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Deshaun Watson is emerging as the No. 1 storyline of the Browns’ season

It’s been 579 days since Deshaun Watson received a shotgun snap, dropped back two short steps and buckled to the ground without contact.

Turning over on his knees, Watson pressed face-down on the ground with his hands wrapped on each side of his helmet, anguished by the numbing pain of a ruptured right Achilles tendon and another giant obstacle to a once-promising career thrown in front of him.

As Watson was carted off Huntington Bank Field, he cried into a towel covering his face. Some Browns fans who never accepted him as their team’s quarterback shamefully cheered his exit. Not the entire audience, but enough to be heard by players on the Browns’ sideline.

“We need to do better as fans for having some empathy for a man who’s doing the best he can, and did the best he can up to this point,” Myles Garrett said after the game. “No one deserves that. He plays the game as hard as anyone I’ve seen. Puts everything on the line, willing to throw his body out there and be there and he plays the game at 100 mph. There’s a risk that you can be injured, and he took that risk.”

Many believed that was the last Watson would be seen in a Browns uniform, that the team would eat the remaining two years on his fully-guaranteed $230 million contract and turn the page on a franchise-altering acquisition gone awry.

But after two surgeries on the Achilles tendon, after owner Jimmy Haslam attested the March, 2022 mega-trade for Watson was “a swing and a miss,” and after four quarterbacks were drafted by the Browns and two other veteran passers were acquired, Watson is on a path to reclaiming the starting job.

A comeback story in the making?

It is premature to say that Watson will be the Browns’ starting QB when they open the season on September 13 in Jacksonville, FL. It is only May.

The team has seven OTA practices, three in a mandatory minicamp, and then a full training camp, two joint practices with the Buffalo Bills, and three preseason games before Todd Monken presents his first official depth chart as Browns coach.

But Watson clearly is winning the confidence and respect of those who have seen him work his way back during 15 months of solitary physical – and mental – rehab. He’s been unseen, mostly, behind closed doors as the Browns plundered onward without him.

“I think it’s really cool,” Monken said after the team’s OTA practice on Wednesday. “Here’s a guy that at this point has made plenty of money – I think we all know that. He’s had plenty of success and has had disappointment in his career, a number of things he couldn’t control from an injury standpoint. But to come back and want to battle, want to further his career and change the narrative, I think it’s really cool.”

Changing the narrative

The narrative is that Watson should never have been acquired in the first place, after civil lawsuits filed by more than two dozen licensed massage therapists alleged sexual misconduct. The complaints resulted in an 11-game NFL suspension to start Watson’s career with the Browns. (All civil suits have been dismissed or settled.)

The narrative is that after playing only 19 of a possible 68 games for the Browns, Watson will never justify the trade and the unprecedented contract given him.

The narrative is that the trade cost of six overall draft picks, including first-rounders in three consecutive years – and the salary cap consequences of his contract — set back the franchise’s development for five-plus years.

The narrative is that playing Watson now, in the final year of his contract, will only stall the development of, and commitment to, Shedeur Sanders – arguably the team’s most popular player and Watson’s No. 1 competitor for the starting job.

But Monken’s arrival as new Browns coach might have been the best thing to happen to Watson in his five seasons in Cleveland. Monken doesn’t have the pre-conceived notions that blind fans from seeing the possibilities of a supremely athletic quarterback rediscovering a game that deserted him for six long years.

In March, Haslam said, “Deshaun has a great chance, [a] fresh start [with an] offensive-minded coach, who has, in his past, been able to work with all kinds of different quarterbacks and make him successful. So Deshaun has a great chance to do that now.”

Five weeks later, in an appearance on 850 ESPN Cleveland’s Really Big Show, J.W. Johnson, Browns managing partner, said, unprompted, “Deshaun looks great, by the way. He’s done a great job. He looks healthy. He’s in a great headspace. We’ll see how it all shakes out. There is an ongoing competition, but, you know, he’s got nothing to lose and if he’s our starting quarterback, I know there are people that probably won’t be supportive, but they need to be supportive as much as they can.”

During the offseason workouts which are now culminating in OTA practices, Monken, who was two-time MVP Lamar Jackson’s offensive coordinator the past three seasons in Baltimore, has marveled at Watson’s athletic ability.

“Deshaun’s athleticism shows up,” Monken said. “Obviously he’s had that, but he’s had injuries that have set him back. I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise, but it’s exciting to see. It’s a weapon for him. It’s one of his superpowers, his athleticism.”

