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The Cleveland Browns are 3-13 with one game remaining in the 2024 NFL season, and although this is a franchise that has stumbled to 1-win and 0-win seasons within the last decade, it's not a stretch to say that there hasn't been more turmoil and ill-will toward the team in that time than there is now. And in reality, that almost entirely boils down to one man… Deshaun Watson, who may be the most unpopular figure affiliated with a Cleveland sports team since Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore.
When Watson went down with a season-ending injury last year, it was former Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco who stepped in for the disgraced QB. Surprisingly, Flacco shined and led Cleveland to the postseason, boosting an offense that was being kept afloat by soon-to-be Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and the Cleveland defense.
After the season concluded, the Browns let Joe Flacco walk and instead opted to run it back with Deshaun Watson. Now for a second, let's set aside the fact that Watson had dozens of sexual harassment and assault allegations against him at the time Cleveland decided to sign him. Even if he had a squeaky-clean off-field image, Watson was still one of the most expensive quarterbacks in the league, and he was playing the worst football of his career. That's a recipe for disaster in and of itself.
But with the fan base rallying around Flacco, it made the team's decision to hand the keys back to Watson even more controversial. As ESPN's Jeremy Fowler and Daniel Oyefusi recently explained, that decision was made in part because Cleveland expected to receive a compensatory pick in the NFL Draft after Flacco signed with Indianapolis. But there is a lingering belief that the Browns went their separate ways because having Flacco on the bench was a hinderance to the confidence of Deshaun Watson.
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“I 100% believe that was a factor, the need to not have him hanging over Watson as he built his confidence,” a team source told Fowler and Oyefusi. A source within the Browns front office denied this claim, saying that it was “solely a football decision” to move on from Flacco.
In fairness to the Browns, it really didn't matter who was backing up Deshaun Watson heading into the season. He was going to be booed by fans in Cleveland regardless. Neither Dorian Thompson-Robinson or Jameis Winston provide a roadmap to success, but Browns fans had a far easier time getting behind either of those two than Watson. It could've been Flacco, 61-year-old Bernie Kosar or yours truly occupying the back-up quarterback spot, and it wouldn't have helped Watson's case.
The Browns apparently plan to bring Watson back next season, pending a return to full health following the season-ending achilles tear he suffered back in October, and if the team thinks the situation will be any less hostile in 2025, they have another thing coming.
