Would Watt become Cleveland’s top pro athlete?

By STEVE KING

Baker Mayfield is still around, but — ugh! — Lebron James is long gone and Francisco Lindor is outta here as well now.
So, then, if the Browns sign free-agent defensive end J.J. Watt, will he instantly become the top pro athlete in Cleveland (active, not including the retired Jim Brown, now back with the Browns as a special advisor)?
It sure seems that way.
Watt’s going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday, or so it would certainly seem. He’s the top defensive player in the NFL right now, and has been for a while. In addition,  he is one of the league’s top personalities and most popular players. He is the kind of athlete who is easy to like for a variety of reasons.
What is having the city’s top pro athlete worth to a team? Plenty, in any market, particularly one as sports-crazy, and Browns-crazy, as Cleveland. It would be another positive move for the Browns’ persona both locally and nationally, coming on the heels of last season’s AFC playoff appearance, which was their first in 18 years, and a divisional-round victory,their first in 36 years..

It’s a great marketing tool, both for the team and the player. Watt could appear on ads selling everything from tires to treadmills, food to furniture and cars to carpeting. The list is endless.
The Browns haven’t had a player like that for any period of time since Bernie Kosar from the last half of the 1980s to the early 1990s. Immediately before that, it was quarterback Brian Sipe of the Kardiac Kids, who, in 1980, became the Browns’ first NFL MVP since Brown 15 years earlier, in 1965. That’s way too, too long. It’s time that void gets filled.
But if Watt doesn’t do it, then the next-best candidate is, clearly, Mayfield. People love quarterbacks, especially in Cleveland.
And who would be the No. 3 candidate? It would probably be Indians third baseman Jose Ramirez, or two other Browns in running back Nick Chubb and defensive end Myles Garrett.