Coming in at #12 is Deshaun Watson.
There has been an insane amount of drama surrounding star QB Deshaun Watson for the past two and a half years-three years. Watson was drafted by the Texans in 2017, and in four seasons he established himself as easily a top ten QB. Watson earned three straight Pro Bowls from 2018-2020 and led the Texans to the playoffs twice.
2020 is where the Texans and Watson started to fall off a cliff. Then Texans' head coach Bill O'Brien, and the Texans front office overall, irked Deshaun due to what Deshaun believed to be poor decisions. For example, trading away DeAndre Hopkins. Soon, Deshaun requested a trade. The Texans refused to trade Deshaun, and so Deshaun refused to play.
Then all of a sudden Watson was accused of sexual misconduct/assault or whatnot all the while getting an insanely lucrative contract by the Browns.
Now it's 2023 and Watson seems to be in the clear in terms of being able to actually play football. Between Watson's holdout, and then his suspension, Watson has not started a full season since he was 25. Watson will be 28 in roughly a month and a half. Several prime years, gone.
ALL that being said, at this point in time, he's pretty tough to rank. He played in the AFC South and so, as a Titans fan, I remember just how good he is. When Watson is hot, he's hard to handle. He's like a more athletic Donovan McNabb. Also a stronger arm. But still, McNabb is a good comparison in my opinion.
Then you take into account how long Deshaun has been out. He played in just six games last year and it wasn't too great. Still that's a weird sample size to me.
Right now, it's hard to place Deshaun. He could quickly rise these ranks, or even fall off completely. Who knows how he'll come back after all that time away.
Taking everything into account, in 2023 he'd be my 12th choice of QB in the league. VERY MUCH subject to change.
