Chris Canty pushed back at Stephen A. Smith’s Deshaun Watson Comeback Player of the Year case on Tuesday’s First Take, telling the ESPN panel in a clip posted by FirstTake on X that the declaration was hard to make out loud. Canty, a Super Bowl XLVI champion with the Giants, was responding to Smith’s claim that Watson is the award’s frontrunner with Cleveland at 5-2 in 2026.
“Deshaun Watson right now is the comeback player of the year. Right now, comeback player,” Smith said.
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“That’s uncomfortable to even say it. Very uncomfortable to even say it,” Canty said.
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“But it’s true. It’s true. Five wins, first place in the division. All five wins come from behind victories in the fourth quarter led by him considering where he was, how bad he looked on the football field to what he has looked,” Smith said.
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Exploring Deshaun Watson’s case for the NFL Comeback Player of the Year
Watson had not played since October 2024, when he ruptured his Achilles in a loss to Cincinnati, and re-ruptured the same tendon in January 2025, missing the entire 2025 season. He was named Cleveland’s starter before this season after a camp competition with Shedeur Sanders under Todd Monken, the Browns’ new head coach.
Through seven games he is 136-of-210 (64.8%) for 1,482 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions, a 90.6 passer rating. Cleveland is 5-2, level with Pittsburgh’s record but top of the AFC North on the head-to-head tiebreaker from its 27-24 win on Oct. 1. Watson served an 11-game suspension in 2022 for violations of the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
Every Cleveland victory has included a fourth-quarter game-winning drive led by Watson, and none has finished with a margin above four points. The wins: 23-19 over Tampa Bay in Week 2, 21-18 over Carolina in Week 3, 27-24 over Pittsburgh in Week 4, 13-10 over Baltimore in Week 6 and 27-24 at Tennessee in Week 7.
In Tennessee, the winning drive began at 24-24 with 58 seconds left. Watson moved Cleveland into range for Andre Szmyt’s 32-yard field goal as time expired. The Browns had trailed 14-0 in the first quarter of that game and 10-0 against Baltimore.
Cleveland visits Pittsburgh on Sunday, Nov. 1, with the division lead on the line. The Browns have not won a regular-season game in Pittsburgh since 2003.
Edited by Rishabh Vanwani
