The Cleveland Browns officially have a starting quarterback, and everyone who follows the NFL — especially the team’s fans — seems to have a strong opinion on it.
Cleveland Browns fans made their feelings on Deshaun Watson loud and clear Saturday, booing the highly-paid, oft-injured, controversial quarterback during the second half of the team’s second preseason game.
On Monday, the Browns named Watson their starting quarterback anyway — because he was by default the “better” of two bad options in beating out underwhelming second-year QB Shedeur Sanders.
Leave it to the Browns to find still new depths with which to demoralize their fan base.
Deshaun Watson vs. Cleveland Browns Fans
Watson has barely been Cleveland’s quarterback since the historically ill-conceived, franchise-plunging 2022 trade that brought him over from the Houston Texans and the historically illogical, franchise-hampering fully guaranteed five-year, $230-million contract he signed thereafter.
Watson surely won’t be Cleveland’s quarterback in 2027, when that monstrosity of a deal finally expires.
But for right now, Watson is somehow, incredibly again the face of the Browns, with coach Todd Monken naming him the starting quarterback on Monday.
Rarely is a decision to name a starting quarterback so aggrieving to a fanbase or so thoroughly panned by prominent NFL analysts — to varying degrees of fervor, on the scale of constructively critical to “full Florio” (as seen below).
Furthermore, rarely does a quarterback sound off on the fan base after being blistered by boos … as a precursor to being named QB1.
That’s normally the final parting shot in a deteriorated relationship — not the tone-setter for a season that hasn’t even started!
Goodness … only in Cleveland.
Indeed, the fans let Watson hear it during a 31-7 preseason loss to the Bills on Saturday, booing the beleaguered quarterback as he completed 5 of 12 passes for 36 yards, 0 touchdowns and an interception during his four offensive series.
Watson then let the fans hear it in return after the game.
“I think the whole world knows, it has nothing to do with the performance. It’s a little bit [more] personal than that. It’s a disrespectful thing,” he said. “… Last time I played on this field, I tore my Achilles, and that same fan base, they cheered when I got hurt.”
Watson is surely frustrated and bruised by what has become of his once-celebrated football career, and he is human after all and prone to emotional reaction.
But what tone-deaf response, all things considered.
Is some of the fan backlash personal? Of course it is!
Watson was a controversial addition for the team in the first place after missing the entire 2021 season with the Texans while facing a mounting total of more than 20 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment and worse during massage appointments. And while two grand juries chose not to indict Watson on criminal charges, sponsors dropped him, the NFL fined him $5 million and suspended him 11 games for the following season and the Browns …?
Yeah, the Browns traded three first-round picks, a third-round pick and two fourth-round picks, mortgaging their future to acquire him and then leaving no wiggle room or outs with that unprecedented fully guaranteed five-year contract that was $80 million more in guaranteed money than any NFL contract before it.
Essentially, between the squandered draft picks and the mountain of money owed, the Browns had no way to pivot and find another franchise quarterback in this time … and have been paying for it in every way ever since.
The relentless injury issues that followed are mere circumstance and not Watson’s fault, but the reality is that he’s played 19 games in four years for the team while the sunk cost for that limited return has decimated the franchise.
So, yeah, some of the backlash is absolutely personal.
But to say those jeers have nothing to do about performance is flat-out wrong.
Watson Hasn’t Been A Good NFL QB Since … 2020
Ultimately, football fans have shown a general capacity to forgive off-the-field errors and embrace second chances for players on their teams. But not only was Watson hard for many to welcome in the first place because of his alleged aggressions (and the out-of-court settlements that followed), even evaluating him simply on his (limited) performance, he’s been a liability on the field as well.
The Browns are 9-10 in his 19 starts for the team with Watson completing 61.2% of his passes (down from 67.8% during his four years in Houston), averaging 177.1 passing yards per game (down from 272.4 in 53 starts for the Texans) and posting just 19 TDs and 12 INTs.
Watson doesn’t think his performance has anything at all to do with why Browns fans aren’t overly eager to see him play for their team anymore? Good grief.
Even Monken couldn’t let that one slide …
“It comes with the territory. You don’t want to get booed, let’s play good football, let’s play good at quarterback …,” he said.
To his credit, Watson walked his comments back Monday.
“I want to address the comments from Saturday after the game. I think just human nature, just myself being very emotional, putting a lot of time these last two years to get back and spend time in this facility, in this city, meeting a lot of different people in the community, I thought I was going to get a little different response,” he said. “But I think my emotions got the best of me, and my comments wasn’t intended to go at any of the fans around in the city because there’s been a lot of great fans that have been supporting me. … I understand the frustration, I understand everything that goes into that.”
To be fair, that was a solid recovery, but the tension between both sides is already clear and deep-seated — and that’s before the first adversity of the actual season comes.
There’s a reason why the Miami Dolphins chose to eat a ton of money just to move on from QB Tua Tagovailoa after he wore out his welcome there and so the team could embark on its rebuild without any such lingering tension or drama.
It’s going to be an awkward road ahead for Watson and the Browns, though it seems highly improbable he plays the whole season (either based on his injury history or performance).
What It Says About Shedeur Sanders
The true damning takeaway from all of this is that clearly the Browns see no long-term potential in Sanders, the 2025 fifth-round pick who struggled when given an opportunity late last season and who apparently didn’t give the team any reason to think he’d be better in 2026.
(Sanders was 6-of-11 passing for 79 yards, 0 TD and 1 INT in the first preseason game and 9 of 11 for 74 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT Saturday).
Because if any rebuilding team thought there was untapped potential in a young QB on the roster, it would use this season to evaluate that player. Especially given how the fans clearly feel about the other option.
Cleveland will almost assuredly draft a quarterback in the first round next spring, while hoping to build momentum and positives in other parts of this rebuild in the meantime. (The team did have a solid draft and offseason overall.)
Until then, though, the Browns — and their fans — are left paying the final balance due on the worst trade in NFL history.
Editor's Pick
NFL Preseason: Standout Performances from Week 2