The Cleveland Browns announced on Monday morning that Deshaun Watson will be the starting quarterback to begin the 2026 season. Watson “beat out” second-year QB Shedeur Sanders in a battle where neither player lit the world on fire, but Sanders arguably played better over the two preseason games. The decision likely extended beyond on-field performance, but as the old saying goes, money talks. With no clear-cut answer at quarterback, though, the cycle of Browns QBs likely will continue beyond this season.
Cleveland signed Watson to a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract back in 2022, and it is now perhaps the worst contract in NFL history. The former Clemson Tiger has played in just 19 games in his four seasons with the Cleveland Browns. When Watson did manage to play, it was nothing short of abysmal, averaging just 177 passing yards per game with a QBR of 40.4. That is a far cry from his numbers with the Houston Texans, where Watson posted 269 passing yards per game with a QBR of 83.7 in four years.
The on-field performance was bad enough, but Watson further agitated the Cleveland Browns fanbase with his recent comments. The now-QB1 was upset with his treatment by the home crowd.
Watson has since apologized for those comments, acknowledging the organization’s investment in him and that he has not played the best football (to say the least). At the end of the day, that is what most of the booing amounts to, as the performance clearly does not justify the money spent.
At this point, there is no reason to believe Watson will recapture the magic from six years ago, especially given Cleveland’s track record with quarterbacks. With that, Sanders should see the field as a starter at some point in 2026, whether Watson stays healthy or not. While there were still some bad misses, Sanders has shown enough flashes to justify another look.
The Browns have added plenty of talent up front and in the receiving room. Unless Watson miraculously turns back the clock to the pandemic year, both QBs should have opportunities with this revamped offense. The Cleveland Browns have a Week Seven matchup against the Tennessee Titans, a team that Sanders lit up last season. Perhaps by then, Watson will be booed off the field, and Sanders will have a chance to finish the job that former coach Kevin Stefanski did not allow.
Watson or Sanders being the Cleveland Browns’ long-term quarterback solution is a tall order. As mentioned, Watson has not played like a starting-level QB since 2020. With Sanders, history is working against him, and that is not just Cleveland’s awful track record of quarterback development. The former Colorado Buffaloes QB was, albeit controversially, a fifth-round pick with limitations in arm strength and escapability.
The 2027 draft class is expected to be loaded with quarterback talent, with five QBs currently mocked to go in the top half of the first round (via Sports Illustrated). With the over/under set at 5.5 this year, Cleveland will probably be positioned to land one of the top quarterback prospects. Highly touted prospects such as Arch Manning, Dante Moore, and Darian Mensah are expected to be top-five picks. The Cleveland Browns have way more questions than answers at QB, so they will likely take one of those players if the opportunity arises.
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This decision by the Cleveland Browns was met with much backlash, as expected. Many feel Watson’s days as a true QB1 are over, and I tend to agree. At the end of the day, though, the organization made quite the investment in this quarterback, and that was probably the tie-breaker in this QB battle.
While there have been a handful of quarterbacks in recent memory who have revived their careers, they all achieved it in much more stable circumstances. Veterans like Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Geno Smith left the dumpster fires that are the Browns and the New York Jets and became true starting-level QBs. It probably will not happen for Watson in Cleveland, or anywhere else, for that matter.
Even though Sanders is the backup to start the season, he could very well end up starting most of the games. Six or seven games should be enough to determine whether Watson has returned to form. Assuming that he does not, that should give Sanders double-digit starts in 2026. Including last year, that would be about a full season’s worth of starts, which could be enough for the Cleveland Browns to decide on Sanders’ future with the team.
The QB situation in Cleveland is a mess as usual, but they have made investments that will hopefully help finally. The squad drafted both left tackle Spencer Fano and wide receiver KC Concepcion in the first round, and followed that up with WR Denzel Boston early in the second. The organization surely does not want to waste too many years with this young talent on the roster, which could mean grabbing another QB early in the 2027 NFL Draft.
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