Emmanuel Acho raises the question the Cleveland Browns did not answer on Monday
Emmanuel Acho responded on Monday night’s episode of Speakeasy, his YouTube show, hours after Cleveland named Deshaun Watson its Week 1 starter over Shedeur Sanders.
“Deshaun Watson don’t like the fans and the fans don’t like Deshaun Watson,” Acho said. “How the hell you supposed to go into this season like that?”
Watson entered Saturday’s preseason game against Buffalo in the third quarter and was booed on arrival, again after an incomplete first pass and again through a three-and-out on his second series. He finished 5 of 12 for 36 yards with an interception in a 31-7 loss.
Watson told reporters afterward that the reaction had nothing to do with his play. He brought up the last time he played on that field, when he tore his Achilles and heard the crowd cheer as he went down.
“I think the whole world knows. It has nothing to do about the performance,” Watson said. “It’s a little bit more personal than that. So, I think that’s a disrespectful thing.”
“Last time I played on this field, I tore my Achilles,” he added. “That same fanbase, they cheered when I got hurt. What does that have to do with it? What does that have to do anything with my performance? When a person gets hurt, especially from their own city, and they cheer, I had different thoughts on what it was going to be, but it is what it is.”
Todd Monken named him the starter on Monday morning regardless of all that.
Oh Boy: Deshaun Watson goes OFF on Browns fans for booing him.
“It’s a little bit personal than that. It’s a disrespectful thing. Last time I played on this field, I tore my Achilles. And that same fan base cheered when I got hurt.”
😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/e5biQ2SpO4
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) August 23, 2026
How do the Browns play home games under this?
Watson softened all of it during his Monday availability, he said his emotions got the best of him, described the booing as human nature and said the comments had not been aimed at the fan base, then talked about the two years he spent rehabbing, the hours at the facility and the people he has met in the city.
“Just human nature and 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. “My emotions got the best of me and my comments weren’t intended to go at any of the fans around the city because there’s been a lot of great fans that have been supporting me.
“And I know the frustration. 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 would. A lot of injuries, a lot of time off and not putting the best football and my best foot forward.”
Cleveland still plays half its schedule in front of a crowd that has already booed this quarterback in an exhibition, and Watson has said on the record that he heard it and took it personally. Both parties are committed to at least eight more meetings between September and January.
“Deshaun Watson don’t like the fans and the fans don’t like Deshaun Watson… How the hell you supposed to go into this season like that?”
– @EmmanuelAcho responds to Deshaun Watson’s presser where he called out the Cleveland Browns’ fan base
LIVE NOW ➡️ https://t.co/cesCoyr6no pic.twitter.com/arw4PsmT5a
— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) August 25, 2026
Myles Garrett criticized fans who booed Watson as he was carted off with the Achilles injury, and LeBron James posted the same objection at the time. Support for him inside the organization has run steadier than support in the seats, and Monday’s quarterback decision came from inside the organization.
Monken’s decision, of course, arrived with its own history. Watson has thrown a regular-season pass for Cleveland in only parts of four seasons since the 2022 trade, and the Browns spent this preseason working through a quarterback room that also included Sanders.
I think the Browns cannot but start him, and it has nothing to do with what Watson is at this point. It is about what Sanders would be walking into. A second-year quarterback should not be handed a hostile building, mounting expectation from the fans, a rebuilt offense and Week 1 all in the same afternoon.
Watson can absorb the opening stretch, and by the time the schedule flattens out, the noise is somebody else’s problem. Moving from Watson to Sanders in November is a far simpler thing than moving back the other way, because benching a young quarterback you have already anointed costs you more than starting the veteran ever will.
So let’s see how it pans out. I expect Sanders to be starting out of the bye. But then, who knows? Watson may pick up his form and give the franchise something it stopped expecting.
Watson will start a regular-season game for the first time since the injury that ended his 2024 season.
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