Deshaun Watson Has 'Some Rust' After Spending Months Settling Lawsuits, Not Playing Football

Turns out Deshaun Watson didn't have a lot of time to practice being an NFL quarterback while he was settling dozens of civil lawsuits.

Go figure.

“His past history would say that he is a lot of those things that you didn’t see,” Cleveland Browns OC Alex Van Pelt said this week. “He’s those things. Those will come back as we get more reps and more game experience with him.

"Again, it was kind of what we expected with some rust there, and that is real. Again, just the work he has put in this week to improve those areas has already shown up.”

Deshaun Watson looks horrible in Browns debut

Deshaun Watson returned from an 11-game suspension last week against his former team, the Houston Texans, and looked awful.

Frankly, that's probably putting it too mildly.

Watson finished 12-of-22 passing for 131 yards and an interception in the end zone. He added 21 yards on seven carries.

The Browns still won, 27-14, thanks to a billion touchdowns on defense and special teams, and also because the Texans wouldn't beat Georgia right now.

Still, the story of the day was Watson, who played in his first NFL game in nearly two years after sitting out all last season and serving an 11-game suspension to start this year after over two dozen sexual misconduct accusations.

“I think personally, I’d like to see (Watson) get as many reps as he can regardless of how it’s going,” Van Pelt added. “We need to work through the rust, get it completely knocked off and feeling good about the end of the year.”

Judging by this beauty, Watson has a long way to go.

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Zach grew up in Florida, lives in Florida, and will never leave Florida ... for obvious reasons. He's a reigning fantasy football league champion, knows everything there is to know about NASCAR, and once passed out (briefly!) during a lap around Daytona. He swears they were going 200 mph even though they clearly were not.