The Pittsburgh Pirates visit the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, August 22, 2026 at 4:15 p.m. PT from UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA.

The Los Angeles Dodgers enter at 78-51 (.605), while the Pittsburgh Pirates sit at 63-67 (.485). Tarik Skubal (7-7, 2.85 ERA in 113.2 innings) is the probable starter for the Dodgers, opposed by Jared Jones (2-5, 4.78 ERA in 64 innings) for the Pirates.

Below, we’ll give you all the details you need to know about how to watch this game.

How to Watch Pirates vs. Dodgers

• When: Saturday, August 22, 2026 at 4:15 p.m. PT
• Where: UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
• TV: FOX
• Stream: Watch 3 days free on FOX One, FOX Sports

Players to Watch

Tarik Skubal gives the Dodgers a significant advantage on the mound against a Pittsburgh lineup capable of creating pressure. The Pirates have scored 650 runs while batting .255 with a .332 on-base percentage and 108 stolen bases, making it important for Skubal to limit traffic from the start.

The projected Dodgers starter is 7-7 with a 2.85 ERA, a 0.96 WHIP and 135 strikeouts over 113 2/3 innings. Opponents are batting just .213 against him. If Skubal works ahead and keeps Pittsburgh off the bases, he can allow a Dodgers staff that ranks second in WHIP and first in quality starts to control the game.

Shohei Ohtani remains the centerpiece of a Dodgers lineup that leads MLB with a .764 OPS and ranks second with a .259 batting average. He leads Los Angeles with 30 home runs and is tied for the team lead with 80 RBI while batting .291 with a .390 on-base percentage and a .552 slugging percentage.

Ohtani presents the biggest challenge for projected Pirates starter Jared Jones, who enters with a 4.78 ERA. Whether he reaches base or drives a mistake over the fence, Ohtani can turn one productive plate appearance into an early Dodgers advantage.

Jared Jones will be tasked with slowing down one of MLB’s most complete offenses. Los Angeles has scored 645 runs while ranking first in OPS, third in on-base percentage and second in slugging percentage.

Jones has recorded 72 strikeouts over 64 innings, giving Pittsburgh the swing-and-miss ability it needs in this matchup. He also carries a 4.78 ERA, a 1.20 WHIP and three quality starts. If Jones can turn his strikeout stuff into efficient innings and keep the Dodgers from stacking baserunners, he can give the Pirates an opportunity to stay close into the later innings.

Brandon Lowe provides the power Pittsburgh needs against a Dodgers staff that has held opponents to a .218 batting average. He leads the Pirates with 27 home runs and 80 RBI.

Lowe went 2-for-5 with a double and two runs in Friday’s 5-4 extra-inning loss to the Dodgers. Two days earlier, he went 1-for-3 with two walks, two runs and a walk-off solo home run against Detroit. He is batting .240 with four home runs through 19 games in August. If Lowe gets a pitch to drive against Skubal or the Dodgers bullpen, he is capable of changing the game with one swing.

Pirates vs. Dodgers Odds

Learn more about the Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Los Angeles Dodgers game and check the full MLB schedule on FOX Sports!

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The Alabama football team reportedly named sophomore Keelon Russell its starting quarterback on Saturday. 

Throughout fall camp, Russell and senior Austin Mack battled to earn the role of the Crimson Tide’s lead signal-caller. Two weeks before their Sept. 5 season-opener against East Carolina, head coach Kalen DeBoer began to let the team know Russell would be the starting quarterback. 

Keelon Russell was reportedly named Alabama’s starting quarterback on Saturday, Aug. 22. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

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Russell appeared in two games in 2025, completing 11 passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns, before opting to redshirt. He was a five-star recruit, and the No. 2 overall quarterback and player in the 2025 class, per 247sports, falling only behind Michigan’s Bryce Underwood. 

After sitting behind former Alabama QB Ty Simpson, who the Los Angeles Rams selected with the 13th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Russell will get his opportunity to lead the Crimson Tide. 

Mack, on the other hand, will remain in a backup role. Playing behind Simpson last season, he appeared in four games, and completed 24 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns. 

Not only did Mack and Russell go toe to toe throughout fall camp, but they competed in Alabama’s spring game. Russell outdueled Mack, throwing for 240 yards and four touchdowns, while Mack tossed for a 101 yards but got “dinged up.”

