Monken confident in Watson’s deep ball

Boston has now led the Browns in receiving in three of the team’s first four games, made more impressive by the fact that those were the first four contests of the youngster’s professional career. The second-round rookie continues to flash big play potential after catching his third pass of 46 yards or longer, this time unable to find the end zone after scoring twice in his first two games. Boston still has room to grow considering he has seen just 22 targets in the first month of the season, and could reward fantasy managers that invested late-round picks in his services handsomely in the second half of his rookie year. He’ll be an upside FLEX option against the Jets in Week 5.

Watson made very few mistakes through the air against a solid Pittsburgh defense, although a third quarter fumble on a scramble attempt and a fourth quarter interception on tipped pass at the line of scrimmage allowed the Steelers the runway to make the game interesting late. Watson also badly missed a wide open Harold Fannin on a third down play that would have allowed the Browns to ice the game, instead giving the ball back to Aaron Rodgers with under four minutes to play while up eight points. Rodgers would work his late-game magic to knot the game at 24 before Watson drove the Browns into field goal range to set up the go-ahead kick with 10 seconds on the clock. Watson had a 20-yard carry wiped from his ledger due to penalty that would have padded his counting stats further. The two turnovers notwithstanding, Watson played a largely clean game that saw the Browns improve to 3-1, currently alone atop the AFC North, pending the outcomes of the Ravens and Bengals games Sunday. The Browns turn the page to a Week 5 meeting with the Jets, where Watson will remain a surprising high-end QB2 in fantasy circles.

Per Fowler, sources around the league say Watson could get six total starts this year. The bar is low in Cleveland. Watson has not yet thrown for 240 yards in a game and has just five passing touchdowns this year. He is a QB2 against the Steelers tonight.

What to do with this info? Stash Boston at the very least. Per Palmer, the Browns “felt he was a true pro from the day he walked into the building.” In the same pre-Thursday Night Football news dump, Palmer said that Harold Fannin is the team’s No. 3 pass catcher, despite Fannin leading the team in targets. This could indicate that the Browns plan to ramp up Boston’s offensive involvement as the season progresses.

This comes from Palmer’s pre-Thursday Night Football notes. After sharing the info, he tells readers to “read into that how you want.” Fannin currently leads the team in targets (18), though rookie WRs KC Concepcion (17) and Denzel Boston (15) are right behind him. If Palmer’s report is accurate, Fannin could slip to third in target share as the season progresses, but he remains a very talented player and target earner, deserving of a weekly TE1 ranking. Just file this away for now.

Boston’s 41 yards were his fewest in three games as a pro, though he has now contributed at least one 20-yard catch all three times out. On the rare occasions Deshaun Watson actually throws down-field, he’s looking only for Boston. That will lead to some spiked weeks, but Boston’s floor is too low to rank him inside the top 36 on a regular basis, including Thursday’s short-week home date with the Steelers.

The multi-score start was Watson’s second straight, though his yards per attempt fell precipitously for the second consecutive week. He’s now gone from 9.3 YPA in Week 1 to 7.9 to 4.8. Absolutely everything was underneath this afternoon, though we suppose the effort did come in a win. Watson found Harold Fannin for seven catches and a pair of scores after hitting the tight end seven total times between Weeks 1 and 2. The flip side was that Watson had just one completion longer than 20 yards, a 28-yard strike to Denzel Boston. Watson also missed a snap late after taking a big hit, but ended up returning ahead of what proved to be the game-winning field goal. Watson hasn’t been quite as bad as feared, but he’s hardly silencing the critics, including Browns fans who occasionally booed Sunday. The Steelers will be a tough short-week matchup this Thursday. Watson won’t be in the superflex mix for that one.

It’s the rookie’s second touchdown grab in as many weeks. After catching an intermediate pass from Deshaun Watson, Boston spun out of a tackle and raced to the end zone for a 55-yard score — by far the biggest play of the game. Boston is cementing himself as the clear WR1 in the Cleveland offense, well ahead of KC Concepcion — who had another inefficient day on Sunday — and Jerry Jeudy, who did not catch his lone target against Tampa. Boston will have plenty of deep league fantasy appeal in Week 3 against the Panthers.

Watson was far more accurate than he was in Week 1’s meltdown loss to the Jaguars. He was 6.5 percent over his expected completion rate and once again hit rookie WR Denzel Boston for a long touchdown. Watson navigated the pocket well and was passably accurate on short-area throws (his 3.6 aDOT is as low as it gets for a full game’s work). His Week 2 play all but guarantees he’ll hang on to the Browns’ starting QB gig for at least a few more weeks before Shedeur Sanders or Dillon Gabriel get another shot under center. Watson will have superflex appeal in Week 3 against a gettable Carolina defense.

Schefter said it “feels like Shedeur’s time is coming” if Watson bombs in the Browns’ Week 2 matchup with the Bucs following his Week 1 collapse against Jacksonville. Sanders, in that scenario, would be under center for the Browns’ home opener against the Panthers in Week 3. Sanders, who is slightly more accurate than Watson in the short and intermediate areas, would be an upgrade for Harold Fannin and KC Concepcion. He would likely be a downgrade for downfield air yards eater Denzel Boston.