The Cleveland Browns did the least surprising thing imaginable this weekend. They named Deshaun Watson their Week 1 starting quarterback again.
Yes, this comes just two days after Watson was mercilessly booed by his own fans during a preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills. Yes, this comes after Watson unloaded on the fans postgame, calling their behavior “disrespectful.” And yes, this comes after another poor preseason performance that did nothing to change the perception that Watson is no longer a starting-level NFL quarterback.
None of it matters. The Browns are handcuffed to Watson by his contract, and there is no realistic path forward that does not involve trotting him out for Week 1 in September.
The Browns traded three first-round picks to the Houston Texans in 2022 and immediately handed Watson a fully guaranteed five-year, 230 million dollar contract. That contract has been a franchise-defining anchor. He has gone 9-10 as a starter, been suspended, hurt, and largely ineffective when healthy. And Cleveland cannot cut him without eating the entire remaining salary.
So they keep starting him. That is the whole strategy.
Watson himself made it clear on Saturday that he understands the fanbase relationship is broken beyond repair. When asked about the boos, he pointed to the 2024 incident when Browns fans cheered as he lay on the ground with a torn Achilles.
“Last time I played on this field, I tore my Achilles. And that same fanbase cheered when I got hurt. What does that have to do with anything about performance?” Watson said.
He is not wrong. Cheering an injury is bad behavior. But he is also refusing to acknowledge the obvious. Fans in Cleveland are not booing him because he had a bad game. They are booing him because they blame him for burning three years of the franchise’s future.
That is not fixable through good play. Even if Watson turns into a top-15 quarterback again, the damage to the relationship is done.
The football decision here is defensible in isolation. Watson has more experience than any other quarterback on the roster. The backups are not ready to carry a full season. Kevin Stefanski would love to play his rookie, but the coaching staff is not going to throw a rookie into the deep end when his starting quarterback is on a 230 million dollar contract.
The realistic timeline for a change is probably midseason if Watson struggles the way he has all preseason. Even that would require Cleveland to essentially admit the Watson experiment is over, which is a difficult political conversation inside the building.
For now, the Browns are going to run it back. Watson gets Week 1. He is going to hear boos again. He is going to snap at the media again. And the ultimate loser is the entire fan base, which has to endure another year of a quarterback situation that everyone knows is unsustainable.
Cleveland fans have earned the right to be frustrated. This is going to be a long season.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
