If you thought the Browns would stop playing Deshaun Watson after their Week 1 stinker — why?
Head coach Todd Monken said in his Monday video conference that Watson is set to start the team’s Week 2 matchup with the Buccaneers in Tampa on Sunday.
Watson finished Sunday’s 34-10 loss 16-of-22 for 205 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Forty-six of those yards came on that TD pass to Denzel Boston, which came with 1:52 left in the fourth quarter.
“It’s only been two weeks that he’s gotten all the reps,” Monken said. “And there were some really good things on film — some things that you can build on. And there were some others that — you know, operationally, we’ve got to get better at. There’s concepts that, there’s only so many looks you get from week to week, be it red zone concepts, third-down concepts.
“I did think that when he had time, when he understood the concepts, he didn’t play tentative, that he let it rip. Even the touchdown at the end, sure that was garbage time, but that was on their [No.] 1 corner. That was one of their starters out there. And that was a communication between him and the receiver. So, there were a lot of things to build on. Was it perfect? Of course not, otherwise we wouldn’t have scored as few of points as we did. But I’d like to see how we can build on that. I like his week of practice last week. And I think he’s only going to continue to get better.”
Monken said there wasn’t much discussion about potentially replacing Watson as QB1 after his Sunday performance.
“No, just confirmed it when I looked at the tape,” Monken said. “We’ve got to play better around him. We’ve got to call it better. And he’s got to play better.
“Our inability to function consistently as an offense was a byproduct of we — coaching and playing.”
While Watson threw an interception to end Cleveland’s first drive, Monken said he didn’t feel like the quarterback got tentative when it came to throwing downfield after that play.
“I would say that some of those weren’t called,” Monken said. “[T]here were times where we were trying to push the ball down the field and he did have a missed throw once we moved the pocket one time. But I know right before halftime, he made two great throws that put us in position. And then we got a couple of holding calls that had nothing to do with Deshaun.
“So, without watching the tape, you could say that — you could say, hey, he looked a little tentative there. And it’d be like, no, not really. Really, we just didn’t call certain routes to push it down the field, or we didn’t execute.”
The real issue, according to Monken, is that the club had “too many Browns hurting Browns moments.”
“And then even as we got later in the game, I did not see that one bit — that he was tentative in terms of trying to throw it down the field,” Monken said. “Sure, there’s a couple of times maybe he could’ve pumped it down there. But in my mind, I didn’t see that.”
Maybe we’ll all see something different in Week 2 when Cleveland plays Tampa Bay.
Baker Mayfield’s Sunday afternoon did not go well, with three lost fumbles directly contributing to Tampa Bay’s 33-27 loss to Cincinnati.
After agreeing to a contract extension earlier in the week, Mayfield finished 23-of-28 for 216 yards with no touchdowns, no picks, and the three giveaways.
“This one falls on me,” Mayfield said in his postgame press conference. “I mean, they had, I think, 17 points alone off of my turnovers. Turns out to be a one-score game — six points.”
But the Bengals were just one of two AFC North opponents that the Buccaneers have to begin their 2026 slate.
The next, of course, is the Browns.
“I mean, obviously, there’s history there — there’s no way to go around that,” Mayfield said.
You think?
The Browns infamously decided to move on from Mayfield after the 2021 season and traded for Deshaun Watson as his replacement. While Mayfield has found a home with the Bucs after stints with the Panthers and Rams in 2022, the Browns are still reeling from the aftereffects of that disastrous trade.
While Mayfield is 0-1 against Cleveland, having lost to the team with Carolina in 2022, he now has a unique chance to rub the Browns’ nose in it.
But, at least publicly, he’s not making more of it than what it is.
“It’s the next opponent,” Mayfield said. “Cleveland happens to be the next opponent — our home opener. So, yeah. Have a bad taste in our mouth, looking forward to getting it out.
“It’s still the next one, and that’s the most important one,” Mayfield added. “I’ve said that to you guys over the years — it doesn’t matter who it is, the most important one is the next one. And we’ve got — I’ve got to get some stuff fixed. And we’ve got to move forward.”
If you look at Deshaun Watson’s final numbers from Cleveland’s 34-10 loss to Jacksonville on Sunday, you might be able to talk yourself into some positives.
After all, Watson was 16-of-22 for 205 yards with a touchdown and an interception — good for 9.3 yards per attempt and a 97.7 passer rating.
