around him. That commonly leads to dropbacks out of the shotgun where Watson ends up with 11 to 13 yards of depth, which in turn leads to the tackles getting beat constantly.

Watch Tytus Howard throw up his arms several times out of frustration.

Watson takes a 7-step drop out of the shotgun. At the top of his drop he is 13 yards from the line of scrimmage. It's impossible to block the edges when a QB does this. pic.twitter.com/uyZaBuMwL5
— Roberto Shenanigans (@Rob_Shenanigans) November 3, 2026

Out of Watson’s eight sacks on Sunday, at least five of them came on plays where Watson’s deep dropback contributed to the outcome. On at least three of those sacks, he had more than 2.5 seconds to get rid of the ball, and he didn’t.

Another consequence of Watson’s deep dropbacks is that tackles are then forced to hold defenders in order to avoid a hit on the passer. That happened at least a couple of times against Pittsburgh on Sunday.

And to make things worse, Watson’s tendency to drop back so deep is so easily detectable, that you could see the Steelers’ edge rushers pinning their ears back and targeting that range around 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage because they knew that’s where they would find the quarterback.

Watson didn’t actually trim his dropback and speed up his delivery until about six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Even so, he was still sacked a couple more times, with Watson feeling outside pressure and then stepping into the sack on the inside.

But Watson’s issues go further than just making life miserable for his tackles. He also had two grossly overthrown passes, two one-hoppers, and two passes batted down at the line of scrimmage as part of a performance that did, however, manage to cover up some of the blunders with plenty of garbage-time yards.

What’s next for the Browns at the quarterback position?

As much as Browns fans might want to see the team make a splash before the trade deadline, options aren’t really that great out there. Having said that, there are several names that could be had that are currently playing better than Watson, with Kirk Cousins at the top of that list.

Nonetheless, that’s not a long-term solution either, so there’s a good chance the Browns will ride 2026 out with Watson and his plethora of sacks, and then look to the draft to pick out a passer from a once very promising class that’s now shrinking on a weekly basis.

Cleveland wanted an experienced passer capable of bringing along all the young offensive talent on the roster slowly. Instead, Watson turned into a sack magnet. Now, the Browns should take a different approach, one where a young and talented quarterback gets to grow alongside the rest of the offensive pieces already in place.

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