Deshaun Watson appears to forget brutal Bills loss weeks later: “Which Buffalo game?”

Deshaun Watson said he wanted to leave Cleveland’s ugly preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills behind him. Three weeks later, he appeared to have erased the game completely.

“Is the Buffalo game out of your mind?” a reporter asked during Watson’s latest Browns media availability. The quarterback looked confused and responded: “Which Buffalo game?”

“Your last preseason game,” the reporter clarified.

“Oh… yeah. I mean, yeah,” Watson answered after an awkward pause.

Perhaps Watson misunderstood the question. Perhaps he was trying to communicate that he had moved on. But after everything that happened against Buffalo, the exchange immediately raised eyebrows.

Deshaun Watson cannot make the Buffalo nightmare disappear

Watson completed only five of 12 passes for 36 yards, threw an interception and failed to produce any points across three possessions as the Browns suffered a 31-7 loss. Cleveland fans repeatedly booed him, beginning when he entered the game and continuing after his incompletions and another empty drive.

The reaction clearly hurt. Watson called the boos “disrespectful” and “personal,” recalling that some fans had cheered when he tore his Achilles in the same stadium in 2024. The injury and a later setback forced him to miss the entire 2025 season.

Watson later softened his comments and admitted that his emotions had taken control. “I’m human,” he said while accepting responsibility for his reaction. His frustration made the forgotten-game moment feel even stranger: Buffalo was not simply another preseason appearance. It exposed the painful distance between Watson and the city he is supposed to lead.

Head coach Todd Monken later acknowledged that Watson was “not in a great headspace” during and after the defeat . Monken described the episode as a temporary setback and praised the work Watson put into returning from his injuries, but his honesty revealed how concerned the Browns had become. Monken also said that Cleveland’s fans are desperate for hope after years of disappointment.

Despite the performance, Monken selected Watson as his starting quarterback over Shedeur Sanders. The decision was not presented as a week-to-week experiment. That places enormous pressure on a veteran entering the final season of the fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract he signed in 2022.

Sanders actually defended Watson when the crowd turned against him, even after outperforming his teammate against Buffalo. Sanders completed nine of 11 passes for 74 yards, one touchdown and one interception, but will begin the season behind Watson.

Now the questions will follow Watson into Cleveland’s regular-season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He may genuinely have forgotten which Buffalo game the reporter meant, but Browns fans remember it clearly. The only way Watson can finally make them move on is by giving them a performance worth remembering.