Shedeur Sanders isn’t going to make the decision on QB1 easy for the Cleveland Browns heading into the 2026 season, which he made clear on the opening day of training camp.
Sanders connected on 16-of-19 pass attempts and didn’t turn the football over, while Deshaun Watson completed just 12-of-22 passes and tossed two consecutive interceptions. Sanders played mostly with the second group on opening day, where as Watson was with the first team. However head coach Todd Monken said that would change on Day 2.
“Shedeur will take it with the 1s tomorrow, and we’ll go back and forth,” Monken told reporters Wedesday, July 29. “But when you are able to two-spot, you are just trying to stack it and get as many reps as you can to allow the quarterbacks to feel comfortable.”
On Thursday, general manager Andrew Berry spoke to the timeline with which the team will definitively make a decision between Sanders and Watson.
“#Browns GM Andrew Berry said, ‘I feel confident we’ll’ name a starting QB by Week 1,” Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported Thursday.
Andrew Berry’s Comments Offer Minimal Clarification on QB Battle in Cleveland
GettyCleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
Obviously, the Browns must decide on a starter by Week 1, seeing as how that’s when they play their first regular season game. As such, Berry’s comments didn’t amount to all that much.
A different interpretation of his words is that regardless of when the team names its opening-day starter, which is likely to come at some point in August, it will enter the year with a clear picture of the hierarchy in the QB room.
What that might mean is that whoever win the starting job, barring injury or some other impediment, will have some rope to start the season.
Last year, the Browns yanked Joe Flacco after four games (1-3) and went to Dillon Gabriel. Gabriel started six contests (1-5) before suffering a concussion halfway through Cleveland’s Week 11 matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. Sanders replaced Gabriel in the third quarter of that contest and held the QB1 job for the remainder of the season.
Meanwhile, Watson missed the entirety of 2025 with a twice-torn Achilles tendon.
Deshaun Watson Remains Favorite to Emerge as Browns’ QB1
GettyCleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.
No media members who spend significant time around the Browns have offered a definitive prediction, let alone a report, on which QB will ultimately win the starting job.
However, ESPN’s Dan Graziano offered a softer projection of sorts on Wednesday that reflects the majority offseason opinion as the end of July nears — that Watson is the likely choice to take the offensive snaps Week 1.
“The process-driven Browns aren’t going to decide this based on public perception — that is, what their fans would think,” Graziano wrote. “And Monken, who has waited a long time to be a head coach, is likely to push for the guy who gives Cleveland the best chance to win. A healthy Watson, performing the way he did early in spring practices, could very well end training camp looking like that guy.”
However, Graziano also immediately added a hedge.
“But I’m very much of the belief that Sanders will play a representative number of games this season, even if he doesn’t get to play the first one,” Graziano continued.
With sixth-round rookie Taylen Green on the roster as a low-cost, high-upside swing, Cleveland is potentially in a position to trade a quarterback before the year begins. By process of elimination, Gabriel is the most likely candidate, though no official reporting on that topic has emerged.
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