The Cleveland Browns’ quarterback decision was always going to be scrutinized, but the timing made it more volatile. Just two days after Deshaun Watson was loudly booed by his own home crowd during the Browns’ preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills, and one day after he called that reaction “personal” and “disrespectful” before walking the comments back, head coach Todd Monken named Watson the starter over Shedeur Sanders for the Browns’ Week 1 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

It’s a call that arrives with almost no goodwill attached, given Deshaun Watson completed under 60% of his throws with zero touchdowns across the preseason and an owner who has publicly called the Watson trade a “swing-and-miss.” Monken has stood by the move as a football decision, but the fallout from how it lands outside the building is where the real story is now shifting.

According to 92.3 The Fan’s Jake Vulinec, that outside noise is exactly what makes this situation combustible for Cleveland’s locker room, regardless of how the players themselves actually feel about the decision. Vulinec argued that the quarterback room’s opinion was likely never really in question.

“I imagine there’s probably a handful of teammates, if not a majority of them, that agree with the decision. Deshaun should be our starter if it came down to him and Shedeur. That’s great. That’s fantastic,” Jake Vulinec said on 92.3 The Fan. “I also don’t think fans care, and I don’t think fans should care. Congratulations. He’s liked in the locker room. The guys wanted him to be the starting quarterback. There’s so much of this that’s just not about what Denzel Boston, KC Concepcion, or anybody else on that roster thinks of it. This is a separation…”

He continued laying out that divide between inside and outside perception, arguing that the two worlds are fundamentally separate and that the Browns can’t afford to let one bleed into the other. 

Vulinec’s larger point centers on what happens the moment things go sideways on the field again. If Watson struggles once the regular season starts and the boos that followed him against Buffalo return, he explained, it won’t just be Watson fielding questions about it. 

Reporters will turn to his teammates too, whether those players want to weigh in on the noise surrounding their quarterback or not. 

That’s the tension hanging over the Browns’ locker room heading into the opener, a level of internal support for Watson that could get tested fast if the external frustration that boiled over against Buffalo resurfaces once real games are on the line.

The divide between the noise surrounding Watson and the support he still has inside the locker room is clear, but it looks like he has moved on from the controversy and is looking forward to fulfilling his new responsibility.

Earlier this week at the Cleveland Browns’ facility in Berea, Ohio, Deshaun Watson addressed a presser on August 24, 2026, and made his expectations clear for the upcoming season. 

“I think I’m getting better. I think mentally I’ve been getting better,” Watson said. “There’s a lot of things, too, that me and Monken talked about personally that we haven’t showcased. We haven’t showcased my full talent and ability to run in this offense, being able to run and being able to use my athletic ability, getting outside the pocket, being able to do some other QB-driven stuff. So, I’m excited to see what we can cook up getting ready for week one.”

Watson’s comments suggest he is choosing to let the preseason noise stay in the rearview mirror and put his attention on what comes next. With Monken handing him the starting job, the quarterback now has a chance to answer the criticism where it matters most, on the field.