The Cleveland Browns entered their second preseason game of 2026 still treating Deshaun Watson as a viable option at quarterback, as if the past four years had somehow been an aberration rather than a defining failure.
On Saturday against the Buffalo Bills, that illusion collided with reality in a 31-7 loss that exposed how deeply the organization has been living in denial.
That was, at least, how Zac Jackson of The Athletic framed it following Watson’s brutal showing.
Watson entered the contest in the third quarter and immediately faced a cascade of boos from the home crowd at Huntington Bank Field. His performance did little to quiet the discontent.
Completing just 5 of 12 passes for 36 yards with an interception, he offered no evidence that the player who once commanded a fully guaranteed contract worth more than $230 million had returned as anything resembling a franchise quarterback.
“Saturday reinforced that the Browns have been living in denial. Watson was booed multiple times by the home crowd in the preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills, and he responded in his postgame news conference by taking on the boos and the fans delivering them,” wrote Jackson. “… Everyone atop the Browns’ organization are being forced to publicly confront the fact that Watson represents more of this team’s rancid past than anything to do with a future-facing program.”
The numbers were ugly, but the reaction from the stands carried years of accumulated frustration over injuries, suspensions, and underwhelming results across only 19 games in a Browns uniform.
In his postgame remarks, Watson framed the hostility as personal rather than performance-based. He recalled the cheers that accompanied his Achilles injury in October 2024 and described the current treatment as disrespectful. “It’s a mental battle every day,” he said, even floating the idea that road games might feel more welcoming if he were named the starter.
The comments revealed a quarterback who has absorbed the rejection and is no longer pretending otherwise.
The Browns have spent the past two seasons stockpiling young talent and positioning themselves for a longer rebuild, yet they have continued to keep Watson in the mix alongside Shedeur Sanders.
Head coach Todd Monken has maintained an open competition through the spring and summer, alternating the two and delaying a final decision.
After Saturday’s events, the weight of that choice has grown heavier. Naming Watson the starter would require the organization to ignore not only the on-field evidence but also the clear message from its own fan base.
Watson remains under contract through this season, his deal still carrying significant salary-cap implications that make a clean break difficult. That financial reality does not change the larger picture.
The Browns can no longer pretend that the quarterback who arrived with such fanfare in 2022 is part of any coherent path forward. The boos, the poor performance, and the quarterback’s own response have forced a reckoning that the franchise has postponed for far too long.
