Browns’ Shedeur Sanders gets bad news about NFL future as starting QB originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Shedeur Sanders was always going to have an uphill battle to be a long-term starting quarterback in the NFL.
He began his rookie season as the Cleveland Browns‘ QB4 before eventually getting starts late in the season. And now heading toward the 2026 NFL season, it might be complicated for Sanders again.
The problem is a returned-to-health Deshaun Watson.
Watson, according to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, has a path toward winning the starting job for himself.
“Deshaun Watson emerged from the Browns voluntary minicamp last week with an edge over Shedeur Sanders in the two-man quarterback competition – and has the inside track to be named the Browns QB1, sources tell cleveland.com,” Cabot wrote on Wednesday.
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This was always going to be a fascinating battle.
Sanders was the shocking draft free fall to the fifth round in 2025. Watson is the most overpaid QB in NFL history.
The Browns can move on from Watson after the 2026 season, but for this year, he’s still around.
New head coach Todd Monken likely wants to just win football games, and he’ll use whatever QB he feels gives him that chance.
Sanders struggled in his eight appearances (seven starts) during the 2025 season. He completed 56.6% of his passes with seven touchdowns compared to 10 interceptions.
The advanced metrics weren’t any kinder to Sanders. He graded out as one of the worst QBs in the league.
He could still improve, of course, and a year of learning the NFL should only help him.
But at least at the moment, it seems very possible that Watson, not Sanders, is taking snaps for Cleveland when Week 1 arrives.