Deshaun Watson, with Todd Monken's support, gets another shot to prove himself

As the 2026 season kicks off and the Cleveland Browns' perpetual quarterback carousel spins, next up in the big chair -- the one with no seat belt -- are a new head coach who's an older guy and a quarterback who's not new but hopes for a fresh start.

If you're caught up on everything without having incurred motion sickness, perhaps you're just numb to it all by now. Or maybe you're like coach Todd Monken and are truly optimistic this can work, and that the Browns going back to Deshaun Watson in the final year of his albatross contract can lead to positive results.

Monken, 60, is a head coach for the first time since he was at Southern Miss more than a decade ago and the first time in the NFL. Watson, 31 next week, hasn't played a regular-season down in about 23 months and -- outside of maybe three games -- hasn't played well since he arrived in Cleveland in 2022 with $230 million in guarantees and an 11-game suspension for multiple violations of the NFL's personal conduct policy.

The organization is still playing catch-up after it traded three first-round picks to the Houston Texans for the right to give Watson that contract. The Browns enter 2026 as one of the league's youngest teams, and in June they traded two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams for defensive end Jared Verse and three draft picks, most notably a 2027 first-rounder.

Watson has played 19 games in four years with the Browns. He had 20 300-yard passing games in his four seasons as the Texans' starter, but none with Cleveland. In 2024, when he last played in a meaningful game, Watson didn't reach 200 passing yards during his seven starts before he suffered a torn right Achilles tendon. He tore the same tendon again a little more than two months later and missed the 2025 season.

The Browns said they were moving on. But with no answer at the game's most important position coming out of a season that ended with the firing of two-time Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski, their intended path forward instead led them back to Watson, who says he's healthy and motivated to "thrive" and deliver "the best product" the Browns thought they were getting 4 1/2 years ago.

"I'm super excited, just super happy," Watson said Wednesday. "I'm super blessed for the opportunity that this organization gave me, and I just want to be able to capitalize on it. So right now I'm just present in this moment, getting ready for practice and just letting the days come to me.

"I don't want to rush it, and I don't want to try to drag it on. I just kind of, again, enjoy each moment because I know how fast it can be taken away. So I just continue to just focus on my present."

After being hired in late January, Monken conducted a quarterback competition that ran from the first day of voluntary offseason workouts in early April until the second preseason game in late August. Monken always believed Watson would win based on his experience and Monken's belief that Watson can still create on the move.

With the Browns opening the season with two straight road games and six of their first nine on the road, Monken went with Watson and his 72 career starts over Shedeur Sanders and his seven.

But two days before Monken announced his decision, Watson played with backups in the third quarter of the Browns' preseason game versus the Buffalo Bills. Home fans booed Watson at least four times. After the game, he responded angrily and told reporters he didn't know if he could handle the negativity, saying he might have to approach the season as if there are 17 road games.

Now, Watson said Wednesday, he's "not worried about that."

Monken addressed the comments and the situation with Watson first, then publicly. The new coach stands behind his quarterback and believes -- even if nobody outside the building does -- that Watson has moved forward and is ready to resume a once-promising career for a franchise that bet big on him and, so far, has seen no positive returns.

"We focus on what we can do now," Watson said. "So, it's not about what we're worried about in the future or in the past. We're not worried about 2024. We're not worried about last year, me not playing. We're not worried about the preseason. Right now, we've got to focus on Jacksonville."

On Sunday, Watson returns to the field with a remade Browns offense against a Jaguars team that won 13 games last season and has three first-round picks on its defensive line. Monken, who's clearly unburdened by the past, believes Watson can eventually be the same. And with a talented young group of offensive skill players and a new staff calling the shots, Monken thinks the Browns will show up ready to play.

The Browns' starters played only two preseason series as a full unit, then had one joint practice session with the Bills. Based on glimpses of that and what Monken has said, we can expect an offense that looks to get Watson out of the pocket -- and maybe even use him as a runner at times -- in hopes of finding the player who, in four seasons with the Texans, was a 68 percent passer who averaged 8.3 yards per attempt.

In Cleveland, Watson has completed just 61 percent of his passes at 6.0 yards per attempt with 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions over parts of three seasons.

"We're certainly going to try to build it as best we can around the things we've seen in the months we've been around Deshaun (and) what we think gives us all, offensively, a chance to operate at a really high level," Monken said. "So, I'm excited for him. I've said that all along for all the work he's put in.

"He has really embraced what we do offensively. I think for him it's been a breath of fresh air, new life, new opportunity. Now, we've all got to take advantage of it -- same with myself."

Monken, who's been overseeing high-speed practices and losing his voice since the spring, acknowledged there's a new energy inside the team facility this week now that the season is here. He's anxious for Watson, all three of his first-time coordinators, gifted rookie wide receivers KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston and all involved to hit the field.

"It should feel like it's different (this week)," Monken said. "It's everything we work for. That's why we get paid what we get paid, right? It should feel different to put our best foot forward (in practice) today, and then tomorrow … and then go play our best football on Sunday."

He knows, too, the stakes -- and the perception -- of his decision to go with Watson. Monken said he's seen and experienced enough in his four decades in coaching to believe he's "well prepared for the ups and downs that are coming." Twenty seasons after he got his first NFL job as the Jaguars' wide receivers coach, he's the next head coach of the Browns, a team many believe is playing for next year.

Monken says he'll have his team ready and is putting his trust in Watson, who knows he's getting an opportunity he wasn't promised -- and might not get again.

"I've got to focus on now," Watson said. "If I try to look ahead and I get distracted or am not focusing on what I need to do now, then who knows what the future might hold. … And like coach Monken said, he's 60. He feels like this is his shot. So, me being on my last year of my deal and being in Year 10, I feel like this is my opportunity to be able to go and showcase that I can still play in this league.

"I want to continue to play in this league. So this is my opportunity to do that."

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.