BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Deshaun Watson insists he's not worried about his job certainty, changing people's minds about him or the possibility of facing a hostile Browns home crowd in two weeks.
Maybe he should be.
Coming off his first start in nearly two years, a bumpy performance in Jacksonville that did little to change the narrative surrounding the polarizing quarterback, Watson insisted Wednesday that he doesn't feel he needs to play well this week at Tampa
Bay to stay the starter.
And, it should be noted, he'll be matched up against Baker Mayfield, the QB Watson replaced in Cleveland and one likely with revenge on his mind.
How poetic.
“Personally, I think all that is for the media,” said Watson, who has played just 20 games during four tumultuous seasons with the Browns. “I think the media has this expectation that I’m supposed to throw 400 yards and five touchdowns every week.
"Until that happens, I guess it’s going to be the same situation. My job is to make sure I’m operating well so we can try to get a win and keep moving forward from there.”
At the moment, things are in neutral.
Watson, who was selected as Cleveland's starter over Shedeur Sanders this summer by first-year coach Todd Monken, could be running out of time. In his first start in 693 days last week, he showed some of the expected rustiness from a long layoff while also making some of the same mistakes that plagued him in training camp.
He threw a tone-setting interception on the Browns' first drive as the Jaguars built a 24-0 halftime lead on the way to winning 34-10.
Watson padded his stats in the second half, finishing 16 of 22 for 205 yards and a touchdown. Monken's lukewarm endorsement following the game spurred speculation that a QB change was imminent, but he decided to stick with Watson and give him at least one more chance.
Time will tell if it's his last one.
Monken has been publicly supportive of Watson and one wobbly game hasn't changed that. He believes Watson will bounce back.
"I always expect our players to play well,” Monken said. “I wouldn’t put them out there if I didn’t. So, I expect him to play really well. There were moments on Sunday that he did and there were moments we did a really good job offensively. And there were moments we didn’t. And there were moments we didn’t coach well enough. And there were moments we didn’t play well enough.”
Cleveland's offense never found any rhythm. The Browns were twice penalized for delay of game and there was a three-snap sequence in the first half when they got flagged for a false start, delay, and neutral zone infraction that squashed a scoring chance.
Not all of that is Watson's fault, but when things don't run smoothly, fingers point at the quarterback — fairly or unfairly. He split first-team reps with Sanders during camp, but Watson knows he's got to clean up the self-inflicted miscues.
“We just got to get in and out of the huddle,” he said. “It was loud. We have different, multiple plays in one play call, so being able to hear everything, get off, get set up, see what the defense is doing, motion, signals, all these different things. We definitely need to work hard on that, and that’s one of the main focuses.”
Monken accepted some of the blame for his team's sloppiness and was encouraged this week by a sense of ownership in his players and staff.
“Below the line,” Monken said of last week's numerous operational issues. “We’re going to get beat. We’re going to make mistakes, but we certainly are capable of playing better individually and then collectively.”
Watson could take some pressure off Monken with a productive start in Week 2. If he struggles, Monken may have no choice but to bench him in favor of the popular Sanders, who showed promise in seven starts as a rookie last season.
The most recent time Watson played at home he was booed during a preseason game and infuriated fans afterward by calling their reaction “disrespectful.”
Monken believes Watson's second start will go much better.
“I think he had fun,” he said. "When you’re not moving the ball, is that fun? No, that’s not fun for me or him. That’d be silly to say that it was, but he hadn’t played in 22 months and he finally got the first team reps for like two weeks. There’s enough there to say, “I expect to play better. I expect to coach better. I expect our team to play better around him.
"I’ve got our players’ backs, and he happens to be one of those guys that we expect to play well.”
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