{"id":398995,"date":"2026-09-13T23:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/398995\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T23:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:44:15","slug":"todd-monken-noncommittal-on-deshaun-watson-after-browns-week-1-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/398995\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Monken noncommittal on Deshaun Watson after Browns&#8217; Week 1 nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cleveland\u2019s trade for Deshaun Watson will go down as one of the worst deals in NFL history.<\/p>\n<p>But Browns head coach Todd Monken isn\u2019t ready to give up on the quarterback completing a Hail Mary.<\/p>\n<p>In his first game back since suffering a torn Achilles in 2024, Watson still looked well past his prime, as the Browns suffered a 34-10 loss in Jacksonville. The 30-year-old threw an interception on the first possession of the game and failed to lead Cleveland to points until the middle of the third quarter while trailing 31-0. The Browns\u2019 lone touchdown came on a meaningless Watson pass with less than two minutes left in the game.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40800188\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/deshaun-watson-4-cleveland-browns-140992310.jpg\" alt=\"Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns running with the ball against the Jacksonville Jaguars.\" class=\"wp-image-40800188\"\/>Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns runs with the ball against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Watson, who went 1-6 as the starter and led the league\u2019s worst-ranked offense in 2024, finished 16-of-22 for 205 yards \u2014 and 38 rushing yards \u2014 while getting sacked five times in the blowout.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/24\/sports\/browns-make-deshaun-watson-shedeur-sanders-qb-decision\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watson beat out second-year quarterback Shedeur Sanders<\/a> for the starting spot in training camp, but the former Texans star is nearly out of time to repair the optics of the 2022 trade that resulted in Cleveland handing him the largest guaranteed contract in NFL history ($230 million). Sunday marked just his 20th game since 2020, when he made the most recent of his three Pro Bowl appearances.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49489051;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40800184\" width=\"882\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/cleveland-browns-quarterback-deshaun-watson-140982333.jpg\" alt=\"Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen (41) sacks Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.\" class=\"wp-image-40800184\"\/>Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen (41) sacks Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, right, in the second half of an NFL football game on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Jacksonville. AP Photo\/Mike Stewart<\/p>\n<p>Cleveland\u2019s subpar quarterback room \u2014 featuring Sanders, rookie Taylen Green and second-year Dillon Gabriel \u2014 is essentially all that is keeping Watson under center for now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d rather just talk about today, because I haven\u2019t had time to even look at the tape,\u201d Monken said after the loss. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t all him. It really wasn\u2019t all him. That\u2019s unfair. Certainly could have called it better, certainly could have played better around him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Browns will be heavy underdogs again next week at Tampa Bay, before playing their home-opener against the Panthers in Week 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland\u2019s trade for Deshaun Watson will go down as one of the worst deals in NFL history. But&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10575,19894,116,118,117,119,19888,110],"class_list":["post-398995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-deshaun-watson","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-nfl","tag-shedeur-sanders","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}