The Browns have been staging a QB battle between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders, and they are nearing a decision.
The Cleveland Browns are one of the last remaining teams that has not announced its starting quarterback for Week 1 of the 2026 season yet, but a decision is coming soon. During training camp and the first couple of weeks of the regular season, Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders have been battling it out for the right to be QB1.
Now, with two preseason games in the books and less than three weeks to go until the regular season starts, it’s almost time to make a decision. New head coach Todd Monken and the Browns are expected to make a final decision on Monday, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
For most of camp, Watson has seemed the more likely of the two to earn the starting job in Week 1. He is still playing on a fully-guaranteed contract, so it would make sense that Monken would want to see if he can make it work with the former first-round pick before pivoting to Sanders.
However, Watson has not shown during the preseason that he is head and shoulders above Sanders, and he is likely in the back half of his career. On top of that, Watson’s comments after the Browns’ 31-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills about the Cleveland fans booing him suggested this could be the end of his time as the Cleveland starting quarterback.
Now, that doesn’t look like it’s going to have any impact on Monken’s decision. The new head coach said on Sunday that Watson’s comments won’t have any impact on the QB1 decision, via Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal.
Watson and Sanders have both been up and down during the preseason. The veteran signal-caller is 17-for-27 passing with 162 yards and one interception, while the Colorado product is 15-for-22 with 153 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
At this point, the likely outcome is still that the Browns end up drafting their quarterback of the future next offseason. Until then, Cleveland fans will wait to see which quarterback will lead the Browns through the 2026 campaign.
The Cleveland Browns are one of the last remaining teams that has not announced its starting quarterback for Week 1 of the 2026 season yet, but a decision is coming soon. During training camp and the first couple of weeks of the regular season, Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders have been battling it out for the right to be QB1.
