Deshaun Watson could take Browns head coach Todd Monken down with him

It's only been one week, and the Cleveland Browns' whole operation is already on fire — and not in the good way. After a dismal 34-10 season-opening loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in which quarterback Deshaun Watson could barely move the offense, head coach Todd Monken doesn't sound like he's going to make any changes under center. In fact, he doesn't care if the rest of the team wants Watson benched.

"They don't have a choice. This isn't a debate," he told reporters Wednesday. "I love our guys ... the moment we get into that ... we've lost sight of the target."

Watson is not the kind of guy you want to handcuff yourself to and undyingly support, and that's excluding his unsavory off-the-field past. The 30-year-old seemed to have won the Browns' QB1 job by default (read: his $40.2 million salary cap hit) and starting Shedeur Sanders instead would've been waving the white flag on his contract. Yet getting that defensive over the guy sends the wrong signal to the rest of the team you're trying to continually earn trust from.

Deshaun Watson will end Todd Monken's Browns tenure before it truly begins

Watson was pressed about his 205-yard, one-touchdown and one-interception Week 1 performance on Wednesday. When asked if Week 2 demanded a rebound, his response lacked any accountability and instead shifted the blame onto the ones asking the questions.

"I think the media has this expectation that I'm supposed to throw 400 yards and 5 touchdowns every week," he said. "Until that happens I guess it's going to be the same situation."

Nobody is expecting Watson to be Patrick Mahomes week in and week out. However, he's been expected to play like a first-round pick (No. 12 in 2014) and a franchise QB worth the three first-round picks plus a handful of other selections the Browns sent to the Houston Texans in 2022. So far, he's come up well short — and for Monken to take Watson's side over the best interest for the team, he's practically asking for a locker room mutiny.

"That's above my paygrade," safety Ronnie Hickman told reporters Wednesday when he was asked about Monken naming Watson the Week 2 starter.

Watson missed the entire 2025 season after re-rupturing the same Achilles tendon he tore midway through the 2024 campaign. He's practically been absent for a majority of his five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract, when you combine other injuries and a suspension tied to sexual misconduct allegations. This is not the guy Monken wants tied to his ankle when he eventually sinks.

Nobody is saying Sanders is going to turn Cleveland into a winning team either, but at least giving him a shot after Watson clearly demonstrated he's not the guy worth spending any more time on would prove to the locker room and the fans that Monken is trying to turn the ship around. If the team has to tank, then earn another top draft pick after proving there is no franchise quarterback currently in Cleveland.

The head coach decides who gets to start each week, but that same coach has to take the pulse of the team occasionally. If Monken was really listening, he'd realize nobody in that locker room wants Watson to helm the ship. Confidence and trust in him is practically negative and that will eventually be true of Monken if he doesn't wise up quickly. Losing the locker room means you're likely losing the job too.

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