Todd Monken’s comments about Deshaun Watson are starting to do more damage than the Browns’ Week 1 loss itself.
Cleveland was blown out by the Jacksonville Jaguars, 34-10, and Watson was poor in his first start at quarterback since the 2024 season. Neither part of that was a shock. What has turned heads is the way Monken has responded afterward, repeatedly talking around how rough the outing really was.
As a head coach, Monken can’t rip into his own quarterback in public. That much is obvious. But some of his remarks have gone so far in the other direction that they’re beginning to undercut his own credibility.
After the game on Sunday, Monken was asked whether Watson had played too tentatively. He pushed back on that idea, saying, “He let that ball rip that was an interception.
He let it rip. He just didn't see him or the defender made a great play on it.“
The defense almost sounded like Monken was taking the interception as a positive because Watson showed the right mentality.
He kept that same line on Monday, when he said he “anticipates” Watson starting in Week 2 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"There were some really good things on film, some things that you can build on, and there were some others that, operationally, we got to get better at. ... And even the touchdown at the end, sure, that was garbage time, but that was on their one corner.
That was one of their starters out there, and that was a communication between him and the receiver. So, there were a lot of things to build on.
Was it perfect? Of course not."
That kind of framing is not going to sit well with Browns fans after what they just watched. The few positives Monken pointed to, including the late touchdown in garbage time, don’t change the reality of how the game played out.
The most revealing comment came when Monken was asked whether the locker room was fully behind Watson as the starter.
"I don’t know, you’d have to ask every one of those guys. You said 100%, and really, to be honest, they don’t have a choice.
This isn’t a debate. I don’t ask the players every series what play we’re going to call, what play we’re going to call on defense.
Like, their job is to play, and our job to put the best player on the field that we think gives us a chance to win. And I love our guys.
But the moment we get into that, in terms of who this guy should be playing, what we’re doing, what we ought to be calling, we’ve lost. We’ve lost sight of the target, which is to own it and fix it and try like hell to get better."
Monken is clearly trying to shield Watson from the full force of the criticism, and that’s understandable to a point. But the Browns’ coach is also talking as if the evidence everyone saw on Sunday didn’t happen. That’s the risky part.
At some point, the protection starts to look like denial. And if Watson doesn’t raise his level, Monken may end up paying a price for standing so firmly beside him.
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