{"id":776418,"date":"2026-02-25T23:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/776418\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T23:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:19:30","slug":"cleveland-browns-todd-monken-excited-to-give-deshaun-watson-a-fresh-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/776418\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Browns’ Todd Monken Excited to Give Deshaun Watson a Fresh Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, the Cleveland Browns<\/a> \u201cwon\u201d the Deshaun Watson<\/a> sweepstakes by getting the three-time Pro Bowl quarterback to agree to a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract. But before they could get him to sign on the dotted line, the Browns had to send three first-round picks, a third-round pick, plus two fourth-round selections. <\/p>\n

Those draft picks turned into DT Jordan Davis, RB Jahmyr Gibbs, WR Brian Thomas, WR Jalin Hyatt, RB Dameon Pierce, and TE Cade Stover. It\u2019s been deemed as the worst trade in NFL history, which stings for a Browns franchise that was already desperate enough to make such a bold move for who they thought would be their franchise quarterback for years to come.<\/p>\n

Yet, Watson has been anything but. He\u2019s yet to start more than seven games in a single season with the Browns, and has only made 19 starts in three seasons in Cleveland. He\u2019s completed just 61.2% of his passes for 3,365 passing yards, 19 TDs, 12 interceptions, while leading the Browns to a 9-10 record in the process. <\/p>\n

Now 30 years old, Watson is headed into the final year of his contract, but he has a cap hit of $80.7 million<\/a>. Considering how poorly he\u2019s played as a member of the Browns, while given his enormous cap hit, some have wondered if the new coaching staff wouldn\u2019t have any interest in having Watson as part of the new-look QB room. <\/p>\n

Yet, according to first-year head coach Todd Monken, that couldn\u2019t be further from the case. Rather, he sounds excited for the opportunity to work with Watson, and possibly even help the QB regain his elite form from his days in a Texans uniform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anytime that you have a player that at one time has exhibited the skillset at an elite level, I think you\u2019re always going to give them the benefit of the doubt that somehow we might be able to get that out of him again. And I think that\u2019s how you should look at every player. I\u2019m going to let it play out.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019d be completely unfair just like it would be in any classroom setting \u2014 be it a history exam \u2014 and all the students walk in, and before they\u2019re actually given the exam, you give them a grade. Well, how would you give them a grade? Based on male, female, race, how they look, how they\u2019re dressed? I think that\u2019s unfair.<\/p>\n

I know that I\u2019m excited to work with him. I\u2019m excited to work with all of our players on the roster. That\u2019s what you\u2019re paid to do as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd Monken on Deshaun Watson<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any semblance of hope that the Browns can still get some positive production out of Watson, then it\u2019s up to Monken to figure it out. If not, Watson will be a free agent at the end of the 2026 season anyway, and then the Browns can finally move forward from arguably their biggest mistake yet. Or, maybe Watson can prove everyone wrong and get back to being the MVP candidate he was in Houston. <\/p>\n

Related: Cleveland Browns Hire 75-Year-Old Former NFL Head Coach<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\tDedicated NFL copywriter\/editor. My work has been found on Sportsnaut, Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, MSN, Yahoo, and Minnesota Sports … More about Andrew Buller-Russ<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years ago, the Cleveland Browns \u201cwon\u201d the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes by getting the three-time Pro Bowl quarterback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,563,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-776418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-deshaun-watson","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116133835017085340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}