Shedeur Sanders Is Officially on Notice After the Draft, Even If No One Is Saying It

It might be the second consecutive uphill battle this preseason for Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

Sanders was supposed to be competing with Deshaun Watson to be Cleveland’s starting quarterback. But after a few voluntary install practices, cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot reported that Watson has an inside edge to be named the team’s starting quarterback. New head coach Todd Monken would prefer that to be announced before training camp, giving Sanders only about six weeks to catch up.

During the NFL Draft, the Browns expressed some interest in Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. In a report by Yahoo!’s Jori Epstein, Browns general manager Andrew Berry was focused on the value of quarterbacks on the board compared to their evaluations on them. But when the Los Angeles Rams drafted Simpson at No. 13 overall, Berry turned the page to other positions.

“So we really focused, and particularly when Ty went off the board, we really focused on just the infrastructure around it, and we were really pleased with the players that we selected,” Berry said.

If the Browns would’ve targeted Simpson at No. 24 overall, or tried to trade back into the end of the first-round to snag the 23-year-old QB, the entire quarterback competition would’ve been squashed. And now, according to the team’s top insider, Watson already has a leg up in the competition.

Starting Watson doesn’t make much sense, but they might do it anyways

There’s no football reason to start Watson in 2026.

The 30-year-old quarterback hasn’t completed a full season since the league expanded its schedule to 17 games. Since then, he voluntarily sat out a season before being suspended 11 games, broke his shoulder, ruptured his Achilles tendon twice, and missed another full season recovering from that last injury.

But the Browns owe him $46 million – the final sum of Watson’s legalized burglary of the franchise.

Instead of washing their hands of one of the worst mistakes in professional sports history and taking a shot on Sanders, it sounds like the Browns might actually turn the page back to Watson.

Earlier this offseason, Berry noted that “there’s no rule against” the team extending Watson, especially if he has his first positive season with the Browns since the controversial trade that landed him in Cleveland all the way back in 2022. That probably doesn’t make much sense, as the Browns would be able to release him with a post-June 1st designation following the season and finally move on ahead of a stacked 2027 NFL Draft class.

The fact that the Browns at least somewhat considered Simpson in Round 1 is telling. Now, reports indicating that Watson is ahead of Sanders after just a few practices probably doesn’t bode well for the former polarizing quarterback.

And don’t forget that they added another developmental quarterback, Taylen Green, in the sixth-round of the NFL Draft.

The team has every reason to play Sanders. He’s wildly popular with the fans. He showed glimmers of hope during seven starts as a rookie despite suboptimal preparation. And if he plays well? The team doesn’t have to deal with the pressure of finding a quarterback in 2027 and could load up on offense to capitalize on his fifth-round salary, similar to what the Seattle Seahawks did with Russell Wilson in 2013, resulting in a Super Bowl win.

Watson even being entertained is enough to put Sanders on notice. Watson hasn’t been a good quarterback since before the global pandemic. Even though the Browns might want to see if Monken can get anything out of the failed trade, common sense would still prove Sanders to be the better option for long-term roster building.

Sanders will have a few weeks to catch up.

He said he appreciates that Monken’s staff understands how he learns. Perhaps that staff could get him up to speed to compete against a seven-year veteran, who has always thrived in practice settings before underperforming in live game action.

"Coach just spoke life into me. And then when you do that, you just get the best result from me, honestly," Sanders said.

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