It is entirely possible that, after two surgeries to repair an injured Achilles tendon and two draft picks used in an effort to replace him, Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson still manages to find his way back on the field here in 2025. Cleveland guaranteed all of the $230 million in Watson’s contract, after all, and pushed back enough of his salary in salary-cap gymnastics that there really isn’t much to lose by letting Watson play again.
As of now, his return is still in doubt. He began the season on the the Physically Unable to Perform list (PUP) and by NFL rule, any player on the PUP list can have their practice window opened, which allows them to return to the field. The team then has three weeks to activate the player, and if he’s still not healthy, he goes back on the PUP for the remainder of the season.
Watson would need to pass medical exams before he can return to practice. On Wednesday, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski was asked about Watson’s potential return, a topic he clearly does not like addressing, and said, “I don’t have an update there.”
Watson, though, does have an update. Sort of. He posted photos of himself this week working out at the Browns facility, and throughout the process of his rehab, multiple reports have surfaced suggesting he intends to return to play.
Watson captioned his workout photos: “Be READY! More GLORY.”
Whether the Browns are ready for Watson is another story. Last week, Browns beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot said on the “Orange and Brown Talk” podcast that it is Watson’s intent to get back on the field this season–even if the Browns prefer to ignore him altogether.
“From people I talk to, he feels like he can come in and be successful with this football team,” she said. “So, I don’t know if he will get that chance, I have no idea if he will get that chance. He is like, he who shall not be named, nobody wants to talk about him. Nobody wants to answer a question about him. And we really don’t know.”
As things stand, the Browns are fully committed to Dillon Gabriel as the quarterback, despite his decidedly poor showing through five starts. Gabriel has completed only 58.6% of his passes and is averaging just 170.0 yards passing per game, for a rating of 80.4. At Pro Football Focus, Gabriel has notched a grade of 49.9, which ranks 37th out of 37 graded quarterbacks this season.
On Wednesday, in addition to being asked about Deshaun Watson, Stefanski was peppered with questions about Gabriel’s inaccuracy, even on short and intermediate throws. He has completed just two of his eight deep passes all season, and is just 17-for-42 (40.5%) on passes between 10-19 yards.
Said Stefanski: “I would just caution to any quarterback, young and old – you’re going to miss throws. It’s an occupational hazard that you’re likely not going to go 100% completion percentage. It’s an occupational hazard that a corner is going to get beat deep every once in a while. So, you’re not going to make every throw.”
We came into this Tennessee Titans season with plenty of notions that weren’t accurate. It’s hard to predict such a tumultuous year with detailed accuracy. But one thing that was pretty unanimously understood is that the best player on this roster was Jeffery Simmons.
Ten weeks in, and there’s even less doubt about that now. He has been incredible, both on and off the field. And that’s why the leaders of this organization were truthfully adamant at the trade deadline that he was not available to the rest of the league. He’s evolved into exactly the kind of cornerstone a franchise in peril badly needs, and it’s made him priceless.
Simmons trimmed down this offseason in an effort to protect his longevity and also push his chips in on rushing the passer. The team knew they’d need him to be a dominant force in the interior pass rush based on the lackluster talent they had along the edge, and that’s exactly what he’s been. In seven starts he has 4.5 sacks, 11 QB hits, 8 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. If you want a visual representation of how dominant he’s been as a pass rusher, consider this chart:
The only hiccup of any sort has been the hamstring injury Simmons suffered in Week 7 that’s forced him to miss the past two games. And while the team hasn’t committed to when exactly he’ll return following the bye, if you follow Simmons on social media you know that the man himself sounds like he plans on coming back this week.
Somebody sounds fresh! Hopefully he is, because the Titans need him back badly. Without him, this defense lacks an identity right now. I also desperately want to see what a non-rookie T’Vondre Sweat and peaking Jeffery Simmons look like on the field together. I have a feeling it’ll be fun to watch.
The revelatory nature of the season Simmons is having goes beyond the playing field, though. In fact, I’ve been more impressed by what I’ve seen and heard about Big Jeff off the field this year than on it.
At every turn, his teammates, coaches, and executives have heaped the highest praise on him as both a player and leader. The latest instance of this came after the trade deadline, when GM Mike Borgonzi explained why the team never considered moving their most valuable trade asset:
“I want to highlight Jeff Simmons,” Borgonzi said. “Jeff has been tremendous. Jeff was a player that came to this league and they were winning and he’s gone through some losing seasons here right now. And I communicate with Jeff a lot and Jeff is a big part of why we’re going to turn this thing around here. He is. He’s one of the better players in the league and his leadership with these young guys has been tremendous.”
At what felt like the lowest point of the season in the moment—the end of the Cardinals game before a truly miraculous comeback—I tweeted that I wouldn’t hold it against Simmons one bit if he tried to force his way off this team. I still wouldn’t, for the record. I’m big on loyalty and the honor in building something yourself, but there comes a reasonable breaking point in every situation. There’s a fine line between loyalty and hard work, and plainly wasting the career of a great player.
But Simmons hasn’t asked out, not once. He’s not divorced from what’s going on, aloof or disinterested. By all accounts, he’s invested in fixing this franchise. And that’s admirable in and of itself.
“He’s a pillar here in this organization for what you want, and he’s one of the best players in the league at his position,” Borgonzi continued. “The way he works every day of practice, I don’t know if I’ve seen a defensive lineman superstar like him just empty the tank every day at practice. It’s impressive. And when your best player does that and younger guys look to him, that’s what you want. That’s what I’m talking about, being a standard.”
At the beginning of his career, I felt that Simmons’ explosion onto the scene as one of the league’s most dominant interior linemen led to fans expecting equivalent leadership from him that simply wasn’t there. He was being held up against the leadership standard to end all standards, Kevin Byard. And the franchise seemed to encourage this notion that Simmons was a sage veteran leadership presence early on with the way they talked about and marketed him. Simmons simply wasn’t that guy then, and I didn’t think he ever would become that guy if I’m being honest. None of this is to say he was secretly some selfish guy, a bad influence, or a problem in the locker room. No, of course not. But there are plenty of players in this league, some of them incredible talents, who are perfectly fine people but aren’t actually top-shelf leaders.
Then Simmons went through a pair of seasons in 2023 and 2024 where he wasn’t meeting his own superstar standard on the stat sheet, and it led to a strange narrative place with fans and media. Everybody understood how good he is, but since he was slightly underachieving statistically and still wasn’t quite the ultimate leader many had the misguided notion he was, there was discontent.
Now in 2025, he’s back to his full superstar ways on the field. But the more impressive thing he’s done is taken the mantle of leadership in a dramatic way. He’s taken the leap. When people in this organization say he’s been an invaluable leader in the locker room, they mean it. He knows he’s the man in that locker room now, that it’s either him or nobody. No one else has the cache as a superstar, the tenure as a Titan, and the years served in the league that he does. And he’s responded to that reality as well as you could ask for if you’re Tennessee. He’s become the model, veteran face of a franchise that desperately needs that life preserver. And it’s why the front office is holding onto him, tightly.