Hours after being named the Week 1 starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns over second-year pro Shedeur Sanders, former Clemson star Deshaun Watson began his press conference Monday by addressing the comments he made about Browns fans following Saturday’s preseason game.

Watson was booed loudly during Cleveland’s 31-7 preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills on Saturday, his first home game since October 2024, when he suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon tear.

In his postgame press conference Saturday, an emotional Watson called the boos “personal” and “disrespectful,” saying that he felt “more love in road games than I do home games,” and mentioning how “that same fanbase, they cheered” when he tore his Achilles.

Standing at the podium Monday, Watson walked back those comments and stated that his “emotions got the best of me.”

“Just human nature, just myself being very emotional, putting a lot of time these last two years to get back and spend time in this facility, in the city, meeting a lot of different people in the community — I thought I was going to get a little different response,” Watson said Monday. “But I think my emotions got the best of me, and my comments wasn’t intending to go at any of the fans around in the city because there’s been a lot of great fans that have been supporting me.”

Watson is entering the final year of his deal in 2026. In March 2022, he signed a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract with the Browns after being traded to Cleveland from the Houston Texans. The Browns gave away a bunch of draft picks (including three first-round picks) in the deal.

Watson acknowledged the Cleveland fanbase’s frustration with his Browns tenure that has been plagued by injury and underperformance.

“And I know the frustration,” Watson added. “This organization has put a lot of investment in coming to get me back in ’22. And things haven’t been going the right direction that we thought it was. A lot of injuries, a lot of time off and not putting the best football and my foot forward.

“So again, I understand the frustration. I understand everything that kind of goes into that. And moving forward, I just want to focus on football, making sure that I’m putting the best product out there, having the best ability, because I thrive off the energy. I thrive off the energy of the fans. I thrive off the energy of the community. I thrive off all that stuff. Looking back in my history at Clemson and previous at the Houston organization, I was a big community guy, big city guy, big fan guy during the game. So again, my emotions got the best of me. I’m human. I take full responsibility of that. And just moving forward, I want to make sure that I put the best product for the team, for the organization and for this city so we can put a lot of wins and make sure that I celebrate and put Cleveland on the map.”

Watson was asked how he’s going to handle it if/when Browns fans boo him again, especially after his initial comments regarding the fanbase.

“I got to just focus on playing football, man. Just focus on playing good football,” Watson said. “And if we win and playing good football, then [everything else is going to] take care of itself and I think everything else is going to work out how it’s supposed to work out.”

Less than three months after his initial Achilles tendon tear during Cleveland’s Week 7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 20, 2024, Watson tore his Achilles for the second time and underwent a second surgery in January 2025 to repair it, forcing him to miss the entire 2025 season.

Watson played in just six games in his first season with Cleveland in 2022 after having to serve a suspension and then was limited to just six games in 2023, seven in 2024 and zero in 2025 due to season-ending injuries.

In the limited action over his time in Cleveland thus far, Watson has completed 61.2 percent of his passes for 3,365 yards and 19 touchdowns with 12 interceptions.

A three-time Pro Bowler with the Texans, Watson has a 66.2 completion percentage for his NFL career with 17,904 passing yards and 123 passing touchdowns with 48 interceptions in 73 career games with the Texans and Browns since being selected by Houston in the first round (12th overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft.

In Cleveland’s preseason opener against the Chicago Bears on Aug. 15, Watson went 11-of-15 passing for 126 yards and led Cleveland’s only two scoring drives. He then played four drives in the second half of the Browns’ second preseason game Saturday against the Bills, completing 5 of 12 passes for 36 yards with an interception.

Watson, 30, is excited about the opportunity to be Cleveland’s starter once again in 2026 after all the injury setbacks and adversity he’s faced.

“It’s great,” he said. “This is what I’ve been working for, for two years, is to be able to show that I’m capable of being a starter for one of the 32 organizations in this league. And today was excitement. I had no idea until I walked into the building and I talked with Coach Monk [Browns head coach Todd Monken].

“It felt good and a lot of excitement, but that comes with a lot of work, too. There’s a lot of work, there’s a lot of challenges that I have to continue to overcome, and I just got to continue to work on achieving those victories each and every day, so I’m ready and prepared. And there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs, but at the same time, I’m excited to be a starting quarterback in this league and especially a starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.”

Watson will face off with another Clemson legend in Week 1, as Cleveland is set to open on the road against Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 13.