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Deshaun Watson will open the season as the Browns’ starter at quarterback, even after a calamitous preseason outing over the weekend after which he called boos from Cleveland fans “disrespectful.”
Todd Monken, the Browns’ first-year coach, said Monday that Watson will start the team’s season opener Sept. 13 at Jacksonville. Watson, entering his fifth season with the Browns since the team traded three first-round picks as part of a package to acquire him from the Texans in 2022, got the starting nod over second-year pro Shedeur Sanders. He is in the final season of a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract.
“Deshaun is going to start against Jacksonville,” Monken said at a news conference. “Took in the full body of work over the course of offseason to training camp to the games, the joint practice and ultimately felt like to start the season on the road, Deshaun gave us the best chance to move the ball and score points. I mean, that’s really what it’s about. And felt that way going into last game but wasn’t sure. And after we talked as a staff and after we relooked at everything, we’re going to go that direction.”
The Browns will make another, perhaps final attempt to get something out of what so far has been one of the worst trades—and contracts—ever in professional sports.
It could amount to a two-game trial for Watson before the Browns play their home opener in a Week 3 game Sept. 27 against the Panthers. They’re also on the road for a Week 2 game Sept. 20 against the Buccaneers in Tampa.
Watson, who turns 31 next month, missed all of last season after suffering a second rupture of the Achilles tendon in his right leg. He has played in only 19 games over four seasons with the Browns, totaling 19 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions. He very rarely has resembled the three-time Pro Bowl selection that he was over his first four NFL seasons with the Texans.
He was booed by fans while throwing an interception during a 5-for-12, 36-yard passing performance during Saturday’s 31–7 loss to the Bills in Cleveland.
“I think the whole world knows it has nothing to do about the performance,” Watson said during his postgame news conference. “It’s a little bit [more] personal than that. So I think that’s a disrespectful thing. So yeah, I mean, I’m going to keep whatever I feel with me and my family internally on how I feel about that and yeah, just move on.”
Monken had said Sunday that Watson’s postgame comments Saturday would not be a factor in the starting-quarterback decision.
Watson played in six games for the Browns in the 2022 season after serving an 11-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. The suspension resulted from a settlement between the league, the NFL Players Association and Watson’s representatives following allegations made in more than two dozen civil lawsuits filed by women accusing him of sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions. Watson denied the allegations against him and was not charged with a crime. He reached settlements with almost all of his accusers.
He played in six games in the 2023 season before a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery. He played in seven games in 2024 before suffering his original Achilles tendon injury during an October game. Watson re-ruptured the tendon and had a second surgery in January 2025.
“Last time I played on this field, I tore my Achilles,” Watson said Saturday. “And 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 for your own city, and they cheer?”
Watson is scheduled to be a free agent next spring. His contract has been renegotiated and now contains a series of voidable years. He is owed a guaranteed $46 million for this season, although his base salary was reduced to $1.3 million—the league minimum for a player of his experience level—as part of a contract reworking.
His contract is to count nearly $41 million against the Browns’ salary cap this season. The team will absorb an additional cap hit of more than $86.2 million beyond that, although the Browns can spread that across more than one year.
Browns co-owner Jimmy Haslam told reporters at the annual league meeting in March 2025 that the team “took a big swing and miss with Deshaun,” adding: “We thought we had the quarterback. We didn’t. And we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him. So we’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole.”
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