Deshaun Watson has emerged as the frontrunner to win the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback job over second-year signal-caller Shedeur Sanders following the team’s voluntary minicamp, according to reporting from mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com, setting up one of the more closely watched position battles of the 2026 offseason.
Watson has reportedly emerged from voluntary minicamp as the frontrunner to win the starting job over Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel, according to Cabot, and has the inside track to be named the starter. The development was notable given Watson’s extended absence from organized football activities due to injury and suspension.
Watson has faced numerous setbacks since signing a reported $230 million fully guaranteed contract with Cleveland in 2022. He served an 11-game suspension in 2022 for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, and he hasn’t played since October of 2024, when he ruptured his right Achilles tendon. When healthy in Cleveland, Watson had also struggled to replicate the form he showed in Houston, where he was a three-time Pro Bowler.
Head coach Todd Monken has declined to publicly anoint a starter, emphasizing that the competition remains ongoing. Monken reiterated his stance on maintaining an open competition for the starting job, telling Cleveland radio station 92.3 The Fan it’s premature to name a starter. “I don’t see a time where I would not want Myles Garrett to be a Cleveland Brown,” Monken said. He noted that the plan at the lone open practice called for Sanders to get more reps overall.
Sanders posted a 3-4 record as a starter with a 56.6% completion percentage, 1,400 passing yards, seven touchdowns, and 10 interceptions during his rookie 2025 campaign. He also averaged 6.6 yards per attempt and took 23 sacks in eight games. Watson didn’t play at all in 2025, and the Browns went 1-6 when he started during the 2024 campaign, before his Achilles injury.
The Browns will host their rookie minicamp on May 8 and 9. Watson and Sanders are set to resume their quarterback competition on the field when Cleveland’s offseason workouts resume on June 1. The presence of Dillon Gabriel adds a third dimension to the battle, though neither Watson nor Sanders has yet definitively separated himself in terms of the team’s public messaging.
The competition carries enormous stakes for the Browns franchise and for Watson personally. For the former Pro Bowler, a strong 2026 campaign would represent rehabilitation of a career that has been defined more by off-field controversy and injury since his arrival in Cleveland than by the on-field brilliance that made him one of the sport’s most coveted quarterbacks. For Sanders, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, demonstrating continued development in year two after an uneven rookie campaign is the clearest path toward securing the starting job long-term in Cleveland.
