Week 1 of the 2026 NFL regular season did not go very well for Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns.
The Browns were crushed by the Jaguars as the 2026 NFL regular season began. Watson threw an early interception, the Browns had a crushing fumble and Jacksonville went on to dominate the lowly Cleveland franchise, en route to a decisive Week 1 victory, sending the Browns into the loss column.
As NFL fans call for Watson to get benched, with Browns fans calling for Shedeur Sanders to replace him, the veteran quarterback is sticking with it.
Watson is promising to keep smiling.
Ken Blaze-Imagn Images.
Watson finished Sunday afternoon going 16-of-22 for 205 yards with a touchdown and an interception — good for 9.3 yards per attempt and a 97.7 passer rating. However, if you watched the game, he looked worse than that.
“But if you watched the game, you’d know 46 of those yards came on a garbage-time touchdown to Denzel Boston against the Jaguars’ backups. You would’ve seen Watson fire an interception to end Cleveland’s first drive, almost throw another to end the second, and then get strip-sacked on the third. You would understand that most — if not all — of Jacksonville’s five sacks on Watson happened because he was dropping so far back that the offensive line couldn’t form a cohesive pocket. You might’ve been baffled by how often he was trying to change a call at the line of scrimmage too late in the play clock,” Mike Florio shared.
Watson makes promise to fans
Watson told the fans that he will continue to smile, no matter what.
“Yeah, I mean just keep moving forward, keep stepping forward, keep smiling, regardless of who’s against me or who’s with me,” Watson said. “I think that’s more beneficial for the team in that locker room. I’ve had a lot of support in that locker room after the game telling me to keep my head up, keep pushing forward, keep working. They’re behind me, so that’s always positive to see and hear. Yeah, we just got to keep going.
“The adversity is going to be there. You’ve got to embrace it. That’s the only way — I thought it was going to be gone two years ago, but I guess not. So you just embrace it and keep pushing through until you break that wall through.”