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New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton sustained a strained left calf, manager Aaron Boone announced on Saturday. 

According to Boone, Stanton’s injury happened while “running, a couple of days ago.” Stanton had been recovering from a right calf strain that occurred in April. With the news of the new calf strain, Stanton reportedly might miss the remainder of the 2026 season. 

“Everything’s on the table,” Boone said. 

Stanton hasn’t appeared in a game since April 24th, when he tweaked his right calf. He played in 24 games for the Yankees before that, holding a .256 batting average and .724 OPS. 

New York (73-55) sits three games back of the Tampa Bay Rays for the lead of the AL East, and holds a four-game advantage over the Boston Red Sox for the top Wild Card spot in the American League. The Yankees are 9.5 games clear of missing the postseason. 

They’re staying above water despite Stanton’s absence, and without superstar outfielder Aaron Judge, as well as OF Cody Bellinger and LHP Max Fried. 

Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton share the field as both Yankees try to recover from injury. (Photo by Michael Urakami/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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Judge sustained a stress fracture in his ribs on April 26, but played through the pain until being shut down in the end of May. He’s progressed to taking swings off a tee, and could return in September. 

Fried was recently placed on the 15-day injured list with a bone bruise in his left elbow, whereas Bellinger could return as soon as Sunday from a left hamstring strain he sustained in late July. 

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NEW YORK — Going into the week, the Yankees thought they were finally getting their rotation back. 

Carlos Rodon was returning from the injured list. Max Fried had, seemingly, worked his way back from his elbow issue, allowing one run or fewer in four out of five starts since he came off the IL. Gerrit Cole had racked up 100 strikeouts in 92 innings pitched. Cam Schlittler continued to lead all American League starting pitchers with a 2.19 ERA. 

The pitching staff that had carried the Yankees through an increasingly dysfunctional year was supposed to get stronger as they entered the final month of the regular season. 

Change of plans. New York is figuring out how to survive without Fried again, and managing his injury sounds like it’s going to be tricky.

The southpaw landed back on the injured list this week with a recurring bone bruise in his left elbow just as Rodon returned from his own stint on the IL. Since the Yankees signed Fried last year, the trio of Cole, Rodon, and Fried have yet to appear in the rotation together. The timing is particularly cruel for a Yankees team that has spent most of the season leaning on its pitching to compensate for an Aaron Judge-less offense that’s both inconsistent and unreliable. 

“You don’t want it to get too bad where it turns into a fracture,” Fried said of his elbow injury. “So you just have to be honest with the symptoms and how you’re feeling.”

(Photo by New York Yankees/Getty Images)

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Fried had settled back into the rotation after the All-Star break and looked like the frontline starter the Yankees signed him to be. It wasn’t until his most recent outing, five innings of one-run ball against the Mariners, when the pain returned. On Friday afternoon, speaking for the first time since he landed on the IL, Fried said he was optimistic about spending the minimum 15 days on the shelf. But it’s not that straightforward. 

Even if he can avoid another extended absence, the Yankees will have to be cautious with Fried to protect him from re-aggravating this nagging elbow injury. Ultimately, Fried said he needs tons of rest in order for the bone to heal. But that rest won’t arrive until the offseason. 

“Before, it was definitely more intense, more pain,” Fried said when asked to compare his current IL stint to the one in May. “I would say this is something that felt similar, but just on a smaller scale. I just wanted to be as transparent as I could be with the coaching staff and the medical staff, knowing that we have a big goal at hand and I wanted to be able to take the ball and was willing to, but we thought it was better to take a little bit of a breather now, so that the rest of the season goes accordingly with no hiccups.”

(Photo by George Gaza/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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Fried was convinced he could avoid re-aggravating the injury by fixing his mechanics. He plans to spend the next couple of weeks working on his timing. He’ll get back on the mound on Saturday and throw a bullpen session. The team will closely monitor whether the inflammation in his elbow is continuing to go down. For now, surgery is off the table.  

“It’s one of those things that, if you don’t aggravate it, it gets better,” he said. “But if it does, it gets aggravated a little quicker, and it could go down the wrong path. Instead of just trying to compound it or see if it would get better, it was best to take a little bit of a breather to get it right and see if it dies down.”

