When Deshaun Watson took a shot to the head and neck area in the second quarter of the Cleveland Browns’ win over the Tennessee Titans, three members of the team’s medical staff ran onto the field to attend to the quarterback.
Watson waved them off and remained in the game, and rookie backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson stayed on the sideline.
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Five days later, the Browns are listing Watson as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens due to a shoulder injury he suffered versus Tennessee, and Thompson-Robinson just finished a full practice week of taking first-team reps and preparing to make his first NFL start.
“I was ready (last week),” Thompson-Robinson said. “I’ve seen that before with Deshaun. I thought he was gonna bounce right back up.
“I’m locked in with the play calls. I have my helmet on pretty much through the whole game (listening), and trying to go through the calls myself so I can talk to Deshaun. I’ve been trying to prepare like Deshaun does as much as possible, and if I do get my opportunity, I think that work will pay off.”
Watson was listed as a limited participant in each of the week’s three practices. On Friday, he took two warmup tosses in the early portion of practice open to reporters before walking over and talking with team trainers.
When Thompson-Robinson began taking snaps and making throws to the Browns’ receivers, Watson stood well behind the action talking with head trainer Joe Sheehan. Watson didn’t throw at all in Wednesday’s practice and made a few warmup throws Thursday.
Will he play on Sunday?
“I’m hopeful,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said.
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The last hour-plus of regular-season practice is closed to the media, and the Browns — for strategic reasons — don’t want the Ravens to know what they’re really thinking in regards to Watson’s status or their plans for Thompson-Robinson. But throughout the summer, Cleveland was impressed by Thompson-Robinson’s preparation and his play, and we’ll know Sunday if the fifth-round pick is getting the keys to the full operation for the first time.
Thompson-Robinson made his regular-season debut in mop-up duty in Week 3. Watson played what probably was his best game in a Browns uniform, and that set up a big AFC North matchup this week as the Browns and Ravens enter Sunday with identical 2-1 records.
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“All of our backups have to be ready to play,” Stefanski said. “It’s just the life of a backup. Quarterback backup, linebacker backup, anything. You have to prepare yourself to play. And Dorian is prepared just like everybody else.”
The Browns converted seven of their first 11 preseason third downs in August when Thompson-Robinson was on the field. But those came with no starters for either side in the game, and though the Browns trading veteran backup Joshua Dobbs to the Arizona Cardinals in the last week of the preseason was an endorsement of Thompson-Robinson’s poise and potential, it also created a situation where the Browns’ No. 2 quarterback had never really thrown with the top group of pass catchers before this week.
“I never threw to most of those guys before this week, so I was getting a feel for their speed and their routes,” Thompson-Robinson said. “That’s definitely been huge for me this week, just being able to iron out some of those wrinkles if I do get in.”
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The Browns added P.J. Walker to their practice squad in early September after the quarterback was cut by the Chicago Bears. Even if Watson can play Sunday, Walker getting promoted to the active roster seems to be a certainty ahead of the Saturday deadline for such moves. Stefanski didn’t want to talk the details of Watson’s shoulder injury, and he said he didn’t know if he believed the injury would linger.
The Browns have their bye in Week 5, so if Watson sits, he’d have two-plus weeks to heal before the Browns play again. Stefanski said Watson, who hasn’t missed a game due to injury since he tore his ACL his rookie season, “will do anything (he can) to be out there. He’s taking care of his body. He knows his body. So that’s why I’m hopeful.”
Whether it’s real hope that Watson can get healthy enough in the 48 hours from Friday’s practice to play Sunday or it’s gamesmanship, we don’t know. But Thompson-Robinson says he’s ready, and the Browns came into the season banking on the fact he would be if needed.
(Photo of Dorian Thompson-Robinson: Jason Miller / Getty Images)