The Cleveland Browns will enter the training camp with a quarterback battle that has become the talk of the league. Deshaun Watson, recovering from a ruptured Achilles that cost him all of 2025, faces off against second-year quarterback Shedeur Sanders for the starting job.
Early reports suggest Watson will likely win the competition despite not playing a meaningful snap in nearly two years. While Watson starting seems to be gaining momentum, one NFL analyst believes Cleveland should go all in on Sanders since he is the potential future of the franchise.
Shedeur Sanders Gives the Browns a Better Chance To Win Than Deshaun Watson
Watson signed a five-year, $230 million contract in 2022 after being traded to the Browns. Since then, he has played just 19 games for the team, going 9-10, throwing for 3,365 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions, completing 61.2% of his passes.
During a segment on PFSN’s “Football Debate Club,” NFL analyst Alex Kennedy took Sanders’ side and explained why Watson should not start for the Browns.
“It would be absolutely baffling if Deshaun Watson is the starter for this team,” Kennedy said. “He was historically bad in our PFSN QB Impact metric when he was playing, and now we’re supposed to expect that he’s going to be better after he’s dealing with the ruptured Achilles?”
“I think Shedeur is the future here,” Kennedy added. “You want to see what you have in him. You want to develop him, see what he can do with Todd Monken. This isn’t a team that anyone’s picking to be a contender, so there’s no reason to roll Watson out there aside from there are some egos involved and he has a big contract.
“Shedeur is the [potential long-term] answer. You see what he can do, evaluate him, and see if you need to draft a quarterback next year. There’s no reason to play Watson.”
Sanders finished his rookie season with a 3-4 record in seven starts, throwing 7 touchdowns against 10 interceptions, completing 56.6% of his throws. The stats look underwhelming, but he showed glimpses of brilliance and it is widely believed that the Browns’ locker room believes in him.
Former Browns quarterback Robert Griffin III recently said the team doesn’t believe it can win with Watson or third-stringer Dillon Gabriel, but it does believe it can win with Sanders.
BE AN NFL GM: PFSN’s Ultimate GM Simulator
Monken, the new head coach, certainly knows Sanders’ capabilities. When he was the Baltimore Ravens’ offensive coordinator, they tried to draft Sanders, but the Colorado product declined because he didn’t want to sit behind Lamar Jackson.
According to PFSN’s Offense Impact metric, the Browns had an impact score of 52.0 last season, ranking dead last in the league. As a result, they will likely use their two first-round picks in this year’s draft on offensive line and wide receiver help to surround whichever quarterback wins the job.
Sanders showed flashes of what he can do with weapons at Colorado, completing an NCAA-leading 74% of his passes in 2024 with 37 touchdowns and winning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.
Watson hasn’t played well in over five years, and his last Pro Bowl selection came in 2020 with Houston. To Kennedy’s point, last time Watson was healthy and starting for Cleveland was during the 2024 season when he earned a 51.1 grade, which ranked 39th in the NFL.
His Browns stint has been defined by a suspension, injuries, and historically bad quarterback play, so it’s easy to see why Kennedy is hesitant to trust the 30-year-old, especially coming off of a serious injury.
