Watson, Sanders Defend Themselves After Browns Fans Boo Preseason Performance

The boos came in the third quarter, audible even through the broadcast feed. Deshaun Watson had just thrown an interception against Buffalo, and Cleveland's home crowd let him hear it. He finished the preseason game with five completions on twelve attempts for thirty-six yards—numbers that would ordinarily invite criticism on their own. But Watson was certain the jeers had nothing to do with what he'd done on the field that Saturday night.

After the game, Watson sat with reporters and explained what he believed was really happening. The booing, he said, was personal. It stemmed from something that had nothing to do with his performance in a preseason game that didn't count. He was referring to the injury that had defined his time in Cleveland—the Achilles tear he suffered the last time he took the field in a Browns uniform, back in October 2024. That moment had been difficult enough. What made it worse, in Watson's telling, was that some fans had cheered when he went down.

"What does that have to do with my performance?" he asked, his frustration evident. "When a person gets hurt, especially from their own city, and they cheer... I had different thoughts on what it was going to be, but it is what it is." He had spent two years working his way back from not one but two Achilles injuries. He'd been present around the facility, visible in the city, involved in charity work. He'd tried to build a relationship with a fanbase that had seemed skeptical of him from the start. He thought that effort might have counted for something.

Shedeur Sanders, the other quarterback competing for the starting job, also threw an interception in the same game. But Sanders chose to respond to the booing differently. He didn't defend his own play or explain away the crowd's reaction. Instead, he spoke about principle. "In general, I don't appreciate that at all, regardless of competition," Sanders said. "We're all human beings." He acknowledged that people had feelings about Watson's situation—the controversy that had followed him to Cleveland was not something Sanders could ignore. But he argued that respect should transcend those feelings. "We're all out there trying to do our best and trying to serve the franchise," he said.

The Browns lost to Buffalo 31-7, a lopsided defeat that gave the coaching staff plenty to evaluate. Todd Monken, the head coach, was asked about the booing and the tension it revealed. He didn't dismiss the fans' right to react as they saw fit. Instead, he offered a simple formula: play better, and the problem solves itself. "You don't want to get booed, just play good football," Monken said. "Win, play good football, and everything will be fine." He added that he was proud of the way Watson had worked to return to the field, though he reserved judgment on the quarterback's actual performance until he could review the tape.

What remained unresolved was the question of who would start when the regular season opened on September 13 against Jacksonville. The Browns had not yet made that decision public. Watson and Sanders were still competing for the role, and the preseason game had clarified nothing except that both had thrown interceptions and both had faced a crowd that was, at minimum, unconvinced. For Watson, the booing seemed to confirm what he had perhaps suspected all along—that no amount of rehabilitation, no amount of time away, no amount of community work would fully erase the skepticism that had greeted him when he arrived in Cleveland. The question now was whether better play could change that equation, or whether some damage, once done, simply lingers.