The Cleveland Browns changed the trajectory of their season and rewrote their narrative with their impressive Week 2 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Deshaun Watson may have saved his career with his strong performance in the process, and now all eyes are on him as he aims for a repeat effort against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
Watson will be playing in front of the home crowd for the first time in nearly two years, and judging by Cleveland’s reaction to him during the preseason, he’s in for a ton of boos even after last week’s win. He still has a ton of work to do to repair this relationship with the fans after making multiple disparaging comments towards them over the past few weeks, but his comments on Wednesday were much more positive and hopefully the beginning of a new chapter in this relationship.
During Wednesday’s press conference, Watson discussed the potential negative reaction he’s in for on Sunday. He talked about how he doesn’t want to go to war with the fans and is looking forward to the support that he will get.
“The biggest thing is that I don’t ever try to go to war with the fans. The biggest thing is just ready for support, ready for their energy, ready to get a big dub for the city of Cleveland, and continue this great feeling that we have this week. That’s my motto. Just keep pushing forward. Find ways to win on Sunday to take advantage of the opposing team, and get a W,” Watson said.
Deshaun Watson doesn’t want to be at war with #Browns fans and hope there’s positive energy vs the #Panthers on Sunday: pic.twitter.com/Zt8TqJRreJ
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) September 23, 2026
It sounds like his head is in the right place, and perhaps all he needed was a win to help flush some of the doubts and the bad vibes out of his system. This was a much better response than the ones he had earlier in the offseason when he was directly calling out the fans and the media, but it’s going to take at least a few more wins to undo some of the damage he has caused.
Any fans calling for a pivot to Shedeur Sanders now likely won’t get their wish for quite some time. This performance certainly bought Watson a few more weeks at the least, and if he keeps playing like this, who knows where this season could go.
Surprisingly, Watson now has a chance to turn this all around. It was arguably the best game he has played in a Browns uniform, and he did it with his back firmly against the wall. We’ll see if he has it in him to build upon that impressive performance on Sunday against Carolina.
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