RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The Cleveland clown show continues.
By settling on Deshaun Watson as their starting quarterback , the Cleveland Browns managed to stick both a finger in the eyes of their fans and a fork in yet another season. That’s an impressive level of ineptitude even for this franchise.
Making Shedeur Sanders QB1 would have been a gamble, yes. He’s young and still very much a work in progress. He was 3-4 as a starter his rookie season, and his performances in the Browns’ first two 2026 preseason games were, to put it nicely, rough. Sanders is, however, the closest thing Cleveland has to a future right now, and parking him on the bench does nothing to speed his development.
Even if he’d wind up being a five-alarm dumpster fire, Sanders would still be a better choice for the Browns than an aging, injury prone, mediocre quarterback and unrepentant accused sexual predator who the fan base loathes even more than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“Ultimately, the fans want us to win. I mean, ultimately put a good product on the field. That's really what they want,” Browns coach Todd Monken said Monday, Aug. 24, after announcing Watson as the starter.
“(Fans) don't decide who plays,” Monken added. “I mean, who would I be if I let someone outside the building decide who plays?”
Someone who can read a room?
Watson's past hangs over present
Watson is more toxic than the Cuyahoga River ever was, and four-plus years have done nothing to soften Cleveland fans’ opinions of him.
"I think the whole world knows it has nothing to do about the performance," Watson told reporters after he was booed during the Aug. 22 preseason game. "It’s a little bit more personal than that. So, I think it's a disrespectful thing.”
Of course it’s personal. But if you want to talk disrespectful, let’s talk about those lawsuits Watson settled with 27 women who detailed unwanted touching and/or sexual harassment by the quarterback.
While it’s true Watson was never charged – go look up the statistics on the percentage of sexual assault cases that actually get pursued — and denied wrongdoing, a police detective said in a deposition in one of the civil cases she believed his behavior was criminal . The NFL’s independent disciplinary officer, a former U.S. district judge, determined Watson had a “sexual purpose” for the appointments.
Watson has never apologized or taken responsibility for his dehumanizing treatment of those women. He’d rather throw himself pity parties because Browns fans aren’t willing to gloss over his misdeeds.
"I thought I was gonna get a little different response, but I think my emotions got the best of me," a more contrite Watson told reporters at training Monday, Aug. 24. "My comment wasn't intending to go at any of the fans around the city, because there's been a lot of great fans that have been supporting me."
Are those fans here in the room?
Lack of success on field doesn't help
The thing is, with the NFL being the NFL and society having as dim a view of women as it does, Browns fans probably would have been willing to give Watson a fresh start if he’d had success on the field. Or even just been available. But he hasn’t done either.
Since owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam foisted him on the Browns ahead of the 2022 season, Watson has played all of 19 games. He is 9-10 as Cleveland’s starter, with 19 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and an 80.7 QB rating.
Compounding that lack of reliability and productivity is the worst contract in sports : $230 million, every penny of which is fully guaranteed , according to USA TODAY Sports reporting. If the Browns cut him this season, they take a cap hit of $86.2 million next season , according to Spotrac. If they wait until the league’s next calendar year, they at least can spread that pain over 2027 and 2028, according to Over The Cap.
So the Browns are stuck and their fans are stuck with Watson. It’s a lose-lose scenario for a franchise that has known little else since it returned to Cleveland almost 30 years ago.
“What are we really in this for? What am I in it for? To have the Browns be an organization that people aspire to be,” Monken said.
Instead, Cleveland is squandering its future for a guy with an ugly past, while telling fans their feelings about it don't matter.
Maybe one year the Browns will act like a serious NFL team. This year isn't going to be it.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Browns picked Deshaun Watson over their future. Good luck with that | Opinion
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