What if it doesn’t die down? Losing Fried for any amount of time would be a significant problem for any postseason contender. For these Yankees, it’s potentially much more consequential because of what is happening on the other side of the ball.

(Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

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The offense has become so unreliable — New York’s 79 wRC+ in the second half is second-worst in MLB behind only the Angels — that there is almost no room left for the pitching staff to have anything other than an excellent night. The offense has gone 20 straight games without scoring a run in the first inning. Their .233 batting average with runners in scoring position is ranked 27th in the majors. That puts an enormous burden on a pitching staff that has already dealt with injuries and workloads throughout the season.

Someone to watch closely down the stretch is Schlittler. The All-Star right-hander surpassed his career high in innings pitched in the first week of June. Even though Schlittler has been spectacular in his second year in the big leagues, sporting a 31.4% strikeout rate that’s ranked fourth in the AL, it’s clear that his workload is starting to catch up to him. Schlittler was unable to complete six innings pitched in four of his last nine starts. His walk rate has also gone up in that span, and he’s been laboring through his recent outings, underlining how quickly his lack of command can spiral and put more of a load on the bullpen.

(Photo by New York Yankees/Getty Images)

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Making the situation more tenuous is that the Yankees did not add a pitcher at the trade deadline. 

You can say that was understandable at the time, since Rodon was on his way back, Cole looked like Cole, Schlittler is the AL Cy Young award favorite, and Fried was back in the rotation from his injury. As far as pitching goes, their biggest problem down the stretch was supposed to be which current starter, between Ryan Weathers and Will Warren, would be shifted to the bullpen. 

That’s why general manager Brian Cashman focused on buying bats, and he didn’t address other needs at catcher and in the bullpen. At the time, the calculation made some sense. Get healthy, let the rotation carry the team, and hope the bats will eventually follow. 

Weeks later, the Yankees’ biggest problem is still that the bats haven’t followed. New additions in first baseman Luis Garcia Jr. and outfielder Heliot Ramos have had their moments, but neither hitter is catapulting the Yankees offense from the league’s basement to the top in the sport. 

The returns of Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton and Judge would potentially be game-changing, but only Bellinger is close to joining the lineup. The outfielder, who was dealing with a hamstring strain, is expected to come off the IL on Sunday for the Yankees’ series finale against the Blue Jays. Stanton is in a running progression that never seems to end. He strained his calf in April and has only played 24 games this season.

(Photo by Michael Urakami/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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Judge’s timeline for returning is both the most important and the most murky. He finally started swinging off a tee this week, which was his first time picking up a bat since he fractured his rib at the end of May. His next steps and ensuing progression will be based on how he feels after swinging. This is purely speculation, since the Yankees disclose details about player injuries like they’re state secrets, but it would be surprising if Judge returned before the middle of September. 

Regardless, the Yankees cannot wait for Judge to rescue them. They entered Friday just four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the division lead. Their goal is to win the AL East, get a breather and reset their rotation during the wild-card matchups, and then begin the playoffs with home-field advantage in the ALDS. 

In order for that to come to fruition, the Yankees are simultaneously trying to replace Fried’s innings with Rodon, who is working his way back to full strength, monitor the workloads of their young or less-established starters, preserve a bullpen that has been heavily used, and survive an offense that isn’t giving them much breathing room. 

That’s a precarious combination this late in the season. It’s not how a contender wants to enter September. Every mistake is magnified, and every arm who produces anything less than a quality start is putting a strain on the bullpen and offense. 

The Yankees’ playoff strategy is being built around everyone being healthy at exactly the right moment. It’s also built around pitching, and they’re asking too much of it. Can the Yankees get healthy and get their bats to wake up before their pitching runs out of margin? It’s a question that will decide their fate in October.

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Will Power is living his childhood dream. 

A kid from Toowoomba, Australia — “a small town” with a population less than 200,000 people — Power would envision the life he’s currently experiencing. The Formula 2 car stored in his family’s garage from his father, Bob’s racing days, was a token of what it meant to breakthrough in the racing world.

Power’s done more than breakthrough. He’s competed in INDYCAR for 19 seasons, winning 43 races and two championships. Yet he’s still awestruck at the chance to drive in the first-ever INDYCAR race in Washington, D.C.

