Deshaun Watson was experiencing yet another terrible game against the Cincinnati Bengals in October 2024 when, with less than a minute remaining before halftime, his entire season came crashing down. With non-contact play, no collision at all, it seemed like Watson’s leg simply gave out in front of a packed house of 68,143 at Huntington Bank Field. As Watson was carted off with a towel draped over his face, the fans who came out to support him were doing quite the opposite.

Sure, it drew criticism from frustrated teammates, but it also affected an already agonized Watson. Now, nearly two years later since the incident, Watson is ready to leave that chapter behind.

“At the end of the day, I can’t support what people support. I think that’s their own opinion. I think that all I can do is just put out the best person I am, showcase who I am as a person, as a player, as a teammate, and what I represent as an individual….I mean, yeah, I had emotions at the time, but you grow out of it,” Deshaun Watson shared with the media after practice on June 11, 2026.

But the entire fan behavior did not come out of nowhere. Watson has been a controversial figure in Cleveland ever since the Browns traded five draft picks to bring him over from Houston in 2022, handing him a fully guaranteed $230 million contract that the franchise is still answering for. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam himself called it a “big swing and miss” last offseason, and that pretty much captures how the city felt about the whole situation. His statistics never worked for him, either.

Watson was never able to achieve the 1,500-yard mark in a season during his stint with Cleveland, a stark contrast with the QB who got picked for the Pro Bowl thrice with the Houston Texans. The lawsuits, the suspension, the injuries, and the poor play all added up to one point: the fans just lost their patience with him when he fell against Cincinnati.

After the game, his teammates made clear they wanted no part of what they heard from the stands. Myles Garrett did not hold back.

“Whether it’s an opponent that goes down or one of our own, we don’t boo,” Garrett said. “We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone, and their downfall could be a season-altering, career-altering injury.”

Former head coach Kevin Stefanski felt the same way.

“I don’t think it’s ever OK to cheer when someone’s injured. I’m sure it’s not every person in the building doing that, but yeah, it’s disappointing,” he told reporters that time.

Watson tore his right Achilles tendon in October 2024 and then had to go under the knife again in January after reinjuring it, wiping out his entire 2025 season.

The road back has been lengthy. Speaking publicly for the first time since the injury, Watson revealed that he is finally healthy again after two Achilles surgeries and believes earning another chance to start remains the driving force behind his comeback.

Now with a fresh offseason and a new head coach in Todd Monken, Watson is competing with Shedeur Sanders for the starting spot and seems genuinely driven by the competition rather than unsettled by it. Monken has kept things balanced throughout.

“Once we get to the fall, we’ll have to dissect the reps how we see fit,” he said. “I just don’t see it after the way Shedeur has played and Deshaun’s played. They’ve both played well enough to earn the right to compete to start.”

The two have been splitting first-team reps throughout the offseason program, and Watson looks locked in. Sanders took all the starting reps on the first day of the three-day minicamp, Watson gets his turn on Wednesday, and the two will share those reps on Thursday.

Watson also downplayed Browns owner Jimmy Haslam’s infamous “big swing and miss” assessment of the trade that brought him to Cleveland. Rather than viewing it as criticism, the quarterback pointed to the relationship he still maintains with ownership.

“The relationship is great,” Watson said. “Dee, Jimmy, they were at my wedding. We talk all the time. He calls me whenever.”

Clearly, with the opportunity given to him, he is ready to ‘hit a home run’.