Todd Monken Defends Deshaun Watson After Rough Loss vs. Jaguars

Unsurprisingly, the Browns’ decision to start Deshaun Watson did not work out any better this time around.

Watson appeared in his first game Sunday since tearing his Achilles twice during the 2024 season and like when he last played, his performance was ugly. On the first drive of the the Browns’ game against the Jaguars, Watson threw an interception. It all went downhill from there.

The Jaguars built a 24–0 lead by halftime, and won the game 34–10. Watson completed 16-for-22 passes for 205 yards, one touchdown and one pick while taking five sacks in the loss. The numbers, which are far from spectacular, make the performance look better than it was. Forty-six of those yards came on a garbage-time touchdown to Denzel Boston in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.

Despite another rough outing from Watson, Browns coach Todd Monken defended his quarterback after the game, emphasizing that the blame does not lie all on Watson.

“It wasn’t all him. It really wasn’t all him,” Monken told reporters of Watson. “That’s unfair, certainly could’ve called it better. Certainly could’ve played better around him. Certainly wish there were things he had back. There’s certain things operationally that weren’t clean enough, us getting in and out of the huddle, getting our subs in.”

Monken did not believe Watson was playing tentatively during the game, and believed he made some good throws at the end of the contest when he had time to make them. By that point, of course, the Jaguars had established an insurmountable lead.

“We’ll analyze everything that we do. It’s not just him,” Monken said of Watson. “We’re putting this on Deshaun, which is unfair. Whatever there is externally, doesn’t matter to me. That doesn’t affect me, that has nothing to do with my decision-making. My decision-making is what’s best for the Browns now and moving forward. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand the frustrations.”

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While Watson might not be solely responsible for Sunday’s loss, he certainly deserves plenty of the blame for all that’s gone wrong throughout his tenure in Cleveland. It was the Browns’ decision to trade three first-round picks for a player with over 20 sexual misconduct allegations and hand him a record-setting contract, but Watson simply hasn’t played well either. He’s instead descended into one of the worst quarterbacks statistically, and has continued to hold the franchise back. On top of poor play and his legal issues, he only alienated himself further from the fanbase with his summer press conference comments about Browns fans booing him.

Of course, it makes sense for Monken to not place all the blame on one player, especially as the team’s coach. He has, however, gone out of his way on multiple occasions throughout the summer to stick up for Watson, who has clearly earned his share of the blame.

Notably, Monken would not commit to Watson as his starting quarterback for Week 2 against the Buccaneers.

“I'd rather just talk about today, because I haven't had time to even look at the tape,” Monken said. “... We’ll evaluate everything. To say that emotionally here at the end, when we just didn’t play good enough, we didn’t coach good enough.”

Whether Watson or Shedeur Sanders starts for the Browns in Week 2 or not, it feels inevitable that that the Watson era in Cleveland is coming to an end soon, something that should have already happened long ago.

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