After calling out Cleveland fans after their loss to the Bills, Deshaun Watson being named the Browns QB1 has shocked Dan Orlovsky.
When news broke that Deshaun Watson has officially been named the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback despite his comments calling out fans after his team’s preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills, it drew strong reactions across the NFL world.
One such critic? Career backup quarterback-turned-ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, who took some time on NFL Live to break down why the decision is so darn perplexing across the board.
“I was shocked that they went with Deshaun Watson. If this was strictly football, it would be a coin flip to me. 50-50, start the guy that you want. If you want to go with the veteran, Watson, go ahead. But for a franchise that has the passionate fan base that Cleveland does and has been searching for a quarterback that they can kind of get behind, certainly for two decades and since Baker Mayfield, and the way that Deshaun Watson handled that press conference, I was shocked,” Orlovsky said.
“And that has to be a little bit more about it than other, other than just football. I thought Deshaun played okay in week, preseason week one. I thought it was really bad this past Saturday. I thought Shedeur played okay in week one and I thought he was okay in week two. So to go with Deshaun Watson outside of the people continuously pointing out the contract and the picks given up for him, I just can’t find one reason to what I’ve seen on tape.”
From a purely monetary perspective, the Browns have $230 million reasons to give Watson the nod at QB1, even if his contract is effectively a sunk cost at this point. And yet, unlike Sanders, Watson genuinely doesn’t seem to want to be the Browns’ QB1 and hasn’t even played well enough to win the top spot in the eyes of most. Even if Cleveland is seemingly destined to make a change at some point in 2026, making this decision right now is shocking indeed.
“I was shocked that they went with Deshaun Watson.”@danorlovsky7 reacts to the Browns naming Deshaun Watson the Week 1 starter 🏈 pic.twitter.com/6IcEmn7Jg1
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) August 24, 2026
When news broke that Deshaun Watson has officially been named the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback despite his comments calling out fans after his team’s preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills, it drew strong reactions across the NFL world. One such critic?
