The Browns’ 27-24 win over the Steelers on Thursday night pushed Cleveland to 3-1, and Deshaun Watson’s improved play has been a big reason the team has turned into one of the NFL’s early surprises. But on Friday morning, the conversation on FOX Sports Radio’s 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe wasn’t just about the victory. It was about the way Watson’s story is being framed.
Brady Quinn made it clear he wasn’t buying the idea that Watson’s resurgence should be wrapped in a feel-good narrative. Quinn said he’s happy for Browns fans and for plenty of the players in the locker room, but he pushed back hard on the notion that Watson deserves sympathy for what has happened around him.
“I feel good for the Cleveland fans. Yes.
I feel good for a lot of those players,” Quinn said. “I’m not sure what PR spin they’re trying to put on or revisionist history they’re trying to make.
Anything that he endured in the past, he brought on himself. I mean, there’s, there’s not one part of the adversity he faced that he should have been solely responsible for.
“So like, here’s the unfortunate part is we have- we’re going to keep talking about this because they’re going to keep bringing it up and we’re going to have to keep addressing it, acknowledging it. Like, dude, stop throwing a pity party.
For what’s happened in the past for yourself. All right, you won a game, make it about the team, make it about everyone besides you, because quite frankly, you’re on a really good team and it is about everyone besides you.
“Like, you’re the quarterback, all right? This isn’t Lamar Jackson in college running around carrying Louisville or at times carrying Baltimore.
Like, you are there because- and you’re being successful because of the help you have around you. So I just, I hope he stops with keep trying to get people to feel bad for him.”
Jonas Knox also questioned the idea that Watson’s situation should be sold as some kind of redemption arc. He said he didn’t understand the push for a “feel-good story” and then laid out what he saw as the actual reasons Watson’s path had been rocky.
“I don’t understand this need for a, well, feel-good story,” Knox said. “I don’t get it.
What were the struggles? Let’s just like break down the struggles.
The struggles were: you had a fetish with the handhouse, and you weren’t available. And then when you were available to play after suspension, you were injured.
And then when you weren’t injured, you were bad.”
LaVar Arrington opened the discussion by praising the Browns for beating a divisional opponent coming off a big win over the Cincinnati Bengals, but he also suggested the result may say as much about Pittsburgh as it does about Cleveland.
“Credit due, hat off to (head coach Todd Monken),” Arrington said. “He has the Cleveland Browns at 3-1 after a divisional opponent in the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were coming off of a big victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
So give them credit. But I think this is honestly, potentially, this is more of an indictment on the Pittsburgh Steelers than it is a feel-good story for the Cleveland Browns.”
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Todd Monken Had A Sideline Moment Browns Fans Will Notice
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It stood out because those kinds of exchanges are not usually the part of the night anyone remembers once the game tightens up. In a matchup that would later get more stressful as the Steelers started pushing back, the brief sideline scene offered Browns fans a glimpse of Monken in a looser moment while his team was still in control. [Read more 🡒]