The mood swings have started early for the Cleveland Browns and their fans this season. On Saturday, after a brutal performance in the second half of the team’s preseason loss to the Bills, quarterback Deshaun Watson held a disastrous press conference in which he appeared to pick a fight with all of Cleveland fandom. On Sunday, it appeared that there was no way the Browns could keep employing Watson. On Monday, coach Todd Monken proved that wrong by not only keeping Watson around but naming him the team’s starter after a five-month competition with Shedeur Sanders.
That pretty much encapsulates the way the entire offseason has gone for the Browns. Sure, there have been some positive developments. Oh, and the Browns traded the best player in the NFL, Myles Garrett, in June.
But this has always been a spring and summer about the quarterback position, and whether the Browns would give Sanders, at age 24, a chance to be the quarterback of the future, or whether the team would trot out the massively unpopular Watson.
Deshaun Watson Not a Popular Pick Among Browns Fans
Of course, it’s Watson. And we’ve seen that Browns fans are none too happy about it. Watson has the advantage of being better in the huddle, being more organized and running plays more crisply. Sanders struggles with all of those, but is the more accurate passer and has shown a knack for figuring out how to make winning plays.
Of course, it does not matter much what the fans think, or, at least, that has been the Browns’ approach to all of this drama. Fans may pay for tickets and watch the product on the field, but the Browns did not factor them much in this decision clearly.
What does matter more is what the players think.
No Obvious Bad Reaction to Deshaun Watson
According to two longtime Browns reporters, the players appear to be supportive of the Watson move. Neither he nor Sanders is the second coming of Dan Marino, but there did seem to be a comfort level with Watson.
Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland noted that the comfort level comes from the fact that there really is no history here, that most players on this roster were not with the Browns when Watson last played a game in October 2024.
Said Grossi: “The team is so young, and so new, except for Jeudy, who we know is a renowned Deshaun Watson fan. He is. I think they are 100% with Watson. I have no reason to say otherwise. Maybe I will pick up something once we start going back in the locker room for the first week of practice. But there are so many newcomers there that, like Monken, they don’t have a history with Watson. They only know what they see.”
Browns Players Just Wanted a QB Named
And Browns beat writer Dan Labbe of Cleveland.com agrees that the players are fine with the Watson pick. They just wanted Monken to pick somebody, anybody, so they can proceed with the season.
He said on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland: “I haven’t gotten any sort of inkling that this was an unpopular decision. I don’t know that guys were taking sides with one quarterback or the other. I don’t get the idea that this was any sort of divisive decision. And I would hope that Todd Monken would consider that with any type of decision. I would think that, if anything, guys might just be relieved that this is kind of over and now they can move on to getting ready for the regular season.”
Browns Players’ Reaction to Deshaun Watson Decision Revealed