Jacksonville, Fla. – How long is it? How long will the Browns have to pay for Deshaun Watson’s offense?
Jimmy Haslam’s name may be on the checks, but the list of people struggling to foot the bill for the worst trade in franchise history continues to grow.
Watson was scary again in the Browns’ 34-10 opening loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, as he has been for most of the past four years. With two Achilles surgeries stacked on top of his deep medical history and nearly 700 days on the field, expecting him to magically change now was always naive and too close for a franchise that knows a thing or six about silly behavior.
Watson is no longer a good quarterback. It hasn’t happened in years. He He could not reach the correct pocket depth When we last saw him on the field two years ago, it should come as no surprise that he failed to do so again on Sunday.
The interception on the opening drive was awful. Constant game delays, false starts, and inability to line up is an alarmingly special level for a quarterback who entered the NFL 10 years ago. This is not a rookie or a sophomore. Watson has been in this league for a decade — and playing his way up quickly — making the same blunders that plagued Sheider Sanders as a late-round starter last year.
Great plays from the Browns @ Jaguars
The list of people who have had to shoulder Watson’s burden in Cleveland is long and varied: Joe Flacco (first season), Alex Van Pelt, Bill Callahan, Ken Dorsey, Kevin Stefanski and now Todd Monken.
They were all either saddled or scarred (sometimes both) trying to make it work with what didn’t. Flacon can’t come back after so much success because the city really likes him, and what does that mean for Deshawn?
Van Pelt was fired as offensive coordinator during a playoff season in which the team cycled through five different quarterbacks. That firing was enough for Bill Callahan to see where it was all headed, and he snuck out the door to coach with his son at Tennessee before the whole thing got down the line. The current one.
Monken wasn’t this week-to-week audition of Watson in training camp, but after one game he didn’t commit to the next week because how could he after watching that mess?
“It’s not just him,” Monken said. “We put that on Deshawn, which is unfair.”
That’s what the head coach is expected to say, but anyone who’s watched the game and watched Watson’s 19 games in Cleveland knows it’s perfectly fair. That is where most of the problems fall. His final numbers, 16 of 22 for 205 yards, a touchdown and an interception, were horribly misplaced on a late deep ball to Denzel Boston for a touchdown. Watson didn’t play up to those numbers; And everyone in the Browns knows it.
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No matter how many times Watson takes them out, no one can change that. But they can decide what to charge them next.
There’s legitimate reason for optimism with Casey Concepcion, Denzel Boston and Harold Fannin, but it’s impossible to get a fair assessment of them when the quarterback drops to 13 yards while holding the ball too long and consistently checking. Linemen can’t set the right pocket without knowing where the quarterback is setting. These are the fundamentals of the quarterback that were deleted from Watson’s factory settings before he arrived in Cleveland. He struggled with it two years ago when the Browns started 1-4 and looked broken and disinterested before the injury.
The rest of the time didn’t seem to do any better.
Reduced spending eliminates budgets and streamlines judgment. It convinces smart people that the money they’ve already spent is a reason to spend more, rather than serving as an obvious argument to stop.
The money is gone, and it won’t come back. The money the Browns are dealing with right now is time. Replacing a starter after just one game would be anathema to most franchises, but in this case, Watson winning the job at all is the most outrageous part. The Browns once traded quarterback Charlie Frye two days after the season opener, so what goes down here is usually a little different than anywhere else.
Monken is in this now. He had nothing to do with Watson and still chose to shill his reputation as a terrible offensive coach for the quarterback who ruined everything he touched after landing here. Even in his late days, Monken is like Stefanski, repeating things because he wasn’t good enough and it was all over him to fix it. Stefanski was distracted by the same coach’s spike, but the part he couldn’t say out loud is the part you’re watching now.
Most of this is not fixable. At least not with Watson, and probably not with Sanders.
After Baker Mayfield signed his max extension with the Buccaneers last week, getting Watson out at quarterback in Tampa next week could be embarrassing for Haslam. Mayfield isn’t elite, but he’s clearly much better than what Watson produced in Cleveland.
The food is gone, at least for this week. The chicken is served raw and the vegetables are grilled. The dessert was underwhelming and the drinks were bland. The whole thing was a bit of a mess, and Monken got the check anyway. He’s 60 years old, in his first year running an NFL operation and has spent the offseason talking about the identity he wants his players to have. They showed nothing in their first chance.
It might be time to talk to the manager. The most important thing for Monken to realize is that this is not his mess. It’s not the bill to pay. Stop pretending.