How Shedeur Sanders can win Browns QB battle over Deshaun Watson

Another year, another Cleveland Browns quarterback competition. However, this year's battle in Cleveland is different, pitting two of the NFL's biggest names against each other: 2025 Pro Bowler Shedeur Sanders and three-time Pro Bowler Deshaun Watson.

After tumbling down the 2025 NFL draft board, the Browns selected Sanders in the fifth round with the 144th overall pick. He had to wait his turn after seeing both Joe Flacco and 2025 third-round rookie Dillon Gabriel play over him, but once Sanders subbed in for Gabriel in Week 11, it was his show the rest of the way. He's a lot fresher than Watson, who hasn't played in an NFL regular-season game in over 600 days after tearing his Achilles in Week 7 of the 2024 season. A re-tear of the same Achilles that occurred in the ensuing offseason held out of the 2025 season entirely. Watson has started just 19 games in four seasons since he signed a five-year, fully-guaranteed contract worth $230 million, a then-NFL record following the Browns' acquisition of him in a trade that cost the franchise three first-round picks. 

Whoever emerges victorious from this training camp battle will be angling to put the Browns out of the historic quarterback misery the franchise is currently mired in. Cleveland has finished outside the top 10 in passer rating in 30 consecutive seasons, the longest such streak in NFL history, per CBS Sports Research. By this metric, the Browns haven't possessed top 10 quarterback play since 1992, when Bill Belichick was their head coach, and Bernie Kosar was their Week 1 starting quarterback. 

Let's break down the case for each passer, plus a prediction for how the quarterback position shakes out for Cleveland throughout the 2026 season. 

The case for Shedeur Sanders to start

The case for Sanders is simple: let the young guy develop and see if he can get up to the NFL's speed. The 24-year-old was overwhelmed by the transition from college football at Colorado to life in the pros with the Browns. No one threw more interceptions than Sanders' 10 after he made his league debut in Week 11 last season, and no one had a longer average time to throw in that span than Sanders' average of 3.40 seconds. Holding the ball too long was his glaring weakness in college, and it resurfaced during his rookie year, which played a major role in Sanders' overall inefficiency. 

* Ranks among 30 qualified quarterbacks in span

However, not all of those struggles are 100% on Sanders. He was the most pressured quarterback in the NFL, facing pressure on an NFL-high 51.4% of his dropbacks from Weeks 11 to 18 last season, despite only being blitzed on 24.1% of his dropbacks, the seventh-lowest rate in the league in the same span. Some of that was on Sanders' desperation to make plays and league-leading average time to throw of 3.40 seconds, but plenty of that was on the offensive line, too. The Browns' 2025 offensive line allowed an NFL-worst 45.5% quarterback pressure across the entirety of the 2025 season. 

Cleveland's pass-blocking struggles are a major reason all five of its primary offensive line starters from the 2025 season are no longer on the roster. Those issues also drove the Browns to select Utah All-American offensive lineman Spencer Fano ninth overall in the 2026 NFL Draft: he did not allow a sack in his final 23 collegiate games, spanning 737 pass-blocking snaps. Fano will plug in at left tackle in 2026 while lining up to the following players from left to right: former Chargers first-round pick Zion Johnson, former Packers Pro Bowler Elgton Jenkins, former Bears second-round pick Teven Jenkins and Browns fourth-round pick Dawand Jones. It's a five-man offensive that's nearly five full years younger (average age of 26.6) than the 2025 season's five-man unit (31.2).

* Only team since 1970 AFL/NFL merger to lose its top five offensive line starters in the same offseason

The Browns also invested heavily in two new starting wide receivers for their offense alongside Jerry Jeudy in the 2026 NFL Draft: 24th overall pick KC Concepcion, a speedster, out of Texas A&M and 39th overall pick Denzel Boston, a tank at 6-4, 215 pounds, out of Washington. There was a clear reason why Cleveland chose to become the first team since the 1996 New York Jets to draft two wide receivers in the first 40 picks of a draft: the Browns' wide receivers averaged 86.3 receiving yards per game in 2025, the fewest by any team since the 2011 Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Sanders' case is that he can make a leap with a more energized, talented supporting cast, in addition to having already tasted life as an NFL starting quarterback. He'll have a shot to put that theory into practice in training camp and the preseason. 

The case for Deshaun Watson to start

The case to start Watson comes down to how much of a sunk cost he already is and the slim, desperate hope that he can rediscover a fraction of the player who earned three consecutive Pro Bowl selections with the Houston Texans from 2018 to 2020. That high-level play occurred before his off-field legal issues came to light, which resulted in him missing the entire 2021 season and the first 11 games of 2022. 

The dream of Watson dominating in Cleveland is likely dead, but it could be worth the Browns seeing if he can show signs of life in training camp. Yes, he's been statistically one of the NFL's worst passers across his limited 19 starts from 2022 to 2024, ranking in the bottom five in the NFL in multiple efficiency metrics among the 50 quarterbacks who have thrown 500-plus passes since 2022. 

* Only Zach Wilson ranks worse than Watson among 50 QBs with 500-plus passes since 2022

Cleveland's copium with Watson is the idea that he could play the best ball of his Browns career after having basically two years to recover from his Achilles injuries. To this point, the Browns have paid him an outrageous $9.6 million per start over the life of his deal that enters its final season in 2026: 19 starts for $183 million in cash earned. 

* Missed the entire 2025 season with a torn Achilles

Prediction on how the QB battle will play out

It seems like Watson will be given every chance to win the starting job to begin the 2026 season, given the heavy investment the Browns still have in him for one more year. ESPN Cleveland reported Watson took all of the first-team quarterback reps across 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills in the first practice of Browns training camp on Wednesday. He reportedly completed 12 of his 22 throws for two interceptions and no touchdowns, while Sanders reportedly hit on an efficient 16 of 19 throws while working with the backups. 

Given that first-team offense snap count distribution and the Grand Canyon-esque gap in salary between Watson and Sanders, who is on a fifth-round pick rookie deal, Watson will begin Week 1 as the Browns' starting quarterback. That won't last throughout the season since it's a mortal lock that Watson will either suffer another injury or be sent to the bench for poor play. 

Like last year, Sanders will take over as Cleveland's quarterback no later than the halfway point in the 2026 season with the chance to prove himself. If he balls out, then the Browns might have stumbled into their long-term answer at football's most valuable position. If Sanders plays similarly in 2026 to the way he did in 2025, the Browns have two first-round picks (their own and the Los Angeles Rams' thanks to the Myles Garrett trade) in the 2027 NFL Draft that they could use to acquire a new quarterback to develop.