What Trading Shedeur Sanders Would Say About Browns’ Quarterback Position

The Cleveland Browns are no closer to determining who their starting quarterback will be on opening day of the 2026 season, yet one recent development could end up tilting the scales.

Rumors are swirling that the Browns could be fielding calls on the availability of Shedeur Sanders, the second-year passer who started the final seven games last season.

A fifth-round draft pick last year, Sanders was the only quarterback out of three different starters who led the Browns to multiple victories, winning three games and effectively knocking Cleveland out of a Top-5 draft pick.

Despite that, one of Todd Monken’s first moves as the team’s new head coach was declaring an open competition for the starting gig in 2026 between Sanders and Deshaun Watson, the “swing and miss” quarterback that cost the team six draft picks -- including three first rounders -- and a league record fully guaranteed deal that’s still weighing the franchise down financially. Over four years with the team, Watson has been only able to produce a 9-10 record as a starter.

Now, the competition could come to a screeching halt if, indeed, the Browns trade Sanders away. And even if that were to allow Cleveland to focus on one quarterback for the remainder of the summer as we head towards the regular season, it points to a bigger, historical problem that has prevented Cleveland from finding a franchise quarterback.

What’s the plan?

Apparently, there is none.

Sanders wasn’t even the first quarterback drafted last year. He was taken two rounds after Dillon Gabriel, hand-picked by the previous regime as the future of the franchise.

That future lasted just enough for a 1-5 record after taking over for an imploded Joe Flacco, and this year, Monken has made a point of not even acknowledging Gabriel when it comes to the quarterback competition, leading many to believe he would be dealt away soon.

Now, according to a report by ESPN Cleveland, it’s Sanders who could be sent packing, confirming that the team is not interested in actually working through the highs and lows of drafting and developing a quarterback properly.

Listen, it’s quite possible that Sanders isn’t the long-term answer. The problem here is Cleveland isn’t even willing to allow Sanders to substantiate or negate this thesis. Even if these supposed trade talks end up being just rumors, the fact that the Browns are willing to give Watson another undeserved shot at the starting job, despite him never playing anywhere close to his Pro Bowl level of the previous decade since he’s been in Berea, tells you all you need to know about what the team sees in Sanders: not much.

And the fact that the team’s front office could even consider, according to general manager Andrew Berry himself, the possibility of adding embattled quarterback Brenden Sorsby through a supplemental draft -- that we know now won't happen -- to further crowd the quarterback situation confirms that the team is just not sold on Sanders. As a matter of fact, maybe word of Sanders’ potential availability stemmed from the very idea of adding Sorsby, which as it stands now is an impossiblity.

Either way, the Browns seem to be looking for the kind of miracle where one draft pick magically falls into the team’s lap and breaks out as a future hall of famer from Day 1, rewriting the franchise’s history. Cleveland doesn’t want a process, they want a shortcut. But finding a franchise quarterback isn’t just a draft day or trade day thing. That’s just the down payment.

The team has failed to develop a plan for Sanders the same way it failed to develop a plan for Gabriel. And it’s the exact same thing for Baker Mayfield or Brandon Weeden or DeShone Kizer, or whoever else you can think of since 1999.

As long as the Browns keep believing they can skip the whole development process, they will keep on failing at the most important position on the field.

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