Troy Aikman thought Deshaun Watson’s pregame meditation was hilarious

As Deshaun Watson was struggling mightily in Monday night’s Browns loss to the Steelers, ESPN color commentator Troy Aikman couldn’t help but laugh out loud about the Cleveland quarterback’s pregame routine.

Watson threw for just 5.9 yards per attempt on Monday and had two turnovers that the Steelers defense returned for touchdowns as Pittsburgh won the game, 26-22.

During the fourth quarter, ESPN cut to Watson’s pregame routine, where he had his eyes closed, deep in thought, presumably seeking to mentally manifest a successful game plan for the evening.

Aikman, who won three Super Bowls as quarterback of the Cowboys in the 1990s, narrated the clip, “Deshaun Watson is over on the sidelines, that’s a member of his performance team sitting next to him, he’s doing some visualization, maybe some meditation, but definitely was going through the visualization part of it.”

At this point, Aikman was unable to stop himself from breaking out in chuckles, as he continued, “We’ll see whether or not that pays dividends for him on this drive.”

Deshaun Watson’s pregame routine on Monday night included a visualization/meditation exercise.ABC

Troy Aikman laughed out loud at Deshaun Watson’s pregame meditation routine.Getty Images

Aikman’s tone of voice did not convey a strong belief that Watson would overcome his struggles, and Watson failed to prove otherwise, throwing an incomplete pass on first down, getting sacked on second down and tossing another incompletion on third down before the Browns punted the ball away.

Watson committed three turnovers on the night.

Even putting aside the off-field component of the Browns’ risk in bringing in Watson, after he was accused of sexual misconduct by about two dozen Houston-area massage therapists, the organization has not come close to recouping the cost for the quarterback.

Cleveland traded three first-round picks to the Texans, and then turned around and gave Watson a five-year contract worth $230 million — fully guaranteed.

“Still coming along,” Watson said of his performance. “I feel like it was s–t as far as that. There’s some plays that we capitalized and we did good, but as far as my part, it’s not good enough. I put that on me.”

TeamRankings NFL analyst Jason Lisk broke down how bleak Watson has performed from a statistical perspective.

“Deshaun Watson’s numbers through two games [this season] are somehow worse than the six last season,” Lisk tweeted.

“Now, in his last 8, he’s completing 57% of passes, 6.2 yards per attempt, and 9 TD to 7 INT. Those splits are worse than ‘Drew Lock’ or ‘last 3 years Wentz’ and barely above ‘Zach Wilson.'”