It’s impossible to say whether Watson can pull off what may be one of the NFL’s most improbable comebacks. His last good season was 2020, when he led the NFL with 4,823 passing yards and tossed 33 touchdowns vs. 7 interceptions in his final season with the Houston Texans.

“The year before we signed him, he was the second-best quarterback in NFL,” Haslam said. “And then the suspension and the injuries and all that piled up. Can he come back from that? He certainly had the ability at one point in time, and we’re cautiously optimistic.”

Watson has not been heard from since the day of his career-altering injury on October 20, 2024.

The Browns top public relations executive has been sensitive to the potentially polarizing prospect of playing one of the franchise’s most despised – for lack of a better word – players ahead of one of its most popular players.

At some point soon, Watson will be exposed to media questions about his mindset, his feelings towards Browns fans who cheered his demise, his determination to reclaim his career.

There is always quarterback drama with the Browns. Right now, Deshaun Watson has become the No. 1 storyline of the 2026 season.

https://thelandondemand.com/grossi/...the-no-1-storyline-of-the-browns-season/

Did these guys claim Sanders was a first or second round pick in the 2025 draft too?

Yet it has had all of these things for a very long time now. I'm still not sure why nobody seems to address this. In June of 2025 after the initial bombing trump stated he had "obliterated Iran's nuclear capability". That he had set it back "many years if not decades".

Only eight months later he claimed they were on the verge of having a nuclear weapon.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been consistently warning that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon for over 30 years. Throughout this period, he has frequently stated that Iran is only months or a few years away from a bomb.

So considering they have had the materials to build a nuclear weapon for all that time and still haven't managed to do it. After having heard The Boy who Cried Wolf for decades now and considering we were told two entirely opposite stories within an eight month time period, color me skeptical.

I'll take the IAEA's word over Trump and Netanyahu. That is up to the point some knuckle head who simply wanted to undo anything "Obama" and cancelled it in a hissy fit. As I mentioned ... Netanyahu is on record (video, audio and print) over the last 20+ years continuously stating Iran is imminently close to having nuclear weapons - weeks or months away. As easy as you stated it is - funny how for 20+ years they just didn't finish it.


* And you side stepped the fact that Trump destroyed Iran's nuclear capability months ago with perfect airstrikes. "completely and totally obliterated" were his words. But now he's telling the truth.
* You also side stepped the global economic impact of this war that so far has not made anything safer. Not created regime change (unless you think the son of the Supreme Leader taking over is regime change).
* Instead you've pivoted to a discussion about how easy it is to make a nuke. Maybe you think that's a more important point - but I would disagree.

I don't think people really understand how (relatively) "easy" (with readily available technology Iran already has access to) it is to make a nuclear device. It's not some super complex, decade spanning process. The hard part is acquiring the (nuclear) materials. Once you have the materials, a device can come together fast. And since Iran already has a nuclear power plant, uranium enrichment facilities, and rockets....

This is the 1st time the Browns have had a HC who has a legit resume to justify his hiring
Hes 10x the offensive mind that Stiffanski was . And Monken wont have his favorite players
If you dont perform to his expectations, you watch from the sidelines
7 to 9 wins this year

The ironic part is that, when all is said and done, Trump will have done more to push EV's than Biden ever could.

As I said earlier, simple is the name of the game, especially if you plan on doing most of it yourself. Leave the complicated to the people who can afford personal secretaries, a team of accountants, and lawyers. Complicated takes a mental toll if you plan to do it yourself.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2026/04...he-iran-war-a-global-supply-chain-shock/

An OECD report in mid-March made a brave attempt to forecast the war impact on the global economy with a downside scenario of oil prices averaging $135/b in 2Q2026 and, although falling thereafter, remaining higher than before the war into 2027. This suggested that global GDP growth could slow from 2.9% to 2.6% in 2026 and from 3.0% to 2.5% in 2027.

But these forecasts could be underestimates depending on how long the war will last, if it escalates, or how it will end.

-------------------------

But it's okay because MAGA will convince themselves that THIS time Trump (and Netanyahu - who has said Iran was weeks away from a nuke for 20 years) was telling the truth.

https://didtrumpgolftoday.com/

Can't speak to the accuracy of that information ... but ... even if it's in the same ball park.

Priorities right?

In order for the Browns to win the North.they will need to have a QB possess
A QB rating of 90 or more.

Working on the ballroom.

How about we cede Maralumbago to Greenland? Throw Texas to Mexico, Florida to Cuba. We should charge him for naming rights.

President Trump To Don Jr. I've Known You a Long Time ... But I Might Be Too Busy For Your Wedding

President Trump won't commit to attending his own son's wedding.

