Browns' insider reveals shocking possibility for the starting quarterback position in 2026

By now, it’s no secret that the Cleveland Browns made the 2025 season a lesson on how not to manage a quarterback situation.

Nevertheless, a Browns’ insider has recently revealed a potential plan that’s certain to make more than a few cringe.

According to Mary Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Browns could be turning back to Deshaun Watson as the team’s starting quarterback, should fifth-round rookie incumbent Shedeur Sanders fail to prove himself to the front office in the coming weeks and months.

“Even if the Browns decide to roll with Sanders, he’ll have to demonstrate throughout the offseason program that he’s poised to win in 2026, or the Browns will consider starting Deshaun Watson until he’s ready,” wrote Cabot on the matter.

The fact that anyone inside the organization could even be entertaining this idea is terrifying, first of all because it clearly points to a scenario where the Browns would bet -- and lose -- on Sanders as the starter for and beyond, likely entailing no talent acquisition at the position through the upcoming NFL Draft.

Then, you would be forced to lean on a passer who could be up to two years removed from his last meaningful game (October 20th, 2024) and almost five years away from his last high level performance (the 2020 season, while with the Houston Texans.)

You would also have to account for the fact that rookie third-rounder Dillon Gabriel isn’t even mentioned at all, a likely tacit acceptance that Cleveland blew this pick thoroughly, something that seems more and more apparent nowadays.

While it’s practically a given that Watson -- labeled a "big swing and miss" by Browns' co-owner Jimmy Haslam -- will be on Cleveland's roster for 2026 because of financial implications, having to rely on him to save the day for the offense seems like a really bad spot to be in.

Speculating that Sanders, after gaining some very valuable starting experience late in the season, would be better off returning to the bench and watching someone else operate seems ill-advised, on its own.

How many times in the recent history of the league has a rookie quarterback been appointed as a starter at any time during his debut season, benched in favor of a veteran for an extended period of time not injury-related, and then earned his way back into the starting lineup playing substantially better for that same team after “learning from afar”? Off the top of my head, only Alex Smith comes to mind this century, and it took him seven years to cement himself as a starter in San Francisco.

Sanders and Gabriel are practically guaranteed a roster spot for 2026 as well. The Colorado product is set to start Cleveland’s last three games of the 2025 season, and cutting Gabriel away after stubbornly keeping him in the lineup until he was literally knocked out of commission (concussion) would be a terrible look for Cleveland’s decision-makers. Only an unforeseen trade would save the Browns from total ridicule here.

At this point in time, the best way for the Browns to dig themselves out of the crater-sized hole they dug themselves into might be going back to the well and adding a legitimate prospective starter through the draft -- Fernando Mendoza, anyone? -- and holding a genuine competition between him and Sanders for the starting role. Then, you stick with Watson as the mentor-type figure he's been reportedly filling with Sanders, and leave Gabriel on the practice squad, on call in case of an emergency.

However, we must be reminded that these are the Browns we’re talking about, and nothing should ever surprise us when it comes to fumbling the most important position on the roster.