3 Reasons Why Deshaun Watson Is Ahead of Shedeur Sanders in Browns’ Quarterback Race

A recent report notes that last year's starter in Cleveland may have to pick up the pace if he wants another shot as QB1.

Deshaun Watson, quarterback, throws a pass at the Browns mini camp in Berea on April 21, 2026. | Lisa Scalfaro / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After a 2026 NFL Draft that saw the Browns double down on their two most pressing roster needs with four of their five first picks, the biggest offseason question for the franchise remains: who will be the Browns starting quarterback for 2026?

Now, a recent report by Cleveland insider Mary Kay Cabot suggests veteran Deshaun Watson has taken an early lead over last year’s fifth-round rookie Shedeur Sanders after the early stages of the offseason program.

Based on how the team finished off last season, including a couple of wins in their last two games that took the Browns out of the top pick in last weekend’s draft, Sanders could’ve been considered a logical choice to keep the starting gig and build up some momentum. Yet, Watson seems to be in the driver’s seat, and here’s why:

Experience matters to Todd Monken

Despite the Browns’ new head coach admitting recently that he hasn’t watched much past tape from Watson, experience is big at the quarterback position. 

The way a 30-year old vet approaches the offseason program, the way he prepares his reps, and the way he navigates the day-to-day at team headquarters is surely different from the way Sanders handles all those aspects of being an NFL quarterback.

Monken’s reputation is based in large part off his work with quarterbacks, so you know he can identify the small nuances that make some passers better than others even at this very early stage of the offseason.

Shedeur Sanders is not there yet

Shedeur Sanders answers media questions at the end of the Browns mini camp in Berea on April 21, 2026. | Lisa Scalfaro / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Sanders’ got thrown into the starting lineup last year, only because fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel got sidelined by a concussion. He never looked back, true, but stating that the bar was impossibly low at the time is a fair assessment.

While we can point to Sanders’ last two games -- wins by the Browns against division foes -- as proof of progress, we should also keep in mind some of these stats: 56.6 completion percentage, seven touchdowns versus 10 interceptions, 6.6 yards per pass attempt, a 68.1 quarterback rating and an 18.9 Total QBR. Those numbers don’t exactly shout out “Pro Bowler!”, no matter what happened last year. 

It’s safe to say former head coach Kevin Stefanski was intent on keeping Sanders sidelined for as long as he could last year. Would Sanders have played had Gabriel not been hurt? Would Sanders have earned at least one start had Gabriel played better? We can’t know these answers for sure but the truth is, even if you’re not comparing Sanders’ play to  Gabriel’s --which was better, no doubt -- Sanders wasn’t exactly playing top-notch football.

Is Deshaun Watson going to take too many reps away from Shedeur Sanders? #DawgPound

"So it looks like we're going to go into the season, again, thinking Shedeur isn't getting enough reps."

- @PhilTaylor98

presented by @FanDuel https://t.co/bygEoJ2Swg pic.twitter.com/xENVYG19fc

— The Top Dawgs Show (@TopDawgShow) April 27, 2026

Deshaun Watson is just the better quarterback

There should be no doubt about this. Watson was a five-star recruit out of high school, hailed by ESPN as the number 1 QB in the Class of 2014, before a record-breaking career at Clemson saw him take the Tigers to two consecutive National Championship Games, winning one. 

At the NFL level, he led the Houston Texans to two AFC South titles, and led the league in passing once. He also owns a 33 passing touchdown season, and has thrown double-digit interceptions just once in his career.

Sanders was a three-star recruit who followed his father, coach Deion Sanders, to FCS school Jackson State before transferring to Colorado, where he led the Buffaloes to one Alamo Bowl loss in 2014. 

While the reasons for his fall all the way to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft may be debatable, Sanders just isn’t at Watson’s level. Not yet, anyway.

Surely the difference between Watson and Sanders as passers is obvious to Monken and his staff, even if we’re barely into Phase 2 of the Browns’ offseason conditioning program. 

Browns’ owner Jimmy Haslam opened the door for a Watson resurgence recently, when he stated that the passer could go from a swing and a miss to a home run, and having a new head coach in Monken, with no previous allegiance to either passer, ensures a clean slate for both. 

Under this scenario, it’s really no surprise to hear about Watson taking an early lead over Sanders in an open quarterback competition. Is this the right move? Who knows. There might be no objectively good options on the Browns roster at the moment.