What started off as a trade over DeShaun Watson being unhappy with the front office quickly became so much more. From one allegation to almost thirty allegations against Mr. Watson involving sexual misconduct and now we sit here with an eleven game suspension and an uproar on our free sports betting picks for the Cleveland Browns over/under win total.
Watson, who was drafted by the Houston Texans in 2017, had a career year in 2020 in which he threw for almost 5,000 yards, 33 TD and only 7 INTs seemingly out of nowhere requesting a trade from the Texans believed to be over unhappiness with management decisions from the front office.
In 2019, Watson signed a massive (Although nothing compared to the one he has now) contract extension coming into the 2020 season worth $156 million for four years. $111 million of it fully guaranteed and yet again falling far short of his guaranteed money in his new contract.
The Bombshell Drops
Then came the bombshell. After the 2020 season and a brand new massive contract that didn’t even kick in yet, Watson demanded a trade, which was nothing compared to what came next. Twenty-eight sexual allegations againt DeShaun Watson and in dis defense has maintained his innocence being back up by the legal system who didn’t prosecute him with criminal charges but has reached cival settlements with all but 2 of the alleged sexual assault victims.
Then in the midst of all this going on, another bombshell drops. Watson, decided to sign with the Cleveland Browns over multiple teams including the New Orleans Saints and his hometown team Atlanta Falcons. The Browns who were ruled out of the sweepstakes signed Watson to a record breaking contract just a few days later. Watson’s contract with the Browns was worth an astronomical $230 million over five years and all fully guaranteed. This is $80 million more than the previous record of guaranteed money which belonged to Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills. Allen in the last two postseasons has as many wins as Watson had his entire 2020 campaign.
Then, after two years in the making, the drama came to a conclusion, Watson was suspended six games by an independent judge who said Watson deserved more but she could only give him six games because of the NFL guidelines. NFL commissioner Roger Goddell, of course appealed and later an eleven game suspension was agreed upon and now here we are.
The Impact on The Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans
The Houston Texans after Watson’s trade request went from being favorites to win the AFC South to Vegas setting their total wins for 2021 at 4.5 and the same this year.Once, again, even with DeShaun Watson playing in 2020 and having a career year, the Texans only won four games, the same amount of games the Texans won this year. I’ll take the over on the Texans win total at 4.5. Houston started off with a bang last blowing out the Jaguars and first round pick Trevor Lawrence and were en route to do the same to none other than the Cleveland Browns and Baker Mayfield who Watson took over for, but a injury to Tyrod Taylor who was 10/11, 125 yds, TD took him out of the game.
The betting market for the Cleveland Browns has been all over the place and currently sits at 8.5. During the announcement of his six game suspension, the Browns win total went up to 10.5 and to pat myself on the back, I quickly jumped on the under at that number knowing his six game suspension wasn’t going to last.
At 8.5 with an eleven game suspension, give me the under for the Browns in a strong division. The Cincinnati Bengals who are coming off a SuperBowl appearance and with any type of offensive line probably would’ve won the SuperBowl and guess what they did this year, solidified their offensive line. The Baltimore Ravens are going to be right there and depending on how Marcus Peters comes back after his ACL injury last could be the best defense in the NFL.
