Browns Open Training Camp With Deshaun Watson-Shedeur Sanders QB Battle Still Unsettled
Browns Enter Todd Monken’s First Camp With QB Job Still Up for Grabs
The Cleveland Browns are walking into training camp with more questions than answers at quarterback — again. A year after finishing 5-12 and bottoming out in the AFC North, Cleveland reports for its first camp under new head coach Todd Monken with Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders locked in a genuine competition for the starting job.
Monken, hired away from Baltimore after three seasons as the Ravens’ offensive coordinator, wanted to walk into camp with a clear QB1. That didn’t happen. Per ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi, Monken came away impressed with both Watson and Sanders during spring workouts, so the competition rolls into padded practices with nothing decided.
Watson, healthy for the first time in nearly two years after a pair of Achilles surgeries wiped out his 2025 season, enters as the veteran with something to prove. Sanders, Cleveland’s fifth-round pick a year ago, is trying to build on a rookie season that was rough by any measure — but one that also included flashes nobody in Berea has forgotten.
What Happened Last Year
Watson tore his right Achilles in Week 7 of the 2024 season, then re-ruptured it during rehab and had a second surgery in January 2025, wiping out his entire 2025 campaign. That opened the door for the Browns’ rookie class. Sanders took over as the starter in Week 12 and made seven starts, going 3-4 — the best record among Cleveland’s three different starters that season, ahead of Joe Flacco (1-3) and Dillon Gabriel (1-5), according to Yahoo Sports.
The raw numbers were ugly. Sanders finished 120-of-212 passing for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions, posting an 18.9 QBR that ranked among the worst full seasons by any qualifying passer since the metric was introduced in 2006, per Yahoo Sports. But the tape wasn’t all bad. His Week 14 outing against Tennessee produced 364 yards, three touchdown passes and his first career rushing score — a sign, Cleveland’s staff felt, of what he could become with better protection and more reps.
| Quarterback | 2025 Starts | Comp/Att | Yards | TD | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shedeur Sanders | 7 | 120/212 | 1,400 | 7 | 10 |
| Deshaun Watson | 0 (injured all season) | — | — | — | — |
The Case for Each Quarterback
Watson’s pitch is simple: talent and track record. He’s a three-time Pro Bowler, even if injuries and suspension have limited him to just 19 games since arriving in Cleveland in 2022. Teammates who worked out with him this spring described him as moving well again off the surgically repaired Achilles.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler laid out the state of the race heading into camp. Watson entered the offseason as the presumptive favorite, but Sanders has made real progress since. “This is a true, heated battle and this one’s only going to heat up in training camp,” Fowler said, according to Yahoo Sports. He added that Watson remains in a good spot, calling him someone who looked like “a major athlete again” coming off the Achilles tears — but confirmed Sanders has “bridged the gap at least somewhat.”
Sanders’ case rests on upside and a coaching staff with no built-in loyalty to either passer. Unlike Kevin Stefanski, who inherited the post-trade Watson era and the political weight that came with it, Monken is walking in fresh. He has no history with either player and, by all accounts, is treating this as an open competition decided on practice reps rather than reputation or contract size.
Neither quarterback is framing it as adversarial. Both have said publicly they see it as a team competition, not a rivalry, working out together and pushing each other through the offseason program.
The Room Is Bigger Than Two Names
It’s not strictly a two-man race. Cleveland carries four quarterbacks into camp: Watson, Sanders, 2025 third-round pick Dillon Gabriel, and 2026 sixth-round rookie Taylen Green, who’s viewed as a developmental piece rather than a near-term contender, per ESPN. As was the case a year ago, a trade trimming the room to three players before the regular season looks like a realistic outcome once padded practices sort out the pecking order.
A Defense in Transition
Whoever wins the job won’t have last year’s defensive identity to lean on. Cleveland shipped franchise sack leader Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams this offseason in a trade that brought back pass rusher Jared Verse and three future draft picks — a 2027 first-rounder, a 2028 second-rounder and a 2029 third, according to the Browns’ official announcement. Garrett had set the NFL’s single-season sack record in 2025 and was the face of Cleveland’s defense for nine years. Losing that level of production changes the calculus for a team that can no longer count on bailing out a shaky quarterback race with elite pressure up front.
What to Watch as Pads Come On
Rookies report first, with veterans following July 28. The real evaluation, as Monken has said, starts once contact begins — spring reps only tell part of the story. Expect the competition to run deep into the preseason, with Cleveland unlikely to name a starter before it has to.