The Cleveland Browns will continue their voluntary OTA workouts with Block 2 this week. Wednesday’s session will mark the media’s next chance to provide fans a glimpse of the much-debated quarterback battle between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders.
While there’s only so much we can glean from glorified passing camps in May, the Browns do have a mandatory veteran minicamp scheduled from June 9 to 11. Having the full defense on the field — most notably Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward — should kick things up a notch before the team breaks for a month ahead of training camp.
The expectation, per Zac Jackson of The Athletic, is that head coach Todd Monken will announce a quarterback depth chart in some fashion prior to camp, with Watson at the top. The competition should only continue to ramp up from there with fully padded practices and preseason games, but Sanders could face an uphill battle if the majority of first-team reps shift toward Watson.
Cleveland has two other quarterbacks on the roster that it spent draft capital on in Dillon Gabriel and Taylen Green. Similar to last year’s situation with Kenny Pickett, the Browns will likely move on from one of their four QBs ahead of roster cutdown day, with Gabriel probably the most likely candidate.
But if Watson wins the job this year, there will be no stopping the speculation surrounding Sanders’ immediate future in Cleveland. FanSided’s Wynston Wilcox called it an overreaction at this point to say Sanders is closer to getting traded than being announced as the Browns’ Week 1 starter.
He stopped short of shutting down Sanders trade speculation altogether, though.
“It makes sense because after this year, the Browns will finally be absolved — to an extent — of their Watson problem and will be eyeing the 2027 NFL Draft class as their target for finding their new franchise quarterback. They aren’t going to bring four quarterbacks onto the active roster. If they’re willing to bench Sanders for Watson, what’s to stop them from turning to Taylen Green or Dillon Gabriel as the preferred backup?
Right now, Sanders doesn’t really have a lot of trade value. If he loses the starting job, his trade value might even take a hit. That said, Joe Flacco wasn’t on their trade radar until he was. Anything can happen, and a future Sanders trade isn’t a completely irrational thought.”
A Shedeur Sanders trade would create a lose-lose situation for the Browns in 2026
There’s not much upside to trading Sanders this summer, especially with the Watson era in Cleveland almost certainly coming to a close in 2027.
Spending Day 3 draft picks on developmental quarterbacks is typically smart NFL business, as long as you’re able to develop that player into an ascending asset that pays off for your team down the line.
To Wilcox’s point, the timing of a potential Sanders trade this summer would be kind of brutal. Theoretically, he would have just lost a competition to a 30-year-old veteran coming off back-to-back Achilles surgeries. The Browns would likely struggle to get even a fifth- or sixth-round draft pick in return for Sanders in that scenario. That can't be the kind of payoff the Browns were envisioning when they traded up for Sanders in the fifth round of the 2025 draft.
If Watson wins the starting job this summer, Sanders would provide significantly more value to Cleveland as the top backup. Sanders’ upside, coupled with his cheap rookie-scale contract, make him an ideal pairing for Watson, who’s set to make a fully-guaranteed $46 million in 2026 whether he starts, sits on the bench, or spends another season on injured reserve.
The Browns could likely swap Gabriel for a late Day 3 draft pick, which would keep Watson and Sanders at the top with Green in the No. 3 developmental role. Sanders has already passed Gabriel on the proverbial depth chart, and he makes less money than Gabriel, who was a top-100 pick in 2025. If the Browns are trading a quarterback this summer, Gabriel makes the most sense.
If anything, Sanders brought a much-needed spark to Cleveland at the end of Kevin Stefanski’s tenure. Hopefully that experiment isn’t over anytime soon.
Add us as a preferred source on Google