Browns Cling to Deshaun Watson as Baker Mayfield Comes to Town
Cleveland's QB1 took five sacks and trailed 31-0 in a Week 1 loss. Now the guy they traded for him is on deck — and rookie pass-catchers are stuck in neutral.
One of the league's worst starters and a rookie-stunting anchor — leave him on waivers.
- Watson took 5 sacks, trailed 31-0 in Week 1 loss
- Never topped 300 pass yds in 20 Browns starts
- Our rank: Watson #226 overall, #39 QB
- Browns owe on Watson's 5-yr, $230M guaranteed deal
- 10 different QBs started for CLE since 2022
The Browns opened 2026 with a 0-1 record after a 24-point beatdown in Jacksonville, and Deshaun Watson was at the center of it: five sacks absorbed, an easy interception, and a scoreboard that read 31-0 at its ugliest. Cleveland is still rolling him out as QB1, which lands him at #226 overall and just #39 at the position in our rankings — territory you don't draft, you avoid.
The cruel irony arrives in Week 2, when Baker Mayfield — the guy Cleveland shipped to Carolina in 2022 to clear the runway for Watson — comes back with Tampa Bay. Mayfield just signed a three-year, $165 million deal ($120M guaranteed), sits at #26 overall (#12 QB) in our model, and put up 274 PPR points across 17 games last season (2025). That's the QB1 Cleveland traded away for a conditional fifth-rounder.
First-year head coach Todd Monken isn't budging. He told reporters the players don't get a vote, framing it as putting the best available guy on the field. Reading between the lines — and per multiple reports, the plan is to keep Watson under center through at least the first half of the year — this looks less like a competitive decision and more like a tank commander taking the wheel while Cleveland eyes two first-round picks in 2027.
The Sunk-Cost Anchor
Here's why this matters beyond Watson's own box score: he's suffocating the young talent. Rookie wideout KC Conception posted the eighth-best separation score among receivers in Week 1 (0.182), fellow rookie Denzel Boston ranked 15th, and second-year tight end Harold Fannin landed seventh among tight ends. Combined, that trio managed 123 yards on eight catches from just 12 targets. Elite separation, garbage volume — that's a quarterback problem.
Watson, for his part, brushed off the criticism, suggesting the media expects 400 yards and five scores every week. Reality check: across 20 Browns starts over four seasons, he's never thrown for 300 yards once. His 2024 line — 1,148 yards, 5 TD, 0 INT and 85 PPR points in seven games — tells you everything about the ceiling.
The Fantasy Fallout
Watson is a hard SIT and an easy ignore in every format — there's no scenario where he's a startable fantasy asset, and his presence tanks the value of Cleveland's skill players too. Fannin's tight-end separation numbers are tempting in deeper leagues, but hold off until the target volume shows up. Keep an eye on Shedeur Sanders, the 2025 fifth-rounder who breathed life into this offense across seven starts last season (2025); if he gets second-half run again, that's when Conception, Boston and Fannin become real waiver targets. For now, the smart move is to stash the pass-catchers on your watchlist and let someone else eat the Watson losses.
