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Deshaun Watson was on his way to winning the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award before an ACL tear ended his rookie year.
Sorry, Kareem Hunt fans. The start of the year for the Kansas City Chiefs running back was electric, but Watson was doing things we’ve never seen before.
The record for passing touchdowns by a rookie is 26, held by Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson. In just six starts and clean-up duty in Week 1, Watson tallied 19 with a ridiculous 16 touchdowns over a four-game span in October.
It earned him AFC Offensive Player of the Month honors, launched him to the top spot on the NFL passing touchdown leaderboard, and was unquestionably the best start to a rookie quarterback’s career ever in the NFL. There’s really no close second.
And so this really sucks.
It sucks for Watson, a remarkably easy person to root for whose success should’ve surprised no one.
It sucks for the Texans, a team that suffered through Ryan Fitzpatrick, Case Keenum, Ryan Mallett, Brian Hoyer, T.J. Yates, Brandon Weeden, Brock Osweiler and Tom Savage all starting games in the three years before Watson came to the rescue. Now the team will turn back to Savage to lead a 3-4 team that’s also without J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus.
But it also sucks for everyone else. Watson played a starring role in the most exciting game of the 2017 season so far, and made the Texans one of the most entertaining teams in the league.
It’s possible he would’ve slowed down. It was maybe even inevitable. Legendary Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully once warned Yasiel Puig’s explosion on to the baseball scene was "not to be believed because the game is not that easy.” He was eventually proven correct.
Watson’s streak of four consecutive games with three or more touchdowns and a passer rating of at least 100 in each was going to end at some point. But it was becoming undeniable that Watson is a star in the NFL.
Of course, Watson will return in 2018 and if he plays anything like the way he did in October, the Texans are a Super Bowl contender. But for now, this just sucks.