Media members react to controversial Deshaun Watson comments from teammates

Cleveland Browns players such as quarterback Jameis Winston and star pass-rusher Myles Garrett offered strong defenses of quarterback Deshaun Watson and also blasted fans after individuals at Huntington Bank Field cheered when Watson went down with a reported serious Achilles injury in Sunday's 21-14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Predictably, numerous local and national media personalities responded to Watson's teammates via X (formerly known as Twitter) and other platforms. 

Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith noted that Garrett saying Watson has "been a model citizen through college and also the pros" doesn't "hold much water in light of everything we’ve learned about Watson’s off-field actions." Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing wrote that Garrett "tried to whitewash Watson’s" alleged misdeeds. Well-known analyst Sam Monson mentioned that Watson's previous reputation now seems to be little more than "a complete and total fabrication." 

The Browns acquired Watson from the Houston Texans in March 2022 and signed him to a fully guaranteed five-year, $230M contract after two grand juries declined to indict him regarding numerous allegations of sexual misconduct during massage sessions. Watson ultimately served an 11-game suspension later that year, has thus far made just 19 regular-season starts with the Browns and was one of the league's worst starting quarterbacks this season before Sunday's events unfolded. 

Some had questioned Watson's commitment to winning and suggested he had no "motivation" to want to improve this fall due to the terms of his deal.

Winston told reporters following Sunday's defeat he felt Watson had been "treated badly" and now "has to overcome another obstacle." Such comments didn't sit well with national radio host Maggie Gray, longtime Cleveland radio fixture Greg Brinda and ESPN's Mina Kimes (contains not-safe-for-work language). 

Meanwhile, Jeff Lloyd of the "Locked on Browns" podcast added he thought fans in downtown Cleveland "were cheering the end of an era most never wanted to start" rather than Watson's injury on Sunday. Anthony Lima of Cleveland sports radio station 92.3 The Fan said that Browns fans "have pretty much hated this team all year." 

Back in 2022, some paying customers decided they'd no longer support the Browns due to the club's acquisition of Watson. As The Athletic's Jim Trotter and others pointed out, Cleveland moving on from the salary-cap hits attached to what's left of Watson's contract won't be so simple. 

What was already a bad situation for the Browns became uglier in a different way on Sunday afternoon. It remains to be seen how much more the relationship between Cleveland players and fans will deteriorate between now and Week 18 in January.