But if you watched the game, you’d know 46 of those yards came on a garbage-time touchdown to Denzel Boston against the Jaguars’ backups. You would’ve seen Watson fire an interception to end Cleveland’s first drive, almost throw another to end the second, and then get strip-sacked on the third. You would understand that most — if not all — of Jacksonville’s five sacks on Watson happened because he was dropping so far back that the offensive line couldn’t form a cohesive pocket. You might’ve been baffled by how often he was trying to change a call at the line of scrimmage too late in the play clock.
Cleveland’s first drive had gotten off to a solid start, with the team moving the ball before Watson’s interception. After that, the unit was off the rails with no sense of rhythm.
But Watson said postgame that the pick didn’t rattle him.
“No, I mean, bad plays are going to happen all the time,” he said in his press conference. “You look all around the league. Everyone throws interceptions, everyone makes bad plays. You’ve got to give the defense credit. He made a good play on that. Even though I got knocked off my platform a little bit, I thought I got it over him. He reached up and grabbed it. So you’ve got to move on to the next play and try to move forward and try to put something positive on the next drive. And we weren’t able to do that.
“So it didn’t really bundle up my confidence. It’s just — we didn’t get back on track like we wanted to.”
Will the Browns’ dalliance with Watson continue? It seems likely, for at least another week. And so, Watson will lean on his experience in dealing with adversity as the Browns ready to play the Buccaneers.
“Yeah, I mean just keep moving forward, keep stepping forward, keep smiling, regardless of who’s against me or who’s with me,” Watson said. “I think that’s more beneficial for the team in that locker room. I’ve had a lot of support in that locker room after the game telling me to keep my head up, keep pushing forward, keep working. They’re behind me, so that’s always positive to see and hear. Yeah, we just got to keep going.
“The adversity is going to be there. You’ve got to embrace it. That’s the only way — I thought it was going to be gone two years ago, but I guess not. So you just embrace it and keep pushing through until you break that wall through.”
The Browns will be on the road to face Baker Mayfield and the Bucs next Sunday.
Deshaun Watson’s return to the Browns lineup was a thudding disappointment.
The quarterback threw an interception on the first possession of the game and the Browns were shut out for the first half of a 34-10 loss to the Jaguars. Watson finished the day 16-of-22 for 205 yards and also ran six times for 38 yards while being sacked five times over the course of the afternoon. They gained 140 of their 272 yards in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach.
Head coach Todd Monken was asked after the game if Watson will remain the starter in Tampa next weekend.
“I’d rather just talk about today, because I haven’t had time to even look at the tape. . . . It wasn’t all him,” Monken said. “It really wasn’t all him. That’s unfair. Certainly could have called it better, certainly could have played better around him.”
Week 3 brings the home opener for the Browns and they’ll need to get a lot more from Watson next week for there to be any chance of him being greeted kindly by the team’s fans.
The Jaguars had no trouble spoiling head coach Todd Monken’s debut and quarterback Deshaun Watson’s first game since 2024.
Jacksonville steamrolled Cleveland, 34-10, to open the 2026 season 1-0.
The Jags scored on each of their first four possessions in the first half, taking a 24-0 lead into the break. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence had three touchdown passes in the first 30 minutes, adding another to cap Jacksonville’s first drive of the third quarter for a 31-0 lead.
Lawrence finished 18-of-23 for 245 yards with four touchdowns. With the Jags up big, Nick Mullens came in to relieve Lawrence with 8:12 left in the fourth quarter.
Parker Washington, JaKobi Meyers, Brenton Strange, and rookie Josh Cameron were the recipients of Lawrence’s four TD passes.
Running back Bhayshul Tuten did a nice job toting the rock, finishing the contest with…
Before Lawrence was taken out of the game, the Jaguars were averaging 7.2 yards per play.
On the other side, it started ugly for Watson and continued that way throughout the afternoon. He threw an interception to Foyesade Oluokun to end Cleveland’s opening drive. He threw another near interception that was dropped at the end of the Browns’ second possession. He was then strip-sacked, but recovered the fumble.
Rookie KC Concepcion also had a fumble that led to a Jaguars touchdown. He finished with four receptions for 43 yards, which led Cleveland. He also had three carries for 15 yards.
The positive play from Watson came right at the end of the game, as he fired a 46-yard touchdown pass to rookie Denzel Boston for the first score of the wideout’s career.
The Jaguars have now won nine consecutive regular-season games, dating back to Week 11 of last season. They will be on the road to face the Broncos in Week 2.
At 0-1, Cleveland will be back in Florida next week to face Tampa Bay, a matchup that will see Deshaun Watson face Baker Mayfield — that is, if Watson isn’t replaced by then.
