Deshaun Watson would like Cleveland to stop booing him. Good luck with that.
The Browns host the Panthers on Sunday in their first home game of the season, and it doubles as the first game at the stadium since Watson was named the starting quarterback over Shedeur Sanders. Watson knows exactly what is waiting for him.
He says he does not want to “go to war” with the fan base, and he is hoping for positive energy instead.
He has been here before
Watson got booed during the preseason and called the reaction “disrespectful,” which did not land well in a city that has watched this contract age like milk. He walked it back a few days later.
“I thought I was going to get a little different response. But, my emotions got the best of me,” Watson said. “My comments weren’t intended to go at the fans. I understand the frustration.”
That apology was the right move. It also does not erase anything, because the frustration in Cleveland was never about a preseason snap count.
The football has actually been fine
Here is the inconvenient part for everyone who wants Watson benched yesterday: he has not played badly.
Week 1 against Jacksonville was rough and the Browns lost. Week 2 in Tampa was different. Watson threw for 238 yards and two touchdowns, and Cleveland put together a 12-play, 68-yard fourth-quarter drive to go up 23-19 and steal a road win over the Buccaneers.
That is a real NFL performance in a real NFL road environment. It is also one game, which is precisely why the tension has not broken.
Monken made his bed
Todd Monken picked Watson over Sanders and then had to defend it to a fan base that had already decided. Monken has been blunt about the decision, and to his credit he has not hidden behind coachspeak.
The math on it is simple. Sanders is a rookie. Watson, for all the wreckage, has taken more NFL snaps than anyone else on the roster. A first-year head-coaching staff almost always picks the veteran in September, and almost always regrets it by November if the veteran stalls.
Sunday is the actual test
Carolina is not a juggernaut. If Watson plays clean football and the Browns win at home, the boos get quieter and Monken buys himself a month. If Watson has a two-interception afternoon, the “We want Shedeur” chants start before halftime and Monken will have a real crisis on his hands by Monday morning.
Asking for positive vibes is a reasonable thing for a quarterback to say. It is also the one thing in Cleveland that cannot be requested. It has to be earned, on the field, in front of the people who have been paying for this contract since 2022.
Watson gets one shot at it Sunday.
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.