NFL Analyst Thinks Earliest Deshaun Watson Plays in NFL Again is 2023

It’s beginning to look like former Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson’s legal issues could drag on at a snails pace.

With no end in sight, it is expected that Watson, who has requested to be traded out of Houston, will go on the Commissioner’s Exempt List before the start of training camp, meaning the quarterback would still be paid, but unable to participate in any team activities, which would include playing in games.

According to Watson’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, the NFL still hasn’t interviewed the quarterback for the league’s investigation and Fox Sports Radio host Ben Maller thinks it could be 2023 before Watson takes the field again.

“If you look at the timeline on this, barring a drastic sea change, Deshaun Watson will not be playing in an NFL game until at the very minimum 2023,” Maller said this week on The Ben Maller Show. “That’s the earliest. If everything plays out the way it’s playing out, he’s going to be done until at least 2023. How did I get to that point? He’s going to be put on the Commissioner’s Exempt List. That’s going to happen likely in the next month before training camp opens up.”

With both sides remaining adamant about there being no settlement, reports have suggested that a trial would not take place until next spring at the earliest. Add on any suspension the NFL were to likely hand out and it’s possible Maller could be onto something here, especially if Watson is determined to fight the charges.

“A trial date would be sometime in May of 2022 and it might not be until early June, which means the trial would go through June and part of July,” Maller said. “Training camp opens in July. The NFL does not give out time served. Which means when the trial happens, if Deshaun Watson is found guilty in the civil court, and remember the standards is much lower in civil court than criminal court, then the NFL has to come back and say, ‘well, bad news, we’ve got to punish him.'”