Deshaun Watson’s Reaction to Fans Booing Him Likely Leaves Browns With Two Choices

In one afternoon, I went from being sure the Browns were going to start Deshaun Watson in Week 1 to wondering if they’ll even keep him on their roster. Watson, who looked fine against the Bears in Cleveland’s preseason opener (and Bears folks told me he clearly was the Browns’ best option), then played poorly on Saturday night against the Bills and reacted worse to the smattering of boos that welcomed him back to Huntington Bank Field.

Look, I get Watson being bitter about Browns fans cheering after he tore his Achilles against the Bengals on Oct. 20, 2024. I think anyone would be. But to carry that into a press conference two years later, and so publicly engage the masses who did it, isn’t doing anyone in his workplace any good.

That includes Watson himself.

For those who missed it, all of this started with a simple question amid the booing.

“I think the whole world knows it has nothing to do with our performance,” Watson responded. “It’s a little bit more personal than that. So I think that’s a disrespectful thing. I’m gonna keep whatever I feel with my family and me, internally, on how I feel about that. And, yeah, just move on …”

That salvo then bled into the crux of the matter.

“Last time I played on this field, I tore my Achilles,” Watson continued. “That same fan base, they cheered when I got hurt. So what does that have to do with anything about performance? When a person gets hurt, especially in their own city, and they cheer … I don’t regret anything in my life. I think the Lord puts us in situations for a reason, so I don’t regret anything at all. But I had different thoughts on how it was gonna be. It is what it is.

“Sometimes, the tables turn. I’m patient enough, as a child of God, to wait for that time to change.”

Before Saturday, Watson looked like he had started to turn the page on his recent past and a four-year start in Cleveland marred by injury and play that reminded no one of the superstar he had become over his first four NFL seasons in Houston.

Todd Monken’s scheme, which gives the quarterback more command at the line and more leeway to adjust as he sees fit, reminded Watson of the offense Bill O’Brien built for him with the Texans. Watson looked capable and efficient in camp. More than that, he kept a low profile and showed a willingness to embrace a fresh start.

Then Saturday happened. Maybe it was the boos in a stadium that, in fairness to the fans, looked less than a quarter full and had been poured on earlier as a violent Midwestern summer storm rolled through. Maybe it was frustration with his play in the third quarter, because that was as bad as the weather, with a crew made up mostly of guys who probably won’t be on Cleveland’s roster in two weeks. Whatever it was, when Watson took to the podium, he moved backward, undoing any benefit of the doubt he earned this summer.

And the reality is this is about performance. If Watson played the way he did in Houston—remember, this is the same quarterback who was up 24–0 at Arrowhead in the AFC divisional round of the playoffs against his draft classmate Patrick Mahomes on Jan. 12, 2020, when neither had won a championship yet—and had bad injury luck, the reaction wouldn’t be what it has been. And if he’d struck a more humble tone on his own missteps, I think he’d be received with more grace.

But the numbers tell the story. He has played 19 games as a Brown, so if he doesn’t start another one, that’d be over $12 million per start. He’s 9–10—they’re 17–32 without him, to be fair—and has completed 61.2% of his throws for 3,365 yards, 19 touchdowns, 12 picks and an 80.7 passer rating. By comparison, Dillon Gabriel, the 2025 third-round pick who is not even in the running to start, had an 80.8 rating in 10 games last year as a rookie.

Worse, Watson cost the Browns three first-round picks, which made it much harder for Cleveland to infuse the roster with youth as a talented core started to age. The logic in trading for Watson made a lot of sense in 2023, when a roster loaded with in-prime talent went 11–6 despite starting five different quarterbacks.

However, Watson hasn’t lived up to the trade, which is why they were boos on Saturday. Some of the fans also didn’t like Watson’s backstory coming in—he faced extensive legal troubles throughout 2021 and ’22, with more than two dozen lawsuits, each detailing graphic accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault that occurred during massage therapy sessions. Others were willing to give him a fresh start. All would’ve embraced him, in time, if he had shown that he could be who he had been as a football player and embraced the fans back.

Instead, his play cratered, injuries hit, and now his frustration has clearly boiled over.

This quote from Browns coach Todd Monken 🤌🤌🤌 pic.twitter.com/KPzrOyHHxF
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 23, 2026

So the few fans willing to ride out the rain and lightning to watch backups and guys who’ll be selling insurance in September took out their frustration over the situation and with Watson himself in the third quarter of Saturday’s game. That’s their right, and as Monken would say postgame to the media, it comes with the territory.

And therein lies the problem. If the fans booing is a real issue for Watson, and one he doesn’t know (again, his words) if he can handle, it’s not going away. In fact, after Saturday, it’ll only get worse—because if Watson takes it personally, then those fans will too. Now imagine if the Browns decided to keep Watson as a backup, what would happen if Sanders got hurt and he had to enter a game?

That’s why, as I see it, the Browns probably have to either start him or cut him.

The one saving grace here—if the Browns are set on giving their $230 million investment one last spin—is that their first two games are on the road, at Jacksonville and Tampa. If Cleveland goes 1–1 or 2–0 and Watson plays well, this whole thing gets more tenable. But if they’re 0–2, he doesn’t play well and they’re coming off a loss to Baker Mayfield, the quarterback who was the precursor to the Watson trade?

Then Monken will be left with no choice. That is, if he even has one now.

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