Trump was asked Thursday about going to Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson's destination wedding in the Bahamas, and he told reporters he might be too busy to attend.

POTUS made it clear Don Jr. wants him there ... problem is, Trump says a Memorial Day Weekend wedding is not good timing for him ... what with the Iran War and all.

Trump says he's dealing with "other things" too that might keep him away from the wedding, which he described as a small, little private affair.

The Prez would only say he's going to try and make it ... but noted he would get killed by the "fake news" media no matter what he decides.

Bottom line for Trump ... Don Jr. is "a person I've known for a long time. Hopefully they're going to have a great marriage."

https://www.tmz.com/2026/05/21/donald-trump-will-attempt-to-attend-don-jrs-wedding/

But he's never too busy to golf!

Oil flows through Strait of Hormuz won’t return to normal until next year even if war ended tomorrow, warns energy boss

Full oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz are unlikely to resume before the first or second quarter of 2027, even if the current Middle East conflict were to end immediately, the chief of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil firm has warned.

Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of ADNOC, said it would take “at least four months to get back to 80% of ​pre-conflict ⁠flows” even if the conflict ended tomorrow, while full flows would not return before the first or even second quarter of 2027.

His stark assessment, delivered at an Atlantic Council event on Wednesday, represents one of the most pessimistic outlooks from top industry executives amid stalling efforts on both sides to secure a peace agreement.

The International Energy Agency has labelled the situation the "largest ever energy crisis" due to the near-closure of the strait, a vital chokepoint through which approximately a fifth of the world's oil supply passes. Iran has established de facto control over the waterway, leading to a surge in energy prices, heightened inflation, and growing fears of a global economic downturn.

Mr Al Jaber’s concerns echo those of Amin Nasser, chief executive of neighbouring Saudi Arabia's oil giant Aramco, who previously cautioned that the oil market might not recover until 2027 if the situation persists through mid-June.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Iran is solidifying its control over the strait through checkpoints, vetting procedures, and sometimes imposing fees. Tehran began attacking vessels in the strait to impose a de facto blockade after the ⁠US-Israeli assault against Iran began on 28 February.

Since then, Iran has broadened its definition of the waterway to encompass the UAE's Gulf of Oman coastline, just outside the strait. This area has become a crucial lifeline for the UAE, with a crude pipeline terminating at the port of Fujairah on that coastline, enabling some Emirati crude to reach international markets.

Mr Al Jaber emphasised the wider implications beyond economics. "This is not just an economic problem. In fact, this sets a dangerous precedent. Once you accept that a single country can hold the world's most important waterway hostage, freedom of navigation as we know it is just finished," he said.

Mr Al Jaber emphasised the wider implications beyond economics. "This is not just an economic problem. In fact, this sets a dangerous precedent. Once you accept that a single country can hold the world's most important waterway hostage, freedom of navigation as we know it is just finished," he said.

"If we don't defend this principle today, we will spend the next decade defending against the consequences."

The ADNOC chief highlighted the conflict's exposure of supply chain fragility, noting a 30 per cent rise in fuel prices, a 50 per cent increase in fertiliser costs, and airfares climbing by a quarter. He urged renewed investment to bolster global energy resilience.

He said: "Every farm, every factory, every family is paying the price, and the ones who are most vulnerable end up carrying the heaviest load."

Mr Al Jaber also pointed out that "just over 80 days into this conflict, almost 80 countries have now taken emergency measures to support their own economies."

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/oil-flows-strait-hormuz-won-112955901.html

Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump gets life sentence for child sex crimes

Andrew Paul Johnson promised one of his victims money he expected to receive from the Justice Department, authorities said.

A man pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack was sentenced to life in prison for child molestation and related crimes.

Andrew Paul Johnson was arrested in August, nine months after Trump pardoned him and hundreds of other Jan. 6 defendants for crimes ranging from low-level misdemeanors to felony charges like assaulting officer with deadly weapons.

Johnson, 45, was convicted last month of five charges, including molesting a child under 12 and another under 16, as well as transmitting harmful materials by electronic device to a minor.

He has been sentenced to life, according to the Office of State Attorney Bill Gladson of the Fifth Judicial Circuit in Florida.

Johnson told one of the victims that he would see a windfall from the government after his pardon and that he would put the victim in his will to take any leftover money, according to law enforcement.

Trump has discussed the possibility of taxpayer-funded payouts for Jan. 6 defendants. The Justice Department already gave out just under $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot as she jumped through a broken window leading into the House Speaker’s Gallery.

