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Watson Byes

 The musical chairs at Quarterback continued with the Cleveland Browns morally bankrupt acquisition of Desean Watson, accused of inappropriate sexual behavior.  Don’t get me wrong… It was OK for the Browns to pursue him based on the premise of innocent till proven guilty and everyone who pays their debt to society deserves a 2nd chance.  It was even OK for the Browns to give him the largest FULLY GUARANTEED contract in NFL history (five years, 230 million).  What was NOT OK was the Brown organization allowing Watson to avoid financial consequences of any actions he might be held accountable for by making the first year of his contract a very small amount of the total.  Intentionally structuring the contract to avoid penalties of guilt is a heinous act by the organization.  This marginalizes not only the Browns but the entire NFL in terms of organizational morality. 

In Football terms, the Browns clearly took the best “available” QB (other potential options included Jimmy Garoppolo or Matt Ryan via trade, Jameis Winston via free agency, or an anticipated unexciting rookie QB class led at the position by Kenny Pickett and Malik Willis.  Draft capital cost was high… 3 first round picks, a third rounder and a fourth rounder for Watson and a fifth round pick… AND  financial cost was high… five year deal guaranteeing Watson averages 46M / year.  The Watson led offense will co-star Amari Cooper, David Njoku, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, quite a supporting cast.  Watson has had great success per his passing statistics, but will now need to translate it into Wins.  And the QB market has changed dramatically for players like Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Justin Hebert, Kyler Murray and possibly Jalen Hurts (if he can succeed like those peers).

Eagles Lessons: The contract structure appears a moral bridge too far… not worth it to sell the organizational soul and stain its honor.  The Eagles will be best served moving forward with a better (Watson-less) face of the organization, likely Jalen Hurts, who certainly appears to be a great person.  Honor is paramount.  

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