Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson appears to be on the verge of securing the starting job on the shores of Lake Erie. Watson is scheduled to take the field, at home, playing his first game at Huntington Bank Field since rupturing his Achilles tendon against the Cincinnati Bengals in October of 2024.

Watson enters the final year of an insane 5-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract awarded to him in March 2022, replacing fan favorite Baker Mayfield in the process. However, fans have had a hate-hate relationship with Watson, who has done very little to ingratiate himself to the fanbase in Browns Town.

Cleveland Fans Deserve Much Better

The Northeast Ohio fans of the Browns are a hard-working lot. It’s a blue-collar town in the rust belt. Cleveland’s best days, at least in terms of prosperity due to its proximity as a port on Lake Erie, a premier steel producing town, and its pinnacle in terms of population, are in the rear-view mirror.

But, it’s a tough town, and it is re-inventing itself in other ways. There even used to be a t-shirt you could scoop up at Daffy Dan’s, for you ball knowers from the 1970s, which read: Cleveland: You Gotta be Tough.

Anyway, the point is, the people are salt of the Earth, and don’t take too kindly to somebody getting something they didn’t fight, scratch and claw to get. They certainly don’t like ingrates, and most feel Watson should be dropping to his knees every single day to thank the man above for his bountiful contract, which he has done very, very little to earn. Instead, we get this:

“I don’t care,” Watson said, when asked how he’d feel if/when he is booed by the home fans in Saturday’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.

Many fans are dubious, too. He is entering the final year of his mega deal, and he’ll be a free agent after the 2026 season. Now, he finally appears interested in playing, while holding a leg up in the battle with Shedeur Sanders to start, but nearly all fans feel it is for personal gain, not because he cares a shred about the organization which has provided him and his family with generational wealth at its expense. It’s a tough situation for new head coach Todd Monken to inherit.

Read the Town, Young Man

Read the room, Deshaun. Read the town.

This guy just can’t get out of his own way, and be remotely likable for a minute. Winning would change a lot, but, let’s face it, that isn’t happening with a hodgepodge of skill-position players, a difficult schedule, and plenty of competition in the black and blue AFC North Division.

So, maybe, just show a shred of gratitude, and be humble. It’s not that hard, although at this point, the bridge is not only burnt, but it’s destroyed, and there are no plans to rebuild it. Doesn’t this guy have an agent or advisors, though? Oh, yeah. They’re getting paid, too. Why should they care?

Cleveland Browns Essentials