Technically speaking, Cleveland Browns players are currently enjoying the NFL’s summer break, meaning the competition for the team’s starting quarterback job between second-year pro Shedeur Sanders and veteran Deshaun Watson won’t officially start back up until training-camp practices get underway in late July.
It seems like Watson may be trying to impress first-year head coach Todd Monken ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend.
Deshaun Watson returned to Browns’ facility for extra training
“Watson returned to CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea this week to train with his private physical therapist, Billy Voltaire, and throw with his personal quarterbacks coach, Quincy Avery,” Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer revealed on Tuesday afternoon. “Despite the Browns being in the midst of their seven-week summer break, Watson opted to spend one of his ‘off’ weeks here working on some of the things he learned during spring ball and throwing to some local receivers.”
Cabot shared this update one day after it was reported that Watson “is very much the favorite to end up starting in Week 1” over Sanders. For what it is worth, Cabot thinks “it’s sort of a dead heat for that job” this summer.
While the events of the past couple of months show that the situation involving this quarterback battle can change in a hurry, it seems as if both Watson and Sanders will remain in contention to win the gig through Cleveland’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills on Aug. 22. The Browns open the preseason with a matchup at the Chicago Bears
on Aug. 15, and Cleveland will play a final exhibition game against the New England Patriots on Aug. 27.
Deshaun Watson plans to continue working through July
“In addition to spending this week at the Browns facility,” Cabot added, “Watson will host some of his offensive teammates for a passing camp in South Florida in mid-July. Sanders said during minicamp that he would join in on that session instead of hosting his own. …Watson, determined as ever to win the starting job, plans to return for training camp ahead of where he was when the offseason program wrapped on June 11, beginning with his own personal minicamp at Browns headquarters this week.”
For an article published on Tuesday morning, Zac Jackson of The Athletic noted that “Watson through the spring looked like the same inconsistent player he was through his first three seasons in Cleveland.” Perhaps Watson agreed with such assessments before he decided to head back to the Browns’ facility this week.
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