“When I look back at it, I tell people, ‘I’m living my childhood dream,’ because when I was a kid, my brother and myself used to play racing,” Power said, speaking with Will Buxton during Friday’s episode of SPEED on FOX. “Getting to go to the White House, or meeting the President — for a boy from Toowoomba, a small town in Australia — that is incredible.”

Power and his competitors tested out the course for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C. during Saturday morning’s practice. The road course begins across from the Capitol on 3rd Street. Drivers take a left on Pennsylvania Avenue, where pit road sits. The race continues on Constitution Avenue, then the Washington Monument enters the backdrop.

Before the practice, Power had only experienced the race via sim. 

“The track is cool, just based on the sim,” Power said on SPEED on FOX.

“Seven’s proper tight,” Buxton said, chuckling. “It’s going to be fun.”

Power’s feel for the Freedom 250 will certainly improve ahead of Sunday’s race, with coverage on FOX set to begin at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday with the green flag scheduled for 1:13 p.m. ET. 

When that green flag waves, his realization of his dream will be put on pause as he enters the mode of competing to be the inaugural winner in Washington, D.C.

Cars on the Freedom 250 track during practice ahead of Sunday’s race. (Jon Hill/FOX Sports)

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The Seattle Seahawks received unfortunate news on Saturday: Wide receiver Jake Bobo was placed on season-ending injured reserve with a knee injury, ESPN reported Saturday. 

The wide receiver from UCLA originally sustained an injury on Friday in the Seahawks’ joint practice with the Tennessee Titans. Later that day, Bobo underwent tests on his knee. 

Bobo was an undrafted free agent in 2023 and has spent his entire NFL career with the Seahawks. Notably, Bobo caught a 17-yard touchdown pass in Seattle’s 31-27 NFC championship win over the Los Angeles Rams. Additionally, Bobo appeared in all 17 regular season games in both 2023 and 2024. 

However, the Seahawks acted fast to fill the place with Bobo. Seattle signed wide receiver Julian Hicks to take Bobo’s place. Hicks signed with Seattle last week but was waived to make room for cornerback Trevon Diggs. Prior to Hicks signing with the Seahawks, he was initially with the Green Bay Packers on the practice squad. 

In March — when Bobo was a restricted free agent — the Jacksonville Jaguars offered Bobo a two-year, $5.5 million deal, but the Seahawks met the offer to keep him in Seattle. 

While Bobo’s season has come to an end, Seattle’s wide receiver room is still stacked. The Seahawks return star receivers Cooper Kupp and Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba with quarterback Sam Darnold. 

“It hurts, man,” Darnold said. “He’s one of those guys that he works with, he talks a lot of stuff, and he’s kind of like (Devon Witherspoon) in a way, offensively. He brings the juice every single day, and he just does his job. So it sucks to lose Bobo, but I know he’s going to attack it and be better whenever he comes back.”

The defending Super Bowl Champions open their 2026 campaign in Seattle home against the New England Patriots on Wednesday, September 9. 

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The Nebraska Cornhuskers have found their starting quarterback: Nebraska has named quarterback Anthony Colandrea as its starter for Week 1 against Ohio, head coach Matt Rhule announced Saturday. 

Colandrea transferred to Nebraska after one season with UNLV and two with Virginia. Colandrea led the Rebels to a 10-4 overall and 6-2 Mountain West record and finished the year with 3,459 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and just nine interceptions. He also finished the year as Mountain West Player of the Year. 

(Photo by Ian Maule/Getty Images)

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The Cornhuskers finished the year 7-6 overall and 4-5 in conference play. Now, the Cornhuskers look to bounce back with Colandrea and key transfers like wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer from UCLA, who led the Bruins in receiving with 50 receptions, 535 receiving yards and four touchdowns. 

For the Cornhuskers, the addition of Colandrea was a massive benefit to Rhule, who lost quarterback starting Dylan Raiola to the Oregon Ducks. While Colandrea competed against quarterbacks TJ Lateef and Daniel Kaelin in the offseason, Rhule made it clear that he was the clear choice as Nebraska’s QB1. 

