Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders? That has been the question throughout training camp and the preseason for the Cleveland Browns, but it’s now answered.
Veteran quarterback Deshaun Watson will be Cleveland’s starter in Week 1, head coach Todd Monken confirmed on Monday, bumping Sanders to the backup role. Monken told reporters that he doesn’t anticipate his decision at quarterback to be a “week-to-week” decision.
“That question is not a quarterback question,” Monken said. “It is everybody’s position. Every single week we have to prove it. That’s what we do. As pros, we have to prove it every week. It doesn’t matter what position. Ultimately, we expect him to play well or we wouldn’t be starting him.”
Sanders started seven games and made eight appearances for the Browns in his rookie 2025 after falling to the fifth round of the NFL Draft. He made the Pro Bowl as a late substitute, despite having 10 interceptions against seven touchdowns and 1,400 yards passing and a 56.6% completion rate.
Sanders had the chance to start in part because Watson was unavailable — now that Watson is back and presumably healthy, the job is his for the first time since 2024, in the final season of a fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract signed in 2022.
(Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Watson missed all of 2025 recovering from a second surgery on his torn Achilles, suffered on Oct. 20, 2024. He was limited to seven starts that season due to the injury, but that was also a continuation of how his tenure in Cleveland had gone to that point. Watson, after making three straight Pro Bowls for the Houston Texans from 2018-20, missed the entire 2021 season due to requesting a trade and multiple allegations of sexual assault. Watson was accused of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct by over two dozen women and faced as many civil lawsuits, which didn’t wrap up until 2024.
Watson would end up suspended for 11 games in 2022 for those allegations, his first since the Browns acquired him from the Texans in a March trade, before debuting in Week 13 in early December. Watson looked like a QB who hadn’t suited up for a couple of years rather than the one who led the NFL in passing yards in 2020, and rotator cuff injuries in 2023 limited both his production and playing time in the follow-up season.
All told with the Browns, Watson has started and appeared in 19 games, in which he’s thrown for 3,365 yards with 19 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. This past weekend, Watson was booed by Browns’ fans for his performance against the Buffalo Bills, and postgame discussed how these same fans cheered when he tore his Achilles in 2024.
Watson told reporters on Monday that he understands the “frustration” that Browns fans might feel about him being their starting quarterback after his recent comments, which he called “emotional.”
“Just human nature, just myself being very emotional, putting a lot of time these last two years to get back and spend time in this facility, in the city, meeting a lot of different people in the community,” Watson said. “I thought I was going to get a little different response, but I think my emotions got the best of me and my comments wasn’t intending to go at any of the fans around in the city because there’s been a lot of great fans that have been supporting me.”
On Sunday, Sanders outperformed Watson by going 8-for-11 with a TD and a pick, and 74 yards passing.
Dillon Gabriel and Tayler Green are the other two quarterbacks the Browns have in the room this preseason, but the competition was always between Watson and Sanders. For now, it’s Watson who will lead the Browns.
