My Look at Deshaun Watson’s Fantasy Value
Alright, let’s get into what I did today regarding Deshaun Watson and his fantasy football prospects. It’s something I’ve been meaning to tackle because, honestly, figuring out his value this year feels like a real puzzle.
So, first thing I did was just sit down and pull up his game logs from last season. Didn’t need fancy analytics right away, just wanted to see the raw numbers. You know, touchdowns, interceptions, yardage, completion percentage. Man, looking at those games back-to-back, it wasn’t pretty. The rust was obvious, more than I even remembered.
Then, I started thinking about the context. Why were the numbers so rough? Obviously, the long layoff was huge. Hard for anyone to jump back in like that. But I also started digging into the Browns’ offense during that stretch. What were they running? How did the play-calling look? I remember watching some of those games live, and it felt… clunky. Disconnected. It wasn’t just Watson, the whole operation seemed off.
Next step was looking forward. Okay, bad year, acknowledged. What’s different now? This involved checking out news reports, coaching comments, and any little bits coming out of OTAs or early camp buzz. Is he healthy? That shoulder thing last year was a big deal. Reports seem mostly positive on the recovery front, but you always take that with a grain of salt until you see it on the field.
I also spent some time looking at the team around him.
- Did they improve the offensive line? Seems okay, maybe some depth added.
- What about the receivers? They traded for Jerry Jeudy, which is interesting. Adds another weapon alongside Amari Cooper and Elijah Moore. David Njoku is still a solid tight end.
- New offensive coordinator, Ken Dorsey. Okay, this is a big one. I looked back at what Dorsey did in Buffalo. High pass volume, liked to push the ball downfield. Does that fit Watson’s old strengths? Yeah, potentially. That got my attention.
So, I started putting the pieces together in my head. You’ve got a guy with undeniable past elite talent. You’ve got a potentially better offensive system for passing. You’ve got decent weapons. And he should, theoretically, be healthier and further removed from the rust.
But then the flip side kicks in. We haven’t seen that elite talent consistently in years. The shoulder is still a question mark, no matter the reports. And adapting to a new OC isn’t always seamless. There’s risk baked in here, a lot of it.
My process then shifted to risk vs. reward. Where is he being drafted in mocks? What’s the cost? Right now, he’s going in that QB2 range, sometimes late QB1 depending on the draft. At that price, the potential reward – a return to top-tier QB play – is tempting.
So after going through all that – looking back, checking the current situation, considering the coaching changes, and weighing the risk – here’s kinda where I landed for my own leagues: Watson is a high-upside gamble. I’m not banking on him as my locked-in QB1 from Week 1. But as a second quarterback with the potential to explode? Yeah, I’m interested at the right price. It feels like a calculated risk worth considering, especially if you pair him with a safer, floor-play QB early on. That was my takeaway from digging into it today.
