STEPHEN A. Smith called for DeShaun Watson to be arrested for bad play in a First Take tirade.
The ESPN personality labeled quarterback Watson, 29, “awful” and called on the Cleveland Browns to bench him.
Stephen A Smith called for DeShaun Watson to be arrested for bad play[/caption]
Stephen A Smith was furious on Monday’s show with Molly Qerim, Dan Orlovsky and Shannon Sharpe[/caption]
DeShaun Watson had another game to forget in Cleveland’s loss to Washington[/caption]
Watson threw for just 125 yards in Cleveland’s Week 5 thrashing by Washington.
The Browns were beaten 34-13 by the Commanders in a defeat that left them at 1-4 for the season.
Watson is 31st in QBR for the season with a rating of only 21.
He is 25th in yards thrown among NFL quarterbacks and hasn’t passed for more than 200 in any of his five starts this season.
And Smith was furious with Watson on Monday’s edition of First Take.
“DeShaun Watson is awful,” Smith declared.
“It’s so awful that if somebody wanted to arrest him for being awful, I would accept it – It’s that bad.”
He then told laughing First Take co-stars Shannon Sharpe, Dan Orlovsky and Molly Qerim, “It’s not funny.
“His QBR yesterday against the Washington Commanders was 8.5.
“Do you know that wasn’t even his worst QBR of the season? It was 8.3 against the Cowboys in Week 1.
“Are you kidding me? 8.5? I didn’t know single-digit QBRs even existed.
“Zach Wilson had higher QBRs than that. Jamarcus Russell had higher QBRs than that. You can’t even make this up.”
Cleveland acquired the 29-year-old quarterback in a trade with the Houston Texans two years ago.
He signed a new, fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract as part of the trade.
Shannon Sharpe’s playing career
Shannon Sharpe was a three-time Super Bowl champion before his heavyweight media career.
The former tight end played in the NFL from 1990 until 2003 – mostly with the Denver Broncos.
He was part of the Super Bowl championship teams in 1998 and 1999 as well as the Baltimore Ravens’ title-winning team in 2001.
Sharpe was an eight-time Pro Bowler and voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He finished with 10,060 career receiving yards from 815 receptions with 62 touchdowns.
The ex-NFL star has had just as strong a career on television screens since retiring.
“They’re going to look at the fact he’s got $230 million guaranteed,” Smith continued.
“They’re going to look at the fact since he’s arrived in Cleveland he’s only had 17 starts and got a 9-8 record, averaging 180 yards. It’s awful.”
Smith also took aim at Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski for throwing his support behind Watson to remain quarterback.
The ESPN star called for the Browns to start DeShaun Watson at quarterback in an attempt to save their season.
“Here is where it hits home for me,” Smith said. “And this is why I say he he is awful.
“We saw Stefanski wanting to call a play but he ran off the field yesterday.
“We saw a play where he’s scampering for a first down and he never even extended his arm to get the first down.
“They had to then run a fourth down play – that was an extra play they didn’t have to run.
“He looks defeated, he looks like he’s given up.
“You can see his teammates don’t even believe in him any more.
“His heart isn’t in it. He has been completely demoralized.”
And Smith concluded his rant which was described as “all-time” by fans, “Play Jameis Winston and bench him.
“It’s a damn shame the city of Cleveland is going through this.”
