Jarvis Landry Shares Wild Story About Deshaun Watson’s Decision To Join Browns

Jarvis Landry was once considered the premier slot receiver in the NFL, while playing for the Cleveland Browns from 2018 to 2021.

Deshaun Watson was once considered the team’s first true franchise quarterback in decades, after the Browns surrendered three first round picks, a third-rounder, and two fourth rounders in order to acquire him from the Houston Texans in 2022.

Although they never played together in Cleveland, they were close to becoming teammates on another franchise in 2022, according to Landry and former Jacksonville Jaguars running back, Leonard Fournette... before the Browns stepped in.

Appearing together on the “4th And South Pod”, the former LSU Tigers recalled the time they were close to becoming teammates for the first time, as Landry and Fournette didn’t get to play together in Baton Rouge.

Apparently, Watson was the mastermind orchestrating a move to have all three stars on the same NFL roster.

How Deshaun Watson, Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette were close to becoming teammates

“We have a crazy a-- story,” recounted Fournette. “It is me, Mr. Jarvis Landry and Deshaun Watson on the phone. Deshaun is like, ‘You know, I’m thinking of going to Atlanta.’ That’s perfect. So I’m like, ‘Alright well listen, keep us in touch. Let us know what you’re gonna do.’ But my man left us high and dry. I wanted to cry. I should be a rapper, huh?”

Landry then gave his version of the story, basically explaining the same events.

“I get a call from a random number. I didn’t answer the phone. Then, I get a text, and he’s like ‘Yo, it’s D4.’ And I'm like ‘D4?’ So I call him back and it’s Deshaun. Obviously at this time he’s hot in the media, being that his case got dropped, and that his return to the league is happening.

“We talk for like 15 minutes about Atlanta. Next thing you know bro, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m with it.’ I’m like ‘I know somebody else who’s probably with it, too.’ So he’s like ‘Well, let’s start a group text.’

“I’m on the phone at this point for the next three or four days, every day with [former Falcons head coach] Arthur Smith. And he’s telling me how he’s gonna be using me. And my agent’s in on it, too. I’m about ready to book a flight. We even planned where we were gonna have dinner at.

“I wake up the next day, bags packed, driver coming through the gate: ‘Breaking News, Deshaun Watson’s signing with the Cleveland Browns.”

Fournette then said he confronted Watson about backing off from the Atlanta plan.

“I called A.S.A.P. I said ‘What the f---?’ I said, ‘Hold on, wasn’t he supposed to let us know?’ But he did text us and apologize. I appreciated that, it means a lot. But, Atlanta Falcons, what if?”.

Deshaun Watson with @God_Son80 and @_fournette on the Falcons… What If? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/PtxaSfT3S3
— 4th and South (@4thAndSouthPod) March 11, 2026

While it’s perfectly valid for Fournette to ask the Falcons’ fans “What if?”, had they been afforded the chance to line up together in Atlanta, the “What if?” for Browns fans seems bigger.

What if Cleveland never swoops in with that massive offer for Houston, and Deshaun Watson never gets traded to the Browns?

What if Cleveland never has to surrender all those draft picks, nor has to commit 230 million fully guaranteed over the next five years to a quarterback that has appeared in only 19 games over the past four years, with a 9-10 record? What if that contract never needs a restructure that will keep him on the Browns’ books for the 2027 and 2028 seasons through void years with a combined cap charge of close to $85 million, even if Watson is off the team by the end of the 2026 campaign?

I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say that Browns’ fans would have loved for Watson to have chosen Atlanta back in 2022, with or without Landry and Fournette.