Four seasons of underperformance have done nothing to quell the Dawg Pound’s disappointment. Perhaps that’s why the boos aren’t going away for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson. But after a 31-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills, he seemingly had enough. Visibly annoyed, he slammed the fanbase, saying it was “personal” and “disrespectful.” But head coach Todd Monken has given him the starting job at last, and with that role secured, Watson has tried to win the fans over.

In his recent presser, he spoke for more than two minutes, apologized to the Dawg Pound for his earlier comments, and even made a promise to them.

“So, again, moving forward, I just wanna make sure that I can give the city something to think about in the first two games,” Watson said in conclusion. “And when we come back home, that we have something to cheer about, and we can celebrate and go do what we wanna do. And that’s achieve the ultimate goal and go win and be a champion.”

Both the latest apology and the preceding shots at the fanbase landed on the Nightcap podcast recently. Former NBA star Joe Johnson noted that things “ain’t adding up.” Former Browns player Chad Johnson argued that even before Watson tore his Achilles in 2024, he wasn’t playing well, and that’s why the fanbase cheered when he went down. Then, NFL legend Shannon Sharpe picked a moment from Watson’s Saturday comments – a reporter asking him if “winning and playing better would eliminate some of that booing.” Sharpe looked at Watson’s answer and ripped into him.

“That’s what the reporter asked,” Sharpe said. “The reporter asked him, and he didn’t acknowledge that. He could have said, ‘You know what? You’re right. If I had played better, maybe they [would have] cheered. But I haven’t played well.’ At least acknowledge I have not, and I am not playing well. Acknowledge that, and then we can move on to the disrespect that they showed you when you were laying on that field by booing you, and you’re injured.”

In that postgame presser, instead of answering the reporter’s question immediately, Watson, visibly annoyed, turned the lens to the 2024 Week 7 game where he suffered the season-ending injury.

“Last time I played on this field, tore my Achilles, and that same fan base, they cheered when I got hurt,” Watson had said. “So what does that have to do with anything about performance when a person get hurt, especially for your own city and they cheer?”

Shannon Sharpe, on his podcast, didn’t buy this answer. He looked at Watson’s career trajectory and pointed out why the fanbase has been disgruntled.

“Even the most ardent Deshaun Watson fan can honestly say, since he’s been in Cleveland, he’s been bad,” Sharpe said. “He has. And that’s okay to say. Two things can be true. He was a phenomenal player in Houston. He hasn’t been close to that.

“Now, you can chalk it up to injuries. You can chalk it up to being out for an extended period of time because you got to remember, 2020 was the last year that he looked like he was Deshaun Watson. In 2021, he didn’t play a game. In 2022, he missed the first 11 games. He comes back the following year, he gets hurt with a shoulder injury. He comes back the following year and he tears his Achilles. So he’s played only 19 games in 5 years.”

The irony is there was actually a time when Watson was hailed as a franchise quarterback for the Browns. Even as a rookie first-round pick for the Houston Texans, playing 7 games, he amassed 1,699 passing yards and 19 touchdowns. In his second year (2018), he logged 4,165 yards and 26 TDs, earning his first Pro Bowl. That Pro Bowl streak continued for two more years as he threw for 3,852 (2019) and a career-best 4,823 yards (2020) the following seasons.

But when he came to Cleveland in ‘22, something had changed.

Deshaun Watson got the largest guaranteed contract in NFL history to make the Browns successful. Suspensions and injuries plagued him instead, and by the time he tore his Achilles, he’d only won 9 of his 19 games – not looking anything like the $230 million quarterback the Browns had given up six draft picks for. The fact that three of those picks were first-rounders only added insult to the injury. That’s why, after everything, Shannon Sharpe’s ultimatum lands the way it does: “he’s got to play better now, though.”

Watson, for his part, has already promised to do so for the team that gave up an arm and two legs to trade for him in 2022.

“And I know the frustration; this organization have put a lot of investment in coming to get me back in ‘22, and things haven’t been going the right direction that we thought it was,” Watson has said. “A lot of injuries, a lot of time off, and not putting the best football and my foot forward. So, again, I understand the frustration; I understand everything that kind of goes into that. And moving forward, I just wanna focus on football, making sure that I’m putting the best product out there, having the best ability.”

Now, when Deshaun Watson takes the field for the regular season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he just needs to prove that these aren’t empty words.