Deshaun Watson 'can't put a timeline on' return as Browns QB misses another practice

BEREA, Ohio — Deshaun Watson spoke to the media for the first time in three weeks prior to the Cleveland Browns' practice Wednesday. Those 12 minutes did little to clear up exactly when the quarterback would even be back on the field.

And not the game field. The practice field.

"I mean it can be any day," Watson said in his first public comments since Sept. 27. "It can be tomorrow, it could be Sunday, it can be two weeks from now. I'm not even sure. Like I said, it's day-to-day and I'm following the steps of the medical team and when that time is ready, then I'm going to go out there. I can't put a timeline on anything right now."

Wednesday was not the day for Watson to return from the injury to the rotator cuff in his right throwing shoulder. He was ruled out of practice an hour after he spoke.

Watson's status seems tenuous for Sunday's game at the Indianapolis Colts as well. He has already missed a pair of games in Week 4 against the Baltimore Ravens and this past Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, with the bye week sandwiched in between.

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Browns coach Kevin Stefanski didn't rule Watson for the Colts game. However, he also stated that P.J. Walker would make his second consecutive start if Watson can't go.

The one thing Watson did clear up was the nature of the injury, which he called a "micro tear" in the rotator cuff in his right throwing shoulder, which is a strain. It was sustained on a 13-yard run in the third quarter of the Week 3 win over the Tennessee Titans when safety Amani Hooker hit him.

Watson's injury had repeatedly been referred to as a bruise or a contusion to the rotator cuff. He did say he had been told by the medical staff the potential for the micro tear to develop into the kind of tear that would require season-ending surgery was not on the table.

"They said it wasn't anything worse than the strained rotator cuff, so I'm not thinking about that," Watson said. "I'm just following the steps, the medical protocols that they want me to follow. Hopefully everything is, when I step on the field, everything goes pretty smooth."

That originally was thought to have been against the Ravens on Oct. 1. Despite not throwing during his limited participation in practice that week, he and Stefanski both indicated they expected him to start against Baltimore.

Things began to get murky with regards to that on the Saturday before the game, which is when Watson said he discovered the true diagnosis. He still wasn't ruled out until after a 20-minute workout roughly three hours before kickoff.

"I mean we didn't figure out until that Saturday, the day before the Ravens game," Watson said. "So all week it was just swelling, bruised and then once the swelling can go down, that's when we got the MRI and the MRI came back and we found out Saturday evening it was a rotator cuff. Usually you sit out, but I told the people, the medical staff as a whole that we'll see what happens Sunday morning and let's try to get there early and work out and we did that and we couldn't go.”

Rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson was thrown into his first start with that decision. It did not go well, as the fifth-round pick out of UCLA was 19-of-39 for 121 yards with three interceptions and four sacks in a 28-3 loss.

Watson did not practice at all following the Browns' Week 5 bye week. Walker, who is on the practice squad, was named the backup quarterback early in the week, and ultimately started against the 49ers.

Walker, who came into the game with seven prior starts in 15 career NFL games, was 19-of-34 for 192 yards and two picks against the 49ers. However, he did guide the Browns on a pair of fourth-quarter field goal drives, including one that was capped by Dustin Hopkins' go-ahead 29-yarder with 1:40 remaining.

Chris Easterling can be reached at [email protected]. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