Predicting Result of Browns' Quarterback Battle After Minicamp

Cleveland Browns head coach Todd Monken refused to announce the team’s starting quarterback at the conclusion of the mandatory offseason program.

Instead of committing to a starter at the end of minicamp, Monken will allow Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders to continue their competition into the summer.

“I’d love to have it now,” Monken said last week. “We just don’t.”

The Browns will open training camp at the end of July and Monken plans to alternate reps for Watson and Sanders with Cleveland’s starting offense. Throughout the offseason, they rotated snaps pretty evenly, with Watson taking slightly more reps.

Who will win Cleveland’s quarterback competition?

According to several reports, Watson entered the offseason program as the favorite to win this competition. Monken stated that he was open to giving Watson a clean slate, holding out hope that the 30-year-old quarterback could stay healthy in 2026 and return to one of the league’s top players at the position.

But throughout the spring, Watson never truly separated from Sanders, who continued his development in Monken’s first offseason program.

Yet still, Watson could still be Cleveland’s Week 1 starting quarterback.

Monken had a front row seat to Watson’s lone good half of football with the Browns, when he led Cleveland to a comeback victory against the Baltimore Ravens. That’s probably why before the offseason program started, Browns fans heard reports of Watson having an inside edge on the starting job.

The new head coach is 60 years old. He’s waited a long time for this opportunity. There’s something to be said for a veteran presence. From a physical standpoint, Watson isn’t the same quarterback that he once was. But longevity is rare to find in the NFL, and Watson has seen it all.

There’s also the elephant in the room.

Watson is on the final year of his monstrous $230 million contract signed back in 2022. The Browns owe Watson the final $46 million of that contract in 2026, which could lead Cleveland’s football operations to encourage the coaching staff to give him one final look now that he’s healthy.

Even though Watson is wildly unpopular with Browns fans, and has done very little to repair his image, that contract is set to stand the test of time. Maybe Sanders could compete like hell and overthrow Watson throughout training camp and the preseason. But over the next few weeks leading up to training camp, the 30-year-old quarterback is hosting teammates in Florida to come together and train as an offense.

Speaking of Florida, the Browns open up their 2026 schedule with back-to-back road games against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A concern with Watson would be introducing him inside Cleveland’s home stadium at Huntington Bank Field, where most fans would probably prefer to see Sanders. But easing Watson in with back-to-back road games could be a way to get fans on his side, assuming that he can play passable football.

Elsewhere on Cleveland’s roster, the youth movement is on. That plays to the strength of Sanders, who is six years younger than Watson and doesn’t have the same taxing injury history. The polarizing second-year quarterback needs to stay ready like he did last season.

The competition will still be going on, but it feels like we’ll see both Watson and Sanders in 2026.

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