Jimmy and Dee Haslam made the admission while speaking to reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Florida.
CLEVELAND — With less than a month until the NFL Draft, Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam made an unexpected admission about the 2022 trade that brought Deshaun Watson to Cleveland.
While speaking to reporters at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday afternoon, Jimmy Haslam called the trade for Watson “a swing and miss” in a unexpected admission.
Haslam’s full quote can be seen below (provided by Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot):
“We took a big swing and miss with Deshaun. We thought we had the quarterback, we didn’t and we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him. So we’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole. (It) was an entire organization decision and it ends with Dee and I, so hold us accountable.”
Browns co-owner Dee Haslam elaborated on her husband’s quote citing the three significant injuries Watson suffered while in a Browns uniform, including the re-tear of his Achilles tendon while rehabbing after this past season.
Watson’s tenure with Cleveland can’t be summed up as anything more than an abject disaster. In three injury riddled seasons, Watson has thrown for 3,365 yards, 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 19 games. For the 5-year, $230 million contract Watson was given when he arrived in 2022, Watson likely finishes his Browns career with a 9-10 record as a starter.
The Haslams continued to address the next era of Browns quarterbacks with the upcoming draft, but they did not rule out skipping taking a QB of the future if they do not believe in the options available to them when they are on the clock saying they’ll “take a year or two to get that right.”