Make no mistake, the Cleveland Browns did it to themselves. It’s not the fans’ fault. It’s not the media’s fault. And really, it says a lot about the current organization that they couldn’t see the whole situation coming.
All summer long and into training camp, people wondered. It was the national media, the local media, fans (including us) asking what the upside is of playing Deshaun Watson. Yes, we know the Browns paid him a lot of money for little production. But this is the last year on the horrific deal and there was no way the Browns were going to reup with him.
The only possible good scenario would be for Watson to be spectacular, something that hasn’t happened in six seasons and lead Todd Monken’s squad to a division title and playoff berth with 10+ wins. And in that situation, you don’t find out whether or not Shedeur Sanders is an NFL quarterback.
Watson has never embraced being here, and if you remember, he took Cleveland out of the equation when the Texans were trading him. It was only after the front office guaranteed the money did he agree to play for the Browns.
He’s made 19 starts for the franchise with a record of 9-10 in those starts. Amazingly, he’s never thrown for 300 yards in any of them, his high being 289 in a 27-3 win over Tennessee. He’s thrown three touchdown passes exactly one, in his first year after serving an 11-game suspension.
So, despite this lack of production, the new coach has decided Watson will be under center for the team’s opener against Jacksonville. Playing against what was basically Buffalo’s third unit, Watson completed five of 12 throws for 36 yards and an interception.
In the two exhibition games to date, the former first round pick has hit on 16 of 27 passes (59.2%) for 162 yards. His supposed competition for the job, completed 15 of 22 throws (68.1%) for 163 yards. So, Sanders has a better completion percentage and a better average yards per attempt.
Monken has talked about the “operation” a lot. And that means getting the play call in and the players to the line of scrimmage. He also talks about using cadence to draw teams offside.
We know coaches can be strange about stuff like this (we used to coach) but should stuff like that matter more than moving the football and completing passes? Part of us thinks the coach has convinced himself that he can get something out of Watson and is hell bent on proving it.
Meanwhile, the people who suffer most are Browns’ fans. This front office is consistently tripping over themselves to make bad decisions. Just since the beginning of 2025, the Browns have drafted two QBs in the same draft, traded the best defensive player in the history of the franchise, and named a starting QB who doesn’t want to be here and frankly offers little hope of competent play.
Yet, they are still the most popular team in town by far. It’s either amazing or sick, depending on how you look at things.
We criticize the Dolan family for not doing much for their fan base, but we guess doing nothing is better than taking a huge crap on the people who buy tickets.
And they are getting their palace in Brookpark anyway, which to them is probably the most important thing. You wonder why they think they are smarter than everyone else?
Cleveland Sports Perspective 