Maybe the Cleveland Browns didn’t strike out when they made that blockbuster trade for Deshaun Watson.
A deal that was a disaster for four years is suddenly producing some hits.
After Browns owner Jimmy Haslam called the trade “a big swing and miss,” Watson beat out Shedeur Sanders for the starting job. It appeared the experiment would only last two weeks and Sanders would start the home opener in Week 3 in front of the fans Watson called out in training camp for cheering when he got hurt in 2024.
But Watson led the Browns to a comeback win on the road in Tampa Bay in Week 2. And another one at home against Carolina last week. And another one at home over AFC North rival Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
That’s three straight comeback wins in the fourth quarter for Watson and the Browns, who lead the division with a 3-1 record.
“There’s belief, hope, determination,” Watson said on Amazon Prime Video after the game. “Those guys look at me and they just want me to lead the ship. I told them to believe in me, do what I ask and I’m gonna make a play when the ball and opportunity come and that’s what happened.”
The Browns shocked the football world in 2022 when they traded a slew of draft picks, including three first-rounders, to get Watson from the Texans. It was even more stunning when they gave him a fully guaranteed $230 million, five-year contract. It was a record for most guaranteed money until Josh Allen and the Bills broke it in 2025.
Watson was suspended the first 11 games of his first season because more than two dozen female massage therapists accused him of sexual misconduct, harassment, and assault during private massage therapy sessions in Texas.
He didn’t play well when he came back and made just 19 starts, going 9-10 before he tore his right Achilles tendon in October 2024 and tore it again while rehabbing.
“It’s a credit to him to work as hard as he did for 22 months,” Browns first-year coach Todd Monken said. “Had no reason. He had already had a great career. To work to get to this point, I told him: ‘We were gonna introduce you last.’ Isn’t that super cool? Really credit to him. Nothing to do with me. Credit to him and the guys around him.”
Watson was 24 of 33 for 268 yards, one touchdown and one interception in a 27-24 win over Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers on Thursday night. He’s completed 69.6 % of his passes for 855 yards, eight TDs and two picks with a passer rating of 104 in four games.
Watson is finally playing like the quarterback who went to three Pro Bowls in four seasons in Houston.
“We’ve been seeing it in practice all year, all camp,” Browns cornerback Denzel Ward said. “We knew what we had in the locker room, just competing against him in practice and he’s been coming out here and showing it so we believed in him the entire time and he’s proven us right and proven himself right.”
Watson has come a long way in a few weeks. After a poor performance in a lopsided loss to Jacksonville in the season opener, it seemed going into Week 2 that he was possibly going to make his last start. But he made the most of it, beginning a streak of comebacks.
Watson’s wife, Jilly Anais, watched his postgame news conference in Tampa Bay off to the side. She was ecstatic to celebrate, telling Watson he deserved to win.
The couple walked out of the room with big smiles. Watson hasn’t stopped smiling. Same goes for Browns fans, who aren't complaining about Watson anymore.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson plays against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first half of an NFL football game in Cleveland, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson runs aPittsburgh Steelers during the second half of an NFL football game in Cleveland, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson celebrates after their win against the Pittsburgh Steelers in an NFL football game in Cleveland, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/David Richard)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel will begin repatriation flights on Friday to bring back passengers stranded in the United Arab Emirates after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended in the wake of the attack on a pilot by his copilot who tried to crash a Tel Aviv-bound flight this week.
The effort to get Israeli passengers home comes as authorities in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and beyond grapple with the fallout from the incident on board the FlyDubai flight from Dubai on Wednesday. The attack has raised questions about the state of aviation security and further unsettled a Middle East already shaken by the ongoing U.S.-Iran war.
Nothing is publicly known about the motive of the copilot who came close to crashing the aircraft and killing all 182 people aboard. A regional investigation is underway.
The UAE has canceled all flights to Israel, complicating travel for hundreds of passengers who fly between the countries on a typical day.
Israel and the UAE agreed on the repatriation flights, beginning on Friday, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Earlier, the national carrier El Al said the UAE was holding up the necessary landing permits to allow it to fly into Dubai.
The Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv listed carriers Arkia and Israir with flights scheduled to arrive from Dubai late Friday and early Saturday. El Al was expected to fly passengers from Dubai to Israel on Sunday.
Dubai has been a popular destination for Israelis since Israel and the United Arab Emirates established ties in 2020 as part of the Trump administration's Abraham Accords to normalize ties between Israel and Arab countries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Thursday that the copilot, identified by Israeli officials as an Omani citizen, had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” but provided no evidence to back the assertion.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that early information he's received suggests there are links between the attack and Tehran but did not elaborate.
Trump also said that if it is determined that Iranian agents were behind the attack, the United States will “hit them very hard.”
Israeli investigators are involved in the probe but the Emiratis are in the lead, according to an official who wasn’t authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s unclear if the attacker was part of a group, said the official, adding that there is currently no evidence of a link with Iran.
UAE senior diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash on Friday called the FlyDubai attack a “dangerous terrorist act” in a post on X. He credited the flight captain for preventing the incident from turning into a catastrophic event.
The moment is a test for the UAE government, which has burnished a reputation for building effective measures against extremist activities but has also bristled in the past over criticism of security lapses.
“The Emiratis are going to be interested in protecting their reputation,” said Jon Alterman, chair of Global Security and Geostrategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “They believe people should see them as a place that’s very secure, not a place that has serious lapses.”
Details of the harrowing flight, which made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, continue to emerge.
Smit Machchhar, the wounded captain who has been hailed as one of the heroes of the flight, and the copilot were transferred on Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the UAE, the kingdom said.
Machchhar is recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital. He spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised video call Friday, describing the terror he faced after being attacked by his copilot in the closed cockpit.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” he said, his head bandaged, as he broke into sobs. “I was fighting for my life. At one point, I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives."
The captain managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 — with 174 passengers and eight crew members — descended sharply.
For the passengers on board, most of them Israelis, the first signs of trouble came more than two hours into the flight when the aircraft suddenly dropped down to 16,600 feet — the sharpest drop in altitude recorded by data tracking platforms.
Seconds later, it ascended to 21,725 feet before soon dropping back to 15,000 feet, which it maintained until safely landing more than an hour later.
Soon after leveling off, the plane dispatched its first distress signal, Squawk 7700, a code for general emergency, while flying along the Saudi-Jordanian border. It then sent a second distress signal, 7500, for “unlawful interference,” indicating something more serious like a hijacking attempt or an attack. It lasted for nearly an hour.
About 15 minutes after the second distress call, the aircraft turned west, briefly entering Jordanian airspace, then made a 180-degree turn and headed southwest to Tabuk, where it eventually landed, nearly four hours after taking off from Dubai.
Trump's suggestion that there could be an Iranian link adds a new layer of uncertainty to the on-and-off diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing an end to the seven-month war in Iran.
Iranian officials said Wednesday they received an official U.S. response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the conflict, which Trump had publicly rejected just days earlier. The officials did not say what the response contained and whether it was a rejection.
The U.S. is meanwhile dispatching roughly 9,000 more troops on ships to the Middle East, a U.S. official said Thursday — a move that could further complicate the political climate in the U.S., with looming midterm elections.
The move could mean there would be three carriers in the region as early as the end of October, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
The move would bring the U.S. naval presence in the Middle East to an unusually high number of more than 20,000 sailors and Marines, as well as hundreds of aircraft. The Navy previously had three carrier strike groups in the Middle East in April for the first time since 2003.
Madhani reported from Jerusalem. AP writers Sally Abou AlJoud in Brussels, Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed reporting.
People disembark from a FlyDubai carrying Israeli passengers who had earlier been aboard another FlyDubai aircraft that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia approaches Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli passenger Asaf Rajuan, right, who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, during a flight on a FlyDubai plane, hugs another passenger from the same flight as they arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Passengers who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, during a flight on FlyDubai plane, arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
