EverBank Stadium (Jacksonville) – It would be easier if it was as simple as changing quarterbacks.
The Cleveland Browns had their first game of the post-Myles Garrett era on Sunday, and their game against the Jacksonville Jaguars went about as badly as you’d expect.
The offense picked off a Deshaun Watson interception on the opening drive, and didn’t pass midfield again until they trailed 24-0. The defense allowed Trevor Lawrence to have his highest passer rating in one game of his NFL career, watching the fourth quarter from the sideline after four easy touchdown passes.
The final score was 34-10 and that doesn’t do it justice. Cleveland managed its only touchdown with two minutes remaining, and Jacksonville’s offense looked like it was trying to finish the game without injury for much of the second half.
The NFL teaches you that Week 1 can turn out to be complete lies, that teams can win or lose big in that first game and two months later look nothing like they did, for better or worse. The last time a Browns coach had his first game, first-year coach Kevin Stefanski saw his team lose to the Baltimore Ravens 38-6. But Stefanski quickly turned that group around in 2020, going 11-6 and winning its first playoff game in 26 years.
That didn’t sound like a lie. That felt like the hard truth of a team that entered Sunday’s game as the league’s heaviest loser this week, needing a stoppage-time result to fall two games short of those low expectations.
“I’m not depressed. I’m disappointed,” 60-year-old Todd Monken said after his first game as an NFL head coach. “I mean, you’re not going to knock me out. I’ve waited a long time to be a head coach in this league. Kind of awesome. We’re not where we want to be and. They better get us now. Because we’ve got a good group of young guys and we just didn’t play well today.”
The idea that Watson, playing in his first game since 2024, was their best option — long-term, short-term, whatever — is misleading enough in itself, with the threat of second-year pro Shedeur Sanders not exactly looming on the sidelines. Watson is in the final year of a five-year, $230 million contract, with his on-field struggles only surpassed by the off-field issues that had fans cheering for him in the preseason.
The right thing to do would have been to cut him, to sever ties in a terrible decision that will work against the franchise’s chances of success even after he’s gone. Monken was careful not to single out Watson after the game — and there were plenty more that went wrong.
“It’s an ‘us’ thing,” Monken said. “It’s not me, it’s not about them, it’s about us. We’re going to fight like hell to get better. That’s what I’ve always done. That’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
The Browns locker room was nothing short of shameless, more aware of the little things that need to change in order for them to have a chance to beat good opponents. They owned the slowest opening weekend loss, struggling on the same day that the Las Vegas Raiders, Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants — all of whom were picked in the top five of the draft — opened with wins.
Monken was asked if he was definitely consistent with Watson in next week’s, perhaps even hotter, 1 p.m. game in Tampa against the Bucs, and he didn’t sound like a coach making a change.
“I’d rather just talk about today because I haven’t even had time to look at the tape,” Monken said. “I mean, I’m sure he’s not going to fire me. I’m not firing our staff. I’m not giving up on players. So (Watson) happens to be one of the 53, and as many practice squad players that we have and our staff, he’s one of them. We’re going to evaluate everything. But just to say that emotionally we played pretty well and the coach at the end.”
It would be a long year before the Browns traded Garrett to the Rams for a bunch of draft picks, sacrificing today for tomorrow in losing the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. They gave up 24 points in the first half Sunday in their first game without him, and that matched the most points they had allowed in any first half since September 2017, two weeks before Garrett’s debut with the Browns.
“It’s like boxing,” said Jared Verse, acquired by the Rams in the Garrett trade and tasked with replacing him. “They hit you in the face, you turn your legs and you punch back. We just backed up a little bit, and when we rallied more … it was too late. They had already done the damage.”
If you had to sum up everything that was wrong with Cleveland on Sunday, take a sequence of plays just before halftime, when Watson completed back-to-back passes of 20 and 11 yards, bringing it to the Jaguars’ 39 with 51 seconds left in the first half. A punt would have cut the lead to 17, but instead, they had a holding penalty and a false start and a delay of game, all in a row, to set up first-and-30. A short gain, then another penalty on second-and-34. They didn’t score.
Deshaun Watson was sacked five times on Sunday as he completed 16 of 22 passes for 205 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the fumble loss. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
Accountability has never been Watson’s forte, and Sunday was no different, owning his part but saying things like, “Of course, everybody’s going to look at the quarterback in this situation overall.” Asked how he deals with adversity and how he keeps his faith, he talked about the support he says he has from his friends.
“Keep moving forward, keep moving forward, you know, keep smiling no matter who’s against me or who’s with me,” Watson said. “I think that’s more beneficial to the team in that dressing room. I had a lot of support in that dressing room after the game, telling me to keep my head up, keep pushing forward, keep working. They’re behind me, so it’s always positive to see and hear. We just have to keep going. You know, adversity is going to be there.
There weren’t many hopeful moments on Sunday. Rookie receiver Denzel Boston caught a 46-yard touchdown in the final two minutes, but the game was over an hour ago. Quinshon Judkins, a sophomore running back with potential, had 12 carries and none of them went for more than five yards. Verse, a potential star, had just one tackle in the first half.
Monken is a patient man (you don’t get the Browns job in 2026 without patience), and his combination of optimism and quick wit will serve him well to survive what will be a long season. They’ve got other bad teams on the schedule — the Titans in Week 7, the Raiders in Week 12 — but they look like they’ll be hard pressed to match last year’s 5-12 record. Knowing that each loss increases their chances of landing an elite quarterback in next year’s draft, that might not be a bad thing.
“I told the team, ‘There’s no proof without a test,'” Monken said. “It’s just one of them. This is one of the 17 games we’ve played, and we certainly didn’t play well enough. We certainly didn’t train well enough. But I love our boys. I like the way they work, and we’re going to come back tomorrow and fight like hell to fix it.”
