A former NFL quarterback and current analyst has been counting down who he sees as the top quarterbacks in the league ahead of the 2023 season.

Chris Simms is revealing his annual top 40 QB countdown and recently ranked former Clemson star Deshaun Watson as the NFL’s ninth-best signal-caller entering the upcoming campaign. Watson was ranked No. 13 on Simms’ list last year.

Simms – the NBC Sports analyst who was a third-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2003 NFL Draft and played eight NFL seasons — believes Watson is still a “superstar” despite a rusty return to the field last season following a lengthy layoff.

Watson made his long-awaited return to the field last season after sitting out the entire 2021 season and then serving an 11-game suspension to begin 2022 for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. In six games with the Cleveland Browns, he completed 58.2 percent of his passes for 1,102 yards and seven touchdown passes with five interceptions.

The three-time Pro Bowler now heads into his first full season with the Browns. He was traded from the Houston Texans to the Browns in March 2022 before receiving a fully guaranteed five-year contract worth $230 million.

“Yeah, there’s some unknown,” Simms said. “But, let me just tell you what I do know – he’s a superstar. That’s what he is. He’s a superstar who’s rusty, and I’m betting on the superstar to come back this year.

“He was tough in this ranking, because you go back and watch the film, it’s not all perfect. Of course, he’s not perfect. But the things he has to fix, one, I’ve seen him do those things at a high level before, and two, my experience of playing the position, being around the league my whole life and all that, are he’s just got to get playing again, get back on the bike a little bit. That’s all it is. But man, his skills and tool set, it’s superstar.”

You can check out Simms’ full commentary on Watson beginning around the 55:30 mark of the following video:

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