NFL

Deshaun Watson facing new lawsuit that could allow Browns to get out of deal, plus Prisco’s Power Rankings

by
SaC Bot
September 10, 2024

Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!

It has been a wild 24 hours in the NFL and most of that wasn’t related to anything on the field:

Deshaun Watson has been hit with a new sexual assault lawsuit
The bodycam footage from Tyreek Hill’s arrest was released on Monday
And in actual football news, the 49ers showed that they’re still the 49ers

We’ll be covering all of that and more in today’s newsletter, so let’s get to the rundown.

As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends and neighbors to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here.

1. Deshaun Watson hit with sexual assault lawsuit

USATSI

The Browns quarterback could be in some hot water again after a sexual assault lawsuit was filed against him on Monday.

Here’s what you need to know:

The case stems from an incident in 2020. When Watson was suspended 11 games by the NFL in 2022, it was related to the 24 civil lawsuits that he was facing (He eventually settled most of them). The allegations in those lawsuits took place between March 2020 and March 2021. The newest allegation stems from an incident that allegedly occurred in October 2020, which would be in that same window.
The accusations against Watson. According to the lawsuit, Watson met the victim at a Houston bar and then began texting her over a period of several months. The lawsuit claims Watson agreed to meet at her apartment, but on the night of Oct. 10, 2020, allegedly called Doe’s cellphone “aggressively yelling and screaming” about being unable to find the apartment telling Doe he doesn’t “have time for this.” When Watson finally arrived, Doe claims she was not ready as she “had not finished putting on her makeup.” She says Watson was invited to sit in the living room as she attempted to make conversation. Hearing nothing in return, Doe says she thought Watson might have left, so she left the bathroom and allegedly “found him completely naked on her bed, lying face down on his stomach.” At that point, Watson demanded a massage and a few minutes later, he allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Browns could get out of Watson’s contract. Watson’s fully guaranteed contract does have one out: If Watson didn’t tell the Browns about this allegation, that could potentially void the remaining guarantees in his contract. When he signed his deal, Watson had to give the team a list of all his accusations in writing. If this accusation was on the list, then the Browns can’t punish him if they knew about it. The NFL could also suspend him over the new accusation and if that happens, the Browns would also be in a spot where they could void the remaining guarantees in his contract. Pro Football Talk has a solid breakdown of the situation that you can read here. So far, the NFL has refused to comment on this specific case.

If you want all the details in the latest lawsuit, you can see those in our full story here.

2. Tyreek Hill incident: Bodycam footage released, Dolphins call for punishment of officers involved

After Tyreek Hill was detained by police on Sunday, there was some question about what exactly happened and we now have a much better idea of that after the bodycam footage was released on Monday.

Here’s the latest on the situation:

Bodycam footage released. The Miami-Dade Police Department released the bodycam footage on Monday night and what the footage showed was that there were several officers who were overly aggressive with Hill. The Dolphins receiver was asked to put his window down and when didn’t respond fast enough an officer opened the door to his car and dragged him out. At that point, Hill was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. The footage, which you can see here, definitely wasn’t a good look for the police department. One member of the police department has already been placed on administrative leave.
Dolphins call for officers to be punished. The Dolphins released a strong statement on Monday night calling for the officers involved to be punished. “While we commend MDPD for taking the right and necessary action to quickly release the footage, we also urge them to take equal swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior.” You can see the team’s full statement here.
Tyreek Hill speaks out. The Dolphins receiver did multiple interviews on Monday night and the main point he made is that he’s lucky to be a celebrity. Hill said he knows the situation might have ended with him being shot if he wasn’t who he was. “If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, worst-case scenario, we would have had a different article: ‘Tyreek Hill got shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium’ … or ‘Tyreek Hill put in handcuffs, taken in and booked,'” Hill said in an interview with CNN on Monday night. You can read Hill’s full comments here.

The Dolphins receiver, who was given two citations — one for careless driving and one for a seatbelt violation — is exploring litigation against the Miami-Dade Police Department, according to his attorney.

3. Recapping the 49ers’ win over the Jets: Five things to know

The defending NFC champions played like the NFC champions on a night where they dominated the Jets, 32-19.

