The Jaguars-Browns opener isn’t exactly one of the premier games the first weekend of the upcoming season.
The Jaguars are a 7.5-point favorite and, as a small-market team, they don’t usually get a lot of TV coverage even though they finished last year at 13-4 and won their final regular season games before losing to Buffalo in the playoffs. And Cleveland is, well, Cleveland. A team going nowhere for years and one that traded its best player in the offseason, Myles Garrett.
But the game became more interesting when new coach Todd Monken named Deshaun Watson the Opening Day starter, even though he completed just 5 of 12 passes for 35 yards and one pick in four drives in the second preseason game against Buffalo and was booed relentless by the Cleveland fans. His postgame press conference didn’t help matters.
“I think the whole world knows it has nothing to do about the performance,” Watson said, even though the performance wasn’t good.
What he was referring to is that the Cleveland fans are upset that the Browns gave up three first-round picks to Houston and then gave Watson a record $320 million guaranteed contract, even though he served an 11-game suspension by the league, paid a $5 million fine and completed a treatment program because of his off-field issues relating to visits to massage parlors in Houston.
Watson continued to say the boos were “personal” and “disrespectful,” and that only annoyed the fans even more. But Monken still named him the starter over second-year quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Watson has also been plagued with injuries and gone 9-10 in 19 games with Cleveland.
Watson later apologized for his comments, saying he “let his emotions get the best of me.”
And Monken can’t cut Watson because it would leave the Browns with $86.2 million in “dead money” next year. With the first two games on the road at Jacksonville and Tampa Bay (when Watson will face Baker Mayfield, who was traded by the Browns to make room for him), Monken might as well find out if Watson can still play. He can always switch to Sanders if Watson struggles.
That’s why there will be a lot of focus on Watson in the opener against the Jaguars. He is not expected to win the game, but at least show he can keep the Browns competitive. Either way, this is likely Watson’s last year in Cleveland. The next question is whether any team will want him next year once Cleeland unloads him.
So Watson has a lot at stake this year as he tries to show he has something left in the tank.
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