If the Cleveland Browns lose on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they will drop to 0-2 and have a tough decision to make ahead of their Week 3 home opener. With Watson continuing to deflect accountability for his poor play, it’s going to be hard for Todd Monken to start him again if the Bucs game goes poorly.
Watson will be looking to avoid becoming the first Browns quarterback to lose seven consecutive starts since DeShone Kizer in the infamous 0-16 season of 2017. If he is unable to snap that streak, Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot has an idea of how the Browns should proceed.
She isn’t the first to suggest this, but Cabot believes if Watson loses in a head-to-head battle with Baker Mayfield, the man he replaced as Cleveland’s quarterback, it’s time to go. She believes it will be best for the Browns to not only bench him, but to send him home since a change of scenery would be best for all involved.
“But if he loses his head-to-head battle with Mayfield, the player he replaced here, he might never take another snap for the Browns, and his tumultuous Cleveland tenure will be over. In fact, they should consider letting him leave Cleveland once he’s benched to get his head and body back together. A change of scenery is best for all involved, even though the Browns will be paying off the final $86 million of his fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract for years to come,” Cabot wrote.
This game is more winnable than the Jacksonville Jaguars game in Week 1, and some analysts even believe the Browns have what it takes to pull off the upset. Tampa showed some flaws in their season-opening loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, and it will be up to Todd Monken, Watson, and the rest of the squad to find ways to exploit them.
Of course, if the Browns don’t pull it off and that’s it for Watson, they might throw a parade in Cleveland. There won’t be any upset fans when the Browns take the field at home for Week 3 against the Carolina Panthers if it’s Shedeur Sanders trotting out there with the starters.
Sending Watson home would be expensive, but it would be worth it if the alternative is turning all the fans against the team.
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