“Anthony would play for us right now,” Rhule told reporters on Saturday. “All the quarterbacks have done a nice job. Anthony, I think the biggest thing is he’s very competitive, very fiery. He expects to win every play. He does a nice job disciplining himself to also take what’s there and makes nice checks in the run/pass game, and can throw the ball deep.”

Lateef took over for Raiola after he suffered a season-ending injury in week 9 against USC, and finished 1-3 as starting quarterback.

What Rhule also gets in Colandrea is a dual-threat quarterback, as he put up 649 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Especially as the Cornhuskers lose Emmett Johnson to the NFL Draft, Colandrea’s talent on the ground will make up for Johnson’s production last season. 

Colandrea will lead the Cornhuskers starting Week 1 against Ohio at home on Saturday, Sept. 5.

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WASHINGTON — Jeff Gordon enjoyed a trip down memory lane by winning both of the International Race of Champions events Saturday on the streets of Washington, D.C. ahead of INDYCAR’s Freedom 250 on Sunday.

The 10-lap exhibition races featured eight famous drivers who had competed in the previous version of IROC, a series that pitted the best from various forms of motorsports into equally prepared cars.

In Pontiac Firebirds, the races featured former NASCAR drivers Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch; former full-time INDYCAR drivers Tony Kanaan and Hélio Castroneves and road-racer Tony Kendall. 

The races were a support event for INDYCAR’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix weekend on a 1.7-mile course that includes Pennsylvania, Constitution and Independence avenues.

“Just being out here, being a part of this special event, the fans are everywhere, celebrating 250 years of this great country — this is super special,” Jeff Gordon said in his FOX Sports interview after the sweep.

A tape-delay telecast of the races will air Sunday at 10 a.m. ET on FS1.

“This is just such a blast,” Gordon said in his television interview after the first race. “To be on the track with this group of drivers — legends, right? … It’s going to be hard to wipe this smile off my face for a very long time.”

The four-time NASCAR Cup champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer continued smiling all the way from coming from the rear of the field to the front in the second race.

Gordon had previously competed in six IROC seasons — they were just four races — from 1995-2000 and won just once.

“It’s a real honor to be a part of this event,” Gordon said. “I’m truly blessed.”

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WASHINGTON — Alex Palou will start from the pole Sunday just as he has done 18 other times in his career.

But the Freedom 250 Grand Prix will feature a unique start, with President Donald Trump most likely waving the green flag from inside a bulletproof suite on Pennsylvania Avenue just past Turn 1.

So will Palou take a look at who waves the green flag as he leads the field to green?

“It will be interesting,” he said in his news conference after winning the pole for the inaugural (and likely only) race on the streets of the National Mall. “It’s the first time that we’re going to start after Turn 1, right?

NTT P1 Award winner Alex Palou (far right) celebrates his pole position for the Freedom 250. (Getty Images)

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“So it will be fun. I think we just have an incredible opportunity this weekend to show our product to people that’s never been around INDYCAR or have never seen it. Just seeing the stands, how packed they are already on Saturday — it’s incredible. I cannot wait.”

After months of anticipation, INDYCAR drivers actually got to turn laps on iconic streets with the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument in the background.

And they found out on Saturday what people here already knew: the roads have some bumps. 

But, man, it was — as INDYCAR series points leader Palou put it — “very, very cool.”

“It was pretty awesome,” Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin told me after the first practice session, where drivers got 52 minutes on the track. “It’s quite a technical track for how short it is.

“I had a lot of fun.”

Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 Penske team working on the car ahead of the Freedom 250. (Jon Hill/FOX Sports)

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INDYCAR drivers were set to get another practice early Saturday afternoon and then qualify in the early evening for the 147-lap, 250-mile race Sunday on the 1.7-mile street course that includes Pennsylvania, Constitution and Independence Avenues in the nation’s capital.

“I didn’t know if it was going to be fun or not to drive,” Palou said in a post-practice virtual news conference. “It’s a blast, super fun. It’s very bumpy. Huge bumps heading into Turn 2 and Turn 6.

“Massive bumps that are going to spice things up.”

Bumps are nothing new for street courses in INDYCAR, with many drivers comparing the conditions to the course at Detroit. 

However, the bumps were a little more exaggerated than teams anticipated, and they will spend the next day trying to figure out the best way to approach it.

