Todd Monken keeps choosing the path of most resistance with Deshaun Watson

Todd Monken said Monday that he doesn’t want his team to be considered an also-ran. He wants to coach it better, play better, and start changing people’s opinions about the Cleveland Browns.

The head coach also said during that same press conference that he watched the film and felt Deshaun Watson “did some really nice things” in a blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that was over by the second quarter. 

As Mike Tomlin so eloquently put it during the Sunday Night Football broadcast: "The Browns is the Browns."

Monken didn’t do himself any favors postgame after Cleveland’s uncompetitive 34-10 defeat. After the game, he reiterated that outside noise wouldn’t influence his decision on the starting quarterback, and he doubled down on that stance on Monday morning by affirming Watson as his starter for Week 2 at Tampa Bay.

It’s already awkward with the fans. Assuming Monken sticks with his guns and allows Watson to start the home opener against the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 27, things are going to get ugly.

And after Monday’s media availability, it’s fair to wonder if some of that awkwardness is creeping into the locker room as well.

The players generally know who gives them the best opportunity to win games. When given the chance to go to bat for his veteran quarterback, safety Ronnie Hickman said, bluntly: “That’s above my pay grade.”

There might be a reason for that. Monken insinuated to reporters that the players also won’t sway his decision on which quarterback he feels gives the team the best chance to win. Right now, that remains Watson.

“I don’t know, you’d have to ask every one of those guys,” he said. “Really, to be honest, they don’t have a choice. This isn’t a debate. I don’t ask the players every series what play we’re going to call, what play we’re going to call on defense. Like, their job to play, and our job to put the best player on the field that we think gives us a chance to win. And I love our guys. But the moment we get into that, in terms of who this guy should be playing, what we’re doing, what we ought to be calling, we’ve lost. We’ve lost sight of the target, which is to own it and fix it and try like hell to get better.”

Todd Monken says he doesn’t want to lose sight of the target, but he already has

It’s almost impossible to believe that Monken watched the All-22 from Sunday’s game and felt Watson looked like an NFL starter.

Watson threw a bad interception under pressure on the opening series. The offense gained a total of five first downs in the first half. Watson's final stats were buoyed by a 46-yard touchdown pass to Denzel Boston with 1:52 remaining and the score sitting at 34-3 when the ball left his hand.

Watson was Cleveland’s worst offensive player, according to Pro Football Focus, with an overall grade of 37.0. 

Monken tells us all the time that he hates s— football. He says he wants to win at all costs. And yet he continues to back a veteran player who clearly doesn't have it.

This whole thing really isn't as personal as Watson believes it is. Fans aren’t against him solely because of the 27 lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct during his time with the Houston Texans back in 2021. Fans see a broken version of a player who was once great on the field, and are livid that their franchise continues to carry around the “dysfunctional” label like a badge of honor.

During Monday morning’s episode of Get Up, Rex Ryan said Watson wouldn’t even be on the team if he were head coach of the Browns. That’s not really fair to Monken, as the salary-cap penalties baked into Watson’s current contract leave no choice but to ride things out until the spring of 2027, when Watson will be designated as a post-June 1 release.

But the Browns did have a choice — and that was to place Watson on season-ending injured reserve with an “injury,” something akin to what Dillon Gabriel apparently suffered on the morning of roster cuts. They could have let him collect his $46 million salary from home. He was always going to get that money from owner Jimmy Haslam no matter what. 

But Monken continues to choose the path of most resistance. His young team is currently aboard a rudderless ship because of it.

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