I’m not sure whether it was gamesmanship or coincidence. Either way, the news was deliciously ironic.

On the eve of the Cleveland Browns’ home opener against the Dallas Cowboys, news broke that the Cowboys had made their quarterback, Dak Prescott, the richest player in NFL history. Not the richest quarterback, the richest player: a record four-year, $240 million contract extension, $231 million guaranteed. At 31, Prescott became the first NFL player to average $60 million per season.

For Cleveland Browns ownership, executives and fans who watched Dallas rout the Browns 33-17 on Sunday, the signing was a cruel reminder about getting what you pay for and overpaying for what you got. Two years ago, the Browns made a controversial trade with the Houston Texans for quarterback Deshaun Watson, who at the time was embroiled in a scandal that had made him a pariah.

After the trade, Cleveland offered Watson an unprecedented contract: a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million extension. The contract enraged fellow NFL owners who were loath to award fully guaranteed contracts and feared the Watson deal would usher in a new era of elite quarterback demands.

It has not. Elite quarterbacks from Aaron Rodgers to Lamar Jackson have backed off of fully guaranteed contract demands. And the fact that Dallas gave Prescott $1 million more in guaranteed money than the Browns gave Watson was trash-talking among billionaires: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones telling the Haslam family, who owns the Browns, that you can run a successful NFL franchise while maintaining the status quo.

The contract was also a reminder to Cowboys fans that they should count their blessings.

Prescott had been ridiculed for failing to deliver in the postseason, but the Browns, who have seen Watson play just 12 games over two seasons, would gladly take Prescott’s production over Watson’s.

Sunday’s home opener fiasco and news of Prescott’s contract only deepened Browns fans’ despair. Even when there is an entire season to play, there must be a foreboding sense in Cleveland that the franchise made a mistake in pursuing Watson and that Watson, who turns 29 on Saturday, is not the messiah they hoped he was.

Fans are beginning to loudly complain but they tend to forget the Faustian bargain that delivered Watson to Cleveland in the first place.

Desperate for a winner, the Haslams believed they were getting a bargain when they traded for Watson in 2022. He was a young elite quarterback who had led Houston to consecutive division titles in 2018 and 2019 and who led the league in passing in 2020. Then the honeymoon ended.

Watson refused to play for Houston in 2021 because he had not been consulted as promised on front office and coaching moves. He apparently wanted to make sure African Americans were included in the search. Watson demanded a trade, and suitors initially were lining up around the block even though the Texans said they had no intentions of trading its star quarterback and held Watson out the entire 2021 season. Then, Watson was sued by what would turn out to be more than 24 massage therapists who claimed that Watson sexually harassed and abused them. Watson denied then (and continues to deny) any wrongdoing, but he became untouchable to every team … except the Browns, who took advantage of what they clearly saw as a golden opportunity to finally bring Cleveland a winner.

That’s the shorthand history, but what we know now is that things have not worked out — so far — for Cleveland and Watson. Because of a league-imposed suspension, Watson missed the first 11 games of the 2022 season and finished with a 3-3 record. (Prescott played the entire season and led Dallas to a wild-card victory and was named the 2022 Walter Payton Man of the Year.)

Last season, Watson’s play was promising but he sustained a broken bone in his shoulder and missed the Browns last 11 games of the season. (Prescott led Dallas to a 12-5 record and a division title.)

This season, and presumably every season hereafter, will be a referendum on Watson, the Browns’ front office, and ownership that brought him to town. Most of the claims in the lawsuit have been settled but the greatest challenge for Watson will be rebuilding his reputation. For better or for worse, winning will go a long way in erasing his troubles from the public’s memory. Losing will keep the memory front and center.

Watson was sacked five times on Sunday but was hit 17 times overall. For someone coming off of shoulder surgery, Sunday’s game was a major test of toughness and he passed with flying colors. When coach Kevin Stefanski approached Watson about coming out of the game, Watson refused.

“I’m going to finish the game for sure, regardless of what the score is,” he told reporters after Sunday’s game. “That’s just my mentality, just to compete. I didn’t work this hard to come back, even though it didn’t go our way today, just to play only a little bit of it, regardless of how it was going. So, yeah, I wanted to stay in and compete to the final whistle.”

Watson also played Sunday with a heavy heart. After Sunday’s game he shared with reporters that he suffered two major losses during the week. His father, Don Richardson, died Friday and a former Clemson teammate was reportedly shot to death Saturday.

“You know, at the end of the day, football is definitely something that you got to take very, very seriously, and it’s our job, it’s our career, but there are other things that are bigger than this,” Watson said. “I lost my dad Friday. I lost my brother, my teammate yesterday, Diondre Overton, only 26 years old. So, yeah, I mean, it’s been a long week.”

Asked about the emotional toll the two deaths had taken, Watson said that, in an odd way, playing Sunday offered some relief.

“Yeah, I try my best to just try at least for at least three hours to separate the two,” he said. “I’m not going to use that as an excuse for why we played bad. But it was definitely a lot of a heavy heart these last couple of days.”

Still, the question hovering over the Cleveland franchise and over Watson is was he worth the money and when do the Browns admit the gamble they made two years ago failed.

That’s been the one question, really the only question, about Cleveland. The Browns have great talent and a great defense. All they need is for Watson to be above average — not great, not a superstar, just be slightly above average. Be Dak Prescott.

Near the end of his postgame session with reporters, Watson was asked what gives him confidence that Sunday’s loss was not a harbinger of things to come.

“Because it’s 17 more weeks, we got 16 more opportunities,” he said. “It’s the NFL, anything can happen.”

Watson referred to the 2018 season in Houston when the Texans got off to a horrible start. “I started 0-4 in 2018. We won 11 straight, so it’s one game at a time,” he said. “You get ready, regardless of if you win or you lose, you gotta scratch that one and get ready for the next week. So, anything can happen. Anything is possible.”

Watson has 16 more games to improve as a football player and an entire life to prove himself as a good human being.

Sixteen more games. His legacy depends on it.