If you missed the game or just want a refresher, here’s a quick breakdown of what happened:

49ers offense thrives without Christian McCaffrey. The 49ers running back, who’s dealing a calf/Achilles injury, was a surprise scratch on Monday, but that didn’t seem to slow down San Francisco’s offense. With McCaffrey on the sideline, Jordan Mason came in and put on a show. The backup running back went off for 147 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries on a night where the Jets defense had no idea how to slow him down. The 49ers also got Deebo Samuel heavily involved in the offensive game plan. The dual-threat star had 13 touches for 77 yards and a touchdown.
49ers holdouts held up. The 49ers had two players who skipped all of training camp and both players were on the field. First, there was Trent Williams. Missing training camp didn’t seem to bother Williams, who was the best offensive lineman on the field in this game. The 49ers star left tackle didn’t allow a single pressure on 33 pass-blocking snaps, according to Next Gen Stats. Brandon Aiyuk also missed all of training camp and he played like it. Although he caught two passes for 28 yards, he also dropped a surefire touchdown pass from Brock Purdy that you can see here.
Aaron Rodgers made it through the game. All eyes were on Rodgers last night and he looked a little rusty, which was too be expected for someone who had only played four snaps over the past 20 months. Rodgers finished just 13 of 21 for 167 yards and he wasn’t great, but he did show some flashes of his old self. Rodgers threw two touchdown passes, including a 36-yard laser to Allen Lazard that you can see here. If you’re a Jets fans, the loss wasn’t so bad when you consider that Rodgers survived and he seemed to be getting more comfortable in the offense as the game went along.
Jets defense gets failing grade. Although New York’s offense showed flashes on Monday night, the defense crashed and burned. This unit was one of the best in the NFL last season, but against the 49ers, they got embarrassed. At one point in the game, the 49ers scored on EIGHT straight drives, which marked the first known time in franchise history that the Jets had given up a score on eight straight possessions (We say ‘known history’ because tracking only goes back to 1979). The Jets’ defensive performance was almost certainly good news for Haason Reddick, because New York will likely be more open to getting a deal done with the star pass-rusher, who sat out Monday’s game due to a contract dispute.
Jake Moody ties 49ers record. The 49ers kicker opened the season by hitting six field goals, which tied the franchise record for most field goals in a single game. Moody and Chris Boswell both hit six field goals this week, which makes them just the second pair in NFL history to hit six field goals in the same week. The only other time it happened came in 1999 when Olindo Mare and Jason Hanson did it.
We got a scorigami. The 32-19 final score marked the first time in NFL history that a game has ended with that final score. There have now been 1,085 unique final scores in NFL history. You can read more about that here.

Anyway, if you want to check out more of our takeaways from the game, be sure to click here.

Every year, the biggest movement in Prisco’s Power Rankings comes after the first week of the season and this year was no different. After a wild Week 1, we saw 30 of the NFL’s 32 teams move at least one spot this week. The only two teams that didn’t make a move was the team at the top and the team at the bottom.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at Prisco’s top five teams heading into Week 2:

Chiefs (Same as last week)
49ers (Up one from last week)
Bills (Up one from last week)
Lions (Up three from last week)
Texans (Up three from last week)

I’m not going to spoil the rest of the Power Rankings here, but I am going to give you a few nuggets. Here’s what has changed since Prisco’s last Power Rankings:

The biggest jump this week went to the Los Angeles Chargers. After watching Jim Harbaugh win his debut game, Prisco rewarded the Chargers by bumping them up seven spots from 18th to 11th. The Chargers beat the Raiders 22-10 on Sunday. The Steelers also moved up seven spots. Despite not scoring an offensive touchdown in their win over Atlanta, Prisco still moved them up from 19th to 12. The Steelers are the only AFC North team that won a game in Week 1.
The biggest jump in the NFC went to the Vikings, who got rewarded for thrashing the Giants, 28-6, on Sunday. Thanks to that win, Prisco moved them up seven spots from 25th to 18th.
The biggest drop in the rankings went to the Green Bay Packers. With Jordan Love expected to be sidelined for several weeks due to a knee injury, Prisco has lost all faith in Green Bay. The professor of power rankings dropped the Packers 13 spots — from second down to 15th — which might be the biggest tumble I’ve ever seen in the power rankings. Also, it’s probably worth noting that Prisco dropped the Bengals 11 spots for suffering the most shocking loss in Week 1. They went from fifth down to 16th.
Now, let’s talk about the worst team in the NFL. The Panthers closed out the 2023 season at the bottom of the rankings and then they opened the season at the bottom, and now, they’re still there. After watching Carolina get destroyed 47-10 by the Saints, Prisco saw no reason to move them out of the 32nd spot.