“[We’re] going to try to see if we can get a better balance in the corners, not focus so much on the bumps,” Palou said. “They’re not going to disappear.

“I think if you move a little bit on lanes, might be a little bit better, but it’s not going to completely go away from that.”

Teams can adjust the shocks to help the car handle the bumps better.

“The track is cool,” said British driver Louis Foster. “The scenery is awesome. It is very, very bumpy. I have a sore back right now from just the first session, but we get to tune into some things, raise the ride height [of the car].”

Marcus Ericsson is the most recent INDYCAR winner after taking the checkered flag last week at the Toronto suburb of Markham. He knows something about racing on iconic streets. A former Formula 1 driver, Ericsson was able to cherish the new experience he had Saturday.

Alexander Rossi’s car on track in front of the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Freedom 250. (Jon Hill/FOX Sports)

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“It was really fun,” Ericsson said. “It is a challenging track with all the bumps. It’s quite rough in places, as you would expect in a street course. … It is fun to be here.”

The Andretti Global driver said the competitors will adapt to the course.

“You’ve got to get used to them and understand them and use them in the best possible way,” Ericsson said. “You think about car placement, try and place the car maybe in places where they aren’t as severe.

“It’s just one of those challenges with street-course racing, so I don’t mind it.”

One other factor drivers will battle is the humidity. 

Early Saturday morning, rain forced the start of the first session to be run in damp conditions. The track dried quickly, but it remained humid. 

The race on Sunday is likely to last at least 140 minutes and that is if there are no cautions.

“I’m ready for the street fight, man,” said Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward during a virtual news conference after the first practice. “I train really hard when I’m home and I train really hard in the offseason.

“I feel like these situations are what I try and prepare myself to be able to withstand.”

For the most part, INDYCAR was relatively fortunate with the weather, as temperatures weren’t sweltering and the rain stayed away.

Palou qualified on the pole and Kyle Kirkwood, the driver second in the standings, will start second.

“Everywhere around the entire track was rows of people, which was incredible to see,” Kirkwood said about the atmosphere. 

“It’s big for INDYCAR, for the sport, for the U.S., for us drivers, teams, our sponsors. It’s all win-win.”

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INDYCAR’s Freedom 250 is here, and the trophy is just as unique as the race itself.

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Deshaun Watson finished his preseason with more negative fan reactions than positive. 

The veteran quarterback appeared in the Cleveland Browns preseason game against the Buffalo Bills, and fans were not thrilled about his performance. Watson finished his day going 5-for-12 for 36 passing yards and one interception. 

As Watson exited the field, fans began to boo him. Following the loss, Watson spoke about the post-game reaction and his feelings towards it. 

“Last time I played on this field, I tore my Achilles and that same fan base, they cheered when I got hurt,” Watson said after the game. “So what does that have to do with anything about performance? When a person gets hurt, especially for your own city, and they cheer.” 

Watson suffered a torn Achilles in October 2024 that sidelined him for the season, leaving the keys to Jameis Winston as the Browns’ starting quarterback. However, he re-tore his Achilles in 2025, which ended his season, giving quarterback Joe Flacco the green light.

However, when Flacco was traded to the Bengals to take Joe Burrow’s place, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel competed for the starting role. However, Sanders has continued to cement his candidacy as starting quarterback from the end of the season up until this preseason.

Sanders also spoke about the negative feelings towards Watson since he’s been back. 

“I don’t appreciate that at all,” Sanders said of Watson getting booed. “Just regardless of competition with all human beings… However y’all feel about Deshaun and everything, I think it’s more about [a] bigger purpose than just respect. It’s a respect I feel should be there.”

The Browns enter the 2026 season coming off a 5-12 record and with a brand-new coach in Todd Monken. Monken previously served as the Ravens offensive coordinator and took over as Cleveland’s head coach when Kelvin Stefanski took over as the Falcons head coach.

Watson emphasized how he’s able to go about the negative reactions, stating there’s only so much he can do.

“So that’s why I say it’s more personal. So you, it is what it is. … There’s only so much you can do to change that,” Watson said. “At the end of the day, I just have to continue to work on that and strive to be better mentally moving forward.”

The Browns open the 2026 season on the road at the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Sept. 13.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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