The Cleveland Browns will open the 2026 NFL season on Sunday in Jacksonville with Deshaun Watson under center as the starting quarterback, and Shedeur Sanders listed as QB2. If recent history on the shore of Lake Erie tells us anything, there is little to no chance that Watson survives the year as the starter. After all, it has been six years–going back to Baker Mayfield in 2020–since Cleveland had one starting quarterback for an entire season.
There were three starters in 2025, of course. There were four in 2024, and, remarkably, five in 2023. Three were two in 2022 and three in 2021. It stands to reason that Sanders will take over as the starter at some point this season, either because Watson struggles, gets injured or simply because he deserves a look as a second-year player who was 3-4 in his starts last year.
‘Grace’ for Deshaun Watson Means Less Opportunity for Shedeur Sanders
But not so fast, says Jeremy Fowler, ESPN NFL insider. Speaking on “SportsCenter” Fowler said that the Browns are not entering the season with an obligation to start Sanders at some point this year. Not only that, but Fowler indicated there will be a long leash for Watson.
As he said: “Here’s how the Browns are looking at this with how far and how many games based on what I know—they’re going to base it on performance, like they would any player. So they’re going to treat it as such. I suspect a little grace here for a few reasons. One, they got six players on offense that are either rookies or second-year players. So, they’re incredibly young on offense. And they know Deshaun Watson hasn’t played football in about two years, so they are expecting some level of rust.
“They’ve got two games on the road … then they go back to Cleveland where he has to exorcise some demons a little bit where he had the boos in Cleveland. So, look, they’re optimistic, they want this to go well. But it will be performance based. They’re not mapping out how long he is going to play, they are just hoping for the best week-to-week.”
Browns Fans Could Clamor for Shedeur Sanders Again
Now, that is still vague, of course. But it does leave a wide berth for the Browns to continue to play Watson even if they get off to a poor start–blame it on the youth of the team, blame it on the rust of coming back from two Achilles tendon injuries. With Sanders sitting on the bench behind Watson, that sets up coach Todd Monken with the same sort of situation Kevin Stefanski was in last year–sticking with a starter while fans howl for Sanders.
Watson has said, pretty directly, that he is not coaching to please fans, but to win games. But if he intends to give Watson enough rope so that he could conceivably still be the starter deep into the winter, we wont’ know if Sanders has made much progress.
Deshaun Watson Will Face Boos
Again, Monken clapped back at Browns fans who booed Watson during the preseason, when he struggled int eh second half of the second preseason game against Buffalo.
As Monken said, “I don’t like being booed either. I don’t like it when we jump offsides three times at the end of the game. But we earned that, right? We earn our respect by how we play. We earn our fans’ appreciation of the product we put on the field, and that’s our job. So, on one side, I one hundred percent understand where Deshaun is coming from, but ultimately, we’re pros, we’ve got to put on a good product, and we’ve got to play. Have to pull your big boy pants up, and let’s go play.”
Browns’ Deshaun Watson Plan May Be Bad News for Shedeur Sanders