If you want to know where your favorite team ended up in Prisco’s Week 2 Power Rankings, be sure to click here. If you want to argue with Prisco over his rankings, you can do that on Twitter by clicking here. I argue with him all the time about everything.

5. Breech’s Week 2 NFL picks: Dolphins beat Bills in Thursday thriller

If it’s Tuesday, that can only mean one thing around these parts: It’s time for my weekly picks.

The first week of the season is always tough to predict, but I still managed to go 10-6 last week. My goal this week is to go 16-0, but that’s probably not going to happen because I think I might have gotten a little too aggressive with a few of my upset predictions.

As always, this newsletter will feature three of my picks, and then if you feel like reading the rest of them, you can click through here and check them out.

With that in mind, here are three of my main picks for the week, starting with the Thursday night game in Miami:

Bills at Dolphins (-2): Josh Allen is 11-1 in his last 12 games against the Dolphins, which kind of makes me want to pick the Bills, but I’m not going to do it. Buffalo will be going into this game with a completely revamped secondary and I could see that secondary struggling against the Dolphins passing attack. Also, Mike McDaniel is 7-0 in his coaching career during the first three weeks of the season and until he actually loses a game, I can’t pick against that. PICK: Dolphins 27-23 over Bills.
Browns at Jaguars (-3.5): Both of the teams are 0-1, which means they’re both going to be desperate for a win this week. The difference for me in this game is that the Jaguars offense actually looked somewhat competent in Week 1. On the Browns’ end, Deshaun Watson looks lost on the field and I can’t pick a team if their quarterback looks lost. PICK: Jaguars 23-20 over Browns.
Bengals (+6) at Chiefs: The Bengals looked absolutely horrible on Sunday against the Patriots, but if there’s one team they always look good against, it’s the Chiefs. Joe Burrow has a 3-1 record against Kansas City and in those four games, he’s averaged 293.8 passing yards per game while throwing nine touchdown passes compared to just three interceptions. The Bengals are going to be desperate so I won’t be surprised if they pull off the upset. PICK: Bengals 27-24 over Chiefs.

Once again, to check out the rest of my picks for Week 2, be sure to click here.

6. Extra points: Puka Nacua to miss at least four games

It was a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.

Rams place Puka Nacua on injured reserve. The Rams have decided to place Nacua on injured reserve. Nacua had been dealing with a knee injury during training camp and he aggravated the injury on Sunday against the Lions. Sean McVay said the injury is a strained PCL. With Nacua on IR, that means he’ll be out against the Cardinals (Week 2), 49ers (Week 3), Bears (Week 4) and Packers (Week 5). The good news for the Rams is that they have a Week 6 bye, so there’s a good chance he’ll be back on the field in Week 7.
Packers won’t put Jordan Love on IR. The Packers will NOT be placing Jordan Love on injured reserve, which means the team is holding out hope that Love will be able to return at some point in the next three weeks. If Love was sent to IR, he’d have to miss four games. Right now, Malik Willis is in line to start this week’s game against the Colts.
Browns to sign Super Bowl-winning receiver. The Browns added some depth to their receiving room on Monday by signing Kadarius Toney to their practice squad. Toney, who won two Super Bowls with the Chiefs, was cut by Kansas City in August.
Rookie rankings for Week 1. From Caleb Williams to Bo Nix to Xavier Worthy, there were a lot of rookies who played in Week 1, so we decided to go through and try and figure out who had the best week. If you want to know which rookies thrived during the opening week, be sure to check out our rankings here.
One thing we learned about each team. If you want to know one thing we learned about each team in Week 1, then you’ll want to check out Cody Benjamin’s story here.