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Shedeur Sanders #12 of the Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns quarterback situation is among the most baffling in the NFL at this point, a battle between Shedeur Sanders, a fifth-round pick who had the lowest Pro Football Focus grade of any starter in the NFL last year, and Deshaun Watson, a burnt-out veteran who has had two Achilles tendon surgeries, has not played since October 2024 and was among the worst QBs in the league when he was last on the field. It’s a bit like choosing between watching paint dry or watching grass grow.

The arguments for both are clear. Watson has Pro Bowl talent (and a Pro Bowl contract) and maybe, now that he is healthy, he can tap back into it. Sanders has upside at age 24, and though he slipped to the fifth round of the draft in 2025, he was widely considered a first- or second-round talent. In the end, it might not matter of either guy–the Browns are likely to try to find their quarterback of the future in 2027.

But for now, the battle between the two has captured attention. And a report from Cleveland.com veteran beat writer Mary Kay Cabot that Watson is currently leading the pack for the Browns set off a predictable wave out outrage among the Sanders backers.

Browns Make Decision to Leak QB Race Leader

At Pro Football Talk, veteran NFL insider Mike Florio and co-host Michael Holley wondered what the purpose would be for the Browns to leak that Watson is likely the QB1 in late April–there is a long, long way to go before that kind of decision needs to be made.

The conclusion was that this is likely a tactic to motivate and “humble” Sanders, though it should also be laying the groundwork for the fan base to accept that fact that Watson might be the better choice, given the odd and frothy devotion a section of fans has to Sanders.

Said Florio: “If they truly believe it’s going to be Deshaun Watson, you need to get the pro-Shedeur Sanders crowd to accept it and understand it. Because they’re gonna be upset. … Wherever Shedeur is, there is going to be a group of fans that wants to see him play. They think he should be playing, and he played well enough that he should have a shot to play this year. Maybe it could be, humbling him, motivating him.”

Should Shedeur Sanders Be Humbled?

Florio suggested, based on a clip from the Browns’ first voluntary workouts last month, that Sanders was not taking practice seriously enough. In the clip, a play-action drill, Florio said Watson was crisp and Sanders was lackadaisical.

It’s a stretch, but the idea is that putting out the notion that Watson is in the lead for the QB1 role will “nudge” Sanders to change his approach.

Florio continued: “Maybe they put this out there to get him to realize, ‘We mean it, you got to buckle down and take this seriously.’ It’s the old Brett Favre attitude. Brett Favre gave no Fs about practice, he just wanted to go play in the games. He didn’t want to practice, he just wanted to play in the games. A lot of quarterbacks have that same attitude, and I think Shedeur has some of that, just let me go play.”