Yeah, the difficult part about assessing this trade is the sexual assault allegations. Like, most of us would agree that having a QB with 30 sexual assualt/sexual harassment cases is bad, because that QB is a piece of shit, so from that perspective any trade for Watson is bad the moment it gets made.
However, looking at this from a purely on-the-field perspective (hard to do, yes, because Watson is a piece of shit), I can see why the Browns made the trade. It's based on three assumptions: 1) Baker had hit his ceiling as a mid-QB, certainly not on the level of Mahomes and Allen; 2) Watson was better than Baker at that time; 3) Watson had not hit his ceiling and could potentially be a top-5 QB in the league. Now, you can debate all three of those points, but that's what Cleveland was operating on - and after the 2020 season, the narrative on Deshaun was that he was a great QB wasted on a shit franchise in the Texans.
Top-5 QBs, or potential top-5 QBs, don't typically become available in their late 20s unless there's some heavy baggage involved like a spotty injury history or torched relationships with the owner and front office. That baggage typically isn't 30 harassment/sexual assault cases, but the Browns FO still saw that as baggage all the same. And the thing with baggage is that, typically people stop caring as much if the guy comes in and plays like a top-5 QB and the team wins a bunch of games. You'll never really live down trading for a sex pest in the eyes of a lot of people, but if Deshaun has them regularly competing for titles playing like the top-5 QB they think he can become, they aren't going to care. Lots of Super Bowl teams had some absolute pieces of shit as their best players. The Super Bowls count all the same and last I checked the Browns don't have any of those yet.
The fully guaranteed contract was dumb as hell, but I look at that from the perspective of 1) Watson didn't want to play for the Browns (reports at the time were that he greatly preferred Atlanta or Miami), 2) the Browns thought this was their best chance (and maybe their only chance for a long while) to get a potential top-5 QB on their roster, 3) they needed a trump card that would get him in the building, because he wasn't even considering them as an option. So, hell, throw a bunch of money at him and guarantee the contract. Yes, you run the risk of him mailing it in, but at least he's in the building and you just hope that he'll be motivated to play to his best abilities.
Yeah, the difficult part about assessing this trade is the sexual assault allegations. Like, most of us would agree that having a QB with 30 sexual assualt/sexual harassment cases is bad, because that QB is a piece of shit, so from that perspective any trade for Watson is bad the moment it gets made.
However, looking at this from a purely on-the-field perspective (hard to do, yes, because Watson is a piece of shit), I can see why the Browns made the trade. It's based on three assumptions: 1) Baker had hit his ceiling as a mid-QB, certainly not on the level of Mahomes and Allen; 2) Watson was better than Baker at that time; 3) Watson had not hit his ceiling and could potentially be a top-5 QB in the league. Now, you can debate all three of those points, but that's what Cleveland was operating on - and after the 2020 season, the narrative on Deshaun was that he was a great QB wasted on a shit franchise in the Texans.
Top-5 QBs, or potential top-5 QBs, don't typically become available in their late 20s unless there's some heavy baggage involved like a spotty injury history or torched relationships with the owner and front office. That baggage typically isn't 30 harassment/sexual assault cases, but the Browns FO still saw that as baggage all the same. And the thing with baggage is that, typically people stop caring as much if the guy comes in and plays like a top-5 QB and the team wins a bunch of games. You'll never really live down trading for a sex pest in the eyes of a lot of people, but if Deshaun has them regularly competing for titles playing like the top-5 QB they think he can become, they aren't going to care. Lots of Super Bowl teams had some absolute pieces of shit as their best players. The Super Bowls count all the same and last I checked the Browns don't have any of those yet.
The fully guaranteed contract was dumb as hell, but I look at that from the perspective of 1) Watson didn't want to play for the Browns (reports at the time were that he greatly preferred Atlanta or Miami), 2) the Browns thought this was their best chance (and maybe their only chance for a long while) to get a potential top-5 QB on their roster, 3) they needed a trump card that would get him in the building, because he wasn't even considering them as an option. So, hell, throw a bunch of money at him and guarantee the contract. Yes, you run the risk of him mailing it in, but at least he's in the building and you just hope that he'll be motivated to play to his best abilities.