Another Jan. 6 defendant, Bryan Betancur, was arrested this week in connection with an assault and battery that occurred aboard a Metro train. Videos surfaced online that appeared to show him touching women's hair.

Over the weekend, another Jan. 6 defendant was arrested on suspicion of threatening one of the officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...ts-life-sentence-child-sex-cr-rcna261963

I wonder if they will put his CFR (Criminals For Trump) money on his commissary?

“These were peaceful people, these were great people.” - Trump

Hope it is better. We shoot 3s a lot. Best shot? Are we good enough to 2 for 20 and not change up the O? We seem to abandon what works, and die with it. I am stumped about who is getting minutes.

If you eliminate major costs you foresee while working, then things are simpler, so I agree. We have set up savings and investments every pay. We "practiced" budgeting before retirement while we only received one payday a month. We are comfortably set. More than that, we are happy with what we have; my wife is a blessing because we share priorities. The Shaker motto was good advice that smacks of Transcendentalism: "Simplify, simplify." Control what you can.

I don't disagree with a word you posted here.

To even compare this to "interest fee loans" is ludicrous. In this nation even in our justice system things are measured in degrees. These two events aren't even in the same ball park.

This is an outright and direct theft of taxpayer dollars. While an interest free loan doesn't add tax dollars it also doesn't steal tax dollars.

At that point it certainly becomes, at least to some degree a deflection. But as of late that's been the status quo.

All of those are fair points - especially regarding Richard Neal.

"The first part of the discussion is simple." - I think that says enough and I missed that this was your sentiment.

Personally, I find the characterization of immediate deflection to be misleading when I referred to the current situation as the "darkest" in the first sentence of my post. Is calling something the darkest normalizing?

It rubbed me the wrong way that a guy caught up in the "Rubbergate" scandal for effectively giving himself 88 (87?, sorry no coffee yet) interest free loans, Rep (D-MA) Richard Neal, complained about someone else turning the federal government into a personal racket, so I wrote one sentence on the hypocrisy and noted Republicans also are guilty (because I didn't want to appear that I was for that side). Plus, it feels like "our democracy" is more for politicians than us these days, so I was annoyed with a politician dropping the "our democracy" line.

It was a short, two sentence post (Because I'm already sick of PP and didn't want to take the time to leave a bunch of context for things to be taken out of, at the moment I was writing it) where I was disgusted with both Trump and the rest of DC.

The first part of the discussion is simple. So simple that I didn't feel the need to elaborate on it more than the half of the post I gave it.

One is screwed if they do or screwed if they don't in this forum. People seem to always be looking for something to be offended by rather than trying to understand what someone else is trying to say.

Having reached old age I can tell you.

You don't need as much as you once thought.

Your life becomes simpler. Your focus is narrower.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results! Applies to the financial markets and the Browns.

Good question and one I went through extensively recently!! The answer is complicated and had many variables.

I'm 57 (soon to add another digit to the total) - and retired last year. But ... I also moved to the UK 2+ years ago. There's this thing called National Health Service ... it makes the decision to retire so much easier to consider.

Other factors - as people have indicated: Housing costs. And not only housing costs - housing value. Is that a part of your 'net worth' ? Or are you only looking at the value of investments, 401K and what is in the bank? How much financial support do you need to provide for others - either parents as they age/slow down - or kids as they look to buy their first home, pay off college debts etc? And how lavish a life style do you want/need and how long for?

I've enough to comfortably get to 62 when I can start to draw soc sec. And if I don't touch soc sec - I have enough to get to 65-67 without touching my 401K. But with 2 kids still at home - my wife and I aren't traveling or letting rip. The wife is still working for that reason. And we both come from a upbringing of never buying anything on credit, paying off credit cards each month and living within your means.

Now - if we still lived in the USA and had to buy health insurance? We'd still be okay but I would not feel like it. No matter the math and logic, I'd be worried and I'd probably want to keep working till I was into my 60's "just in case".

Hypothetically at 55 in the USA - assuming the wife was also retiring - and figuring (guessing) $12-14K a year for health insurance. House paid off. Net worth excluding the value of the house. I think $2M would allow me to spend $100K+ a year without concern and still have a large nest egg when I hit 65-67.

I agree 88.

Wrong is wrong Red or Blue.

This is blatantly wrong. It hurts just to read that it happened.

I have an inherent distrust of politicians. Corruption and greed is their way of life.

trump has taken it to a level I would have never expected could happen.

Jan 6th is something I thought I would never see in the US. It still makes me sick.