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Browns QB Deshaun Watson doesn't look back and still believes he is “without a doubt” one of the NFL's best passers – NFL

BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Deshaun Watson is on the verge of a comeback and can't afford to look back.

“It's a new year. It's a new season,” the Browns quarterback said Wednesday. “Whether you won MVP or you didn't play last year, it's a new year. If you focus on last year in this league, you'll get left behind.”

Watson enters what is arguably the most important season of his career – college or professional – with enormous expectations and external pressure. In his first two years with Cleveland, he started just 12 times, and his 2023 season ended with an injury to his right shoulder that required surgery, followed by months of grueling rehab.

Watson has worked hard and believes he is well prepared. Now comes the real test.

On Sunday, he will play in a game for the first time since Nov. 12 when the Browns, who made the playoffs last season without Watson, face the Dallas Cowboys. For Watson, just being back on the field is a victory in itself.

There was no guarantee when he would return to play after fracturing the socket in his throwing shoulder, but Watson successfully met all of the goals set by his doctors and Cleveland's medical staff to get back to center.

When Watson made all the necessary throws during the mini-training camp in the spring, he knew he would be a full-time player in the fall.

“When we had the operation in November, nobody knew exactly where it would lead,” he said before training. “It could have been now, where we are sitting here today, or it could have taken a whole year, which would have been in November.”

“So it was very comprehensive, but I challenged myself to go back to this moment right now.”

It's not that there haven't been any hurdles. Watson didn't play at all in the preseason and was limited in practice two weeks ago due to “general soreness in the arm,” coach Kevin Stefanski said.

Watson, however, insists he could have thrown further.

“It was a medical decision where they just told me that any kind of pain or anything that I feel, I'm going to take the right path and not try to push it any further,” he said. “The key is to play 17 or more games, not finish training camp and try to be a superhero.”

Watson added that there have “never been any limitations” on his arm.

The Browns have to hope his play isn't limited this season. They invested $230 million in Watson and didn't get what they paid for it.

After missing 11 games in 2023 due to an NFL suspension, Watson showed flashes of his former greatness last season before suffering a shoulder injury, but it only really became apparent after he completed 14 of 14 passes in a second-half comeback to beat Baltimore.

But apart from that performance, there were too many mediocre performances with too many ball losses and too many excuses.

Watson said the injury forced him to go “back to basics,” and he and his personal trainer Quincy Avery rebuilt his throwing technique “from the ground up.” He improved his diet and reinvented himself with the help of doctors and trainers.

“We sat down, came up with a plan and followed that plan,” he said. “I feel really, really good, very explosive, focused on my tasks, on the game, endurance, everything. So I'm excited to go out there and show what I can do on Sunday and how hard I've worked.”

Watson, who made three Pro Bowl appearances in four seasons with Houston (he sat out 2021 due to a contract dispute), hasn't been the same game-winning quarterback during his time in Cleveland for obvious reasons. Statistically, he ranks in the bottom half of quarterbacks in the AFC.

He ranks third at best in Cleveland's highly competitive division behind Baltimore's Lamar Jackson and Cincinnati's Joe Burrow, and there are those who doubt he will ever return to the top ranks.

Watson is not one of them.

When asked if he still considers himself one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, he answered without hesitation.

“Of course,” he said. “Without a doubt.”

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