As recently reported, the Browns’ battle for the starting quarterback job was not settled in the spring. While new head coach Todd Monken had hoped to see one of veteran Deshaun Watson or second-year Shedeur Sanders stand out and claim a starting role early, the battle will continue into training camp and the preseason.
According to Zac Jackson of The Athletic, Monken’s ultimate determination for who will start is “whoever gives (the Browns) the best chance to score, and (he) won’t know that until (they) play.” The process of determining play ability will begin in the summer, when practice intensity will pick up and both passers will get to experience much more realistic pass rush looks. If neither passer can establish himself as QB1 through camp, scheduled joint practices against the Bills will be another key evaluation point, then preseason game after that.
The last update we saw on this race two days ago suggested that Sanders had gained ground on Watson, who had come into the offseason as the favorite to win the job but has still not officially done so. The fact that Watson has not easily outplayed Sanders to this point should be concerning for the veteran. He was the favorite because we’ve seen him lead the NFL in passing yards and play at a Pro Bowl level when healthy. If his play ability cannot clearly put him over Sanders on the depth chart, though, the situation does not favor him.
Cleveland made it fairly clear leading up to the draft that chasing Ty Simpson in the 2026 NFL Draft was not going to be their strategy to address the quarterback room, so they arranged to position themselves as well as they could to land a top-ranked passer in 2027’s draft. Watson is playing on the final year of what has been a disastrous contract. Unless Watson begins to play MVP-level football this year, the Browns are expecting to move on with someone younger next year.
To that point, Sanders still has two years remaining on his rookie contract after this year, and his game holds a bit more unknown potential. If the staff is not quite sure which passer is the better player, the situation points to Sanders getting the nod, so the franchise can see if he has the tools to carry the offense moving forward. If Sanders shows major improvements from his rookie year and establishes himself as the team’s best option moving forward, the Browns can forego their pursuit of a 2027 arm and utilize that draft capital to build around Sanders. If he fails to progress much, the Browns will stick with their plan of finding someone next year.
Whatever the answer may be, it behooves the franchise to figure that out. So if Watson isn’t clearly the better option to lead the Browns offense in 2026, it makes the most sense to start Sanders in search of that answer. Starting a lame-duck veteran provides little benefit to the franchise, so if Watson wants to play in 2026, he needs to leave no doubt in what’s left of the team’s QB battle. Per Jackson, Watson appears to finally be healthy and has thrown downfield with confidence, but he has “lacked consistency” and thrown into traffic too often, adding that Sanders has seemed “more confident and accurate.”
Over his rookie contract in Houston, Watson’s completion percentage hovered around 67-70 percent as he averaged around 250 yards per game (301.4 ypg in 2020). In 19 games with the Browns, he’s completed 61.2 percent of his passes while averaging about 177.1 yards per game. He may not ever reach his Houston form again, but he’ll need to move in that direction in order to win the starting job and set himself up for anything beyond this year.
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