Cleveland Browns Announce One Big Change for Shedeur Sanders for the 2026 Season

The Browns' quarterback will sport a new look as he competes for the team's starting job with Deshaun Watson.

Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) scrambles in the first quarter of the NFL Week 18 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns at Paycor Stadium in Downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. | Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Cleveland Browns might be facing big changes at the quarterback position for the 2026 NFL season. 

The team has announced an open competition, between Shedeur Sanders, who ended last season as the team’s regular starter, and Deshaun Watson, the quarterback brought in back in 2022 as the team’s saviour, but who hasn’t started a game for the franchise since 2024. 

As for Sanders, on a personal level, there will be big changes too. The Browns have announced on social media that Sanders will be going from jersey No. 12 to jersey No. 2 for the new season. 

S2 ⌚

Shedeur Sanders will wear number 2 next season pic.twitter.com/7ahSitctcs

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) March 30, 2026

Sanders’ jersey change is a return to his roots, as No. 2 was the jersey number he wore as a college quarterback for Jackson State and Colorado, with the Buffaloes even going as far as retiring the quarterback’s number. 

Sanders used No. 12 upon arriving to the Browns as a fifth round draft choice last year, with No. 2 being occupied at the time by wideout and special teams return man DeAndre Carter.

But, with Carter not being re-signed in free agency, the No. 2 jersey became once again available.

Sanders’ No. 12 from 2025 quickly positioned itself as one of the top-selling rookie jerseys, despite him being a fifth-round draft pick who didn’t get the chance to play until Week 11. Now, his die-hard fans will undoubtedly look to purchase his new jersey, with the No. 2.

Players who change jersey numbers are required to buy out the existing inventory of their old jerseys, or give the league one year’s notice of the change.

What comes next for Shedeur Sanders in Cleveland

For the first time in his career, Sanders will go through an NFL offseason mired in a position battle for the starting spot, as last year he wasn’t really considered by the former coaching staff until the team had basically run out of quarterbacks, with Joe Flacco being traded away and Dillon Gabriel on concussion protocol. 

This time, it will be different, with Watson once again on the active roster and, seemingly, a new lease on his Browns’ career. While most league observers seem to agree that Sanders -- who new Browns head coach Todd Monken described as having “elite playmaking ability” -- should get the first shot at starter’s reps during the summer, it won’t be easy for the 144th pick of the 2025 draft to hold on to the gig.