Todd Monken just named Deshaun Watson the starter and Browns fans feel betrayed

The quarterback competition that has consumed Todd Monken’s first seven months as head coach of the Cleveland Browns just reached an extremely controversial conclusion.

Despite the fan base doing everything in its power to reject another year of the Deshaun Watson experience, Monken made the decision to go that route on Monday — at least to start the regular season — per FOX Sports insider Jordan Schultz.

The Browns will allow Watson to start his 20th game of the franchise’s darkest era in their Sept. 13 road game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Watson’s decade of NFL experience and fully-guaranteed $46 million salary won out over Year 2 quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

The reaction from Browns fans in the comments of Schultz's tweet on Monday morning says it all.

While Browns fans had been mentally preparing themselves for this announcement, the team somehow found a way to leave them feeling betrayed all over again.

Deshaun Watson gave Todd Monken and the Browns a clear out, and they chose chaos instead

The bulk of the commentary following Watson's performance and cringy postgame press conference against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday centered on whether the team would find a way to release him. Monken naming him the starter two days later was barely on the national radar.

Watson was terrible in Saturday’s game, playing more than a quarter with a QB rating of 14.6. He made it pretty clear postgame that he was affected by being booed by the home fans in his return to Huntington Bank Field. As Watson reminded everyone, the last time he heard cheers directed his way during a Browns home game was when he tore his Achilles in October of 2024.

The follow-up question that’s impossible to ignore was Watson being asked if he could  “defeat the negativity,” and his response being: “I don’t know.”

“It’s a mental battle every day," he said. "I feel like I get more love on road games than I do at home games. So, if it is my spot and he does make me the starter, maybe it’s 17 away games, then. I don’t know.”

Watson’s entire press conference was a disaster. He took zero responsibility for how poorly he played in the game and at one point dropped the line “I don’t regret anything in life.” That’s a wild statement from a person who’s had more than two dozen women accuse him of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during massage sessions.

But it’s the “17 away games” comment that should be eating at Browns fans, teammates, coaches, executives, owners, and everyone in between. Watson didn’t sound like a player who cared about starting games for the Cleveland Browns this season. He sounded like a player who would love to be playing anywhere else right now.

How Monken landed on that same player as his Week 1 starter is one fans will never understand.

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