ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith weighed in on Deshaun Watson tearing his Achilles again.
Smith gave his reaction to the news this past week that Watson tore his Achilles tendon for the second time, less than three months after he initially tore it.
The Cleveland Browns quarterback and former Clemson star underwent another surgery on Thursday to repair it and “will likely miss significant time” during the 2025 season.
“Let me say this – first of all, I wish him nothing but good health,” Smith said of Watson. “I’m not rooting against the brother. He’s been through a lot. A lot of it’s self-inflicted, we don’t need to go there. But it was good to see him on the field ready to do what he’s supposed to do.
“And then he played, and he didn’t look good. Maybe he needs the whole year off to get his act together so he can get back to being the football player we once saw him. … He looked so bad playing the game of football — that brother needs to be 100 percent on every level in order to get back to what we saw in Houston years ago.”
Watson, who was placed on IR on Oct. 22 after his original tear, completed 63.4 percent of his passes for 1,148 yards and five touchdowns with three interceptions in seven games during the 2024 season. He also ran for 148 yards and another score on the ground.
A three-time Pro Bowler during his time with the Houston Texans, Watson has a 66.2 completion percentage for his career with 17,904 passing yards and 123 passing touchdowns with 48 interceptions in 73 career games with the Texans and Browns since being selected by Houston in the first round (12th overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft.
The re-tear of his Achilles is the latest setback for Watson, who has faced plenty of adversity in recent seasons, on and off the field. He played in just six games in his first season with Cleveland in 2022 after having to serve a suspension and then was limited to just six games in 2023 and seven in 2024 due to injury.
In March 2022, Watson signed a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract with the Browns after being traded to Cleveland from the Texans, and he is still owed $92 million fully guaranteed over the next two seasons.
In late September, Smith said he was rooting for Watson but also “disgusted” with his performance on the field.
“I’m very disgusted with Deshaun Watson. Here’s why — because I root for the brother. I want the man to succeed,” Smith said. “I remember what I saw in Houston with the Texans. … And before all of the salacious nonsense came out into the public eye, we looked at that brother in Houston, and even though they got romped in a playoff game against Kansas City when Patrick Mahomes and them scored like 41, 42 straight points on them or whatever, we saw a dude in Deshaun Watson that we said, ‘Other than Patrick Mahomes, who would you rather have?’ He literally was in that conversation because that’s how spectacular he was.
“I don’t know what the hell happened to him since that period of time. But the only thing we do know about him is that the cases against him went away, but so did his game. Because we ain’t seen that quarterback since he departed from Houston. But he got his bag though – $230 million guaranteed.””
–Photo courtesy Scott Galvin-Imagn Images