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The path to any future for Shedeur Sanders in Cleveland is narrowing. I can’t say it has completely vanished because I have no faith that Deshaun Watson can stay healthy for an entire season or be productive enough to keep the job.
The decision to name Watson the starter leaves a fair question worth exploring: What does this mean for Sanders?
If he has an NFL future past this season, it likely won’t be with the Browns.
By giving the starting job to Watson, a quarterback who hasn’t been consistently good since the pandemic, the Browns told you exactly what they think of Sanders. He had a full offseason program, OTAs, minicamp and training camp, and he still wasn’t good enough to beat out a quarterback the organization knows a) isn’t very good anymore and b) will be voraciously hissed and booed every time he’s on the field in Cleveland unless his play again resembles that of a productive NFL quarterback, which isn’t likely.
And they chose to do this anyway.
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Browns coach Todd Monken did his best to prop up Sanders this summer and praise him for the progress he’s made as an NFL quarterback. Given where Sanders started, it was impossible to go down.
That Sanders has struggled with the most basic parts of being an NFL quarterback — the operational side of calling the play in the huddle, breaking the huddle quickly, getting guys lined up, speaking a cadence loudly and clearly enough for his linemen to hear him — is an indication of how far he has to travel if this is ever going to work. We haven’t even gotten to his processing times and how long he holds the ball (improved over last year, still not good enough).
If the Browns believed in Sanders, he would be starting Week 1. If they believed in him, there would’ve been no need to trade Myles Garrett because they would be operating as if the franchise quarterback was already on the roster.
Over the last two years, among 78 qualifying quarterbacks, Shedeur Sanders’ 2025 performance ranked 77th in EPA per pass play.
The only performance that was worse statistically? Deshaun Watson’s 2024, which ranked 78th.
— Sheil Kapadia (@SheilKapadia) August 24, 2026
Instead, the Browns keep telling their fans, without actually telling them, that their next quarterback is in the 2027 draft.
If that’s the case, there isn’t a place in the quarterback room for Sanders beyond this year. There is no logical world in which Sanders can be a backup to a rookie quarterback next year in Cleveland.
Backup quarterbacks are supposed to be anonymous until they’re needed. Sanders might be the most famous backup in football. Every interception by a rookie would turn into a referendum. Every losing streak would bring demands for Sanders. Every decision not to play Sanders would become another national debate about whether the Browns were treating him fairly. No organization should intentionally build that environment around a rookie quarterback it just drafted to save the franchise. Fair or not, the noise that surrounds Sanders creates an unhealthy environment for everyone else. His level of celebrity makes the normal developmental QB path for him incredibly difficult, particularly with an organization that hasn’t successfully developed a quarterback in 30 years.
The idea that Sanders could work in Cleveland was always far-fetched once it became clear how much development he had ahead. It will be nearly impossible starting next year if there is another high pick in the room.
Which leads back to: What are we doing here? It all feels like an enormous waste of time.
I’d love to write that the Browns should just cut Sanders and move on with their lives (he has little to no trade value right now), which is what I wrote at one point last season. But after an offseason of inactivity by the Browns at the game’s most important position, I can’t get there now because of how dreadful we know Watson has been and probably will continue to be.
Since Watson arrived in Cleveland, NFL quarterbacks have thrown for at least 300 yards on 481 occasions. Even Sanders is on that list. The quarterback who isn’t?
Deshaun Watson.
It’s hard to take the Browns seriously until they solve the quarterback position. To this point, they haven’t.
Sanders is simultaneously not good enough for the Browns to trust and, at least at the moment, too necessary for them to discard.
He will likely get another chance at some point this season. It’s possible he finishes with more QB starts than anyone else on Cleveland’s roster. Can he become good enough over the next four months to stop the Browns from using their most valuable resources on another quarterback in the spring?
All of their actions suggest the Browns already know the answer. The most important quarterback in Cleveland’s future is the one who isn’t here yet.
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