Cleveland Browns Name Deshaun Watson The Starting QB

Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders? That has been the question throughout training camp and the preseason for the Cleveland Browns, but it's now answered, per NFL Network. The veteran QB Deshaun Watson will be Cleveland's starter in Week 1, bumping Sanders to the backup role.

Sanders started seven games and made eight appearances for the Browns in his rookie 2025 after falling to the fifth round of the NFL Draft. He made the Pro Bowl as a late substitute, despite having 10 interceptions against seven touchdowns and 1,400 yards passing and a 56.6% completion rate. Sanders had the chance to start in part because Watson was unavailable – now that Watson is back and presumably healthy, the job is his for the first time since 2024, in the final season of a fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract signed in 2022.

Watson missed all of 2025 recovering from a second surgery on his torn Achilles, suffered on Oct. 20, 2024 – he was limited to seven starts that season due to the injury, but that was also a continuation of how his tenure in Cleveland had gone to that point. Watson, after making three-straight Pro Bowls for the Houston Texas from 2018 through 2020, missed the entire 2021 season due to requesting a trade and multiple allegations of sexual assault – Watson was accused of him of sexual assault and inappropriate conduct by over two dozen women, and faced as many civil lawsuits, which didn't wrap up until 2024.

He would end up suspended 11 games in 2022 for those allegations, his first since the Browns acquired him from the Texans in a March trade, before debuting in Week 13 in early December. Watson looked like a QB who hadn't suited up for a couple of years rather than the one that led the NFL in passing yards in 2020, and rotator cuff injuries in 2023 limited both his production and playing time in the follow-up season.

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All told with the Browns, Watson has started and appeared in 19 games, in which he's thrown for 3,365 yards with 19 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. This past weekend, Watson was booed by Browns' fans for his performance against the Buffalo Bills, and postgame discussed how these same fans cheered when he tore his Achilles in 2024. On Sunday, Sanders outperformed Watson by going 8-for-11 with a TD and a pick, and 74 yards passing.

Dillon Gabriel and Tayler Green are the other two QBs the Browns have in the room this preseason, but the competition was always between Watson and Sanders. For now, it's Watson who will lead the Browns.